Learning To Live - Living to Learn

44 Days of Witchery - Day 18

2012-02-19T01:06:00.000-08:00

44 Days of Witchery - Day 18: have you had any paranormal experiences?

This makes me laugh. :) Of course I have! Daily.

But it's all little things that have very little importance to anyone but me. Knowing the phone is about to ring, or who it is calling before I look at the caller ID. Knowing the cash register at work is about to pop a code right before it does (there is no outward sign that could tell me it is about to). Lots of little things.

The photo is from my bachelorette party, where all my friends hennaed my hands and feet. My friend "S" that is feeding me a bite, her husband had recently died. He was an awesome man, friends with my husband, who really looked up to this man. Had he been alive, and allowed to come, he'd have preferred to hang out at my fun party instead of going to my husband's bachelor party. "S" and I like to think he was there after all. You see, this photo was taken with a digital and is part of a short series of photos. The one before and after show no hazy spot like this one does. The gal who was taking the photos knew what she was doing, and did not get fingers in the way. We reviewed these pictures right after they were taken, and "S" and I both had one of those "frissons" of knowing that her hubby had been there celebrating with us.

And of course there is the story of using the ouija board with my mom... NOT with a group of tweens. And bunches of other things...

But if you are looking for really huge, significant paranormal stuff, I don't have any. :)

44 Days of Witchery - Day 17

2012-02-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

44 Days of Witchery - Day 17: Picture of nature (fire element)

photo credit

44 Days of Witchery - Day 16

2012-02-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

44 Days of Witchery - Day 16: favorite witchy websites

The Witchy Web!

There was a time when I had lots of time to spend on the internet (before hubby and kid). lol Now days, I have less time to spend and well, less research to do. So I actually don't do a lot of witchy web surfing. But I do have some favorite site that I will share. :)

First off, I visit a number of blogs. I like reading about people's day to day lives and what sort of stuff they are up to. So some of my favorite witchy blogs are on the sidebar on the right. I'm always adding to that list though, so if you have a blog or know of a great one, feel free to share!

I also like reading the latest pagan news, so I visit a few sites for my news:
The Witch's Voice: http://www.witchvox.com/
The Wild Hunt: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/

I happen to like a number of the blogs at http://www.patheos.com/Religion-Portals/Pagan.html some are newsy, some are just informational or interesting. :)

I love online e-zines. The first in this list is one for kids! I love it!

The Pooka Pages: www.pookapages.com (currently free)
The Witches Hour: http://www.pagan-mart.com/ (inexpensive)
Ye Olde Witches Brew: http://yeoldewitchesbrewmagazine.presspublisher.us/ (currently free)
Practical Magick: http://momsawitch.blogspot.com/p/practical-magick-ezines.html (currently free)

I very rarely buy anything anymore. (more on this below) But when I do, it is usually from Azure Green http://www.azuregreen.net/ or one of the many Crafty artisans that you can find on etsy.com (my go-to place for anything handmade).

I don't buy very much anymore because I prefer to make stuff! I like being crafty and Crafty lol. So what inspires my craftiness? Pinterest.com Just do a search on anything you like and you can find someone has pinned a website for just what you are looking for. I find most of my DIY inspiration there. If I find it elsewhere, I pin it! If you can't register for Pinterest, you may need an invite. Just leave a message with your email address and I'll invite you so you can explore.

There are a couple pagan/wiccan learning centers or seminaries. If I could go to one, this is the one I'd go to: http://www.ardantane.org/ they have held one online class so far, so I'm hoping they decide to offer more!

I lean towards egyptian expression of my witchy-ness, so I find a lot of value visiting these:
http://www.hethert.org/
http://www.hwt-hrw.com/

Well that's it for now. :) Please feel free to share any websites I might have missed!

44 Days of Witchery - Day 15

2012-02-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

public domain photo

44 Days of Witchery - Day 15: your thoughts on the afterlife

#1 thought is: No one sits in judgement over me or anyone.

I'm going to try to nutshell my thoughts.

Before we are born, our Spirit (or soul) communes with Deity and makes agreements on what sort of lessons and challenges that we shall face in our life. Whether it's being born to poverty or richness, suffering long illness or becoming a healer, all these things are agreed upon that we will have opportunities and choices in our life that will lead to the lessons we plan to work on. Our spirit makes agreements with the spirits of those who will be our family, and then we are born.

We live our lives, coming to choices that lead to the life and lessons we had agreed to embark on before we came to our physical bodies, and then it is time to die and move on.

When our spirit leaves our physical body, usually we need a period of rest to reflect on the lessons we learned in our physical life. Sometimes, the lessons we had agreed to work on didn't get finished, so maybe we'll decide to work on it again in the next life. Maybe the life we just left was very very hard, and we choose to rest even longer, and the place we rest is called Summerland in the Craft. Sometimes, the lessons we chose to work on was being cruel and selfish persons (I personally think it is newer spirits that work through these lessons to get them out of the way) and these spirits after leaving the physical plane feel the need to atone for the cruelties they did, and they choose how they do this, either in their afterlife or to return to the physical and atone there. Other spirits loved life so much, and the ones they shared life with, that they agree to return and share it again.

The key here is that *we* create our physical lives and our afterlives. Our higher self creates this, in agreement with Deity. There is no god anywhere that wants us to suffer. But our spirit chooses it's life experiences because *I* believe that our spirit wants to experience EVERYTHING. Experience brings wisdom. Wisdom brings compassion. Our spirit, having experienced all, returns to Deity, or perhaps chooses to become a guide for those on the physical plane.

This is why I do not rail at goddess or god for making babies die, or blame Deity for the cruelties of humans. Our spirits or souls, the part of us that has the spark of Divine in it, that communicates with Deity (and we ALL have it), this part is the part that makes choices and sets our lives in motion. We still have free will in our physical lives, we can still choose to NOT be selfish or whatever. But we set our physical lives on the path to the lessons and challenges that our spirit felt it was time for us to learn. So, knowing this, I cannot blame Deity for cancer taking my dad, for any of the little things that afflict us or even for tragedies that happen everywhere. No, it's not any god's fault that a baby in the uterus is afflicted with a birth defect that will kill them. The mother's Higher Self, her spirit, before she was born had agreed to experience this loss and the baby's spirit had agreed to that short short life. It's a terrible challenge to live through and I'm sure many will not agree with me or accuse me of not "getting" what it means to suffer this loss. But I get it. I had a miscarriage. My mom had a stillbirth and that's always been in the back of my mind. But I WILL NOT blame anyone, especially not Deity, for a tragedy like this. There is no one to blame. It is what it is. A challenge, a lesson.

So ask yourself, what lessons do you seem to be working on in this life? And if you passed on today, what do you think your Spirit would say about how you met and dealt with those lessons?

This is what I think. Your mileage may vary. :)

44 Days of Witchy - Day 14

2012-02-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

44 Days of Witchery - Day 14: A favorite pagan holiday

I love them all. Really. But my top two favorites are Samhain and... you guessed it, Beltane.

Beltane is made of awesome. The days are (usually) warmer and greener. It's close to my birthday (about a week before). My mood always takes a huge upswing in April and May.

Usually friends of ours invite us to their big Beltane celebration, complete with Maypole and fire-leaping. (babies were recently born after being conceived right after that fire-leaping, awesome!)

I remember as a kid we celebrated May Day with May baskets that we made ourselves - myself and cousins... none of our neighbors knew what May Day was. Family called it our old German heritage... making our own baskets and filling them with little gifts. Then sneaking up to our cousin's door and leaving the basket there, ringing the bell and hiding. My Aunt Deloris was an expert at coming up with the most awesome recycled baskets from plastic milk jugs and other household cast-offs... and this was more than 30 years ago, before "re-purposing" was trendy.

44 Days of Witchery - Day 13

2012-02-08T23:06:00.000-08:00

44 Days of witchery - day 13: what are some of the witchy books that influenced you?

Lucky number 13! LOL I get to talk books on lucky day 13. :)

Diary of a Witch by Sybil Leek is the first non-fiction book I read that did not portray witches as "wicked, evil" creatures that worshipped a devil. It just whetted my appetite.

The only other books I found at the time (late 80's) that were at the public library were two Cunningham books: Earth Power and the book of Oils, Incense and Brews. I had them checked out for a long time! Then, suddenly, there were lots more books at the library, and I had a job where I could afford to buy books, and my tastes expanded. Also, I joined a coven eventually, and had reading assignments... which I expanded on my own.

And of course, Drawing Down the Moon is a MUST READ.

I read a ton of stuff... histories both pro and con witchcraft, treatises like The Chalice and the Blade and some others.

No student of the Craft can NOT read Spiral Dance by Starhawk! Such a wonderful book!

I also read books on ethics, and by this time of course, you could read books on different traditions of the Craft so there were lots of choices.

Some books left more of an impression than others. I was glad that many books were available through inter-library loan so I didn't have to pay for them!

Other books, Like Positive Magic, were keepers and I was glad to buy it. Once I even misplaced it and planned to get another copy till mine turned up.

It was a fabulous day when the founder of the coven tradition I was initiated into wrote a book about building covens! She'd written other books but this one was quite the tome! I am so glad I was able to get it. If you ever get a chance to attend a workshop by Amber K, do so!

In recent years, I've been reading a lot of books on magic, the mind, quantum physics...

These books have really had an impact on my thought process when working magic, praying or just THINKING.

These are the books that have had the MOST influence on me. But they are not the entirety. Every book leaves a mark, even if it's a stinker! There's always something to learn, something to think about. I love books, after all!

What are your most influential reads?

44 Days of Witchery - Day 12

2012-02-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

44 Days of witchery - Day 12: Picture of Nature (air element)

44 Days of Witchery - Day 11

2012-02-07T11:39:00.000-08:00

44 Days of Witchery - Day 11: witchy tools: oils

I probably would have played with essential oils even had I not been pagan. :) I love the scents and I use them mundanely as well as magically. In fact, oils were perhaps my first foray into witchy crafting, as one of the first books I read was Oils, Incense and Brews, and oils were easy to come by.

However, my stash has dwindled! Both individual oils and the blends I make. My more recent purchase was through a company that sells smaller bottles, which allows me to buy more different oils, that was from Nature's Gift. They even included a couple free sample ampules, which I thought was very nice! I also buy at the local health food store, they sell Aura Cacia and Frontier Herbs oils. My food coop also has oils in the catalog and when they go on sale I sometimes buy.

So, since I'm needing to create some more oil blends, do you have a favorite magical oil blend? :)

44 Days of Witchery - Day 10

2012-02-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

I'm not so sure about that last one...

44 Days of Witchery - Day 10: my sun sign. Yeah... it's Taurus. I chose these images when I googled for a Taurus picture because the descriptions of Taurus are textbook for me. Even the negatives.

Although, I HAVE learned to temper some of my negative traits... I'm not as bad as all these words suggest. ;)

Images from: www.squidoo.com

44 Days of Witchery - Day 9

2012-02-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

from Smithsonian

44 Days of Witchery - Day 9: Favorite mythological animal.

44 Days of Witchery - Day 8

2012-02-04T10:45:00.000-08:00


www.nasa.gov

44 Days of Witchery - Day 8: a photo of a magical place outdoors

I looked through my photos and while I found many lovely pictures of places I've been, and they were all magical to me because I'd been there and because they were inherently magical as they were part of the earth. I kept thinking... these pictures do not say what I want to say... but I couldn't figure out why.

Then I realized, taking one photo of one place and saying it's a magical place (to me) is implying some other places are NOT magical. And while I would agree that the local county landfill does not at all seem like a magical place... it is! It's part of the earth but also, there is magic happening there. Some of what is there is being converted (eventually) into compost, and other things the earth will use. Yes, there is stuff there that may last for thousands of years and do nothing good for the environment. I am an optimist and hope that someday either mankind or the earth finds some way to handle our landfills.

Till then, I have to say, here is my photo of a magical place. The Earth. It's part of a magical universe. We are part of this magical planet. What we, as people NEED to do is own this feeling that we are living on a magical, living planet so that we all can treasure it as we should.

happy birthday....

2012-02-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

February 3rd is my daddy's birthday.

I can't tell you how much I miss you dad.

