The Moments of March

The last day of March means it's time to review the moments and memories brought to us within its thirty-one days.

The entrance of spring is always glorious! But the onset of Daylight Savings?  Not so much.  It always takes about a month to adjust to it ever since "the powers that be" moved it to a month earlier.  At least we get breathtaking colors and blossoms on our plum and cherry trees to make up for it.

 

I wanted a fresh way to countdown the Lent season this year and saw this idea.  The rock candy, small though it is, is given to a child who has exhibited something of the character of Christ that day.

Many tea times this month, which is always a special treat!  We had a small tribute to Purim with these Hamantaschen cookies.  Only a few of them stayed folded in the oven though!

  

We get to start bringing cut flowers in from our garden! Sunny daffodils warm my heart.

Once again, a St. Patrick's Day feast!   We enjoyed our favorite Irish Soda Bread recipe, Potato Leek soup, and a new addition this year.....Irish Apple Cake.  We spend some time reading of the life of Saint Patrick during the course of the day and after the meal.

We were finally able to make it back to a Ceili dance!  Hurray!  It is a family-friendly event, but I kind of thought our younger children would be a bit lost in the speed of the dance and end up watching most of the time.  Not so!  They danced their hearts out and loved every minute of it, and didn't want to leave.  This was truly a great time for our whole family.  Loved the live Irish music, the friendly, helpful (more experienced) people who also helped the younger ones learn the dances, meeting a new homeschool family, and getting very good exercise while having a blast together!  We can't wait to do it again!  (In the meantime, Country Girl, Adventure Girl, and I will be taking an Irish dance class through our local community college.  It starts tonight!)

March means time for the annual state fiddle contest.  Another anticipated event, and a lot of hard work goes into preparing for it.  This was our second year.

A gorgeous day!  Thankfully we could have a picnic outside in between being indoors playing up a storm of music.

As I've said before, one of my favorite parts about this is the interaction of generations.  The older, longer-playing musicians are always so gracious to come alongside the younger and pass on their knowledge.  This man is in his 80's, and he also placed 2nd in his age division fiddling.  Most of the time he was backing people up, including our daughters, with his guitar.  And giving Tender Warrior and Young Warrior tips to grow their own guitar capacities.

My other favorite part?  Watching my family play music together!  The joy this brings my heart is indescribable.  Why am I not on stage you might ask?  Well, I am busy keeping track of Littlest Warrior, for whom this is a VERY long day, and my instruments of choice don't quite blend in.  I am focusing on Irish harp and whistles, which can blend when we play Celtic music, but this was Old-Time music day.  I'd love to play the hammered dulcimer someday too :)  And the bodhran.  But then, you must know that I have IAS (Instrument Acquisition Syndrome)!

The children did so well.  The older ones made it to the second round (top 5), which can be tough to do, especially for playing less than 2 years.  Every one of them earned an award, which was a great accomplishment.  And we were surprised and delighted that Country Girl WON her age division!  So thankful for the rewards for their hard work.  It has encouraged them to play and grow all the more.

My Warrior "boys" were busy all the day long strumming their guitars (Young Warrior also played fiddle in the contest in between accompanying others), so their fingers were quite tired after being on stage a dozen times, playing 3 songs each time they were up there.  They did great!

What is a month without a little action between the Blue and the Gray?  At least, that is so around here.  Young Warrior's paper soldiers advance over the table and the battle is on!

The arrival of the tulips rounds out the month and I can never resist pictures of little ones with flowers.  He did this on his own, and I just grabbed the camera to capture it.  I think tulips are among my favorite of flowers and I just love the colors of spring!  They represent hope and new life to me.

On a sadder note:  A few days ago we said good-bye to Adventure Girl's dear little rabbit, Clara.  Thus ends the era of the friendship of Heidi and Clara in the pages of rabbit story.  Our girls were quite little when they brought home these two Dutch rabbits.  We had so enjoyed the story of "Heidi" that they chose to name their bunnies after the main characters.  They have lived with us for almost ten years.

I am rounding out the month finishing up some projects I have purposed to do:  Finally finished Princess Girl's cloak and hope to work on a nightgown today, along with finishing another project.  Perhaps I'll have photos of those next time.