Counting the Omer for Beginners

Inspired by new friends from the blog world, I decided to try my hand at counting the Omer this year, the 49 day count that began on the second night of Passover and goes through Shavuot.    I had heard about it before and this year was inspired by the Omer counters from the Midianite Mama and Amy Meltzer’s idea on Homeshuling.  And given that I have lots of my own sewing supplies, I decided to jump in and make my own Omer counter.

I decided against using candy in mine. We had too many sweets during Passover and I try to limit sugar to more occasional treats.   After reading a little bit about the tradition of counting the omer, I decided to make my own counter based on a tree theme.  The tree has seven branches for the seven weeks of counting, and each branch has 7 snaps, for the seven days.  Then I cut out lots of leaves and some birds and attached the other side of the snaps to those.  We snap a bird or leaf on the tree each day to keep count.   This is also designed for snap/fine motor practice and fun for the little ones.

As far as what to do, I turned to the traditionalists at Chabad and found this great resource at Aish.com which I printed out as a daily guide.  There is something different to reflect on every day and it is very usable and easy to understand.   I poked around a little further and learned they are actually counting the Omer with daily updates on the Huffington Post, how cool is that?

And here is our Omer counter, this was a fun project and I got to use lots of leftover snaps from my diaper making days. The little pocket on the bottom is full of enough leaves and things to get us through the 49 days, unless they vanish around the house.  I will post another picture of it full, it will look prettier.

Want to join me? No sewing is needed. You can just mark up any calender counting 49 days from the second night of Passover our use this calender and blessing (or buy one from the Midianite Mama) .  Let me know, we can swap ideas via the Facebook page for the blog.

Guest Post: More than Slippers

By Cheryl Corson, landscape architect, writer and knitter.

I’ve sewn, woven, and knitted gifts for loved ones for over thirty years. During that time I’ve also sewn backpacks in a factory, paid by the piece, made clothing for a New York City fashion designer, and run my own production weaving business. Beside technical skill, production work and gift making have little in common.

 Knitting and felting a pair of wool slippers for my husband is a much slower undertaking than production work. Because of this, it becomes a gift for me too – the gift of time. He gets slippers; I get hours of quiet time, during which I often reflect on him and our marriage.

 In fall, he thoughtfully selects 2 colors from dozens on the color chart. Once ordered, the wool soon appears in a box on our front porch. We open it, sharing happy anticipation, turning the soft balls of sage green and maroon yarn in our hands, neat paper bands still intact. Then I begin knitting.

 Christmas approaches and I keep knitting until one day, 2 clown-sized slippers slide over my dubious husband’s feet. Into a pillowcase and the washing machine they go for felting. We check them from time to time until they eventually emerge from the hot water exactly his size. I stuff them loosely with plastic bags to shape them as they slowly dry. On Christmas morning, my husband unwraps them and slips them on, playfully pretending to be surprised.

 I like that they keep his feet warm. I like seeing them side by side by his nightstand when he’s not wearing them. They’ve now molded to his feet and have distinct left and right sides. Their daily use and the understated love they embody, set them apart from store-bought slippers, even years later, as the heels have worn and need patching.

 All these knitted, woven, and crocheted objects go well beyond being merely clothes, garments, or apparel, and into the territory of raiments, vestments, and adornments. And in my dictionary, to adorn invokes the word grace, whose own definition is divine love.

 “Grace” gets to the heart of the matter. It explains the deep emotion and beauty binding yarn, maker, and receiver together into the timeless fabric of human history.

wool slippers, knitted & felted

Cheryl Corson is landscape architect, writer and knitter.  Her website is http://www.cherylcorson.com.  You can read other gardening posts by Cheryl on this blog under our guest posts tab here. 

More Kale, Less Vinyl — A Birthday Success

So my baby boy, my first-born — turned 5!  I am pretty blown away by this birthday and I am completely overwhelmed with pride at what an amazing person he is already.

A few months ago, he asked for his birthday to be at one of those indoor bouncy centers where you can’t hear anyone talk over the sounds of the fans and machines running.  And all the blow up vinyl toys smell like a plastic factory.  And they serve unhealthy lunches in a little glass room on the side.  And the kids have the TIME OF THEIR LIVES, and the parents just have to show up and pay.

I thought about it, but there was no way I could celebrate my son’s 5th birthday,which happens to fall right after the spring equinox, inside a loud room, that smells like a plastic factory when we live on a farm! But I had to think fast and get into my best sales-mom mode.  I didn’t want him to be disappointed.

It’s almost Shabbat, so there is no time to write the whole story but in short,  we turned it around and wound up with a wonderful outdoor party where all but one of the children ate and enjoyed kale chips (recipe will follow) along with more  standard party fare like fruit salad and of course cake.   They rode on a neighbors horse, went on a farm scavenger hunt, sniffed fresh sprouted peppermint, sat on a tractor and had a wonderful time — maybe even as much fun as they would in a bouncy center!  I could see my son bursting with pride when he yelled “follow the birthday boy,” and lead a small pack of children to the rosemary bush where he had hidden the small bottles of bubbles.

Here are a few photos.  Introducing my little handmade felt bags which were filled with surprises from the scavenger hunt.  I even had some help cutting them out.

Here is the 5 fruit salad for my five-year old!

And the scavenger hunt in progress.

We ate outside in one of the fields in our Sukkah (which is still up) this time decorated with balloons and crêpe paper, you can see it in the distance.  It was perfect!

Now, to adjust to being the mother of a 5-year-old.