44 Days of Witchery - Day 7

2012-02-03T07:27:00.000-08:00

44 Days of Witchery - Day 7: Element of air

This is pretty open-ended. :) the list didn't say "photo" or anything. I could have done a list of correspondences but who cares? those lists are all over the 'net.

So I guess I'll just type some random thoughts I had today about air. When I was trying to decide what picture to use, cuz I always use a picture - preferably one I've taken - I thought of this one that I took at the family museum, of a "tornado" machine that is supposed to demonstrate for kids how tornadoes form.

For kids, this is just something they like to jump into, to break up the "tornado" and make it form again. But as I'm sitting there watching it, mesmerized by the foggy smokey stuff, I think of how this "tornado" doesn't really show the power of real tornadoes, how awesome and horrifying they can be. I thought of my mom, recently moved to OK, sitting in her closet during tornadoes last summer. I thought of the baby, pulled from his mother's arms as they sat in their bathtub during a tornado in my mom's town and later found, dead. I thought of the tornadoes that devastated Missouri last year.

Usually when I think of the "Element of Air" I think of feathers, birds, breath, words. Easy things, nothing dangerous (well... words can be but for the sake of this writing...). But today my contemplation of air reminds me that like water and fire and yes, even earth, these elements have their destructive side. We think we, as humans, have it all figured out. We are very small beings that are just a small part of the larger organism, the earth.

44 Days of Witchery - Day 6

2012-02-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

manyhandshouse.blogspot.com

44 Days of Witchery - Day 6: favorite god

He is in the food we eat.
He is in the trees that sleep in winter.
He is in the sun that shines.
He is in my son, who grows before my eyes.
He is in my husband's heart that loves.
He is in the people who stand for what they know is right.
He is the seed that waits for me to plant this spring.

44 Days of Witchery - Day 5

2012-01-31T15:35:00.000-08:00

44 Days - Day 5: A favorite Goddess

It almost sounds as if I'm supposed to run a lottery, for all the goddesses to compete for the position of favorite. Goddess just is. The name I use doesn't matter.

So instead I'm sharing a picture of a statue of Isis, that is only about 45 minutes drive from me. Because She's beautiful. Because who would have thought there would be a statue of Isis in the middle of Iowa.

44 Days - Day 4

2012-01-30T07:28:00.000-08:00

44 Days of Witchery - Day 4: picture of nature (water element)

Whenever I think of the element of water, I see the Mississippi when it is flooded, the river that rules my hometown here. The water that will not be stopped, will not be controlled. We are used the the floods. Flooding is one thing my town handles well. But lest we ever forget, we cannot control it.

44 Days - Day 3

2012-01-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

44 Days - Day 3 "Witch Tools: Athame"

From Wikipedia:
An Athame or Athamé is a ceremonial dagger, with a double-edged blade and usually a black handle. It is the main ritual implement or magical tool among several used in the religion of Wicca, and is also used in various other neopagan witchcraft traditions.

The top one is my first, acquired about 20 yrs ago. The second is a fantasy blade, given to me as a gift. The third and fourth ones are only just recently acquired, as in this past weekend, and need some work and cleansing. And a new sheath since I want to carry them together.

44 Days - Day 2

2012-01-27T23:56:00.000-08:00

Day 2 - A myth or story from folklore.

This is an egyptian folktale originally told by Joan Grant and can be found in it's entirety in her book The Scarlet Fish and other stories. This version was adapted (and abridged) by Aaron McEmrys.

The Monster Who GrewSmall

Far to the south, beyond the great river, there wasa small village, where a boy lived with his uncle. The uncle was known far and wide as “The Brave One”, for he was amighty hunter, but the boy was called “Miobi”, which meant, basically –“Scaredy-Cat” because he did not like to hunt, and was scared of the hungrylions that lived outside the village.

Every day he had to go down to the river to fetchwater, and to get there he had to cross through some of the scariest junglearound – a place full of snakes and leopards and giant spiders. And every time he went into the forest hewas so scared that he could barely breathe.

One day, just as he was crossing the very scariestpart of the forest, he heard a voice crying out for help. He wanted to run away, but the voice soundedso frightened that he summoned up every bit of courage and ran to see if hecould help.

He found a small rabbit caught by the leg in atangle of creepers. Very carefully hefreed the rabbit, who was very grateful. The rabbit said, “I was so very frightened, but now you have come andrescued me. You must be very brave tocome alone into the forest.”

“I am not at all brave. I am called Miobi, the Frightened One – but when I heard howfrightened you were I just had to help. I know I am too weak and scared to protect you, but if you want, I willcarry you home and make sure you are safe.”

“That will not be necessary young man – I live upthere, in the Moon, so you can’t come with me yet. But I want to give you something to show you how grateful I am. What do you want more than anything in thewhole world?”

“Courage. Iwant to be brave, like my Uncle!”

“I can’t give you courage, but I can tell you whereto find it. The road is long, and youwill have to walk it alone – but whenever you are scared and want to turn backjust look up at the Moon and remember that I am your friend and will alwayswatch over you.”

Miobi followed the road the Rabbit showed him andafter many days he came to a village where everyone was crying and hiding undertheir beds. “What is wrong?” Miobiasked the first person he met, “Why are you all hiding?”

“Wouldn’t you be hiding if you were about to beeaten by a Monster?”

“A Monster?”

“Yes, a Monster. It has the head of a crocodile, the body of a hippopotamus and thetail of a giant snake. It breathes firefrom its jaws and will soon destroy us all! See, it lives up there in a cave on top of the dark mountain.”

Miobi gulped. He was terrified, but he saw that the road the Moon Rabbit showed himwent right up to the very top of the mountain where the Monster lived. Miobilooked up at the Moon, and knew what he must do. “I will go challenge theMonster”, Miobi said quietly, almost trembling with fear.

And so he set off up the mountain on shaking legs,sure he was about to be eaten, burned, torn apart or maybe all of the above.

Climbing the mountain took a long time, but soon hecould see the Monster in the distance. It was even bigger than he had feared – it was very big – even for aMonster – and it really did breathe fire –burning everything in sight.

Miobi kept climbing, but then the Monster roared aterrible roar and Miobi was so scared that he ran right back down the trail asquick as he could. Now the Monsterseemed even bigger than before.

“This is curious indeed” thought Miobi. “The fartherI run from the Monster, the bigger it seems, and the closer I get the smallerit seems. I wonder what will happen ifI get very close? And so the boy closed his eyes and started running as fast ashe could up the trail so that he wouldn’t have time to start being frightenedagain.

When he finally opened his eyes Miobi couldn’t seeanything scary. The Monster was nowhereto be seen. Then he felt something hoton his foot. He looked down and therewas a little tiny monster blowing a tiny flame out of his tiny mouth. The fire wasn’t very hot at all. Crocodile head? Check. Hippo body? Check. Snake tail? Check. It really was the Monster – but it was so smalland cute! Without a thought Miobipicked it up and scratched its back, and the Monster made a funny sound halfwaybetween a purr and the simmer of a cooking pot.

“Poor little Monster! You must be so lonely in this big old cave all by yourself. Come with me, I will be your friend.”

Miobi put the Monster right on his shoulder andwalked back down to the village with his new friend. He wasn’t afraid any more. All the people of the village were amazed, and crowded around to see theMonster. It woke up, yawned a smallpuff of smoke and began to purr.

A little girl asked, “What is its name?”

The Monster cleared his throat and answered herquestion himself. It stopped purring,looked round to make sure everyone was listening and said:

“I have many names, but most people call me,‘What-Might-Happen.”

Everyone thought that was a very silly name for aMonster. But Miobi, who was on the pathto wisdom, understood, and laughed at how foolish he had been.

44 Days... day 1

2012-01-27T04:34:00.000-08:00

What's your witchy background?

A very long time ago, a 20 year old woman got out of the military and came home to be a "civilian" again. She was adrift... the military and she had not gotten along well enough for it to be a permanent career. She felt adrift spiritually as well... not comfortable at all in the pentacostal christian church she'd been a member in, or really any christian church. Like most in her generation, she never knew of any other options... it was simply a choice of which christian denomination she would join.

For months and months, she worked part-time jobs and read books, mostly science fiction. She found this novel on the shelves at the public library, and being a fantasy story and having something to do with a cat and magic, she thought it sounded like a good read.

That book, that fictional fantasy, changed everything.

You see, that story included modern people that called themselves "witches". Normal men and women with jobs, lovers, families. They weren't bad or evil just because they were witches. And their lives were full of interest, mystery... magic.

Now this young woman knew a little bit about authors. They wrote about things they knew... things they researched. What if... what if these authors had researched REAL people calling themselves witches? She had to know more. And she knew a little bit about researching too, so off to her public library she went.

It might have ended right there, except that her local public library had a librarian who was pagan, and had the charge of buying books for the "occult" section. Of course, this was 1988, and there were few and far between books on modern paganism. But there was Diary of a Witch by Sybil Leek. And there were a few books by Scott Cunningham. (pagan, witchy and wiccan friends, you may roll your eyes all you like at Scott Cunningham books, but when you are a closeted introvert in 1988, have no money and no internet, and at that point, Cunningham is ALL that was available at the library... well this blogger has fond memories, and still has his books) She kept Earth Power checked out from the library for months before she finally got the courage (and money) to go looking at the bookstore.

By 1990, she had not only gotten hired on at the public library, and made friends with a certain librarian, she had devoured every book she could get her hands on. Between what the library had, and the staff discount for buying books via the library, that was a LOT. By 1991, she had met local pagans, witches and wiccans (other than the librarian). By 1994, she had joined a coven as a dedicant, and eventually initiated.

She learned much about magic, goddess and god, ritual, pagan festivals, coven and group dynamics. Her experiences were transcendental, wonderfully positive and some negative as well. Her coven had initiatory milestones, and she became Elder, considered ordained. The coven was also "out of the broom closet" so she had to grow into the ability to teach others, be willing to "out" herself, even becoming less of an introvert and growing far beyond what she'd ever hoped to be.

As life happens, she married, had a child, changed jobs. When her job schedule began to interfere with the coven schedule, she parted ways with the coven to walk her path on her own. She creates her world on her own for now, still making magic, talking to goddess and god, still planning to attend pagan festivals, still finding the Sacred in everything.

44 Days of Witchery

2012-01-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

I was surfing the web this morning, and discovered the Mom's a Witch blog. She posted today that she's starting a series of posts called 44 Days of Witchery. I like it! So I'm going to do it too. :)

Here is the list, one for each day. I will start answering them tomorrow! So check back!

1. What’s your witchy background?
2. A myth or story from folklore.
3. Witchy tools: athame.
4. Picture of nature (water element).
5. A favorite Goddess.
6. A favorite God.
7. Air element.
8. A photo of a magical place outdoors.
9. A favorite mythological animal.
10. Your sun sign.
11. Witchy tools: oils.
12. Picture of nature (air element).
13. What are some of the witchy books that influenced you?
14. A favorite pagan holiday that you celebrate.
15. Thoughts on the afterlife?
16. Favorite witchy website(s).
17. Picture of nature (fire element).
18. Have you had any paranormal experiences?
19. Fire element.
20. A picture of a tarot or oracle card, and its meaning.
21. A favorite scent.
22. Current moon phase.
23. A favorite candle.
24. Your moon sign.
25. How do your close ones feel about your witchy path? Do they know? Why or why not?
26. A witchy podcast.
27. Picture of nature (earth element).
28. A picture of a witchy I-Want-It-Now!
29. Water element.
30. Witchy tools: wand.
31. A favorite pagan/witchy movie.
32. A pagan/witchy artwork.
33. Faerie of your choice.
34. Rune of your choice.
35. Something that I think people who don’t know much about paganism/witchcraft should know.
36. Flower of your choice, and its magical properties.
38. A famous pagan/witch!
37. Witchy tools: cauldron.
39. Something that inspires you.
40. Your altar, if you have one!
41. A spell you’ve done.
42. A favorite nature spirit.
43. A magical recipe.
44. Witch’s choice!

Imbolc love!

2012-01-24T22:39:00.000-08:00

The wonderful sabbat Imbolc is returning, and we are preparing for it!

Yesterday I dug out my wheat and set it to soak. Of course Kevin was excited, as this is the first time he and I have done this together. His idea was to tease a cat with the wheat of course, so now my weavings have to be on the wall or hidden from the cats or they will play with it!

