{November} Pagan Families Circle!

[Aeress]

Welcome to November!

Blessed be!

[saphire]

Good Morning
I hope you all had a wonderful Samhain.

DOK- are you alright? Sorry you had to be in the hosp, that sucks

I cannot believe it's November already. Where has '08 gone???

[LionessMom]

Happy New Year! :

i love the day after Samhain just as much as i love Samhain.

last night was great. the kids had fun, i had fun. DH had a little too much to drink. lol. no stroller incidents though. the kids were even calling it Samhain! instead of Halloween.

tonight is the local Samhain Gathering. i really want to go but i have never been there before so i am nervous. i dont do real well in crowds. i get panicky. i want to take my son and daughter. and i wanted a freind to go with me. she never called me back. DH wouldnt go even if he could. sigh......

[aweynsayl]

dok~ poopers! i so so sorry, hon. huge hugs.

love the idea of scheduling apts.

had a mellow eve.... the highlight was when a pre-teen goth bride ooooh'ed over my "peace sign" pumpkin-- which was on the altar, which was visile from the door. ds fell asleep on my lap-- WHILE kids were coming to he door! and-- i made the most splendid pumpkin lasagna! yummmy. also did a reading, which was nice... very mellow eve.

now that it's nov, i'm allowing myself to gofull steam ahead with holiday crafing! ok.... so, i need some energy first..... off to try and create some sort of pumpkin coffee cake with the leftover pumpkin......

happy november!!!!!! next to october, i think it's my fave.
:

[ann_of_loxley]

Aww LionessMom - Wished I lived near you - I would go with you!

I too will be baking with all the left over pumpkin - DS has taken a great interrest in all the measuring so most baking is now done on the kitchen floor...its a good thing I keep a clean kitchen floor hehe

Talk about brr though...brr brr brr! I love everything about this time of the year except for the temperature! hehe

[UnschoolnMa]

I can't believe it's November!

[DaughterOfKali]

See, my brain is so fuzzy, I posted in the October thread. Brilliant, I tell ya.

I tried to go to a book club meeting this morning but couldn't stay long. Just can't stand up for too long.

[simplespirit]

Merry Meet, Sisters!

I spent the morning outside, putting my main garden area to sleep. The cornstalks are pulled, the plants and 'leftover' veggies were all worked into the ground, stakes and cages pulled and and stacked for the winter...

I came in, took a nice hot shower and now... I think I am goign to take a nap!

[MamaVolpe]

Sounds good, it is time for my garden to go to sleep too. Just need to pull up the last carrots and the old okra stalks and put my stakes away. The weather here is wonderful so I am inspired to get it all done. This morning my little one and I went out to a piece of property that is for sale (my dream land) and did a attraction charm to direct it my way. So here is hoping I can build my dream home in 2009. Have a wonderful November all.

[wombatclay]

Heyla all! Hope everyone had fun (and that our sickie mamas feel better soon... we learned AFTER the preschool party where there was much sharing of plates/cups/bobbing apples that two of the children there were contagious for coxsackie virus. I was furious. And now I have to wait and see if we get sick. Ugh).

Anyway, after the preschool party we went to campus but everything went wonky (DH had to show some people the lab, we were late, etc) but ended up happy... we walked around campus and got pictures, then went to a friend's house and hit a few streets. Then to my parents (ugh icky icky ugh ). Then home to light the pumpkins we carved the day before. Over all, pretty good.

And pictures are here.

I made a set of prayer beads after the girls were out, but it disappeared about 5 minutes after I put it on! Seriously. I finished it, put it on, showed it to dh, and sat down on the couch to nurse dd2 (who rode her sugar high till almost 1am). When I stood up after nursing I wasn't wearing the bracelet! We pulled up the rug, moved the couch, checked under the cushions, etc. And I checked again today... nothing.

So I made a new set and I think it "works" better. In both strands I used beads I already had... a strand of bone beads dh made for me when we were dating. I never wear them because he strung them on string and I was afraid of it breaking (and man is he teasing me about losing the first set!). Anyway, I made a patterns of black glass beads and white bone beads and it looked neat. But after it was gone I had to use what I had left... a few bone beads from the original strand and colored glass beads. And when it was done it... well. It made me realize that a lot of the stress I feel comes from a sort of black and white take on things (not things in general, just things dealing with me). Either I'm good, or I'm not. Either the house is perfect, or it's not. Either I'm making everyone happy, or I'm not. And I get upset and judge myself on a really harsh black/white scale.

This new set of prayer beads is more open... there are the white bone beads, but the glass beads are smoke grey, leaf green, clear, blue, purple/black (looks black but hold it up and it's a deep purple), and a neat bead that is red on one end and sort of orange on the other... the color kind of drifts across the bead. And since I didn't have the hematite spacers or the moon bead I'd used in the first set I used a single hematite spacer, a smooth oval tiger eye bead, and a tiny green shell bead left over from my Lughnasadh strand to balance the strand against the clasp.

