The Natural Mommy

2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1070 sq ft.
(Yes, we indend to cram all three kids into one bedroom.  Josh is constructing amazing bunk bed plans.)
Partial basement, big attic which Josh already had plans to convert into a play room.
Built in 1914, but in outstanding condition.
(Of course, we will be getting it inspected.)
One car garage and shed.
Yard is small, but fenced in and sufficient, especially considering the park/petting zoo/water park that is mere blocks away.
All appliances stay, but no dishwasher to be found.
And no real good place to put one…
I’m sure we’ll come up with something.

Our budget for a house was 85k.  This house is 77k.

Someone else put an offer on it this morning before we did.  We offered the listing price in hopes that the first offer was below, as they usually are.  This house is worth so much more than what they are asking.

It was their mother’s, but she passed away, leaving it to them.  She didn’t have a mortgage on it, so they weren’t pressured to ask very much for it.  They just wanted to get rid of it.

Unfortunately, when they filled out taxes, they couldn’t claim excemptions for mortgage or for it being a primary residence.  So the taxes are 3 times the amount they should be and we won’t be able to change that til next March and they won’t go into affect until the March after that.

But we’re asking that they pay closing costs to make up for the high taxes.

Every house we’ve looked at, I’ve prayed the same thing.

“God, if this house  is not for us, please, take it off the market.”

We’ve come close to making offers twice before, but both times, they went off the market the day we were ready to commit.

God, if this house is not for us… please let the owners accept the other offer.

—————————-

*WE GOT THE HOUSE!  Now to see if the inspection turns up anything major…*

Filed under: The News on May 16th, 2008 | 11 Comments »

I’ve been comforting a sickly, teething baby all day, and this is the first chance I’ve had to type two-handed.  So please forgive (and understand!) the tardiness of this post and please forget that just about every other post I try to have ready on a specific day is also usually late.

I think I’m a misplaced Southerner.  Really.  I remember reading somewhere that the warmer the climate, the more relaxed a person usually is about deadlines, schedules, and appointments.  I belong somewhere on the equator.  With palm trees.

SPEAKING OF COMFORT…

This weeks recipe topic is Casseroles and I hope, despite my lateness, hundreds of people participate in this.  Because one cannot have too many casserole recipes.

I’m going to go ahead and guess that most of the readers out there have made tuna noodle casserole before.  But I’m going to post my recipe anyway.  Just in case you haven’t.  Or in case you use CONDENSED CREAM SOUP rather than BUTTER AND FRESH CELERY.  Because such an act is surely as treacherous as they come.

 Tuna Noodle Casserole (Olde-School Style)

Ingredients
3 cups medium noodles or 1 cup elbow macaroni
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs*
1 Tbs butter <s>or margarine</s>, melted
1 c chopped celery
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c butter <s>or margarine</s>
1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 c milk
2 6 oz cans tuna
1 c cheddar cheese cubes
1/4 c chopped roasted red sweet pepper or pimiento (I omit this to make the meal a bit more frugal.  This saddens my husband.)

1. Cook noddles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.  Meanwhile, combine bread crumbs* and the 1 tbs melted butter; set aside.
2. For sauce, in a medium saucepan cook celery and onion in the 1/4 cup butter until tender.  Stir in flour, salt, dry mustard, and black pepper.  Add milk all at once; cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly.  combine sauce, tuna, cheese, roasted sweet pepper, and cooked noodles.  Transfer to a 1 1/2 quart casserole.  Sprinkle with crumb mixture.  Bake, uncovered, in a 375° oven for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and crumb topping is golden.

*See tip for bread crumbs here (scroll allllllllllll the way down).

———————————————–

What is your favorite casserole? Share your recipe with us! Link to your recipe post, NOT your homepage, and be sure to include a brief descriptionafter your name on Mr. Linky! (So I can find you later when I’m looking for something new for dinner.) And thanks, all, for keeping it family friendly!

Next week on Recipe Swap, its… Paws Epicer: Noitide Sdrawkcab!  (That’s the backwards edition, in case you couldn’t tell.)  Is there a meal you’ve tried and tried and just can’t get right?  For me, it’s meatloaf; I just can’t figure it out!  So next week, I’ll be posting a request for YOU to tell ME your recipe!  You can type it up on the comments or blog it and link it in the comments.

