Happy Birthday Jilly-Bug!

Today my first born turns seven. It just so happens that my Dad also turns seventy, so we think it's pretty special. I remember seven years ago when my Dr picked the date to induce my labor. I was so excited that his granddaughter would be born on his birthday.
That morning we all went to the hospital, my husband and I, my parents, and my sister. Nothing went as planned, and after laboring all day. Sometime between 5 and 6 a little voice told me to get an epidural, even though the pain was still manageable. I listened and let the anesthesiologist give me the epidural. I finally convinced my parents and the Hubs to take a break and go get dinner, because I was not progressing and even the Dr had gone home to eat. Shortly after they left, a nurse rushed in my room and handed me the phone.
It was my Dr telling me she was on her way back and the nurses were goingto prep me for surgery. Jilly was in trouble and her heart rate had dropped to 60. I was utterly calm, but worried my family would miss the birth. Just as I asked a nurse for the phone, they walked in. I had a few moments to hug my parents before being given stronger drugs through the epidural. They told me later that the fact it was in place saved valuable time.
Within minutes I was in the OR with the Hubs. The Dr cut me from hipbone to hipbone to get my daughter out quickly. Her cord was wrapped around her neck and over her head, and so with each contraction it was both strangling her and cutting off the blood supply between her head and my cervix. Once I heard her cry, once I knew she was safe and the Hubs went with her to the nursery where they gave her oxygen I broke down and cryed until I was sick.
Later they brought her to me in the recovery room to nurse her, and my Mom snuck back to see us before anyone else.
I love you, Ladybug, and I bless the day the Goddess gave you to us.

Monday Message 11/14/11

Healing List for 11/10/11

Please send Reiki, prayers, or simply positive and healing thoughts to this list.

To include yourself or others on the list, simply post the names in the comments. Please feel free to use the video to do a short, focused meditation for those in need of healing, or just include them in your thoughts in your own way,



***********
Trisha


Sarah


Kristine


The New Albany explosion victims

Mrs B.


Violi on her pregnancy


Joo Im Lee in a coma after a car accident


The Hittson-Dean family who lost a loved one

Matt in Indy

Me, please, I am stressed out to my limit.

The Hubs, healing from a shoulder injury

Jerri in Elwood Heart and liver issues, recently recovering from a coma

Kathy E. in Summitville IN

The Edwards family

Sam, Jennifer,and the Finan family

Byron in Ft. Wayne

Gina in Indy

Hunter the cocker spaniel diagnosed with detatched retina

Gavi

Healing List for 11/3/11

Please send Reiki, prayers, or simply positive and healing thoughts to this list.

To include yourself or others on the list, simply post the names in the comments. Please feel free to use the video to do a short, focused meditation for those in need of healing, or just include them in your thoughts in your own way,

*****
Mrs B.


Violi on her pregnancy


Joo Im Lee in a coma after a car accident


The Hittson-Dean family who lost a loved one

Matt in Indy

Me, please, I am stressed out to my limit.

The Hubs, healing from a shoulder injury

Jerri in Elwood Heart and liver issues, recently recovering from a coma

Kathy E. in Summitville IN

The Edwards family

Sam, Jennifer,and the Finan family

Byron in Ft. Wayne

Gina in Indy

Hunter the cocker spaniel diagnosed with detatched retina

Gavi

The Monument Fire Pets and the efforts of volunteers to reunite pets and parents

Chris P. in Indiana, recovering from Spinal surgery 

Serena Weicht, Dorothy Heard, and family

Lauren Spierer, family, and all those searching for her

special note for the horses and dogs being used in the search

NaNoWriMo

For the first time, I am participating in NaNoWriMo, that's National Novel Writing Month if you were wondering. I had a great first day, even though I was off in the world for several hours. Best of luck to anyone else who is participating, and if you had never heard of it, please check it out! For the month of November I am going to throw up a gadget to track my word count here on the blog. Happy writing!

Wordless Wednesday Trick or Treat Edition

Hippie Samhain!

Samhain is upon us yet again, and the Wheel of the Year has turned back to the beginning. The Veil has thinned, and the Other Side is bleeding through. By now you know, we like to keep things simple here in the Hippie household. That does not, however, make our observation of this Festival any less meaningful or powerful.