I made two Brigid's crosses. The first one is primitive and rough looking, as the wheat wasn't quite soaked enough, but I still like it and plan to hang it on the front door. The second one I made is pictured above, and Kevin loves it. It too is a little rough... it's possible my wheat was too old? I have no idea when I got it, but it was surely well before the kid was born, lol.

Kevin did his own thing with scraps. I tried to interest him in attempting one of the crosses, but lately when I pull out some sort of crafting, he just wants to do his own stuff, and I'm ok with that! His imagination is fun to watch, I like to see what he comes up with. Today was also good practice at dealing with frustration - for both of us!

Kevin insisted I take a picture of his creations along with mine! So I did. Sorry about the flash reflection on the table. I have much to learn about photography. :)

Here are my creations from yesterday. The only traditional weaving I did were the Brigid crosses and that little star, which I found on a website in the beginner weaving section. hahaha! The little wheat goddess and god were me just experimenting for the fun of it!

Not sure what we'll do next but we do need to make some candles still. We have until next thursday! :) Have any plans for the coming Sabbat, or if you don't celebrate it, have you done anything to bring some cheerfulness to your home in these dreary winter days?

I'm resolved...

2012-01-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Why make resolutions or set goals? Because when you aim at nothing, you will surely hit it. (borrowed from my mom!)

I bet you are wondering why, at nearly the end of January, I am posting about New Year's resolutions!

In December, when people started talking about their resolutions for the next year, I thought, why should I make resolutions? I'll probably fail them and not see them through. Then my mom posted the statement above on Facebook, and it brought me up short. I've been struggling enough with feelings of inadequacy, but if I aim for nothing, set no goals to improve... then how will I feel when I succeed at NOTHING?

So I've set some goals for myself. And I'm posting them now because it took me this long to decide how to articulate them to myself. I should have been doing that all of December! Better late than never. :) I am also inspired by my friend Melanie, she and her family named the coming year! What a great idea! So I'm naming our year "Living the Good Life". We don't have to be rich to live prosperously... it's all about perception. I am so thankful we have a home, incomes and the freedom to choose for me to be home more, and that's a prosperous and good life.

So, in no particular order of importance:

* Clean the house. Not just picking up the clutter. I mean the "Great Purge of 2012" clean. Each month I'm taking on a room of the house, and deep cleaning, purging anything that isn't needed, used, loved and passing on that abundance to those who need or want it. The first room that I've tackled is the kitchen, and I've kept it clean all month so far (omg I have mopped TWO times this month!). The kitchen isn't done yet, I still have a list of things that are yet to be done. I only have 9 rooms in the house, but I'm also hoping to get the basement and garage purged and cleaned out as well... some rooms will be easier than others, so hopefully in 12 months, this particular resolution will get done!

* Manage our money better. (not elaborating here, I have my own list for this)

* Go to Pagan Spirit Gathering this summer.

* Use my stash. That means not to buy more yarn, fabric, scrapbook stuff, etc; unless I need some thing for a craft that uses my stash. This will be the hardest resolution ever. I'm giving myself a free pass at least 2 times this year, when I go to a scrapbook crop. hahaha!

* Manage my health better. (again, not elaborating here... long list of things to do!)

* Do more with my son. He's not old enough for kindergarten, so we don't focus too much on home school yet, but he's asked for more "schooling" anyway, and there's much we can do. If we start working on a rhythm now, when the time comes to really do it, he won't even notice much of a difference in our daily activities.

* Do at least one thing that I've pinned on Pinterest a week. I hope it would be a couple things a week... a food recipe and a craft project maybe, but I'm not pushing it. :) So far I've done several things inspired by Pinterest!

* Scrapbook more often. I got out of the habit when the scrapbook store I worked at closed. I want to go back to doing it for the reasons I originally started doing it, and get more done.

* Be a better wife. (another personal list)

* Study my herbalism courses properly and regularly. Also add in other healing modalities that work for me, such as reiki and the courses that are part of the naturopath course I'm supposed to be studying!

* Find, create, live the Sacred, every day. I have lots of paganish things I want to do and never seem to make the time for them. Well I am going to make time, even if it means I don't get finished with my house cleaning! take that, resolutions list!

Did you make a resolutions list? How have you been doing so far, with one week left in January? :)

Photo credits: Hoarding: Buried Alive

Winter Preserving - Lemons

2012-01-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

Many of my friends and acquaintances put food by in the summer and fall. 2011 was my year of learning... I canned, froze and even did a litte dehydrating. I didn't do a lot, not as much as I want to eventually. But I learned the techniques and made mistakes so that I could learn from them (like putting the overflow valve on my pressure cooker in backwards!).

Do your preserving efforts end when the summer's harvest is put away? It shouldn't! We are fortunate that we may purchase foods from other areas of the country/world during all seasons, making it possible to serve and preserve seasonal foods from anywhere.

I have been wanting to try some Moroccan recipes for ages, and I've collected most of the ingredients (spice blends, mostly). But one ingredient often called for in these recipes is preserved lemons. Not something I've seen in stores around here! However, my cookbook also gave instructions for preserving my own lemons, and since they are now in season, that's what I decided to do! It was actually super easy!

You need about 8 lemons, kosher salt and a sterilized quart jar. If the lemons are tiny, you need more. You may also need lemon juice, if your lemons are not juicy. (I did not need juice)

First, you want to scrub your lemons super clean. I purchased organic lemons, because the part of the lemon used in the recipes I plan to make is the peel. The pulp gets discarded! The thought of preserving pesticides in the peels turned my stomach, so I got organic lemons. Organic lemons sometimes have spots. Doesn't matter! Just scrub them really good with a vegetable brush and get them good and clean. I used vinegar and water to clean them, as recommended by my friend Michelle in her post at Simplify, Live, Love. Now, if your lemons are thick-skinned, as mine were, you might want to soak them in water for a few days. I just filled a bowl with the lemons in it with lukewarm water and changed the water every day for 3 days. If your lemons are thin-skinned, skip the soaking!

Next I cut the ends of the lemons off where the peel sticks out, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch depending on the lemon. Then I cut the lemon in quarters keeping one end still attached. It's important not to cut all the way through! After all the lemons are cut, pour a tablespoon of the kosher salt into the bottom of your sterilized jar.

Now, without pulling your lemons completely apart, gently open the quarters and generously sprinkle salt all over the insides. I found that spooning the salt into the lemons was easiest! And just a word of warning: if, like me, your fingers are dry enough that you have a little cracking, or maybe a hangnail or 3... protect yourself. There may be much gnashing of teeth otherwise! :)

Ok, before you put the lemons in the jar, you need to salt the outsides as well. I just rolled them in a bowl of salt. I had no trouble keeping the salt on the lemons, they are damp from their soaking and some lemon juice had begun to get everywhere. Put the salted lemons into the jar one at a time, putting a spoonful of salt in after each lemon. It might be a good idea for you to grab your trusty wooden spoon at this point, because as you put the lemons in the jar you need to PACK them in. This means squeezing lemon juice out as they get packed in. And don't stick your hand in that jar to pack them! My lemons were particularly juicy! The juice and salt is what preserves the lemons so you need to use the spoon and really push those lemons hard down in there. Yes, you should be able to pack 8 good sized lemons into that jar. If they are super big, maybe only 7. My mistake was not packing the first couple lemons in good and tight. My lemons were also so juicy that I had juice overflow so I had to take the jar to the sink to finish it. After all my lemons were packed in, I dumped in another heaping tablespoon of salt to replace what might have come out with the juice overflow.

Wipe down your jar and seal the lid on tight. Let it sit on the counter a day or two, then put it in the fridge. Every other day or so, turn the jar to move the juice and salt around. In 3 weeks, the lemons will be ready for use! Use a wooden utensil to remove the lemons, not metal or your fingers. Rinse the lemon to get the salt off, discard the pulp if you wish and use the peel to flavor slow-cooker meals, fish, or anything else you'd like! Most especially, use these lemons when they are not in season at the market, and save yourself some money! The lemons will be good for 6 months to a year in the fridge!

Some variations on the preserved lemons are to add spices; cloves, coriander seeds, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns and bay leaves are traditional add-ins. I plan to make a couple more jars that are spiced in different combinations, just to see how that tastes! In a few weeks I will be posting about my Moroccan slow-cooker adventures!

Do you preserve the winter seasonal foods in any way? I'd love some other ideas!

What's happening? :)

2012-01-16T21:49:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog! Long time no write. :)

So many times I thought, I need to blog this or that. I've had deep moments that deserved blogging and random non-important things I thought would be fun to write up. I just never sat down long enough or more likely, put down whatever I was doing.

But I want to come back to doing this more regularly, so I'm starting off with a catch-up type post. What's been happening since last September?

I played in the garden (a couple beds of tomatoes and peppers) and found a garden friend. I canned over a dozen jars of tomatoes, froze a gallon bag worth of peppers, froze several pounds of zucchini (purchased at a produce auction), canned 7 jars of grape jelly. Not a lot of perserving, but 2011 was my year to learn preserving techniques and test the waters to see if I liked it well enough to do more of it.

There was belly dancing! Another attempt (failed) to make it to a class regularly. A hafla where the sublime Melanie and her students danced. Another wonderful friend, Jenahid, and one of her students also danced there. My son was fascinated, and later let me put a little scarf on his hips so he could shake it up! :)

We went to Festival of Trees, went to parks, picked apples, celebrated my son's 5th birthday (poorly, he got shorted on his birthday this year, due to a change in my job status), went to the ICON science fiction convention, the scrapbook store I worked part time at closed for business, we went to a Lego Robot tournament, celebrated Yule with friends and family.

I spent more time making things by hand in 2011, though I did not do nearly as much as I wanted. I did however, meet my main goal of keeping Kevin down to 2 hours or less of TV a day. This was tough, as it was a habit to let him watch TV so I could do things without interruption! In other words, letting TV be the babysitter. And there were a few lapses where he might have watched a little more than 2 hrs, but then there were be a few days of no TV. Instead, I found that he explored his imagination a LOT!

We celebrated the New Year in style... at Monkey Joe's bounce houses. They do a countdown at 8pm for the kids, hand out hats, noise makers and bead necklaces. Kevin had a blast and James and I read our nooks. :)

I debated making resolutions for this year, and almost didn't! But now I have, though I am trying not to set myself up for failure and disappointment. So in a post here soon I will write up my goals for 2012, and talk about how I hope to meet them!

For now, my blog and anyone still reading, Happy New Year to you and many blessings!

Field Trip! Produce Auction and more!

2011-09-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

My friend Michelle from Simplify, Live, Love told me about a produce auction held not too far from Kalona, IA which is a bit over an hour drive from home for me. I had never heard of produce auctions! I was curious and Michelle wanted company so I tossed the kid and myself out of bed early (for us!) and off we went!

We arrive and had NO idea how it works! So as we're watching stuff being auctioned off these wagons, a really sweet lady fills us in on the particulars of how the auction works. If there are multiple boxes or items, they auction the price of a SINGLE item multiplied by how many you are required to buy... lets say there are 20 bushels of tomatoes, and you are required to buy 10-20 bushels... the auctioneer starts the price for one bushel, say it ends at $10 and the winner states how many bushels they want, at least 10 or as many as 20. So we watched as pots of mums are sold for $3 or $4 a pot. Cases of squash, tomatoes, pumpkins and more! Even some cut flowers!

The peppers in the lower left corner went home with me! A peck of peppers... for $3. I had no idea what a peck looked like as a measurement. Now I do know. :) I also took home a box (a bushel?) of zucchini for $5. Don't laugh, no one has offered me any free zucchini and I've been collecting all these recipes for zucchini on Pinterest.com!

What I wish I could have bought were the pecks of green beans! There were also apples and pie pumpkins I wanted. I could kick myself now for not getting the green beans though, but I am new at this auction thing and I didn't have any price points in my head to know if I was getting a bargain or not.

Auctioneers amaze me. How do they talk so fast??? By the time the morning was over, I felt like an expert with that little nod that tells him I'm willing to pay that next price up... or the little shake of my head that says no, I'm out. :) And all the while my arms were crossed in front of me! I wasn't the only one doing THAT though! Lots of other ladies kept their arms crossed too! LOL

Kevin enjoyed checking out the working horses. We were in Amish and Mennonite country so there were lots of horses, carraiges, carts and wagons. Kevin checked them all out before he got involved in playing with Michelle's kids.

