Morning at the Hospital

Today, Camden had his second set of ear tubes put in and his adenoids removed. We were at the hospital for four hours, although most of that time was spent waiting/recovering. My mom came up to help take care of him, and she's been a pretty big help, especially since he had to be out of daycare today and I have three rehearsals to be at. But he seems to have recovered. I say this because he's now running about, dancing, talking and playing like normal.

I realised that today is a full moon when we got to the hospital. And that made me think that today was a good day for this sort of thing. We fought with ear infections from Fall '07 to October '08 when he got his first set of tubes. And since then, he's been in speech trying to get his speech both caught up to other kids his age and also make it intelligible to people who aren't me. I'm really hoping this is the last surgery of the sort that he'll have to go through, that having the adenoids gone will enable the fluid to drain from his ears, keeping his hearing cleared and infections at bay.

Mushrooms

I had to go to my parents' yesterday to get my car fixed. And while I was there, my dad was basically rubbing it in my face that next weekend it would be in the 70's, perfect morel mushroom weather. And then he points out that I'm in prime mushroom-hunting territory. Of course, this is the man who only ever hunts mushrooms alone, just in case the person who goes with him spills the beans about where mushrooms grow. Honestly!

So maybe if it ever warms up here in the arctic north, I will go look about for some mushrooms, though I doubt that I'll have any luck. Which is depressing, because just looking at that picture at the top of the post makes my mouth start watering. Nom nom nom.

My own sense of style

Today, as I walked to history class with two friends, the subject of shoes came up. One friend owns, not kidding, at least 4 pairs of TOMS shoes. And while I like the idea of TOMS (for every pair of shoes you buy, TOMS donates a pair to 3rd world country village. Everyone needs shoes), I think they're ridiculously ugly. Sorry. Of course, this is coming from a person who wore moccasin slippers during most of high school, so maybe I'm not the judge of shoe-style. However, as I was saying that I don't like the shoes, my other friend piped up that I have my own sense of style and those shoes just don't lend themselves to it. I was really pleasantly surprised and pleased by her comment. Actually, now that I think about it, she comments on my clothes quite often. And while I don't dress for other people, it still makes me happy that there is at least one person who appreciates my (usually) thrift store clothes not as simply second-hand, but as awesome finds.

I also learned today that another friend's mom is Pagan. How neat is that? She saw my tattoo, said it was cool, and that her mom had a star like it. Now, this girl is very naive, so I thought maybe her mom had a star tattoo, and not a pentacle at all, so I ask if it's exactly like it. She goes, "Yeah, well, there are moons around it." So I think, no way, and ask if they're crescent moons as I draw in the air the maiden/crone crescents. My friend nods and says yes, so I decided to take the chance and ask if her mom was pagan. ... I wonder if my friend is?

Sorry, really random post. I just thought both of these events of the day were great counterpoint to the rest of the day, and they both made me smile.

Love

(Hypothetical) Fire

If a catastrophe struck and you had to leave your home in a hurry (and never return), what items would you grab in your last ten minutes, and why?

I saw this prompt on Livejournal today, and it made me think. I did an exercise like this during Nerd Camp in '04, where we had to save four things from a fire, and then we proceeded to "give" them away to others in the group. It was a really emotional exercise, mostly because we had to think about what we were giving away, to whom we were giving it, and why. It was the why that got me. One of my items was my Forrest Bear, an army bear I got on my birthday two days (or so) after my dad was sentenced to prison for x number of years. I opened it while on the phone with him. After I "saved" it, I gave it to a girl whose father had died... Because I kinda knew what it was like, not having a dad around when you needed him. She, in turn, gave me something of her dad's that she'd "saved." ... See? I'm getting all teary eyed just thinking about it now.

Back to this prompt: What would I save (from a fire, just to make it like the one I did before)? I'm adding the condition that all people make it out alive and well. Of course, I would save my computer, because it has almost all of my pictures, many important school files, and my grimoire files. I would also grab my file box which holds tax papers, birth certificates, and music. Finally, I would grab all of the books I could find, starting with the drawer that holds my Wheel of Time, Earth's Children, and other series books, followed by the drawer with my non-series books (Watership Down, About a Boy, Onion Girl, and others. Also, I would make a grab at the quilt my mom made for me a couple of years ago.

