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I was washing dishes this morning, and the only way I can seem to do household chores is if I'm blasting music at an unreasonably high decibel level. So there I was, deafening my entire family and the neighbors while cleaning the kitchen, when it occurred to me that I'm old.I haven't been to a show/concert in forever. Also, the kind of music I really like is pop punk which, if I even could make it out of the house and to a show, is a favorite of people ten or more years younger than me. It would be kind of awkward to be rocking out with kids that I could have potentially substitute taught.How did I get so old? I mean, I'm not that old, I'm only 31, but I find myself using expressions like:"I'm really disappointed in you.""Don't talk with your mouth full!" and"For crying out loud."I've also developed the inability to operate cutting edge electronic equipment such as the Xbox, Play Station 3, and Blu-ray. Every time Wil plays a movie for Ari on these systems, I have to ask him to turn it on and off because I can't figure out how to do it myself. [...]

I've been spoiled this past five weeks. Wil has been on paternity leave and I've had a lot of help with Samara. During this time, he's made it possible for me to have time alone with Ari and allowed me to have a full night's sleep while he stayed up with the baby. In case you're wondering, I had to pump milk each time in order for these events to be at all possible. Yay nursing! He's scheduled to go back to work on Wednesday evening. As I've mentioned before, he works the overnight shift. Once he goes back, I'll be alone with the two kids pretty much all the time. When he's home during the day, he'll be sleeping, and at night, he'll be at work. Needless to say I am terrified. I have no idea how I'll manage having an infant and a 2 and 3/4 year-old by myself. To be fair, I'm not entirely alone. I have my parents right downstairs, but the primary responsibility of caring for these kids is on me. My friend Cordy (mother of two girls, two and three years old respectively) told me when you have two kids, you're always inevitably neglecting [...]

Pure unadulterated laziness...

When my friend Katie Grinch came over to meet Samara, she brought us some presents of the literary variety. Ms. Grinch works in publishing, so she has access to some of the newest groundbreaking material. She gave me this:"Have you heard of it?" She asked eye widened."No." I replied, already intrigued. She went on to say that the book was controversial, because Amy Chua, the author, has some questionable parenting techniques.Chua has two daughters, Sophia, the eldest and Lulu (Louisa) the youngest. "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" is a memoir about raising her girls "The Chinese way." Chua is the daughter of two Chinese immigrants and was raised in an extremely strict household. She wanted to raise her girls "the Chinese way" with the same values that she grew up with.The reason that the book is provocative, is that her parenting, in the eyes of Western society, can be viewed as extreme and borderline verbally abusive.For example, many times in the book, she uses scare tactics to get her daughters to obey her. Some of these include: Threatening not to give her daughter dinnerThreatening to burn her child's stuffed animals There are multiple instances where she insults her daughters [...]

I'm a really boring cook. I tend to make the same things over and over again. When I was about to have Samara, I begged my friend Cordula (Cordy) to make me some interesting food and freeze it so that when the baby was born, I could have a break from cooking. I read this was a good thing to do, before I had Ari, but I never ended up doing it. Cordy is an amazing cook, and a vegetarian, so I knew she'd come up with some yummy inventive dishes for us to try.One of the meals she made was zucchini lentil soup. I quickly became obsessed with it and begged her for the recipe. She kindly handed it over. The recipe originated from a woman named Rivkah Tuttle, a friend of Cordy's whom I've never met, for the record. Ms. Tuttle, though we've never met, I adore your soup!Addendum: Ms. Tuttle's sister, Elisheva, informed me that this recipe is from Susie Fishbein's "Kosher By Design Lightens Up."Without further ado, here is the recipe for zucchini lentil soup, with pictures:Zucchini Lentil SoupMakes 6 servingsDon’t overcook or the lentils will start come apart.Ingredients1 tablespoon olive oil1 large sweet onion, such [...]