Monday, Monday...

Today the kids were suppose to be back in school after their March Break, but they announced yesterday that school was closed today. At first I questioned this because honestly, looking out the window it wasn't that bad out. But when I dragged the kids with me to the grocery store I realized that they did make the right call. The road to the store seemed fine at first, but as soon as you got to an open area that didn't have any windbreaks, it was covered with snow. At one point it went down to one lane without any warning. And from what friends were saying, the bridge into downtown was bad too with the white-outs.

What I am questioning is why school is closed tomorrow. Yes, it's closed again tomorrow. I am seriously beginning to question the decisions of the school board.Yes, some of the rural areas still have blocked roads, but do we need to close the schools across the entire island for that? Couldn't they open the schools in areas where the roads are better? Even the kids are getting tired of being home.

How do I know this? When we asked each of them to do some writing, they both did it happily. Okay, maybe just S was happy about it, but J started getting into it. We asked him to write down all the things that we did that annoyed him. He said making him go to bed before 9:30, not letting him play video games whenever he wanted, and not letting him have a dog were his things. We then asked him to write down what he could improve and he said being nicer to his sister, remembering to turn off the lights (this one drives me crazy!), and being better about cleaning up. S was busy writing a book about her school day. I will have to scan in the pictures and share it. It is really cute.

School being closed tomorrow is going to make life tricky for me. J's birthday is Wednesday and we don't have any presents for him yet. I had planned to go out Tuesday morning and get his presents. Now I'll need to either take him with me, which means he sees what he's getting, or hope that they have school on Wednesday and scramble to get them. Wednesday would work because he won't get his presents until he gets home from school (see, thinking positive!) but I don't like leaving things until the last minute.

I also need to get working on S's birthday party on Saturday. I have the things I need to make the cupcakes, which I will do on Friday. We'll head out tomorrow to get the things to put in the goodie bags, although I don't have a final count for how many kids are coming. Hopefully parents will be good and respond by Wednesday as I asked them too. We'll see.

I also now have the ice skate chocolate mold that I've been waiting for (weather held up the delivery). I had hoped they would make candies small enough to put on top of the cupcakes since she wants a skating themed party but they are too big. I will bag them up individually and include them in the goodie bags. That is, if I can get them made. I tried making chocolate candies for them first time today. I managed to make 4 of them and then called it quits (mainly because I had to start stewing chicken for dinner). I did learn a lot from my first attempt and I think the rest of them should go better. I will need to pick up more chocolate wafers to melt since it takes more than I expected. We'll get those tomorrow too. I'm going to need time to get them all made.

I may also take the kids over to the indoor play place tomorrow if it's open. Of course, since all the kids are off school tomorrow it might be crowded. My other idea is to take the kids to see Cinderella, although J isn't too crazy about that idea. One thing we definitely are going to do tomorrow is go to J's hockey game. It was suppose to be tonight but it got postponed due to the bad roads. S was also suppose to have her first session of spring soccer tonight but that too got postponed - it will start next week.

Since we didn't have any sporting activities tonight, I was actually able to make supper on a Monday, rather than throw something in the slow-cooker or just have leftovers (they will be for tomorrow). I have a simple, easy recipe for chicken enchiladas that C and J love. You know that J loves them when he has a second helping. Because I like to share tasty, easy recipes, here it is;

Easy Chicken Enchiladas:
3 cups of cooked chicken (see note below)
1 350g package of shredded cheese
1 small can of chopped chilies
1 can of enchilada sauce OR a jar of your favourite salsa (I use salsa verde)
8 tortillas

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with a non-stick spray.
2. Combine cooked chicken, most of the shredded cheese, and the chopped chilies.
3. Divide chicken mixture between tortillas, rolling each one up and placing it seam side down in the baking dish.
4. Cover with enchilada sauce or salsa. Top with remaining shredded cheese.
5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted.
6. Serve with shredded lettuce, sour cream, as well as your favourite sides.

A note about the cooked chicken:

You can buy precooked chicken for this. The rotisserie chickens most grocery stores carry these days are excellent for this recipe. But if you want to, you can stew your own chicken for this recipe, which is what I do if I have the time. I use bone-in chicken thighs, some carrot, celery, onion, salt, pepper, and whatever spices I feel like throwing in at the time. I stew it until it's cooked (usually 45 mins to an hour), then pull the meat off the bones and shred it. I usually end up with more than 3 cups of chicken, which is fine with me. I like my enchiladas stuffed. :-)