Our family is Irish. My husband and I are each half-Irish, subsesquently making our children half-Irish. With a very Irish surname and Irish names for the kids, we always try to do something fun on St. Patrick’s Day – a secular celebration of Irish culture, for us.

In the past, the kids and I have tried to plant shamrocks to no avail. That isn’t quite true. In past years when I asked the kids what they wanted to on St. Patrick’s Day (the day of, mind you), I’ve been greeted with enthusiastic requests to plant shamrocks. I would then set about calling local nurseries, big box stores, etc. in search of the elusive shamrocks in question. I remember shamrocks being readily available for purchase around St. Patrick’s Day when I was a child. That isn’t true anymore. We have yet to find any.

So, when a friend posted that she was getting rid of a packet of shamrock seeds earlier this year, I quickly asked if we could have them. This year we are planting shamrock seeds! We’ll still go on a search for a nice flower pot in which to plant them, but we won’t come back empty handed from our shamrock search. Over the next few weeks, as we witness the emergence of spring outside, we will be ableto watch our shamrocks grow inside.