"TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE" CAKE

This recipe is called "TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE CAKE," but I don't think there is ANY such thing as too much chocolate!
I actually have never made this cake, but my husband's Gram brought some over earlier this week for our Labor Day dinner. I had to ask for the recipe because it was so rich but it just melts in your mouth! It was phenomenal and she claimed it was really easy.

All you need:
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box instant chocolate pudding
1 bag chocolate chunks
1 cup sour cream
1 cup oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup water

Simply:
Bake @ 350 for 50-55 minutes in a well-greased bundt pan. Allow 60-90 minutes for the cake to cool before trying to turn over and remove from pan.

Although this cake has absolutely no healthy ingredients (do eggs count??), the redemptive quality here is taste. What a hit!

I'll Take It!

Believe it or not, I had never been to an auction before! Talk about a deprived childhood. I mean, I frequent garage or estate sales and Craigslist Curb Alerts, scouring for the next best thing to upscale, but auctioning opened my eyes to a whole new world of bargaining.

Friday night, we attended the Pilsen Packrat Auction in Lincolnville, Kansas. Then Saturday morning and afternoon were spent at a local estate auction in Hillsboro.  I feel like we really hit the jackpot here! 

Between the two of us, my husband and I spent 17 dollars for the whole weekend of thrifty finds.
Here's what we returned with:

We intend to sell the Life game- pieces are still in packages!



To the average eye, this may look like a pile of junk, but to us it is a pile of tresures awaiting their transformation!



I think I saw on Pinterest these crates being used as adorable shelving!



A couple of these bottles are valuable; the rest will be put to use for my decorating :)

 At one point the auctioneer dropped his asking bid from ten dollars to just a dollar. Finally, when no one would bid for the old porch swing, I blurted, "I'll take it!" It sort of caugh the auctioneer off guard as he responded, "It's yours, Miss 'I'll take it!'" Of course, I didn't consider the inconvenience of hauling off a ginormous wooden porch swing.

My studly husband :) Putting his muscles to good use!

Some of these things (but not very many) I intend to resell via Ebay. But MOST of it, I plan on utilizing in our home, whenever we officially have one. I'll have to post about all the remodeling adventures I have with this bunch! At least it gives me something to put my heart into while I don't have a house to decorate. Or clean. Hahah

Organic Baby Food-- Homemade is Cheaper!

I'm going to preface this post by saying that my sister-in-law Jillian has turned me on to so many things in life that I enjoy, and making homemade baby food is one of them. I do this in an effort to a) be stingy, b) provide organic baby food to my son. Unfortunately, I would say that a definitely comes before b in this case (I mean, how bad can baby food from the jars really be?)

But I have decided that if it is easier and cheaper then I will do it myself. For example, mashing a banana (or ten for the freezer) and mixing it with formula is not only an excellent source of nutrition for little Rylan, but it is also a tasty treat that can last three or four meals that only cost me $.20. That will be forever the cheapest that I ever feed him! And super easy :)

Look at that mischevious little face! I cannot resist it, even with avocados all over it!

Jillian and I got together a few weeks back and made baby food out of the following produce:

Bananas: Mush then puree. Easy as 1-2-3. Actually there are only two steps there so it would be easy as 1-2. just proving to you all that I can count. And I do it well. All the way to three. Anyways, Rylan loves them-- he sucks bananas RIGHT off the spoon. Hilarious!
Squash: Some of babies' first foods can be squash. It must be cooked first (in the microwave is fine), and it can then be put in the food processor, sans the seeds and skins. Squash doesn't go very far though, and it will be one of the more expensive ones you may try.
Sweet Potatoes: Bake. Deskin. Puree. Freeze. Vwala!
Avocado: Scoop out the insides and mash well.

All of these foods can be frozen except the avocados. Apparently you need to freeze avocado WITH other things in it to prevent it from going bad, like lemon juice, which I'm pretty sure the little ones should not have yet. But you can just scoop and mash the day of and keep the remainder in an airtight jar-- the top may go brown, but you can remove it with a spoon and still serve what's underneath.
*Never freeze formula. If you need to thin out your baby food, you can freeze it thick and ass formula later.

Then in Colorado about two weeks ago, my aunt had peaches FALLING off her trees-- and we all know how delectable Colorado peaches are! So I pitted and deskinned about ten of those and made at least 15 meals out of the pureed form, depending on how well the little man likes them, but they are in the freezer for now.

