tricky little leprechauns

March 17th has never really been a big deal to me.

My family isn't Irish and I can't think of a single time in my life that I've ever really gotten excited about honoring good old St. Patty.

In fact, J is usually the one to remind me to put some green on.

But this year I decided that it could be just another reason to make a memory....

I had seen some fun ideas on Pinterest, but being 30 plus weeks pregnant, I'm lacking the drive to really attack things like this lately.

So, it needed to be fun and memorable but easy.

I had been building it up by telling Peach that Leprechauns like to play tricks and that those naughty little guys might just try to pull something on us.

At 11:00 last night, I sprinkled a trail of green glitter from the door to the kitchen table, where I left this note.

(remember the look on Tulip's face...it will explain a lot as you continue to read)

Excited for the fun that morning would certainly bring, I snuggled into bed and began dreaming about the delicious breakfast that J had promised to deliver.

An hour later, Tulip was up...letting us and the neighbors know that somethin' was not right.

Fever, cough, runny nose....blagh

I got the vaporizer goin' in her room, smeared her little body with home-made vapo rub and rocked her back to sleep.

Only to be woken up 20 minutes later by more coughing

and that's pretty much how the night went....  

J did his part and took a shift, but really, she just wanted to lay right next to my face and share her germs....lovely.

and let's not forget about that glitter all over the kitchen floor - at various times throughout the night i had to run in there for water re-fills and what began as a cute little trail soon turned into a glitter tornado strewn all over the house....awesome.

real life - it's not pretty, but whatcha' gonna' do?

Peach woke up with a spring in her step and found the letter

She was more than thrilled that we had been chosen by those tricky little guys to be the recipient of a St. Patty's Day prank

I had plans to video tape the whole thing and take pictures.

But, let's be honest.... J and I were fighting through the fog of sleeplessness and we're just lucky that we made it up the stairs and to our coffee mugs in time to see the whole event unfold

Peach took great delight in finding the shoes and collecting her new prizes while shouting out commands to her sister about where she should look - a little preview for what's to come at Easter this year, I'm sure :)

 I think it goes without saying that the morning didn't unfold the way I had planned.

But I'm learning (slowly) that in this mess of life, where plans get diverted and grand schemes are thwarted, the only thing that REALLY ever needs to be organized is my attitude.

The house can be a disaster.

The kids can look less than adorable.

My legs can be unshaven.

My eyebrows un-tweezed.

The dinner can be burned.

The beds unmade.

Everything in my life can smell like pee (and it does).

And my vehicle can look like rodents live in it (maybe they do).

But if I'm joyful, we're okay.

There's a lot of freedom in that.  Only ever one choice away from everything being cool.  It's tougher than it sounds.  But I think I'm getting better and better at it.

So with a big yawn, I'm closing the book on St. Patrick's Day 2013....may the luck o' the Irish bring me a little more energy tomorrow. ;)