Patience. God imprinted this on my heart as we started the journey of finding a new home and selling our condo. His Holy Spirit encouraged me to study the fruits of the spirit, starting with patience. Today something halted the possibility of moving as soon as we anticipated. Patience. My God has been preparing my heart, and given me peace that passes all understanding. For me patience starts with trusting my creator. 
I don't know where to start, and honestly I am a little afraid to start, afraid I've been suppressing something that will come out in writing. Here goes- we were supposed to close on our condo Friday. We knew last week that wasn't going to happen. We have had nothing but hiccups with the lender our buyer is using and our condo association. I say hiccups, but a lot have been road blocks. At one point the lady who works at the condo association gently hinted, that I should just call instead of coming to their office to make things happen. Everyone has been nice, but nothing has gotten done. I called every one I know to try and make it work. Today we FINALLY heard what we would have heard weeks ago if our buyers loan officer hadn't been fired. Our condo association is not approved for the type of program our buyer was trying to go through. There is some small possibility that our buyer can go through another program or lender, but our agent tried to convince their agent to switch about two weeks ago and no dice. So who knows, our agent is awesome and was saying she's willing to offer some part of her commission to make this deal close. We could do rent to own, we could do a lot of things….We just cancelled the inspection on our new home for the third time. After all who wants to pay $500 on an inspection and not be able to buy the house. Without selling our condo, we can't buy this other home. Gentleman Romero keeps saying regardless we have a place to live, and thats something to be thankful for, and thats true. 
In any case, its hard, hard to decide to let go. To let go of this idea of us in this home we were going to live in forever. Where D was gonna grow up and play in the tree house, and I was going to have family dinners on the patio with twinkly lights hanging from the pergola, all Parenthood style.
 To be honest I haven't let go yet, i was just thinking today of how I never wanted to move again after all this was over. How all I wanted to do was move in and die there, partially because I never want to pack my whole home again and partially because well, I love it. 
This from a girl who all she ever wanted to was move,from some one with perpetual wanderlust. Some one who has hauled all her stuff in a buick back and forth across town once a week about a 1000 times, in a kia half way across the country multiple times. Some one who "backpacked" Europe well just because I was 18 and could. I've packed so often in the past, but this was different. 
Tonight I am thankful for my family, for a reason to want to live somewhere forever and die there. For a place to live, and for learning that waiting on God it doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't have to be hard, it just takes patience and A LOT of trust.  
Trust I didn't have when I was being crazy,stressing out, calling everyone I knew to make this happen, telling my realtor not to worry me. She said, " don't worry, just pray." And I didn't pray nearly enough. That is NOT why I think this is happening, its just, I could always pray more, ya know? 
Trust I have now, that I don't know what will happen. Trust I have now, that most of our furniture was moved to my sister in laws, (two hours before we got the call)  now that we have no dressers or dining room table in our condo, now that my son's room is TOTALLY empty. But some of all those patience scriptures and God writing on my heart sunk in some time, PATIENCE. Pray for patience for me and my family. 
Thank you
Lady Romero 

COPYCAT NUTELLA, less than one minute to make

First off let me just say I NEEDED some nutella the other night, and I didn't have any. Which honestly turned out to be a great thing because I just whipped up some of my own, using JUST 3 ingredients I already had handy in the pantry/fridge. Best part, (well debatable) is that I was able to make an amount for only 3 servings, so no binge eating nutella straight from the jar. Am I the last one to discover I can make this at home? Yes, no? For all you hazelnut addicts out there, sorry, the main ingredient in this recipe is almond butter. All you almond butter junkies are now officially running to your fridge/pantry to get started on this almost healthy, protein packed indulgence. Neither me or my husband are huge peanut butter fan, so when I read that almond butter is healthier than peanut butter (think kale vs spinach) I jumped right onto the almond butter train. Almond butter can be expensive, but luckily they carry this two ingredient brand at Costco, so I scooped it right up. Now I join the ranks of almond butter addicts every where.

Let me go ahead and apologize for my shoddy photography skills, everyone once in a while on here you will probably run across an awesome photo. It will be of my son, or perhaps my husband, it will be because a) the subject is well loved by the photographer b) because the subject is too darn cute/handsome to mess up no matter my skill level.
In any case hopefully my content keeps you coming back for more.
Ingredient list.

Ok, so this is one of those to your taste type things. 

I start with a big dollop almond butter, the more "home made nutella" you want, the more almond butter you will want to start with as your base. Then shake in some cocoa powder, again the more chocolate flavor you want the more cocoa powder needed. Then add in some honey (local preferable but any will do, maple syrup acceptable substitute) the sweeter you want your spread, the more honey add, should you. Sorry just got done with my weeky jedi training session. Anyway….local honey is the best because it helps with seasonal allergies, tastes even sweeter now, doesn't it? I picked mine up for a great price at Nutrition Stop.

Now all you do is stir, (taste and adjust to your liking)  

Slather generously on hot toast, and YUMMO!

I told you less than one minute:) 

NUTELLA, from scratch...

