~December Pagan Mama's Circle~ - Page 29

[Pam_and_Abigail]

I am still working on those toddler skills. And the preschooler ones too.

[wombatclay]

The only first that my parents "scooped" us on that really really bugs me (even now) is dd's first touching the earth. We had specifically kept her off the ground initially so we could do a sort of "welcome to the planet" ritual when she was a bit older.

But then my parents were watching her while I took a nap and when I woke up there was dd sitting in their yard playing with flowers. It was cute, but still upsetting to me since we really had wanted to "introduce her properly" so to speak.

They've really backed off from "firsts" after I blew up (post partum hormones anyone?) at them over that!

Favorite song?

I don't actually have one for this year...but I do have a tie for favorite new CD! I'm in love with the newest Loreena McKennit release "An Ancient Muse" (I use her songs in ritual all the time, and they make great belly dance routines as well!) and Sharon Knight's "Songs of the Sea" (yay for yummy pagan music!).

Favorite restaurant in 2006?

Maxie's Supper Club...it's a cajun/New Orleans style place just a few blocks from our house. We can't afford to go often, but they make the world's best Po'Boys, "cajun popcorn" (deep fried crawdaddies), and they have this warm ginger cake that they serve with a lavender infused creme anglaise and rosewater whipped cream....insert homer simpson throat gargle of ultimate food based happiness here! And they're kid friendly to boot.

Favorite food?

Well, despite the joy's of Maxie's, pregnancy has thrown my food preferences right out the window. For the past three months my favorite food has been the sweet and sour chicken at our local chinese buffet. But that really shouldn't count. So let's put my "pre-belly-bean" fav food back on the throne...and that would be home made pizza with feta and kalamata olives.

Favorite thing to do to relax?

Relax? What is this relax you speak of? Reading a book is top of the list, especially if DH has taken dd off and the house is quiet and I can drink my tea and read my book and listen to my music in blissful ignorance of the ever growing dust bunny society plotting total house domination behind my back.

New Skill?

This is a toughie...I'm tempted to say "tandem nursing", but I think I'll go with "starting my own business" even though it's still itty bitty teeny tiny. I started marketing my beeswax and olive oil balms and it's been going pretty well. Of course, it only brings in about 40 dollars a month (in a really good month), but that's better than nothing and the potential is there for more.

So it's been a busy year so far and there's still room for more!

[GoldBerry]

Originally Posted by wombatclay

I think I'll go with "starting my own business" even though it's still itty bitty teeny tiny. I started marketing my beeswax and olive oil balms and it's been going pretty well. Of course, it only brings in about 40 dollars a month (in a really good month), but that's better than nothing and the potential is there for more.

Do you sell online?

[Jennisee]

Favorite song?
I'm not sure if this is favorite song from 2006 or favorite all-around, so I'll answer both. My favorite from 2006 was probably Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback," and my favorite all-around is probably Staind's "It's Been A While." But my favorite songs are constantly changing, LOL.

Favorite restaurant in 2006?
Bennigan's

Favorite food?
Always has been and always will be French fries. Not good for my PCOS low-carb diet, though.

Favorite thing to do to relax?
That's a tough call between a nighttime walk and talking to a good friend on IM.

[mamaofthree]

Favorite song: no real favorite song, I like so many. But I do love the Corinne Bailey Ray CD. Her voice is so smooth. Very 1970's.

Favorite restaurant: Hmm. I guess this year like the last 15 years it has to be Rosa's. Oh the lovely Mexican food. It is owned by this family, it is always busy and loud so my kids are totally welcome. The service is fast and the food... I want some right now! LOL

Favorite food: Chocolate

Favorite thing to do to relax: I don't relax. I need to find something.

New skill: Candle making. Not too good at it yet, but I love to do it.


OK who learned to spin? I am so jealous! I have everything here to do it and no one to teach me! I also want to learn to knit. My goal for next year is to knit everyone Yule gifts.
Well I gotta go kids are being looney!
We actually are having rain... serious rain. It has rained all night and is cold! It is snowing up in the foothills and on the mountian. So we are going to get our butts up there this weekend and play in the snow!!!!

H

[wombatclay]

Salvia- I have an online store through etsy.com (just search for wombatclay as a seller name) but it's still really tiny. This has been such a busy year with DH getting a new job, and a new babe on the way, and starting a new business, and all the medical problems that have cropped up (though my dad is slowly slowly getting better and my brother's surgeons keep offering more hope).

