Happy St. Patrick's Day! (again)

Melissa had a blue-ribbon morning at the farm: not only did she ride the entire lesson without her instructor using the lead rope at all, but at the end of the lesson, she rode her horse, Ted, around the entire arena without anyone walking by her side at all! Her instructor stood in the middle of the arena while Melissa led her horse successfully from start to finish. It was fantastic! She is so proud! She also worked a lot on trotting today....it gave her a real workout since the movements are so bumpy and she has to work hard to keep her body aligned(she is not allowed to hold onto the saddle at all~she needs to keep her hands up in front of the saddle, guiding the horse with the reins). She also started work on "posting trot" which is when the rider stands up in the stirrups and sits down again in rhythmic fashion while the horse is trotting. Talk about complexity of movement for a kid with motor planning issues! But she tackled it like a champ, and was able to accomplish bits and pieces of this at a time. Definitely will be on her goal list this year.

The rest of the day went by peacefully. I spent the day preparing our real St. Patrick's Day meal of corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes(actually, my mom did a great job making these!), Irish soda bread, green jello, Irish cream cake, and green lime punch. My poor baby followed me around the kitchen all afternoon, scooting behind me everywhere I went whining "ma-ma! ma-ma!" Every time I thought I would have a moment to snuggle with him and get him to sleep, another timer went off signalling some change called for in one of the 4 different food items I was in the process of preparing. By the time the grandparents arrived for dinner, he was beside himself, crying, overtired, and unable to calm down. He finally collapsed in Grandma Z's arms, and she magically was able to lie him on the couch without him waking up, screaming! We enjoyed our entire meal while he slept in the other room. It was luxurious!

Michael was the lucky one to sample the Irish fare first, as he was off to hockey before the rest of us even sat at the table. This is the first of 4 nights a week of Spring hockey programs. Yeesh. The rest of us gathered around our table again, and tonight's meal was much more palatable for my picky younger eaters. Last night's stew did not go over well with the girls...Laura kept calling it "the yucky stuff". Tonight, she was asking for us to put corned beef ("chicken") on her plate. This really is the best meal of the year...I think that all of us stuff our faces even more on this day than we do on Thanksgiving. It got me to thinking that I should make this meal on Thanksgiving instead of the gross turkey that is customary. Well, maybe not this exact meal, as I DO want to keep it special for St. Paddy's day, but I am certain that I am done with turkey on Thanksgiving....why not start a new tradition of cooking stuff we actually LIKE to eat? Now that would be something to be thankful about.

We had a great time visiting and chatting. Grandpa enjoyed viewing some of the recent stellar report cards the kids had received last week in the mail. Again, our table did the trick....sitting around, talking like REAL adults! Bob and I were even sitting at the table next to each other...AT THE SAME TIME! Wow! It was something we rarely experience. I am now determined to use my table more in all situations~daily family dinners to dinner parties(we will need to make some friends first!). Who'd have thought a simple table would elicit so much fun!