Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My wee sister, Barb, took this picture while travelling in Ireland.

She sent me this card, tooThe kids have all left for school, sporting their green to avoid any pinching throughout their day. I remember when I was a kid, there would always be one kid who would wear no green on the outside, but would have a piece of green felt or something pinned to the inside of the shirt. They did this because if you got pinched and you WERE wearing green, you got to punch the pincher. Sneaky devils.

Here is my favorite Irish Blessing. If I'm not mistaken, my mom has it in a frame, stitched by her friend, Marian.

May those who love us love us.

And those that don’t love us,

May God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,

May he turn their ankles,

So we’ll know them by their limping!

If you really want a Irish treat today, go rent Finian's Rainbow. It's one of my favorite movies, it's a musical, corny and dated...but wonderful. You can sing along to How are things in Glocca Morra and Look to the Rainbow. What?! You don't know these songs?! The lyrics of the songs are delightful...check it out, this one is a duet sung by the "girl" and the "leprechaun" (well, he's a leprechaun who is quickly turning into a human, and he doesn't want to be human 'It's too Inhuman!' but now that he's becoming more human than leprechaun, he's noticing girls: "You're under my skin-ish, so please be give in-ish, or it's the begin-ish of the finish of me!" Fred Astaire is in it and Tommy Steele. The girl in the movie is Petula Clark. You remembered that she sang Downtown, right?

Mom and I know all the words to all the songs in Finian's Rainbow. We always tear up at the same time, too. (Ah...it's that cheap Irish music!)