Sickly spring Sunday

Poor little M woke up from her nap yesterday with a fever, and spent the rest of the day being cuddled. As sad as it is to see her sick and lethargic, it's kind of nice that's she's still long enough for me to really marvel at her. She fell asleep in my arms this morning, and that hasn't happened since she was a tiny baby! M is what we call uncommonly pretty.

D has been quite the champ today; as disappointing as it is to miss church, we've managed to have a nice enough time languishing around the house. We baked ginger muffins, made some beaded necklaces, and played in the basement with a new-to-us kitchen. Over the past year and a bit, I've been collecting kitchen play things for the girls, and although I found a toy oven at a garage sale last year, the rest of the things weren't much use without an actual (play) kitchen. A friend posted on Facebook that her kids were done with their kitchen, and I messaged her right away; she was incredibly kind and delivered it the next day!

We've been trying to make more use of the basement lately, mostly because it's nice to have a place other than the main floor to keep all the toys! I like to be able to sit down and relax in the living room during the girls' quiet time, and while I am not so fastidious as to be unable to be still in an untidy space, I prefer not to be surrounded by clutter. Now that the kitchen is downstairs, the basement is the place to be.

Today's quiet time knitting: My Blackberry cardigan, sleeves in particular
Audiobook playing: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

My curly girl

The other day, I was thinking how cute it would be to curl D's hair; she's three and a half, and she loves playing dress-up, getting her toenails painted, all that jazz. First, I checked if she was interested, and she was. So, the next time we happened to be at Dollarama, we picked up some foam rollers for her hair. I may have overestimated how many we'd need. They come in packs of eight, and I bought five. We barely cracked the second pack.

D is not always the most patient kid when it comes to her hair, so I wanted to put the odds in my favour. I watched a how-to video to get some tips, and then set her up in front of my laptop with an episode of her beloved Madeline. She had wet hair (not washed or conditioned, just wet) from the bath which I blow-dried a little, then I carefully parted it and got to work. Her hair is so much more cooperative when it's a bit damp, I must say. I used eleven rollers in total, being mindful of leaving them loose enough so she could sleep on them comfortably. It took maybe twenty minutes.

This was a very low-risk trial run. I was nervous that she might wake up in the night if the rollers were uncomfortable, or if she tried to change out of her nightgown and got her head stuck (I did warn her against trying this). I figured if she had any trouble, I'd just pull the rollers out. It's not like we were going anywhere in the morning, and we hadn't curled her hair for a special occasion. D slept well and was up at 6:30, earlier than I'd prefer. After breakfast, we took the rollers out, bottom-to-top, and I finger-combed the curls out. Her hair is cut straight across, and the lack of layers made it easy to curl the hair, but with a result of extreme sideways volume. She wouldn't let me pin pieces back from her face, but later in the day she compromised with a ponytail.

For the first little while, she was running and bouncing around, presumably because she liked the feeling of the curls. She enjoyed the results enough that she's going to let me do her hair like this for Easter Sunday.

That is a lot of hair!

Super pleased with her bouncy curls

M gets in on the fanciness

Partying like it's 7:39 am

Resurrection Eggs

In an effort to keep our Easter celebrations related to Christ's death and resurrection, we're attempting something new this year. New to us, anyway. There are many variations on this activity, as I discovered when I searched the relevant terms to find out what to put in the eggs. The basic idea is that, for the 8-12 days leading up to Easter, you open an egg with your kids, and inside it is a small object representing some aspect of the Easter story, along with a Bible verse relating to it. I tried to use as many items as I could from around the house, and the remainder came from Dollarama. As for the eggs, I bought them on sale post-Easter last year. We opened the first one after dinner today, and appropriately enough, D had coloured a picture of the Triumphal Entry today that she got from Sunday school. Or Wednesday school, I guess, since it's from the child care for my ladies' Bible study today.

Day 1-Leaf [from Dollarama rose]: John 12:13 “They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!”

Day 2-Silver coins: Matthew 26: 14-15 “Then one of the twelve disciples, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and asked, “What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?” They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him.”

Day 3-Bread [piece of cracker]: Matthew 26:26 “While they were eating Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples. “Take and eat it,” He said, “This is My body.”

Day 4-String [yarn tied like a scourge]: Mark 15:15 “Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed Him over to be crucified.” 

