It's time for Passover. That means lots of cleaning. I mean, lots. And I am not talking about the "spring cleaning" aspect of it. My Rabbi always talks about how shmutz is not chametz, meaning dirt is not what we are cleaning for Passover, rather just the leaving products. For me, practically speaking this means just the kitchen and other areas where we have food.
We do not bring any food upstairs in our house because unless you are bedridden we don't eat in our bedrooms, and the only time anyone was bedridden in recent years it was from vomiting and so there was no eating involved. I think maybe once or twice I ate crackers to avoid nausea when I was pregnant with Smush. So, since that is long ago, and we have vacuumed up there since then, there is no risk of crumbs. That leaves our downstairs.
Our downstairs is the pretty typical layout with a formal living room, a formal dining room and small den and then the kitchen with it's eat in area. When it was just the two of us, cleaning for Passover took a couple of hours, vacuuming got most of the crumbs, and then a little more work in the kitchen, done. With two little ones, lets just say it's a little more complicated.
There is still no food upstairs, but there is food that gets tracked EVERYWHERE. Squiggly just started eating solids so he is not the neatest eater in the world. As a matter of fact he is down right messy. That means there are Joe's Ohs all over the place. In his sleeves, in his diapers (somehow - not sure how those got there) and, most of all, all over the floor. Those are not dirt, those are chametz.
It's a good thing there is the annulling of ownership of chametz that happens right before Passover, of all you know about and that which you do not. I am relying on that statement to cover me for the Joe's Ohs that I am sure are under the baseboard molding in my kitchen. I know it's there. I tried to get it out with my vacuum wand tool. They are still be taunting me, but come Monday morning I will cast them out as dust in the wind. See you later, bye. Now, about cleaning my bathrooms....
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
one + one = 4, or, our little family...
well, I think the last time I was consistent about writing this blog there were 3 of us, making our way in the universe... and now there is more laundry than I seem to ever be able to truly catch up on. But, on the flip side, there are more laughs, more tears and much more to be thankful for. I never know exactly how much time I will have to do anything, but well, I suppose that is life for you. I guess I am not really a new mom anymore, so I suppose I should change my heading up there. I haven't done any filmmaking, other than taking little video clips of my adorable little ones so maybe I am not so much of a filmmaker anymore? What hasn't changed... my love for my darling husband. Our dreams of owning our own business. Our commitment to Judaism. My complete inability to keep on top of the housework... and so, our little story for today....
Something smelled. I don't mean just smelled, I mean SMELLED. Really bad. In the kitchen. I thought it was the trash. I mean, we don't take it out every day, I try to cram as much in as possible. And, yes, sometimes diaper wipes go in there... I keep thinking I will switch to the cloth wipes, then I don't, then I reconsider, however, for now we are using the disposable wipes with the cloth diapers, ANYWAY, I digress... Something smelled and it smelled really bad, so I closed up the bag and put it on the stoop for DH to take out to the can. After awhile, when the smell should have disapeared, I realized it still smelled. Bad. Possibly worse. So, I resorted to smelling inside each of my kitchen drawers, in the refrigerator, under the table, (I mean, you never know where the kids might have left something.) behind the sofa in the living room, and yet, I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I left the house. Came back. Determined it still smelled. Continued to try to find the odor...
Then I walked over to the sink. In it was the broiler pan from dinner on Wednesday, when I made meatballs in the oven. It had sat on the stove for Wed. night, Thursday, and Friday morning. Then I decided the kitchen needed some cleaning up. After I emptied the sink of the dirty dishes, etc. that were there, I put the broiler pan in, started to wash it, and realized it needed to soak. So, I put in some soap, ran the water really hot, and left it. For most of Friday, all of Saturday, all of Sunday... and into Monday. Guess how much mold can grow in water in a soapy pan in the sink... Yep. That was my smell. I am happy to say it is now all scoured out, hot water, lots of soap and our kitchen smells fine again. Maybe I should clean up more often.
BTW- for those of you wondering how we didn't need to use the kitchen sink all that time, we have 2 sinks in our kitchen, one for meat and one for dairy. We eat a lot more dairy than meat so there can be days when we don't venture anywhere near the meat sink.
Something smelled. I don't mean just smelled, I mean SMELLED. Really bad. In the kitchen. I thought it was the trash. I mean, we don't take it out every day, I try to cram as much in as possible. And, yes, sometimes diaper wipes go in there... I keep thinking I will switch to the cloth wipes, then I don't, then I reconsider, however, for now we are using the disposable wipes with the cloth diapers, ANYWAY, I digress... Something smelled and it smelled really bad, so I closed up the bag and put it on the stoop for DH to take out to the can. After awhile, when the smell should have disapeared, I realized it still smelled. Bad. Possibly worse. So, I resorted to smelling inside each of my kitchen drawers, in the refrigerator, under the table, (I mean, you never know where the kids might have left something.) behind the sofa in the living room, and yet, I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I left the house. Came back. Determined it still smelled. Continued to try to find the odor...
Then I walked over to the sink. In it was the broiler pan from dinner on Wednesday, when I made meatballs in the oven. It had sat on the stove for Wed. night, Thursday, and Friday morning. Then I decided the kitchen needed some cleaning up. After I emptied the sink of the dirty dishes, etc. that were there, I put the broiler pan in, started to wash it, and realized it needed to soak. So, I put in some soap, ran the water really hot, and left it. For most of Friday, all of Saturday, all of Sunday... and into Monday. Guess how much mold can grow in water in a soapy pan in the sink... Yep. That was my smell. I am happy to say it is now all scoured out, hot water, lots of soap and our kitchen smells fine again. Maybe I should clean up more often.
BTW- for those of you wondering how we didn't need to use the kitchen sink all that time, we have 2 sinks in our kitchen, one for meat and one for dairy. We eat a lot more dairy than meat so there can be days when we don't venture anywhere near the meat sink.
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