The Zoe and Silas Show

9/15/14: Hunkered down to read a stack of books with Mommy before bed. #nomoretvonschoolnights

9/14/14: Derek recently requested a change to his work schedule and it was approved as of this weekend. He will now work 10-hour shifts, 4:00pm-2:00am. This means longer workdays and less sleep, but more days off. After years of having a work schedule on a 6-week rotation he will now have EVERY OTHER Friday night off, EVERY OTHER Saturday-Sunday-Monday off, and EVERY OTHER Tuesday-Wednesday off! The schedule took effect today, so he enjoyed a day of football, I enjoyed a day of shopping, and we all enjoyed a Sunday night family supper! The kids even helped set the table...

6/16/14: Happily "creating" before breakfast.

5/27/14: Silas takes after Derek and is very slow to wake up most mornings. Now that school is out he has time to sit and read a book before getting ready to face the world (and his sister) at the breakfast table...

4/14/14: The morning yogurt selection.

4/7/14: Even though S&Z went to bed 1-1/2 hours late on Sunday night, they were still up and going at 6:30 on Monday morning. They were very excited to play with the sticker books they got from Auntie Tracy before getting ready for school! Also had to share this awesome picture of Daddy brushing Zoe's hair for school. He is on "hair duty" most days :)

4/4/14: Our no-napping days are starting to take on more regularity. On Friday afternoons I take S&Z to the Harvest Food Co-Op to pick up whatever bulk items we need for the week. On Saturday's we normally have errands to run, and because I am working on purchasing an entirely new wardrobe they are becoming good little shoppers. Yesterday we went to H&M where they kept picking things out, saying "this is pretty. do you like this one, Momma?". On Sunday afternoons we always stop by my work to drop off clothes and food for the week. I continue to do as much cooking for the week as possible, and around 2:00 they often drift off into their room to play quietly. I love that a natural quiet time has emerged without me formally trying to institute it (which would be a giant failure). Some days it's the quietest this house has been since Silas stopped napping this winter. Zoe is doing pretty well overall with no naps, and I think it will be very freeing this summer ...

3/18/14: Zoe & Silas have been waking up at 6:30am recently, even though the "sun" in their room doesn't come up until 7:00. They have been keeping themselves busy until wake-up time by setting up shop in their bedroom closet. This morning I found them "doing work" with some animals, their flashlight pals, a notebook, pencil, and toy cell phone. In other news, Zoe is working on some great writing these days!

3/7/14: Friday mornings continue to be the best thing since sliced bread. I love being able to help out with pick up and drop off - with a wonderful 4 hours sandwiched between! I ran errands and went to the gym and made a haircut appointment for both kids this afternoon. Now that Zoe's not napping we're freed up to do such things at 3pm! The new bedtime routine is going amazingly well! They are down between 7:00 and 7:15, and tonight was the 2nd night in a row that they didn't come out of the bedroom one single time before falling asleep. After lots of frustrations with kids still being awake at 9:00pm, this is a VERY welcome change. Of course, all of this will be completely screwed up by Daylight Savings Time which is apparently happening tomorrow :( Before I walked out of the bedroom tonight, Silas was "placing an order from a restaurant" (which is really funny because we never order out!)...

3/4/14: With the new schedule this week I kept forgetting to take the picture of the day until right before bed (which is within an hour of me walking through the door!).

3/3/14: One of many pajama pictures :)

2/26/14: During the week there will likely be a lot more pictures of S&Z getting ready for bed and/or wearing their pj's, now that bedtime has officially been moved up to 7:00pm due to no more naps ...

12/4/13: Julia had really bad sciatic nerve pain on Wednesday. Before she left S&Z went into our bedroom and got my heating pad, telling Julia that she could borrow it if she needed to. Sooooo sweet. Joanne was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon so our schedules resumed a bit of normalcy. We've been reading "The Wizard of Oz" for the last week - here is Zoe trying to find where we left off.

