“Ireland, it’s the one place on earth
That heaven has kissed
With melody, mirth,
And meadow and mist.”*
Is St. Patrick’s Day another hallmark holiday?
Nope, not really. It’s a holiday that was a catholic religious one, it honored the work of a man. A man who was ordained a saint thanks to all his work in spreading Catholicism throughout Ireland. But I say “was“, because well now, it’s more of a secular holiday that we use to celebrate the Irish, think about leprechauns and apparently get drunk.
This post is part of my 30 day writing challenge. Each week I will be focusing on one topic. This week I have chosen to focus on Parenthood. If talking about parenting is your thing, don’t forget to come back everyday until Monday when I choose my new topic for the week.
While I am Latina, my kids are even more of a mix then I am. Not only do they have Latin blood in them, both of them can trace some ancestry to Irish roots.
So why not celebrate this holiday steeped in Irish tradition?
The trick, is figuring out how to do it without moving away from our recognition of minimalism and frugality. How does the Traveling wallet celebrate?
Personally as I continue to purge, I am also trying to avoid bringing in more items into the home. Which means stopping by Target and picking up themed items to pimp out my home in St. Paddy day decor is definitely out.
Fighting the Urge to Pinterest things
Mini Rant: Pinterest was an amazing thing, when I didn’t have to create an account to view all the pictures for inspiration. ( I’m seriously getting tired of having to keep making up user names and passwords, specially for things that don’t need it, Cough Pinterest Cough)
Now, I’m kind of happy to be kept out because then I don’t get the feeling that I have to make everything over the top. Pinterest has some great visual inspirations. Still, the high expectations can get overwhelming quickly as you start to feel bad about the lack of grandeur in your celebration. Just click here to see all you “should” be doing to properly celebrate the Holiday. Or else you know your child might be deprived of well… their childhood.
Just a few of the items are: a green smoothie, with rainbow pancakes, skittles or some other rainbow motifs. Like making sure your salad bowl fruits are set out in rainbow order. Novelty right ?
Also you can’t forget all the craft items. The stickers, ribbons, Little leprechauns, et all. I like how they look of course. It all looks nice and staged. But do kids really need all that to celebrate? And does it even communicate anything about the meaning of the holiday? I think that’s a no on both accounts.
Don’t buy all the decorations at the store.
What is on the shopping list
Growing up in my family, my mom was very much into crafting. But we didn’t plan a marathon session of crafts. We normally already had things like paper and scissors on hand and we’d cut out 4 leafed clovers.
As the mom now, we keep thing small and just purchase a few items to highlight the holiday.
Though I normally try to stay away from candy cereals (sometimes without success) For St. Patrick’s day we will purposefully buy the cereal with the little green leprechaun. Lucky Charms is on the list and is a special treat as we try to only buy it during this time of the year.
Mr. Roamer really enjoys cooking and so the ingredients for corned beef and cabbage was on the list, and potatoes too of course, lots of potatoes. He makes it for dinner and it’s delicious.
That’s it. That’s all we bought to celebrate the day. To the blasphemy of every one else in the world, no beer, neither cheap nor Guinness. Or big bags of candy.
No purchase necessary
Other ways we celebrated was to wear our current green items. ( no new clothes.) We picked clovers and placed them in Minnie’s hair. We clicked over to YouTube and watched the Riverdance final act and my son enjoyed it so much he clapped and ask if we could find a tutorial. Which we did, we all had fun trying to nail down a basic step.
Finally I also googled some Irish quotes to share with you.
” May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live”*
Which seemed very appropriate for our family, and all the readers currently reading plenty about not wanting much but living fully through their practices in minimalism, personal finance and intentional living.
And even though I am not religious you can’t escape religion when it comes to a holiday about a patron saint in Catholicism. So here is a saying to send you off for the rest of your day.
May there always be work for your hands to do,
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine warm on your windowpane,
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you,
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.*
Tell me below what do you do to celebrate these types of Holidays?
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*Irish quotes came from here.