Our Jack-o-Lanterns will be lit, to guide our ancestors to our door and drive away those spirits who mean to be tricksters. We will dress up in costumes to fool those same tricksters into thinking we are one of them. At dinner tonight, we will set a place at our table for those who have passed. We will pass a cup and toast to memories of them, and when we have finished leave an offering out for the spirits and the faeries. Once our girls are down from their trick or treat sugar high and tucked into bed, The Hubs and I will walk, hand in hand, to our outdoor altar and call a quiet circle. There we will thank the Quarters and the Lady and Lord for the blessings of the dying year. Then we will stand in silence, feeling the night and looking at the stars, until we are moved to open our circle, 

Whatever you do to mark this day, may it be blessed, and may you all be blessed in the coming year. Magick and ritual need not be grand, showy, or great solemn and complicated ritual, although those have their place. If all you are able to do is light a candle and quietly acknowledge Samhain tonight, that is as powerful as any ritual, because it put Samhain in your heart and mind.

Brightest Blessings 

Monday Message 10/31/11

Fall Herb Garden

Dirty Little Secret Circle

I'm not gonna lie, I am loving this show.

Of course Magickally it's bullshit, but I love it for the same reasons I loved Passions when it was on NBC. It's a ridiculous guilty pleasure.

Maybe I'm supposed to be all up in arms about how my "culture" is portrayed in movies and TV, but I love most of the cheesy witch themed crap that Hollywood churns out.

I love Hocus Pocus, The Craft, I was bummed when the Witches of Eastwick show was cancelled. My love for witchy stereotypes is well known. My Mom, who is a Christian but is absolutely open and supportive of my Paganism sent me this care package for Halloween.

here's the back of the necklace.

So there it is. I'm that guy. 

I will say, however, that I feel it is better to own hundreds of years of sterotypes than to fight them. In my experience it has started a lot of conversations that were useful in educating people about the true nature of us "dirty Pagans" when there is a familiar common ground. So take it how you will, hate it if you must, but don't dismiss a great guilty pleasure just because it makes you feel a little too guilty.

Halloween Economics: Scariest Numbers Around

By JOSH HERR, The Fiscal Times

October 27, 2011

Total American Halloween spending is estimated to hit $6.86 billion this year – making Halloween the second largest commercial holiday in the U.S. behind Christmas.  And while the holiday has always been about marketing, ghosts, zombies, vampires, witches and even pets dressed as Robin Hood will (rightly) take the spotlight.

As the early Catholic Church spread its teachings across a largely pagan Britain, it needed a hook to sell the populace. Incorporating rituals of Celtic end-of-summer festivals into a minor Christian holiday, the church created All Hallows Day (today called All Saints Day) and with it, All Hallows Eve, the night-before festivities in which the Celts were given license to exercise their pre-Christian urges. 

Later, poor Scottish and Irish children used the holiday as an excuse to go “souling,” or traveling door to door in costumes begging for food, in a manner similar to Christmas caroling of the time. In Victorian London, All-Hallows became an outlet for the frustrations of the working poor (take note, OWS protestors). But when those Scots and Irish came to the land of opportunity as immigrants, they brought their traditions with them – and Halloween as we know it began to take shape.

Wicca is America's fastest growing religion, says Witch School

Wicca is America's fastest growing religion, says Witch School:

'via Blog this'

Spray Cleaner Tutorial

Healing List for 10/27/11

Please send Reiki, prayers, or simply positive and healing thoughts to this list.

To include yourself or others on the list, simply post the names in the comments.

*****
The Hittson-Dean family who lost a loved one

Matt in Indy

Me, please, I am stressed out to my limit.

The Hubs, healing from a shoulder injury

Jerri in Elwood Heart and liver issues, recently recovering from a coma

Kathy E. in Summitville IN

The Edwards family

Sam, Jennifer,and the Finan family

Byron in Ft. Wayne

Gina in Indy

Hunter the cocker spaniel diagnosed with detatched retina

Gavi

The Monument Fire Pets and the efforts of volunteers to reunite pets and parents

Chris P. in Indiana, recovering from Spinal surgery 

Serena Weicht, Dorothy Heard, and family

Lauren Spierer, family, and all those searching for her

special note for the horses and dogs being used in the search

Tom, Joyce, Doris, Alverita, Chuy, Rose, and Bob and all those affected by the southern Arizona wildfires

 US "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families. They are fighting it out in Afghanistan and have lost 9 Marines in 4 days. 

Presented without comment...NSFW

Processing Pumpkins

We got exactly one pumpkin out of the two patches we planted, thanks to the squash bugs. We were pretty on top of it until our trip to Kansas, and they took those four days to complete the destruction. Our buddy Stubby saved the day by bringing over two sugar pie pumpkins from his garden. I processed them this morning and they are in the freezer, waiting to become yummy pumpkin pie next month!

