Posted in Making Memories
Boy, what a whirlwind we have been in but I thought I would update you.We finally had our Rosh Hashanah meal on Friday night and it was nice but didn't go at all as planned (starting to think that maybe I should stop planning anything due to dh's crazy job and even crazier schedule LOL). Dh had gone early that morning to BIL's to build the stilts for the boys beds and he thought he would be back by 3pm finished. Well, BIL got very elaborate and they weren't even slightly ready at 6p and dh was completely frustrated. His brother just belittles him so much and my dh buys into it so he comes home feeling defeated - big brothers can be really mean. I was expecting dh home for a nice evening so I had started preparing our Rosh Hashanah meal since this was the first evening that he had off but my girlfriend stopped by to drop off some things that they had forgotten for the pool table. That ended up being a longer visit than expected and so I was rushed to prepare the meal and then it didn't seem right not to invite the BIL since it was dinner time and he was here and he had been working all day on our stuff but I already know that he doesn't understand why we celebrate the feast days so I wasn't at all comfortable doing the prayers and everything that I planned for the meal (mostly because I feel like I should be able to explain it all and G-d has already shown me that I don't need to understand it completely to do it but BIL would need an explanation). I am kinda grateful that we ended up not because at one point my BIL makes the comment (to my oldest son mind you), "so y'all are Old Testament folks and you don't believe in the New Testament" -- I just hate having to justify EVERYTHING we do! Luckily that didn't turn into a confrontation, my oldest son explained enough and I am still trying to blow the comment off. Thankfully a girlfriend reminded me that, "Our celebrations of the feasts and Shabbot are not supposed to look like everyone else [I believe]. This is something personal between us and God. We, too, can fall into legalism/traditions of man when we mimic too closely the Jews or others keeping the feast/sabbaths. Know that He is pleased with what you are doing. You are remembering His Feasts and honoring His Sabbaths!" It is so nice to have like minded friends.
The meal was nice even though I have discovered that my oven is no longer closing properly so my whole wheat challah had a very hard crust. I wanted to have a whole fish this year (the fish with a head represents that we should be as a head, and not a tail in the new year) but the only whole fish I could find were lots of whole Tilapia's which were VERY bony and their spines did not pull out nice (possibly because my oven is cooking so badly). I tried to make the most of it but my dh HATES picking out bones and my kids get extremely frustrated with it so that wasn't nice at the table listening to everyone complain however the fish tasted fine (funny story - I didn't know how to cook the Tilapia's and the Fish cookbook I had didn't give a recipe and recommended NOT buying or cooking this fish because it supposedly tasted like mud!!! ours didn't but my expectations for the evening were pretty much shot at that point). We also had orange glazed carrots & beets, saffron rice and zucchini with of course apples & honey. I ran out time to make a honey cake so ended up making an upside down apple cake instead -- BIL hates cooked apples
In the end these were all minor difficulties that I just needed to get over and it turned out nice just not at all like I had hoped but it still honored G-d. The cool thing was that the next day at Flamenco my 2ds was talking to a family who celebrate the Jewish feasts (I don't know if they are Jewish or not) and the mom wants to meet me (I haven't done that yet) and she even explained a few more things to my ds who was even more excited that we had done it so G-d confirmed that even though "I" felt like I did a "half" job it was still good that I did it and we honored G-d.
LOL now on to the next event which btw is also delayed-- but what's new?
© Copyright 2009 Jacque Ward http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/wacque/
