Moving and such

I really should write about our weekend. Saturday we had an absolutely perfect day in the mountains -the last before we move. However, I really don't have time or energy to describe it well, and I really need to include some of our pictures. I'll probably do that after we move. Anyway, I've still been tired. That mostly seems due to our little girl sucking a lot more out of me. Upping some of my vitamins has helped, but I still need more rest lately. Of course that isn't helping up move any faster. I got some boxes packed yesterday, but I still need to finish packing the bedroom and hall closet. Pack the bathroom and livingroom. Start packing the kitchen. Figure out what to do with the food in the fridge because some of it just ain't getting cooked right now. Do laundry. Separate out what needs to go in suitcases. Figure out what needs to go in the car instead of the truck. Ooof, just writing this is making me tired. Fortunately Allen is taking the day off tomorrow to help out. As is I might just need to send him to do laundry by himself so I can pack some more. I'd go myself, but neither of us is comfortable with me being there by myself at night. Oh, well. I guess I'd better get back at it.

another food post -RIBS!

About a week or so ago I found some beef ribs on sale at EarthFare. Although I like to get my meat there because they typically have much higher quality they tend to be pretty expensive. The non-hormone and antibiotic stuff just costs more. I had never eaten beef ribs in my life and really didn't know what to do with them. I called my MIL, and she said you can roast them in a pan or in a crockpot and that she had occasionally cooked them that way with some bar-b-que sauce. Oh my word. Talk about good eatin'. I stole a taste while they were cooking and promptly told my husband that he was going to be eating out tonight because these were too good to share. Of course I was joking, but they did turn out to be thoroughly tender and flavorful and plain old finger-lickin' good. Having never cooked ribs before, here's what I did.

First I made a rub with salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, ground cumin, plus a smidge of oregano and cayenne pepper. Just follow your nose and your instincts about how much of each to add -I've listed them roughly in descending order. Having eaten them, I think I went a little heavy on the salt, so don't lay the rub on too thick. Next I lightly coated the ribs in olive oil and rubbed on my seasonings. I had already put a small splash of Braggs Amino Acids in my crock pot with about a cup of water, and I just set my ribs down inside it. After mentioning what I was doing to Grandmom over the phone she suggested I add about half a cup of red wine to help tenderize the meat. About halfway through I spread some bar-b-que sauce over the ribs. Over all I let them cook about 6hrs. When I took them out we had some good eating. I should add that I only had five ribs, so adjust your proportions accordingly.

We put the bones and the left over drippings and scraps in the freezer to take to Grandmom after we move. They're such beautiful bones, and Grandmom can do wonders with a few bones. Ummm, the things that woman can cook!

yummy potatoes and veggies

I suppose I should have taken a picture to post here. Anyway, I made one of our favorite baked potato meals tonight since we haven't had it for a while. It's really easy and very good.

Select however many small baking potatoes you need* and put them on to bake. I coat mine with olive oil and roll in course salt before baking at 425 on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Allen really likes the crisp texture and salty flavor you get from baking them this way. Otherwise you can just prick them lightly and wrap in foil. After I put my potatoes on I start my veggies. I use approx one large onion, three bell peppers (we prefer red or yellow), a small basket of baby bella mushrooms, and a celery heart. I chop these us and put them in my everyday pan with some fresh grated garlic, a swirl of olive oil, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and about 2c of veggie broth. I mix my veggie broth 1:1 with water because it's rather strong. While that's all cooking down I brown about 2lb of ground meat in another pan and add it to the veggies. It'll take about 15-20 mins for the veggies to cook down. Just before you're ready to take them off the stove mix some cornstarch or arrowroot in with a little water and add enough to thicken up the sauce. You want something that you can pour over the potatoes. When everything is done just pour the veggies over split, buttered potatoes and enjoy. I usually have enough for at least 6 potatoes. It also makes great leftovers since you can bake fresh potatoes with very little effort, and the veggies reheat wonderfully.



