Shabbat

We had a tradition of celebrating the Sabath (Shabbat) during Friday evenings and changed it to Saturday evenings to align with the christian change of the day of worship in the early days of the Church.

I do like the Jewish singing of prayers and ritual over the meal as the day draws to a close, and we start at sundown the observance of the Sunday, to set it apart for the Lord. I like the words in Hebrew to remind me of the times when Jesus was living, when maybe Mary taught him this prayers, when he had been praising the Lord before the miracle of loaves and fishes, or when he was celebrating the first Mass in the last Supper.

The previous part of Saturday had been spent cooking and cleaning, to leave the home ready for a full day to dedicate to God. In my country of origin we called Saturdays: " fer dissabte"; "to do Saturday" meant to clean the house and work in the kitchen to prepare for the Sunday ahead.

We do reserve the dinning room table for such celebrations, and as we sit down the wife recites the Blessing over candles. It is customary to light the candles, draw's one hands over the flames three times, and then cover one's eyes while the blessing is said. The Shabbat melody is simple, there is an example following:

Candle lighting

ברוך אתה ה' א‑לוהינו מלך העולם, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו להדליק נר של יום טוב.‏

Transliteration: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha‑olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel yom tov.
Translation: "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the holiday candle[s]."

After that the husband does sing one blessing for the children, the song is the same one as Tevye's family sings in the movie The Fiddler on the Roof. He goes around the table and puts his hand in the forehead of each of the comensals, one at a time, while the song is sung, to bless them.

May the Lord protect and defend you.
May He always shield you from shame.
May you come to be In Israel a shining name.
May you be like Ruth and like Esther. May you be deserving of praise.
Strengthen them, Oh Lord, And keep them from the strangers' ways.
May God bless you and grant you long lives. (May the Lord fulfill our Sabbath prayer for you.)
May God make you good mothers and wives. (May He send you husbands who will care for you.)
May the Lord protect and defend you.
May the Lord preserve you from pain.
Favor them, Oh Lord, with happiness and peace. Oh, hear our Sabbath prayer. Amen.

In our family we skip the Shalom Aleychem, and go straight to the washing of hands, blessing of wine and bread.

N'tilat Yadayim (Ritual washing of hands)

ברוך אתה ה' א‑לוהינו מלך העולם, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על נטילת ידים.‏

Transliteration: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha‑olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al n'tilat yadayim.
Translation: "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning washing of hands."

Before drinking wine – Ha-Gafen

ברוך אתה ה' א‑לוהינו מלך העולם, בורא פרי הגפן.‏

Transliteration: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha‑olam, bo're p'ri ha‑gafen.
Translation: "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine."

Blessing over the bread 
                                                                                                         ברוך אתה ה' א‑לוהינו מלך העולם, המוציא לחם מן הארץ.‏

Transliteration: Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha‑olam, ha‑motzi lehem min ha‑aretz.
Translation: "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth."

Finally after the meal we sing the Berich Rachamana, and recite the last blessing in Spanish.

Berich rachamana Malka de'Alma marey dehay pita (x2)

Translation: You are the source of life for all that is and your blessing flows through me.(x2)

Castilian (Spanish):

English:

Bendigamos Bendigamos al Altísimo, Al Señor que nos crió, Démosle agradecimiento Por los bienes que nos dió. Alabado sea su Santo Nombre, Porque siempre nos apiadó. Load al Señor que es bueno, Que para siempre su merced. Bendigamos al Altísimo, Por su Ley primeramente, Que liga a nuestra raza Con el cielo continuamente, Alabado sea su Santo Nombre, Porque siempre nos apiadó. Load al Senor que es bueno, Que para siempre su merced. Bendigamos al Altísimo, Por el pan segundamente, Y también por los manjares Que comimos juntamente. Pues comimos y bebimos alegremente Su merced nunca nos faltó. Load al Señor que es bueno, Que para siempre su merced. Bendita sea la casa esta, El hogar de su presencia, Donde guardamos su fiesta, Con alegría y permanencia. Alabado sea su Santo Nombre, Porque siempre nos apiadó. Load al Señor que es bueno, Que para siempre su merced.

