"No Plan" Wednesdays

Wednesday is always one of those crazy days that I plan to, not plan anything ...
and then before I know it, I've planned way too much to do, on my day of no plans!

My "no plan" Wednesday is a very hazy "rule" that I have tried to follow for a few years...probably ever since my daughter started going to school, so I guess that'd be 4 years now...

Why, this "rule", well, being in the church business...
...and kid church business at that...
...(probably not supposed to call it "business")...
Wednesday night means some sort of church activity for the kids at church...
...I'm still wondering how this started...
circa 1952
we're having a Adult Bible Study at church this next Wednesday...but wait, what do we do with everyone's kids?  Well, we can get brother Joe to entertain them, but make sure they're learning God Stuff in there, and make sure it involves them earning badges and how to tie nautical knots...
decades pass and now churches offer a mid week Bible Study for the parents so they can have something to do when they drop their kids off....

okay, minor tangent...
anyways...
Being married to a children's pastor means
Wednesdays = Church night...
side note...we are a one car family....

so my "normal" Wednesdays look like this starting mid day...

12:30-boy child gets out of preschool across town
1:00-pick up the husband because neither him nor I have had lunch yet
1:45-pick up girl child on our side of town
2:00-take husband back to church to finish preparing for "God Stuff" to teach the children
5:30-take a prepared dinner to church so we can eat as a family
6:30-teach "God Stuff" to children
8:00 parents are supposed to be picking up their children
8:30 all kids have now been picked up and we can try to put rooms back together
8:45-leave church campus
9:00-get kids in bed...(another side note, my kids normal bed time is 7...)

so I try to add as little to my Wednesday, morning's included, so I can be prepared for the non stop going from 12:30-9...
okay...this is what my brains says when I need to schedule an appointment, "Hey, you have a free morning on Wednesday, schedule your appointment then!"
so this was my "no plan Wednesday" today

7:30-take girl child to school
8:00-back home still trying to get boy child and husband up and out the door
8:30-drop off husband and boy child at church/meet friend at church to pick up boy child to take to preschool because I scheduled an appointment at the same time as preschool drop off!
9:00-1st appointment of the day...Dr. appointment...

enter weird random dilemma...I have a friend that is a Dr....I met this friend outside of the world of doctors and we became friends outside of the world of doctors, before she was a 100% dr...said friend then becomes 100% doctor and works at the same office as my doctor...so, than once a year when I go to my doctor I always run into my friend...and then without thinking I say, "Hey friend," and we have a conversation and the whole time I am thinking should I call her Dr. Friend...or is that weird, but she's at work and these people all work for her and here I am calling her just Friend...not Dr....does that mean I don't respect her...AGRH...and the whole time she's thinking, "Gosh, Kiera always acts weird when we talk at the office"

...

anyways...

Dr. appointment takes WAY longer than expected...and bonus, I have asthma!

10:30-grocery shopping...in the BIGGEST rain storm of the century!

10:35-realize I left my grocery list in the car but there is NO way I'm going back out in the storm for the list...so goody, I get to wing it!  And I MUST grocery shop, can't go one more day without it!

11:15-husband has a lunch appointment, and I have our one car, so I shove the groceries into the car, drive across town, pick him up and drive him in the other direction to his lunch appointment...

11:45 rush home, take the 2 bags of groceries that need refrigeration into the house and shove them in the fridge...

12:00-2nd appointment of the day...Dentist... got two fillings filled...oh, happy day...but at least I got to sit down for an hour...

1:15-rush across town to pick up boy child from friend who picked him up from school

1:30-pick husband up from lunch appointment

1:45-pick up girl child...across town...from school
2:00-get home and unpack rest of groceries
2:15-run down to blood lab to give blood per request from 1st appointment of the day
2:45-get home and start to think about maybe blogging today
3:00-oh, husband's still home and needs to be at church to finish preparing for tonight's "God Stuff"
3:15-tell kids to get on their shoes
3:20-yelling at kids to get ready so we can take daddy back to work
3:30-I get of facebook and put my shoes on
3:45-take husband back to church
4:15-get home and start dinner...
5:00-take dinner out of oven, wrap in foil and towel to keep warm, pack up kids and ....
5:30-arrive at church in a happy mood to eat dinner as a family!
5:45-girl child is asking if she can eat something else, because she doesn't like the tomatoes in dinner..."Yes, honny, let mommy run right home and make you another dinner!!!"
6:00-happy careless adults stroll into classrooms and begin dropping their kids off so they can go to Bible study, or on a date night...
6:45-kids are watching a movie tonight because it's too stormy to teach them too much "God Stuff"
...just joking the lesson is about God adopting us into his family no matter what
...so..."Ice Age" was the perfect movie to show them...
7:00...I ditch my husband with the kids (he has plenty of other adults to help him) and go to my "office" at the church and blog!!!

okay, so what dinner did I throw together that the girl child didn't want to eat...but ended up eating two servings of???

Chicken Laredo
3 cups shredded chicken
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cans turkey chili (or use any leftover chili you have)
2 cans pinto beans-drained
2 cans tomatoes with green chilies, drained (made it a little spicy for the kids, next time might just go reg diced tomatoes)
8 oz Velvetta cheese (recipe called for Mexi Velvetta, but I used reg)

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Place shredded chicken in 9x13 pan.
2.  Saute onions and bell pepper in sauce pan in a small amount of oil.  Layer over chicken.  Layer, chili, beans and tomatoes onto of onions and peppers, top with sliced Velvetta.
3.  Bake for 25-35 minutes or until cheese is all nice an melted.
Serve warm with tortilla or corn chips and a nice green salad

This was a perfect dinner for my "no plan" Wednesday....I just had to throw stuff together in the pan...and everyone really liked it...well, minus the tomatoes, but the girl child has never liked tomatoes, and then she ended up having seconds...
I would like to try this recipe with a different "cheese"...
...is or should I say with actual cheese...but not sure it will melt as well, nothing melts like a "cheese product"...
but this will go onto my list of throw down meals...oh, and I actually cut the recipe in half and made it in a 9x9sq pan...and had leftovers...this would be good as a potluck dish or for a night of munching like New Years Eve....