*I plan for one potato per person, but depending on the size I might only eat a half.

one of those weeks

Well I officially started packing today. I packed a couple of boxes of books before cooking supper. I've just been so tired lately though. I don't know if it's lack of sleep or low iron or needing more B vitamins or what, but I just can't seem to get anything done. I walked down the stairs to check the mail, and when I got back upstairs my heart was beating way to hard and I was feeling way too weak for having just walked down and up three stories worth of stairs. I was kind of hoping that we could take one last trip to the Smokies before we move back to B'ham, but I don't honestly know if I'm going to be up for it. Oh well. I just hope that I'll start feeling more like myself soon. I really don't like feeling so lethargic.

contemplations on moving

I've had mixed feelings about moving away from Knoxville. Of course our apartment is ridiculously small for three, and we'd soon want to move anyway. Certainly I look forward to seeing family on a more regular basis and without the added burden of a four hour drive. Our new apartment is lovely, and I can't wait to have room to set up my sewing machine and jump into some projects. I'd like to make me an Easter dress if I possibly can. Part of it is that I just don't like moving. It's a lot of work, and you end up saying goodbye to too many people. Also, this will be my third move in less than a year. I moved once before we got married, then we moved up here, and now we're going back. Too much moving. I'm ready to be in one place for a while. But I think there's more too than that. When Allen and I moved up we were starting a whole new phase in our lives. We had just gotten married, and I had just started my graduate program. These were going to be our carefree college town years. In our tiny third story apartment the world lay at our feet. Looking out the window we can see the Sunsphere. It's only a short walk from there to Market Square and its interesting little shops and restaurants. Allen and I have walked there many times. Go a few blocks the opposite way, back towards the strip, and you'll find Laurel Theatre where the Knoxville Swing Dance Association meets on Wednesday nights. Get on the highway and drive East for about an hour or so and you can get to Smokey Mountains National Park. We have everything. Vintage shops, dancing. hiking - everything within reach. Now that we're leaving I sort of feel bad that we didn't take more advantage of it all. But school started driving me harder and harder; the weather turned unpleasantly cold for walking, and with the added stress of pregnancy I had several bouts of malaise and sickness that left me with little inclination for being out unnecessarily. The fact is that we're moving into a different phase of our lives at a time when I thought we'd still be footloose and enjoying urban life, and I mourn that this season of our lives is drawing speedily to a close. This not to say that I have any regrets. Never for one second have I wished that Allen and I had been more "careful" with regards to pregnancy. I once thought that baby fever was something only unpregnant women got, but there are days when I can't wait to meet this little person growing inside me and snuggle and nurse. I will admit to some times having an absolutely craving to nurse. Yes, I've heard that it can be hard and exhausting and even painful at times, but oh to see that little head snuggled down into your chest. I cannot wait. As you can see I'm very excited about this new phase in our lives. I welcome it eagerly. Yet, here we have been newly weds. Here I first cooked for husband and made my first biscuits. Here we walked to the first church that welcomed us as husband and wife. I set our first Christmas tree in the window here and wrapped presents in the bedroom while Allen worked. This has been our first home. Two weeks from today I will be sitting in my new home. The home into which Allen and I will welcome our first child. But I shall miss this place. I certainly shall.

and it's back!

Now I'll just have to remember that knitting is an acceptable way for me to dither away my time as well :D

grr...the Lappy's broken.

It's kind of hard to have a blog when your dear husband works from home over the internet and then spends time relaxing in front of the computer -especially when the laptop is down. Yep, that insidious temptation to sloth has been removed to the far off reaches (ok, Memphis) of an official repair center to have all it's bits put back in order. That's mostly ok with me. I just read instead of goofing off on the internet, but that does mean that I can't blog when I have the notion or peruse ebay or anything of the normal things I like to do at odd intervals of the day. To be fair, my dear husband is more than willing to offer me computer time, but I admit to feeling a wee tad bad about taking his computer time and not spending time with him while's he's off the computer. (There's some very bad logic hidden in that last statement if you can find it.) Ah well, hopefully it will be back soon. Until my presense will be sporadic.

We found one!