Let us bless Let us bless the Most High The Lord who raised us, Let us give him thanks For the good things which he has given us. Praised be his Holy Name, Because he always took pity on us. Praise the Lord, for he is good, For his mercy is everlasting. Let us bless the Most High First for his Law, Which binds our race With heaven continually, Praised be his Holy Name, Because he always took pity on us. Praise the Lord, for he is good, For his mercy is everlasting. Let us bless the Most High, Secondly for the bread And also for the foods Which we have eaten together. For we have eaten and drunk happily His mercy has never failed us. Praise the Lord, for he is good, For his mercy is everlasting. Blessed be this house, The home of his presence, Where we keep his feast, With happiness and permanence. Praised be his Holy Name, Because he always took pity on us. Praise the Lord, for he is good, For his mercy is everlasting.

Around the hearth

Under this title there are hidden beautiful truths. The Hearth is where in the old times people would gather, for warmth of body and soul, for light of the mind and the spirit, and its connection with the heart is very direct.

The Picture is taken from the book Feels Like Home, by Cheryl Moch, and is filled with quotations and snap-shots of the lifes around the hearth. I wanted to post here some of the quotes which I find very inspiring as I walk my daily homemaker tasks, to be reminded of what it is the essential.

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends..." Samuel Johnson

"Home in one form or another, is the great object of life." Josiah G. Holland

"Home,-the nursery of the infinite." William Ellery Channing

"Without hearts there is no home" Lord Byron

"Where shall a man find sweetness to surpass his own home and parents? In far lands he shall not, though he find a house of gold." Odissey by Homer

"Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, Iwill go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Book of Ruth

"In homesickness you must keep moving-it is the only disease that does not require rest." H. de Vere Stacpoole

"Dine on onions but have a home; reduce your food and add to your dwellings." The Talmud

"The beauty of a house is order, the blessing of a house is contentment, the glory of a house is hospitality." Anonymous

"Beauty commonly produces love, but cleanliness preserves it." Joseph Addison

"...Home is the place that you'll know...when you're there." Shelley Miller

Many of these would be useful for thought and ponder, but right now I wanted to mainly focus on two points.

The first one is to BE at home: I found that in staying more at home, I started cherishing more the spaces, taking more care of the home, and loving it better, if the home has to be a reflection of our hearts, and of our love for God, the more we refrain from being unnecessarily away, the better.

The second thing I wanted to say is about warmth, you could see probably people and homes warmer than others, and with this I do not mean that warmy fuzzy feeling that can be superficial, but a real strong warmth dettached from the material world.

I was blessed to have one grandmother, avia Esperanza, who showed me that kind of warmth, she would always have something in the stove prepared when you would come over, her nice homemade french fries were the best!, and she was willing to give you company in going to the doctor, or when leaving town by the train. She was there -and you could feel it- with her heart, it was not out of duty, not out of fulfilling works of mercy, she was there out of her love for you, and you could witness that same love for others too. Me on the contrary I am far away from attaining something like that, I can be harsh with my words, my culinary productions are disastrous, and sometimes seems I am like the Tin-man of the Wizard of Ozz, but I keep asking, so I can truly love, have a genuine interest in all the people and starting from my home, impress every task and chore with warmth , change my cold heart into a warm heart.

Planting season

We are getting ready for the planting season ahead, and if any of you is in the position I was three years ago, you may find useful to look at the next diagrams.


I did not know how to start a garden, and even though my grandmother Josephine had a garden and a lot of canning to do every season,  I was still clueless when it was my time to start one on my own. I would have liked someone experienced to come and work with us for a couple of mornings, in order to establish the main ideas, and also the details which are specific to every ecosystem or climate. Maybe in the future such service can exist.


Instead though I had some lessons from intensive gardening that had been used in areas with restricted amount of land, and I wanted to post them up here. We have adapted them to our particular place and size of our yard, and we hope to keep learning about gardening.


These firsts are drawings on how to do the design of the garden area and prepare the soil. They are self-explanatory:

The stepping stones are there for the gardener to walk comfortably between the rows of produce, to weed and care for the plants. Between the stones, usually there are medicinal, herbal or pest control herbs.

For the actual design of the planting they use a rotation system based on plant families:

And the rows of gardens can look something like these:

For our garden in America's soil, we decided to be more generous in the sizing, and not crowd the plants as much, also we changed the scheme by planting the rows one after the other and keeping the cucumbers and zuchinis somewhere else, since they tend to occupy so much space anyway.

