Chicken Fajita Chowder

In case you were wondering how we planned on using those beautiful red bell peppers from yesterday....

Chicken Fajita Chowder

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts, diced in 1/4-1/2" pieces
• 3 bell peppers, any color, diced small
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 T. olive oil
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups frozen corn
• 1 cup uncooked instant brown rice
• 10 oz green enchilada sauce
• 4 oz green chilies, undrained
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 oz (1 cup) shredded Mexican Cheese
• 1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

Recipe

1. Heat up olive oil in a dutch oven (or big cooking pot) on medium heat.
2. Stir in chicken, peppers, and onion. Cook until the chicken is done (no longer pink) and the vegetables are tender, but crisp (about 5-8 minutes).
3. Add the broth, corn, rice, enchilada sauce, chilies, and salt to the pot. Bring this entire mixture to a boil.
4. Once boiling, reduce to simmer, cover, and allow to simmer for 40 minutes.
5. Remove the pot from heat, and add the cheese and sour cream. Stir until cheese and sour cream are melted.
6. Add cilantro. Stir.

Servings: 6-8 one cup servings

Notes: this is another wonderful recipe from my Mother-in-Love. It's served best with tortilla chips and Cayenne pepper (in case someone has a hankering for spicy). The recipe on its own has a nice flavor, but isn't very spicy hot. Tastes great sitting on your back porch of a breezy spring evening.

Delizioso!

Yes you may.

Play.

I love to let Hannah play. Even if it means dirt in her finger nails. Grass stains on her jeans. Books all over her bedroom floor. And bruises on our sweet red bell peppers.

We attended a parenting&marriage morning at church this weekend, and one of my favorite pieces of wisdom from the pastor's wife was to "say yes to your child as much as possible." She will hear enough no's growing up. But how can I make sure she hear's enough yes's?

Beautiful.

A New Home

How did the house debacle end? It became a home.

We closed two weeks ago Friday!

Highlights of the closing:

• A courier delivering the corrected deed from the long lost owners to our title company on Thursday evening just minutes before they closed
• My husband and the seller digging up the neighbor's fence, with her permission, in the rain the night of our final walk through

It truly was a miraculous closing, and through it I learned patience, trust, and about contentedness in the Lord. I am thankful.

And They Praised Him (cont)

Psalm 147:10-11

"His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor His delight in the legs of man; the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love." 

And just like that - a closing was scheduled for Friday morning.

Last night we talked to the sellers and all seemed lost. They didn't want to go chasing after the original property owners (and neither did we). Their plan was to move their fence and re-list their house without that additional .4 acres of property. We were not interested in the home without the extra land, so we told them we planned on walking away. I finally breathed easily knowing it was at least finished. Our title company wasn't searching for the long lost owners. We didn't think it was prudent for us to go searching for the long lost owners. And the seller wasn't going to go searching for the long lost owners. Without finding the long lost owners there would be no closing. Period.

And when all hope flickered and we finally completely surrendered to walking away, the Lord was still working! Within 15 minutes of that original conversation with the seller, we received a second phone call informing us that the seller's title company located the long lost owners and both parties (as they were divorced) agreed to sign over the land without any contingencies. Wow. Did that just happen? The Farmer and I did a double take at each other.

And this morning everyone busily got to work preparing for a Friday closing.

Praise the God who gives and takes away. Only He could jump through so many hurdles and provide.

**minor note** The neighbor's fence is still up, but we have been assured it will be down by closing. If it's not dismantled, we will decline closing. And the adventure continued!

And They Praised Him

This week has been quite the roller coaster. As many of you know, we were supposed to close on a home last week. However, one day prior to closing we learned that half, roughly about .4 acres, of the property of said "new home" was actually still owned by the original owners who sold the house over 10 years ago! Mercy. It's a long complicated story of incorrect property deeding  We were blessed that our title company found it, but that also meant we needed to delay closing until this issue was taken care of. The title company is trying to reach out and locate the original owners (who unfortunately are now divorced) so that the proper paperwork can be signed to fix the deed.  We know they have located the couple, but have not been told whether they've actually been able to communicate with them in person or over the phone.

And now we wait.

 Oh yes, and did I mention the other slightly smaller glitch is that the next door neighbor has fenced off portions of our said "new home" into her yard? Three weeks ago we learned that a portion of our backyard L's into the neighbor's backyard. We asked that the side of the fence that cuts us off from the property be removed until proper measures could be taken to possibly sell the land to her. The seller was so amicable and determined in this issue and so was the neighbor for that matter. The portion of fence we asked to be removed was removed prior to closing. Unfortunately, a land survey the seller wisely chose to have done showed us (one day prior to closing) that another portion of the neighbor's fence is enclosing an additional 1000 square feet of our said "new home's" property. Yikes. The seller had to go back to the friendly neighbor and inform her of this error and ask her, yet again, to move her fence prior to closing. As of Sunday, the fence was still up.

And now we wait.

One other teensy tiny thing, our locked in mortgage rate expires this Friday.

And now we wait.

Will we close? Will we walk away? Only the Lord knows. But praise Him that He does! As we've searched this past year for a home I continually prayed "Lord, whatever home you have for us may we say that the only way we got it was through you." Whether this ends up being that home or not, I know that He is faithful to answer my prayer. But wouldn't it be exciting if somehow it all worked out by Friday? Now, please don't worry if He doesn't answer it by Friday. My Farmer and I, by the grace of God, are at peace with the matter either way. If we close. And if we don't close.

And so what am I praying in this moment? That people would look at our adventuresome house story, be amazed at our God, and say "that we danced through it, and praised, and worshiped the Lord the entire way." So that's what I'm trying to focus on everyday this week. Praise God! He loves us! He is good!

PS. Look at what my Easter present was! Aren't they beautiful! I am thankful to watch these bloom and sing of spring and hope everyday.

Today's Agenda

I want to be a mommy who is always having adventures with her kids. Coming up with new things to Do. See. Explore. I can't wait until HG is old enough to where we can have mud fights, splash in the puddles, dance in the rain, "paint" the driveway with water and a paintbrush, pretend to "shave" daddy's face with real shaving cream, roll down hills, see images in the clouds, sing worship songs to the Lord really loud while dancing around in our backyard, run through the sprinkler, go ice skating, spend an entire afternoon washing mommy's car... you get the picture.

But, what do you do when you are a stay at home mom and your daughter is only 9 months old? There are only some many times that my baby duck likes to play with her toys, walk up and down the couch, and go for rides in the laundry basket. To overcome boredom I try to keep our days busy. With errands. Play dates at the park. Lunch dates out with a girlfriend and her daughter. Library visits. Stroller walks. Mall walks. Target walks. Any kind of walks. I remind myself that this "baby" season where it's just her and I will only last for so long. If the Lord blesses us, pretty soon there will be brothers and sisters toddling around and HG will be leading the pack. But today, when it's cold outside and little ducky has a runny nose and isn't feeling up to going places, we are trying very hard to come up with things to make today exciting.

So you ask, what is on our schedule for today?

• noodles
• rice
• shapes
• a big metal pot

No, we aren't cooking. We're creating a messy, sensory dish. 

:) And maybe we'll get a hold of daddy's shaving cream just for the fun of it. 

To all the mommy's trying hard to keep the 1 year old and younger babes entertained. You rock!

Truth

In the midst of our trouble we must trust that God is up to something good. Jesus allows us to walk through pain or difficulty because it is a prelude to greater blessing.

We might not always see or realize the greater blessing right away (or sometimes at all), but we must have faith that it is always there. And through that faith in God's goodness we can be filled with hope, contentment, and even joy.