 Cut each pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds. I kept about one half of one pumpkin worth of seeds for next year...and will hopefully not lose those pumpkins to squash bugs too.

 I roasted them for 45 minutes, cut sides down, at 400 degrees. This made the flesh soft enough that it fell right out of the skins, and got a little nice caramelization on the bottoms.

 I threw it all in the food processor, added two tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice, one for each pumpkin, and pureed it all up.

 The Hubs helped me bag it up, and it's all ready for me on Thanksgiving!

Potato Harvest

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon clearing out the garden today, and that included harvesting the purple potatoes I got from the neighbors in the spring.

 We got between 5-10 pounds, after I took out the little ones for seed potatoes. Not too bad since I got them totally free and pretty much threw them on the ground in the garden box, right on top of the grass, and pretty much ignored them till yesterday. I started to dig them up yesterday, but was interrupted by two stray dogs that the neighbor corralled in her back yard and I helped her get on leashes, then kept them in the grooming shop till the Humane officer and their owner came to get them back. So, I finished up today, actually got the grass and weeds out of the box, then reseeded it and moved my hoop house setup over that box. 

I am going to try to get/find/barter/buy some more Visqueen so I can hoop another box and try another March planting next year. If I can get it this week, I might even try for one more round of peas/lettuce/spinach under a hoop for the season. For now, the boxes are cleaned out, the composter is overflowing, and I am looking forward to purple mashed potatoes!

Extreme Couponing?

As I may have mentioned, my family is broke as a joke, and that was before the Hubs had his work accident and has been home for 2 weeks. I have been obsessed with the TLC show Extreme Couponing for a while now, but have been too overwhelmed to really get a start at it. Now I am so overwhelmed by the fact my slowly growing grooming business is our sole source of income that I feel like I HAVE TO start NOW so I can make sure I can feed us all and pay the bills. 

I really feel that each year we get a little more frugal, a little more self sufficient, but the reality is we kill ourselves to break even every month, which most people do, I know. I'm pretty sure we are all in the 99% around here. The bottom line is, I want to be working out of my home, homeschooling my kids, with the Hubs right there with me. I put in an application to go back to Petco in a moment of desperation this morning after learning we will, in fact, have to get a lawyer and fight for the Hubs workman comp claim. Not that Petco isn't a great place, I sure loved all the people I worked with, but it would kill me a little to go back to working for someone else again.

So, after 5 hours of lying in bed and crying (as I mentioned a few days ago, I am not exactly on firm mental and emotional ground) I got up, showered, dressed, and helped the Hubs on the several ideas we have in the works for work at home income and to get more business in the shop. We figure if we get enough little trickles of money coming in from places, it will fill the bucket as fast as a soul sucking job outside the house. 

Enter Extreme Couponing. I must figure it out. Now. Today. The freezer will be empty next week and I need to fill it up as cheaply as possible. So if anyone reading this has suggestions, tips, sites...anything PLEASE comment. I need all the help I can get.

Occupy Mordor

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/311041_10150353591712875_630742874_8236432_1182662968_n.jpg

Hobbits are the 99%

Pumpkin Masterpieces

I have been getting busier every month in my shop Lucky Dog Grooming and thought what better way to advertise on the cheap than with Lucky Dog jack-o-lanterns! I'm pretty proud, they were my first attempt at fancy pumpkin carving.

Profound Dark

I must admit, this latest bout with depression took me lower than I have ever been. I feel like all I have done in the past few months has been yell or cry. I got out of bed everyday, showered, dressed, took care of my kids and Dad, groomed dogs and went back to bed the second the Hubs came home from work. I couldn't even meditate, and every prayer became a sobbing mess.

With the help of my sweet husband, a new doctor, and a therapist, I feel like I am coming back to myself. I have been concentrating on my fiction writing projects in the last month, and it has given my the confidence to return to the blog. The Hubs and I even started a new blog and a YouTube channel about our geeky gaming interests. He is off work due to injuring his shoulder at work(which, by the way his boss it trying to deny his workmans comp. claim, even though there was a witness to the accident) and needed a project. Here are the links if you have interest in gaming. 

The Couple of Geeks blog

The Couple of Geeks YouTube Channel
If not, I hope to be back here more. I was in a dark, dark place and could not see or feel the Magick in my life, let alone write about it. I have a death grip on it now, and am hopefully am moving back to a place where I do not have to hold on so tightly.
Brightest Blessings

Healing List for 7/21/11

Please send Reiki, prayers, or simply positive and healing thoughts to this list.