So a sort of reminder of the strength of the past (bone, gifted with love) but with options and an open/random pattern.

Not sure yet but it's a good meditation point. And no, the other strand hasn't reappeared. And this strand fell off two as I bathed the girls. Hmmmmm... maybe a practical call to mindfullness?

[DaughterOfKali]

Originally Posted by mercyn

hey y'all-- i have to go back and catch up, but this is hilarious and i had to share!

http://www.theonion.com/content/vide...lloween_become

Omg...

I watched it twice and laughed so hard both times. :

[wombatclay]

mercyn- oat biscuits as a base for hearty stews... put a biscuit in the bowl, ladle stew into the bowl and over the biscuit. As you eat the stew you can kind of scoop or fork up biscuit as well as the meat/veggie.

[wombjuice]

Originally Posted by mercyn

hey y'all-- i have to go back and catch up, but this is hilarious and i had to share!

http://www.theonion.com/content/vide...lloween_become

Loved it!! OMG, "Because someone complained about the howling!"

[Aeress]

*grrr* I need to unravel my scarf and start again, grrr. Oh well, I am enjoying it and just need to keep trying.

Erin pumpkin eating
Gillian the Pirate
Bella the Snow Princesshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/christo...7608467404725/
Erin the Fall Leaf Fairy

[DaughterOfKali]

Brendon- cute pics!!

[MyLittleWonders]

Subbing early this month in hopes of keeping up.

[BellaLuna Rayne]

Hey all. I cannot believe its November already, I am so not looking forward to these next two months. Shopping for DH and DSS is hard, I hate not having my family with me for the holidays.

On Monday I am going to call and try and find a different counselor. I am just not comfortable continuing with the one I was just sent to. Hopefully the next one won't make me as uncomfortable.

[Aeress]

DOK- Thanks! How are you feeling? Get better dear!

I need a menu for Erin's dedication. SOmething to feed 25-30 people, simple. Got any ideas?

[EviesMom]

I just had to come over here and vent a moment after posting on a thread in Parenting about why people do the all out scary gore fest houses and frighten small children. Astounding the number of people who INSIST that halloween, despite having hanging skeletons dripping blood decorating their lawns "are not celebrating a holiday in any way associated with death because they themselves are in no way scared of death, they're just having fun with decorations and costumes, uh huh, yeah, yeah, no fear of death here, nosirree bob!"

I don't know why I even started. I just think that society-wide, not on an individual basis, folks who overdecorate with the gory stuff are really terrified of death and this is the society's way of coping with it and meeting it head on. And when you're not as a society so terrified of it any more, when you can talk about it or address the fear in other ways, you don't have ginormous ax-murderer tableaux in front yards anymore.

[EviesMom]

Anyway... we had a lovely Halloween here, DD and I as butterflies, DS as a caterpillar, and DH as a "butterfly scientist" per DDs mandate. Did a little trick or treating around local businesses, went to a festival in the park with some friends, had dinner with friends while the girls carved a pumpkin. After everyone else was abed, I did a little meditation.

I picked a couple things from my grandmother's cookbook to make for a Samhain dumb (meaning silent!) supper tomorrow with my coven. Candied pecans I think.

I want to do some more meditation around DS, but I've been a little spooked about doing it. Two years ago on Samhain, I invited into circle two babies from my extended family, one who died young of SIDS (cousin) and one who my mother miscarried. They were soooo happy to be there, crawled around, toddled around. They kept showing up in my meditations for weeks after that. They asked me to be their mother. I said yes, but only 1 at a time (no twins) and only if they wanted to live long, full, healthy lives this time.

In January, I conceived DS. I believe him to be the spirit of the miscarried baby. He was also suspected to be twins at one point and I meditated all weekend talking to them, saying "I am not willing to be the mother of twins right now. That's not what I agreed to."

In October last year, DS was born in a beautiful home birth. 9 days later, he spiked a fever and wouldn't nurse. I ended up taking him to the ER, where they did a spinal tap, catheter, IV, all manner of difficult medical interventions. In the end, it was a virus, tylenol brought his fever down and he would nurse great when the fever was down. I came down with PPD and/or PTSD from the experience and was treated for that earlier this year. I missed Samhain last year because DS was just out of the hospital and I could NOT subject him to Samhain energy.

I keep kicking a couple of things around in my head related to the hospital stay... the whole time it felt to me like a nightmare from someone else's life, like I was thrust into something I couldn't control, stop, mitigate, or affect in any way really. I wonder if he as a spirit needed to go through it all, carried over from a previous life. I also have been ANGRY at the goddess I work with most often for being so utterly unhelpful during the hospital stay. I have been growing closer to Mary, despite never having a connection with her before, she was such a non-figure in the Christianity I grew up in. But it was a Catholic hospital, so my coven leader said "Well, when in Mary's house, worship Mary as a face of the supreme Goddess." I've continued to feel close to Mary this past year, and I really want some Mother Goddess energy going forward as well.