May Pagan Circle - Page 7

[Maiasaura]

Originally Posted by mommamanjari I want to make a ritual space in the backyard with this at the center. It is on a stepping stone, but there are crystals & the surface is not smooth so we won't step on it! Too pretty for that anyhow.

Oooh, that's beautiful! What MamaChicken said-- how did you do that? Was it with one of those stepping stone kits? Because at AC Moore or Michael's, they have 40%-off coupons every week and it'd be like $8. That would be so fun to make.

So, ds has been UBER, uber snarky again. He had such a horrid day on Friday that it was like 7:30am to 9:30pm before he decided to be Hyde again. Jekyll took over for the whole day Talk about frustrating and tiring. I had to ground him and because of that, we missed out on a "date" with friends of ours, my best friend and her dd (who is ds's best friend) who we hadn't seen since our trips away. Which means aside from punishing ds, we ALL got punished. Sometimes I really, really hate parenting

So I don't know if it's pre-adolescent snark (he's only TEN, for crying out loud! If it's this bad now, what are the teen years going to look like?) or a med that needs adjusting...it might be a delayed reaction to me being away, and his own trip, it might be any or all of those things. Plus he's trying a new med, so that might be it, too. Sigh.

I have been slack about this for years, but I have decided to consciously try to cut down on HFCS and artificial colors in the house. I have been half-paying attention, but not really much at all, since most of what we eat really doesn't have an issue with it, but like-- for instance, my fave canned spaghetti sauce has HFCS in all the flavors but one. So at the store today, I bought that one, even though it's not my favorite. And I'm not eating it at the moment anyway, and ds doesn't notice which one, so that one it is.

He's really bummed that I'm cutting down/out on the candy, though. We have this big bin of it and he gets to choose some each day for his dessert, but no more. I'm letting this run out, and I will check the poor stores every time I shop, and if they have the organic candies w/o coloring, I will stock up, but no more super-sour things, or what-not. Now and then, but not living in the house. He'll get used to it. I'll have to start baking more. I wish he liked chocolate! That would be so easy to keep around. Oh well.

[Aeress]

Maia- snarky kids are so hard to deal with, hopeds is having a better day

Beautiful stepping stone. We make ours using a mold (or plastic tray, like to use under a plant), concrete mix from the hardware store. When the concrete is slightly set  you add your glass, shells etc and let it dry/cure for a few days.

After having a yucky day yesterday, back ache and other issues, I feel better today. I think I got dehydrated over the weekend and it caught up with me yesterday. plus my allergies have been icky, so I haven't been myself. Thankfully, the children have been very well behaved and helpful.

[mommamanjari]

Thanks for the compliments on my stone ladies! I had so much fun making it. I already had a garden stone & my friend had all the mosaic supplies. We mixed some indoor/outdoor mortar and put it on small sections at a time & just pressed the tiles and stones in. If you want the tiles in any shape other than a square, a tile nipping tool is helpful. We also took a hammer to some broken plates & flower pots to get variety of materials. She found the marble cabechons in the dollar store. I went through my place and found a few crystals and some stone bead chips to contribute. I'm hoping that it holds up well and if it doesn't, I'll make another using the method that Aeress described. I've also wanted to try one of those hobby lobby kits because they seem so easy, but now that I've done this way, I doubt I'll get one. I don't think they have the variety of pretties to use.

Of course, Daisy woke up right now!

Singin- My son has TV fits too. I let him watch way too much when I was pregnant & Daisy is 10 months old now. We are doing a lot better with it, but whew! I also felt really disconnected from my last pregnancy because I was SO sick. Of course it melted away quickly & I feel greatly connected to her now. It's ok to have those difficult feelings.

Maia- Good for getting rid of food coloring! My son gets crazy if he has much. We try hard to avoid it, but sometimes some candy sneaks in. Who knows, maybe your DS will have this out of his system by the time he is a teen!

Have a great day & more hugs to you who need them!

[kittywitty]

I really like the stone, Manjari!