11/26/13: Julia had an appointment on Tuesday and Derek was off work, so S&Z had DADDY DAY! Don't get me wrong, Derek does tons of childcare - but for the first time in their lives he was flying solo from 8am until 8pm. I told Zoe on Monday night that Ta-ta and I had work and appointments and that they were going to spend ALL DAY with Daddy. She burst out laughing and then stopped short, saying "that will be WEIRD!". Derek decided to go big or go home. He took them to see their first commercial movie, deciding to see "Free Birds" at Legacy Place. S&Z absolutely loved it, they had special daddy time, ate popcorn and drank sugar-y drinks. After the movie they had dinner at Chili's. I got home from a massage at 8:30 and they were just getting out of the bathtub (typical bedtime is 8pm). They ran to the front door (naked) to tell me all about the movie.  Absolutely priceless.

11/17/13: This weekend has been pretty busy so I had to spread the cooking love out over 3 days. Next weekend will be the same because I have to work on Saturday. It worked out pretty well this time around, and depending what we have scheduled on a given weekend this may be the way things usually go! On Friday I baked up some lavash crackers , and made two pans of what is still referred to in our house as Eliza's Baked Pasta . Yesterday afternoon I roasted a head of broccoli, tried some  Baked Kale Chips , and cooked up a big batch of brown rice for the week. Last night after the kids went to bed I put together Spicy Ethiopian Lentil Stew (recipe below, not for the faint of heart!). Today Derek made Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, and tonight I did  Mongolian Stir-Fry with Broccoli and Crispy Tofu, as well as Thai Curry Spaghetti Squash in the crock pot. The lentil stew, kale chips, and spaghetti squash were all new recipes. I'd make the stew again but use less Berbere spice...

11/10/13: This is the 2nd week in a row that Derek and I have gotten a bunch of cooking done on Sunday morning. The weather is turning cooler and we're in the full swing of fall. Our fun summer outings on weekend mornings have naturally come to a close the last few weeks, and now we're focusing our energy on getting organized for the coming week. The weekday grind is hectic for many reasons - opposite work schedules, off-the-clock work demands, and trying to maintain exercise routines to name a few. Considering I have lost nearly 20 pounds in the last 4 months, healthy eating is also a priority on top of everything else! The last few weeks I've managed to get the menu planning done on Thursday night, and then Derek does the grocery shopping on Friday. We still squeeze in two trips to the gym every weekend, and now we've got ambitious plans in the kitchen on Sunday mornings before Derek leaves for work at 2:00. This week's make-ahead menu included: - Yellow dal ...

7/21/13: In order for us to make time to go to the gym regularly we are having to re-arrange our schedule and priorities. Our weekly grocery shopping tends to be pretty elaborate, typically involving Stop & Stop, BJ's, and a stop at a farmstand/co-op/Farmer's Market. Throw bimonthly weekend research visits on top of everything else and it's really hard to get everything done. We made it to the gym both Friday and Saturday this weekend, but today we needed to split up in order to get stuff done for the week. The heat wave finally broke last night so I also really wanted to get the kids outside. We decided that Derek would do food shopping while I took S&Z to our favorite spot, Hale Reservation. We pulled into the parking lot for Noanet Pond and there were zero cars. My dad makes fun of me because I count how many people we see when we go to Hale. Today's count was 12. This meant we had the beach to ourselves. The kids had a blast wi...

7/16/13: Derek and I have been working hard this week on figuring out a good gym schedule . He was off on Tuesday night, so we all went to the Y together when I got off work. S&Z really like playing in the Child Watch room, so this definitely makes things easier. It was 7:45 when we all left. They galloped to the car, exhausted. Cook's Notes : Future meal planning will need to be significantly pared down on nights that we go to the gym after work. We did manage to make Corn Chowder after we got S&Z to bed, but we didn't eat until 10pm. We used fingerling potatoes, peppers, and some of the first corn of the season, all from Ward's Berry Farm . Corn Chowder CATEGORIES   soup INGREDIENTS 5  slices of bacon, chopped 1  white onion, chopped 1/2  green pepper, chopped 1/2  red pepper, chopped 1/4  c. flour 4  c. chicken broth 1  c. half and half 2 to 3  c. diced potatoes 6  ears of corn...