we've been spending the majority of our days on the outside of the house lately. it feels great to not need a coat, and to roam the yard again without heavy boots and deep snow keeping us from walking easily.

maybe it's because this yard has so much more foliage and life beneath the ground than our old yard did...but this year again, i'm surprised (by joy, of course) at the new buds forming on the otherwise dead-looking tree branches, and the bright green shoots sticking up out of the earth after a long hibernation. even though we're expecting it, it's always surprising that life returns after such a long, cold, dead winter.

i spent the day in the city on saturday. my friend serina and i (and her 5-month-old son, asher!) headed out bright and early to the salvation army fabric fair. we didn't realize just how nuts the fair actually is until we tried to maneuver our way through the crowds. i tried two or three times to browse through the patterns/book table, but the ladies wouldn't budge. these women meant business. we did score on some great new fabirc (cheap!) but made our way through as carefully as we could without getting hurt. :)

that afternoon, i met kenny and the boys (and my mom) at our old church for the shape note workshop i was so excited about. it was a lot of fun to sing in a group again (i rarely get this opportunity anymore since i'm not the singer in the family), and it was interesting learning a bit more about it. but kenny and i made the same observation about the actual singing: at this point, we'd much rather listen to it sung (by those who sing it a lot!) than to sing it ourselves. there was a huge need to pay attention to the line of music that you'd sing, and i honestly can't remember actually hearing the music being sung because i was too intent on getting the notes right. so i keep listening to the pieces from the Awake My Soul web site to get my fix.

in the warmth of the afternoon sun on sunday, we labored in the garden. now i know that this is (an example of) the type of work that God requires us to abstain from on the 7th day of the week...but seriously, is it work when it's so enjoyable? when it's all you've been wanting to do for the past three months of frozen temperatures? because it felt great to see the ground again, and to see the garden getting ready to be a bed of growth again. the boys helped us with their garden tools while adam napped. we breathed in the earth, the sun, the tractor diesel fumes....  if there is one thing i'd like to do away with, it's the tractor diesel. i wish there were such a thing as an affordable, green tractor that would make all the rest of our organic gardening and earth-keeping worth it. perhaps one day, the barn will be fixed up enough to house a few goats and sheep. because they're the perfect earth-friendly tractors around.

AND...we lost another chicken today. it was one of the black and white ones (silver laced wyandottes) - the ones i call george washington (they look just like him!). we believe she was hit by a car as she was lying, wings sprawled, in our rock/shrub garden. we're not sure it was a natural landing that put her there, or if someone put here there after doing the damage. she's had a proper burial and yes, we told the boys. and this after we were just telling someone how we've never lost a chicken to traffic, even though they freely walk in the street on a daily basis (cars normally slow down, honk, or stop). this puts our daily egg count down to about 10-11. thank goodness for friends who readily take eggs off our hands.

we recently got ourselves into a lot of trouble, kenny and i. we made the big mistake of purchasing two packages of playmobil knights and swords for rowan and sawyer's easter baskets. 

it was a bit of an embarrassment when they kept calling the swords, "pokey things" and kept asking what to do with the shields, and wondering just why they needed "metal" armor on top of their clothes. we made an even bigger mistake by then getting the take-along playmobil castle complete with 84 more knights, 115 swords and shields, and one horse.  when they opened this up, the questions kept coming: "what does this pokey thing do?" "why does this man have a feather in his helmet?" "is it cold out? is that why they need these big hats to cover their faces?" "why do they have to protect the castle?" "what princess?" "what bad guy?"

i think it's time to introduce our 3- and 4-year-old boys to knights in shining armors, princesses-in-distress, and real-life heros like st. george. fortunately, we celebrate this day on the 23rd of this month. i just found a half price copy of St. George and the Dragon (even though it's a fictitious story of the actual St. George, who I'm learning is not actually British!), but i'm hoping it will enhance their castle-play at the very least.

are there any other recommendations for knights and castle and medieval stories for young children who don't know that a sword isn't really an inch tall and made of plastic?

