Irish heritage

St. Patrick's Day -- yet another opportunity for my child to have desires around the marketing machine's paraphernalia surrounding the day.  Yesterday, he asked if we could go to our parish craft store where he had seen gold coins on their St. Paddy's day display.  It seems as though every March he adds something new to his themed collection.  When we went to day, they had run out of the desired fake coins.  So, on to iParty to see what they had available.  He needn't have had any anxious moments.  Their Irish inspired wall was chock full of green stuff -- some of it fun and other stuff yuck.  After taking his time moving down the display, he chose a bag of green bead strings and coins, conveniently labeled "leprechaun loot" and a green plastic container to put said treasure.  It was the pot of gold, without any gold in it and it wasn't black or a real pot.  You get the idea.  I picked up shamrock earrings that have flashing lights inside.  I will post pictures tomorrow when we get dolled up in our outfits.  He has a new pair of green jeans to model.

On the drive across Route 4 I told him that he was part Irish.  He didn't believe me a first.  As a family, we talk all the time on how he is Turkish because of his Dad, but we don't talk about my contributions to the gene pool that often.  Last month he studied fractions, so as I drove, I told him to imagine that he is made up of 8 parts.  I contribute 4 and his Dad the other 4.  From his Dad's side, all 4 parts are Turkish.  From my side, 1 of his parts would be Irish because Nan's Dad, Grampy Sam -- his parents came over from Ireland.  That makes Nan 1/2 Irish, me 1/4 and him, 1/8.  The other 3 parts of his geographic gene pool come partly from France from Grammy Bev's Mom and Scotland from her Dad; Denmark from Dede John's Dad and Germany from his Mom.  He seemed happy to think he was part Irish.

In honor of our British Isle heritage, we listened to Solas and Great Big Sea as we drove.  It was a nice break from our usual fare of Adele, Kenny Chesney, Allison Krauss, Warren Zevon or NPR or ESPN radio.  Some of the sea chantey songs don't have the best lyrics for an eight year old, but he loved the fiddle and foot stomping beats.  Meanwhile I'm trying to convey the words, "And if the Devil should take her / I'd thank him for his pain /oh I swear to God  /  I'd hang myself if I get married again" were OK to sing in the car, but might not be the nicest thing to go around repeating out in public.

The sight of four gorgeous orchid plants on the round table greeted us when we walked up the stairs to Mom and Robert's.  I whipped out my camera and went berserk.

In the past month or so, they put up a new bird feeder in the thicket area at the corner of the science classroom.  To get a good look at the chickadees, I climbed out on the roof, sat, and waited.  The birds did not disappoint.  But, they fly in to the feeder and leave so quickly, that I had a hard time trying to frame a nice shot.

I'll just have to try again tomorrow.