To include yourself or others on the list, simply post the names in the comments.

*****

Kathy E. in Summitville IN

The Edwards family

Sam, Jennifer,and the Finan family

Byron in Ft. Wayne

Gina in Indy

Caylee Marie Anthony

Hunter the cocker spaniel diagnosed with detatched retina

Gavi

The Monument Fire Pets and the efforts of volunteers to reunite pets and parents

Chris P. in Indiana, recovering from Spinal surgery 

Serena Weicht, Dorothy Heard, and family

Lauren Spierer, family, and all those searching for her

special note for the horses and dogs being used in the search

Tom, Joyce, Doris, Alverita, Chuy, Rose, and Bob and all those affected by the southern Arizona wildfires

 US "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families. They are fighting it out in Afghanistan and have lost 9 Marines in 4 days. 

Wordless Wednesday

As promised, Fairies, Sprites, and Lights at Minnetrista!

So much...so little

I have been in a real funk lately, and I am having a hell of a time shaking it. After much wallowing in self-pity, them kicking my own ass for it, and in depth prayer and Reading I think I might know why. I have so many things I want to do, and because I am so scattered I get none of them done. 

I don't mean housework, home school, kids raising, or my grooming salon, although I often with I had more hours of the day to work on those things as well. I have so many things I want to do. So many creations that are banging around in my head. It's like they are all rushing to the exit at the same time and getting jumbled up, so nothing can really get out.

I want to craft, and have a lot of really great ideas. I am so in love with crochet right now it's ridiculous, and I sit and dream about leading my newly formed Stitch 'n Bitch group to making Prayer shawls, chemo caps, and other charity projects, all the while filling orders in my Etsy shop. The reality is if I get 5 rows of a project done I feel like I accomplished something, and have 0 crochet items in my pitifully empty Etsy shop. 

I like to make jewelry, and I am slowly learning to sew. Again, daydreams of making clothes for the kids and myself, and more Etsy sales, when I actually make maybe 1 project a month or less.

What I really wish and long and pine to do is write. I started this blog to have an outlet to write, even if it's not fiction, which I love. Even here, I have had stops and starts, and weeks with maybe one post. I have a mostly done manuscript, outlines for two other projects, short stories, and a good start on a Pagan parenting book. 

My problem is I can't finish anything. 

When I have the desire to write, I have no time, and months go by without one new word written on any manuscript. When I have some free time, I have 100 other projects I want to do, and crafting in front of the T.V. is much more relaxing than trying to coax writing out of the creative jumble in my head.

So, I am going to try something new, something very anti-Hippie.

I am going to make a plan, a creative plan. I am going to start today, and make a list of the things I want to do, with writing right there at the top. I am going to then put them in priority, and make a schedule for myself to get some crap done! Since I had my oldest daughter, I have taught myself to be a housekeeper, instead of a shovel the place out before company shows up person. I did this with scheduling, which is very against my nature. I have the house broken down into zones, and zones broken into jobs. One zone per day, plus dishes and laundry, and the house is still cluttered, but company ready with maybe a 5 minute "zamboni" to clear things off.

I am going to try to expand this scheduling concept into other parts of my life, and hopefully have as much success. I am hoping to use the blog to make myself accountable for the things I want to do, and hoping that my blog will improve with action, as making this blog something special, and a part of the Pagan online community is pretty high on the priority list.

H.W.

Not-So-Random Kindness

This Friday evening the Hubs and I had a hot date! You may have seen the post HERE about our awesome movie night. Well that awesome evening was made possible by a very awesome lady who we have know for several years now. I have groomed her dogs for a while now, she became my client because the other groomer I worked with at the time thought she was "too weird". She was a little high maintenance, but very nice with the sweetest dog so she quickly became my regular then a customer at my home salon.

She works at the grocery near our house, so I see her often. She even had the first home show for my direct sales jewelry business. She began to call us if she needed anything, even calling us to take her to and from the ER when her own adult children could not be bothered.

Over the last few months her hours at work have been cut, and I offered to groom her now two dogs in exchange for baby sitting, hence free sitter for our big night. The next day, she called and asked the Hubs to come outside and meet her. She pulled up, then handed the Hubs three loaded bags of food, including lots of frozen meat, and told him to take it inside then come back out so she could take him to buy milk and bread. I don't know how she knew, but at the time we had $20 to get through five days, unless the salon phone started ringing. It did ring, but boy did we feel better with a back-up plan!

