this past weekend, kenny and i enjoyed a DATE! (i know you other
parents of young children can’t remember what those are. believe
me, i had to refer to Webster’s for a reminder of what a “date” was
once myself).

fortunately for our babysitter, adam was asleep before we left (he
enjoys a bedtime of 7:00 p.m.), so it was a relatively easy evening.

in these neck of the woods, it’s hard to find a restaurant that isn’t a
45-60 minute drive that’s worth the cost of a babysitter. there are
plenty of chain-restaurants and loads of bar-restaurants, but we hadn’t
found anything worth returning to yet. until last friday night. someone
recently recommended a restaurant we had never heard of, so we jumped
on the internet to find it. as is the case for most of the local
restaurants that aren’t a franchise, it didn’t have a web site. it took
a while to actually find it, but once we found a phone number for it,
and an address, we were on our way.

the black forest inn (or was it lounge?) and beer haus was a welcome
treat. it looked like a highway bar from the outside, but once inside,
it was cozy and felt like you were in a mountain chalet, or ski resort
restaurant. the menu was german. it was in english, but it was german
food. the beer menu was impressive as well. i settled for a becks dark,
and kenny had a hof-something-or-other-stauten. after an extensive
study of the menu, i decided on a roast beef with onion gravy meal,
while kenny, the more adventurous of us, ordered rabbit (or according
to the menu, “hasenpfeffer“).
we ordered side dishes that we’d share (potato pancakes and warm german
potato salad) and settled into our beers while we contemplated outloud
where the rabbit came from. was it local? was it from a rabbit farm?
was it wild rabbit? we also wondered how german rabbit actually was. i
know that “rarebit” refers to something from whales, but germany?
(jonathan???)

the food came, and my beef was delicious. kenny dove right into his
rabbit, which i have to admit, didn’t look all that appetizing. or
filling.  we ordered another beer to share (this time, our old summer
favorite: yuengling lager) and half-way through that one, i was ready
to give the rabbit a go.

it was amazing. kenny told me that it tasted like chicken….but it was
the best tasting chicken i’ve had in a long time. it was
tender…savory…just plain delicious. if it weren’t for all the
picking around the bone, i’d have ordered it myself.

so now we have a place to go to. the owner knows us now (we had a long
conversation over coffee and a shared dessert of black forest cake),
and it’s only a 25 minute drive away.

and if you still haven’t figured out the reference to laverne and
shirley, go to the hasenpfeffer link above.

if you’ve recently had any trouble leaving a comment on my blog (especially since the redesign), please drop me an email: liz(at)smithical(dot)com 

i’ve recently had 4 people tell me they’ve left comments only to find them not being published.

thanks!

my old church suffered a fire today.

a few hours ago, my mom called me and said, “i have some sad news…your old church burned today.” as she gave me the details of what happened, i took it in and asked her why she was so sad. we left the church over a decade ago. she answered, “we spent a lot of years in that church, liz.” close to 20 years.

and then i read a few more local news stories and began to feel the sadness my mom was talking about. the story described rooms that i went to sunday school in, prepared coffee hour refreshments in, listened to sermons in, took part in my first communion in, and learned to say, “he is risen indeed!” to the easter greeting, “he is risen!” and then i read quotes from pat lowry, mike berkenpas, and jack wilson. people i used to worship with. and i understood why my mom was sad. she and my dad exerted a lot more energy into that church than i ever did…and these people quoted in the newspaper stories still worship there, and have been for more than a few decades themselves. the sadness and wonder they must be feeling tonight….

everyone knows that the physical building of the church isn’t what makes it a church yet it’s still a painful blow to the body of a church when it’s damaged or lost. so please pray for the members, attenders, and pastor of covenant orthodox presbyterian church in wilkinsburg as they worship tomorrow morning under a different roof.

