In case you were wondering

Do you know what you need when you get ready for speech?

A mustache!

And do you know what you need when you’re the brother of the kid going to speech?

That’s right. A matching mustache.

And do you know what you say to everyone who asks when you grew such a nice mustache?

Nathaniel: It’s not a real mustache.  It’s just marker.

Just in case you were worried that my four-year-olds decided to stop shaving. You can now be rest assured it was only a marker, not actual facial hair.

As a side note: When I took Marshall to his first baseball practice we played at the park.  It’s been much too long since we’ve been to the park.  Nathaniel and Jacob have forgotten how to slide the fireman pole and do the monkey bars.  I blame the great Pacific Northwest for that.  We haven’t truly acclimated to cold.  If it’s sunny here, it’s still cold. No one really feels like going to the park and freezing.  Especially me.  I guess technically you could blame me, but let’s not.

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March. It’s a tease.

For those of you who don’t know, I gave up Facebook for Lent.  I know facebook is a pretty big sacrifice, it’s right up there with the torments which Jesus endured.  I’ve found that I really don’t miss it as much as I thought I would.  I do miss things like pictures of the most adorable baby ever and having someone to share the hilarity and mayhem which ensues at our home.  The first few days every time something funny or nice happened, my first thought was “I’ve got to post this on face book”.  Things like

Jake:  Mom, why does my nose have coral growing on it? (referring to his booger nose upon waking up this morning)

or

What a glorious day!  The sun is out, it’s a sweltering 50 degrees and there isn’t a rain cloud in sight!

Instead, I’m trying to remember to send up prayers of thanksgiving and praise because I’m pretty sure that I’ve been a little bit lacking in that department lately.  I’m also trying hard to share those things with the people actively involved in my life not just the 350 acquaintances on facebook.  I’m also trying not to replace Facebook with Pinterest (aka:facebook-light).

March is the month of baseball.  This year we’ll have four boys on three different teams in three different divisions.  I’ve broken out my trusty crockpot and dusted off all of my portable bleacher recipes so that we can still eat as family even if we are sitting in the cold miserable rain of the pacific northwest. I’ve heard that wind shelters, hand and feet warmers, and propane heaters are a necessity for spectating little league.  So much for spring.

If I would have had any amount of foresight I’d have totaled up how much I’ve spent on baseball paraphernalia. It’s amazing how much we still needed to buy when we’ve been saving this stuff for the last 10 years.  Maybe it’s better that I don’t know.

March also means St. Patricks day.  I’ve made a new resolve to make more of an effort to celebrate and decorate for the holidays.  So far I made a lucky four leaf clover garland.  It was incredibly easy.  I cut clovers from felt and chained them together by sewing right down the middle.

In the background you can see the lovely heart garland I made for Valentine’s Day.  I couldn’t bear to take it down.  I absolutely adore the cheery rainbow it provides on the backdrop of gloom and rain that keeps appearing day in and day out.  I rationalize it because rainbows are an important part of St. Patricks day.

I’m also trying hard to offer more opportunities for painting, cutting and pasting projects for my preschool crowd.  I spent 20 minutes cutting out more pieces than I care to count for two little leprechauns.  It took less than 10 minutes to glue the whole things together. This is probably why I don’t like to do these type of projects.  It might also be because I’m a little anal retentive.

Me:  Wait!  Remember use a dot not alot!

Nate:  okay.

Me:  Wait!  Don’t glue that there!  That would make his arm look funny!  Hold on, glue it right here.

Nate:  okay.

Me:  Wait!  Don’t put the feet on yet, we need the pants before the socks.

Nate:  okay.

Of course, Jacob wouldn’t have anything to do with my directions. I’m really glad that he did it on his own.  I love the crooked arms and misplaced black part of the hat.

Please note Jaob’s Leprachaun’s goatee and beard.  And the lines on his socks.  I love that Nate’s Leprauchaun has glasses, blue hair and wears his pants pulled up to his chest.  It gives him character.

I have some rainbows, pots of gold and leprauchaun traps planned for the rest of the month.

Besides baseball and St. Patty’s day March also means spring.  March means planning a vegetable garden and finding plans to build our first chicken coop.  It hopefully means breaking ground on a small pond.  It also means clean up from winter storms. We won’t have to worry about firewood for a very long time.

March also means spring fever.  It’s that time of year when we’d like to slack off on our studies but we can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Our books are now open to the second half rather than the first.  It means finishing a science book and moving onto a bird study unit.  We’ve hung a finch bird feeder (which don’t seem to attract finches yet) and a hummingbird feeder (which brought our first humming bird today!).  If there wasn’t a better sign of spring I’m not sure what else would be.

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