~*~October Pagan Families Thread~*~

[CariOfOz]

Since it is the end of October first here, I thought I should get a new thread going! Spring is in full swing here, zucchini's growing in my garden, capsicum weeks from ripening, and life is good (we're pretending I'm not sick, k?) Samhain/ Beltaine is just around the corner, so hopefully this thread will be full of great family fun ideas for our special holidays!

Happy October

[simplespirit]

under 30* here this morning! I love this time of year... I wish that tree had orange leaves

I plan on bring leaves in as they fall and set up Samhain alters in each room with candles, nuts, salt, and other fall goodies.

I am making applesuce this weekend. Nothing (for me) celebrates fall more than visiting the orchard

[CariOfOz]

Oh I am so jealous of your brisk autumn weather! However, considering I have pneumonia, it's just best all around if I live vicariously through you mamas

I'm stalking Mrs. B's blog eagerly awaiting her first post of the 31Days of Halloween! I'll probably have to read it tomorrow morning as I'm just about ready for bed here. Just sipping the end of a cuppa coffee with baileys in it in hopes of actually sleeping. I haven't hac a major coughing fit in about 2hrs which is a total record.

Tomorrow I'm taking the wee guy to preschool, then I'm going to drag myself to the shop with the boys and have a coffee out while they play at the playground. I figure that requires little effort so I can manage it We'll also hit the newsagent & pick up Halloween coloured cardstock & such for our lapbook project. Then we'll come home and break out the Halloween stuff (there's sadly little! It's just not popular down here *sigh*) and decorate our altar and such

Seriously... we need a halloween smilie on here!

[Aeress]

i have a happy sick kid, who knew there was such a thing. hehe. typing one handed.

now, this is my favorite month and this year, we are making sugar skulls. and we are having a harvest party for bug's birthday. pumpkin decorating and lots of fun! thinking of making soup, bread, and pumpkin cheesecake.

Then for halloween/Samhain, we will have a small backyard fire and friends for dinner. met a fellow pagan at knitting and she is a kitchen witch, we are getting to know each other, she is very cool!

[Valerie.Qc]

I wrote in the September thread.

Off to look at that blog Cari, sounds fun.

[mary3mama]

October!

[OceansEve]

a jack o lantern smilie would be nice or a smilie getting blown away w/ leaves.

HAPPY OCTOBER!!!!!!

Its like someone turned a switch all the leaves started falling in my back yard today

Hey ladies. I feel the need to confess something - I am a crappy pagan . Like I said a month ago I only check out this thread few and far between. I rarely get to be spiritual at all these days due to chasing my children everywhere. But yesterday was an eye opening moment for me. I had my crew in tow at a local crafty store (yes the overly annoying christian one) looking for a cross stitch christmas stocking for new DD. (I only have two stores to choose from around here so I'll take what I can get. Tho I will say they at least are carrying little witches again in their halloween section, anyway) DD1 asked me what we were looking for, I told her xmas stocking, her response "What's christmas?" I stopped dead in my tracks and found myself trying to find an answer and only thinking about how cooky do I want to sound in front of all these christians. I just responded "a day to celebrate family at the end of the year" I feel like such a (#*$&()#*%* I want to smack the new me, the old me (pre kids) would have gone into a long winded explanation as loud as I could to whatever friend I had dragged to the store with me. I am such a crappy, sorry, good for nothing pagan................. But I will try to fix it......

That being said I need some help. I posted about a month ago that I could feel something bad coming. Turns out that something bad was a chemical pregnancy. I have what I am fairly sure is the embryo in my bathroom cabinet and am at a loss at what to do with it. I cannot flush it, but planting it seems wrong because I am a horrible brown thumb and could not take watching the plant die. Any idea on what I should do with it? mind you its now about the size of a pin head.

[redveg]

Morning mamas. Happy October! It is chilly here this morning, leaves are turning, some are already off the trees. We brought in some beautiful maple leaves and acorns. I am off to do my morning meditation and drink a cup of tea.

