Home school Review

First off, Mrs. B over at Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom posted a great list of resources for Pagan parents on her blog.  We use Pagan Moonbeams and just discovered Pooka Pages.  Check out the list, and let me know about other good spots.

Secondly, I had the nicest chat at the hardware store yesterday with a man whose grandkids were all home schooled, and just lit up when we told him we home school Jiji.  His oldest grandson apprenticed and became a farrier...how often do you hear that!  It was so awesome to talk to some one who got so excited that we were taking our kids education in our own hands, and to get such random encouragement.  We have always been lucky in that I have never had a 'bad' reaction from people over home schooling, and have only gotten into one 'argument' about it, that was shut down when I asked the teenage boy how many kids he had to be such an expert... Most people I talk to are mildly surprised, curious, or have really good questions.  I am finding that it is way more common around here than I thought.  Most likely because Indiana's home school requirements are among the most relaxed in the country...pretty much just keep an attendance record and you will most likely never be asked to even show that to anyone!

Thirdly, scroll down or click here and enter to win my give away for a Stone mix and bracelet from Spencer Lapidary!

H.W.

Reiki Thursday

Welcome back to Reiki Thursday!

I have not been posting a list, because I want us all to focus on ourselves for a bit.  You all know those who need healing and prayer, and you may be needing it yourself.  We all need a recharge, a reminder that we are important, valuable, and loved.  For a while now I have been running myself too thin, and have recently been re-focusing myself to spend a little time on myself.  My family deserves for me to be my best, and I deserve just as much time and energy as I give my family, and so do you! I hope you did the meditation last week, if not go check it out, and I hope you take the few minutes to do the one I am posting this week. Once you are relaxed, positive, and grateful that is what you are putting out into the world!

H.W.

Spencer Lapidary Give Away

I am VERY excited to announce the very first Hippie-Witch give away!  Luckily for me, right here in town is Spencer Lapidary.  Family owned and operated, the lapidary has been in business for 24 years at their great shop in Elwood, IN, and now offer online shopping.  They offer a wide variety of rocks, minerals, gemstones, fused glass creations, books, figurines, jewelry, and more.  I have been finding treasures there since I was a kid, and Jiji starts to get excited when we pull into the drive.  With the help of Mark Bennet, who took over the lapidary with his wife, Tina, in 2005 when Glen Spencer retired, I have chosen three prize packs for my winner to choose from.

Option 1: Chakra Package

The Chakra Package contains the Chakra Rainbow stone mix a stone corresponding to each Chakra, as well as an elastic Chakra bracelet.  Useful for both Reiki practice and meditation, this is a great starter or travel kit for Reiki.

Option 2: Clarity Package

The Clarity Package contains a mix of stones for Clarity spells, meditation, or cleansing, as well as an elastic Quartz bracelet.  Ideal for mental 'spring cleaning'!

Option 3: Intuition Package 

The Intuition Package contains a mix of stones for developing Intuition, as well as an elastic Lapis Lazuli bracelet to help develop self-awareness.  Great for divination!

All Packages come with the Spencer Lapidary logo stone bag.

So, now you wan to know how to win it, huh?  Well here ya go!  For each entry, leave a separate comment, with your e-mail, on this post letting me know.  The winner will be chosen Thursday, April 8th by random number generator and contacted by e-mail. Entries close Midnight EST, April 7th. Now, for the ways to enter...

1.) Follow my blog.

2.)Blog about this give away and link back to this post.

3.)Grab a button and leave me the link to the blog you put it on.

4.)Tweet this give away, up to 2x a day with a link to this post. Please leave the permalink for this entry method so I can find it!

5.) leave a comment letting me know which package you want

6.)visit Spencer Lapidary online and tell me something you saw that you can't live without.

So get busy, kids, and best of luck!

H.W.

Wordless Wednesday

Missisenewa Reservoir

One of those...