Here is the plot for this year, we will start the seeds indoors in the next weeks, during April, by our sunny baywindow, and hopefully plant them outdoors by May, when the frost is over.

Rhythm

It has been quite a transition this spring time; because of the change in rhythm, and temperatures, we have been having some discipline problems, especially on Mondays when everything has to settle down again for workdays.....One of my challenges when the house is overwhelmingly untidy and the children unwilling to cooperate, is to hold my temper and not be angry. Over the years I have used many things to overcome that, but mainly two systems have defeated time: first to dissipate my anger by singing one song, if it is a daughter I sing the first one, if it is my son, I sing the second one. This allows me to calm down and redirect the bad behavior in a more objective way....

Once there was a girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead, and when she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid.

Georgey Porgey, pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry, when the boys came out to play, Georgey Porgey ran away.


The second thing I use nowadays is to go for a walk, take all the children out to the field or park nearby and think about the way to improve the situation for the next time.

When I do not do one of these, my discontentment escalates and I become an angry mother for the next hour, until everything is tidy and the children are obeying again. This leads me with uncomfortable remorse, because I know I should be doing it in a different way....I am looking into reordering my Sundays as to not loose so much of the reins over the weekend.

This is our plan for the summer weekly rhythm:

Monday: Laundry day
Tuesday: Ironing day
Wednesday: Cleaning day/playdate
Thursday: Baking day/community works
Friday: Theatre camp at the park
Saturday: Farmer's market/cleaning day-cooking day
Sunday: Church/potluck/study

Another factor that increases lack of discipline is also my involvement with things other than the home, as much as I enjoy being part of groups and doings things, once I step away from homemaking duties, it seems like the children start to wander off too.

Lately we have been working in the charcoal drawing for a community meal, and even though it is great to see the little ones imitating me in something different from our routine, it is also dissipating our calm atmosphere at home. I wonder how to accomplish a balance, where there is some input from the outside but we can keep the strength of the walls of our home. Perhaps the above weekly rhythm is already too loose, and it will need to be changed!

But one thing is sure for us, the better the order and rhythm, the fewer discipline problems, and the less times we have to recourse to punishments or other ways for correcting behavior. I think this is also true in plain living, where the days follow like rain in a field, drop by drop in a uniform rhythm.

Bread making

We are exloring different bread recipes, every Thursday we make a batch and try it for the week. As we knead the bread we sing the song that my children have grown accustomed to:


Maria the baker girl, she likes to knead the bread......Rebecca, the baker girl, she likes to knead the bread,....Samuel the baker boy, he likes to knead the bread. (do, fa fa fa la fa fa, la sol fa sol la fa.)


This first recipe has sorghum flour 5c, white flour 7c, yeast 2pck, warm water 4c, olive oil 1/3c, honey 2tbs, and salt 2tsp. Baked at 400 for 35 minutes.


For the sourdough we are not successful, we tried a recipe from Nourishing Traditions, and the dough did not rise neither taste good...This week we are trying again, probably with kamut flour, which we know taste delicious when a proper sourdough is achieved: my friend bakes splendid loaves with it, she must have a beautiful starter and knowledge from her ancestry Croatian roots.


Here is a link to one video that we like for encouraging the bread making: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1D23yFkNiA


The slow process of fermentation with the sourdough makes the bread-making more like an art, and the product is better for digestion. This happens in many things in life, where slow paced processes take precedence in quality offering: the broth making for 24 hours, the homemade mayonnaise, the soil tilling with horses for three days instead of three hours of motor tilling, the compost making from slow decomposition of cow manure during the winter, etc....if we all knew the advantages of these versus their cousins products, delivered in a fast paced industry world, we would feel cheated and will turn our eyes to the older times, at least in referring to the use of time itself!


the following recipe is from a friend, Peasant bread, and it is a delightful tasty loaf. We sprinkle some fresh rosemary in it.


2tsp yeast
1 1/4 cup potato water
1cup yogurt
2tbsp honey
2tbsp olive oil
1 egg beaten
6 cups wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp salt


First you mix yeast with water, then all the rest and finally the flour. After kneading for some time, let rise the dough in a warm place. Bake at 350 for one hour.