Here I go, March 2018… catching up in a timely manner. YES! Or not… my fast and furious blogging took a hit with the much anticipated Karyn visit AND a semi surprise last minute Shauna and Jeff down from Canada weekend. And then life in general kicked my butt… but here I am.

So… March, what was March… it ended in Easter weekend. So we had our own little egg hunt in the house. The twins did the hiding for the younger 3.

We also decorated eggs.

And even made square ones!

The other “themed” day was St. Patrick’s Day. We had all sorts of green stuff going on.

I jumped all in on working on Irish and Celtic knots. I have purchased a few books and some lovely satin cord. Definitely a skill I need to find time in the fall to continue with.

I invested in some gorgeous reversible sari skirts which I can tell you NOW I wore ALL summer. There is something amazing about wearing bright colours and patterns that swish when you walk.

There was plenty of time spent at the YMCA, of course. I hope it has been at least somewhat fun for the staff to be such a major part of my kids’ growth and enjoyment!

I took a walk down memory lane and bought a Tamagotchi! If you don’t know what that is… well I won’t ask your age, cuz that could end up sad.

There was plenty of time spent petting the fluff that is the chinchilla.

Echo lost teeth, important teeth – the front ones – and they took FOREVER to grow back in.

I got in my crafting time. Crochet keeps me sane after all.

And we did plenty of school.

Ken and I even snuck in some dinners out dressed to impress.

And we helped celebrate Jeffrey’s birthday. Which ALSO means, Mystro pics! You can thank me later!

I love how the twins can be before and after pics at the same time.

My final thought on this quick WAY belated peek back at March… WOW was my hair long!!! And that is that.

For all resource links please check out the entry “Saint Patrick’s Day Resources“.

March 11-12

The Bodhran was our first instrument to cover this year. We are reusing the videos from our previous year with just as much enjoyment. So I am going to re-embed them in the entry of course! (they will also be in the resource entry)

Today we saw daddy off to the office and are running solo. Thankfully we had our St. Patrick’s Day themed book of the day – St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons. And started working on our poem for Friday.

Book of the day

We started work on our leprechaun trap… a great way to learn the rainbow since we changed out plain sticks (which were actually MORE expensive???) with coloured ones!

Working on our box

The twins painted our 3 heart shapes to make our shamrock for the lid.

Green paint and the twins

Our second instrument covered was the Uilleann Pipes…

We played some simple but fun St. Patrick’s Day themed board games that you can find on Education.com. (link on side bar)

Gaming together

Trinity made her Trinity teaching shamrock (yes yes her and Emanuel with their religious names confusion… O Come O Come Emmanuel was a horrible song for a small child who kept saying BUT I AM HERE).

Our Trinity representing the Holy Trinity with a fun craft

And Echo proved how much she HAS grown with her new proficiency with getting into the fridge and asserting her wish to have what SHE wanted WHEN she wanted it!

Hot dogs???

We even squeaked in a Wild Kratts episode on the Tasmanian Devil.

Tasmanian Devil

Our Tuesday started us on the Irish/Celtic Harp….

and the Tin Whistle.

Just like last year the sound of the tin whistle is a siren call… a siren call to DANCE!

Trinity and I used a JoAnn’s kit and made a pretty St. Patrick’s Day themed headband.

Crafting

So pretty and festive

And of course we continued the work on our leprechaun trap… think it will tempt one well enough???

Finishing the lid

Our book for today was Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola. St. Patrick has quite a few interesting legends connected to him. We have 6 we wrote about but we did not include the one where he prayed and a man turned into a FOX or where horses were lost and his hand glowed showing the way! Seriously, there is a lot of interesting things connected to the patron saint of Ireland!

With our book about the Saint

Echo napped through the tin whistle so she had a Bubble Guppies dancing moment.

Get down

And dance

We also made our monthly mini poster for the ‘fridge. March! What do you think of when you think of MARCH?

March

Girls in pretty dresses simply must be photographed!

So pretty.. this is a dress I added a sash to over a year ago to alter to fit our skinny minny… and now it actually fits… better

My girls together

And for us… a “romantic” dinner and a movie… well some anime…

noms

With it being spring break around here the boys ALSO got some time with the neighbours in the snow!

So much snow

St Patrick has been interesting and the weather cooperating… not bad not bad!

All smiles

Z-O-M-G Another post already! Well it is Sunday which even though we are NOT out and about tons does make for a more relaxing day. We started our day with ALL of us going to Sunday School. We found out when we got there it was our turn to help in the little guys class (both Trinity and Emanuel are in it). So Ken took Echo and I took the opportunity to help out for the very first time. It made me feel so useful and I had the opportunity to talk to 3 other people in the congregation about things that were bothering me AND see the special closet they purchased for all the costumes mom made. I have found some peace this morning though it was fleeting. We got home and everyone was right back at each other’s throats. 

The purple poof

Life is far from tranquil in the Reinsch-Johnson home lately and I KNOW I am contributing to that with my anxiety and my worry and my tears… I have pledged to myself (and my family) that after this month I am going to go out of my way to chat more with people in our church who have counselling experience. I want to find better ways to deal with things when they all pile up as with 5 kids and the darling husband I have (seriously the man’s luck is CRAP)… well let’s just say adventures are going to happen. 

We squeezed in some school time today on top of it all! I found this neat St. Patrick’s Day themed religious craft for the kids to all do. You can find it HERE. We printed them on various shades of green paper and used markers to go wild. Quite a lot of fun and nice and simple!

Rather spiffy

We also read a Celtic Fairy Tale and drew pictures and wrote about our favourite parts. Some of the ones in our books are relatively short and with what is going on this week I am planning on doing a few more. That way we are not just sitting on our hands, though while She Chris is here schooling will be on holiday! Special Aunty Time! Our Ireland/St. Patrick’s Day binder is quickly becoming a full and interesting book! I have found some more worksheets you could print out if you are interested, or save the link for next year. Check them out HERE. A lovely bonus of homeschooling… I can spend a little longer on something AND take a random holiday for the kids, after all (if you know us rather well) we DO school year round! 

There is still quite a bit to do before we leave for the city… packing is almost done, the kids have been walked through how they need to behave and a basic idea of what is going on… I have a list of numbers to write out and a few minor instructions but I am sure everyone here will be fine, not so sure about the carload heading to the hospital! I know that I will be a bit… ok shh so I tell a fib… a TOTAL basket case!

Very true on the shirt huh?

We have renewed our txting on our pay for cell phone and are deciding how to get us calling ability for the 3 days… I have number after number added of people who want to be in the know, a suitcase basically packed… but I don’t feel overly prepared. I don’t know that I ever would! And on that mellow note I should end my entry before I dip into boo hoos and sobs! Here’s for a great Monday! 

The reason for the drama.... isn't she precious?