St. Patrick's Day

When you become a parent, it seems like some holidays take on a life of their own. Take St. Patrick's Day, for instance. When I was younger, it was only a half holiday. That means I only thought of it in terms of making sure I wore at least some green to avoid a painful pinch at school. Past that, I didn't give March 17th much thought.

Fast forward to St. Patrick's Day now. I spent the days leading up to the day making decorations. DECORATIONS? Yes...and they are darned cute. One is a fun little green and white bunting that you can see hanging on the wall in the first photo below.

Another is less durable, but more interactive and must be credited to my old roommate, Laura, who shared the idea with me on Facebook. I made a big pot of gold from paper, placed it under a paper rainbow and cut out a bunch of coins that had "Golden Rule" printed on them.

The deal was that the kids could add a coin to the top of the pot when they were caught doing something kind for another. The excitement of the project has diminished a bit, but we did end up with over a dozen coins on it. Maybe I wasn't very good at noticing their kindnesses.

The night before St. Patrick's Day, the Leprechauns paid us a little visit. They have been coming and causing a bit of mischief the past few years. I might have forgotten about this if Rebekah hadn't anticipated it out loud. So this year the little imps switched the dining room and living room furniture.


Our dining room is too small for us. (One of the reasons why we want to move.) Even when the table and chairs were out and the room was empty for a moment, it still felt small. It didn't get any better when the couches were put in!

That morning, the kids were surprised by the difference. They started to eat at the table, but I know them well enough to know that I didn't want them eating over the carpet. Nor did I want them eating near the couches (though they no longer seem worth much protecting), so we moved the couches back into the living room and they ate at the coffee table.

I also made some St. Patrick's Day shirts for the kids to wear to school. I designed them on my Silhouette program and cut the fabric on the cutter. The green fabric is ironed onto the shirts and stitched around the edges. The kids all had some say in what their shirt would look like (except for Sarah). I thought they were a pretty good looking bunch!

And now for the real story behind the picture:

I had woken a little late that morning and lost the few minutes that are usually a buffer for waiting for the bus. I wanted to get a picture of the kids in their shirts. Plus, I had two rooms of furniture that I wanted to put back while I had Daniel home. (He's not the biggest kid on the block, but some help is often better than none.) This is on top of the normal task of getting ready for school.

While people were running here and there, I was trying to make enough room to get a table through. Then Rebekah starts coughing (we've had some tenacious germs around here) and THROWS UP on herself, the wall and the carpet. Of course. Long, ugly story short, I got the shirt rinsed off and threw it into the dryer long enough to just be "moist." We took a quick series of pictures, zipped up coats and sent the kids out to the bus.

Then I moved the furniture back into the places it all belonged. By myself. Darned Leprechauns!