[mary3mama]

Oh, it is so gorgeous this morning. The sun is BRIGHT and the air is crisp. There are so many lovely leaves on the trees and plenty on the ground to collect too. I am just itching to get out on our nature walk but I'm still waiting for the attachlings to be up and moving this morning.

Man, I must have had a great night of sleep to be this eager and motivated first thing in the morning.

I love fall, I love October. And I made some decisions yesterday about living a better, more healthful life. I guess that's pretty motivating too.

[DaughterOfKali]

So, even though I knew it was October 1st, I still posted on the Sept thread.

Has anyone seen my brain? It seems to have gone a walkabout.

[Jennifer3141]

Hi everyone!

I posted with you all a long time ago but then kind lost my spirituality a bit. I have a hard time reconciling my belief in science with a belief in "religion" of any kind. I feel like there is no god but if there is a teeny chance there is one, She's a woman. Does that make sense to anyone else?

But fall always turns my thoughts inward. And I could teach the kids so many wonderful thngs about the Mother at this time of year.

Oceans, I just wanted you to know that I "heard" what you wrote about your baby. I once released a MC into a river that is close to my heart.

[LionessMom]

i think i have fall allergies. i woke up this morning with a stuffy nose, sneezing and coughing, but it gets better in an hour or two. i coughed so hard this morning that I peed my pants! DS thought that was hilarious.

yeah it is finally October. I am due the 14th. i could have the babe anytime between now and the 28th! i would prefer more now though. my lowere back is killing me, my tail bone hurts and i feel very PMS-y. but i am going to get DH to get out the Samhain decs (we go crazy here lol) so I can start setting them up. i love skeletons and spiders and all that. i even have a skeleton lady with blinky eyes. lol. i want it to be set up before babe comes b/c i wont be able to help after babe comes.

DD woke up with a dry dipe this morning. she is only 2.5. if she keeps it up i can quit stuffing her dipe so full.

this time of year always make me feel the witchiest. i love it. i am so excited it is finally october!

[SunshineJ]

Um, hello. I've been lurking for a bit, hope no one minds. I realized a few months ago that "pagan" pretty well sums up my life without my having realized it until now, and so I'm starting to delve more into this. It's odd really, the celebrations I always just felt needed to be done I now see line up with the sabbats, an many of the things that just seemed "right" are starting to make a lot more sense. So hello, and all advice and suggestions for learning this path are welcome!

[Indigo73]

Popping in to say woohoo October! I can't believe all my weekends are booked already.

[wombatclay]

Welcome Sunshine! It's a bit of a joke since I often post these links, but there is some GREAT info in the Pagan Summer Camp threads and the Pagan Resource thread. You can find the 2007 Camp (the elements) here and the 2008 Camp (weaving pagan themes into daily life) here. The general resource thread is here. there are also other "camp" threads floating around for different holidays.

Ocean- big hugs and hopes for healing and balance. Maybe cremation in the samhain bonfire? Or burial on a nature walk (so you don't have anything to do with the plants) since that way you can remember the walk instead of a specific plant? Or perhaps purchase a glass flower or other no-green-thumb plant image as a memorial? There's a ritual at Pennsic each year where people write the names of loved ones who have passed on scrolls, the scrolls are placed in a small wooden boat, and the boat set alight and pushed out into the lake. It started as a small, private, memorial ritual but it's become a huge event with people bringing all sorts of small tokens to add to the boat and hundreds of people watching as the ship burns. Maybe adapt that sort of memorial (so the actual embryo can be buried and then a more elaborate memorial planned)?

