Our Amelia Bedelias

We had so many Amelia Bedelias in our home just because my mom had rachamanus on them. My mother wanted to help them financially B'derech Kavod.. so we hired them as עוזרת נקיון, but they made more of a mess then they actually cleaned up.. There are so many Amelia Bedelia stories to fill up books and books.. I'll mention a few.. I had no patience for them and went off to skate the world..

Pizza disaster – she wanted to make pizza bread for herself.. so she put ketchup on a slice of bread,a slice of american cheese and popped it in our toaster. I was in my bedroom and I smelled something funky.. I come out.. and the cleaning lady was almost in tears.. the slice of bread popped out.. but it was no pizza - the cheese disappeared?? What was she thinking? she said her son told her she can make pizza in a toaster. She was excited to see the toaster in our house so she wanted to try it.. Duh – he probably said toaster oven not a toaster...

We asked Amelia once to make a beet salad.. cook the beets.. add lemon.. The beet salad was served - it was so bitter.. I went into the kitchen to see what's cookin'? The pot was still there.. So I opened it and.. see a few whole lemons in the pot!? What's pshat? My father told her to add lemon to the salad..

Our Coca Colas were mysteriously all flat. And then I found out who the culprit. One of the cleaning ladies came with a bag of soft drink caps.. She opened the Coca Cola bottles and replaced them with the ones in her bag. Coca Cola was having a מבצע and her kids were collecting soda caps to win prizes.. We would anyways never know the difference..


And then there soup nuts which were prepared like farfel. Sautéed onion and cooked in water...My mother gave her detailed instructions how to prepare the farfel which she told the עוזרת , was in a bag on the counter.. apparently besides for the farfel, there were soup nuts in the bag as well.. so the עוזרת tried it with the soup nuts. . My mother's reaction to this – it actually tastes really good! It didn't. Correction- it probably did taste great for her… My mother sincerely just saw the good in everyone.. and believed it so.. that that became the reality - the soggy watery soup nuts tasted delicious… but not for me who did not judge favorably others..

We were in the sukkah.. waiting for the soup.. we sang one song.. then another.. then another.. there were no more songs left.. the soup still didn't arrive. My father got up to see what's going on.. The עובדת said she couldn't find the ladle so was putting soup into the soup plates with a dessert spoon!


and the weirdest.. somehow the tissues and underwear always ended up in the freezer. I never figured that one out...

Chaneinu M'itcha chuchma binah v'das!

אדרבא תן בלבנו שנראה כל אחד מעלת חברו ולא חסרנו