Maia- My 10 yo has been the same way. I think it's partly their age/stage. We have been HFCS free in our house, but now are going for very minimal sugar and NO food coloring. My 3 yo about explodes if she has any! A lot of kids just can not handle it.

[wombatclay]

Shiny stepping stone!  I just bought a huge bag of plaster of paris for a project dd1 is doing and now I'm inspired to make wall art with the rest!  (oh, dd1 has been burying and then digging out dinosaur bones, or at least, plastic dinosuar bones.... get a sacrificial container, layer in some plaster of paris, add bones, cover with more plaseter of paris, repeat... the final item is a lump of plaster that keeps dd1 occupied for HOURS chipping away with a plastic trowel).

Maia- Ugh.  I hope the diet changes help!  I'm seriously reaching the end of my rope with dd1's snarky moments and she's only six and they're only moments.  I'm not sure what I'd do if it was round the clock.  usually I'll tell her that I can't hear her when she is being snarky, and that she needs to stop talking, take a breathing break, and try again.  (and I'll often go somewhere else/ignore her till she uses a nicer tone of voice)... but that probably wouldn't work with an older kiddo.

Silly kiddo moment- I've been reading Winnie-the-Pooh to the girls each night as their bedtime story and now dd1 starts all her own stories with an AA Milne style title ("In Which.. blah blah yada yada).  So I was listening in on her telling a story to dd2 (In Which Pooh and Piglet go to the Circus) and Pooh told Piglet "Do or do not, there is no try" and Piglet apparently thought about this and said "Ok".  It was pretty goofy, especially since they haven't seen the Star Wars movies.  But I realized I've said that to dd1 more than once recently and I guess it's soaked in!  lol

Once a Month Cooking- honestly, around here it's more like every other week.  But I try to do all the WIC shopping on one trip just to get it over and done with.  I made a list of everything we eat in a week (the basic stuff, not specific menu items... so X pounds of black beans/4 rolls of corn cakes/3 containers of soy milk/etc) and then I just double or triple that.  There are a lot of great OAMC sites out there though...

Yard projects- I'm loading pictures on FB.  I'll link once they're loaded.  :)

[singin_angel]

Manjari - thanks for the hugs. I feel awful for being so disconnected during this pregnancy but I think it will get better. I bet some dedicated talking to my growing babe may help. Just easier without my older one around (who isn't napping well anymore...so sad).

Aeress - hope the dehydration is getting better...I'm in the same boat from yesterday...was in absurd amounts of pain.

Maia - way to go on the food, no matter how tough it may be. You are one determined and loving mama.

I'm having an easy day at home...for once nothing is scheduled - no visits, no births, no appointments for DD. Still rainy though.

Blessings everyone :)

[wombatclay]

As promised... our ongoing playscape project! 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150182731833621.312949.514118620&l=24bb89120c

[Maiasaura]

Originally Posted by mommamanjari Maia- Good for getting rid of food coloring! My son gets crazy if he has much. We try hard to avoid it, but sometimes some candy sneaks in. Who knows, maybe your DS will have this out of his system by the time he is a teen!

Originally Posted by kittywitty Maia- My 10 yo has been the same way. I think it's partly their age/stage. We have been HFCS free in our house, but now are going for very minimal sugar and NO food coloring. My 3 yo about explodes if she has any! A lot of kids just can not handle it.

Well, he used to go NUTS when he was younger, with the sugar/artificial colors/etc, but he seems to not be affected by them anymore. It's been years and years since he's had any kind of reaction to them. When he was between 2 and 3, I have him on videotape after he, our babysitter, and I shared a grocery-store birthday cake for me at like 7pm. The tape shows him running at full tilt around and around the kitchen table. And around and around and around and...I kid you not, for like 5-10 solid minutes without letup. This was within minutes of ingesting the cake and icing. Amazing. You sit there watching with tea-saucer eyes, I mean it.

