the bluecanopy

I’m trying to conjure up a blog subject here. Nothing seems worthy so I’ll tell you how I’ve been feeling about dogs. So I took the kids to the park yesterday morning. While we enjoyed a game of tag and treasure hunt on the grass, a white truck pulled up. Not a mom car, not a work truck. Ok…it was a guy on his lunch break taking his GIGANTIC mastiff for a tightly restrained stroll through the park. The guy was giving the dog about on foot of leash and the spunky creature was pretty much pulling him.

Now my beef is…why would someone bring a dog like that to a park where children are playing? Am I being weird? I know we all share the park…but he was scary! One strong leap and he could have torn away from white truck man with little effort. We said hello when he walked two feet within our play zone. Maybe I should have moved when I saw him coming our way. I don’t know.  Maybe he was really sweet….but those teeth!  It gives me the willies.

Poisson Rouge

Cool game site for wee ones….basil is now getting the hang of the mouse. He can play for a certain amount each day. We just found this site today. It is so refreshing because it isn’t connected with any characters or television programs. They do sell t shirts but no big merch push. Ahhhhh. And they have the alphabet in french which is cool because we’ve been learning to count in french as well as some basic phrases. Bookmark it.

Oh didn’t I tell you this is alinking, tell you what to do blog now?? Sorry. It’s not really. Bye.

This one has been very encouraging to me as well. Most of it seems common sense, but great reminders and clear “goals”…take what you will from it.

Intentional Parents

Three recently found things which I intend on keeping…..

1.  mother in law’s chili recipe

2.  saline nasal spray

3.  early bedtime for children

what about you?  (do I feel a meme spreading??)

Granted I am fully aware that there are far more important issues in the world, but….

is it ok to throw ziplock bags of food at the child in the very back row?

is it ok to leave trader joe’s stickers on the windows?

is it ok to wash it quarterly?

and HOW does one remove crayon from upholstery and fossilized french fries from the seat mounts in the floor?

I made this tonight for dinner.  It’s a bit different from the recipe I normally use.  The white sauce and the sauteeing of the spinach with garlic.  Beware, it is definitely not a low-cal meal; it is, however, the perfect way to get in on that meat and cheese before lent, less than two months away.  Try it, really.  (Adapted from The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters).  Everyone loved it, hope you do too!

Prepare:

1 pound Lasagna (fresh or store bought)

2 Cups tomato sauce (your own or store bought)

2 Cups bechamel sauce/white sauce

1 bunch of spinach washed, stems removed

2 cloves of garlic, minced

6 italian sausages squeezed from the casings.

1/2 pound ricotta cheese

olive oil

salt

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

nutmeg 

Cook:

Brown the sausage in a skillet.  Remove from pan and set aside.

add 1 Tbsp of Olive oil to the skillet.  Add the spinach and season with salt.  Cook until almost wilted, add garlic.  Cook for a minute or two and set aside.

Chop spinach finely and mix with ricotta 1 Tbsp olive oil and salt.

In a bowl, combine the white sauce with 1/4 cup of the parmesan cheese, a pinch of ground nutmeg and salt.

Begin assemby:

Oil a 10X12 baking dish.  Spread a few spoonfuls of the white sauce on the bottom.  Lay out a layer of pasta then the ricotta mixture.  Sprinkle with browned sausage.  Add another layer of pasta and spoon in half of the tomato sauce.  Add another layer of pasta and pour over half the white sauce and top with another layer of pasta.

Repeat until you have 7 pasta layers (or just do your own layering system if you find this as confusing as I did)….end the final layer with pasta. Drizzle olive oil over the top, cover with foil.

Bake:

400 degrees for 20 minutes, remove the foil then sprinkle with the remaining parmesan and bake for 15 minutes more.

If you’re not convinced that boys are different from girls come play at my house…..

Basil: (dressed as a knight with a pot lid shield and grandpa made wooden sword, rounding the corner into the kitchen)  Come on J, let’s go fight the dragon!!

Juliana: (following her brother, dressed almost exactly the same only with a smaller sword and lid) No, let’s just go talk to him.

Gentle banter ensues regarding the intended nature of the dragon encounter.

don’t ask why i like …

messy playful living rooms

bunk bed forts

slobbery kisses

shoes on the wrong feet

muddy hands and mud milkshakes

hiding and seeking in the same old spots

colorful towers of folded laundry

earthworm filled buckets

odd shaped toddler-chopped potatoes in my chowder

nubby half blossomed baby teeth

happy friday.

I’ve been reading Little House in the Big Woods to the kids before bed. Basil especially enjoys it…bears, guns, horses, fiddles, maple sugar candies. It’s totally up his alley. I haven’t read the series since I was a girl and it’s been interesting to note the change in perspective. Good stories are like that though. Was it C.S. Lewis who said something about a good book being one that can be enjoyed at ten and returned to at 40…or something to that effect? I think it was.

Anyway, I’m totally loving Ma right now. Now there’s a woman.  Remember her…Ma,  Mrs. Ingalls, Caroline??

What’s caught me is her life of loving service to her family. Rising early to tend the fire, start breakfast, then feeding everyone, wash, air the beds, mend clothes, work fields, etc. etc.

Always doing, always “on it” She knew her job and she not only DID it but she did it well. For the benefit of those around her and to the glory of God. Sure she had to do most of it so they could merely survive but she did it with some sweet prairie style.

This modern city girl needs to learn a thing or two from Ma.

Oh, and for the record……..one can learn a HEAP from my Ma too :)

We have name days a-plenty around here…..yesterday we commemorated St. Basil, today St. Juliana. Basil enjoyed it…his godparents and their kids came over and it’s neat to see him understanding what it’s about. Juliana doesn’t quite understand but I think I’ll make a cobbler for a treat tonight and we’ll read about her life to celebrate. What do you do for name days?

It’s pretty cool that we have the saints to look to…as someone told me, it gives us something real to strive to emulate so we’re now just trying to conjure up righteousness out of thin air…even if it is a far journey to where they are.  Now I just wish we could stare at the faces of and read glaring headlines about saints in line at the supermarket. Oh well.

Any who, we’ve had a fun filled couple of weeks, lots of family, friends and ripping of paper. Basil is sick right now……Simeon had pink eye, we’ve all passed the cold around, many echinacea capsules have been swallowed and numerous tissues tossed.

I’m looking forward to the new year, not just because the number itself looks nice but for another go at the turn of the wheel; the rhythm of seasons, feasts, fasts, trying new things, stumbling, succeeding, waiting, welcoming……you know, living.

A fresh start is nice. Ok, gotta do some laundry. Happy New Year!