just life-between-the-buns as usual...

Tomorrow will mark 3 weeks since my mother-in-law had her fall.  We got her settled back into her condo last Wednesday evening.  (We only had to wait 1 1/2 hours beyond the appointed discharge time until the hospital could send a person capable of pushing her wheel chair from her room to the hospital door.)  She's still in pain but navigating carefully with a walker.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned that my mom lives in the same seniors building.  So in a lot of ways it's   interesting  convenient.  We are grateful that the pelvic fracture wasn't worse, as in "dislocated" ... but it's still going to take another couple months to heal.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to  my Joanna's maternity leave.  She is scheduled for a C-Section on March 30, but as we know, babies make their appearance in God's time, not ours...so we shall see.  It makes it hard to plan a short trip to South Carolina, where my other daughter-in-law, Ellie, is looking at a due date of March 23!

For now, I'm trying to take one day at a time, and longing for spring.  I've eaten way too much comfort food this winter and I need to get outside and get my body moving again.  I'm almost in despair, wondering if I will ever see decent fresh produce in the markets again. Obviously we aren't getting anything locally grown and I'm just plain tired of pale, mushy tomatoes, blueberries that go moldy after two days in my fridge, and limp lettuces.

I did make a yummy dish the other day which I'm sure many of you are familiar with~creamy chicken enchiladas.  I actually toyed with two different recipes, and then added a few ideas of my own.  This makes enough for two casseroles, so either divide it in half, or make two and put one in the freezer for later or to give away.  Let me know if you try it!

3-4 medium to large chicken breasts, cooked and chopped

16 oz. light sour cream

1 26 oz can cream of chicken soup

16 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

approx. 14 regular size flour tortillas

1 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder

chopped green onions or onion powder to taste

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro or 1 Tbsp. dried cilantro

a few drops of Tabasco sauce to taste 

1 15 oz. can black beans, drained

1 small jar salsa

Method:

*Bring to boil large pan of water and drop chicken in.  Cover and turn heat off.  Poach chicken about 15 minutes.  Remove from water and let cool.  Chop.

*In large pan, combine chicken, and half of the sour cream, half of the chicken soup, and half of the cheese.  Add beans, salsa, and seasonings.  Combine all with wooden spoon.

*In separate bowl, combine remaining sour cream and soup and set aside. (You can add a little Tabasco and/or chili powder to this also)

*fill tortillas, roll, and place seam side up in baking dish, touching each other.  When dish is full,

cover with soup/sour cream mixture, and top with remaining cheddar cheese. Cover with foil.

*Bake at 350℉ for 40 minutes.

Note:  This recipe will fill two casserole dishes.  Bake one, freeze one if you are not cooking for a crowd!

When serving, garnish side of plate with shredded lettuce, dollop of sour cream, sliced black olives, chopped fresh tomato, and tortilla chips.

Here's a simple and inexpensive craft I did with the kids last week.  They want to hang them on the wall in my "children's bedroom" so I will also purchase a "D" and an "O" for my other two grands, Deacon and Owen.  They can paint them next time they are in Ohio.  Can't have any sibling  cousin rivalry now, can we?  It will be a while till the two new babies will be ready to paint, but I'll buy letters for them too as soon as we know their names!  I think they will look real cute hanging on the walls in "their" room.

This is the paint we use for crafts.  I can find them for about 50 cents a bottle, and I squirt a little of each color they want to use onto a paper plate.  The sponge brushes are economical too, as well as inexpensive brushes.  While they were at it, they found a few other things to paint...

Hubby and I have also been busy helping to promote our church's theme for the year: "Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly" (From Micah 6:8).  We have started blogging for the local outreach ministries our church supports to help raise awareness of needs to be filled and ways that people can become engaged in serving.

As part of the Local Outreach team, we are getting to know the various ministries first hand by visiting them, interviewing people who are already engaged, and by serving in small ways ourselves.

So that's been my life for the past couple of weeks..what have you been up to while waiting for this long winter to be over?