when i first came across the web site for the movie Awake My Soul, i was struck. kenny sent it to me just two nights ago, and i still can't get that music to leave my head. i scoured the web site for further information on this "shape note singing" and almost mysterious, however historical, hymnal, the Sacred Harp. i then scoured the internet for further information on this type of singing, this type of worship. i love this artist's vision of shape note singing.

that music is so...haunting? spiritual? weird? freakish? beautiful? intriguing? i still can't find a good description for it. i almost told kenny that i wanted to up and take a long drive into the heart of the south to find a sacred harp singing group or church so we could experience first-hand this singing.

fortunately, kenny and i have the opportunity to attend a shape note singing workshop next weekend. i'm STOKED.

i hope we have the opportunity to see the film very soon, however it doesn't exist at netflix, and it doesn't seem to be on the local PBS schedule anytime soon (anyone reading this have a copy we could borrow?).

i'll report back on our experience. if anyone else reading this has shape note (or sacred harp) singing experience, please chime in!

i wanted to come on here and post about our easter sunday, our easter weekend, our day of eggs and week of leftover ham to come.

but i got nothing.

don't get me wrong, the boys looked stunning in their (1/2-size-too-small for them) double breasted suits and ties, dinner was a lovely time blessed with friends and family, candy-in-baskets abounded, and we even survived strep throat (rowan did). i even have some pictures to prove how lovely our easter weekend was.

but i probably won't post them just yet.

Easter Sunday is one of the most incredible days of the Christian calendar. growing up, i remember this day to be special and happy, with lots of "He is Risens!" being passed around, and a more fancy dinner to follow the Sunday morning church service. i remember Good Friday services consisting of 7 different ministers delivering sermons on the "7 last words of Christ." yes, that's SEVEN sermons in one evening. and of course, i remember easter baskest and jelly beans (i'm still addicted to jellybeans!)

but it wasn't until college when i attended a very artsy (read: there was liturgical dance!) tenebrae service that i realized the sombre or maudlin or HOLY nature of Holy Week. and then after college, falling in love with liturgical worship...going through Lent and Holy Week with Christ, and experiencing Easter on a whole new level of joy.

this past week was a busy one. our little small-town church is going through a season of change. it might be a brief season, it might stretch out into months or years of change. who knows? so a few of the members, including kenny, had a lot of big jobs to accomplish before each of the services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. and i was worried about getting the house cleaned and food prepared for our Easter Sunday dinner. it should have been one of the more minor things on my mind, or on my heart. i should have been exerting my mary spirit and squelching my martha one. ;) i wish i could say that my easter week was contemplative and focused.

or focused correctly.

i love hosting meals, and i love gatherings with friends and family. i did prepare easter baskets and we dyed easter eggs with the boys. and i do think these are important parts of these big holidays: it's fun to share traditions, and see how others' traditions are alike or different. Sunday's Easter service was beautiful and joyful and I was able to worship and be joyful in the spirit of the resurrection (even while wrestling with a 20-month-old during communion, and trying to quiet the tears of a 4-year-old after the 3-year-old kicked him in the nose at the back of the church...but Jesus loves the little children, so I don't think he really minded the noise).

but i just hope that next year, next Easter, the next time we observe the reason why we are followers of Jesus, i want to be focused more on the cross and the empty tomb, and less on the dust on our piano.

we've gone straight from never-ending snow to never-ending rain. which means it's at least above freezing, so i really can't complain.

but it's not been warm. we've only been making it into the high 30s and mid 40s at best our local weathermen are really trying to push us into spring with forecasts in the 50s. we're nowhere near.

but, the longer days, and the never-ending rain is doing something. there are green shoots in our flowerbeds, there is a light greenish hue (albeit splotchy) coming back to the grass and...the ladies started a-layin' again!