Michelle at Simplify, Live, Love is doing a post on her take of the produce auction, so head over there to see what she says about it! Scroll down to see her previous post about Stringtown Grocery, which I'm talking about next.

After our produce auction experience, we decided to head toward Kalona and look for the Stringtown Grocery, which we had both heard of (though I didn't know the name of it). It is an Amish-run grocery, with items offered in bulk or split-bulk. One of the attractions to me is that they split a bulk item and package it as cheaply as possible so you aren't paying the upcharge of fancy packaging, plastic AND cardboard together with lots of printing and pictures. Just a bag of something with a simple label. Many of the items are even produced by the local farmers so there's the added bonus of supporting local business. Not to mention the prices were often better or at least on par with buying at the big box stores. I bought a lb of honey at the supermarket for $4, and that was the dirt cheapest, who-knows-where-it-came-from honey. Yesterday I got 5 lbs of honey for less than $3 a lb and it was locally produced. I picked up a few other things, including some more Tattler canning lids (BPA free and re-usable) for cheaper than what I paid online straight from the manufacturer.

On the whole, a productive day! I will definitely be going back out to the produce auction! And posting my canning and preserving stories. ;) Thanks for stopping by!

learning by doing - nettles

2011-09-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

My friend Melanie mentioned a while back on her blog Susun Weed and her online herbal courses. I remembered hearing about Susun Weed even farther back from another friend, and I'd checked out her courses and put them on my wish list... then forgot about them. Well, Melanie's post about Susun on her blog reminded me, and since we had the means this summer, I signed up for Susun Weed's ABCs of Herbalism course.

One of the things Susun believes we should all do and the first assignment from the course that I decided to tackle, is to drink at least 3 quarts of nettle infusion a week. You can find a lot of great info by Susun about nettles. For the infusion, take 1 oz of the dry nettle herb and pour a quart of boiling water over it, and let it steep 4 hrs or overnight. Strain and drink. I let mine steep over night, as it's convenient that way. After I strain it, I split it into two servings and put one in the fridge for the next day and put the other over ice for that day. I do add a little agave syrup or honey as it is difficult to drink otherwise. ;) Susun says to use miso instead of honey but I don't like miso either!

Back to the nettles. See my glass above? that is my infusion. I was surprised at how dark it was! The flavor is strong and not very pleasant but I'm sure I will get used to it in a few weeks. This morning was day 4 of drinking it. The assignment is to drink it for a month and then record changes in hair, joints, skin, health etc.

I think I already have something to report. I suffer from "tennis elbow" in my right arm. Saw the chiro about it a month or so ago but it only helped a little and didn't stick for long. It was really bad last week, with shooting pains that caused my arm to go completely weak and unusable, and nearly brought me to tears a few times. Can't even lift a gallon pitcher with it. Well I haven't had shooting pains for 4 days, and yesterday I kind of thought perhaps there wasn't that much pain in it at all. Today it feels like it's definitely better. 4 days! and this pain that I've lived with for nearly 8 months is going away?

I will drink nettles for the rest of my life if it cures my tennis elbow.

Susun has a free online course for "Nourishing Infusions". Click here to check it out.

Editing to add: I purchased my first pound of dry nettle leaf herb from MountainRoseHerbs.com at a very reasonable price! Then I discovered that my food coop stocked Frontier Herb nettles at a slightly lower cost so I ordered another pound from them. My glass of nettle infusion above is the Mountain Rose nettles! Shop around, prices on herbs fluctuate just like any other food based on crop success. I buy organic herb of course, since I don't want to worry about poisoning myself. :)

moons and magick

2011-08-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

National Geographic

"I have found that covens are for moons and magick.
Save the Sabbats for family and festivities!"
~ Melanie @ The Pagan Family

I have been contemplating my pagan path a lot lately.

You see, I had been in a coven for over 16 years. I have been pagan for longer! But my membership in the coven defined my path for so many years. Now that I'm on my own, I think, "What next? What now? Which way, Lady?" And, secretly, am I somehow "less"?

When I mentioned my change in status to my friend Melanie at the beginning of the year and that a Sabbat was coming and now as a solitary with a child, I wandered how to celebrate the Sabbat with my son and without a coven, she made the statement "Covens are for moons and magick, save the Sabbats for family and festivities." That sentence has been resounding through my head now for months. I think it defines what I felt was lacking in my path at the time I chose to part ways with the coven I was in.

Moons and magick were... well... not feeling as magickal as they once had.
I was operating under the assumption that the coven was my "family of choice", when in fact I was incorrect.

Choosing to step out of the coven was a difficult decision. There are lots of things I could say about what led to that decision but those things don't need to be said here and now. What I'm writing about is basically "thinking out loud" about where I am: Why is Melanie's statement having such an impact on me? Why am I contemplating it so hard? What next, what is different now?

In the very beginning of this year, coven-less, I was quite adrift. But as time went on I realized... nothing *really* has changed other than I don't go to someone else's house once or twice a month. About the only other real difference is that I no longer have a membership in COG. Since all that ever really meant to me was that I had a little card that said I held ordination credentials through COG, and if you asked me to produce that little card right now I'd have to say, "um... dunno where it is." I think that makes it pretty clear how important that card really is in the grand scheme of my life.

Being Wiccan, being a witch, it doesn't mean you need to prove to anyone you are an ordained priest. (unless your state requires such proof to act as clergy in a public capacity, which Iowa does not) Being a Wiccan or witch means you are empowered to be your own priest... not just empowered, EXPECTED to be your own priest.

In that coven's tradition, I held elder status. That did mean a lot to me. I worked for that, I EARNED it. (insert light bulb moment) I am still an elder! That still means a lot to me. Elder status conferred "clergy" status, ordination status. Whether that means anything to another wiccan or witch is up to them. It won't change who I am, it won't change the fact that I know I am a Priestess. It doesn't change the fact that once recognized as an elder by myself and others (in that coven and outside of it), I will always remain an elder, an ordained priestess, as long as I choose to be one. I may, should I choose, perform the services of clergy should someone request such services.

So, here I am, contemplating moons and magick, Sabbats and celebrating, and what is next in my path. Another coven? (maybe) Solitary for a while? (surely)

Whatever my path may look like, right now it is one I am building as I am led back toward what has called to me for years. And exploring THAT is for future blog ramblings. :)

I need to pull myself out!

2011-07-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

On July 6th, my dad passed away.

I haven't been the same since. I am thankful I was with him, that I got to tell him I loved him, that I got to say goodbye.

But I am still upset that I had to say goodbye at all. He was only 63. I know others have passed much younger, in worse tragedies. But I still have the right to feel that he was too young to pass on (he was only 18 years older than me).

I know myself pretty well. I struggle often against chronic depression. It took me almost 3 years to get out of the depression that started postpartum, and I had to resort to drugs to do it. (I loathe taking drugs)

I realize I have to let myself grieve, I know it's a process. My concern is that the line between grief and depression is too fuzzy for me. I know what happens when I'm depressed and I see it happening and I can't stop it. I need out, I need to stop the downward fall before I have to resort to the drugs (which ain't happening, as we don't have the good prescription coverage I used to have so we can't afford happy pills).

I guess I'm posting about it because last time I wouldn't admit that I was depressed for a very long time. If I admit it, I have to own it and take responsibility for it, and hopefully work myself out of it faster.

In the meantime I guess I'll eat some chocolate.

Weed Walk

2011-07-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post for my good friend Melanie's blog, The Pagan Family. This is the post she put on her blog, including her comments, which are in purple!

I visited my most gorgeous friend Melanie the other day. We share many loves and one I plan to explore in great detail is herbalism. I have signed up for TWO herbalism courses recently and right now I am focusing on identifying common local herbs, especially the so-called weeds! Melanie is a fabulous resource for this! She identified a few weeds in my own yard (Yellow Dock and Lambs Quarters) to my delight. I just had to go on a weed walk in Melanie's yard while there!
We identified so many things that my poor brain did not retain it all. I should have taken my notebook with me on the walk so that I could write the names down as I took pictures... lesson learned. But I do now remember a few of them (borrowing a few books for identification helped!)

Thimbleweed

Mugwort - This one made it into one of my very first jars to make a tincture. I was supposed to make a dream pillow with it, but I forgot and tinctured it instead. Ha! I also tinctured some wormwood.

Wild Rose - this one I could identify but I snapped the picture because of those odd globes attached to the leaves, I wanted to know what those were. (galls from a gall wasp)

Foxglove! the picture does not do it justice.

Prairie Milkweed!

We tentatively ID'd this as trefoil. It seemed smaller than it was described as the book, but all other attributes matched up.

Burdock - now we're trying to decide if it's first year growth or second year.

And here are some that I forgot their names, so Melanie will have to fill in the blanks for me!

Comfrey!

Spiderwort

Melanie said the flowers were lovely but they close in the evening.

Echinacea - getting ready to flower

I found this new one right outside the front door. I tasted the leaves. Nothing. I tasted the seed pods. Yum! Wild mustard!

We saw a lot more, but I did not take pictures of everything especially since I knew most of them. We saw yellow dock, lambs quarters, red clover, thistle, nettles, shepherds purse and yellow wood sorrell. (Don't forget the plantain! She's an abundant treasure!) I knew fleabane, which I think was one that Melanie hadn't been familiar with. And she had a mint she did not know, which I was sure was catnip (an easy verification with my cats took care of that ID).
I had the best time! I can't wait to do it again, this time perhaps more prepared (I'm thinking of pressing samples!)

OK all you Green Witches, here's a reader challenge. What the cuss is this? It grows near the artemesia on the south side of the house. It has small white flowers.

What's growing in your yard? I look forward to your responses. Thanks again Michele!

And another thank you Melanie!

Weed Walk! Link!

2011-07-06T01:04:00.000-07:00

I went on a weed walk at my good friend Melanie's house! She's fabulous at identifying plants and since I want to learn more about herbs, I was so excited to get a chance to learn more identification from her.

Even better, I was honored to be asked to write up a blog post for her blog!!! Please hop on over to

The Pagan Family

and read all about my adventure walking the "weeds" at Melanie's house!

this moment...

2011-07-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment} is inspired by SouleMama blog.

Allergies going... going... gone?

2011-06-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

Kevin, two days ago, itch-free.

I was willing to try just about anything non-invasive to fix Kevin's food allergies. But there just aren't a lot of options. Lots of ways to treat the symptoms (eczema, diarrhea) but nothing to fix the PROBLEM. Allergy shots were not a good option... he'd have to get them for years to cover everything he was allergic to.

I've been in a natural/organic food coop for over a year, getting a lot of Kevin's specialty foods cheaper there. During one of our distribution days I was talking to another coop member about Kevin's allergies and he said "you know E treated me for my allergies and they are almost gone, you should talk to her." E's home is where our coop stuff is delivered.

We had to put socks on his hands

I talked to her that day a little, and she told me about a few of her successes. She gave me a pamphlet and I said I'd get back to her after looking at my calendar. Then the following couple weeks I mentioned the whole thing to a friend who also knew E (her hubby is my friend's boss) and she told me E had treated a family member for pain when the doctors couldn't help and the pain was eliminated.

In the beginning of June I took Kevin over and E treated him with Neuro Modulation Techinique (NMT). Don't ask me to explain all the details because I stink at that. Just google it if you have to know more.

He would rub his head raw while sleeping

E said that basically Kevin's issue is that his body could not recognize certain foods as nutrition, but saw them as invaders. So his body would defend against the invasion. She said that Kevin's body had to be told that these foods are nutrition so that it would process them as such and stop causing the eczema and diarrhea. Basically the NMT treatment looked like a type of accupressure treatment (there is more to it than that, that's just what it LOOKED like to me). Kevin loved it.

I was afraid to post about this because I was afraid it might be too good to be true! That our success might be 'jinxed' if I talk about it!

The result? Days 3-5 after the treatment, Kevin had a bad few nights of eczema itching... almost like his body was kicking out the last of the toxins. Then the itching stopped. The rashes healed and went away. There's been no diarrhea since either.

Purplish shadows around his eyes

Also, the shadows around his eyes that are always around the eyes of a kid that has a lot of food/environmental allergies are fading.

