Where I've Been

No excuses, but there is life to be lived. I would like to believe that this season of life is the most strenuous I'll ever experience. Everyone is old enough to be in a few different activities, but no one is yet old enough to drive themselves.

But, come January, the free ride is over for this one. Sixteen! My heart!

In the meantime, life beckons us to get in the car! Sign up for things! Have exerperiences! There have been many things I've felt I had to do. I've had to encourage my baby in her first "Try"-athlon. She is so strong! She is learning to do hard things!

We had to go play at the county fair.

We have had to support Brooks through his first marching band season. State competition tomorrow!

We did some home improvements, including a new color in the dining room. Painting around all the trim work really got to my nerves and I found myself trimming around one small section and then walking away from the project for a few hours. Or a few days.

Eventually, I let my girls go at it, figuring that the ratio of blue wall to white wall was at least moving in my favor.

Never fear, however, for those of you who, like me, worry that this kind of busyness often leads to drive-thrus, frozen foods and sandwiches on the run. I was able to keep that kind of meal at a minimum and instead turned to the grill and to my garden pantry for a kind of convenience food I can live with. A new favorite is White Chicken Chili and I love making fresh crunchy tortilla strips to garnish the top.

With Sophia going gluten-free, it's hard to trust even packaged corn chips that seem to have no suspect ingredients. One never knows whether the oil used to fry them have been used to fry another product that was gluten-y.

I use a pizza cutter to cut corn tortillas into strips, toss with olive oil and salt and toast in a 300 degree oven for five or ten minutes - until crisp and golden.