Plus he's on meds, so who knows what those may mask as far as food reactions. But he wants candy every day and I realized that he usually gets it. Like six pieces a day. Now some of that is hard candy, one piece = 1 piece, but still. That's too much. I didn't realize how much it had gotten to be, and how every-day. We're just going to Run Out Of Candy and see what happens. He'll just have to get used to it. It'll be interesting to see if there IS indeed a reaction, when he has some after weeks of not, down the road!

Originally Posted by wombatclay Maia- Ugh.  I hope the diet changes help!  I'm seriously reaching the end of my rope with dd1's snarky moments and she's only six and they're only moments.  I'm not sure what I'd do if it was round the clock.  usually I'll tell her that I can't hear her when she is being snarky, and that she needs to stop talking, take a breathing break, and try again.  (and I'll often go somewhere else/ignore her till she uses a nicer tone of voice)... but that probably wouldn't work with an older kiddo.

It might. I like the "breathing break" idea. He doesn't seem to realize (or he's lying, which is entirely possible) that he's got a snarky tone of voice. I think he's full of bulldoody and that he knows full well, but sometimes I have to play it out like he doesn't.

Originally Posted by singin_angel Maia - way to go on the food, no matter how tough it may be. You are one determined and loving mama.

Thank you. I really needed to hear that today I'm having a super rough day. I don't know why. DS was in school, and M called when he got out of work, and I just started crying. Out of the blue. I miss him so much, mamas, and it's just getting to crisis proportions with needing to be physically near. This long distance is wearing us both down. He got on cam with me and was so sweet...but then at 5pm he was on the phone and just went "loveyoubye" without giving me closure on the phone call...and has been unavailable and unreachable since. I'm really, really hoping he fell asleep but it was so weird and so uncharacteristic (anymore). I'm just freaking the heck out. And trying not to. I called and called and the voicemail keeps picking up and I texted and he didn't answer...at least I know the phone's ON, but the ringer's not, so I know he's there and just not picking up. But it had to be today, of all days, this freaking uber stress needy insecure day. I don't have them that often, but I really need him and he's just...disappeared.

Originally Posted by wombatclay 

As promised... our ongoing playscape project! 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150182731833621.312949.514118620&l=24bb89120c

Wow! You guys are just amazing, you know that?

[CariOfOz]

Hello mamas,  I'm trying to keep up but failing in a big way  LOL.  I just wanted to pop in and share that my teenage sone has FINALLY got a residence visa here in Australia!  6.5months of waiting and it finally came through yesterday!  So thrilled, we'll be looking at Uni stuff for him this week! *happy dance*  and seeing if a friend of dh's has any work available doing nightfill at the supermarket he manages at ;)   

Clay, your woodland play space is GORGEOUS!  I'm sure it delights the kids to no end

mommanjari... loving your 'stepping' stone!  I would love to make something like that for our sideyard... only it would have to be smooth as we'd have to walk on it!  The side yard is perpetually damp and squishy *sigh*   A pathway of pretty stones would brighten it up wonderfully though :)  I'm actually thinking of doing a small outdoor altar/sacred space on that side of the house.  It's fairly secluded... the neighbors have no yard on that side of the house, their garage wall acts as our fence.  There is a little corner made by the wall of our house, and the wall of our elevated side door steps  where the clothes line is at that I think might make a nice spot.  You really don't even notice it from the road even though our entire backyard is visible.. and after I put up my herb & strawberry towers, it'll provide a little cover :)

Ok mamas.. must jet.. have a silly work meeting to go to in a while *sigh*  Have I mentioned lately that I work with idiots? lol 

Love to you all *hugs*

[wombatclay]

Maia-  ((hugs))  I hope you get good/reassuring news from M and a low stress day from "the boy".  Hang in there!

playscape- thanks!  I'm blushing!  Now if it would just stop raining... it started raining again last week and there's no sun expected till next week sooooo.  Much mud.  Cold mud too since we have been in the 50s this week.  We burned our last bag of pellets (this cold season was harsh, we burned over 2 tons) so it's electric space heaters from now on.  Ugh

[greenmagick]

The playscape is spectacular!  What a wonderful space for your family!