The first week after the treatment I had him eat lightly of most of the things he was allergic to... dairy, wheat based breads. Then we started pushing it, and he's had pizza a LOT, ice cream, peanut butter, macaroni & cheese, lots of bread (wheat and eggs!). All things that would cause massive break outs and so much itching at night that neither of us would get any sleep unless I coated him with steroid anti-itch cream.

Is it over? I don't know. We might need to visit E for a follow up to tweak things. She said sometimes that is necessary. All I know is that I bought a brand new tube of steroid anti-itch cream at the beginning of the month and it remains UNOPENED in the box... after living through the past several years of putting this cream on him EVERY DAY.


Shadows and itchies gone!

Would NMT help other kids suffering from food allergies? I don't know. "Your Mileage May Vary" and all that. But our visit with E cost me $90 and if it really has fixed the problem as it seems to, it's the best $90 I've ever spent! Heck, it would only take a few months to pay me back just in the savings I'm getting from not having to pay for rice cheese, rice milk, gluten/milk/egg free bread-making, etc, and all that dang steroid cream I never wanted to use.

NMT can be good for chronic pain, chronic illnesses like fibromyalgia and other stuff. And it's non-invasive and safe for kids, pregnant women and old folks too.

And let me tell you, it's the best thing ever seeing Kevin's face when I told him we were going out for ice cream at the ice cream shoppe, where he hadn't been for ages. And fantastic for me, who would have watched him pay the price a few days later in pain, itching and tears.

Disaster to Adventure!

2011-06-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

This lovely butterfly is a Variegated Fritillary! Why am I posting about this? Because the day I took this picture is the day we were driving home from our Oklahoma vacation. :)

You see, we'd barely been on the road long really, just 4 miles over the OK border into Kansas, when the car just STOPPED. Fortunately I managed to get onto the shoulder with the momentum of the car but we did not make it to the exit I could see a mile or so ahead. Thank goodness I had our insurance card with the roadside assistance phone number. (I'm thankful because I could not find it when we left home, though I had been sure I had it, but it turned right up when I was looking for it on that hot Kansas road!)

Though Kevin had already been fussing about being sick of driving (only a few hours into a 9 hr drive...), when the crisis hit he became a much more patient little boy. I'm hoping he was being sensitive to mama's distress, I think so anyway. We waited an hour for our tow, and Kevin did okay even though it was hot and boring.

The guy towing us was pretty cool. So was the A/C in his truck! However the insurance gave me a phone number for the repair shop in the town down the road... but the number was for a shop in Chicago!!! What the heck? The town was small though, so there weren't many shops to go to for repairs. We ended up in a dealership, which was also apparently one of the main repair places. They also told me on the phone that they could look at my car that day and possibly get me on the road that day.

Finally the car was getting worked on. We were tired, bored, hot and hungry. We walked a block up the road to get something to eat, and there was not a sidewalk, so it was sort of "wild" as much as the roadside can get on the outskirts of a little town. We weren't in a hurry so Kevin and I "explored" on our way, talking about the flowers we saw and taking pictures of them.

So Kevin and I have spent the last few days trying to identify the flowers we saw and that butterfly! So here's to turning what felt like a disaster at first, to an adventure!

I think this is common Yarrow!

I think this one is Fleabane!

I think the flowers that butterfly is sitting on may be Low or Missouri Milkvetch. This one was the hardest to identify and I probably have it wrong anyway.

I think this one might be Purple/Poppy Mallow.

This is the only one I'm pretty sure about! lol... Yellow Goatsbeard aka Western Salsify.

So there you have it, our little adventure in the "wilds" of roadside Kansas. :) We were there for hours by the way, and we'd have gone bonkers if the dealership hadn't let us hitch a ride on their wireless internet. ;) I certainly couldn't blame my kid for wanting to leave and saying so frequently! All that matters though is that the car got fixed and we got back on the road that day, and made it back to my dad's by midnight. (It was the fuel pump, and they had to drive one down from Topeka!)

So, have you ever been stuck on the side of the road with your kids? How did you deal? Share your ideas for making long road trips more enjoyable! We did a few road games and I had a dvd player for when I couldn't entertain him due to driving. Would love to read your experiences!

Our Oklahoma Vacation :)

2011-06-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma!

My son and I took a little vacation to visit my mom and her husband in Oklahoma, where they had recently relocated to from Florida. I will admit that my first thought upon hearing their plans to move was disappointment. I had no desire to visit Oklahoma! I loved visiting them in Sarasota, Florida and Oklahoma could never have a place in my heart, so I thought.

Well I'm still not in love with Oklahoma, but it turned out to not be the huge disappointment that I thought it would be. :) In fact it was quite lovely in the town we were in! We left home on Saturday and headed to my dad's house first. It was directly on our route to OK anyway, and it helped to break up the drive by going there first, then driving the rest of the way the next day. I used to LOVE driving on long trips just for the adventure of them, but after a bad accident in 1999, I hadn't truly enjoyed a driving trip so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the trip south. My son was even well behaved! We arrived in Edmond, OK on a pleasant Sunday evening.

Our week was full of activity and sightseeing! Here are a few pictures of our days in Oklahoma!

We found a cute little (fake) train that Kevin wanted to visit frequently... as in daily. Turned out this little train was parked in front of a former train station turned dentist office.

I learned that Edmond is the home of hundreds of bronze statues (actually it was probably not quite 100 but they were EVERYWHERE so it seemed like hundreds lol... but artists can sure make a little cash in Edmond!).

We went to Oklahoma City Zoo.

and Science Museum Oklahoma.

We went into downtown Oklahoma City aka Bricktown and took a water canal tour (and saw more bronze statues).

Kevin got a new bike as a special big present for this year's birthday/holiday gift.

We went to several parks!

I got to meet up with an internet friend I've known since before I was pregnant with Kevin!

I learned that I *really* do not feel comfortable in a game hunter's home.

We saw lots of these oil pumpers from Kansas into Oklahoma. I learned that trying to take a picture of them while driving is probably not a good idea.

We spent time with my step-family, which Kevin really enjoyed!

Best of all though, was getting to spend a week with my mom.

Next up: Our trip back home or: Turning a disaster into an adventure!

Post Screen-Free Week and Update

2011-05-28T00:02:00.000-07:00


our chives are taking over!

Ha! My poor lonely blog! I have ignored both this one and my crafty blog for weeks!

I blame Screen-Free week! :)

That's right. That week back in April where, for the sake of my kid, I turned off our TV and my computer, and my son and I had a week of doing things (or nothing) that were away from screens and media.

But that was last month! Did we ever turn our screens back on? Yes we did, but not quite as much.

The TV has remained off, for the most part. If it comes on, it's usually for less than an hour and then not even every day, and only some pre-selected shows on streaming Netflix. We got rid of cable last year and I haven't gotten around to hooking up the antenna so we can have local TV. (that's right, I don't watch Idol!)

I did come back to my computer, because I'm addicted, but interestingly I have been on it less! So that's good, but it has meant I have neglected my poor blog. :) I may never be one of those interesting pagan mamas that blogs every day!

I meant to come back here and post about our screen-free week, and what we did. I even meant to post lots of pictures. Turns out I was so busy living that I didn't even remember to TAKE many pictures! HAHA! But we did get a few, so here's what I have.

Technically this happened the day BEFORE screen-free week started, but Kevin talked about the Earth Day Expo at the QC Expo Center for days, which meant it was a topic of discussion well into screen-free week. :) Check out this sand sculpture! Gorgeous!

We shopped. :)

We dyed a silk with turmeric at the Waldorf Homeschool day! This stunning yellow came from a simple spice, nothing else but water and vinegar!

We shopped some more, but haven't bought yet. :)

I celebrated a birthday.

Other things we did: Got family memberships to the local museums and zoo (and visited the museums). I joined Weight Watchers. Colored ukrainian eggs. Played outside. Went for walks alone and with the kid. Did puzzles, crafts and art. Cooked and cleaned! Shopped for hubby's new laptop, our new treadmill and contractors to do work on our home. Grandma even participated in the screen-free week, only breaking down for a half-hour of tv on the friday night, which was much better than I expected her to do!

After all is said, it was a successful experiment. And I am GLAD that my son's addiction to TV and my reliance on TV as a babysitter is broken.

Screen-Free Week!

2011-04-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

In celebration of Screen-Free week, we will be turning off our TV and my computer!

Screen-Free Week and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood are encouraging families to turn off screens and find other fun things to do during the week of April 18-24.

Kevin and I will not be watching TV, playing the Wii or playing on the computer, including surfing the internet or reading blogs! (yikes!) This will be a little tough, as we just got a new Wii game, but we'll do it. ;) I do have to do some work on my computer for my job, but this will be limited hopefully to early morning when Kevin is still asleep so he is not tempted by the screen.

So what to do for a whole week without screens? Well, CCFC has a post on 101 activities to do during Screen-Free week. Here's some of the things I'd like to do this week:

Do some housework/purging of clutter
Clean out my car
Weather permitting, get out in the yard and clean it up, prep it for some gardening, mulch where needed. Hopefully Kevin will help me! He's been excited to garden with me this year.
Have lunch with a friend.
Dye some silk on Waldorf Homeschool day
Clean up my craft room as I have assignments coming up that need scrapping!
Do some crafts with Kevin in our cleaned up craft room.
Season my new Tagine so I can try a new tagine recipe.
Finally get my coupons organized.

So, I will see you all in 7 days, when we come back with our report on our week of being Screen-Free!

Have a good week!

Dandelions for Breakfast!

2011-04-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

You read that right! We had Dandelions for Breakfast! Really, it was more like brunch... as we had to wait for the dandelions to open their faces to the sun before picking them!

Note: Dandelions are a natural diuretic, and encourage the body

to release excess water. EXCESSIVE consumption of dandelions

may have a laxative effect! Everything in moderation please!

Did you know that the entire dandelion plant is edible? Not only that, it's actually rather tasty. Dandelions are best eaten in the spring, when plants are tender. The leaves are excellent added to a salad of fresh greens, the roots can be made into tea and of course, the flowers are edible too!

I have to thank my junior high science teacher for introducing me to fried dandelions. He spent the whole day one spring taking each of his classes out to pick dandelion flower heads and batter dipping them, frying and eating! This is how I first learned of the diuretic effect of dandelions, as my poor teacher forgot and ate dandelions every class period and ended up spending a lot of time in the bathroom that evening! This is why we made a small batch ourselves today!

How to make Fried Dandelions:
Make up a batch of your favorite batter. We used Pakura batter, as it is usually made with lentil or chick pea flour, making it safe for Kevin's allergies.

I halved the batter recipe since I wasn't planning to cook up much, and we still had a lot of batter left over. The nice thing about pakura batter is that you can pretty much batter up anything and fry it. That's what they do in India! So don't throw away leftover batter, just fry up your fresh veggies too.

Set up your oil to heat while you go pick the flowers.

Picking the flowers was Kevin's job. Because that's ALL he's done since the dandelions showed up, is bring me fistfuls of dandelion bouquets every day! Several times a day! :)

Kevin then suggested we put chives in the batter. What an excellent idea! Our chives grow like crazy, so we have a ton!

Having a very special helper on hand to do the important jobs is very important!

Pluck the stems from the dandelion flowers, then dip them in the batter. Pakura batter is thicker than most batters so I had to kind of work the batter into the flower to get it to stay on the flower. That's okay though, as I love the smell of the pakura spices on my fingers! Put the dipped flowers into the pan to fry!

Fry till brown on all sides. Remove from pan to drain on a plate with a towel.

Garnish with a fresh Dandelion and serve! It was not enough for Kevin that we were eating flowers... we had to have a picnic on our porch too!

Our neighbors (some of whom have PRISTINE lawns) may not like the fact I let our yard have "weeds". But I don't think of them as weeds. I think of everything in my yard as having a purpose... it's either edible or compost-able or just pretty to me even if it is a "weed" to someone else.

But if you don't want dandelions in your yard, this is one good way to be green and get rid of them! Just pull them up out of your yard and USE the whole plant, flower to root! DON'T SPRAY!

Are you interested in other uses for dandelion (I fondly remember dandelion wine when my mom took me to the Amana Colonies). Check out Herbal Roots 'zine, an e-zine devoted to teaching (kids and adults) the medicinal (and more) uses of common plants. The 'zine is great! it's got activites, puzzles and recipes and much more! Here is a link to buy the back issue devoted to Dandelions.