And what am I leaving to burn? Clothes, toys, furniture. (I doubt I could get my bed taken apart and out of my apartment before it burned down around me. Oh, well.) My collection of dragons. Any/all of my ritual items, including my beautiful faerie/goddess figurine. My Wii, which I generally think of as a waste of money, anyway, so that's no big loss.

What does it say that half of what I save is for practical reasons? I save my books because A) I love my books and B) the thought of almost any book burning up in a fire makes me cringe and sends waves of panic through me (maybe not V.C. Andrews and a few others, though; they can burn!) I don't even know how set I am on saving the blanket. Yes, I love it and yes, I'd be sad if I lost it, but it wouldn't be such a huge loss. My mum could always make me a new one. Perhaps I would save the quilt I'm working on instead; I have much more invested in that.

What about you, dear reader? What would you save, assuming all pets and people made it out alive and well?

Ostara

Happy equinox, ya'll! So far Camden and I have done nothing more celebratory than finding the eggs and spring basket that the Ostara Hare hid for us (at three o'clock in the morning thanks to a depressing dream and lack of ability to go back to sleep.)

On the spring equinox, light and dark are equals once again. Although today, I think the dark has won, thanks to snow clouds hiding the sun all day. (Yes, I did say SNOW. What a Spring!) The darkness has certainly taken control of my mood today. Hopefully the light will come back, and bring the warmth with it!

Reading and SPRING!

When Camden and I read books, it usually consists of me reading through the book, then picking up another one and reading through that one. Sometimes I'll point to a picture and ask him to tell me what it is, or I'll ask him to point at something on the page.

However, last week I bought Dinner Games, which is a game that you play at dinner. Obviously. It comes in a little tin with 51 cards that have fun dinnertime activities or games. Well, a few of these are stories that someone reads, and there are questions about what happened in the story, the names of certain characters, etc. It really made me think about the way I read to Camden, and whether he's actually taking the story in. Because when we did the dinnertime story, he was unable to answer any of the questions about a story that was maybe ten sentences long.

So I think it's time to start working on his critical thinking skills! He seems pretty excited about Ostara tomorrow, goodness only knows why, so I read him a story about why the hare brings eggs to the children. I also told him that if he goes to bed on time, the hare might bring him some goodies. My mom always hid our spring baskets (okay, Easter baskets) and it was always exciting waking up and trying to find them. I'm going to hide his spring basket with a trail of little chocolate eggs and bunnies leading to it. Now I just have to figure out where to hide it.

Speaking of Ostara, tomorrow is the first day of Spring! And it's supposed to snow here. Oh, the irony! It was 58 degrees today and tomorrow's forecast is calling for a high of 34 I think. Something is horribly, horribly wrong. Ah, well, soon the snow will be but a memory, and I'll be cursing the heat.

Greenman Giveaway at Ramblings of a Newbie Pagan

Jenandollie at Ramblings of a Newbie Pagan is having her very first giveaway! And it's a totally awesome one, too. I'm only posting about it because it will give me an extra entry. If it were up to me, I wouldn't tell a soul about this giveaway, because that means my chance of winning is higher (in my head at least.)


Anyway. She's doling out to the winner a handmade Greenman mask, a Greenman coffee mug, a Greenman magnet, and ceramic Greenman!



(I hope I win.)

Tag!

Bogaman tagged me with photo tag.
Rules: Go to your first photo album and pick the tenth picture, post it, and tell the story behind it.

Tag five other bloggers.

*looks around* I think all the people I follow have already been tagged. So the line ends with me. Oh, well. :)



Once upon a time a young monkey named Camden found his mummy's camera. And wanting to be like his mummy, he turned it on and began snapping pictures of everything. Carpet, darkness, the TV, people (what he could catch of them) and feet. Lots of feet. His feet, his mummy's feet, his Bapa's feet, Grammy's feet, Auntie Red's feet. Probably even some dog and/or cat feet. However, most of these pictures came out upside-down, for which he really cannot be blamed, since the camera looks the same upside-up-ways as it does upside-down-ways. Somehow, though, probably a miracle, ALL of the pictures of feet were right side up.

....

I think my son has a foot fetish. Oh noes!