I know I suggested the "Happiest moment of 2006" question but to be honest, I can't really pick one out...

Maybe when we learned that my brother survived the bombing and would be coming home? Or when DH found out that he'd finally finally been offered a "real" job (after two years of unemployment with no benefits)? Or when I learned I was pregnant with belly bean number two?

The problem is that all those moments are also bittersweet (since my brother was critically injured, my DH had suffered so much and our finances will take years to recover, and belly bean two followed within weeks of a m/c and as I said...our finances aren't really "baby ready"). I guess life is like that sometimes. Sometimes the balance of light and dark isn't obvious...you have a whole year of happy, or a whole year of sad and you don't see the larger balance at work. But then sometimes you have a year like mine was where the balance comes hard and fast on the heels of each event.

It makes me appreciate the moments of light even more since I can see just how short and special each moment is...and it makes the moments of dark easier to bear since I know they will be fleeting too...

[**guest**]

Wombatclay-

Mamaofthree- Hey! I've been wondering where you've been.

[mamaofthree]

OTJ: we were visiting the crazy families up in Phoenix. It is so not worth it anymore. It is hard on the kids to be driving around so much, and honestly I just can't stand it anymore. I hate being in the car. I want to cocoon up in my house. Do crafts with the kids, play games, bake things. Just US. I think I need a recharge of good calm energy, but we are always on the go. Makes me crazy.

So there is snow on our mountian!! I am thinking of taking the kids up to go play in the snow tomorrow. Maybe I can talk dh into playing hooky from work and we go up and play and maybe go to a cafe up there and have hot cocoa! : I would love that. Just us, all together having fun! AAAAHHH!

H

[eilonwy]

I learned to spin by hand. I really suck at it, like i said, but I've been wanting to learn for ages. I still want to learn to use a spinning wheel and a loom. I konw it's totally weird, but when I was seven I went on a field trip to a museum and learned all about spinning and weaving, and I got a chance to push a shuttle through a loom... I just felt as though it was something that I really, REALLY needed to do. It's odd. I've honestly been thinking about it ever since then. I'm looking forward to my kids getting a little older so that I can work on spinning some more.

Favorite song? Another Place to Fall, KT Tunstall. Earlier in the year, I'd have had to go with Hips Don't Lie by Shakira, or Move Along by All American Rejects. I'm also still really into the "booty-shakin" music, and would give a great deal to get my hands on the latest Ludacris disc.

Favorite restaurant in 2006? Okay, it's not really a restaurant, but probably Starbucks. I'm very, very happy if I can get a cafe mocha every other week or so. Other than that, I don't think I've actually set foot in a restaurant in 2006. : We're poor.

Favorite food? Er... you don't get to be a size 18 because you're a picky eater.

Favorite thing to do to relax? *sigh* Well, it's probably Gemstone. :

[wombatclay]

My mom taught me to weave when I was little...and she taught my SIL (a nice crunchy pagan SIL) to weave as well not too long ago! It's a lot of fun and not very hard once you get the hang of it so I encourage everyone to give it a try if they can! The only downsides are that it can be very dusty (the dust comes off the warp as well as the fabric or weft used) so it can bother people with allergies or asthma. And warping a loom takes forever! My mom always had to bribe me to get me to help with the warping. But it has such a wonderfully magical vibe to it...it's even better than knitting.

I have a small appalachian "travelling" floor loom that I found at a barn sale. This model was designed to fold so that a mama could move her loom into and out of her home to keep an eye on kids or to take advantage of warmer weather. Very handy. Sort of like this one http://www.harrisville.com/html/22_4.html

[GoldBerry]

Originally Posted by wombatclay

It makes me appreciate the moments of light even more since I can see just how short and special each moment is...and it makes the moments of dark easier to bear since I know they will be fleeting too...

That's so true! :

Thanks- I'll look for your etsy shop!

[midstreammama]

Hello everyone!

I have had a chance to catch up a little. I'm sorry a lot of you had stressful holidays! Hopefully, things will get better!

Do any of you dabble in Tarot? I just bought the Goddess TArot and I really like it! Are there any other good ones out there?

[frogguruami]

Well this month is almost over and I am just now coming around to this thread. There is no chance I will catch up, LOL.