So we actually found a place to live. It's perfect -mostly. Like most apartments it has a tiny kitchen, but at least this kitchen has a window, and there's another window in the back wall between the kitchen and the eating area that you can pass things through. Instead of feeling dark and cramped it's quite light and inviting. And praise God that is has a dishwasher that doesn't look like some ancient Flintstone's relic. Praise God for dishwashers period, but we did see some scummy ones that appeared to predate the building in question. Other than that it has the requisite eating area/living area and the two bedrooms we need. Closet space is good. There are sufficient windows, although I think our current apartment has more window space. However, the real surprise bonus is that it has a real woodburning fireplace! I love fireplaces. Mom and Dad have this wonderful woodburning stove, and I have the best memories of it. More practically though this apartment is on the first floor -a fact which has our movers on their knees in gratitude after the work it took to get us moved into our 3rd story apartment. The grounds are a joy as well. There are tree everywhere, plenty of open areas, and trails down around the river. I suppose it's able to do all this without costing an arm and a leg by being in a rather obscure corner of Shelby county rather than in Riverchase or Vestavia. That's actually the not so perfect part though. It really isn't as close to town as I would like. I had been hoping for Homewood area instead of 280. Not a big deal I know, but I really don't know that side of town very well. I'm going to have to learn all the roads and figure out where the grocery stores are. A small price to pay I know. I was excited to hear that some friends of ours from community group were moving up that way. At least we won't be the only ones coming from that direction. Good thing that with Allen working from home location isn't an issue. Overall I'm very happy with where we're going to be. I'll post more as we start getting ready to move.

moving, driving, and in general going crazy

So, after our recent debacle with the women's center in town and the midwife in Alabama (don't ask right now) I have no idea in the world where or how I'm going to be giving birth and even what state I'm going to be in when it happens. Given that I'm over halfway there...it's quite an interesting situation all around. Anyway, we just recently got back from our visit in Alabama (4+hrs one way), and we're about to turn around again and drive right back to look at a couple more apartments. And I do mean a couple -two to be unmistakably precise. That makes me rather nervous. For all I know some well minded people are going to go calling on certain offices to sign pieces of paper that will have me scouring the internet (again) for possible places to live. NOT FUN. I spend hours and hours tracking down information, trying to find decent apartments at decent prices, and I'm left here hoping and praying that one of these two will work out. I know God will provide, but I'll still feel better knowing how. On top of all that I've got the flopsies. All I want to do is flop down on the couch and stitch or goof off on the computer. Can't say that's conducive to getting anything done around here. ERRRRRRRRRG! Fortunately Allen has been very sweet and patient about everything, but it doesn't help that I know exactly what I need to do and yet seem uniquely incapable of getting any of it done. I admit that looking at my current inadequacies there are times when I'm tempted to despair at the thought of attempting to keep up with my responsibilities and take care of another human being at the same time. Allen's pretty easy. If things get too out of hand I can always send him to fend for himself for a little while. Not so with this little one. (Who incidentally just kicked me -she's getting stronger and moving more.) God will provide; God will provide.... God! Can I handle all this? Sometimes I wonder. Hopefully things will get clearer in the next few weeks. Until then I'd better enjoy learning to live by faith since it appears that's the lesson God has set before me whether I like it or not.

Truth and Fact

That Sarah was past the age of childbearing and that Abraham was an old man are both facts. Any competent medical or childbirth authority could have looked at them and declared that if they wanted kids they'd better think about adoption -or perhaps using the services of their servant Hagar. These things are clearly laid out in the Bible. However, the plain and explicit truth is that God had declared that Sarah would bear Abraham a child in fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham.

Ishmael was the offspring of fact, but Isaac was the son of truth.

Our God is a God of truth.

In Honor of Grandad

I can read your face, but don't ask me about palms. Oh, and can you stick out your tongue?

This past weekend my mother-in-law came up for a seminar entitled Face, Tongue, and Nails. Yeah, I know. It sounds fascinating. I got to go with her though, and it really was fascinating. Much of the seminar materials were based off of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the ways TCM practitioners learned to read the face, tongue, and nails for signs of weaknesses and conditions in your body. For instance, we've all heard the one about a crease in your ear being a sign of potential heart trouble. But have you heard the one about darkness under your eye being a sign of underactive kidneys? Or that the condition of the tip of your nose can give information about your heart and that your lips tell a lot about your stomach and digestion? Your nails are important too. The shape of the nail and its color, any markings, the size and location of moons, all these things say something about the condition of your body. The tongue is particularly interesting because it can change rapidly and reveal acute conditions in your body. The coating on the tongue -it's thickness, color, and location- can tell a lot about what it going on in your body right now. It's amazing how much information our bodies plainly reveal about the state of our health that we aren't even aware of. It can literally be as plain as the nose on your face. Unfortunately people (and especially doctors) aren't trained to read these signs and get a picture of our overall health. We come in with a symptom and the doctor's usually want to fix the symptom. This is really like shooting the messenger because a symptom is no more than a sign that your body is out of balance. Health isn't a lack of symptoms. Health is having the body in balance working smoothly and efficiently. These balances and imbalances can be clearly seen by those who have been trained to see them. Also, all these things I've mentioned -these signs that show up on our faces and hands- can change. You can take a picture of your face today, work on your health for a year, take another picture, compare the two, and see just how much you've really improved. The same goes for your nails. You can see yourself getting better and stronger. This last weekend I realized that several of my nails that were twisted were getting straighter and stronger. That means that I'm getting stronger. It's really very interesting. I can't wait for a chance to put some of this into practice.

