Spring and Squiggly Things…

When I last left you, I had such high hopes of celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day with my family.  I was busy relishing in the fact that I was going to be able to share some of my cultural heritage with my beauties while enjoying an Irish-worthy feast.  Saint Patrick’s Day started off normal enough.  A morning trip to the grocery store and then quickly home again so I could begin preparing our dinner of Corned Beef & Cabbage and Irish Soda Bread.  Fresh from the confidence of having the bread made and the corned beef in the crock pot, I went about my day.  A family lunch visit, some general weekend cleaning and a trip to the park all filled my beautiful Saturday.  And then it hit.  A 12-hour stomach bug that didn’t really hold up its end of the bargain.  I am now on Day 3.5 of still not quite feeling right.  A stomach bug that not only prevented me from eating my Saint Paddy’s Day feast, but may very, very well prevent me from eating Corned Beef & Cabbage EVER.  I have a stronger than normal smell/nausea association that I can honestly say still prevents me from eating a certain pasta dish that encountered my flu bug when I was in high school.  I’m just saying.

God Bless Beau.  In the midst of feeding the kids and, without getting into the dirty details, running some much needed interference for me, he managed to snap this shot of supper.

Irish Soda Bread.  Check!  Corned Beef.  Check!  Cabbage.  Umm…Cabbage?  Has anyone seen the cabbage in this Corned Beef & Cabbage???!??  Unbeknownst to any one other than me, the recipe called for adding cabbage an hour before eating.  But since I was too sick to even speak, that certainly didn’t happen.  And so I present kinda, sorta, a Saint Patrick’s Day supper.  No offense to Corned Beef but I get a little nauseous just glancing at this photo.

On to much more pleasant things.  Like many of you, we find ourselves on Spring Break.  And with the insanely warm last few weeks paired with the smattering of spring storms, one of the trees in our front yard has begun to bloom.

I’ve been told this is a tulip tree.  And my non-landscaping self just nodded my head in agreement.  In fact, I’m nodding right now.

Whatever it is, it sure is a beauty.  It first blooms into beautiful flowers, then it buds and turns into a lovely green-leaved tree that we enjoy all summer.  Thank you tulip, or whatever you really are, tree.

Another sure sign of spring.  Today we woke up to a refreshing, morning shower.  And spring showers around this fishing family mean one thing…earthworm hunting!

Beaut.two is eyeing a fresh one and trying to decide if he should scream now or when he touches it.  Side note: He went with now.

Beaut.one is fearless.  She loves to fish and knows this long, wiggly one bring her one step closer to the big catch.

After the little one sees big sis hauling in the squiggly things without injury, he gives it a whirl!

Check out that earthworm slime!  Nothing freaks this angler out.

My bevy and their earthworm gold.  At least that’s what they call it.  Me?  Well, this photo makes my still-reeling tummy a bit queasy too.

What does the arrival of spring mean for you?