one of the many reasons kenny and i wanted to move out to “where the stars shine brightly” is to raise chickens. when we lived in the city of pittsburgh, we found out that it was perfectly legal to raise chickens in our backyard as long as we weren’t making profit from keeping them (in other words, we had to consider them pets, and not income by selling their eggs or meat). we decided against raising chickens in the city for several reasons, one of which was the fact that we had rowan in july of 2003 and i was pregnant again by the spring of 2004, prime times to receive and begin raising chickens. and our hands were full with babies. so we decided to wait until we had the room, the land, and the time. and that time is now!

in the coldest part of the winter, where we most certainly are now, you begin to plan for your chickens. for the past few weeks, kenny has been mulling over plans for building the chicken coop and the chick brooder, and calling different hatcheries: local and ones as far away as texas. we are planning for about a dozen buff orpingtons since they’re friendly birds and good egg layer. (free, organic, free-range!)

we think the boys will have a lot of fun watching the day-old chicks grow from little fuzzy yellow spheres into small awkward half-feathered birds, then finally into full-grown golden hens freely running around the yard.

my brother, andrew and his wife, laura had three chickens until recently. they live in not-so-rural asheville, north carolina. a few weeks ago, he told us that the chickens had gone missing, and there was evidence of a struggle (many feathers in the yard). this is the part of raising free-range chickens that worries me the most. we live in a pretty rural area, so there are bound to be hawks, raccoons, or even dogs (all three of our neighbors have big dogs) that will salivate at first sight of our beloved chickens.  they’ll have a coop to run to for safetly, but sometimes, they won’t be fast enough. and we’ll have to break the news to the boys, i’m sure.

(andrew…what did you tell ramona about your chickens?).

as our plans unfold, i’ll post more information and pictures of these little additions to our family.

i was browsing through my archives just now and realized that i blogged on the past two shrove tuesdays. it would be like breaking some spiritual code if i were to not blog today, shrove tuesday 2007

i secretly look forward to this day in the church calendar. i absolutely adore pancakes, and i do love getting together with the people of our parish. but really, any excuse at all to have pancakes for dinner is a good one. our old church’s youth group made and served the pancakes. in our new church, the responsibilty falls on “the men of St. Paul’s.”

unfortunately, rowan woke up this morning with a fever, so the boys and i had to miss out on the pancakes ala church dinner style this evening. instead, i whipped up kenny’s famous pancake recipe (it’s from the Joy of Cooking, and it’s the best recipe for pancakes) as he headed out the door to make the pancakes with “the men.” since dinnertime is usually a bit on the crazy side with both of us here, i had to fend off two hungry boys while feeding a third (adam doesn’t wait until our dinnertime to eat!) alone. our pancakes were “browned butter” flavor since i melted and cooked the butter for the batter. the boys still ate three whole pancakes EACH.

tomorrow is the start of Lent…another favorite season of ours (next to Advent). i think we like these somber seasons so much because we are sure of the light at the end of the tunnel. that despite the somber-like worship services and meditations in Lent and Advent, we know they lead to JOY. i am so grateful for the annual liturgical calendar. each year we are reminded that there is JOY coming in eternity. and that we begin to live that JOY now, if we make the right choices.

it’s been a busy week here in the woods of fenelton, my (new) hometown…. the crazy week rushed in with the snow on tuesday but by saturday, the pace began to slow down.

my friend serina had three great entries this week on “real world whole foods living.” check them out – and don’t forget to read the comments section as they’re chock full of tips and more information!

it’s sunday evening, the end of the first day of the week. to most, the end of the week. i have to admit that although it’s a day of rest, it does feel like the end of the week come sunday night. monday always looms a few dark hours in front of me, and even though i don’t shower, dress, and drive to an office on monday mornings anymore, mondays can still present themselves as difficult.

monday morning, here we come!

Today is
the 76^th day in a row that it’s snowed. I shouldn’t be complaining
because I did ask for it…but I really only wanted a few small
snowfalls here and there…enough for some sledding, and a good excuse for hot
chocolate every once in while (I’m actually getting sick of hot chocolate!).