A very cheesy Valentines (or why cliched /= bad idea)

So I sort of forgot that it was Valentine's Day until lo and behold it was Valentine's Day. I thought it was next week. Didn't have so much as a card for Allen. We weren't planning on doing anything big -just going to play In The Groove at the mall and then to Famous Dave's afterwards. I still felt kind of bad though. Such were the thoughts that ran through my head as I was cleaned up the bedroom from it's previous state of inane clutter. Cleaning the bedroom...duh! So I went and surreptitiously gathered most of the candles from the living room and stashed them on my side of the bed. Then I went and took a shower and shaved my legs before we headed out the door. I admit I felt more than a little cheesy and cliched while I was lighting those candles, but... Let's just say that just because something is cliched doesn't mean it can't be a darn good idea ; ) Mmm, candlelight...maybe after Baby is born I can add a bottle of wine to the recipe.

Well I thought it was funny...

Midwife: "Do you faint when you have blood drawn?"

Me: "I don't know."

Midwife: pokes sharp thing into my arm

Me: makes face at Allen but otherwise shows no signs of retreating from the present reality.

I guess that answers that question : D

One small snip for me...

I know this is so not a huge deal for most people, but yesterday I actually went into a haircutting place and got my hair cut. That's it. She took off between and inch and a half and two inches total and did some long, well blended layers. The serious observer might notice that my hair is a tad different, but overall I walked out of there looking much like I did before I walked in. However, I've heard so many horror stories of people with long hair (mine is just a few inches shy of my waist) walking into a hair salon and walking out with tears and chopped off hair. I'm not obsessive about my hair, but I do try to take care of it, and I didn't want some "believe me I know what you want" hair stylist making a salad of it. Before I'd always had my hair cut by either my mom or a friend from church. Never someone I didn't know. Have I mentioned that I have some trust issues? I want to know that I'm doing the exact right thing and making the exact right decision and that everything is going to come out exactly right. That's the big deal. I was going to walk in a sit down and relinquish control over my hair to a stranger. Actually, that's kind of what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm going to walk into the women's center, and a nurse is going to poke and nod and draw blood work and proceed to tell me things about my body and my baby. I'm going to come face up against the reality that I'm not in control of everything. Most of the time we can pretend or ignore our own helplessness, but it's times like these that I blanch at my own precarious position. However, the alternative is to not get help -to let my hair get ratty and unattractive and to neglect to let people guide my pregnancy and prepare me for birth. Of course, I might be coming up against my own helplessness, but that doesn't mean that I'm hopeless. I know that God is good and that He works all things for good. If I'm trusting Him then I don't have to be afraid of what other people around me are doing. I don't have to fear my helplessness.

Didn't know there was so much to getting a simple hair cut did you?

tired but happy

I really don't have time for a real post since I need to get to bed so I'm not just dragging myself up in the morning. I just wanted to say that I'm so glad I finally got some organizational things done today. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got a set of drawers. It's just a metal frame with canvas drawers, but it will fit in the tiny space between the closets. I also bought one of those shelf organizers that hangs from your closet rod. I feel like I finally have room to put things away instead of constantly shuffling around piles. I don't have everything up, but I've made progress. I also cleared out a big bag of clothes that I'm not wearing/won't wear to take to the thrift store.

I bought a big red canvas bin to hold all those crafting/sewing things that I want to be able to get to but don't want cluttering up the living area. While I was out I also bought a few more crafting things to go in my bin -some more flannel and some cotton batting to make nursing pads, more flannel to make burp clothes and a swaddling blanket, and a couple of cross stitch kits. One kit is for a birth announcement/sampler, and the other is an apple tree full of birds. I'm going to stitch a Bible verse under it and hang it up in our new place after we move.

