Happy St. Patrick's Day- 2011

I have a book to recommend- Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman.  My blog friend Kelly (and fellow Korean adoptive Mamma) over at The Minus One Project has blogged many times about it and I had to check it out.  Mom gave it to me for Christmas and I couldn't put it down.  Martha (we're on a first name basis) reveals so much that I never knew about the many Christian celebrations that we still observe (or that are at least mentioned in our churches today).  She also has so many great suggestions for celebrating the holidays without loosing site of their true meanings or origins all while keeping the focus on Christ and what learn about him through observing special days related to his life or the lives of Christians who have walked before us and left big footprints for us to fill.  (The book is currently out of print- so you'll have to find a used one!)

I have to admit, I never knew much about Saint Patrick or why we even had a day on our calendar marked in his honor.  What a blessing and what fun to learn about him and great lesson of forgiveness and spreading the gospel at all costs his life exemplifies.

The kids started the day by watching Secret of the Kells while mom woke up.  Really fun movie set in Ireland.  We then started the fun...

We had green oatmeal while I summarized the story of Patrick and why his life is worth celebrating.  He lived in what is now Britian during the Roman Empire.  He and his family were Christian.  Irish pirates came down regularly and raided the unstable/under protected area.  Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave/prisoner.  Many years later he was able to escape and get back to his family.  He soon realized he had been among unbelievers in Ireland and had pity upon them.  He went back the land of his captors and began to spread the gospel and plant churches.  It is believed that he used the shamrocks growing wildly in the area to illustrate the Trinity (three complete parts making one hole).  Wilson interjected here that you could also use poison ivy for the illustration.  Yes this holiday would look completely different if its origins were in the Southern United States!!

We spent the rest of the day focusing on clover and the great reminder it is for us of the loving triune God we serve. 

We painted empty paper towel and toilet paper tubes green, cut them into strips, and then made clover to hang on our banister garland.

We picked clover from our backyard to put in the center of our table for dinner- beef stew and a very green pistachio cake, yum.

Of course, the kids were much more interested in this guy that hitched a ride in on the dirt clods in the clover bucket.

Biology lesson of the day- if you live in a clover patch, and you eat a clover patch, you have very St. Patrick's Day themed poo.  Wilson learned this the hard way- but was rolling on the floor laughing when he saw that his souvenir from Patrick the Grub was EXACTLY the same color as the clover they'd been stuffing in the vase!

The kids took an afternoon break and decided to watch Pirates of the Caribbean.  Well, there were pirates in the story of Patrick.  Right.  Right!? 

Then we had a yummy snack.  Clover pretzels.  We dipped mini twists into some green colored white chocolate and put them together in threes. 

Happy Saint Patty's, Y'all!