PS: Kevin did like the fried dandelions however the pakura spices were a little overwhelming for him, so next time I use the batter I need to add more flour or less spices! :)

PPS: For Weight Watchers, I count dandelions as a veggie! but I do have to count the batter and frying for some points... I just haven't figured out how many yet. LOL!

Happy flower eating!

Year of the Purge - Debt be gone! (and other updates)

2011-04-06T02:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are DEBT FREE except for the mortgage! This is one thing I REALLY wanted to purge, let me tell you!

Before I quit my full time job, I had pushed myself to put all the "extra" money from my paycheck into paying off debts but we still had some after I quit. Not a huge amount but enough to cause some stress (any debt causes stress, right?) So we had planned to eliminate the rest using a type of debt ladder method or snowball method that is popular with many financial self-help gurus. Dave Ramsey is famous for the snowball method that he teaches. In the end, it doesn't matter how you get there, what matters is BEING there!

It did help that we got a chunk of money that helped us to finally finish off all the debts. I have one small one (to a family member) left, and will be pulling credit reports to be certain the rest are gone, but I think we are done!

What about that mortgage? It will be paid off well before it's term is up. It's a 30 yr mortgage, originally through Neighborhood Housing Services. They sold our mortgage to Wells Fargo, and I'm glad they did! Wells Fargo called me up shortly after they bought our house note, and explained their services. We switched from paying a monthly payment to paying half the monthly payment every two weeks. That means though that we pay, essentially, 13 monthly payments in a year. The entire 13th payment goes to principle! This actually shaves off YEARS from our mortgage! If I pay even just another extra $25 a month, I could shave off another few years and save thousands on interest. If you are interested in this kind of deal, check with your mortgage provider and see if you can do something similar.

Update on our No TV week: We completed the week of no TV at our house just fine! He still asks, and even will whine for about 30 seconds but on the whole, Kevin got over the no TV rule and now plays more. TV options have now been added back, but usually only an hour a day. This also includes Wii games. I am pretty strict about him playing on my computer when it's me being asked... I hardly ever let him on. James will let him on more than I do, but WITH him, and they play age-appropriate games together, or put online jigsaw puzzles together. The only issue I have is that James does not see the difference between online puzzles/games and real life puzzles/games and so doesn't think there should be a limit on screen time if it's a puzzle or learning games.

Slowly moving through the house, purging and (ugh) deep cleaning. The TOYS have been purged! or the bulk of them have. There are toys everywhere in this house, and so as I find them, I will continue purging them. But the main concentration of them have been sorted out of the living room. The only toys remaining in the living room are those too big for him to carry safely down the stairs from his room. And I was oh so brutal... About half went to goodwill. Two thirds of what remained when into the closet. Only a small fraction remain out, in his room to play with. I did leave out all his costumes and his play kitchen stuff, because those are imaginative toys and he does play with them often.

What I found to be most interesting, is how little he seemed to care for most of the toys after the initial resistance. At first of course he resisted getting rid of things, but he helped make the decisions to sort and really participated. Today he told me it was taking too long to decide and I should finish the sorting while he watched. So I did. He only tried to stop me a few times when I threw something away or into the goodwill bag. And then I'd point out that he had 3 "cell phones" and I was getting rid of the baby ones while leaving out the big boy one for him.... and the resistance would go away. Anyway, it's so nice to see the floor of the living room again!

Moving on to the rest of the living room now... my stuff and James' stuff! Ha!

Our Singulair experience

2011-04-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

People who know me well know that I'm not a drug-taker. Modern medicine is great, and some drugs are life-savers and we need them. Most drugs these days however, are just band-aids and do not address the real problems that cause poor health. Sometimes though I've chosen to take a drug to improve my quality of life. I've taken Singulair for instance, for bronchoconstriction caused by asthma. I had good results from it, and minimal, if any, side effects. It prevented coughing fits that would be so bad I would end up whooping for air or worse, puking.

So when Kevin turned 3, that winter was harsh for him. His allergies make him more susceptible to colds and sinus infections, and that year he suffered from cold after cold, and I shared each one with him. Finally, after the 5th or 6th round debilitating colds (in 3 months), I spoke to his pediatrician about it, and asked what we could do. She recommended Singulair. She said she'd had excellent results with few side effects. Because I'd taken it myself, and had looked at info about it before, and I trust Kevin's doctor, I agreed that we should try Singulair with Kevin. (I also went back on Singulair at that time)

He showed quick improvement after a few weeks. Allergy symptoms were reduced a LOT. While he was on Singulair he had maybe, 1 or 2 colds in a year. The severity of the cold was reduced significantly as well, so that we did not have to use a nebulizer/albuterol so he could breath better. I sang the praises of Singulair, and recommended it to a few mama friends who had kids with similar issues.

Here is where I have to say I cannot in good conscience recommend it any longer. Not that I'm going to go ballistic about it! :) I'm here to offer a warning, a reminder to other parents to do your research, to know what to watch for.

Kevin had been taking Singulair about 7 or 8 months when I came across a reference to Singulair side effects in young children at Mercola.com. (Disclaimer: Dr. Mercola is considered by some to be over-the-top in some of his ideas, but I credit his dietary recommendations for being the primary reason I was able to get pregnant and have Kevin. I do, however, take Mercola's recommendations with the idea that I need to verify his claims with other references, which is what we should do for all of our medical research) Mercola's website references an article that claimed Singulair caused a side effect of aggression in children.

This statement struck me, because I had seen an increase in Kevin's temper. It would flash hot and burn longer than it had in the past. I did a little research. Here and here are a few sites to get you started, always do your own research if you are concerned! Anyway, I was now more informed.... but were Kevin's tempers a result of Singulair use or just the usual Terrible 3's? And winter was approaching, the worst season for him. Should I take him off the drug or wait and see if the tempers got better or worse?

Being a parent sucks when you have to make decisions that effect your child... what is best for them. Peer pressure from other mamas on either side of issues are the worst source of stress and guilt for me. I hate having to worry about stuff like this! But in the end, we can only do our best to make decisions, right?

So, I left him on the Singulair for the winter. I thought, a few more months and maybe I'd know more. But I was pretty certain the aggression was not Kevin, but the Singulair. I planned to take him off after February, when the winter cold season was mostly over. By the end of January the decision was taken out of my hands! (providence perhaps?) When I went to refill his prescription, I found out that our insurance no longer covered Singulair and because it does not yet have a generic, the price was well out of our affordability. So we finished out the rest of his bottle and he no longer takes it.

This is where it got creepy for me. By January, he was having beyond thunderdome moments of rage if I denied him something. Uncontrollable anger, he would lash out at whatever was nearest, kicking or throwing. I tried the recommendations for Attachment Parenting discipline, I tried other new discipline recommendations, I even fell back on the non-productive methods like harsh punishments like throwing out the toys he threw or kicked. Nothing worked. He seemed completely unable to manage his anger or aggression. And this was the age where I am supposed to teach him about emotions and how to own them and cope with them. But I could barely cope with them myself, some days. Few others saw these episodes... on bad days we would just stay home. And you know, kids always behave the worst with the ones that are closest to them.

So, now two full months have gone by, and what do I have to say about Kevin's temper now that he is Singulair-free?

I have my angel back.

Oh, he's still a kid and has his naughty moments, still gets mad at me. But all those parenting methods work again. I can talk him through anger, I can redirect him, I can distract him from the temptation to be naughty.

Gone are the intense rage, throwing, kicking, hitting, breaking. It's like night and day to my eyes. I can hardly believe my eyes at the difference in behavior! Unfortunately, those months taught us all some bad habits we need to unlearn. But now I have the strength and resolve to do what needs done, since I'm not spending all my energy coping with mini-Mr. Hyde!

Could I have known this would happen to us? No. I'm sure Drugs.com had the same reports of increased aggression as a side effect before I started Kevin on the Singulair, but even if I had read about the side effect, I probably would have still put him on it. We read the side effects listings but usually don't think it will happen, right? Side effects can be rare, right? Not always.

The moral here is to PAY ATTENTION. KNOW your kid. I KNEW something wasn't right with Kevin, so when providence put the right info in front of my eyes, I knew to start really paying attention. Do your research so the knowledge is in the back of your mind and when you see something out of whack, you know where to look for the culprit.

And then, forgive yourself.

That's the hardest part for me right now. I'm wracked with guilt again. I know in my head I made what I thought would be the best decision with the knowledge I had at the time. But after the fact I am always miserable with hindsight. I'll get over it of course. And this blog post is part of my therapy... get my experience out there so other mamas might know what to look for, and do their own research.

Be safe friends.

"I wouldn't waste my time on guilt." ~God (Grass by Sherri Tepper)

Year of the Purge - Days 2 and 3

2011-03-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

Days 2 and 3 of Off With The TV at our house have gone well. Though today perhaps was not much a challenge since we weren't home for most of it!

Yesterday Kevin did ask to watch TV. "But I always watch in the morning!" The TV did not get turned on. There were a few forced tears... he couldn't even work up some real crocodile tears for me! lol By late afternoon it was forgotten when his BFF came over to play.

Today was homeschool play day, so we left at lunch time and didn't get home till almost 9pm since I worked after the play date and he went to Grandma's. If he asked for TV this morning, I didn't hear it, daddy did, and daddy stuck to his guns if the question came up. Yay! Tomorrow may be a test of resolve though, as I have some errands and will be leaving the boy home with daddy. :)

On the purging front, Tuesday afternoon Kevin and I worked on his toys. I gave him some guidelines but he did all the choosing! The rules were:

Stuffed animals - Keep one, two go in the Goodwill bag.
Toys - Keep one out for the toybox, put two toys in a box for the closet, put two toys in the Goodwill bag.

I'd say we've gone through 80% of the stuffed animals and toys. He has a tub of train track and Thomas trains, that will go in the closet. I will be leaving out the toy kitchen and it's accessories for now.

We have not sorted out the books, but I think 95% of the board books will be going. He has a LOT of other books!

As for the toys going into the closet, if he wants something from the closet he has to trade another toy for it. There will be no migration of toys from the closet and cluttering again!

On the rare occasions we are willing to buy him a toy he desperately wants, he will have to trade old toys for the new! Perhaps 3 old toys will go to Goodwill in trade for the new ONE... maybe 2 if it's a small new toy... maybe more if its a big one.

Though we are not done, I have not pushed to continue it today because we were busy. Also, it was a little brutal... he's got very few toys left out to play with compared to what he had. But on the other hand, HE has made all the choices. And I think that was the most important step, getting him to let go. (I had to do a little letting go too, as he didn't like some things I'd gotten him and it made me sad... but it's HIS choice). I am hoping that learning to let go now will help prevent him from becoming that packrat (hoarders) that his parents have become.

The hubby pulled 2 things out of the Goodwill bags that I know of. Grrr.

Anyway, hoping to finish up the toys by this weekend! There's so much more to do!

The Year of the Purge - a beginning

2011-03-29T00:11:00.000-07:00

I give you... an almost empty shelf.
It would be completely empty except that we have no designated spot for boxed family games yet. Indeed, this vintage Mah jongg is the only family game I think we own... we might have a checkers/chess set somewhere but I have no idea where...
I apologize.. I have no "before" picture. The accumulated junk, dust and cobwebs usually freak me out too much to take before pictures. However, think of the picture below as a secondary "before"... as I am going through the shelves again tomorrow and pulling out more books to eliminate.

I hate purging books... I love books so much and spent lots of money on them originally. I am also not sure that I will just give them away. You see I had already purged this set of shelves last year. It had been almost completely full, and I have whittled away at it until I had eliminated almost 2 shelves worth of books. But those shelves filled back up with kids books and junk, so I had to clean it off. (the kids books have moved, they still need sorted and purged) What is left on it now are the books that are difficult to get rid of... so we shall see how it goes tomorrow when I am rested and fresh.

So what has inspired this sudden urge to purge?
It's not so sudden. Someone used the phrase "Year of the Purge" in January, shortly after the new year. That phrase stuck with me, and I decided that this year would be my "year of the purge" as well. Purging of stuff, which has filled this house to the point where I am almost seeing signs of "hoarder" syndrome! I warned my husband in January this house would get purged but I don't think he quite knows how much I want to get out of this house!
Back to January... I did not start purging right away. I know that one of my biggest character flaws is procrastination. So I have lost 3 months of my year of purging. That's ok, better late than never right? No need to hate on myself for starting so late.
Purging of not just the stuff and junk in our house though.
Purging of unnecessary expenses.
Purging of beliefs and thoughts that do not serve me.
Purging weight and unhealthy habits that harm me.
Purging of the TV.