Donuts, why life is good, and house pictures, you know an eclectic post

Sometimes we need to hunker down and remember
Why life is good.
I am not going to tell you I have a rough life, I don't. We deal with ups and downs just like any other family.
Things that could be avoided, like me running around like a crazy woman before our home inspection the other day. Things that I couldn't have avoided if I tried, like our neighbor drinking too much while wielding his semi-automatic weapon, forcing the cops to call us to relocate to our basement at 1 am the night before our inspection. (all involved are safe and that is also why life is good) Things Im not sure which category they fall into, like the sticker shock of month to month renting as we prepare to move.
In any case I'll reflect a little on why God is good, why life is good.

My brother just came to visit this weekend, it doesn't happen often, and I was thankful it did happen. Being a 25 year old bachelor, in the past his interactions with my son had been limited. Because well D's interactions before relied solely on the adult in the scenario. Now that he's a toddling bundle of fun, he pulled my brother into his web, with his charm, giggles and firm grasp of what he wants. Like pushing a book in his uncles hand, because why else? He wants to be read to. I loved seeing how much they loved each other, because the affection was definitely mutual and….. heart warming to say the least.

I was also thinking today how I needed to document this adorable thing my son does. He just takes his little hand, and puts it in front of my mouth so I kiss it. He often does this a few times in a row. Now while it could be him asserting that he can get "Momma" to do what he wants. I like to think its just a reminder of affection between us, that started after a fall or scrape kissed a boo-boo on a hand.

I think about a husband that works hard, who gets up early with "the baby" (he is still my baby,alright?) on his days off to let me sleep in late.


I think about how scary it can be to not know about tomorrow, because we move in less than 16 days and don't know where we are going to live. But then I remember who holds my tomorrow.

^^^^^ This sentence about how we don't know where we will live has changed! WOOHOO!
We have an accepted verbal contract on a home in the 63303.
 I am ecstatic about the yard, pergola,tree house, raise gardening bed, and a structure that is going to be turned into a chicken coop ASAP. They are not re-negotiating our closing date, so we should close the 3rd.
We have some dear friends who while taking his 30 yr ministry sabbatical will be out of town have graciously offered their home. We were hesitant to accept unless we had somewhere to go, but now we do! THANK GOD! So we will have not have to rent month to month  (and pay the outrageous prices) LIFE IS GOOD!

There are of course caveats, like our buyer having quite a few lists of things she wants done to our condo now. And they have a kick out rider on our contract. But I am resting and trusting in the one who holds our tomorrow. Too much has fallen into place for me to not trust, my God has proven to faithful.

So life is also good because of clearance clothes that make my son look like a non hairy footed hobbit, Where my Tolkien, LOTR, and yes Peter Jackson fans at?

Have you notice I like to dress my kid up for no darn good reason? Today it was because I wanted to celebrate  NATIONAL DONUT DAY! (who needs a reason to eat a donut right?)

As I told my friends only in 'MURICA!
We started out with 19, ( I got a dozen and a half plus a free one)  and don't worry we shared with my girlfriend, her MIL, and 3 of her kids.And I also plan on getting rid of these by dropping them off elsewhere :)While they aren't listed on my out and around town list. I have two favorite donut places, one right up the road, Mario's.
They also have great hummus, gyros, and coffee. Fresh baked every day, I love me some of their maple long johns and chocolate iced crullers.

 Second is the nationally acclaimed Strange Donuts in Maplewood.While not quite as famed as Voodoo Donuts in Portland, Im sure Strange dones are better.

O, you wanted to see pictures of the house?
cue maniacal, leave the picture of the house to the end of the post laugh
(I hate when bloggers do that with a recipe and you have to scroll for like eight years to find how many cups of flour)
anyway the house...

                           

O right, you wanted to see the yard I was going on about….

  Do you see in the above photo to the right there, my coop structure?

I didn't make any of this from scratch, but I am so thankful for it.

Lady Romero

Sensory Play Day:Mini blog

Today we made Moon Dough…. per a Pinterest recipe. It was Pinteresting…. Can I just tell you how long I have been wanting to you use that word? A LONG time.
Also I have no idea what moon dough is, their marketing people are either slacking or I'm not up on the times….
I have no longer have the excuse of just becoming a mom, as I'm an almost 17 month vet. (if you don't count the pregnancy as mom time) Ha ha me a veteran mom. But isn't that the way it is, once you are a mom, you can't imagine a time when you weren't? It is such a huge part of who you are, but I digress.

MOON DOUGH , at first I was skeptical. Only 2 ingredients….
I just bought the cheapest shaving cream I could find at ole Tarjae.

I started making it, and originally I felt like it was just going to be shaving cream, but as I mixed in more cornstarch,  (very well and quite a lot of it ) the texture changed. It was definitely something that was malleable with texture and form, not just squishy foam.

Just trying decide if he's interested here.

Definitely a cheeser for the camera though. Also do you see that button up? clearly Im an amateur…

Don't think that theres no cover on that highchair because the project was planned either. It was just being washed. Happy coincidences right?

After lots of smashing fun, and a hastily added bib…. my little munchkin was done having messy hands.

Any way I have had an activity planned every day this week, my insomnia was being ambitious earlier in the week and planned them all. Don't get me wrong I did miss yesterday.But as another happy coincidence he played with play doh at church last night, which was the scheduled activity we missed yesterday! Wait, what? you scheduled play-doh. Ummm yes, but I promise we build blocks and go to the park and have lots of unscheduled fun!

In any case, today was a mini blog of Moon Dough from scratch:)