I loved her before, and am so moved by her kindness. I had been feeling pretty down and wallowing in self pity for a bit, and she reminded me that the Goddess puts people in our lives because they have something to give us. I was not just given a few days worth of food, although of helped more than I can say, but a reminder I am not alone, and help comes even when I am too bitchy or proud to ask for it. She is now at the top of the Prayer Shawl list, and I have plenty of positive energy to put in it for her.

H.W.

Apple Butter

Apples were on sale last week at my neighborhood market, so I grabbed 4 bags of them and tried out apple butter in the crock pot, and used my new canning skills to preserve it.

Luckily for me, a friend of mine has one of those peeler/corer things and let me borrow it, saving me probably an hour peeling and slicing. If I continue to make apple butter, I must buy one.

I also got to use my mortar and pestle for the first non-spell time to crush the cloves. I have had it probably 6-7 years and have never used it in a cooking capacity!

Here is the recipe:

Fill a 5 qt crock pot to overflowing with peeled, sliced apples sprinkle over 4 c sugar, 2 t ground cinnamon, 1/4 t ground cloves, and 1/4 t salt

put lid on and cook on high for one hour

(if the lid wont fit on tightly that's ok, it cooks down very quickly)

after an hour, stir and turn down to low for 9 hours

(leave lid off for the last hour for thicker apple butter)

ladle into 4 pint jars, lid and refrigerate if using right away, or boil in a water bath canner for 10 minutes to preserve.

Super easy, super delicious, and great as a gift! My sister had English muffins waiting when I brought her down a jar.

H.W.

Clerks at the IMA

Friday night The Hubs and I had a hot double-date with my best friend and his girlfriend! We planned it for a month, and bought our tickets online two weeks ago, and good thing because we were too broke to buy them that night. We scrounged up gas money, and confirmed with the sitter, who is a dear family friend and I groom her dogs in exchange for baby sitting. We packed a cooler, and some apple butter and home made bread and zucchini bread to snack on and headed out for a cheap but awesome night out.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art shows movies in the amphitheater every Friday of the summer. I went with this couple and another couple to see Rocky Horror last year, although this was the Hubs first time seeing a movie there.

We got there about 45 minutes before our friends and snagged a spot in the center back. Good for watching movies, but right in the blazing, evening sun! We also looked longingly at the full 3 course buffets other moviegoers had brought. I hope next time we come, I have a busier week in the salon so we can do it up! When Juan and Erin arrived, we spent a great hour chatting and drinking the two Sun Kings we had in our date budget.







All in all, a great night with awesome friends watching one of my top 10 favorite movies. Very thankful, since I needed a kid free evening!! We are all going camping next week, wish us luck
H.W.

Monday Message 7/18/11

I think this reading is mostly directed at me, but I'll pass it along. Some of you might need the same kick in the pants!
The Pook, Gloominus Doom, and the Payment all inverted.
You need to work on this, right now. Because your problem is your perspective, and you are letting it pull you under. Yes, you give too much, do too much, are too many things to too many people, but that makes it your responsibility to keep some back for yourself. If you are waiting for someone to notice you are killing yourself to do all you do, you will find only frustration. Give to others because it gives you meaning. Give to yourself because it gives you joy. Do what you must, but always keep enough of yourself back to stay centered at the core, instead of scraping away at yourself until you are paper thin and hoping someone else builds you back up. Ask for help when you need it, instead of hoping someone will come when you finally break down. Love yourself at least as much as you love those important to you.
I'll give it a try if you will...
H.W.

Healing List 7/14/11

Please send Reiki, prayers, or simply positive and healing thoughts to this list.

To include yourself or others on the list, simply post the names in the comments.

*****

Kathy E. in Summitville IN

The Edwards family

Sam, Jennifer,and the Finan family

Byron in Ft. Wayne

Gina in Indy

Caylee Marie Anthony

Hunter the cocker spaniel diagnosed with detatched retina

Gavi

The Monument Fire Pets and the efforts of volunteers to reunite pets and parents

Chris P. in Indiana, recovering from Spinal surgery 

Serena Weicht, Dorothy Heard, and family

Lauren Spierer, family, and all those searching for her

special note for the horses and dogs being used in the search

Tom, Joyce, Doris, Alverita, Chuy, Rose, and Bob and all those affected by the southern Arizona wildfires

 US "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families. They are fighting it out in Afghanistan and have lost 9 Marines in 4 days.