Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Eight Things Meme

I got tagged with the Eight Things Meme. Seems like I'm the last on board which is fine by me. I don't have to tag anyone. Since Memes are not part of the expected blogging material here at Orthonomics, I thought I'd tie this in to my blogging in general. Add your comments about you.


  1. I wrote my first letter to the editor when I was in the 1st grade. It was my mother's idea: a thank you card. A men's service club built a little playground area in the local park and it was a bit hit. I spent a good part of my summer walking around the neighborhood collecting signatures from all of the kids for the thank you letter which was published in the letters to the editor section of our local newspaper.

  2. I have attended a Chinese Auction. My neighbor asked me to accompany her and I tagged along. Watching Yeshiva educated, grown men, whooping and hollering over the winners like they were at a Monster Truck Rally, was far more disturbing than spending ridiculous amounts of time deliberating which box to put my tickets in, as if I was going to actually walk away with the set of silver that made me drool. I don't intend to ever go back.

  3. I used to want a lot of children, as in more than 10. Since I've become certifiably Orthodox, the number of children that I desire continues to drop and I sometimes feel fairly guilty about it. I have to remind myself I can only have as many children as I can physically and mentally handle, and that number doesn't seem to be anywhere near 10 lately.

  4. I have regular dreams. The most recent one involved one of our siblings building a tropical rain forest, complete with waterfalls, next to their dining room. Of course, everyone was ooohing and aahing the beautiful home renovations over the Shabbat meal. I too was enjoying the view until my mother-in-law turned to me and said, you should really consider doing something beautiful like this to your home. I was about to loose my temper. . . . and then I woke up.

  5. I am the "spendthrift" in our house. My husband often needs convinced as to why we "need" certain things. In one of our more memorable convincing sessions, I had to convince him that we "needed" couches because I wanted to have something soft to sit on. He figured we had plenty of chairs for us and our guests and just couldn't see the need for another place to sit. Usually, these discussions are resolved when I remind him that as a homemaker, I spend far more time and home than he does and our home should be a pleasant place for me to raise our kids in (and sitting on hard chairs all day just isn't pleasant).

  6. I practically run my own warehouse of non-perishable goods. I can't resist a bargain deal on things we use regularly. Lately I've been striking gold. I probably have 30-40 cans of canned tomato products in the 28 oz. size. I use no less than 2 a week it seems. I also have about 20 packages of diapers, and I'm heading out to get 3 more packages at rock bottom prices this week. After that, I probably will stop. I hope to have all children in diapers trained by the time I work through this huge supply. Instead, I will use our food budget to stock up on grape juice at the anticipated pre-Rosh Hashana sale. I'm down to 2 or 3 huge grape juices and I'm hoping the sale will be annouced before we are out. The lack of supply is making me nervous. At the anticipated $2.89, I will probably buy enough to get us through Pesach.

  7. I don't think there is a countertop spice rack big enough to hold all of the spices I own (and use). I'd like to have them at arm's reach from the stove, but I'm thinking they will have to go in the pantry on an over the door organizer.

  8. I dream of catering my own sons' bar mitzvah parties. I'm sure this would not go over well at all with my in-laws in the least. But I think the idea is fantastic. If I'm blogging when the day comes, I'll write up a post about the good, bad, and ugly of catering your own affair.

12 comments:

miriamp said...

with regards to #7... you can't possibly use more than 48 different spices, can you? I've been eying this spice carousel for quite a while, so I thought I'd share the link: http://www.smarthome.com/9162.html

It comes in silver for almost twice the price, so I think I like the white. It only holds 12, but is stackable, and it measures the spices for you too. Which might not work so well the way I cook (by eye, often enough, instead of measuring) but sounds really cool anyway.

As for #3, I also wanted a lot of children as a child... and I got them! Sometimes it's overwhelming, but most of the time it's a lot of fun. Oh, and I've heard this from others too: two kids to three kids is actually the hardest transition. Once you can juggle three, you can juggle four, and juggling four isn't so different from juggling five, etc. And by then, the older ones really can help out a lot, especially if you space them further than mine are.

In case you were wondering, it's gotten better here... I had a talk with my 10 yr old and he's basically taken over a lot of the laundry duties, making my load (no pun intended) easier to carry. My 6, 7 and 8 yr olds decided overnight that they could take their own showers instead of my having to bathe them; my 4 yr old is finally out of diapers (he took a LOT of convincing!) and is now showing signs of starting to learn to read; my 3 yr old is vastly amusing, knows all the words to all the songs (or so it seems) and she goes about singing them; my 22 mo old is learning to talk, with a new word every time she opens her mouth, and the baby is letting me sleep at night, waking up an average of once a night to nurse and going right back to sleep after. Life is good.

Lion of Zion said...

"whooping and hollering over the winners like they were at a Monster Truck Rally"

what's wrong with a monster truck rally? i've always wanted to go to one.

mother in israel said...

Miriam, I suspect you missed my post called "An easy baby." It's on the bottom of the current page.

SL, I also wanted a lot of children but never put a number on it. I also wanted to cater the bar mitzvahs, but one was 1.5 weeks before Pesach and the second was just after a difficult move with two young children. I did cater the bat mitzvah, but that was only for 60. I've been to self-catered bms for a hundred or more but in my opinion they were not generally a success. It's hard to serve the food quickly and keep it hot butnot overcooked--think how often caterers mess up. A buffet might work, though.

