When the husband's away...

My mister has a job where every year and a half, he goes through an "outage" where he has to work 12+ hour days, 6 days a week. He wakes up about 4:30 a.m., and doesn't get home until about 6:30 p.m.

It stinks. But it's a small price to pay in the scheme of things - it's a great job and we're thankful for it.

So while Chad's gone all day, I do my best to keep some sort of normalcy (to the extent I can) in our lives at home. We usually eat dinner around 6 p.m. - but now, it's more like 7 p.m. When he goes to bed around 8:30, I get in bed with him. Just little things, so that his schedule (at least while home) doesn't feel completely out of wack.

However, coming from a family where food is the ultimate comfort, I think making sure there are yummy dinners waiting for Chad when he gets home is one of the most important things. That and fixing him hearty lunches and delicious desserts (to share with coworkers of course) to bring to work.

Yesterday, I made a delicious homemade chicken tortilla soup that I let simmer on the stove for a good 6 hours. It hit the spot. And even a grouchy Chad after a long day at work made a point to comment more than once how much he loved it.

Take a look:
I'm ready to make another pot again soon!