this evening two ran track, one of those swam, one traveled for basketball, one played baseball in the chilly winter evening, and one cheered for them all.

we’re not avid fans of mad-sports-schedules, and frankly, we don’t even really encourage organized sports participation when our kids are little.  don’t get me wrong; nearly every afternoon and some mornings, before and after school-time, our littles will be tossing balls and running fast and shooting hoops – we want them building muscles and skills even young.  but for the “on-someone-else’s-schedule,” pay-for-it team sports, we wait till they really want it, enough to work for it, and to contribute financially even, if they’re able.  we want to know it’s really something that matters to them, and is worth the family calendar havoc it can wreak.

i’ll be the first to say, though, as a mama who grew up sans sports (i danced ballet for eons and loved it, and was a theater girl thereafter), i delight in screaming for them cheering them on, and i delight ‘most more in their privilege to work under the authority of other trusted adults, to do more than they thought they could, to work for the good of a whole team of “others.”

but it does create some foodish chaos, what with running here and there, trying to eat healthy and not dump our funds into concession-stand-junk.  tonight, however, i conquered the sports-schedule-chaos-monster, and i made this.

it is delicious.  it is divine.  it is meaty and saucy and deeply, darkly, spice-sweet but still savory.  it is filling even for a six-foot-plus runner-swimmer-baller, and it is better than dessert.  especially with oatmeal stout.  which, by the way, in case you’re wondering, is so-not-paleo.  but that’s okay, because i ate a lot of this chili.  enough, i’m sure, to make my dinner time consumption still “80 percent clean.”  heehee.

here’s the recipe!