My brother recently posted about the things that are always in his fridge. It wasn't a meme, but i'm going to give it a go as well. And now he can have an opportunity to harp on something that I have in our fridge like I did with his diet coke. :)

So...what is usually always in our fridge/freezer:

4 gallons of milk delivered each week. It's hormone-free, but not organic. It's a price thing.
Mayonnaise. Except we're currently out. But it's Kenny's favorite. For sandwiches and fries.
Yogurt. A lunch-staple for three boys who don't share with their momma.
A big ol' chunk of cheddar cheese. Adam and Sawyer prefer the extra sharp.
Endameme. (freezer) Rowan and Sawyer beg for this. It's such an easy snack, but they love eating it alongside of macaroni and cheese. It's a dinner we have at least once every other week. Usually on nights when a babysitter is coming and Kenny and I are eating out! I'd love to grow it in our garden...it's all over the corn fields here in late summer!
6 empty mason jars, no lids. (freezer) the perfect glass for an icy cold beer or water on those hot days.

so there...nothing earth-shattering. this used to be a question asked in a celebrity interview section of the LIVING section of the weekend paper. and i loved the "fridge-lists" that i felt matched the celebrity's personality. for instance, you'd probably be able to visualize the interviewee when they answered, "perrier, prawns, and pate" or "beer, mustard, and yesterday's primanti's leftovers."

so i'd love it if you, readers, either left me a comment with things always found in your fridge (we can limit it to 3-4 things if you want), or blog about it yourself and let me know that you've blogged it.

i've been neglecting this blog. the boys (and kenny) have been fighting small colds over the past 3-4 weeks...and i seem to have developed a knack for getting sinus troubles for the first time ever. not fun at all. it's a good thing i only have a handful of blog readers and i'm not paid for blog advertising. because once life gets busy, or filled with sick days, the blog is the first thing to be neglected.

is anyone else finding this st.-patrick's-day-during-holy-week a bit...well, off? this week is so full of big things...st. patrick's day today, the first day of spring on thursday, and then all of this smack dab in the middle of Holy Week! if it were up to me, st. patty's day would be a celebration in its own week, a few weeks later, we could celebrate the first day of spring (like we did last year) and then a few weeks after that, celebrate easter. it seems weird to have spring and st. patrick's day celebration during the somber Holy Week.

even though it is a holy week, we will still observe all of it:

• today is all about st. patrick! i'm making traditional corned beef (a recipe from my friend amy), boiled potatoes, carrots, and whiskey cake for dessert. the boys will have pistachio pudding (green!) with whipped cream and green sprinkles since the whiskey isn't cooked off on the cake (it's poured all over with melted butter!). i was just reading this interesting fact about the color of st. patrick. i prefer blue as none of us really have any green clothes. or orange clothes, if you're protestant. or conservative. or...dad? jonathan? help me out. why orange?

• thursday is the first day of spring and last year we made a big bunny cake (see link above). it took over the kitchen, and we're hosting an easter dinner on sunday, so i think something on a smaller scale would be better. i'm thinking easter-egg cupcakes or these cute birds nests?

• there are several church services this week, and it's nearly impossible to take 3 boys under the age of 4 to all of them without upsetting their sleeping schedules. especially since we're still recovering from daylight savings last week! i made the realization this week that our boys have never done an easter egg hunt. and...I have never done an easter egg hunt as a child. it's not my parents' fault. i think my church thought easter egg hunts were of the devil or something, so there was never an opportunity for us. my parents did hide our easter baskets on easter morning, though! and there is one at our church this week after the easter service, so they'll finally participate. here's the problem: i have a tendancy to be very competitive, and i'll want to dive into the church lawn and gather up as many eggs as i can possibly find and give them all to my boys. but the cute little kids in our church are their friends, and those kids' parents are our friends. so i'm not allowed to be competitive during this easter egg hunt. something about losing friends and minding my manners...you know. what adults are supposed to be like. i'm a little worried about my participation in our boys' involvement in organized sports.

happy st. patty's day! happy first day of spring. but most importantly...a blessed Easter to all of you!

i've got some great jokes for you. so next time you're in a joke-telling situation around the water cooler, at a playdate, or where-have-you, you'll be all set.

it all started last night at the dinner table:

----------------
rowan: mommy, can you tell me a joke?
me: (i didn't even know he knew what a joke was) um....um..
kenny: i've got one! why did the skunk go to church?
rowan: (laughs hysterically)
kenny: i haven't gotten to the funny part yet.
rowan: oh. (still laughing)
kenny: to sit in his own pew!
rowan: (stops laughing...) (gotta love a 4-year-old's sense of humor). i've got a joke! why did the hurt bird go to church? to sit in a pew! (more laughter)
me: how about this one - why did the chicken cross the road?
rowan and sawyer: (laughs hysterically)
me: to get to the other side!
(no laughter)
sawyer: why did the bird cross the road? ha ha ha ha ha!
-------------------

so there you go...jokes to impress all your friends!

march is my favorite month. because it means that winter is nearing an end.

if it wasn't a leap year, yesterday would have been the first of march, and it would have roared in like a loud lion. we got dumped on again - another 6 inches or so. today it's gorgeous: in the 30s with sunshine. there are a few light flurries, not the constant fall of snow like we had yesterday.

so does that mean that march has come in like a lamb this winter? and does that mean that it will go out like a lion? or is it usually "in like a lion, out like a lamb?"

if i passed up the opportunity to blog on LEAP DAY, i would have totally regretted it. so, what are you doing with your extra day this year?

you know what i am doing? i'm trying to figure out how to change the needle on my sewing machine. fellow sewers have probably lost all respect for me now. but please remember, i'm a novice...i only dug out the machine in july! i noticed on my last project, the needle was dull and it felt like operating a jackhammer instead of a lovely 1960s sewing machine. so i knew it was time. and i have another little project coming up that i need to start. and i want to start a quilt for our family. it's about time i make something lovely for our little family. is it bad that i won't let the boys choose fabric for the family quilt? i don't think i'd like to display a living room "throw quilt" featuring elmo, thomas the tank engine, winnie-the-pooh and snoopy. because these are the characters found in fabric stores across the country. and strawberry shortcake...do they actually sell strawberry shortcakes anymore?

it's a cold, snowy day. we've had a lot of these lately. i was talking to a friend of mine last night. she lives in the big city. she said, "it feels as though we haven't  had a winter yet!" i think our country weather is so very different from the city's weather, just an hour away. we've had several inches of snow on the ground (nothing like our friends in massachusetts, however!) for several weeks now, and it snows every other day at least. it's beginning to feel a bit like narnia to me!

for leap year day, i will ignore the snow falling outside and dream of our yard in spring/summer. ahhhhhh....i love the warm sun.

i've recently stumbled on a blog that has changed my life. blown me away. made me rethink everything. okay, enough of the hyperbole.

in all seriousness, Et Tu? is one of those blogs that when i read, i have to make sure i have a good cup of hot coffee or tea, and no interuptions on the horizon. her blog tagline is "the diary of a former atheist" but that just touches briefly on what each post contains. i don't want to divulge too much more...just get yourself into a state of solitude and read away. it's good stuff (especially her "most popular posts" and parts 1&2 of her conversion story, both on the left side of the blog).

also, my brother is blogging again! go get subscribed to his new blogging home.

welcome to smithical!

please make yourself cozy and eat a lot of poundcake with lemon sauce. the weather is confused today - snow? freezing-rain? rain? it just won't make up its mind, so we're stuck inside.

the first week's discussion and some very informative links can be found here at serina's blog. also, refer to this post for this week's discussion questions for Persuasion. a good conversation has started already in the comments section, so be sure to read those as well.

i didn't start off not liking Jane Austen. I'd read her before (in college, on a whim, not for a class) and really enjoyed her books. but perhaps something has crept into my brain and taken away the part that enjoyed this type of writing; these kinds of characters. it's all i can do to not roll my eyes and groan with the turn of each page. kenny laughs when he sees me reading. he knows that i'm bored out of my mind. and he's right. i refered to reading this book as "my lenten discipline" because it doesn't feel "fun."

i read a lot of non-fiction these days. i read a lot of blogs, and from time to time, i indulge in a work of fiction. has my life been altered so drastically that my tastes have changed? i wonder if i would like A Prayer for Owen Meany as i had when i first read it (1990?).

so carry on the conversation - i'm enjoying the comments from yesterday and hope to respond soon!

**if you are having trouble leaving comments, you're not alone! just email me (elizabethsmith AT zoominternet DOT net) and i'll try to get the comment posted for you.