Also,  that post will be the central hub for you to leave your requests for recipe help.  Post your desperate pleas on your blog, link it in my Mr. Linky, and then go visit the other links to help them out, too!

I hope that’s not too confusing.  First trimester exhaustion is setting in and I think 8:30 might be my new bedtime!

Filed under: Recipe Swap '08 on May 15th, 2008 | 5 Comments »

First, let me say, that if you are genetically dispositioned to have allergies, I’m not sure my theory can help you.  So sorry.

My theory:  If you allow children to live in an environment that is NOT germ-free, then their immune systems have the opportunity to grow and be strenthened.  If the growth of their immune systems is stunted by anti-bacterial soap and hand sanitizers, then when a particle of dust, or a strand of cat hair laden with cat-saliva enters the scene, the immune system, being out of practice, over-reacts and the body goes hay-wire.

(My preference for words like “hay-wire” may be why I don’t write for medical journals.)

However, I do not believe we should live a filthy, soap-free existence.  I think we have to maintain a healthy balance between cleanliness and sterilization.  I don’t think it does our kids any good to NOT wash our hands after changing a dirty diaper.  Especially if we then proceed to make their lunch.  We still need soap.

(Maybe if we didn’t live 98% of our lives shut inside stuffy buildings where the sun’s natural anti-bacterial rays cannot penetrate we wouldn’t need as much soap.)

Anyway, that’s just my theory and I was wondering if anyone else has these same thoughts?  Have there been any studies on the relationship between our culture’s current anti-bacterial madness and the rise of allergies?

Filed under: Just Pondering, The Natural Stuff on May 14th, 2008 | 15 Comments »

The Mother’s Day gift I had to keep secret until I could make that allusive positive line more visible:

Two days later:

There, see?  I TOLD you.  Or, rather, I wish I could have…

Filed under: Wordless Wednesday on May 13th, 2008 | 49 Comments »

What?  Mother’s Day is over?  I have to get off the couch?  I HAVE TO GET OUT OF BED?  Fine.

So I’m late.  You just be glad I’m not pulling a Meet-and-Greet Tuesday.

(By the way, when I pull stunts like this, you can totally post your pics on a Tuesday.  Odds are I won’t be posting anything tomorrow anyway, so M&G will stay up at the top for all to see.)

(If I can be late, I don’t see why you can’t be, too.  (Oooh, double negative, but it works!))

Some pics:

Since school is officially out for summer, and therefore, parking on the street is again a possibility, we have begun the annual lunch-with-daddy summer tradition.

The other grad students drool jealously when they see me unwrap a freshly baked loaf of Awesome Bread and proceed to make Awesome Sandwiches. I should set up a stand - my own deli perhaps?
 
Oh, and I also bring the cutestmostadorable children. Observe:

I was going to insert

[right about here]

a video of Benjamin preparing for a life of demolition. BUT, Google Videos says the clip I uploaded is not “available” and YouTube is currently down for site maintenance. So remind me tomorrow and I’ll post it for you when the Internet is in a better mood. 

————————————-
To participate in Meet-and-Greet Monday: Post pictures of someone you’d like to us to “meet” on your blog. It doesn’t have to be someone new each week (obviously - I post of the same two people each week). The idea is that someone new from the blogosphere will happen upon this site each Monday and we can “introduce” ourselves to them. Because this is a friendly place. Also, this is a great excuse to post pictures for the Grandmas.

Just make sure you are linking to your Meet-and-Greet post - NOT your homepage. It just makes life easier that way. Then put a link in your post back to here so that your readers can “meet” someone new today, too! And as always, thanks for keeping it family friendly

Filed under: Meet-and-Greet-Mondays on May 12th, 2008 | 6 Comments »

We’ve ridden quite the potty-training ride this year. 

(Are you potty-training?  Need encouragement?  Find it here.)

We are recently giving up taking a break from all the efforts over here because, really, I’m not sure what else I can do to get her ready besides sit here and wait for her to declare, “I FEEL THE URGE TO PEE AND I WANT TO PUT IT IN THE POTTY, PLEASE.”

We haven’t bought any potty books.  We haven’t bought any potty videos.  Because they cost money.  And being as our cloth diapers are already paid for (and I’m already running a wash every other day for her little brother), the cheaper option seemed to just wait until she deemed herself ready.

Until!  Today!  An opportunity to claim a free potty-training DVD popped up in my inbox!

(Thanks, Melissa!)

And I had to share the love.

