March 4th Mary Grace!

Yesterday was March 4th.

I like March 4th.

I like it because when you say the date you've got a little word play going on. Believe it or not, I'm not the first person to pick up on this. One of the national day calendars I checked said yesterday was

March Forth (Do Something Day)!

Who doesn't want to march forth and do something good and meaningful and helpful? Just saying the date spurs you to get up and get going! Cue some grand march music!

Even more, I like  March 4th because it reminds me of the caboose of our little family train - Mary Grace.

I think of her because "March forth" is an imperative sentence, and when I think of imperative sentences, I think of Mary Grace.

Here's why.

Back when I was homeschooling, grammar time often consisted of quizzing her about the four kinds of sentences. One day, when I asked her to name them for me, she replied:

"The four kinds of sentences are declarative, interrogative, exclamatory...and....(pause....thinking)...   demandatory?

Demandatory. She may not have named it correctly, but she understood it perfectly.

It's actually a better name than "imperative." We laugh about her cleverness to this day.

There was also snow on the ground yesterday, which spurred my memory about a little barefoot marching forth that a preschool Mary Grace did on a similar snowy day many years ago.

On that particular day, I was in the thick of homeschooling the 5 oldest. Mary Grace was still too young to "do school."  She was, however, old enough to play by herself for periods of time while I was teaching one of the others. One day, while I was on the main floor working with one of the kids, she went down to play in the basement. 

She played there for a while, but I guess the beautiful white snow on the other side of the glass door was beckoning. She ventured out the basement door, coatless, barefooted, and took a little trek through the snow. For whatever reason, she didn't turn around and go back in the door she'd just exited, but walked around to the front of the house to the locked front door and started crying for someone to let her in. I remember stopping what I was teaching and saying, "Do y'all hear something?"

I felt like a terrible, negligent mother when I saw my preschooler standing outside our locked front door barefooted and in nothing but her play clothes. That passed pretty quickly, though, because after we scooped her up, warmed her up, and dried her tears, I headed out to take a picture of her adorable tracks in the snow.

I was lucky to capture these sweet footprints in the snow - and this before the handy cell phone camera. I actually had to go to the trouble to get the "real" camera. I'm glad I did.

I'm glad these fun stories marched forth from the back of my mind yesterday and made me smile.

You've got some of your own stories that are just waiting to be summoned. I hope you can take some time in the next few days to remember them and smile.

Blessings!

The Preschooler - complete with scratched up nose;)

The Homeschooler

The High schooler

Love.