Improvisation..

Is a way of life.\par
\par
Yesterday, inspired by one friend’s suggestion to use yogurt instead of sour cream in another friend’s recipe for creamy enchiladas, I decided to make said enchiladas for dinner. So I did. Only of course, I substituted home-made plain yogurt, which I have tons of, for the sour cream. And I didn’t have cream of chicken soup, so I used cream of mushroom. And I didn’t have a can of green chiles so I just poured in a seemly amount of green taco sauce. Neither did I have an 8-ounce can of sliced olives, so I used what was left of a can of whole olives that was already in my fridge (yes, sliced them first). And the pepper-jack cheese? Nope, didn’t have that either, it was all cheddar. And for the chicken? 4 cups of turkey meat from the freezer. Of the seven ingredients, I substituted something else for 5 of them.\’c2\~\’c2\~But, it turned out great! The boys and Rose really loved it. I think early on in my married life, I would’ve been too chicken to basically substitute every ingredient in a given recipe but now I think, “what’s the worst that can happen?”\par
\par
And today, I went grocery shopping. Currently I’m doing a babysitting swap with a friend, so she watched my kids. Ordinarily I go grocery shopping Thursday afternoons, but my friend teaches a class then. So what are you going to do? Take 3 kids to the grocery store to maintain the weekly schedule, or just shuffle things around to go on Tuesday morning without the boys? Obviously the latter.\par
\par
All of this to say… I don’t know. I guess that a mother of small children can’t afford to be too rigid. But you know what? By the time I don’t have small children anymore, I don’t think I’ll want to go back to always following the rules/schedule/recipe. I’ve learned to improvise and I’m not going back!