A Little St. Patrick's Day Grace

I had big plans for some St. Patrick's Day fun with my girls. Green eggs, wearing green outfits, special Irish themed dinner ... all that and then some. Little did I know how much that this past weekend with my church's 20th anniversary homecoming would wear me out, or that we would be up until 4 a.m. with N2 on Sunday night. That left me little to no energy to muster up much for Tuesday. We still had a good St. Patrick's Day around here with our wee folks and I think the girls were okay with it. :) Sometimes I think I put too much pressure on myself to come up with the PERFECT way to celebrate a day. I spend so much time on my lists and to-do to make it all come together, that when the time comes, I'm too busy to just sit and enjoy and talk with the munchkins. That's what their memories need to be of ... not the frantic last minute trip to the grocery store for whatever I've forgotten. Just needing to give myself this little pep-talk and reminder this week! And can I share with you something a little funny ... we were playing outside at dance class and I was looking around at all the other moms and thinking how odd it was that EVERYONE had on a green shirt on Tuesday ... including myself. Duh. I really was tired. :)

I thought I would share with you a few of the books that we have read and are reading this week to give us a taste of the Irish. :) And, just as a fair warning, I myself felt compelled to read most of these books with a somewhat pathetic Irish accent. Luckily, my girls have never heard the real thing so it was all good. :)

• Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola.
• Tim O'Toole & the Wee Folk by Gerald McDermott
• St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting (illustrated by Jan Brett)
• St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons - this one was a great biographical overview of St. Patrick's life, perfect for my girls.
• Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola
• Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman

I do want to say (I guess as a disclaimer) that some of these books are written from a Catholic perspective. I am not Catholic and do not pray to the saints; however, St. Patrick is a wonderful example of a man that trusted in God even as a small child when he was kidnapped by pirates. He later dedicated his life to telling others (specifically his captors who were Irish) about Him. A story worth passing on.

Some other fun links and ideas:

• St. Patrick's Day planning at Growing Up God's Kids
• Mustard Seeds St. Patty's Day Party!
• A craft from Wildflowers and Marbles
• And an easy recipe for Irish soda bread that I think I will make today for our dinner

Lastly, this is probably one of my all-time Veggie Tale cartoons ... the Tale of St. Patrick. (It's on the Sumo Wrestler video if you have that one).

A happy belated St. Pat's day to you and yours! :)

This post also ties in with Hope is the Word's Read Aloud Thursday.