Well, I need to go brush some butter over the communion bread and hop into bed. We have to get there early to set up for communion this Sunday, and I don't really like getting up early for church anyway. Goodnight everyone.

Just as good as Sam's...

Today for supper I pulled out some frozen chicken pieces I had stashed in the freezer. I had been intending to fry them up, but since I didn't have any coconut oil (we don't use canola oil) I ended up breading them and baking them on a cookie sheet. I took a bite and my tongue captured the nostalgic flavor of Sam's chicken tenders served to a table full of hungry kids. My husband agreed with me. Somehow I had cooked up some childhood memories. Ok, so maybe it's just Sam's chicken made from scratch. Whatever. I like Sam's chicken tenders. Also, I know what's going into these, and I bet you my frying pan that my ingredients are a whole lot better for you. Just in case anyone's listening here's what I put in my breading. Unfortunately I can't really tell you how much since I never measure : )

fine ground WW flour (about 2-3 cups)
one package (column/stack) wheat crackers well crushed
Salt (a good palm full)
Pepper (just a dash)
Onion and Garlic powder (around a tablespoon each)
Paprika (until the mix starts looking a little pink)
Cayenne Pepper (it's good without, but I like to add at least a teaspoon)

If you just wet your finger and get a dab of the mixture to taste you can get a pretty good idea of the flavor and whether or not you need to add anything. Other than that you can just use your instincts. I dip our chicken in an egg and milk mixture first and either fry in coconut oil or bake on a cookie sheet coated liberally with olive oil turning once in 15 min.

Tonight I served our chicken with spicy green beans that I'd cooked up with some onion and garlic powder, a little Braggs, a little tobasco and cumin, and a some thyme. So maybe next time I need to go a little easier on the tobasco =) They were still good.

praying for the happy ending

I've got a friend, and she's got a friend. And that friend just happens to be a guy who looks like he just might actually possibly could be THE guy. No she hasn't said as much too me. She's a nice girl who doesn't want to run ahead of the relationship. So if said possibly perfect for my friend guy comes across this sight and recognizes himself by the description I'm NOT giving of him them he can blame all the wedding planning on me. And of course I'm not going to for one instant suggest to her that she start planning her wedding. But there's a chance. There's at least a chance that she's going to call me one day and say, "Natalie, he asked me!" And I am so incredibly excited about that chance. I want him to be the one. I want her to fall head over heals in love with this guy and get married and have babies and be happier than she ever though possible in her entire life. Maybe this isn't the one or the time. Maybe God has other plans for my friend. But maybe this is the one. Dear friend I hope this is the one.

A stitch in time...

Can save you from spending too much at Walmart. I'll have to post pictures when I'm finished just to show the cute prints, but I bought some flannel on sale yesterday to sew up into burp cloths. I got a tan print with a brown flower and butterfly design on it, a pink and green calico looking print with a white background, an indigo and dark rose flower print scattered over a creamy white background, and a pink piece with purple, white, yellow, blue, and green polka dots. I love the feel of the third piece -it feels just like an old shirt that's been worn around a dozen campfires. All I'm going to do is cut out two rectangles, lay them wrong sides together, and run a zig zag stitch around the edges. I doubt the flannel will fray too terribly badly, and I can't see taking a lot of time to finish the edges on a piece of cloth that's just going to be spit up on. I can make them for about 5o cents a piece instead of paying $7.50 for a pack of 4 at Walmart. Not bad, eh?

I also bought a piece of fleece on sale that I'm going to blanket stitch around to make a baby blanket. It's a pink plaid with teddy bear faces on it. Too cute! They also had some chenille on sale, but I didn't bother to buy any. I am tempted though. I think it'd be kind of clever to make a patchwork with the chenille stripes going in all different directions. It'd also be a really simple intro to patchwork....Hmm, I might be making another trip to Hancock's.

more food stories

Ok, so I've officially made my first "craving something way too late at night" run. Ok, so it was only 10:30. I don't stay up that late. I was checking my e-mail when I looked up and said, "I want a hamburger." So I ask Allen to muscle test and sure enough -I'm needing some serious red meat. So we hop in the car and headed down to Wendy's for some good old fashioned fast food cheeseburgers. That was some good eating there. Somehow the better restaurants can't seem to get the pickle and onion thing right. White bread and hormone injected antibiotic fed cow meat never tasted so good.