Waiting for the chili to cook

Creative title, huh? Boring, but true. I am trying to kill time while I wait for my chili to cook. Lisa and I are still doing our meal swaps (which still works out beautifully!). She made us dinner last night, but we went to Logan's so we ate her chicken casserole tonight- very delicious I might add. I am making chili, and it takes 2 hours to cook. The recipe is called "The Best Chili Ever" so I hope it lives up to its name. It didn't take long to throw in all of the ingredients, but I didn't start cooking it until after church tonight, so it won't be done until around 10:30. I have already done today's crossword puzzle and Sudoku while waiting, so I thought I'd check blogs for awhile as well. And here I sit with 30 more minutes to wait.

We showed our house today, but haven't heard anything yet. A realtor called yesterday and asked if he could show it to a couple from Colorado. If they didn't like it, I doubt we'll hear a thing, since it was always our realtor who called us to say what the people thought. Since we no longer have a realtor, I guess we'll never hear anything. But, on the positive side, our house hasn't been this clean/decluttered in a long time! Yay! Go Ryan! He really put in some sweat hours yesterday getting the house in tip-top shape. He scrubbed and shined places that hadn't been done in awhile. His dad even came over to tackle the big spots on our carpet with his steamcleaner. The carpet looked pretty good after he was done. Ryan even rearranged furniture and DVDs and videos, so that everything looked neater in our bedroom and the basement. I was impressed with his effort. So, even if those people didn't like it, I am pretty pleased to call it home. :-) And if you know me well, you know I LOVE my house at Christmas. Our house reminds me more of NC houses for some reason more than most mid-west houses, and with the lights and decorations at Christmas, I love coming home and seeing my house all lit up. It gives me a warm and cozy feeling.

Tomorrow morning Sadie has dance. Hopefully that will give her a good start to her day. She was a complete bear today. She is in the stage where she wants to do absolutely everything herself, but doesn't have the capacity to do so. So she screams when I try to help her, but screams as well when she can't do it herself. That equals a lot of screaming if you couldn't put 2 and 2 together for yourself. Joshy boy and Jakey boy are also coming over in the morning, so I think she'll have a better day. She and Joshy absolutely LOVE each other. It cracks me up that they can understand at that young age that they are family. She is quite possessive with most things, but when it comes to Josh, she won't fight with him. He loves her too and likes to say her name. Brooks asks all the time if Jake can come over, so I think I'll have two very happy children in the morning. Easy on the mama!

I only have 14 more minutes until the chili is ready. Here is the recipe if you are interested- can't remember who sent it to me- one of my mom's friends I think when I did the email recipe swap one time:

1 lb. ground beef
1 meduim chopped onion
1 (14 1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 (16 oz) can kidney beans
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 small can tomato paste
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 1/2 tsp. chili powder
2 1/2 cups water

Brown ground beef; drain. Add all remaining ingredients and simmer for 2 hours. Add more water as needed because chili will thicken, but don't let get too soupy. Stir occasionally.

I actually have added about 2 more cups of water total throughout the 2 hours, a half a cup at at time. It is smelling and looking pretty good. Lisa will have to post a comment and say if it was good or not-- read that Lisa- you NEED TO POST A COMMENT! :-)