The New Year Is On Us

The New Year is here. On New Year's Eve I had my last dr's appointment of 2009 where I got to hear our lil man's heartbeat. Now, I say little man, because everyone around me is convinced that I am carrying a boy, and after the nurse practioner told me that the baby was riding high and tipped forward, she promptly started using the "he" reference. So I am surrendering to their demands, and calling the lil fetus a lil man. Sounds so much nicer that "it" or "fetus". Gives the baby an actual baby feel, and that is good since I haven't had alot of time to actually feel pregnant, since all I have felt for over 2 months is sick.
On New Year's Eve night my husband and I celebrated the evening and the blue moon with a few very close friends. We lit candles for the year ahead, for our resolutions, our hopes and dreams, for endings and beginnings, and for our children, babies, and babies yet born. It was very moving and joyous, as our circles always are. We welcomed 2010 with open arms, and brought 2009 to a happy close. I drank sparkling grape juice mixed with gingerale to keep from getting nauseous..and it really worked. The nurse practioner gave me a ginger lozenge-and I have got to go to the herbal store and get some. They work SO good!
Anyway, the real reason that I began this is because the new year really got me thinking about resolutions. I didnt really make any last year, except to recycle more and be more conscious of the environment that we live in. That we definatley accomplished. But with the new baby coming this year I have been thinking about how I want our children to be raised. A few months ago we got together with those close friends and decided that over the next couple of years we are going to save as much money as we can, put it together and find some land to buy. We want to begin our own eco community. A place that we can live together in harmony with one another and nature, so our children can know the joy of living off the land. So for the last couple of days I have been watching some very informative and wonderful videos on YouTube about green living and ecovillages. I've posted several of these on my Facebook homepage. There is a wealth of information out there on these subjects. I guess my new year's epiphany was that I do alot of dreaming and not enough doing. I want a small farm and have dreamed of it for years, but never did anything about it. Saving money for the land is doing something, and now we are creating a budget so we can save more, but I really want to have a little bit of that farm here on the acre that we steward. So this spring I want to get some chickens and build a small economical coop for them. Im pretty excited about the possibility of not having to buy eggs. I would really like to expand our garden this year as well, but since I am pregnant, I'm not really sure how much I will be able to do come spring, so we will see. Even if we can't expand, we have some good compost from our kitchen leftovers, and we can improve what we have.
Anyway that is what is going on with us right now. The kiddo is home from her dad's and is chilling on the couch next to her stepdad. I'm blogging and looking forward to the ultrasound that will be coming up within the next month. When I'm not checking out YouTube videos, Im reading information on Offbeat Mama. Love that website! Blessings internet world and Namaste.

This Is My News...

I have been gone for some time, I realized that today, it has been over a month since I last posted a blog. Wow, I have been sick! Now to explain why. In early October my husband and I went to our bi-annual getaway, a pagan retreat, and it was there that we decided to try to conceive our first child together. Maybe it was the drumming and dancing around the revel fires the night before, the comradary of wonderful friends, watching a woman that I deeply admire walk the wooded paths with her small earth loving daughter at her side, the smells of nature all around...or just the love that two people felt for one another. I believe all these things just came together at just the right moment, and during an afternoon of lovemaking in our sun dappled tent, we knew the moment was right. And now we are pregnant! And happy (and nervous, even though this is my second child).

But with pregnancy comes those new sets of hardships, and I have found myself for the last few weeks to be all day sick. Mornings sickness has to be some myth created by doctors, my sick lasts from morning until night...and then some. I was rather worried, because with all the vomiting I was losing weight fairly rapidly, but appartently because I am plus sized and because this to shall pass, there is nothing too worry about. In fact in the last two weeks I managed to gain a pound. I believe that is because we took our honeymoon to Bourbon, MO last week and stayed in a remote cabin in the woods for four days, with a fire in the fireplace and someone else's satelitte TV...ahhhhh, heavenly. I was sick less than I had been in a month. No stress=less vomit. Nice.

