This and That

I have lots of things to post and not enough time to post them!  A write-up of Clara's birth, pictures from Halloween, etc.  In the meantime, here's a bit of a potpourri of things that have been running through my head lately.

• I pulled out my sewing machine for the first time in a long time (a year?  two?) to make a dear friend a baby blanket.  I only have very basic skills--on a good day, I can sew a straight line.  But it was really pleasing and gratifying to turn out a sweet little blanket. . . .
• . . . Which sent me into a crafty turn of mind, evidently, because in the last two days, I've found myself planning all sorts of crocheting projects, looking up nice yarn stores, and joining a crocheting/knitting website called Ravelry, through which I found an Etsy shop with super cute patterns.  I think that with two little girls at home, I might have to get some of these rose patterns.  Check out how sweet they are!

 

• The other website where I've gotten some crochet patterns I've used a lot is aliciapaulson.com.  I've made Jane several sweaters and dresses from here, and there's a modified granny square afghan that I would like to make sometime, too.  Jane in the sweater I showed you the other day--->
• The biggest project I have in mind is to make all three of my kids their own afghan for Christmas next year.  I should probably start now, and they'll probably actually be done sometime around 2016. :)
• Speaking of potpourri, Nathan and I (and Clara) had a dinner out the other night (thanks, Mom and Dad!), and we ended up at a little tavern in my parents' neighborhood that turned out to have great burgers.  However, the pear cider that tasted exactly like potpourri was not such a hit.  Gross.
• Gasp-inducing discovery: It is really smart to have your kids spend the night with the grandparents when daylight savings is happening. You actually get to sleep in for that extra hour!

Butternut Squash Lasagna with Caramelized Onions

Today has been such a pleasant day!

• My friend, Katie, came over for the visit (she's always a big favorite with the kids--and me!), and we took the three kiddos to Trader Joe's for Katie's inaugural visit.  This may or may not have ended with Katie running a grocery cart around the parking lot with Noah and Jane in it.  Fun times!
• Nathan stayed home today because he didn't feel well, but he didn't feel so bad that he couldn't hang out with us or go play baseball in the backyard with Noah, so it turned out to be a great family day.
• The weather was windy and cool and actually felt like fall!  Glory to God!
• My house is clean.  That always makes me feel so good.
• Our whole family is more or less well and healthy, with the exception of Nathan's cold.  That elicits some gratitude after the week we had (that's another post).
• We had butternut squash lasagna and apple crisp for dinner.  Yum.

For the lasagna, I combined a couple of recipes and came up with something that Nathan and I really enjoyed, so I thought I'd post the recipe.  The honey really makes it special, and the caramelized onions are a nice compliment the sweet squash and honey.  The nutmeg just adds a little dimension.  A few notes: I didn't have any fresh or dried sage, but it'd be tasty to add a teaspoon or two.  Also, I used the no-boil lasagna noodles, but I think the texture of regular noodles would be a bit better in this dish. 

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Butternut Squash Lasagna

with Caramelized Onions

1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons honey
3 dashes nutmeg 
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
15 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup milk
dash black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
lasagna noodles, cooked (or no-boil type)
3-4 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place cut side down on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork.  (This step can be done a day or two ahead.)  Scoop out the squash and put it into a bowl.  Add the honey and nutmeg, and mash it roughly.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and saute the onions.  Cook them slowly so they caramelize rather than burn (adjust the heat, if necessary).  When they're nearly done, add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Stir into the butternut squash mixture.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta, milk, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and thyme. 

In a lasagna dish (or, as in my case, two 2-quart casserole dishes), put a small amount of squash or spray some non-stick spray.  Layer the squash, ricotta mixture, and noodles in any order you wish.  Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!  I'm off to enjoy the fire in our fireplace and a nice cup of tea.

Rice's Centennial

Last weekend, we went to Rice for some of the centennial celebrations.  Nathan's parents came into town to go to the football game and attend a couple of receptions, and while those weren't really practical with a newborn, Nathan and I did decide to take the kids and go to the alumni mixer at our old residential college, Baker.

Here we are in the Baker Commons.  We had lunch together here almost every day for most of our college years.  This is also where we met for the first time during O-week.  He asked me if the BU on my shorts stood for Baylor University, I said yes (I had transferred from there), and I asked him how he would have guessed that.  He said his dad was a professor there, I asked him what he taught, he said Physics, and I said something like, "Oh, I wouldn't have had him, then."  It was a completely romantic conversation, was it not?  ;)

This is the Baker College library.  When Nathan took Jane in here, they agreed that it looks JUST LIKE the library from Beauty and the Beast.

For the centennial, Rice had a lot of neat events planned, including a very elaborate light show on the beautiful Lovett Hall, which normally looks like this:

We didn't get to stay for the light show, but evidently part of it looked like this.  Pretty incredible!

Go owls!

A Better Day

Jane had a much better day today.  She looked so cute on our nature walk, in her new duds and the sweater I made her.

Y'all know what's sad?  She is way more stylish than I am!

Poor Jane

After a pretty good day, this was Jane's evening:

-Misbehavior, disrespect, and disobedience, resulting in time outs and spankings.
-Hated the dinner I made (not kid-friendly, it's true--Indian spiced lentils) and refused to eat.
-Fell down outside and skinned her knee.
-Got a sudden nosebleed in the bath.

Poor baby.  I'm glad tomorrow is a new day.

Lately

Sisters!

Somebody had a lot of fun painting . . . herself.

I had to just throw her in the bath after this.  There was no other option!

Noah had a little more self-control when it came to the paints.

Grandma with Noah and Jane.

Jane refused to smile.  But sometimes when you are two, you gotta act two.  No girl can be ridiculously cute and sweet all the time.

By the way, I don't think I've introduced the world to Jane's baby doll, Pink Rosie.  As you can see, she is well loved.  She is in dire need of a bath.

Daddy Dogpile

On the first cool day of fall this weekend, we dug out some warm clothes for the kids, and they ended up looking so cute!  Special thanks to Emily, who made that sweater for Jane.

And since we discovered that what you see here encompasses their entire cool weather wardrobe, we followed this with a shopping trip!  Everyone now has close toed shoes and jeans that fit.

One Month Old!

Little Clara Grace is one month old today!

She is super sweet.  Jane was, I thought at the time, an easy baby, but somehow Clara seems particularly so.  She has really only been fussy once, and I am pretty sure it's because of something I ate.  More than anything, she loves to be held and cuddled.  In fact, she still much prefers to sleep next to a person rather than in her cradle, and she'll go noticeably longer between feedings at night if she is snuggled up with you. 

I can tell that Clara has grown quite a bit.  In fact, I already miss how tiny she was when she was born!

She's extremely tolerant of her siblings, who love her to bits and are constantly all over her and in her face.  There's a fair amount of chaos in our house, and she handles it well (and she'll be a tough girl as a result: case in point, Jane poked her in the eye with a chopstick today--ugh).

And she is incredibly charming and beautiful, if I do say so, myself.

She has a little tuft of hair right on the top of her head.

She has very long fingers.

And she also has extremely long feet and toes.

She has newborn chicken legs, but so did Noah and Jane, and Jane, in particular, now has truly enviable gams. 

As for things I haven't caught on camera yet: Her eyes are blue, blue, blue!  They're of a different hue than Noah's were as a baby--sometimes I think they are cornflower blue, and sometimes I see a tint of green or gray--but they are undeniably blue.  And she is beginning to smile at us, we think.  We still haven't seen a clear, responsive smile while she looks right at our faces, but we are getting close!

Happy one month, Clara Grace!  We sure love you a lot!