Preparing for Shabbat

A Simple Shabbat: How I Prepare

August 9th, 2012 - 5th Day

Hello. :) Today is the day before Preparation Day...just wanted to write a little bit about how I prepare for the weekly Sabbath.

First things first, I try to wake up at least a few minutes before dear husband. As a follower of the FlyLady system of keeping your house in order, I start my Morning Routine which includes:

• Making the bed -- provided your husband isn't still in it...lol.
• Getting dressed -- down to your shoes.
• Wiping down the bathroom while you're in there -- it really helps when you've got at least one thing "clean" before you get on with your day.
• And taking your laundry basket into the laundry room to put it in the washer. 

The breakfast routine ensues with unloading the dishwasher, starting breakfast and coffee, as well as feeding the chickens. Dear Husband goes off to work and so do I...to the front porch to water the ferns, sweep, and wipe down the rocking chairs. It really does help to have the outside clean before the inside, it gives a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day when you sit down to watch the sun set and you find that the porch is clean!

After a bit of yoga and taking a little bit of time on the computer (blogging, uploading pics, etc) its time to get the Preparation Day work started!

Since we should "bake what you bake, and cook what you will cook" the day before the Sabbath, I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the Sabbath on Preparation Day. It takes a long time, but I really try to keep it simple.

• Breakfast - Cereal, Bananas, Pre-made Biscuts or Pre-made Blueberry Pancakes
• Lunch - Sandwiches, Home-made Triscuts, Cookies (it's a feast day, remember?), Pasta Salad, etc.
• Dinner - This is usually something that can be re-heated easily, maybe leftovers from the Sabbath Meal. Soups are easy, as are casseroles. Crockpot meals are excellent too. 
• Snacks - Lots of easy things like carrots and ranch, grapes, and challah! It wouldn't be Shabbat without challah!

My menorah happens to be broken at the moment, so I try to have six small tealight candles on the table at dinner with one larger candle in the middle. I'm about to start a "make your own menorah" project out of clay...we'll see how that goes!

I like to watch the sun go down as it signals the beginning of the Sabbath day. Here's a pretty good article explaining why a day actually starts at sunset: http://www.eliyah.com/sabbathbegin.html

I hope this helped some understand what goes into preparing for the Sabbath. It truly is a special day and we should welcome it as such! :)

Shalom!

- Mrs. Sloan