St Patricks Day

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St. Patrick's Day is a fun holiday. Low-pressure kind of day...no presents required. Wearing green, eating green food and drinking green beer. I can handle that. The only problem is Hubby gave up beer for Lent so I guess I'll skip the green beer to be nice to him. It's just a feel-good kind of day. I like that.

Two Saturdays ago we went over to Titusville to see Hubby's cousin who hosts an annual music fest which they call "Goat Fest" for reasons to convoluted to try to explain. Just accept it. Their boys (17 and 19) are great musicians who play almost every stringed instrument known to man. Their dad (Hubby's cousin) is of Slavic (Polish) descent and their mom is 100% Greek and their music specialty is....IRISH MUSIC. Go figure. Actually they're beginning to play more Blue Grass music, but it's still kind of funny. They have a gazebo in their huge back yard and invite all their friends to come and listen to or play music. There was a teen-aged girl playing the harp with her younger brother on the violin; a family of 6 playing country-christian music; a middle-aged couple playing 70s ballads. It was just great fun. There was hot dogs, and potluck salads and desserts. We stayed all afternoon and into the night. We had a great time. Both girls came with us. They love their cousins and ended up spending the night and talking 'til 2 or 3 in the morning. Hubby's aunt and uncle, from Pennsylvania, were there too, so we got to catch up with them.

The Singer is home on Spring Break this week. It's great to have her around, although, as is often the case with college-aged children, she has spent more time visiting her friends than with us so far. But she has also been a great chauffeur for the Imp. It's nice to have a break from all her activities.

The Imp has started swimming again with a local club team. She picked this team because a few of her friends from her school swim team are there. She was pleasantly surprised to see Ben there, as well. Ben is the younger sibling of the teenager who died last summer in a ski-jet accident. The family goes to our church. The Imp thinks Ben is great and is glad to have time to be with him.

I've been spending time in my garden. It's lots of fun, and is teaching me some patience...or forcing me to have some. I've got my beans and cucumbers and green & red peppers and lettuces and carrots and cantaloupes. Hubby and I spent Saturday in our front flower garden...pruning the dead away from the freezes and weeding. It looks so much better. We need to put out fresh mulch this week.

Sunday saw us at the beach! We don't usually go to the beach on the weekends during "spring break" time as the traffic there and back is always bad. But, we braved it anyway. With the SEC basketball championship games here, the traffic was even worse. It took us 2 hours to get to "our" beach when it usually takes us 45 minutes! But the beach itself wasn't too crowded and by the time we left at 7:30, it was pretty empty. It was wonderful. The Singer is planning on surprising the Imp on Friday and picking her up from school early (she has study hall last period) and taking her to the beach. It really is wonderful to see how great of friends they are.