Does anyone have any special plans for New Year's? We are planning to put up a New Year's tree on New Year's Eve and decorate it with all the hopes and goals we have for the next year. I want to leave the tree up until Imbolc and let everyone add to it. I'm just not sure what to do with it after that. I first thought of storing it in a special box on our altar but putting everything in a closed box seems somehow wrong. Like we are holding our hopes hostage and not letting them go. So I was thinking about making it in to a collage or a garland to hang in the house. Anyone have any other ideas that we can do with them?

[Aeress]

That is a great idea! My almost 5yr old dd is sick, fever and cough, runny nose, so we will be staying home and doing our own ceremony. i like the idea of putting of writing down your hopes and dreams...great way to ehlp visualize them! I am creating a fetish bowl for us to put our thoughts in for the year so that we can recall and revisit them as needed.

[mamaofthree]

Very cool ideas! I think that would be great... either one. Maybe we will make a paper chain and put the hopes and dreams on it for the new year and then hang them around the altar. Maybe on Imbolc you could release them in a fire or something? Thanks for the inspiration!

So it rained last night too. The clouds have broken and our mountian looks all alpine-y and snowy. It is so cool that we have such a great veiw of it from our front window. Dh and I decided that maybe waiting till Monday to go up would be better, as the roads will probably be cleaned off, we don't have snow tires or chains or 4 wheel drive. Don't want to go slipping off the road.

OK, so I have a goal for Jan. To leave the money I put in savings, in savings. With the holidays and all, I would put money ina nad then move it all over the place. UGH. So now it stays put. I want to have a few bucks in there by the end of Jan. :

Ok gotta go have some food!

H

[paganmum]

OK I had a weird brain fart this morning. Maybe it's the lack of sleep with Dd1 the las couple fo nights, getting up earlier then usual with Dh the last couple of mornings and all the fun stress that has been going on that has caused a brain fry in me but I've been trying to figure out a business that I could run with the kids helping me (ages 3, 5.5, and soon to be 7) and the thought popped into my head "does anyone sell deity dolls for kids?" I'm talking a nice soft doll that a kid could haul around and play with if being raised in a nonchristain household.
Is there a plush shiva or ganesh? I dodn't think that I've seen a plush brigit or thor? Could I have caught on to something here?

OK I'm off to slam some more caffine in the hopes of getting a couple of brain cells to wake up in the hopes that they will smack together enough to help me get some cleaning done.

[mamaofthree]

That sounds very cool!

H

[Birth Junky]

Originally Posted by midstreammama

Do any of you dabble in Tarot? I just bought the Goddess Tarot and I really like it! Are there any other good ones out there?

I really, REALLY love the Robin Wood deck; it is beautifully illustrated, and because it is a pagan-themed deck I find the symbolism used on the cards really easy to interpret.

I have the Thoth deck and don't particularly love it, but a lot of people do.

Tarot of a Moon Garden is a pretty, whimsical deck that would make a good introductory deck for a child.

I've also heard good things about the Gilded Tarot, though I have never used it myself. And of course, the classic Rider-Waite deck is an old standby.

Ooooh, midstreammama, now you've got me wanting my cards! They're still all packed up, but now I want to start digging through boxes to have them for the New Year . . .

[Birth Junky]

paganmum, I love your idea for the diety dolls . . . I'm envisioning something fairly uniformly-shaped with a painted/embroidered image on it, which would be appropriate even for small babes. Of course, for older children you could get much more creative.

Any wildly talented seamstresses out there? :

[paganmum]

I sew so that is why I was thinking of it. I've been hitting up all the pagan parent lists I know to see if there is already someone doing what I'm thinking of and so far it's looking like a go. A couple of people have sent me links to goddess dolls that have a simple shape and head but nothing on par with what I'm thinking.
I like the waldorf style dolls so I think I would come up with my own pattern. But there was one site where the lady makes waldorf doll (www.dancingraindolls.com) where she has a picture of a wild haired little boy doll and my first thought was "he just needs a set of antlers and you'd have Cernnunos!", litterally! And thus the start of my brain fart.

I've been pondering it a little more and the combinations of fabrics etc could make for so beautiful deity dolls. I would love to do stitch work on them to fit.
I know that my Ds would love a Thor and Loki set, I'd *love* to have a stuffed Morrigan for my bed (yeah I'm weird I know!), Dd2 could use a Anaihnrod (sp?) to go with the baby blanket I made her when she was tiny, and I don't know what I would give Dd1.

But yeah like I said it's a tinkle in my eye at the moment. I want to make sure that it isn't being done by someone else before I try to move forward with it.