Chodesh Tov!
Back in my single days, I loved the month of Elul. It signified the coming of a new year – time for me to get my affairs in order. Time to reflect and redirect my energies – spiritual and otherwise – to higher pursuits.
Now that I’m married with kids, I’m sad to say that the more ethereal pursuits of Elul often take a backseat to other new beginnings – the start of the school year, new activities for the kids, and a new routine for our household.
While I don’t have as much time as I’d like to devote to cheshbon nefesh, there is one kind of cheshbon that I definitely don’t want to let slide: The calculating of our Rosh Hashana budget!
I’m feeling especially overwhelmed this year, so when I sat down to start planning for the upcoming season of chagim, I knew I wanted to send out Rosh Hashanah cards, but besides that I drew a total blank.
Then I remembered my series on planning for the Jewish holidays that I wrote last year – and quickly referred back. Ah, yes, there’s my familiar check-list!
My goals this week are to make the time to sit down with my husband (are you reading, honey?) and map out our plans for meals during Rosh Hashana and Sukkot. Of course, with all the three day yom tovs, we’ve got a lot of planning to do!
First up is to decide which meals we want to host and make a guest list for each. Then it’s time to start in on our menu plan. While we will no doubt host a meal or two for Rosh Hashana, the truth is I much prefer to host over Sukkot. We love our homey little sukkah and I can’t wait to invite a new crowd into it this year!
Have you started thinking about your Rosh Hashana plans? I know it seems like forever and a day, but trust me: It will be here before we know it.
Shh….it will hear you.
Bwahaha!
LOL
I think I started planning for RH on Shavuos…the dessert, anyway. Our brownie mosaic cheesecake (care of Smitten Kitchen) was incredible, and I decided I’d wait only until RH — instead of a full year until next Shavuos –to make another.
http://morequicheplease.com/archives/25
I love to host a dinner at Rosh HaShanah for my side fo the family, and a meal for Sukkot with friends in our kitchy lil sukkah. Maybe my mother will surrender the New Year to me…. we’ll have to wait and see. I just love when my husabnd and I cook together; brisket is calling my name 🙂
I’m scrambling to find a Sukkah kit! This year we’re building our first Sukkah, and since it’s “our” holiday (we were married during Sukkot) we want to make it special.
We love our Sukkah that we got from the Sukkah Project. When we bought it the price was very reasonable, the one we got is able to be expanded by buying an extension kit if we want, and it’s pretty easy to put up (the tubular style). (I’ve even done it by myself with help only for doing the schach.)
Last year I participated in a great webinar about getting ready for the Holidays put on by Renee Kutner of Peace by Piece Organizing. She layed out the steps for planning your RH and Sukkot meals and using this plan, we prepared almost all of our food for RH and Sukkot far in advance. As a Jewish professional the holidays are sooooo busy for me, and we love entertaining as much as we possibly can. This system helped me feel much less stressed out and focus on the holidays, not the cooking. You can dowload the class here http://www.peacebypieceorganizing.com/classes.html
Mara wrote:
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I understand this completely. If I may suggest, sign up for Rabbi Simon Jacobson’s free “60 Day Journey” email series. He sends out a brief email every day (two on Fridays or before chagim) to be read during Elul and Tishrei.
You can sign up to take part in the Journey at: http://www.meaningfullife.com/subscribe/index_60days_subscribe.php
May we all find our center and joy in our preparations for the New Year!
Oops, the quote didn’t work.
What I quoted was:
“Back in my single days, I loved the month of Elul. It signified the coming of a new year – time for me to get my affairs in order. Time to reflect and redirect my energies – spiritual and otherwise – to higher pursuits.
Now that I’m married with kids, I’m sad to say that the more ethereal pursuits of Elul often take a backseat to other new beginnings – the start of the school year, new activities for the kids, and a new routine for our household.”