Ah, warm temperatures and spring is in the air.  It is refreshing (after a relatively warm winter) and I can open my windows again to enjoy the fresh air.  Take a deep breath.  Aviv, spring, the time of Hashem's world growing and blossoming. We have been inside and learning and working and now we can go outside and appreciate His creation.

The upside to this lovely weather is that I am inspired to start cleaning.  As the world is renewing itself and waking up from its winter slumber, my house needs to be renewed, as well.  All of this sentiment is a wonderful beginning to my Pesach cleaning.  Yesterday, I finally went through the garage and swept and rearranged and cleaned and threw away trash.  Neat, clean - just like doing mitzvos leads to doing more mitzvos, observing the results of your handiwork (or cleani-work) is absolutely the best impetus to want to continue your efforts.  Collecting up the children and giving them a break for a while from their studies to help prepare the house for Pesach is not a bad idea and one that I have found to be very helpful.

Of course, in all of this smiley, happy, lovey-dovey conversation, we can't forget the mosquitoes.  Where I live, because of the massive rains last year in the late summer and Hurricane Irene,  there are large amounts of boggy areas that just won't dry up.  Therefore, we have a terrible mosquito problem.  I don't want to use sprays or any of that toxic stuff in my house or on my children, so we just have to try to ignore the troublers and the discomfort that they bring.  If you wish to extend the moshol/analogy, there are always those things that would give us trouble and try to distract us from our observance of the mitzvos and service of Hashem.  In this time of Pesach, we have so many profund and important issues to address and it is the time of our freedom, both physical and spiritual.  We should not permit small irritations (you have yours, I have mine!) to distract and detract from our appreciation and enjoyment of this major chag of rejuvination and recreation.   Staying focused on the ultimate goal of improving ourselves and bringing the Moshiach is difficult when we are worried about the details of cleaning out the chometz from our homes and lives, but in fact the cleaning process should be a catalyst to allowing us to serve Hashem even better.  We should clean not just our homes and offices and cars, but also our neshamas and make sure that we are using this time of INspection as an equal time of INTROspection. 

Have a great and meaningful Pesach!  And don't get too bogged down in the details.

Purim! (And Pesach cleaning)

First of all, I want to wish everyone a very Happy (and safe) Purim.  This is a fun holiday for me, even with all of the hamantaschen baking and costume making.  The part that I am not a fan of (and never have been) is the drinking.  I know, I know, the whole mistake Haman for Mordechai thing is supposed to be important.  Pardon me, but I just do not think that guys have to go out and get smashed.  I am still a product of a community that had a tragic death because of drinking on Purim.  Ok, preaching done.  Purim is such a fun chag and all of the bloggers have different crafts for you to do.  Masks, costumes, you name it, all of the Jewish Martha Stewarts of the world have ideas for you. 

 I knew someone once who told me a story of how she became frum and it was quite inspiring.  She thought that Judaism was depressing and was joyless.  You know, you can't do this, you can't do that and guys are always davening and wearing black.  One day, she was walking past a shul and heard music and laughing.  Unbeknownst to her, it was Purim.  She became interested in finding out what exactly the people inside of this shul were so happy about.  She went in and got caught up in the festivities.  In the end, she realized that there was more to our religion than meets the eye and that  the spiritual joy inside of yourself is unseen, but still very powerful and omnipresent. 

Of course, once I get to Purim, the next thing that comes to mind is - drumroll please - cleaning for Pesach.  Yes, everyone is just jumpimg up and down with excitement and can't wait to attack those bedrooms and toy boxes.  We tend to (because homeschooled means, at home all day) loosen up the learning a bit so that I can have more help.  Gasp!  Kids cleaning?  If they didn't, how would I get it all done?  Especially in a year when the first Seder falls on Friday night - oy!  There are those who are far more organized and prepared than I - this could be 99% of the population, I think.

 Have a very freilichen Purim!