I have spent the evening perusing some maternity websites and found some really good ones; a plus size maternity site which was very helpful, and some great sites and blogs by hippie moms. I even found one that sold those really cool slings that I see occasionally. When my daughter was a baby I saw a hippie mother in town wearing her baby in a sling. I looked and looked for one like that but all I ever found were those extremely dangerous pouches that go across the front of the mother. I even bought one, I believe it was made by Evenflo, but Im not too sure, and my daughter nearly fell out of it. Scary. The new pouches and slings look alot safer, I saw a young mother in Mt View with her daughter in a sling made out of some kind of lycra teeshirt material, strips of it instead of one solid piece. The baby was tiny, newborn, and completely supported, head and all by the strips of material, right up by the mothers heart. I wish I had stopped her and asked where she got it, as yet I havent been able to find one like it.

Another great blog is Offbeat Moms. I love love love that site. When planning our wedding, I was a big fan of Offbeat Bride, and now their sister site is up and running with blogs from mothers from all walks of life, pagan, eco, hippie, goth, tattoed and pierced, etc. They even feature occasional awesome products, alot of them from Etsy stores.

For now that is all I know, my stomach is beggin me to feed it, and this late at night I feel pretty safe. Blessings and Namaste.

Samhain

Yesterday was Samhain/Halloween, my favorite holiday. I love everything about it, from the crisp autumn weather that preceeds it, and the gorgeous bouquet of colors that resides right outside our door. I love the mystique, the spookieness...and the visitors that come around during the thinning of the veil. Because even though it is not a scarey ghost experience, I must admit that it can get a little freaky seeing someone standing in the hallway when you are alone in the house. I know that it is just family or friends or even someone who once lived in this old house, stopping in to say hello, but when you are just going on with daily activities and look up to see them, that makes the heart skip a beat...and then beat fondly. Memories resurface. It's a reflecting time.
In my teenage years, I was like many, an angsty poet, a kind of "bubblegum goth", hormonally depressed from the teenage transistion of child to adult, but happy to a manic point when around my friends, who I regarded as being like me. Misfits, but as teenagers, aren't we all? In those years we referred to fall as the Dying Time, trying to make it sound alot more ominous than it was. Now I know that it is not time for dying, but for reflection, preparing for the hybernation of winter. Crops are harvested and begin to die back, true, but they fetilize the fields and make way for next years planting. The leaves fall from the trees, but the trees do not die, they sleep to get ready for Springs abundance. In pasttimes it was the time for slaughter, so there would be meat through the winter, but all that dies is reborn. Corn and grain, all that falls shall rise again.
Last night we had a wonderful Samhain, as one of my best friends was married. She and her husband were handfasted last year on the same day, and a year later they solidified that relationship in matrimony. It was a beautiful and moving ceremony, that included the two and their three children. It was also a fun wedding, we were in costumes, so their officiant was Jack Frost, and their maid of honor was a pin-up (that was me). Her daughter was an ice princess, his son had a punked up mohawk, my daughter was a flower girl and wanted to wear an old fashioned eyelit dress, another friend was Thor, and my husband was a gangster. We had a small claw machine for the kids, they made punch in a hallowed out pumpkin with dry ice and gummy eyeballs floating in it. There were candles everywhere, it was wonderful. After the reception they had a party, but my daughter and I came home. I lit candles on the memory altar for those that have passed on, and we read spooky stories, then played with the claw machine and ate trick or treat candy. A wonderful holiday that we are recovering from today!
Blessings!