A while back, I was changing Mojo in a restaurant bathroom and a friend of mine who works there offered to take the diaper and throw it away for me.  When I pointed out it was cloth and stuck it in my very fancy and expensive wet bag (a plastic grocery bag lol) she said "Oh, you're one of those."  It really made me smile, and I will tell you why.  I have always been a bit of a weird-o.  If you are reading this and know me personally, I am sure a story of my uniqueness has sprung to mind.  I see this as a good thing.  The one constant thing about my weirdness has been that it adheres to my own Hippie-Witch logic.  I am never really trying to be weird, I am just doing my thing and always seem to end up there.  My weirdness tends to also be very buffet style.  I will not protest something for the sake of protesting, I have to really feel it is wrong and that I can make a difference.  I will not wear my faith on my shoulder, daring someone to comment on it so that I can "defend myself", but I will wear my pentacle proudly because it means so much to me and I will graciously explain to anyone who asks what is means.  I will also not jump on every granola parenting trend just because I say it on a parenting forum, and beat it into the ground to anyone who might have (gasp) chosen not to do the same thing.  I do cloth diaper. The biggest reason for that is that I got a little obsessed about it when I was on bed rest and had only the internet to entertain me, and I needed a project.  I have stuck with it because I had no idea it was so easy and because we have saved SO much money at a time we don't have a lot of money to spare.  I breastfed both kids, Jiji for only 4 months due to illness and circumstance, and Mojo for nearly 10 now.  I am weaning Mo onto formula now because my grooming business is starting to get busy, pumping is a disaster for me,and because, frankly, she is starting to bite...hard.  We are getting serious about gardening and urban homesteading because I have always wanted a big garden or farm, and it makes me happy.  Having more and more veggies to eat, can, and freeze, along with fresh eggs will also help our tight budget.  We compost because buying compost is expensive, and it really helps the garden.  We home school because we felt it was the best choice for our family and our situation, and because we are in a position where even when I am working, I am home with the kids 80%-95% of the time.  We are Pagan, and raising our kids Pagan because both my husband and I found the Pagan faith and our hearts felt they had come home, and want to teach our values and beliefs to our kids.  They may not chose to follow our faith, and we expose them to other religions, but for now we are raising little Witchlings.  Don't want to cloth diaper?  Cool, I have a few packs of disposables I was given and never used, help yourself.  Don't, or didn't breastfeed?  Awesome, I promise not to tell the boobie Mafia who thinks it should be a crime to not breastfeed, if you promise not to tell them I quit early on both kids.  Think all good veggies and eggs live at the store?  Right on, can you pick me up a gallon of milk when you're there?  The point is, I make my choices, and they tend to be a little outside of the norm. (Like maybe choosing to be such an openly weird, Pagan, Hippie in a very small, rural, Mid-Western town...) and I believe you have to make yours for yourself and your family.  The weirdest part is...I don't even expect you to explain to me why.  I will take it for granted you did what works for you.  I am a grown-ass woman and assume you are a grown-ass person yourself, and I think we all left any obligation to report in on our conduct to the "cool kids" behind a long time ago, at least I did and if you are a reasonably happy and well adjusted person I suspect you did too!  And if you are one of the "cool kids", please remember the person you are condemning because they made different choices than you is a real, live person with a brain, and you might simmer down long enough to ask them about their choices.  People who yell the loudest are not the winners, and you don't have to convince someone else they are wrong in order to be right. So three cheers for being one of those, which ever one of those you happen to be, cause someone is always the weird-o so it might as well be us.

H.W.

Monday Message

Brightest Blessings for the week ahead! Time again for the Monday Message.  Let's see what the Faeries want us to know for this week.

Unity

The Soul Shrinker

Mickle a Muckle, inverted

We are all one, beings of energy united in a holistic Universe.  We are all each a Universe unto ourselves, and the smaller the Universe, the harder it is to achieve balance.  Unity tells us to work on inner wholeness and resolve conflict within ourselves to be a healthier part of the whole.  This can be hard with the Soul Shrinker right there in the middle, yelling all the bad tings we think about ourselves right into our ear.  We need to get him out of there, and out of our hearts.  Banish that curse energy by taking responsibility for ourselves, especially how we think and feel about ourselves and stop blaming others for our own damning self-talk.  A wiser woman than I said, no one can make you feel inferior without your permission...so let's stop giving permission!  Mickle a Muckle is hanging out there at the bottom, chastising us for listening to all that junk the Soul Shrinker told us.  He reminds us it is immature and self centered to be spending this much time wallowing in our self pity when we could be moving forward and working on making things better in our hearts and lives.

Go out into this week and strive to make yourself happy, the rest of the Universe is counting on you!

H.W.

The Wonderful World of Water!

Wow, two home school posts in one week!  I do like to get on a topic lol.  As I mentioned earlier in the week, we went to a home school program at the Indianapolis Children's Museum Tuesday evening.  Because our oldest, Lala, is on Spring Break she is with us till Thursday before going back to her moms and got to go as well.    The program about water was a little young for her, but she dove right in there with Jilly and they had a ball.  I have to say, it was a great time and a great program.  Apparently they are beginning to open up the programs they take to schools around the state to home school educators by offering them in the classrooms at the museum.  We started at the huge water clock in the lobby area and had a little mini-lecture about how it works, how it was designed and made.  I have been to that place 100 times and I learned things I never knew about that thing!  We then went up to the classroom, where we made family water clocks that timed out 5 minutes.  

We were all given bags to take out projects home, and were turned loose to work at our own pace on several other projects set up in stations around the big room.  We looked at pond water under the microscope.

We made nori rolls with seaweed and rice, which both grow in water, we made soap boats, which Jilly tested as soon as we got home in the bath.

We tested surface tension by counting how many drops of water fit on a penny...Lala got 41!

We planted seeds in peat pots soaked in water, we now have sunflowers, gourds, and sweet peas added to our seed starting.  We traced letters with a drop of water on a plate...harder than it sounds...

We tried, and of course failed, to mix oil and water and learned why we failed.  I think I may even be missing one.  It was very cool and well put on. They even sent home a packet for follow up projects and everyone got their own snazzy blue water bottle.Thank you, thank you Children's Museum for offering these programs and workshops, and thanks to Judy and Pam for presenting it so wonderfully.  I know we will be back, and I know I will be attending the health teaching workshop for home educators in May.  If you home school, or plan to, and live anywhere near go to their site, they have a lot to offer.  Not just these programs, but unit study materials based on exhibits and field trip planning materials.

H.W.