March

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."


- Charles Dickens

It has taken 39 years, but Spring has finally taken over Fall as my favorite season of the year.  And it's no wonder - just look at all the great memories that our family makes each Spring.  From my childhood memories of the Camp at Bundick's Lake, the most memorable times were at Easter;  the March weather is so nice in Houston, our family spends many of hours outside; and with half of the Williams Family celebrating birthdays in the month of March, and Drew's Birthday in May (technically still Spring, but by then Houston's Summer has begun) I think it was only a matter of time.  I daresay that March is perfectly poised to take the crown of "The Most Glorious Month of the Year" away from November in my book.

Here is what has been going on in our family this month:

Cub No More

(Don't look, Evan, but there's an Indian staring at you!!)

After participating in the Arrow of Light ceremony, Evan officially became a Boy Scout!  What an incredible ceremony.  Gran and Pop came over to witness it which was very special for Evan.  Dad is an Eagle Scout and also a member of the Order of the Arrow, and he and Evan spent a lot of time talking about his days as a young Boy Scout and all the fun that they had at Camp Edgewood.  Evan loved it!

St. Joseph, Pray for Us!!

After many years of wanting to make a St. Joseph Altar, we finally did it this year.  My maternal grandmother's family immigrated from Sicily, Italy to New Orleans, LA in the late 1800's, and they brought with them this rich tradition of making St. Joseph's Altars on March 19th - the Feast Day of St. Joseph.

For many years, I've wanted to make one of my own and I've even discussed the idea several times with my grandmother asking her what all was on the altar and she'd tell me lots of stories from her childhood.

Ours was pretty humble, and it may not have had all the "official" items on it, but we decided to go kid friendly for this year and as the kids grow up and we actually plan well enough in advance we'll try for more traditional fare.

At the "heart" of our St. Joseph Altar was the brick that inspired me to build an altar in the first place.  While visiting Kim's grandmother in Baton Rouge, LA, I found this brick in her yard and I thought it would be a fantastic "cornerstone" for a St. Joseph Altar.  So, finally, here it is!  Also on the altar were fig newtons in place of the fig filled pastries, Goldfish in place of actual baked fish (I said "kid friendly" didn't I?!) and a can of fava beans instead of the dried ones (Kroger didn't have the dry, so we had to make due!)  Grandma told me about a man who would always take a lemon from their altar, so I made sure to have lemons as well.  Bruchetta, tomato salad, bread and wine rounded out the food, and we had a cookie cake with "Happy St. Joseph's Day" for dessert (God Bless the lady at the Kroger Bakery for helping me out in a pinch.  Actually the entire Kroger staff was wonderful that day helping me find the fava beans as well.)

Statues of Jesus and Mary and a vase of lillies completed the altar.

We ordered veggie pizza in keeping with the no meat nature of the altar and we said a prayer to St. Joseph asking for his powerful intercessions.  What a wonderful day that was!


"You say it's your birthday? It's my birthday too!"

Again, with half of the Williams household celebrating birthdays in March, we were having some serious party time this month.  Patrice came over to visit and watch the boys so Kim and I could go have dinner with our friends the weekend of her birthday.  It was so wonderful.  Thank you so much Patrice!!

 

That Sunday before Patrice left we had a birthday party for Kim.  It was a kitchen birthday this year.  She got a ceramic egg holder, a Kitchen Aid Ice Cream attachement and ice cream mix and topping to get us along on the first batch.  Hey...speaking of....where is that first batch of homemade vanilla?!

Next up was Elliot.  Oh my, I can't believe he is EIGHT YEARS OLD!!!!  Wow how time flies! 

The morning of his birthday he awoke to a table of balloons and streamers, a silly card picked out by Evan and a gift card to Toys R Us!  That afternoon, we all met for lunch at the Potatoe Patch near my work and later that evening, with the gift card, he bought a game for the Wii and we all had ice cream at Cold Stone.

Putting an exclamation point on March we had Evan turning 11!!  It seems like yesterday I was blogging about Ten Years Gone. 

Again, the traditional birthday breakfast of powdered donuts with candles greeted Evan as he awoke this morning.  He got a Pokemon game for his DSi and he loves it.  For lunch I met them at Chuy's Mexican Restaurant and afterwards, Kim took all the boys to an indoor bounce house place where they jumped to their hearts content.  Later in the evening after a wonderful homecooked meal we enjoyed cupcakes from a nearby bakery.  YUM!!

 

God is Good indeed!

 

p.s.  As you will notice from the boys' birthday pictures, they are both wearing KISS t-shirts.  I took Evan, Elliot and Drew to the KISS concert at the Rodeo earlier this month and it was fabulous.  It took Drew a few songs to fully get into it, but eventually he had a blast as much as Evan and Elliot did.  They all have t-shirts to commemorate the event.

 

p.s.s.  The buzzkill of the month goes to our two year old AC that went out unexpectedly last week.  Luckily it is still under warranty.  Unluckily is that warranty work apparantly is on the back burner for repair priority.  We've been without AC for a week.  Luckily, the weather has been absolutely perfect....did I mention that Spring is my new favorite?!

 

Love Y'all!!