Spring cleaning

Today I cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned some more. One reason is the spring cleaning bug bit me, I think. I would like to start of the Spring season with a clean apartment. Actually, I'd like to start off *any* season with a clean apartment. Maybe this time the apartment will stay cleaner for longer than four hours? Not likely, but I have hopes!

Another reason for the deep cleaning, other than the fact that it needed to be done, is I'm trying to prepare for moving day in May. Although we're moving from a one bedroom loft to a two bedroom duplex, I don't think the new apartment is actually bigger than my current one, just rearranged differently. Which means there's no way I'm carting all the stuff we have here into the new place. Mainly stuff in the form of clothing and toys. Because, obviously, I need all of my kitchen stuff, despite the fact the new kitchen is about half the size of my current one.

So lots of clothes, toys, and books have been boxed/bagged up for yard sale fodder or donation, or they've been trashed if completely unusable. And thanks to the decluttering, I was able to rearrange the toy corner, so the toys are once again contained and hopefully not spilling out to the rest of the living room. And Camden can reach all of his toys and games without my assistance.

Like anything, it will take work to maintain. I'm hoping I can train teach Camden that picking up his toys is better than leaving them lying about; hopefully, I can convince myself of that, too!

Friendly fire

When I was a kid, I played with guns. Not actual guns, but water guns, toy guns, stick and finger and rubber band guns. Hell, my brothers and sisters and I shot bottle rockets at each other. We carried on the tradition of being children growing up in the middle of nowhere, the tradition of a world before school shooting and terrorism. And now, I have my own son, who seems intent on carrying on that tradition... Despite the fact that I would rather he didn't.

I am not a fan of guns. When a child points his obviously-play rifle at me and says "BANG," something inside me wilts and I fear I will never get it back. And now my son is doing it. I understand why, somewhat. My dad hunts with a muzzle loader. Cam watches Bugs Bunny cartoons, which are filled to the brim with guns, dynamite, and falling anvils. Last night and this morning we watched WALL-E, and as Cam was quick to point out, Eve has a gun.

Is it hypocritical of me to allow him to watch these cartoons and yet scold him when he points his finger at someone in Wal-mart in the act of "shooting" them? I don't think allowing him to play guns will turn him into a mass murderer or anything-- but the thought of him play-shooting me still makes me squeamish. Is it even more hypocritical of me that I don't mind him dealing a killing blow with a sword, but guns are off-limits?

Is it silly of me to try to ban what is, for better or worse, a part of our culture? Should I compromise to no shooting at people. Or should I just let him play, knowing that he doesn't mean anything by it and that there will never be an actual gun in my house that could hurt him/others?

Gardening

Despite the fact that a few short weeks ago I was all sorts of excited about getting a garden plot, I'm now having second thoughts. Mostly along the lines of "will I really have time to take care of it?" I know that if the garden was right next to my house, I would have no trouble with it. Well, no more trouble than gardens usually present. But the farm with the garden plots is at least two miles away from my apartment. If I go there every day, that's using up a lot of gas. It's also quite a way to bike with whatever tools/whatnots I might need.

Do I want my own garden? Yes, I would love to have one or two or three. A vegetable garden, a garden for flowers, and an herb garden.

Does a vegetable garden make sense at this point in time? No, not really. But I'm still continuing with my container gardening.

I've been thrifting quite a bit this week, because there are so many good ones around my parents' house! I've found a few flower pots and containers that will be turned into flower pots. I also have some ideas of what I'll be planting. Camden wants to plant a pumpkin plant because his Grammy killed his. (Oops!) I've also got some columbine, lavender, cockscomb, and catnip seeds to plant. One of these days, when the greenhouses open up, I'll be able to find some more flowers and herbs 'n such.

As a side note... I've redecorated the blog. Spent FOREVER downloading the stuff for it, because it came as a ridiculously huge digi-scrapbooking file with all sorts of goodies. Whatchya think?

Finally, Spring!

I've found Spring! I only had to drive 200 miles south to find it. And look what else I found:

That's right! I've finally found my elusive crocuses! So far, that's the only flower I've found, though.


