The Buerglers

It's been so long since I've sat, just to sit. I quit my job at the lawn company at the end of September because I knew October would be crazy at the Church and getting ready for baby.  I am so thankful I had that foresight. In one week I will send 142 high schoolers to the mountains with 36 adults for a retreat that I planned and organized but will trust two other adults to execute without me. In three weeks I 177 10th graders will come before the Archbishop at two Masses to receive the indelible mark of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit; a Mass that includes several visiting clergy, 15 Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, a full worship band, and a reception for all 800 after each Mass.  Yes, ten days before my due date.  No. Big. Deal. In the mean time I've had two more beautiful baby showers.  One thrown by my co-workers and one by my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. My co-workers were so generous in doing a brunch theme shower with lots of gluten-free ca...

Eric and I want to say thank you for all the sweet comments, congratulations, and well wishes.  We've certainly been blessed with encouragement the last few years. In case you missed our 4-day debt-free series, check out Elizabeth's Story Eric's Story Climbing Out We're Debt Free!  {give away} And our give away ends tonight at 11:59 so be sure to enter! We'd originally promised to use this weekend to provide tips and answer questions, but it's been absolutely beautiful here in Atlanta so we've stepped away from the computer for the weekend to enjoy it!  We'll have the remaining posts up starting Tuesday, as Monday is scheduled for a pregnancy update. Here's how we've enjoyed this lovely weekend.... Friday night we a church function until about 9 pm.  Then we met up with some friends to have a few drinks on the Taco Mac patio.  I was so glad the location we went to had the Abita Root Beer on tap, so I could add another credit to my...

As we near the end of the first trimester, I am finally starting to feel more human and have more energy.  We've been (almost) back to our crazy busy social lives, with the exception that I turn into a pumpkin around 9 pm.  It's been nice to go out and see people instead of my three month routine of: work, nap, eat dinner, maybe go for a walk, go back to bed. We've been out and about - but unfortunately I've been out of the habit of carrying my camera around, so I have nothing but super horrible cell phone pictures (digression: my Droid X boasts an 8 megapixel camera. EIGHT! Yet, unless it's broad day light, the quality of the photo is about that of a flip phone... as you'll see) Thursday (4/28) , our friend Austin was in town from Charleston so we met up at a beer bar for drinks.   I found out that Austin is a loyal reader of our blog so I promised him this shout out & picture! Except, what's worse than my phone's inability to take quality pho...

First of all, I can't even believe that not only is it Monday, but it's Monday afternoon. I feel like my head has been in some sort of cloud for about four days.  Must be allergy season. This weekend was simply fantastic (minus to foggy head).   Friday night Eric went to see a movie with his dad.  Don't ask me what is was, I can't keep track.  I went over to my cousin Hilary's to "sit" with her, eat pizza and watch a Say Yes to the Dress Netflix marathon.  Hilary recently had two rods fused to her spine as well as some ribs separated and organs shifted around.  Needless to say she had severe scoliosis.  It was fun to keep a fourteen year old company on a quiet Friday night.  Just what I needed.  I also taught her how to pray Christian Prayer, something she wanted to do for Lent.  Mature, right? Saturday is our sleep in day.  So glorious!   Eric spent the afternoon helping my brother move into his new house.  Alex bo...

The first answer that comes to mind is  why not , but I don't think Elizabeth would let me get away with that for a   blog  post (who needs quality control?). Going along with the theme of our previous two Friday posts,  money .  It's cheaper!  I started out taking classes for $5, which included "all you can drink" homebrew, where I was taught to "Relax, have a homebrew!".  When I started brewing beer on my own I was paying about $10/gal, which is a significant savings when you consider we sometimes buy a single beer at the bar for more than $10.  For Christmas, I received the last pieces of equipment needed to do a more enhanced version of brewing, which means I can now brew for about $7-8/gal. We were also gifted most of the equipment over time starting with a wedding gift to unused items laying around families' homes to Christmas gifts.  How can you say no when you have all of the equipment and it's cheaper?  Well ...

For a wedding shower gift, Eric's parents gave us a "beer of the every-other-month club".  We've thoroughly enjoyed, but the last box came as we celebrated our one year anniversary. In the past, Eric and I have really enjoyed going out for great beers and food pairing dinners.  This has been getting rather costly. In attempts to save a little money and share time with some friends - we called the "Beer of the every other month club" and found out that they have a "rare beer of the month club" that also provides information on food pairings.  Four beers in a box.  Four chairs at the table.  Four friends. Sold. This month the date for our dinner with Sam and Rosemary also coincided with the day Eric needed to bottle his two recent home brews.  Perfect.  We started with our beer tasting dinner.  This month it included a ploughman's lunch (think British) of cheese, apples, pickles, hard boiled eggs, bread, soup.  The o...

Today is day 2 of our "Homemade Food Week".  Today's menu includes the following: Breakfast for Elizabeth: egg white omelette with four cheese blend green peppers and roma tomatoes french press coffee with  a splash of skim milk a few spoonfuls of the grits for tonight Breakfast for Eric: homemade "instant" oatmeal packets with  local honey or molasas Lunches for Elizabeth & Eric: homemade peanut butter homemade 3 berries jelly homemade bread 3-4 small pieces of homemade beef jerky handful of dried pineapples (Eric) homemade yogurt banana or apple homemade granola bars Dinner for Elizabeth & Eric: Shrimp and Grits with spinach home brew (choice of IPA or Espresso Stout) Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (if it finally set right)  or leftover cupcakes from the baby shower

Over Christmas break we received a belated wedding gift of a beginners home brew kit.  Can we say, awesome? My uncle, Todd, has already tried his hand at the craft and has created some delicious beers.  Eric thought who better than to try his first batch with.  So off we went to Todd & Keri’s house for the evening.  A box of pizza, some old home brews, and six hours later, the boys completed step one of the home brew process.  In the video you can see a little of the steps it takes.   After the first day, the beer has to sit for about two weeks before it is transferred to the bottles.  Then the beer sits another two weeks before it is ready to drink.  Some beers are better the longer they sit in the bottle, others are only good for a few weeks.  A lot depends on the ingredients and the style of beer.  Regardless, home brewed beers are always stored upright because they have some sediment in the bottom, unlike your typical stor...

As if Eric and I have nothing else to do these days, Eric signed us up for a series of four home brew classes at our favorite bar.  Our teacher is a national home brew beer judge, who has been home brewing for 20+ years.  He made it look so easy! The engineer in Eric was surprised to learn that the brewing process was NOT very mathematical and exact, and the baker in me was surprised to learn that there is more in common between a loaf of bread and a beer than a turkey and chicken.  As Les, our instructor, said manyatimes to Eric on Saturday, “Relax  - Have a home brew”  ( And, good news, the left over grain or “mash” can be used to bake a 5 grain bread - YUM!) In addition to learning the initial steps of home brewing, Eric and I enjoyed the company of our beer tasting group of friends as we all are taking things to the next level - home brewing.  I guess you can say it’s getting pretty serious