Several excellent blog posts by friends have lit my fire recently, stoking my desire to GET IT DONE.
My friend at Simplify, Live, Love has been simplifying, necessitated by a move of household. Her posts have really inspired me for saving money, purging and changing the way I manage my home.

My friend and biggest inspiration for homeschooling and simpler living at The Pagan Family wrote a post this week about fast food, media and kids. I have always thought the TV is on too much at our house and I wanted it off. But I had many excuses and no resolve. Well that is no longer: Yesterday (monday) was Day 1 of Off With The TV. There were tears, yelling and crying till he puked (he knows if he cries too hard he'll puke and he purposely did it to show me how seriously he wanted the TV on... it did not work). Amazing that once he decided to stop crying he completely forgot about the TV and started playing with toys. After that, there were no further requests for TV. My goal is to go a full 7 days without TV at our house starting Tuesday (I think the hubby allowed an hour of it Monday morning while I was at work, which I said was ok).

But at A Homeschool Story, she attended a conference about Waldorf and simplicity parenting and is posting about what she learned. So inspiring! So challenging! I am totally stoked to read more and will be trying to incorporate some of what I learn. Probably in stages! I think I will have some resistance here so I will probably not be able to get rid of everything I want, in one day. That's ok... we'll just move at our own pace. But I love reading her insights and it is motivating me! Hence, the purged bookshelf.

Only 11 more shelving units too go, not to mention the rest of the house and all the piles of everything, everywhere!

Thank you Melanie, Michelle and Angela for being my inspiration to finally get started!

Spring Fun!

2011-03-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday was Waldorf Homeschool day at Many Hands House! It was a super fun time! I just love the homey pandemonium there! We helped the kids make Spring baskets, with wheat berry seeds to grow wheat grass. Kevin checks his basket a couple times a day! It would grow faster if it were out in the sun I think, but it's been raining for several days so it's in the house, but still growing. Here's a picture of it from sunday night.

The grass is much taller today. I'll take another picture later with Kevin showing it off for an update. :)

Sunday was Ostara, the Vernal Equinox!
Kevin gets a Spring gift basket, usually with a few treats and some outdoor toys. Since his birthday and Yule are in the fall and winter, we save outdoor toy gifts for spring. :)

He loves the hula hoop and bubble wand. He's already gone through all the glow sticks! lol

I was so ready for Spring, but it would be nice to see the sun!
How did you celebrate the First Day of Spring?

What we're reading right now...

2011-03-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

My good friends over at The Pagan Family posted a list of what's on their reading pile. I thought it a wonderful idea so here is what is on our reading pile! First up, the books that are checked out from the Davenport Public Library!

I have to admit, I don't have time to read this cover to cover. But I've flipped through every page, and I stop to read the things that I'm most interested in at the moment. We don't have 1/4 acre, and there are other considerations that make it fairly unlikely we could ever be "self-sufficient" on our current small-city lot. But I would like to apply many of the principles in this book on my own gardening to increase productivity, sustainability and get as much healthy produce as we can. But it will take years to do as I'm not an energetic gardener. LOL But, this is a great book! The author is realistic and down-to-earth.
If only I could find someone willing to double-dig some raised beds for me.

Found this at the library. The pictures are gorgeous. I found a few projects that I will be copying to do in the future, including a few things I can do with scrap yarn.

Sexy Food Pictures! Oh my, after browsing this book, I was in the mood to cook for an Arabian Night! I'll be hanging on to this... may even renew it!

This is an ebook that I checked out through the library (Wilbor) and I only have 14 days to read it. I intended to load it onto my nook to read but I can't get the software to authorize my nook, so I have to read it on the computer. ugh! But still, it's a Dresden book. If I had to read it standing on my head, I'd figure a way how to do it.

Speaking of ebooks, I bought this book to load on my nook. I hadn't planned on buying too many books at full price but when we were at B&N at the mall, I got a free taste of this book and got hooked.
Normally I am not interested in anything late period Egypt but I do have a fascination with Cleopatra. I have watched all the film versions I could (Elizabeth Taylor's is still my favorite because I'm an Epic Film fan too) and been to the Field Museum to see the exhibit. Anyway, I am enjoying this book. I'm still in the first or second chapter, but that's ok, this one doesn't expire so I can take my time with it while I get finished with the library books.

This is the most recent issue of The Bug Magazine, a magazine about the Cricut. I subscribed when they first announced they were coming out with this magazine (I was also published in the first issue). It's a groundroots type of mag, not a ultra pro glossy magazine like Scrapbook Trends. Anyway, I especially like this magazine because they are publishing real people's cricut projects... not the Scrapbooking Superstars that design for 6 manufacturers and are published in every magazine issue ever. The folks published in this mag are average Janes and Joes like me... and I like that! (don't get me wrong, I like my ultra pro superstar mags too)

Ok. I broke down. I bought this on impulse at the checkout. I totally know better but the big story on the front there (about a fat cure) is what got me. Fortunately the magazine is only $2.50... not one of those almost 10 bucks magazines (which I would not have bought). Turns out that I'm glad I bought it... there were several articles I liked, a coupon for Catherine's clothing store that is worth redeeming, some yummy recipes, and lots more. (including coupons for food). I think the hubby even read it.

Speaking of the hubby, his reading habits are very different from mine. He's a speed reader and he tends to speed through books super fast, so I rarely am able to keep track of what he's reading. However, he pulled this book off the shelf and left it on the craft table, which means he read it sometime this past week. I bought this AGES ago, it's a "coffee table" book, but it's a super fun read through all the old Addams comics.

Kevin just got this book recently in the mail, from the Dolly Parton Imagaination Library. It's a program from United Way and the Scott County Library system that sends Kevin a book every month for free! He'll get books until he's 5 or 6... can't remember when it will stop. Anyway, since we got this one we've been reading it every night. It's a funny book about a boy who can't seem to help being loud, and doesn't understand why people don't accept him, loud and all. Then he saves the day by being loud, and is now accepted - but at the same time he also learns that there are times to be quiet and times to be loud. Today Kevin informed me while we were in the car that it was "quiet time" for listening to the radio, not loud time. (this is something the boy in the book learns) so perhaps this book is useful as well as funny. :)

So what are you reading? :)

The New Crescent Moon - Time to cut hair!

2011-03-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

It's a new crescent moon out, and here at our house, at least for me, it's time to cut hair!
When the moon is a thin crescent, just after the new moon, we call it "Diana's Bow". That's when the moon is about 3 days old.

Several years ago I read a book called "Living by the Moon" by Ute York. An article in the book about a Russian barber who arranged with some of his clients to only cut their hair on the full moon or the new crescent (Diana's Bow) for many years really left an impression on me. In the article the barber talked of how his clients hair seemed to slow down it's thinning and some clients' hair even thickened or when from straight to wavy over the course of several years.

For the last 15 years or so, I have only cut my hair on the full moon or Diana's Bow. Now, up until 5 years ago, I could safely say this totally worked for me. My hair had thinned as I'd gotten older, but when I started cutting it according to the moon phase, it slowed down it's thinning and even got a little wavier. Then I started taking pre-natal vitamins prior to getting pregnant, and my hair really started looking great (from the vitamins). After my son was born however, my hair took a turn for the worse - a bunch fell out and it thinned and lost most of it's waviness.

But I refuse to give up! I continue to cut my hair according to the moon phase. Here's the basic rules:

If you want your hair to GROW, cut it on the full moon or when it is 3 days old (3 days after the New Moon aka Diana's Bow).
If you want hair to slow down it's growing (like shaving legs, face, etc) then cut/shave on the New Moon, the 3 days prior to the New Moon and the days following the Full Moon.

So what do you think? Willing to experiment on yourself and change when you cut your hair? It takes a few years to see a difference but it does work!

S.A.D.

2011-03-02T22:03:00.000-08:00

I apologize to my 3 readers. ha...

I had a lot of plans to post to this blog frequently... I still have a couple posts in mind. But it's hard to write cheerful posts when one is not feeling that cheerful, you know? I know for a fact I'm suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder but there are other things going on.

The worst though, is my daddy is in the hospital right now, recovering from a second brain surgery to remove cancer that returned after treatment in August/Sept of last year. He's only 63. I don't know what the next step will be after he recovers from the surgery. I do know that the doctors told him and my stepmom that the cancer will return. And dad has said there will be no more surgeries.

So that is that.

and I am sad.

Imbolc! Spring is a-comin!

2011-02-02T21:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome Brigid! Brigid is Welcome!

And soon, we will welcome Spring!
A friend shared a little snippet on facebook:

"Imbolc is the day the Cailleach — the hag of Gaelic tradition — gathers her

firewood for the rest of the winter. If she intends to make the winter last a

good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is sunny, so she

can gather firewood. People are relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather,

as it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over."

I love this! Very evocative. We americans are used to the weather-divining with the groundhog but I really love the older traditions. By the way, the groundhogs in my backyard did NOT see their shadows today! haha!

I just recently parted ways with the coven I had been with for the past 16 years, so I found myself unexpectedly in a position to celebrate Imbolc on my own! My husband is not really pagan/witchy like me so I didn't want to spring any huge celebration on him or Kevin at such short notice, so I decided this year we would keep Imbolc low-key until we get into the swing of my new spiritual situation. I was inspired by one of my all-time favorite pagan families and a recent post on their blog. I thought the whole Irish Stew and soda bread idea to be an excellent one!

I started at my friend's blog with her recipe, but we are omnivores so I knew it would not please my hubby if there was not meat in the stew. So off I went researching other recipes for Irish Stew. I ended up not following any one recipe... I just threw stuff in a pot that I had seen in other recipes until I was satisfied with it. That ended up being onions, beef stew meat, sausage, potatoes, stock, Guinness and herbs and spices. I thought the stew turned out fabulous... I may have been a little heavy handed with the Guinness though, haha! I put one bottle in, then thought it would sure be nice to sip some so I opened another bottle and poured some more in the pot so I could drink the leftovers. haha! I have to say though, that the Guinness gave the stew a nice rich flavor and thickness.

I love bread in all forms and soda bread seems to be the bread of the day! However, it had to be allergen-free for the kid! So I stopped at my favorite gluten-free recipe source and found her Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread recipe. The nice thing about most of her recipes is that they are also egg and dairy-free. However, I always have to up the baking time... not sure why but instead of 30 minutes to bake, this bread probably had to be more like 40-45... at least in my oven. It was good but not as well-received as the yeast bread version. But we still ate it up!

Kevin and I headed outside for a little snow fun. We weren't out long... the wind was sharp and cold! Kevin got stuck in snow too deep and his boot came off, so his little toes got super cold. He held out as long as he could to play out there, but had to give it up after about 25 minutes.

I told Kevin a few stories for the season before bed and the day caught up to him quickly and off to sleep he went!

As for me, I have my own little observance of the holy-day. Mostly giving thanks! For my hubby's safe drives to and from work today! and that we were able to fix our furnace that broke down yesterday!

Bright Imbolc Blessings to all!

Loom knitted hat

2011-01-26T21:47:00.000-08:00

This is my lovely friend Shelley! She's wearing my first hat, knitted on a Knifty Knitter loom. Actually, the body of the hat is a very long i-cord, sewn together in a spiral. After I finished the spiral top portion, I put the hat on the loom, and knitted ribbed brim.

I love the hat, it came out very very nice. But it was just a little too big for me. I didn't like it on me. Shelley had seen the hat and loved it too. She's got bigger hair than me, so I knew the hat would look way better on her, so she got herself a new hat!

I'll make me a new, different hat someday. :)

My first "super saver" loss leader shopping trip

2011-01-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

So! I've been spending the last week or two reading Michelle's blog to learn about super couponing and loss leader shopping. This is my second attempt to learn, I tried a few years ago but I didn't really understand the process and the attempt failed within a few weeks. I am here this morning to share the details of my shopping trips today!

