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: Introducing the Amazing Omer NOMers

I am so happy to have an actual guest post today from the mama, artist and blogger behind those beautiful Omer counters! Thanks to Tzipporah from the Midianite Manna blog for writing this piece and sharing her creative work.

A creative way to Count the Omer

Much like Tanya, I’m a big fan of homegrown, homemade, and creativity. When I combine these with new twists on Jewish traditions and my own parenting style, the results are sometimes pretty tasty. This year, our family will begin a new mitzvah – counting the Omer, the 7 weeks between Passover and the lesser-known holiday of Shavuot. (If you’re Jewish, you might be thinking, “right, the blintz day.”) And we’ll be doing it with chocolate.

I didn’t grow up Jewish, and as a December birthday girl I loved the cheap chocolate Advent calendars my mother bought for counting down to my birthday every year. I sort of felt sorry for kids with birthdays at other times of the year. Now that I’m Jewish, I don’t really miss Christmas, but every once in a while I do miss my birthday counters. So I was really excited when I saw Amy Meltzer’s idea for an edible Omer counter – not only was it authentically Jewish, it had TWICE as many treats! Oh yeah, and I should probably put some in for my son, too.

I used to be an avid fabric artist, but really hadn’t done anything of note for five years – having a kid can do that to your hobbies. Luckily my grandmother’s sewing machine was still working and after a few experiments, I was able to create a re-usable version of Amy’s Omer counters. The only problem was, I really liked it. So I made another one. And then another. Fabric designers are sneaky that way, making all those different colors and patterns so you just can’t stop at one.

So, in about a week and half, on the second night of Passover, we will begin counting the Omer together as a family for the first time – and I’m pretty sure it’s a tradition my son will insist on again next year.

I’ve put the extra Omer NOMers, as I call them, up for sale in my shop. As a thank you to Tanya for inviting me to post here, anyone who mentions when ordering that they found me through this blog will get a free bag of Kosher for Passover candy to fill in the first week! Now I’ve just got to find a hiding place for all the candy that my extremely resourceful five year old can’t find…

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.

Some Writing News

About a year ago, I decided to try to do more writing, and more pitching story ideas into the world for magazines.   I have spent some time connecting with other writers, both in person and on line, and have tried to be assertive about catching my rare quiet moments to write.  I find parenting give me lots of time to think and creative inspiration, but very limited time to actually write, interruption is always imminent or already happening.  But I know it can be done, other mothers have written under far more stress.

Here are a couple of things to share on the writing front.  Last week, I was happy to win one of the writing contests at The Story Within.   Also, last year I submitted some writing  to a book about young farmers and they are publishing one of my essays called “The Bucket is Half Full.”   The book, called “Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers Movement”  from Storey Press will be published next month and even has a trailer just like a movie! The Young Farmers Coalition and the closely related Greenhorns is providing  platform and a voice to new farmers across the country.

In connection the the Greenhorns book, I have been invited to speak at a couple of upcoming events including this one at the Annapolis Book Festival, where I will be on a panel called “The Politics of Food” and will get to hang out with some amazing and established writers.

As a total aside, I found the Greenhorns site when I was thinking about names for this blog, and I always associated the term greenhorns with Jewish immigrants and my own family history. I was thinking greenhorns, and green, environmental. It was one of those funny Google moments when I discovered a group representing a whole different part of me.  And guess what?  They were in the final days of taking entries for their new book about first generation farmers and I had an essay on hand I had just written for my local organic farm newsletter.  What random good luck!

It hasn’t all been that easy. I have also seen many email pitches go unanswered, and others returned with polite “no thank you’s”   But I am excited about the general forward momentum, and looking forward to whatever happens next.

A Little Shoe Repair with Antique Thread

Those of you imaginary readers who have followed my blog closely from the very start might have noticed that I originally thought I would write a fair amount about sewing.  Sewing was even in my tagline.  When I started this blog, I was in the midst of a sewing obsession that swept through like a passing storm, fast and intense and leaving lots of unused fabric in its wake.  I do still hope to get back to it sometime.

shoe in mid repair

So tonight I was happy to pull out one of my sewing boxes for my first ever attempt at shoe making.  A piece of leather was hanging off one of my favorite shoes.   I pushed these Dansko’s to the limit all summer and then wore them in some wet muddy conditions this fall.  Finally, one of the straps came unthreaded and was hanging off the shoe. Very dangerous, especially since I am often carrying my toddler.

I was so happy to  use some of my great grandmother’s super strong

Aunt Lydia's thread

“Aunt Lydia’s”  brand button and carpet thread.  I was lucky enough to inherit a small stash of thread from her early century New York dry goods store.  I want to  write more about her spools of thread sometime.  She was known for her excellent repairs and family legend says she would fix all the buttons and tears on the local policeman’s uniforms and in turn they kept an eye on her store.   I love looking at the old spools of thread that connect me to her store and the past.

It was actually easier than I expected, since I used the existing holes and a pair of pliers to pull the needle through.  My children were riveted watching and I am quite sure my son will brag about his mother the shoemaker in pre-school tomorrow.    I always feel so good repairing something instead of throwing it away or pushing it to the corner of the closet to gather dust.  The shoes will be a little more special now that they have an imperfect but workable repair — and a bit of thread from my great grandmother’s store.  Lets see how long it lasts!

As good as new -- even a little bit better