Freecycle...an awesome yahoo group

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the coffee is brewing. It's still cold out, 40 early this morning, but it promises to be a beautiful day regardless of whether it warms up or not. Should be in the mid to upper 60s according to the weather broadcast.
Right now I want to sing the praises of Freecycle. Everyone should try this. It's a yahoo group with several chapters in Arkansas, (our family belongs to 2 of these groups). If you have something that you don't use anymore, or perhaps are looking for something that someone else has no need of, then you just post it out onto the group and people contact you via email. It's great! We have gotten things off of Freecycle, like a 55 gal fish aquarium, clothing for the kiddo, and even a old radio/turntable cabinet from the 50s that has the vaccum tubes...Its gorgeous, the woman just needed it moved. We have given a TON of stuff away, from outdoor toys, to clothing, knick-knacks and misc; we have made room and given new life to things that we no longer needed. We kept them out of the landfill, by recycleing them on to new owners, and that is the most important thing to us. We have even found homes for animals that we have rescued and rehabilitated on Freecycle, because someone just happed to be looking for a pet. One lady gave a home to one of our pups, and turned the lil girl into a Hospice dog. It's things like that that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Today I am taking some Barney videos to a woman in Russellville. She really wanted them for both of her lil girls, and it just happened to work out that one of them is having a birthday today...so it will be a nice birthday surprise for her. The woman posted out to Freecycle that she was looking for some Barney videos for the kids, and was so excited when she found out that I had around a dozen of them to give away. It makes me happy to make others happy with things that we have outgrown. I just hate it when you drive by someones house, and they have thrown out something perfectly useable. Someone else might have wanted that. Why not at least try before you take it to the dump!
Well, that is my Freecycle tip of the day...now Im off to check my email and see if there are any surprises in there. Ya never can tell!

Water and Home Improvements

I have so many plans for spring...thats how I spend my winters, reading, studying, and planning. This year I started early at an annual campout that my tribe goes to every spring and fall. I have been so inspired by my fellow pagans. From gardening, to wind turbines, to composting toilets and rain water.
My husband has really wanted to put a good gutter system on our house, because there is not one and we need it. Now Im thinking that a rain barrel system attached to that would be very helpful. Our house is on city water, and it leaves so much to be desired....A few years ago, staff infections began to be a problem around our town, and it has steadily gotten worse. I really think it has something to do with our town water source, and in talking to people I have found that I am not the only one. A few weeks ago the cokes at the local Sonic and McDonlads began to stink and taste like dirt. Just recently we found out from our local paper that the water company has had some issue with blue-green algae. Apparently the water manager did not know it was there because it couldnt be seen. When it was discovered he killed it with chlorine, causing the algae to rise to the surface of the water ponds (locally called the Shit Ponds, hows that for nice). Kind of sounds like the ponds turned over to me. The smell was awful from what I hear-our water is filtered and never stank, which is odd to me since we are attached to their grid. Anyway, this stinky water went out to residents without them knowing WHY their water was suddenly foul. When asked, the manager said he had been assured the water was not harmful, just foul tasting and smelly, but that would clear up in a few days. My husband said that they kept having to change the filters on the coke machines every few minutes because they would be coated in a sledge from the water, so they started serving Cokes from bottles. This lasted for several days, and still our water was fine. But that is a bit disturbing.
Several years ago we got a notice from the health inspectors saying that our water did not have the amount of chlorine in it that is should, but that this was not hazardous to our health. Okay sure, whatever. We are in a small town with a BAD intravenous drug problem. Alot of these ppl probably contribute to the staff problem, and where does their waste go? Into our water system to be recycled, and if there is not enough chlorine in the water to purify it, isnt that going to be a problem? Call me paranoid.
We have a well on our property that was fouled before we ever moved in, and I am looking into how to fix that problem. It has been blocked up but the pipe is still there in our dog pen, and I would really like to get a hand pump to at least use it for the gardens which will expand in the spring.
Another thing we really want to do is save up for a turbine system for our RV, and a composting toilet for it as well. I have found a very cool toilet that uses peat moss to recycle the waste from the toilet into garden grade compost for ornamentals. This is similar to the system that some friends of ours use in composting outhouses, just on a smaller scale. If done correctly it is only suppose to have a light earthy odor.
Currently we are putting back a lil money here and there to try and save up for a substantial amount of land that we want to buy with members of our tribe. I will elaborate more on that later on...I dont want to mix it in with my bitching about the local water source lol.
We have been doing some winterizing, my husband did alot of caulking and the like back in the summer when we were doing some home improvements. Id really like to finish painting the house, but we will probably have to wait until the spring for that since it has gotten rainy. We just like the back of the house anyway and one side, and we would like to put in some new screen doors, and metal screening on the windows in spring as well. Plus work on our back porch. Once those things are done, I want to concentrate on the yard and gardens and nothing but that. Its more relaxing, the home stuff stresses me out. The yard work is therapeutic.
Well that is all I have for now....

