For the Home

Children do love a good birthday party, so it’s time to find a healthy balance between what the school and my budget allows.

What do you do with fruit that has turned just a little soft and squishy and that no one in your household wants to eat?

If done properly, painting a room can be done in just a few hours with minimal cleanup. The key is, of course, preparation.

People like to say that dirt isn’t chometz, but as Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky says, if dirt isn’t chometz, how can you tell? Besides, are you really going to take apart the whole closet and then not wipe it down before you put everything back? If you’re not going to clean the mess now, when will you?

It is fun for the whole family, and best of all, can be done anytime and anywhere.

There were crispy stuffed baked potatoes and tantalizing veggie burgers to be made and it needed to happen immediately, if not sooner.

There’s nothing like a holiday where one is required to be happy to bring out the grouch in all of us. But we should all be excited to greet Purim. Not only because of the beautiful miracle that occurred, the lessons of emunah and the role of the Jewish woman that Megillas Esther teaches us, but also because it’s the only twenty-four hour holiday that we celebrate here in Chutz L’Aretz, and it has merely four mitzvot! How simple is that?

Looking to be a little daring?

Whether you are staying home for Pesach or going away, it is nice to have something new to enhance this special Yom Tov. With rhinestone monograms now so readily available you can turn many household items from ordinary to extraordinary.

It may be sweater weather now, but sooner or later summer will be here, bringing abundant sunshine, swimming, barbeques and mosquitoes.

I underestimated how eager my children would be to buy real costumes.

As always, when it comes to electronics, you get what you pay for.

I can't guarantee that I will get through the yomim tovim at exactly the same weight I started at, but I am certainly going to try.

If they could do it, why can't I?

I think if we can be honest with ourselves, most women will admit to enjoying Pesach cleaning - and perhaps to even looking forward to it all year long.

Invest in some good cleaning habits, along with a good solid dose of planning and prevention.

I'm not trying to minimize the holy work of raising children.

In short, going on vacation is something that we should be doing more often.

Either bring blankets from home or get from the flight attendants. Bring sweatshirts for added coziness as the blankets are sure to fall off.

The kids are coming! The kids are coming!

Plants calm you, help you concentrate, help you breathe better, they even help with the creative process.

American Jews have the impression that France, and Paris in particular, is a terribly dangerous place for Jews. However, to my pleasant surprise, I learnt that this was not the case.

Judith Levy is a gorgeous French-born woman with a flair for fashion and the written word (she’s an editor for French editions of Artscroll). At the start of her second marriage she found herself in a shaitel vs. tichel predicament very similar to mine.

The Open Kitchen is so appealing you practically want to eat the pages as you turn them.

Want to make sure you don’t forget your lunch as you head out to work? Stash your keys in the refrigerator, right next to your meal.

It’s tough to catch some glam in an otherwise pretty non-glamorous life. In the 21st century, who isn’t overstressed, overwhelmed and overbooked? The roles...

Guess what! We are going to be making our own lunches, and it will be the best ever.

The world sees the hand of God through us, and does not like it.

Oh, Chanukah! Chanukah, the festival of lights and the powerful story of the unlikely military victory of the Maccabees. One lesson we’re able to glean from the Maccabees is the importance of doing just a little bit more then you think you are capable of. As we all know, the Maccabees were quite aware that taking on the mighty Greek army was a suicide campaign. Yet, they succeeded.

The best way to prepare your child for the best year possible is, of course, by preparing.