Orthonomics said...

Miriam-Glad to hear your kids are helping out more. Sounds like you are doing great now. I can't have too many more c-sections, so I don't think I will be having too many more kids, but a part of me still desires more than I can physically have.

I like the stackable spice rack. I have to inventory my spices before giving an exact number. I'm on an organization spree this summer. Hopefully I can give a count of all spices by the end of August. One dish I served on Shabbat had the following: Cumin, Corriander, Paprika, Chili Powder, Tumeric, Salt, Pepper, and Garam Masala. That is nine spices for one dish!

Ari-I've never been to a Monster Truck Rally, I'm just thinking of the characters in my high school that enjoyed that sort of thing.

MiI-I'm thinking buffett with a few teenage waiters. I don't think I could ever pull off plated. Chances are even a buffet would leave me frazzeled. But, I occassionally annouce to my husband, that salad was easy and successful, I will add it to my list of possible BM dishes.

Anonymous said...

I have what I think of as the Stadium Seating of Spices, which sits on a shelf in my cabinet. It's essentially little plastic steps with a nonskid surface, so that the spices sit in tiers, which lets you see what all of them are.

RaggedyMom said...

Spices are like children - we try not to count :)

I hear what you're saying about family size. I try not to think about a number and just see how each adjustment feels, one at a time. Although, in my head, I'm already inwardly groaning at all of the comments and concern I can anticipate next time around i"yh, after a repeating high risk of preterm labor, bedrest, etc.

Seems like your supply-hoarding mentality matches mine well. I can't keep as much as it sounds like you have around though - our apartment would be wall-to-wall stuff.

How do you keep up with diaper size changes keeping so many boxes around? I try to balance buying a few boxes using combined store and manufacturer's coupons, but also balancing the size I need now and how long the child may be in that size.

Regarding grape juice, since we're not brand-loyal about it (or much else), when they are carrying it at Amazing Savings, a 64-ounce bottle (Rashi or Rokeach brand maybe?) runs about $1.49 if I remember correctly. What size are the $2.89 bottles that you're referring to? If you're around here often enough, I'd be glad to give you a heads-up next time I see them in stock over there.

Orthonomics said...

RaggedyMom-Hope the end part of this pregnancy will be relaxing.

PLEASE let me know when Amazing Savings has a sale on the 64 oz bottle. We cannot get them here for that price. I buy at $2.89.

I'm becoming an expert in finding storage places, but soon will have plenty of room. We will have to travel lite because I'll probably bring back a half years supply.

Somehow when it comes to diapers I just seem to know. I have yet to have overstock, except for a half pack of size 1/2 that can be used, iy"h, next time around.

GilaB-I'm not sure the stadium seating would work for me. All my spices come in different sizes. Seems my spice collection is of interest. I think I will have to inventory my collection and post it up. The smallest spice container I own is for saffron, the largest is for cumin. The size of my cumin container would probably elicit some laughs. But buying in economy size saves a lot when you go through a bottle of cumin a month, lol.

RaggedyMom said...

I'll be sure to let you know when I (hopefully!) see the sale on again!

Anonymous said...

Miriam, I have that spice rack, actually 2 stacked, in white. It's very nice, actually, although the white does get stained from the deep colored spices such as turmeric and chili powder. I got it years ago at Costco, and I doubt I paid for the 2 sets what they are asking for one set online. I used it for years in the States, and now enjoy using it in Israel.
SefardiLady: In the States, I shopped as you do. So, when we made our hasty Aliya, everything in the basement and storage was packed and I found (without doing pre-Aliya shopping) enough Windex to last me 3 years, Grape Juice to last almost a year, and I still have some Bounty paper towels nearly 4 years later (I am frugal with them), Hefty large trash bags, Ziploc bags etc. In Israel, I don't see a point to shopping like that since there are virtually no coupons, certainly no double and triple ones (which meant STOCK UP) and no sales worth bragging about. I am not sure which method actually saves more money: buying cause it's cheap or buying just what you need.

Ezzie said...

I *wish* I could do 6. As it is, we do it for a few products (diapers, paper towels, toilet paper...), but there simply isn't enough room to do it a lot.

LOL on 4.

2 I don't find as bad; I think people are just having fun with what's going on. I don't think they necessarily really care all that much. At my company's holiday parties, people have a lot of fun "celebrating their victory" when they win whatever prizes are randomly given out in the raffles.

Chaya Tova said...

I have this spice rack. (bought when it was 'only' 100 bucks) http://www.amazon.com/JK-Adams-CSL-48-SM-Carousel-48-bottle/dp/B0001VQH78/ref=sr_1_4/105-0239191-8913242?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1184678003&sr=8-4
It was certainly a splurge but it is something I use everyday. I keep thinking of the money I save by not getting take out.
I think I enjoy it more then any other present I've received (don't tell my husband)

Ariella's blog said...

It is possible to cater your own bar mitzvah. However, if you plan to serve your guests in a rented hall or shul, you would have to check their restrictions. Many shuls do not allow home prepared foods to be brought in. Moreover, the Va-ad of the 5 Towns would hit the baal hasimcha with additional mashgiach charges for each meal, though the caterer already pays his own share for the hashgacha.

If you would have fair weather, an outdoor setting could work without restriction on where the food comes from.