BABY, ITS COLD OUTSIDE!

I have decided that this is to be my Pagan blog...I felt when I created it, that it was suppose to be that way, but I wasnt yet sure. I have a feeling that after I start selling my vintage clothing on ebay again there will be a new blog as well that focuses on that. But this one will focus on my pagan lifestyle and what we are doing to become more eco-focused.

It is cold outside today. I knew it must be when I awoke this morning to find that the heat had kicked itself on. We had a programmable thermostat-these are a wonderful feature and very helpful for conservation, and saving money. Right now we don't have one. After the tornado ate our heat pump, we had to have a new one put in, and the thermostat wasnt compatible, so the company we hired put in a cheapy one that I am not to pleased with. However, it works, and we keep it set at a standard temp all the time. During the summer that never gets lower than 75, and that is on really hot days. Most of the time it is set at 78. Really. And we stay cool. Right now it is set on 73. When it gets cooler than that it really seems chilly in here, since we have wood floors. So this morning it kicked on, and the view thru the window showed why. A gray and cold landscape set outside, with blustery winds whipping the leaves from the Sweetgum and Elm out front. The LiveOaks stand firm however, since they wont lose their leaves until next year.
The cats wanted out first thing, only to come straight back in...too cold, they said. And now they are curled up all over the house, soaking up the warmth from the vents. The outside mouser cats get under our house and lay on the duct work all winter long. It keeps them warm. They are the wild cats that have lived here even before we moved in. Slowly we have tamed and fixed them, and now they just lay around and keep down on the pest population. Althought they have had to share their warmth with an armadillo family that moved in last winter underneath the house. We are pretty sure they have moved on.

Its funny, so warm yesterday, but I could feel the cold coming. All I have done today so far is read and drink warm coffee. Just one of those wintery hybernating days. It makes me want to cosy the house up for winter, too build my den, protect my cub, and comfort my mate. Its the kind of day that brings out a mother and wifes primal nature, and at the same time speaks to the domestic Goddess within...."We must make sure we have the supplies to see us thru, but we must be comfortable doing it!"
Namaste and happy gray day!

Day One in Blog World

I've never kept a blog like this one before. I had a journal on a tattoo community website..still have it in fact, but I don't really use it anymore. But I am a writer by nature, I love to hear my own voice...just not outloud, I suppose. So this is my new outlet for the thoughts that ramble on in my cranium. This way I am not using up valuable posting space on Facebook....

And so here I am, barebones for the world to see. My inner space and inner sanctum splayed out in all its shabby glory. Isn't wordplay fun? More or less a bunch of B.S. ,really. Here is the tangible me...

I am 32. I have a 6 year old, and we may have another on the way, but it is too early yet to know. My new husband (we were just married on Sept 26th) is a wonderful caring being who treats my lil girl like his very own. She is love in a tangible form...she is amazing. I know that our other child or children will be as well.

We walk a Goddess path, eclectic Pagans or witches (which ever you prefer, I like both terms just fine, I dont buy into the whole stigma thing). We are tied to the forces of nature in all ways. Later I will post more about what we are doing to tie ourselves to the Mother even further. We are members of a tribe, our chosen family...The Tribe of The Tree People, we call ourselves. Ironically, it was our tattooist from Louisiana who started that name, because of the tree of life tats that myself and my husband have.

(If this is sloppy, forgive me, my brain says it wants to sleep, my body says it wants to rest, my fingers have minds of their own...just not completely independent of the rest of the body. They still need that brain to fully function.)

More about me, right, because who doesnt delight in talking about themselves?