So, potty-training mommies (and daddies, though I doubt there are too many of the latter reading this blog), sign your self up right here and see if it won’t help to have someone else teach your child how to go in the potty. 

Wouldn’t that just be lovely?  If all we had to do was plop them down in front of the television and presto chango, they never used a diaper again?  I’m gonna give it a shot anyway…

(And if you’re into free/frugal (who isn’t?!) you can always check out this site for more excitment.)

Filed under: Frugal Fridays, Potty-Training on May 9th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Olivia never left bite marks on my thighs.

Filed under: The Benjamin, The Olivia on May 9th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Many, many moons ago, I took classes in high school to teach me the Spanish language. Several moons later, I went on a mission trip to Mexico and realized I remembered NOTHING from high school.

While cleaning up from an activity, I needed to find the trash can. After many puzzling looks from the natives, I finally found a translator and learned how to communicate my desperate need for a garbage.

“¿Dónde está la basura?”

“¿Dónde está la basura?”

“¿Dónde está la basura?”

“¿Dónde está la basura?”

I said that phrase at least a dozen times. Possibly two dozen. Or three.

And then I continued to say that phrase over the course of the trip.

I was so thrilled with myself. I loved the way I sounded. I sounded smart. I like to sound smart.

Many more moons passed.

I am now the mother of a toddler. A toddler learning to talk.

“Bird in the tree?”

“Bird in the tree?”

“Bird in the tree?”

“Bird in the tree?”

“Moon in the sky?”

“Moon in the sky?”

“Moon in the sky?”

“Moon in the sky?”

“Pancakes for lunch?”

“Pancakes for lunch?”

“Pancakes for lunch?”

“Pancakes for lunch?”

I know how she feels…

Filed under: The Olivia on May 8th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Olivia:  Watch Veggie Tales now?
Me: No, let’s watch it later, when Michael (the boy I watch) is grumpy.
Michael: [Starts screaming]
Olivia: Michael grumpy now!

Filed under: Funny Stories, The Olivia on May 8th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Oooh, I have so many good bread recipes. But there is one that rises to the top as the dominant alpha male and continues to assert his authority by snarling viciously at the lesser breads.

Viciously.

Introducing…

The Awesome Bread

(a.k.a. Half-Whole Wheat Honey Oatmeal Bread with Butter Crust)

(See the splatter spots on the napkin? It’s from all the butter.)

(And yes, I took that picture on my living room floor. It’s the only place in our apartment that gets enough sunlight for a decent picture.)

Ingredients:
(And I am reciting these from memory because I make this just about every day.)
1 c warm water
2 Tbs oil
1/4 c honey
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c bread flour
1/2 c oatmeal (quick or old-fashioned)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast

Bread Machine Instructions:
Dump in all ingredients in order listed (wet first, ending in yeast). Do make sure, though, that you tap and settle the flour before adding yeast. Otherwise, it will crack during the initial resting phase and the yeast will fall through into the water and activate too early and then your bread will be a slightly smaller size.

Set machine on whole wheat setting, press start, walk away. (Do come back to make sure that after five minutes of kneading the dough is not a) falling apart due to lack of moisture or b) sticking to the walls because of excessive moisture. Add water or flour respectively.)

Amish Style Instructions (no bread machine):
Go here. Order a bread machine. Then backtrack to previous step.

Sorry, wish I could be more help. Maybe someone will be nice and tell you how to make bread by hand in the comments. I have nice readers like that.

Hey, you’re not done yet. Step away from the comments and come back here.

Skip ahead 3 hours and 43 minutes. The bread machine beeps, your stomach growls, and your salivary glands are performing in a way that would put Pavlov’s dogs to shame.

Transfer bread from pan to cooling rack. While bread is still piping hot, melt 1 Tbs butter and brush it over the crust. (Will be messy. Paper towels help.)

Let bread cool either until completely cool (per bread machine instruction book) or until you can successfully cut it without it being completely flattened and misshaped.

Then eat. Eat and curse the name of Atkins and anyone else who wants to tell you carbs are bad.

Do you have a bread machine recipe you want to share? Blog it and put your link below! Just make sure you’re linking to your recipe post not to your homepage. That’s a sure way to lose a good recipe.

Next week on Recipe Swap - Creature Comforts: Casseroles

Filed under: Recipe Swap '08 on May 8th, 2008 | 10 Comments »