Hey guys. How was your Yom Tov? I want to hear it all.
It’s very rarely just one thing. Mine was quite beautiful. The services and the meals were amazing. Good energy, a full crowd, just awesome.
And then, you know, home life was harder. Kids were hard. We had some hard moments, let’s just say. And I feel like those hard moments are always amplified when it’s Rosh Hashanah and you’re like, what? I can’t believe this is happening on Rosh Hashanah.
But it does, and it’s okay. It’s just part of the package.
Here are some photos of the tablescapes. I definitely had to pivot because the beautiful plates I ordered for the Friday night dinner didn’t come on time. That is a very common occurrence for me in Bozeman :). So I had to use backup plates, which was not my vision, and I had to wrap my brain around that. But it still was fine.
And today, I am worn out.
You know, the body keeps the score. I’m tired, I’m a little under the weather, and mostly my brain just isn’t working.
And I have a big Challah Bake event tomorrow.
I have a lot to do for it, and I haven’t really planned it out yet. I haven’t figured out what I want to do or the structure of it all, and I’m feeling a little stuck because my brain is refusing to participate.
So hopefully it’s all going to come together tomorrow. Praying for some miracles :).
It’s actually interesting because I don’t do Challah Bakes very often. It’s not a program that comes easily to me, so I always have to work up the motivation, the courage, and the capacity to do it. The last Challah Bake we did was for Chaya’s Bas Mitzvah five years ago.
My husband suggested doing one now, and at first I pushed back. I was like, no, I’m not doing it. It’s too much work. I can’t do it after Yom Tov.
Aseres Yemei Teshuvah is a really good time to do it, but also, after a busy Yom Tov, it’s really hard.
So I pushed back, and then as I sat with it, I was like, you know what? It’s a really good idea. We haven’t done one in a long time. It’s a beautiful time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I’m just going to do it.
Part of me is really, really happy that I’m doing it because I know it’s going to be great.
But the other part of me is like, I knew it. I knew I was going to be too tired and run down and not be able to muster the energy.
So, lots of truths happening at the same time.
But at the end of the day, it’s going to happen. And even if it’s not perfect, and I don’t have a perfect activity planned, and I don’t have the perfect structure, and I don’t have gourmet snacks, it’ll happen. It’ll be beautiful. We’ll socialize. A bunch of friends will be together.
What could be bad?
That’s the update. I’ll keep you posted on how it went :).
Also, if you haven’t listened to my last episode with Shevach Tamir yet, go listen! (See links below.) It was such an enjoyable conversation for me personally, with so many great insights into parenting, behavior, and even some of the latent trauma we carry around without realizing it. I really loved this one.
And a quick podcast heads-up: because Tishrei is Tishrei 😅, we are taking a little break from the listener prompts for the next two episodes, which means there won’t be a voice note outro for those episodes. Also, because of Yom Kippur, next week’s episode will come out on Tuesday instead of Monday. Other than that, everything is business as usual! Interviews will still come out, and Substack isn’t going anywhere :). We’ll get back to the prompts after the holidays.
Happy New Year and Gmar Chasima Tova to all my dear listners,
Chavie