I visited 6 stores. HyVee, 2 Walgreens, 2 CVS and Fareway. Fortunately, my path from HyVee to Fareway included the WAGS and CVS stores, so I didn't have to go out of my way to get what I wanted. Here are the details:

HyVee
I went to HyVee for the loss leader sales. The deals I took advantage of were:
Progresso Soup - 10 cans for $10 (regular price $2.37)
Shredded Cheese - 10 for $10 x2 (reg price I think was $2.48)
Cottage Cheese - $.99 x2 (I forgot to check regular price but I remember paying $1.99)
Apples - $.65/lb x3 lbs (forgot to check regular price so I'm just going to guess .99 for now)
And Hubby asked for his tea (couldn't find a coupon) so that was $2.99 and we were out of Kevin's juice, and that was $1.18. I got a refund for bringing 3 canvas bags at .05 ea. Here's how I'm figuring this up:

	Sale Price	Reg Price or prices I remember paying
Soup	10/$10	$2.37 (23.70)
Cheese	20/$20	$2.48 (49.60)
Cottage Cheese	2 @ 1.98	$1.99 (3.98)
Apples	3lb $2.02	$.99 (2.97)
Tea	$2.99	$2.99
Juice	$1.18	$1.48
Reusable bag refund	-$.15
Totals	$38.02	$84.72

This gives me a total savings of 47% off regular prices. (I left out the tea when I did my percentage formula since it wasn't on sale) Not too shabby. We are stocked up on shredded cheese, that's for sure!

Walgreens
The deal I wanted at Walgreens was the Go! Kids gummy vitamins ($5 with $5RR) and the Kelloggs cereal deal (2/$5 use a coupon and get $2RR). I didn't have the Kelloggs BOGO coupon because I had a computer snafu trying to get it, and the website wouldn't let me print it. So I had $.70 off coupons. But they were for specific flavors and both Walgreens didn't carry those flavors. The first Walgreens did not carry the Go vitamins! But the second did, so I spent $5 OOP but now have $5 RR which will probably get spent on newspapers on sunday. Anyway, I saved 100%! Kevin seemed to have a reaction to the last gummy vitamins we tried but it's been a couple years so we'll try them again. I also bought a gallon of milk there as their sale price of $2.59 was cheaper than Aldi's price at $2.69.

Fareway
I initially only went to Fareway to get the ads. But in looking at the ads I saw Sunkist Oranges 10cents ea and Special K cereal 2/$5 with a coupon for $3 off my entire purchase if I bought 3 boxes. So I went back out to the car and got my .70cents off coupon for Special K (that I didn't get to spend at WAGS) and went back into the store to find the oranges. I liked the look of them so I bought 15 for $1.50 (6 lb) and then picked out 3 boxes of Special K. I couldn't find a regular price for the oranges but the bag of 4lbs of Sunkist oranges were marked for $1.99 so I will use that as my comparison. Special K at Fareway regular price is $3.98!!! (crazytown!) So my breakdown is:
Special K @ $2.50 ea x3 = $7.50
Oranges @ .10ea x 15 = $1.50
Coupons - $3.70
I paid $5.30 oop. Regular price comes out at $14.94 so I saved 35%

CVS
I saved CVS for last because it was my biggest score. :)
I went to 2 stores. My intent was to take advantage of the Scott Paper towels/bath tissue/kleenex/Cottenelle wipes scenario (spending $20 and getting $10 ECB). Well clearly I waited too long into the week to take advantage of that deal as both stores were out of stock. So I was standing in the 2nd CVS feeling a little frustrated, when I saw the sign for Pepsi products, spend $20 and get $10 ECB. I thought to myself, too bad we don't buy soda for our house. Then I realized the scrapbook store I work at needed soda for the store fridge we stock for our customers... I called the store to make sure they hadn't bought any and wanted me to take advantage of the sale...
I picked out 6 packs of soda and paid $20 oop (plus tax), and got $10 ECB... HOWEVER! I will get the $20 I spent back from the store. So basically I got $10 ECB to spend for no OOP expense.

Now for my grand totals:
I spent $76.26 of real cash today.
$25 of that will get refunded by the store for the soda. I got $10 ECB back from CVS and $5 RR back from WAGS. That makes my total "expense" $36.26.
If I add up the totals for the regular prices I would have spent if I had not done sales/coupons I get $132.70. That comes out to a grand total of 73% savings. Wow! Okay, so perhaps the extra time researching and hitting several stores was worth it. Imagine how much better I can do when this way of shopping comes naturally! I'm convinced now.

Thanks to Michelle for getting me interested again, and thanks to April (she knows who she is!) who brought this to my attention a few years ago, even though it didn't work for me then it was always in the back of my mind!

Store brands not always cheaper and researching shells

2011-01-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

So we went out to eat yesterday (DH's mom took us) and the buffet had small clams (in the shell) in a sauce. My son asked for one, so I only put one on his plate. I knew he wouldn't eat it but who knows, he might have tried it. He didn't eat it but it became a chance to talk about what clams are, and then we discovered the shell was actually pretty after we wiped some of the sauce off. So I cut out the clam and we talked about how the clam opens and closes the shell. When we left the restaurant we wrapped the shell in a napkin and took it home.

At home, we washed the shell and talked some more, then Kevin had to get out his box of shells and rocks, and pull out all the other shells. He picked out one in particular and asked what it was, so we googled it. The other shell turned out to be a lettered olive, that had held a sea snail. So he wanted to see what one looked like when it was alive. While looking through images of sea snails, he saw a jellyfish and wanted to see that closer. One image led to another and we ended up learning about the Blue Layer... when the tide in australia washes up Blue Bottle jellyfish, blue buttons, and other blue sea creatures. We looked at some lovely photos of striking blue sea creatures!

I stopped at HyVee to pick up a few things, including garlic capsules for DH. The selection was poor with two brands sold out. So I started to reach for HyVee's store brand of garlic caps because the price was lower but when I looked at the label, they were only 400mg (DH prefers around 1000mg) and only 50 caps in the bottle at I think $5.98 ... which means if he took 3 of them a day to reach his mg level for fighting off a cold, they'd be gone in a few weeks. So I pulled down the box from a name brand. It was $9.98 but it was 1200mg and 100 caps! I would have had to buy 6 bottles of the HyVee brand to match the amount in the other brand. CRAZYTOWN! Naturally I did not buy the HyVee brand. That taught me a good lesson about store/generic brands.

Gluten Free Bread (gratitude)

2011-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

I'm doing two things in this post... talking about making gluten-free bread and starting a subject theme of gratitude.

We learned that Kevin was allergic to the grain flours that contain gluten, (allergic but he does not have celiac) and I have discovered through the process of elimination that gluten wheats trigger my asthma and contributes to the slow metabolism syndrome I have. For Kevin, I work with a rotation diet so he's not completely gluten free but feeding him regular bread causes his eczema to flair up so I avoid it. We've experimented with all the gluten-free breads you can buy and many of the gluten-free bread mixes. None of them smelled or tasted good.

Then I discovered the Gluten-Free Goddess blog. A real life person, creating and testing and sharing gluten-free recipes. In fact, she's sharing recipes that are free of other allergens too, like eggs and dairy. From her I learned that the Breadman Pro breadmachine makes awesome gluten-free bread as it has a setting just for that... and a recipe for bread from scratch that most resembles bread from wheat.

Gratitude:
After researching this Breadman Pro bread machine and learning that it really is an awesome machine with super high reviews, I knew I wanted to have one. However, really good appliances tend to be priced out of our range, and this one was. I was willing to save up for it, but a sweet friend had it shipped to me as a gift! I feel intensely grateful for this. It was a luxury we couldn't afford for a while. So this is my first entry into my "gratitude journal". I want to find something I am thankful for every day. This gift has me grateful for many reasons, and I'll be grateful every day we make bread or pizza dough in it!

So, today we made our first from-scratch loaf of gluten-free bread using the recipe from the Gluten-Free Goddess. (I'm not even going to talk about the crappy bread mixes I tried in it. None were Pamela's Bread mix which is recommended by the Goddess and none were good) I'm calling the loaf of bread a success even though it fell in the middle. The Goddess says that it needs a little less liquid if it falls so next attempt we will adjust accordingly. The bread was still good enough to eat, in fact, Kevin and I gobbled down the end pieces right away! Unlike other breads I've tried to make, the loaf was not hard, dense, smelly or awful tasting! The loaf was easy to cut, a slightly crusty exterior, springy and light on the inside (except in the middle lol ) So I am very stoked about this!

Next time we make a successful loaf, I will share pictures. :)

Procrastination -> Printing pictures

2011-01-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

I do this almost every time! After about 3-4 months, I realize I haven't printed pictures in a while. Often I have waited to the point of NEEDING the prints ASAP (for my job as scrapbook designer) So I figure out who has a good deal for printing the fastest. Today, by the way, that was HyVee, with 12cent prints if you print over 75, and I could get them in less than an hour at my regular store. Then I stay up WAY too late editing and uploading them.

250 photos later, I went to bed at 1am. Nice. All I can say is thank goodness for a hubby who works 3rd shift and who takes care of business when he comes home in the morning so that if need be, I can sleep in. I got an email early this morning before I even came down that my photos are printed and ready for pick up. :)

That means all those great pictures of the holidays, the snowy days, including Halloween and our weekend vacation in November are printed up!

And now for my quarterly resolution to NOT wait 3-4 months to print pictures. But to print them monthly so that I don't spend so much time and money printing up huge batches of photos! hahahaha!

Be the change...

2011-01-01T12:08:00.000-08:00

There are changes ahead. I can embrace them, guide them, encourage them and myself in the direction that best serves us, and participate in the flow of change so that I (and we as a family) change and grow in positive directions by our choice.

Change is inevitable. We had many changes in 2010. We've struggled and sometimes railed at the changes that made us feel powerless. This attitude of helplessness in the face of change can lead to a personal response of depression, apathy and anger.

Rather than make resolutions or goals that I personally have never really succeeded in accomplishing in the past, I would rather CHANGE the attitudes and responses I have to the events and responsibilities in my life, thus bringing a more positive approach and result to all that happens.

Change the way our family views interaction with each other
My husband and I are polar opposites in many aspects. In my perception he is pessimistic while I am optimistic. There are many other things I see where we are opposite. Some of these things make communication very difficult between us. My son is at an age where he is exploring his communication skills and responses, not to mention limits. I would like for us to change our communication paradigms and seek more positive ways to communicate as well as provide good examples for Kevin to learn from.

Change the way our family views our finances
One of the changes in 2010 was me quitting my job of 21 years to be home with my son. This necessitated a drastic change in the way we spend our money. We are still struggling with this, to the point of it becoming a negative influence on our family life. We need a complete paradigm shift when it comes to how we view, relate and respond to our financial situation.

Change the way our family (especially me) views and relates to food
We have several food challenges in our family. I have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, asthma, PCOS and food sensitivities; and though it's not diagnosed, I show all the signs of an eating disorder. Kevin has shown asthmatic signs and has eczema that is food triggered, and we've got a list of allergens that are the apparent cause. James has milder eczema which may or may not be food-triggered but also in my perception he may have a few unhealthy food attitudes as well. I would like for us to change the way we view and relate to food to a more positive and nourishing daily practice.

Change the way our family views "exercise"
We are a bit sedentary in our daily habits and it's something that needs a major overhaul! Kevin is the only one who seeks out physical activity. James and I really need to embrace the need for physical activity and seek it out in a healthy way. It is difficult to do in midwinter and I don't want to set a lofty (unattainable) goal at this time, but I would like to ask myself every day: What did we do today that got us up and moving? ...and have a healthy answer.

Change the way our family views household chores
Oh what the house of two pack-rats can become! :) Neither of us are housekeepers either. Again no lofty unattainable goals. But I would like for us to learn to let go of material things that no longer serve us. We have a LOT of stuff that no longer serves us. Time to let go of the clutter.

2011 is the year for us to embrace the changes that will bring our family closer and lead us to healthier, happier lives.

something new!

2010-12-30T23:47:00.000-08:00

Hello! This is Michele and here is our new family blog! Mostly about homeschooling (I think) and a lot about family life and hopefully a little info that might be helpful to others occasionally. We shall see! Unlike my other blog, this one will be very diverse and all over the place.

If you are interested in paper crafts or the occasional other crafts, my other blog, Scrap-n-Dance is where I post stuff that just I do. Family crafts will be here. :)

Looking forward to sharing!