Saint Patrick’s Day Round-up
Written by Mel McLellan
As I've mentioned before in a previous post, we love St. Patty's Day around here! I mean, who doesn't love a day filled with fiddle music and leprechauns?
As we plan to stay home tomorrow in light of current events, I've done a quick deep dive into Pinterest and YouTube for tomorrow's festivities. I thought I'd share them here with you in case you'd like to join in on the fun! :)
Leprechaun Traps:
We made ours today, but we usually don't remember until Saint Patrick's Day so if you're just getting started day of, fret not! :) Some people tell their kids the leprechauns leave treats and they have to catch them the night before Saint Patrick's Day.
I feel like that's a lot of unneeded pressure. I'm already doing well to remember the Tooth Fairy and Santa, so we just enjoy the possibility that we *could possibly maybe* catch a leprechaun at any point during the week of St. Patty's and leave it at that. ;)
There are some fun ideas for traps if you're looking for inspiration here and here.
Irish Soda Bread:
We are going to be trying this recipe out tomorrow. It has the words "Super Simple" in it, so it sounds like my kind of recipe. Wish us luck!
Poetry Tea Time
This is not an exclusively St Patrick's Day thing, but we love a good Poetry "Tea" Time at our house so we use any opportunity to work one in. I use quotes because our "tea" is usually La Croix or milk served in fancy cups, but the principle is the same, right?
If you've never done a poetry tea time, you should try it! Set out fun mugs or fancy dishes, serve up some treats, light a candle if you wish, and start reading some poetry aloud with your kids.
We have a big stack of poetry books we keep on hand. The kids take turns picking out ones they want me to read while they snack.
Since we'll be starting our morning with a sugar-coma in the form of Lucky Charms, we'll be serving up warm Irish Soda bread and butter in leu of cookies.
Oh who am I kidding? Chocolate coins will have to make it into the mix at some point so it's going to be sugar all day for everybody!
We'll also pull in some Irish poetry from this list in honor of the day.
Random Activities:
This post has several scavenger hunts on it, but if you scroll down, you'll see the Green Scavenger Hunt and we'll be printing that off for tomorrow.
These Rainbow Shamrock Sun Catchers using coffee filters look really cute and easy!
This is another great big list of St Patrick's themed activities for your perusal. The beaded pipe cleaner shamrocks struck us especially. ☘️
This cute little Leprechaun Mad Lib is a free download.
Also a free download, we've got our St. Patrick's Day Bingo Cards ready to go!
Fun Facts About Leprechauns
And of course we need to know what our Leprechaun names would be! Don't you? Here is a very tame option and here is one that's just a wee bit spicier, depending upon your particular set of variables. Take your pick. ;)
You should probably use this as an opportunity to brush up on your Irish slang, because why not? This can also be known as learning to talk like a leprechaun.
And because something about this holiday should probably be steeped in actual facts, we'll be throwing in some Irish facts for good measure. This is another quick and easy list.
Videos:
Curious about Saint Patrick, the man? This is a cute little video put out by Veggie Tales:
Here are some of our favorite Irish Folk Tales being read aloud:
Fiona’s Luck:
Tim O’Toole and the Wee Folk:
Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato:
O’Sullivan Stew:
That’s What Leprechauns Do:
I hope you have an awesome Saint Patrick's Day with your family and these links have provided you with some fun ideas to make it even better!
Happy St Patty's Day! ☘️
- Mel
Making Memories in the Mess
Written by Mel McLellan
We were closing in on 4 months of living in a house overtaken by our latest business venture, making and selling natural deodorant. The living room was piled with boxes of materials and the kitchen was covered over in double boilers and all the other STUFF involved in making the products. Business had picked up rapidly which meant long hours of work and a neglected house to show for it.
Chaos prevailed everywhere. The most you could make in our kitchen was cereal, and I would hope you would plan on eating that standing up because the table had long since been buried as well.
In that space and that season, I got the crazy idea to listen to Sally and Sarah Clarkson's Life-giving Home book. It's all about creating special spaces and memories for our family that enrich everyone's lives. It's an idea I loved and aspire to, and was falling far short of just then especially.
The Johnson Family
Written by Mel McLellan
Embarking on a new adventure is a wonderful, scary, exhilarating, happy and sad thing. I don't mean it can be any one of these things. It's all of them rolled into one, each surfacing at different moments throughout the process. My friend, Mandy, is about to set off on a great new adventure. She and her husband of 20 years (Today! Happy Anniversary, Mandy and Steve!) are building an amazing farmhouse in the country. They're also watching their son's career take off in the fashion industry of New York and LA, and dropping their daughter off at design school eight hours from home next week. Everyone is growing and becoming and living life fully, and that's incredible and exciting. It's also a lot of change for a mama's heart all at once. With all of these big things in the works, they'll all be saying goodbye in the next couple of weeks to what has been their home for the past 18 years. This is where two young people raised babies into adults, and they all weathered storms together as a family. It's home, but sometimes we have to let some things go in order to reach for something better and I believe with all my heart that's what's happening here. Still, it's hard to say goodbye sometimes and that's what pictures are for. :) This beautiful family met up with me at their home one last time this week to commemorate their time there together and capture it forever in photographs.