The Schnitzel, Spargel and Bier Diet (does not work but is really good!)

For two weeks we immersed our family (and my mother-in-law) in German culture, cuisine and the thrill of the Autobahn while visiting Reid (my brother) and Brenda, Avery (4) and August (1). We lived to tell and had quite the adventure doing it!

We flew out of Chicago after celebrating my niece's graduation from high school at LPS. Fran was already in town which made it easy to meet up. Brother-in-law, Jeff, was gracious enough to offer taxi services of drop-off and pick-up at a very reasonable fee (free). 

We flew through Iceland and while our stay was short (as least it was long enough to change planes) it was surreal! 

We arrived in Frankfurt and headed for the rental car station. There we were introduced to what would be our German chariot for the next two weeks. 

Anyone that knows my husband knows he has a need for speed. While this was a stress for me early on in our marriage, I have since mellowed and he has since become a better driver. So between the two of us our experience with the autobahn was very pleasant, restful, challenging, efficient, and enjoyable. Wayne declared he felt "at home" (direct quote) and appreciated that drivers were trusted to use their own wisdom in how to maneuver the roads. While he was busy maneuvering said roadways, I fell asleep. That's right. Apparently I was enjoying the perfect conditions for a good nap: a comfortable car, the white noise of 200km speeds (although I never looked at the speedometer), and restoring my energy for the next adventure where we were headed. The Autobahn puts me to sleep, what can I say. 

And just in case you were curious, the difference of 100km for the bugs meeting their unfortunate, untimely death to a car windshield is quite pronounced. The splat is intensified, the guts more spread out, and the whole scene quite disturbing.

We also throughly enjoyed our share of German food. I've never had so much pork in a two week period! Not that I'm complaining. 

'Tis the season for spargel (white asparagus) and erdbeere (strawberries). Ain't nothing like some spargel topped with good 'ole hollandaise sauce. 

They also do something awfully special with spargel when they make it into a cream soup. My sister in law would order it whenever we went out so she could compare it from restaurant to restaurant in her quest to find the perfect spargelcremesuppa.  A noble quest, indeed! 

Of course there was plenty of schnitzel wherever we went and I tended to favour the dishes that had plenty of mushroomy goodness! 

We had plenty of sausages ending in "wurst" and it was all good! The picture above shows the famous Nürmberg sausages from the good town of Nürmberg. They did not disappoint! Especially when served with a traditional pretzel and cold Bitbürger. 

One evening we were invited over to a friend's house for a German BBQ. Danielle and I go back to the sixth grade. Long story short, we reconnected over Facebook. She came to visit me for an evening about a year and a half ago while on business in Montreal. She lives about 40minutes from my brother's house and is married to a German! 

It was a lovely evening sitting on their back porch overlooking the countryside and watching the sun go down. And what makes a German BBQ different from a North American one? Pork. Lot's of it. Several courses of it and in different forms. Her husband,  Markus, did a phenomenal job of working that grill and keeping our glasses full of local German Riesling. We had such a great time catching up and reconnecting! 

We also enjoyed something called Flammküchen. It is NOT pizza. Although truth be told there is a resemblance. But don't tell a German that! It's a flat bread with various toppings but it's not doused in cheese like pizza often is. We even had one with strawberries and ice cream! SO good! 

                                            

Then there was currywurst. The best I had was from a food truck following the beer and wine hike Brenda and I went on our last morning. It was more of a traditional dark sausage that was covered with this curry gravy that doubled as dipping sauce for the fries. Health food it was not. Perfectly complemented by Riesling and finished off with cherry küchen. Um, yum! 

Can I also say that I had the best salads when I was in Germany? Who knew but there was a handful of times I had one heck of a salad! I will forever be haunted by the memory of the most delicious dressing from the restaurant in Landstuhl. I tried to charm my way with the lady of the house to share her family recipe with me but it didn't work. Now I have sleepless nights. I hope she's happy! 

My next post will tackle the culture and family part of the trip. 

Playing Catch Up

It has been a whirlwind month and a half! I will make my best effort to catch up.

After Easter we went with Wayne to Pastors' Conference in Syracuse, NY. This was an opportunity to visit the Gumm family and get my American fix. I had so much fun taking these girls out for the day and spending time with them. I had planned on buying them matching t-shirts while we were out. Instead the "ladies" decided they'd rather matching scarves from Loft and wore them the rest of the day. Too cute! Zanna also got to have a two night sleepover at her friends so she napped most of the way home;)

Lutheran Girl Pioneers had a lovely Mother's Day Tea the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. The only picture I have to show for it is the food. What does that say about me?!

Zanna's Synchronized Swimming year wrapped up with the end of year water show. They danced to "Funkytown". 

 Zanna and I got REALLY serious about finishing the school year by May 13th so we'd be done in time for our trip to Wisconsin. She finished Grade 5 with no problems, even completing the Nutrition badge for her Pioneers charm.

