Ah, Shabbos

Or Shabbat. Or the Sabbath. As you prefer, or depending on which particular community you grew up in. In my case, it's as listed in the header of the post.

Anyway, as the Bible (V. 1.0) relates, the Lord created the world in six days, and on the seventh He rested. So do we, by extension, follow His example by working a forty hour workweek, with a Sunday for honeydo lists. And football. Shabbos itself around here is usually fairly relaxed. No TV, no mail, no compewters, no phones. The kids are still up early, but since we're usually in bed at a reasonable hour on Friday, it's not awful. So, a day of rest indeed.

Why is it, then, that the days prior to Shabbos, and Friday in particular, are a whirlwind of last minute cooking, cleaning, and insanity? I'm usually so worn out by the time it starts it's all I can do to keep from falling asleep on my plate (though Mrs. Skinny points out that late night hockey on Thurs. doesn't help. Apparently none of the other men in this town cook, so it has less impact on them.)

We had friends stay with us this past weekend, which was fantastic. They have a 4 month old baby, and we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. So I get a jump on things earlier last week. There's no cooking allowed from Friday sunset on, so everything has to be prepared before and warmed up. So Weds night I get the chicken soup & matzah balls done, plus the meatloaf. Thursday the mashed potatos. In the freezer from previous sessions are 1) Potato Kugel (pudding); 2) Squash Kugel (pie); 3) Lemon Bars (bars).

So what's left for Friday? Mrs. S. has the Chalah and zucchini salad, I get the cholent and a chicken/orzo salad thingy for lunch on Saturday. No big deal, right? Why is it she's first mixing the mashed spuds with the new batch of sauteed onions and I'm still assembling the chicken/orzo with 10 minutes to go before candlelighting (5:47 PM here in NY last Friday). Plus our guests are wiggling their way through side streets on Long Island after the parkway they were on got shut down - some knucklehead in a Big Rig who didn't see the sign saying "No Commercial Traffic"

Somehow we all made it to Shabbos in one piece - I even made it to services Friday only 20 minutes late, which is not bad. (I used to be on time, then I got married & had kids, & it all went to hell in a handbasket.) The rest of Shabbos was lovely. We had a wonderful time with our overnight guests (no travelling allowed, so anybody that comes is staying), and a nice lunch with some other friends and our new neighbors who moved in a week or so ago.

I'll only say that the week before I had no idea what was for dinner on Friday morning, and I was ready in plenty of time that afternoon. Some weeks you're up, some you're down.