Day 5-Thorns [also from Dollarama rose]: Mathew 27:29 “Then they made a crown out of thorny branches and placed it on His head, and put a stick on His right hand; then they knelt before Him and made fun of Him. “Long live the King, of the Jews!” they said.”

Day 6-Purple cloth [a small snippet from a bigger corduroy piece]: Mark 15:17 “They put a purple robe on Jesus…”

Day 7-Cross [made from toothpicks]: John 19:17-18a “He went out, carrying His cross, and came to “The Place of the Skull,” as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called “Golgotha.”) There they crucified Him.”

Day 8- Sponge [a piece cut from a bigger sponge]: Matthew 27:48 “One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make Him drink it.”

Day 9-Rock: Matthew 27:59-60 “Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a new linen sheet, and placed it in his own new tomb, which he had just recently dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.”

Day 10-Nails [a couple of Hubby's finishing nails]: John 20:25b “Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the scars of the nails in His hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in His side, I will not believe.”

Day 11-Spices [peppercorns]: Mark 16:1 “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.”

Day 12-Empty: Matthew 28:6 “He is not here. He has risen just as He said.”

Finishing for Frances

My friend Mary showed up to our Wednesday Bible study with several bags full of yarn and unfinished projects; I'd been expecting these, as her mother-in-law Nancy had told me she'd be sending them soon. Nancy's mom passed away recently, and she left behind some knitting that was nearly done. Nancy asked me if I'd have a look at the pieces and see if I could finish them, and I agreed. 

The items were all baby clothes, mostly intended for little girls who hadn't yet materialized (this being a family where the grandkids are almost exclusively boys!). Beautiful, intricate patterns that she most likely had memorized, knit in fine pastel acrylics.When I laid the work out on my dining room table, I counted seven pieces to be finished, and I had no idea how long it would take. It's Friday now, and I have so far finished a pink dress and an ivory sweater. I'll need to get a few notions (a zipper, some ribbon, and lots of buttons), and each item will be carefully hand-washed and dried once it's done. 

This isn't something I'd normally do, but for some reason I felt drawn to it. I'm honoured to be able to finish the knitting of a woman who raised a wonderful family, even though I never knew her. And the timing couldn't be better: just a few weeks ago, her granddaughter gave birth to her third child and first girl. Little Lauren Audrey, I have a gift for you from your great-grandma Frances. 

Family-sized Family Day Lasagna

We've had a pretty relaxed family day; last night, Hubby, the girls and I had a sleepover at my parents' house, and woke up to a lovely breakfast of waffles. Once we packed up and got home, we did some major cleaning in the basement (boring but necessary) and had a simple lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup. After lunch, M played and then went upstairs for her nap, while Hubby took D to a free skate at an arena near our place, hosted by our city councillor and local MPP. There were cookies, hot chocolate, and a dragon on skates (or so D told me).

After a weekend of hastily prepared meals, I was keen to make us a hearty dinner, and tonight's lasagna did not disappoint! I've cobbled together my recipe from so many different sources that it doesn't infringe on anyone's copyright. It does take quite a lot of prep time, but it makes for excellent leftovers! We were all ravenous tonight, and we still have half a lasagna for lunches tomorrow.

Incidentally, instead of garlic bread (which Hubby and the girls aren't crazy about), I made some quick honey-oat rolls and spread garlic butter on mine.

Family-sized lasagna

12-15 oven-ready lasagna noodles

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Meat sauce:

2 Tbsp oil

2 onions

2 cloves of garlic

2 Costco-sized carrots (or 3-4 regular ones)

1 cup other vegetables such as frozen spinach, ribs of celery, green pepper

½ lb ground beef

2 tins of crushed tomatoes

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp Italian spices

1 tsp salt

Cheese sauce:

¼ cup margarine

¼ cup flour

2 ½ cups milk (I used 2%)

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

½ cup cooked, pureed cauliflower (optional)

Make meat sauce: Peel, chop and put vegetables through the food processor; use a garlic press for the garlic, if you have it.

Heat oil in large frying pan; sauté vegetables over medium heat for 10 minutes or so. Light browning is okay.

Transfer vegetables to large saucepan. Scramble-fry ground beef until no longer pink; drain and add to saucepan.

Add to saucepan: tomatoes, sugar, salt and spices. Bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for up to two hours. Stir from time to time.

Make cheese sauce: Melt margarine over medium heat, then stir in flour. Add milk and stir every few minutes to avoid sticking. Once mixture is thickened, remove pot from heat and add cheese and Dijon mustard.