I just got Plant Spirit Familiar and am very excited to really delve into it...so far its really resonating with me.

[redveg]

Originally Posted by LionessMom 

well i havent really been here much lately. so much going on. i spend most my time, when not cleaning, doing research on the internet. but i think i have all the answers i need. i found out what our problems were and have most of it diagnosed correctly. i have researched food and how we need to eat. i know what i am doing there now. so i want to shut off our internet. the only thing left that i do on it, is find recipes, talk to friends, and facebook. i can do that at the library once a week. which i should do with the kids anyway. DH said he will miss the weather but i can get the internet added to his phone if he wanted, for less than what we are paying thhe cable company. i could cut down everything to bare bones. basic cable, land line, and cell phones. it would mostly unplug us. my son and I wouldnt be able to sit around all day on the pc. i know we have fatigue and everything hurts but we would be happier and i would spend more time with the girls doing stuff. i have been wanting to do this for awhile now but i always come up with excuses as to why i need to keep it. but the truth is, is it is just costing me money i should be spending on food, and costing me energy i could use to read my kid a book. i think the internet has lost is usefulness for me. i dont even check in here very often.

love to all.

Every once in a blue moon I get so over all the electronics in this place.  With 5 people on the internet, watching tv, cell phone text, scype it's like we are all together but not connecting with each other sometimes.  I understand and it's usually around this time of the year for me when I am over the computer myself.  As I have been outside working on my garden I haven't been on the computer so much.  We don't really watch a lot of tv here though but it's difficult to keep these teens off the computer.  I myself am a late night movie freak!!  I love, love movies:)  I hope you pop in when you can though:)

Originally Posted by Maiasaura 

Geez, Clay, is that all? And by 1:30?? Ye Gods, woman. When do you sleep? Not like I'm jealous or anything...

I know, though; Asheville is the same for eco-competition. I have finally grown beyond caring. I laugh now. Like, I say "If you haven't got food issues, you don't belong here, or you just arrived here" And it DOES break the ice for snark, srsly. People really do laugh at themselves when you put it like that! I dunno if Ithaca would be the same way, but I'm betting people don't really change all that much. Maybe it's just cause you're not 40 yet and haven't grown your not-give-a-shit bone Don't worry-- it's all good. Oh, and here's yet another tidbit from AA: Stop comparing your insides to other people's outsides

Food shopping for a MONTH?? I'd love to get to that kind of point. How do you do that??

I would love to once a month food shop.  That would help us out so much!  As far as eco-competition/earth lovin Pagan I do what I can and what feels right to me.  People get so worked up about what they are doing and feel everyone should be doing as much if not more, hey I do what I can.  I am great in some areas and need work in others.  Sometimes in the veggie community it is the same with vegans/veggies, I just aim for the best I can do:)
 

Originally Posted by CariOfOz 

The boys had their FIRST school friend birthday party today and had a blast!  The family, and actually most of the ppl there, are south african and just lovely folks... must invite the mum around for a cuppa one of these days since our kids are joined at the hip every moment they are allowed outside!  THIS is the sense of community I was hoping to find, and it's just terrific   I know my neighbors! 

Hubby calls with dinner... much love mama friends o' mine!

I am so happy for you and your family.  How wonderful to find a community to live in that's wonderful!! 

Originally Posted by Wolfcat 

Hey all!

I'm back... again! And OMG, am I busy. Bug is going to Kindergarten this fall and baby is on the edge of walking and talking, we moved into my parent's house (after they moved out) and we are going to buy it, we are planting trees and veggies all over the place, the store has THREE events to vend at this year, the job has been shaken up like a snow globe, the radio show is getting more and more guests, and I'm writing for a nice little pagan e-zine.

*deep breath*

Did I miss anything good?

Hello:)  Congrats on all the wonderful things going on in your life:)
 

Originally Posted by CariOfOz   I just wanted to pop in and share that my teenage sone has FINALLY got a residence visa here in Australia!

