Greetings, OOTOB readers!

Hope you’ve all been well.  Today’s post will be a conglomeration of stuff I’ve been into.

1. CLEANING FOR PASSOVER IN ONE DAY, GONE VIRAL

Firstly, my post from a couple years ago on cleaning for Passover in one day appears to have gone viral this year.  That makes me both happy and sad.  Happy, that more people can understand that Passover is about joy and that God would never give us an unmanageable task, and sad that so many people are freaking out about Passover.  8,000 hits this week alone tells me that people are kinda into this topic.  Ya think?  It’s gotten so that when I go grocery shopping, people stop me to say, “I hear you have this thing with cleaning for Pesach in one day…?”  Yeah, I’m that girl.  So check it out and pass it along.

2. PATRONIZE OUR SPONSOR FOR KOSHER VITAMINS

You may have noticed that ad up there, in green, for kosher vitamins.  This company is supporting OOTOB, so please patronize our sponsors and if someone asks you about kosher vitamins, send them the link.  Thanks!

3. STAYING CONNECTED TO JUDAISM BETWEEN HOLIDAYS

This recent Kveller post by my online (soon to be IRL) blogging buddy Nina Badzin – I’m headed to Minneapolis on Sunday to address Aish on Women in Judaism – is a really important post.  It’s short and deceptively simple, but don’t be fooled.  None of these things are commonly blurted out in a word-association game about Judaism, but all of them are in the Good Book right with shofar, matza, and l’chaim.  Read it and tell me what you think.  Judaism is meant to lived and expressed every day – and primarily in the home.  Check it out.

4. BOOK UPDATE

My book, a women’s prayerbook, is done and off to my editor!  The publishing company Mosaica Press is handling it, and I’m feeling a huge sense of relief now that it’s out of my hands – at least this phase of it.  It doesn’t have a name yet, so please weigh in on my two options, as developed by my trusty crowdsourcing marketing team on Facebook:

1. Calling God: a women’s prayerbook of conversation and connection
2. Prism of Prayer: a women’s prayerbook of conversation and reflection

Basically, don’t worry about the subtitle so much, but envision yourself at Barnes and Noble or recommending it to a friend. Which title has more punch, interest, and memorability?

It’s due out this fall, so keep your eyes and ears open for that.

5. HAIRCOVERING UPDATE

A couple of months ago I blogged about my evolving views on haircovering; specifically, methods of which to do so.

Each year I put together a shutterfly album of our family’s pictures from that year, and I noticed in my absorption in that project that I really, really, like the way I look in the pictures with scarves.  It encouraged me to wear more of them, as opposed to wigs, which I hate wearing.

Anyhoo, that’s what’s been going on around here.  Happy preparations for Passover, for my Jewish readers 🙂