Assemble lasagna: Ladle a small amount of meat sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan, just enough to thinly cover it. Layer as many lasagna noodles as you can fit (5 in my case). Ladle half the remaining meat sauce onto the noodles, and top with 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat the noodle, meat and cheese layer again. Last layer: place the last 5 lasagna noodles, top with remaining cheese sauce, and sprinkle all the mozzarella cheese on top.

Bake at 350 for one hour.

Valentine's Day 2013

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures yesterday! And it was a pretty good day for all of us here. Despite not planning to go out, I ended up needing to buy eggs and a couple of other ingredients for dinner. My nemesis, FreshCo, had cheese on a crazy sale, but by the time I checked the flyer, the sale was over. They run their sales Thursday to Wednesday, those weirdos. Forget driving out of my way, I thought. It was such a beautiful day that we didn't need the plastic stroller cover!  We had a lovely walk to Sobeys, and got home just before lunchtime.

Hannah and her husband were babysitting for the girls that evening, and I wanted to make them something extra-special. We'd had chicken pot pie together last week, and homemade chicken pot pie is not the kind of thing you usually have time to whip up at the end of the work day. They both loved it so much that they wanted to have it again this week. I made them an extra one to take home. For dessert, I made the dough for the chocolate brioche pretzels- Smitten Kitchen cookbook strikes again! AND I used this amazing full-fat butter that my friend Sarah had brought me at Thanksgiving. They are now all gone, although I do still have half the butter left.

My mom came over unexpectedly in the late afternoon with Valentine's Day prezzies for the girls: plush flowers and red and pink Smarties, as well as a loaned copy of Happy Valentine's Day, Charlie Brown. She left after Hannah arrived, and once I finished dinner preparations, I got ready to go as well. I was meeting Hubby at Som Tum Thai downtown, a sister restaurant of our favourite, Anna Thai. Som Tum just happens to be around the corner from Hubby's office. I got there a few minutes early for our 6pm reservation and I was wearing makeup AND earrings!

They are so speedy at Thai restaurants, in my experience! It helps that we always order the same things: crispy duck with sticky rice for me, beef pad ki mow sans beansprouts for Hubby.  We're rarely there for more than half an hour, unless we're with friends. So it was a 6:30 that we found ourselves heading out to the car. We drove to the Market, parked and walked to Oh So Good, a dessert cafe that I went to a lot in my late teens/early twenties. It's very decadent and probably best suited to special occasions only, at least for us! He had crème brûlée cheesecake and I had chocolate raspberry truffle cake, of which I was only able to finish half. We wrapped up the evening with a couple of episodes of Gilmore Girls. Oh, and I forgot to mention the best part! Hubby surprised me a gift of on-sale cheese, not from FreshCo. A truly lovely day.

Selfish knitting

Hubby started a new job this week, and what a week it's been! Freezing cold for one thing, and much longer days, at least from my perspective. I've been rather spoiled in that Hubby usually comes home between 4:30 and 5pm, by which time the girls are finishing their naps or quiet time. Now that he's working downtown and taking the bus, he gets home closer to 6, around the time I'm just putting supper on the table. I felt very much like a grown-up because I made substantial dinner all week: baked beans with jacket potatoes, beef stew with red wine, roast chicken, hearty tomato soup, chicken pot pie, quiche with sweet potato fries. It's incredibly difficult to make dinner while looking after two small children, and I have more respect for my own mom now than ever!

This morning I'm enjoying some time to myself while Hubby is out running errands with the girls (he was going to take them on the bus for a fun treat, but the snow and the attitude of a certain three-year-old has made that idea impractical). I could do any number of things, like tidy up, vacuum, bake something delicious, even start dinner, but I will only commit to eating breakfast and knitting something selfish. I do tend to knit mostly for other people, so I don't feel badly at all about making something for me. Especially something as gorgeous as this cabled Blackberry Cardigan (no relation to the former RIM)!

The yarn comes from PEI, in fact from the same trip when I bought my dad's Aran yarn. I chose it because I was looking for something that matches my eyes. It's not exactly delightful to knit with, being minimally processed wool. I actually have to regularly pick out bits of straw and other vegetable matter! However, the swatch I knit turned out to be much softer than I had imagined, and I do want the finished product to have the sturdiness afforded by 100% wool. I started it on January 17th, and it's much too early to guess when it'll be done. April would be lovely, but I'll settle for any time before the end of 2013.