Hair- You all are right... I should just hang in there till the layers are longer. My hair grows so slowly it's crazy. This is the longest it's been since high school! I love short hair but I miss the longer hair options. Dh's hair grows like wildfire, I'm so jealous! My main thought had been that maybe a stylist could sort of blend the layers together... right now if my hair is down the funky layers are really obvious because of the way the ends curl...it's pretty ick. So I've been braiding the "top layer" every day and wearing my scarves, but I wanted to be able to leave my hair down every now and then and right now I can't. Another year and it'll be fine, but grrrrrrr. But you're right... that sort of blending needs a pro, and it's not something I'm certain to find at a 10 dollar deal shop.

decore problem- Ro has just 9as in the last week) developed a consuming fear of pumpkins. I tried to go shopping today but had to leave the store when she had a complete meltdown over a pumpkin display. Jack o Lanterns totally do her in, but she was crying and trying to hide between my legs when we walked past plain old pie pumpkins. I hope this is REALLY short lived because I really enjoy pumpkins in seasonal decore, but also because this is the wrong time of year to have an aversion to pumpkin! It's EVERYWHERE for the next month. I understand (and was half expecting) being worried by the life sized monsters, Laia refused to enter craft shops for the entire month of October last year, but pumpkins? I'm guessing I should maybe nix our annual viewing of the Great Pumpkin? To say nothing of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow?

Speaking of... I need to get another copy of the Burton/Depp Sleepy Hollow. DH and I watch it every year but our dvd got wrecked last year. I guess I'll see what NetFlicks can provide.

[singin_angel]

October...and the weather fits perfectly here...cold I can feel snow is not that far off.

Ocean - I'm sorry for your loss and I hope that you find peace. I am not sure in terms of specific ideas, but I would focus on something that has meaning for you/your family.

Cari - glad to hear you are getting out a little!

Samhain is right around the corner, which means, I need to get started on ritual prep. I have a few projects I want to do, so I hope to be able to tackle those. I want to do the ritual late at night outside. I think it would be magical!

This morning, I cracked a molar! I had some water at room temp and all was fine. It just feels odd because it's pokey and I have to leave tomorrow on course. I guess I will have to get into the dentist early next week. I just hope it isn't a root canal. I am not comfortable at the dentist. I am also wondering if I have some other things to consider in terms of dental treatments...trying to be positive!

[aweynsayl]

(from last month's convo-- cari, a lot of ms stuff is on her website, though it makes my computer really slow...)

so, this morning ds got stung by a bee. good thing i just went thru this so i know just what to do, eh? and we had extra stock of all things. he seems to be fine now, but i know mine was fine for a while that first day, then swelled up so painfully-- that part was far worse, imo, than the pain from the sting... his is on his torso, so hopefully that will mean less pain from swelling...

my birthday month is not off to the best of starts... still no ring, dh has been having a really hard time with work and school stuff--and he's gone this weekend, so no birthday weekend celebrating... my mom's been in an awful mood, now ds has a sting, it's still really hot out... and i'm feeling more disconnected in general than i have in a very long time (aeress, i read that you're feeling very connected, and that made me so happy!!! i'm so glad to hear that, you so deserve that!!!)... i know i've basically been moping since my bee sting (and, well, really, since dh got shingles, and then we all got sick, and then merc retro caused massive havoc in our lives.... basically all of september! ack!) but if i keep this up, someone please throw something at me!

hugs and happy pumpkin vibes (poor ro!) and welcome newbies & lurkers!

[singin_angel]

Samhain ritual idea!

This just hit me, although I'm sure someone has done it before, it just came to mind.

If the ritual is being done indoors, you hang a light sheet/sarong/or other light fabric from the door frame and have everyone pass through into the ritual - as a reminder that the veil is thin and that you can walk through both ways.

Just in case that works for anyone!

[Jennifer3141]

Nicole, that is a brilliant way to explain it to young kids. Thank you!

[Aeress]

Aweyn- thanks sweetie! I hope you are feeling better, you need happiness too!

Welcome Sunshine!

I am begging to needle felt- tried a bird today, went ok- it was lots of fun! I would attempt some pumpkins but I don't have any orange roving.

dd needs me, be back later