I love Spring. Things miraculously come back to life. I saw the leaves sticking up the other day and now there are already buds.
These flowers tend to jump the gun a little. I hope they don’t get frozen in the next couple weeks. It won’t happen this week. It’s supposed to be in the 50s all week!
That’s what we’ve been doing a lot of lately. It’s not been deep cleaning though. Mostly a wipe off here and there. We had two showings already this week plus one tonight and one tomorrow. I couldn’t get the cleaning done without the help of my friends. (Or my husband.)
The kids have been really good about picking up after themselves. They still need to be reminded but maybe by the time we move they will have had enough practice it will be second nature. Ha.
We looked at two houses today. One…let’s just say odd layout, drowning possibilities in the pond behind it, and they have a cat. The other has potential but needs to be brought to the here and now and not the 70s. It also had a tiny yard and not a full basement (meaning there’s basement under part but not the entire house. Now why would they do that?)
It’s the first of March and we had a NICE sunny day. The snow melted a little and I don’t believe there were many, if any, clouds in the sky. I would love to see that continue. (If anyone has control over that.)
Keeping it simple is my theme for this year. At least that’s what I said in January before the house was on the market and I had to make a couple quilts in two weeks. I don’t do a lot of decorating for the holidays. I don’t have a ton of space and I DON’T like clutter. But I do have a grapevine wreath I like to hang on my front door. I put different things on it for each holiday. I find it’s a lot easier to have one wreath and a bag full of changeable decorations instead of 12 different wreaths and nowhere to store them. This is the first year I’ve ever had something for St. Patrick’s Day on my door.
You know, you just can’t find wooden shamrocks anywhere. I made mine out of felt. I would have liked to use a thicker ribbon but sometimes you have to use what you can find. I hope this wreath brings us a little luck this month. I suppose it won’t bring a lot of luck since I didn’t make a four leafed clover. Oops.
Yesterday I asked for help with the burnt popcorn odor. I got an e-mail from my aunt suggesting I simmer cinnamon in water. It smells yummy. I’m hoping this and the bacon I made for dinner will help with the overall odor. Thanks, Auntie Pam.
I’ve made it two months with a picture/post everyday. Can you believe it?
This morning I’m on my way to drop Meg off at school when my cell phone rings. This takes me totally by surprise because it NEVER rings. So I answer it even though I’m about to enter a no cell phone area by the school. (Not sure what the sign means since a lot of kids come out of school and turn theirs on.) It’s Deborah, our realtor. She cheerfully tells me that she has two requests for showings this afternoon. I said “What!?” I had to rework one of the times since I have to be home for Mat to get off the bus. (This will show you I wasn’t thinking. I could have told Mat I’d pick her up instead of her taking the bus. It was 7:30 and my brain barely works then.)
I get home and tell Mickey the news. He’s quickly figuring out when he can leave work so he can help me clean up. After I got home I realized I never scrubbed the tub. And yesterday someone was nice and painted the laundry room for me. They also forgot to plug the sump pump back in so when I did a load of laundry last night the laundry room floor got flooded. Yikes. That’s pretty much cleaned up. Thank goodness. I’m kind of hoping that Mickey will be willing to pick up my slack and scrub the tub for me. Maybe he’ll do that right after he tackles this.
This is the room of our pack rat. (You can see why this didn’t get photographed for the blog on Friday.) I think it’s all going to be swept into boxes and left there until we unpack in the new house, which we haven’t found yet. Getting her a loft bed was a huge mistake.
I’m off to clean. Thankfully I’ve been keeping up with laundry and dishes. The kids now have a “clean up your mess” rule that they’re made to follow and that helps immensely.
This is one of our family’s favorite home-made cakes, banana. (Most of mine are Duncan Hynes I’m not ashamed to say.) I got the recipe for this cake from my mom. Not sure where she got it from. As with most recipes I’ve altered it a bit, cut out the fat and it’s a lot more moist. (And here I had told myself no more sweets until Kade’s birthday/Easter. But there’s so much fruit it’s not really a sweet, right?)
Banana Cake
Place 2 teaspoons lemon juice in a measuring cup, making sour milk. Add enough milk to make 2/3 cup. Sift 2-1/3 cups flour, 1-2/3 cups sugar, 1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt into a large bowl. Add 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, 3 mashed bananas, and sour milk; mix until all flour is dampened. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Add 2 eggs, beat 2 minutes more. Bake in 2 greased and floured 9″ round pans at 350 for 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove and cool completely before frosting.
Now I like to bake this in a bundt pan. It bakes for around 55-60 minutes. I have a one of those silicone pans so I don’t know if that takes longer to bake. I also use the Duncan Hynes Cream Cheese frosting. I warm it in the microwave until runny and drizzle over the top.
The cake is almost gone. I did take 1/3 of it to our friends along with dinner but when I make this it goes fast.
Enjoy!
We did it! We put our house on the market today. We are excited and a little nervous. I’m hoping all our hard work pays off. We have enjoyed living in our house the last 14-1/2 years but the house isn’t growing along with the kids. 924 sq.ft. can only go so far. And some kids are not meant to share a room.
If you or someone you know is looking for a new house in the South Bend area take a look at these. Our home has 3 bedrooms, 1-1/2 baths, an updated eat-in kitchen, 2 car attached garage, and a family room and office in the basement along with laundry room and storage. It also has a new roof (5 months old), new septic (not quiet 2 years old), newer well, and newer central air and furnace. We are planning to leave all appliances also. The house is in a quiet neighborhood close to two parks, Notre Dame, and lots of shopping and restaurants. If you’re interested please contact our realtor, Deborah Crowder, at 574-514-7650. When it’s been put in the MLS system I will post a link.
On Thursday I got a delivery. Mickey sent me flowers. I must say they didn’t look like they were going to make it. They were all buds and looked like they’d been out in the cold too long. I followed the directions that came with them and by the end of the day they were looking a lot better. They have been blooming and are beautiful. Thought I’d share a picture of what they look like today.
The snow has been falling down today. We’re expecting more tomorrow. The county was on the ball this morning. They had pick-up trucks with plows on the front out plowing our little side roads. I was happy about that because I didn’t want to get stuck anywhere. The main roads were a little slippery at times but not too bad. Must be the new tires. Mickey had to pull out the snow blower after he got home from work. I like watching the flying snow, especially when I know it’s not on the driveway anymore.
