Chili Bean Soup

The air has gotten cold, which makes sense because it's winter and all.  But these are temperatures that are so cold that you don't want to be outside so much, even with a jacket, whereas up until now it's been tolerable and perhaps even "not so bad."  But the weather is supposed to turn cold and snowy this weekend, at least that's the initial forecast.

The new discussion by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about (myself included) is the European model vs. the American model.  Meteorologists look at both of these computer models that show possible outcomes of fronts coming in from here or there.  The European model is much more aggressive in this instance, predicting about 7-9 inches for us.  The American model is more conservative, predicting 1/2 - 1 inch.  I suppose that the best thing to do is get an average between the two.  But until lately, no one really knew much about this European model.  I believe it was about two years ago that I first started hearing about it.  Anyway, now it's one of two different outcomes that meteorologists share, and then they throw in their own expertise to give the best forecast they can.  As you can imagine, snow hysteria is about to set in, with Viking raids on the already depleted grocery stores.  We have a few items to get, so I'll probably go out to do that, braving the elements, joining the horde of panicked shoppers.

Mom continues to make us all fast-friendly food, including this masterpiece above.  It's her chili-recipe, minus the meat of course.  But it's somewhat of a bean soup, with cilantro thrown in along with the corn and peppers and beans and tomato sauce.  There's hot sauce in there too, but then she squeezes a lime in there, and the meal is just perfection when the corn chips are added on top.  It's the perfect thing for a wintery day like today!

Maddie's been in school, and who knows what happens there.  I certainly don't!  But I think she's doing well.  I know there's a play coming up that she'll be involved in, a Suessical.  She's got some costuming to deal with soon, and of course Mom will be on top of that.  

Homework was light tonight.  We watched the live-action "Mulan" again this evening together, with Mom tending to the fireplace.  We take turns on that, but lately, she's been the one starting fires.  We've got quite the downdraft coming down the chimney, and it was a little tricky figuring out how to light a fire when the chimney wanted to blow it out.  But we looked up a few tips online and got the fire going.  Occasionally, facing away from the television or anything else, you can just sit there by the fire and hear the crackle and feel its warmth.  It's a pleasant thing.

Before we watched "Mulan" tonight, we saw a new television show that we'll no doubt be binging soon, a series that started recently called "The Chosen."  It's a New Testament-themed television show, one that starts out looking at Matthew, Simon Peter, Andrew, Mary Magdala, and Nicodemus too.  And yes, Jesus is in it as well.  It's such a wonderful show because it brings out the humanity of some of these famous people.  Anyway, we'll definitely be watching it more.

Tonight we continued our reading of the latest Kingdom Keepers book, and we're approaching the end of it, and should be wrapped up with this latest book by the end of the week.  After this, only three more to go.  We've been reading this series since March 25th last year, so it's been quite a theme before bedtime each night.  Maddie knows the names of these characters very well, and it might be a pretty bittersweet moment in a few books when we finish this all up, having invested so much time in them.  I never knew when I first got them that we'd be spending a year reading them again, but it's been nice.

We said our prayers, including the Prayer of Jabez that we pray each night.  After being tucked in, Maddie reads the Bible on her phone, a particular passage from a version of the Bible that is presented in chronological order.  So she's going to go through Job now, which is there in the midst of Genesis.  I'm super proud of her, and so happy she's doing this on her own.  Of course, her small group with Camille - they're all reading the same passages.  It's been great.