As the
entire nation now knows, a major snowstorm has hit the midwest and the
northeast over the past few days. My parents drove up here yesterday and were
going to drive home this morning, but it was still snowing (after a night of
freezing rain), so they decided to stay for another day in the country. It
stopped snowing around 4:00 this afternoon, and it’s gorgeous outside. I look
out our back windows and can’t believe that it will ever be green again. It’s
like looking at a black and white photo.

I think 3
cars have past our house today. Several ATVs, snowmobiles, and MAN TRUCKS with
PLOW have driven past as well as one tractor plow and one cinder truck. The
dentist office called at 8:30 last night to cancel Kenny’s appointment today
(he was incredibly thankful). The local news interviewed several Pittsburgh
Penguin
players who made fun of they way the city shut down with the 13 inches
of snow we got.  Because they’re all from places like Buffalo,
Canada, and Russia. I guess it’s fair because we make fun of places
like North Carolina that shut down when they get a dusting of snow.
It’s all what you’re used to, I guess.

We’ve got a bit of cabin fever. Thank goodness for Nana and PopPop being snowed in up here to keep the boys entertained.

Perhaps we’ll be able to walk outside tomorrow….

the boys are borrowing a toy from one of their old babysitters who happened to be in the neighborhood last week. it’s one of those toys that you, as a parent would never buy…but you as an auntie or grandparent (read: someone who doesn’t live in the house with the toy and child) would buy in a heartbeat. the kind of toy that has 587 SMALL parts to it, and  when one of those parts goes missing, the entire toy is deemed “worthless” (by a 2- or 3-year-old) until it’s found.

it’s a “little people” toy and it’s actually quite entertaining. the circular road goes around in circles while a variation on the same tune plays over and over, as many times as the child wants it to (by just one touch of a button!).

the tune this particular toy plays is “here we go ’round the mulberry bush.” a tune that everyone knows, but few know the real words to (except for the “here we go ’round the mulberry bush” part…). my particular “problem” is that i know COMPLETELY different words to this littly ditty and only my brothers (or at least one or two of them) and my parents will understand this: that every night when the boys are in bed, what is going through my head, to the tune of “here we go ’round the mulberry bush” is: “the duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will.”

when we were little, my dad helped us learn the westminster shorter catechism by putting some of the harder-to-memorize answers to a tune. kenny was the one who, just a few months ago, broke it to me that the tune for Question 39 of the Shorter Catechism was “here we go ’round the mulberry bush” and not an original David Laughlin work.

but at least i know what God requires of us humans. (word-for-word!)

i know a great deal of you who read my blog pray so i’m asking you for your prayers.

our church family lost a member this morning. evan william campbell died this morning at children’s hospital where he has been with his parents for weeks, and in and out since he was born in july of 2006 (7 months ago).  this has completely rocked the congregation as things seemed to be on the “up and up” for evan this past week: he just moved out of the ICU and onto the recovery floor.

so i’m asking for your prayers for the family. evan’s parents have been through so much this past year, and i can’t think of anything better for them right now than to be covered in prayer. even by strangers.

from the book of common prayer:

i wish i had a more interesting post for you all today.

i did have one…about five minutes ago, complete with lots and lots of links and stories…but it is lost in cyberspace due to the poor service of our blog host.

so i just wrote a scathing email to the support folks, asking for a good reason why the blog was down AGAIN…this time at a very crucial moment (publishing a post), causing me to lose 45 minutes worth of typing. and that’s precious time, too! the boys are asleep, the kitchen is clean, and i’m not that tired…i could do a whole host of other things at this time of day. we bloggin’ mommas only have a few moments in a day to actually blog (the rest of the day is spent thinking of something to blog about – ha ha ha!).

any way…have yourselves a great weekend. i’ve really enjoyed hearing from all of you who have “come out of the closet” as blog readers via commenting and sending me private emails. it’s nice to know there are more than just my immediate family members reading this!