Congrats!!! 

[redveg]

Morning all:) 

I am trying to pop in here at least once a week.  It has been rain, rain and more rain around here.  The weeds in my garden are taking over and the seeds have yet to show themselves:(  It is going to be nice this weekend so I will get out and weed like crazy!  I hope everyone has been having better weather than us, they only thing I can say is it's keeping the bugs down:)  Today is grocery shopping day, I wish I could do that month shopping thing but I need help in that area, I am the worlds worst shopper!

Have a great day all:)

[wombatclay]

There are a bunch of threads in Frugality about OAMC, and there is one sort of "uber blog" (Once A Month Mom) that even provides options for people with various food restrictions (no gluten, no dairy, vegetarian, and so on)... the website gives you a full month of menus, the shopping lists for those menus, the recipes along with a two day break down of what needs to be done in what order, and free lables to print out and stick in the freezer with the finished item that tell you what last minute things to add and how long to re-heat/cook.  And the site is free.  :)  She is always looking for people with food restrictions to tweak the months recipes... she doesn't have time to do it herself, but she'll put the tweaks on her website with credit to whomever did the work.

Our maximum grocery budget (so food but also general household supplies like TP or laundry soap) is 100 dollars a week for a family of 5 in a high COL region (cookbooks like Family Feasts for 75 Dollars a Week help, as does our CSA and the fact that we eat a lot of rice/beans).  I do shop once a week since we need fresh produce/fruit/dairy product but those are quick "maintainance" trips... I do a bigger trip every other week.  Once we have space for a real freezer/pantry I'll try for the full on once a month deal but for now I can't manage it.  I'm betting that once AppleBelley arrives things will be super crazy for a while so I might try stocking up starting in June so that Sept/Oct can be really really light months in terms of shopping/cooking.

Speaking of fincance... I got DH to sit down and really go through the budget and the snowball plans.  And while it's killing me (especially after all the dithering I've done in this thread on this subject over the past few moons) it looks like we just can't afford preschool for both girls in terms of time and money.  Or rather, we could afford that and nothing else.  Which wont work.  SO it looks like dd1 and dd2 will homeschool full time while I juggle ds and the babe.  We'll be able to afford a once a week yoga class for both girls which should help my sanity a little bit, but it's only 45 minutes a week and I'd have the younger two with me so it may not be as sanity saving as all that.  LOL  I had thought about adapting Sonlight (there is a yahoo group that adapted it to a secular format and I figured I'd just sort of pagan up the secular version) but it looks like even that may be a bit of a budget buster.  So I'm printing out the detailed plans from Ambleside and hoping I can make an idiot proof daily lesson plan that I can follow during the sleep deprived hormonal haze of life with new babe.  Since we plan on the kiddos eventually moving into the public school system we really want to stay in line with NYS standards and I know me... if I don't have a to-do-today list it's just too easy for me to "not do".  But there's another yahoo group with detailed daily/weekly/monthly schedules for the Ambleside books, I can get most of those books for pennies at the book sale this weekend, and we'll see what we see.

Oh!  I did get a few books at the book sale last weekend and one was tagged by BookCrossing.  Any of you familiar with that group?  It's kind of nifty... individuals print out unique "id numbers" for a book, glue the printed notice to the inside cover, and then "release" the book into the wild.  If you find a bookcrossing book you can go to the website, enter the id number, and see all the places that specific book has been and what the previous readers thought about it.  It's kind of like FaceBook meets Geo-Caching meets Free Lending Library.  The idea is that you log in to say you captured the book, you leave a review of the book once you've read it, and then you release it again (a "wild" release is just putting the book out there in a laundromat waiting room or "free" box, a "controlled release" is giving it to a friend or associate).  Anyway, it's kind of fun and I'm totally going to be scanning my shelves for books that I can release.  LOL

ETA- looks like the Once a Month Mom page has had a major update/overhaul and some of the spceial food menus aren't up.  If you google Once a Month Mom and "whatever it is" you should find older menus.

