Mother Nature has dealt Iowa a wintry blast and a blizzard descended upon our area on Thursday afternoon and evening. If you live in a snowy area like ours you realize that this is just part of the territory. You stock up on the necessities and hunker down for the duration.
Thursday morning I set off for HyVee to stock up on a few basics since the larders were a tad bit empty since I had been gone for so long. I found a fairly deserted store and shopped with ease and headed home to unload and start cooking. With Chris coming home Friday I wanted to get a few things made ahead of time and that was the plan.
I started with making Taco Soup from Katy’s blog Learning As I Go (check out her recipe here) because there is nothing like a good bowl of soup on a chilly day to make the tummy happy. From there I intended to make Cincinnati Chili so it would be ready for a nice Friday night welcome home dinner for my beloved. It has to sit over night so it will be perfect by the time he gets home. I can hopefully share the recipe on Saturday for you as it is a winner.
The weather continued to worsen and I was so glad I made it out to the store early on. Then my friend Val, from Corn, Beans, Pigs, and Kids messaged me to see what was going on. If you click on her last blog post here you will see that Val is pregnant, overdue and lives 25 miles from the hospital. With a blizzard on the horizon she and her husband Ian are a little nervous about being that far from the hospital so The Chiles Birthing Center opened for business.
I told her I draw the line at actually “birthing a baby” but they are welcome to stay here as long as needed. She has an early morning doctor’s appointment so regardless of if the baby decides to make an appearance Thursday night or not it is good that they will be close to the hospital. 
BREAKING NEWS: Friday morning at 6:00 am —I think we may be getting close!!!! They are headed to the hospital and hopefully there will news soon! Girl or boy? What do you think? Vote in the comments.
