It's Friday. Shabbat tonight. I'm going to bake a challah today. Even though we are down to one packet of yeast and my mother's recipe calls for one and and half. No idea how I'm going to work that, but a bit of kitchen magic will somehow find its way. As it does. Though we are down to one baking sheet (lost one in the move) and I definitely need at least two for this, and many other cooking endeavors.
I haven't done this for awhile. Can you tell? I started baking challah on a semi-regular basis seven years ago, and like many things, my baking endeavors ebb and flow over the months and years. A couple of months ago, though, the hubs and I started an unspoken tradition of Friday night fancier dinners for the festival of Shabbat. Though we aren't terribly Jewish by tradition, we are Jewish by family and that is enough for our Jewish pride to wax and wane over the seasons.
Though we walk a tightrope of means, we manage to have a bit nicer dinner every Friday and it's been nice for all of us. We do eat together most every night as a family, and a whole article could be written on that stress and joy-- but it may be the cornerstone of our family togetherness of late. Since DH is a teacher, staying late to attend meetings, talk with parents, do prep work for the next day and other feats of heroism, the older ones stay in after care til late. Then hubs picks them all up and brings everyone home to the table around 5, give or take an hour or two, each night of the week.
The 18 month old baby and I are alone most of the day, which mostly consists of the continual preparation and cleanup of food, wiping of bottoms, changing of clothes, and displays of adorableness (mainly by my daughter), with a fair amount of talking, singing, and washing up in the process. Not to mention time online for mommy and baby... Oy vey! And okay, some picking up, cleaning, organizing, laundry, vacuuming and cooking thrown in for good measure. Occasionally we we take a walk with the stroller (dro dro, my daughter says). And I've been meaning to take her to the park. There are two lots nearby- I really have no excuse-- except that if she falls asleep on our walk I am thrilled. And tired by then from our excursion. And none to eager to stay out longer waiting for her to wake. Waking her from a nap to play, while I advocate much time spent outdoors in fresh air running around for LOs, would be anathema. So we go home. Sometimes my daughter wakes in our apartment, with no idea she'd been enjoying the fresh outdoors for so long.
Oh yes, I forgot the 10,000 times a day she nurses. We do that too. Right now, she's enjoying being naked, clambering on and off my lap, nursing now and then in awkward positions, then running to grab a doll, a teapot and cup from the play kitchen, a ball from brother's toy bin. She takes off, within 5 minutes, any clothes I dare to dress her in. Her favorite toys seem to be a staple remover, a pencil, a computer cleaning cloth, and any other hazards she can seize from the desk. It's so fun to take all the business cards out of the box and throw them all over the floor. Mommy loves picking them all up again! Today she draws with broken beeswax crayons on looseleaf, on desk drawer (ha ha!) on important papers that she can reach when mommy's not looking.
Dinner plans for tonight include BBQ beef ribs (haven't had those in ages, but serendipity found them at the farmer's market last week) butternut squash, salad, perhaps brown rice. And, let's hope, a nice wine.. But if all else fails, challah will make it to the table. It's been months but I'm determined.
Today we are going, Lord willing and the creek don't rise (as my mother is fond of saying), to bake a challah. I say come hell or high water, dang it, if I do nothing else and the wet sheets sit in the dryer all day and I forget about them, we are going to have challah tonight. If you don't hold a few family traditions sacred, what else have you? L'chaim!
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