Edited by wombatclay - 5/18/11 at 9:25am

[Aeress]

Clay- I think it is ok and very reasonable to take say, 3-4 months off of homeschooling when the new babe arrives. What about a workbox system that you could set up before babe arrives?

[Maiasaura]

Originally Posted by wombatclay There are a bunch of threads in Frugality about OAMC, and there is one sort of "uber blog" (Once A Month Mom) that even provides options for people with various food restrictions (no gluten, no dairy, vegetarian, and so on)... the website gives you a full month of menus, the shopping lists for those menus, the recipes along with a two day break down of what needs to be done in what order, and free lables to print out and stick in the freezer with the finished item that tell you what last minute things to add and how long to re-heat/cook.  And the site is free.  :)

WOW...more timesucking stuff for me to look at

 

[wombatclay]

Isn't it though?  LOL  My SIL is a big fan of Once a Month Mom and she turned me on to the site... I'd tried it on my own and failed miserably, but dude... that lady just rocks the concept.  :)

Aeress- Part of me wishes we could call a time out, but it's not "us".  There's a bunch of reasons but they boil down to the educational/philosophical (DH and I are simply not interested in an unschooling approach), the moral/philosophical (we have to turn in quarterly progress report and "clock seat time" and while I know plenty of local parents who make up both of those as required, DH and I really aren't comfy with making things up for the reports or counting "real life" stuff as "school time hours"), to the totally practical (dd1 enjoys having a very predictable schedule and dd2 REQUIRES that sort of predictability.  Adding the babe is going to be a big enough shift for dd2, we HAVE to have everything else as structured as possible or the fallout will be horrific).

We've been doing some workboxing this past year and Ro loves it.  So we're totally keeping that (each kiddo has 6 boxes, this coming year Tor's boxes will have more than just crafts lol).  In fact I'd love to hear how your workboxing montessori stuff has been working out!  The Seasons of Joy program (Waldorf based, written/created by a former MDC moderator!) also has great workboxing ideas.  Kind of like the OAMC, I hope to get sort of a "pre-log" of work box days ready... maybe a month of days in ziplock bags?  With dd1 I'll use the detailed weekly assignment schedule but for dd2 and ds I think the Seasons of Joy ideas will rock if we add a few workbooks from the dollar store (ds adores flashcards).

Oops... dinner!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ETA- we have been thinking about maybe starting "formal" record keeping in June so we can make Sept/Oct really light.  We need to keep the whole "routine aspect" and we have some big trips planned for July/Aug but if we can get some of the more formal stuff taken care of then it might make life easier.  Well, as easy as Pennsic at 36 weeks can be!  lol

Edited by wombatclay - 5/19/11 at 5:30am

[redveg]

Morning:)

I am going to check out that website and the other threads.  I too have to go weekly with all the produce that we use.  Hopefully my garden will help with that:) I can't believe you spend $100 a week for 5 people Clay, that's amazing to me.  There are 5 of us and I spend about $200, sometimes a little less but I can't imagine $100.  Like I said though I am not a very good shopper.

I can't believe how much rain we are getting.  I need to see the sun soon. 

Hope everyone has a great day:)

[Aeress]

Clay- I totally get the not recording practical life as school hours, though I don't have a problem with it, I can see your point. The montessori workbox approach came out of the need for more structure. While we lean towards unschooling, it just doesn't work as well for middle dd, and with 3 kids with very different needs, I needed something more structured as well. I take montessori shelf materials and other materials, and place them in bins. The kids choose what they want to do based on the bins, plus a mommy story and math activity. We also do science or history together. Right now we are knee deep in forensic science. Let me get my thoughts more organized and I will upload my pics to help explain what I have been doing.

And back on semi-topic- I am so missing the sun!! We have had overcast, and rainy days since Monday. bleck.  I want to plant and weed and enjoy my garden.

[Aeress]

After I posted, the weather cleared and we have sun!