Then we were off to Wisconsin! We stayed a few days at Mom and Dad's cabin. It was a short stay but we were able to get together with G&G Nork a few times and get some card playing in. 

Then it was time to head to Watertown and pick up Will! Yay! The boy was ready to GO! He had already packed up, washed everything, and cleared out his room on his own. What just happened?!!! It was also his 17th birthday on his last day of exams. This year for their birthdays both kids received euros to spend in Germany (which was our next destination!)

But first was niece Katie's LPS graduation! It was crazy cold that weekend and was such a bummer - especially since the graduation party was at the local park! But we had such a great time celebrating with family and enjoying running into people we hadn't seen for years. 

The next adventure was just around the corner - a trip we'd been planning for months! We were headed to Germany to visit my brother and family, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, and to explore all we could in 2 weeks. More to come:) ..... 

The Longest Winter Ever

OK. So maybe I'm overreacting - Laura Ingalls has us beat for the longest winter ever according to her book "The Long Winter". Which is technically fiction. My winter was not fiction. Just saying.

And so when we woke up to this one morning in MARCH, I was not amused. I cried.

Overnight our SUV had turned into a double decker bus. April Fools had come early! Who was laughing exactly?

My favourite part of March though was having Will home for Spring Break. He and Wayne had a chance to go skiing which was great since it had been more than a few years that Will had had an opportunity.

We had a Games Night at church so he could get together with some friends. We also got together with another family with boys his age from our homeschooling days. Will tagged along to our Lutheran Pioneer meeting in March where the kids learned how to make soap carvings.

Here's Will and Nick from church - at March break and this past Christmas. Two peas in a pod!

Friends since they were 2. Can you tell?

Will officially hit 6ft. I think he's finally caught up to his feet. I hope!

He also got his driver's license which was very exciting! And weird.

Also in March we took a day trip to Montreal to visit with Brent, Chantal and kids. They were up from Texas visiting Chantal's mother and family. We toured some pretty impressive churches and ended up at the mall where it was warm! The cousins had a great time catching up.

It had been years since we'd been to Montreal which is ridiculous since it's only 2 hours away. But I was pretty scarred for life the last time we were there. Something about a couple's dispute, faking muteness in favour of admitting I don't know French, and open urination. But whatever. This trip was much better!

We enjoyed an evening with some of our China group. We try to get together with them at least once a year. These are the people we took parenting classes, traveled across the world, and shared one of the biggest moments in life with! So it's always fun to catch up and see how big the girls are getting.

And we survived Lent/Holy Week/Easter.

Will couldn't come home but he was able to go to my parent's house. He had a great time bowling, eating, more bowling, more eating and driving. Did I get everything?

And because it's not uncommon for some tragedy to strike a pastor's family during this time of year, ours was pretty much water and plumbing related. Remember that toilet back in Christmas? I don't want to rehash it all, but the NEW toilet backed up. It would not go down for days. First world problems, I know - we have 3 other toilets in the house. But this had Zanna wandering around in the middle of the night trying to find a commode that works. At the same time our sink in the master bath backed up. I have only my own hair to blame because when Wayne goes to unblock it on a regular basis, it's always blonde and about my length. So as Zanna was wandering around looking for a flushable toilet, I was looking for a draining sink to brush my teeth and wash my hands and face in. But this is a very busy time of year and I silently endured this inconvenience in order to protect my husband from any extra work.

But it all went to pot on the Saturday night before Palm Sunday. After a day of laundry, running the dishwasher and our daily showers, the hot water ran out at dinner. As in the hot water heater quick working. Of course it's the weekend too! So it was not by choice that we gave up personal hygiene for Lent until we could get a new hot water heater installed. And it was not by choice that the Home Depot contractors drilled a hole in my house to bring it up to code. And it was not by choice that I almost gave up my sanity and walked around smelling my "happy oils" (Orange and Joy) to get me through the day.

By the end of Monday, we had a brand new spanking hot water heater after giving up $2,000 (would this Lent ever end?). Wayne had fixed the toilet by pouring laundry detergent into the toilet and letting it sit overnight to loosen up. WHO KNEW?! And he unclogged our sink because he's a great guy.

In all seriousness, this time of year  can be very stressful in a pastor's family. Ours was comparatively mild in relation to some/others. I'm part of a Facebook group of fellow WELS pastor's wives and our problems were mild compared to others. One pastor had to have surgery on his appendix Holy Saturday. As in, he couldn't preach on Easter because he was in the hospital. Others had sick kids and missed services or because they lived in the parsonage next door, they brought along their baby monitor just to be there. One family had lice. No joke! Another family's wife has cancer and a daughter with epilepsy. My encouragement is ... be extra nice to your pastor and family this time of year. Maybe ask if there's a way you can help. Bring them a meal if they seem overwhelmed. If they seem fine, do it anyway since they could be faking and the perma-grim is stapled on. Most of all, keep them in prayer!

Alleluia, my friends! He has risen! He has risen indeed!!!