It's spring break, and I've taken the chance to visit my parents, who seem to be living in the tropics compared to my arctic home in NEMO. Today, Cam and I were able to get out and enjoy the warmth, going to thrift shops and also to Haha Tonka, which is quite possibly my most favourite place in the world. Haha Tonka has just about everything one could ask for: a castle, amazing rock formations, beautiful glades, long rambling trails, and a spring. The spring is where it gets its name: Haha Tonka means "Laughing Waters," which is what the spring sounds like, I suppose.


The castle was built in the early 1900's, and along the path are displays with gorgeous pictures of it in its prime. There's also a water tower, which pumped water up from the spring.
Sadly, fires in both the water tower (two) and in the main castle left it unlivable, and, as you can see, it now lies as an empty shell, a fading shadow of its former glory.


Yesterday I did some spring cleaning, and quite possibly finally said goodbye to my childhood. I was trying to clean out my childhood bedroom, trying to decide what to throw away and what to keep, and I came across a few of my journals. As I read through them, I was horrified. I have come so far from that poor, scared child I was at 12, 13, 15. But sitting there, reading that, brought back all of those dark thoughts I thought I'd left behind. I realised then that I had to get rid of that negativity. So my journals, once so precious, found their new home in the trash. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Those were once my only friends... But I've grown beyond who and what I was. And I can't really say I want those reminders hanging around, even if only at my parents' house.

Seven days without (completed!)

I made it! I've not had one drink of soda since Wednesday 24 February. Nine whole days. And what a journey.

It took almost twenty-four hours for the high levels of caffeine and sugar to wear off, as I said last week, with my severe headache and tiredness. It took a few days before my every second cravings of "Oh, gods, I NEED a Mt. Dew" wore off. And another day or two before I stopped counting down the seconds until I was finally free of my pledge. Yesterday I went into the grocery store to get some apple slices for breakfast, walked right past the soda coolers, and made it out to my car before I realised that I didn't once pine for a Mountain Dew while I was in the store.

Even today, right now, a few hours away from my first soda in nine days... I am surprisingly unexcited. I look forward to it, but if it didn't happen, that'd be okay, too. I think I'm going to try giving up soda on a daily basis. I've already proved I can do without it; however, I don't think there's anything horribly wrong with having a soda from time to time. My goal was never to give up soda completely, but to bring back the pleasure I found in it. At this moment, with my some-what-unexcitement with being able to drink soda again, I'm not sure how well I succeeded in that goal. Have I gone from love/addiction to disinterest? In nine days?

My Book of Shadows/Grimoire

I don't think a BoS is strictly necessary for the path I am on; however, I do think it is nice to have all my info in one place. And also that the place is not on my computer, so it's a bit easier access. To this end, I've decided to begin creating my own BoS. Right now, I haven't done much more than creating my section dividers. I'm still trying to decide what I want to write out by hand and what I don't mind being typed out. Here are some of my pages for your enjoyment!





The images came from Clipart ETC and the fonts used are LaPointe's Road and Romance Fatal Serif.

ABCs of Paganism

Although I normally don't post during the week (lack of time and thinking ability between school work, practice, rehearsals, and taking car of Camden) I stumbled upon this and thought I'd like to share. ^_^


Accept others as they are. We are all individuals.

Belief in yourself is a necessity.

Concentration is important in any endeavor, both magickal and in life.

Do what you will, so long as it harms none.

Empathy is an important life skill... learn it, practice it.

Find strength in yourself, your friends, your world and your actions.

God is multifaceted... the Lord and Lady, all deities take many names and faces.

Help others every chance you get.

Intelligence is something that cannot be judged on surface.

Judge not... what you send out comes back to you!

Karma loves to slap you in the face. Watch out for it.

Learning is something that should never stop happening!

Magick is a wonderful gift- but it is not everything.

Nature is precious. Appreciate and protect it.

Over the course of time your soul learns many lessons. Make this life count!

Pray.

Quietness both physically and mentally restores the soul; meditate often.

Remember to take time for yourself as well as others.

Spells can help you, but you must also help yourself!

Tools can only do so much... they are not the foundation of all.

Unless you enjoy worrying, keep a positive mindset!

Visualize the success of your goals before you set out to achieve them.

Wisdom can often be found in the least expected places!

Xenophobia (a hatred of those different from you) is a path to misery.

You are a beautiful person who is capable of anything!

Zapping away all of your troubles is not going to happen

by Victoria Martyn