To thaw: Use the refrigerator or micowave, not the countertop. For some reason that's bad. I find that 2 oz of bananas defrosts in the microwave in less than ten seconds, but you are going to want to make sure your container is microwave safe (I bought some the other day that I discovered are not).

A source that we used was: Wholesome Baby
They provide awesome recipes, nutritional facts, scientific research, and even menus for your baby's age! This was perfect for me since I'm an amatuer mom!

Thanks for reading!

Waiting on What?

As we sit here, waiting, waiting
for the house
that doesn't seem to exist,

my attitude toward God's providence
hasn't
proved

that I trust Him.

I stumbled across this verse the other day during a daily devotion:

"In his kindness God called you to share in His eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, amd he will place you on a firm foundation. All glory to him forever!"

1 Peter 5:10-11

The fact that God would allow us to share in his persecution so that he is able to restore, support and strengthen us; but then he would be so awesome as to provide us with a firm foundation? Wow! I am truly amazed.

It is the beginning of a new month. A fresh start. Who knows where we will be a month from now? We can't tell. Hard to say, considering all we've been through. Hard to count on anything. All I know is that our real estate agent said it best when she responded to our disillusionment: "God is trying very hard to prevent you from getting any of these houses that you have looked at and put offers in on. And I think there is a reason for that. He doesn't just leave people out to dry."

How true! Here we are, feeling like we are so alone, so abandoned, and maybe even betrayed, when we should be feeling thankful that God is so clear about his will for us by preventing us from getting the houses that we aren't meant to have!

This realization has helped me morph my heart into gratitude.

Disappointment Prevails

This will be a short post, a redaction if you will. I want to shout it from the rooftops, to tell everyone what a corrupt system we are caught in the middle of.

Our house deal has fallen through. The listing agent countered, we accepted and followed their strict stipulations. A week later, the seller's agent representing the bank wrote our buyer's agent an email that said, in exact words, "I am sorry that we were under the impression that your offer was accepted. We have an all-cash offer that we intend to close this month. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Inconvenience?
INCONVENIENCE?

Does he know that there is a family desperately searching for a home to raise their kids in, a family who would make their payments, who doesn't treat a hosue as an investment but as a space for creativity and life?

My furstration is at its peak. If God is trying to break us, then he is succeeding.

But you know what happens when God breaks you. A rainbow.

Good things always come from the Lord. He is watching us and working very hard to prevent us from living in so many of these homes.

Where is our home? We don't have the slightest clue.

Where are our hearts?  That answer will always remain the same.

Our New House, For Real This Time!

Three months.
One hundred house tours.
Hundreds of dollars in gas money.
SIX OFFERS, and multiple other disappointments.

Let's face it. We were depressed. Life is hard when you have no place to settle in, to really call your own. We are so appreciative of the Browns taking us in and feeding us, but we are ready to be autonomous. So we are pleased to announce that we have found a home close to civilization that we love AND that we can afford. I love it when the inevitable collides.

Primary exterior pictures are below, but be prepared from the HOME REMODELING SERIES II, coming in about three weeks (or whenever we can close), consisting of before and after pictures like last time.

Yay! We have a home :)

I've got my paint samples ready and my list of doom* is in the works...
MUAHAHA-- be prepared, 29th Street!

*a list of doom consist of the nitpicky issues, either functionally or cosmetically that I have contrived based on a) my need for perfection and b) my desire to cure old things, including but not limited to: homes, furniture, artwork, etc. Oh, what a great stage of life we are in!

The Colorado Trip

It had been too long, I tell you, way too long.
Rylan was only two months old when we last saw my parents and they were DYING to see their only grandson, who my mother frequently calls "an angel." For now, yes. We will see in the future-- I was a naughty child and my husband is a pretty sneaky guy!
Anyways, we had postponed taking a Colorado trip to visit them until we had found a house and were stuck in the limbo time between offering and closing, but alas, we have seen over 90 houses and made 5 offers that have all been rejected (and we have even offered OVER asking price on a few!), so as summer drew to a close we new we just had to take a break from house searching and just make the trip.

We are glad we did! My poor family just needed a Rylan fix, and Nick and I appreciated a nice refreshing break from house searching and the sweltering 100+ degree weather typical of Kansas summers.

My sister bought a professional camera to keep up with her photo-a-day blog, which you can visit using this link:

A Pic A Day

Enjoy the great family photos from the trip!