Clearing the cobwebs

Wow! Has it been that long? (picks up old blog and dusts it off) A lot has happened since last August. I did end up canning jellies and pumpkin butter, which disappears at an unbelievable rate around here. Yule and Christmas came and went, and in mid-February we moved, again. But this time, we bought a house. What a lovely place. We painted the whole house before we moved in, that way it would ready. I painted the kitchen area a color called "Happy Camper Green". And on a shopping trip to Pearls of Wisdom I found the perfect Green Man plaque (the color is a little off in the pic on Amazon) to hang on the wall. The color of the green in the plaque matches the color of the walls to a "t". I also found a "Merry Meet" plaque to hang across from the front door, and a pentacle/tree of life plaque to hang at the end of the hallway. But, it's a much larger place, and we are much happier here. It has a good vibe to it, despite the shady past (drug dealers, wife beaters and such), and the neighborhood is much better than the house's past suggests. The only negative energy that seems to be in the house comes from the hormonal teenaged female in the house, and that's only on occasion. The neigbors are great (unlike the last set of neighbors who wouldn't have known manners if they had been smacked in the face with them), and we all watch out for each other. We have a fairly good sized backyard, with a pond surround by a Chinese Zen garden, a deck a big as the living room, and plenty of space to plant the flowers and herbs that I want. We pulled up the ornamental grass next to the front door, and I planted a pair of holly bushes. So, life is good. How is everyone else out there?

Can you feel it?

I can feel it on the wind. I can smell in the breeze. Fall is coming! I may have been born in the summer, but I love fall and winter. I am more than ready for the changing of the season. We are planning a fall camping trip, for when the days are cool, and the nights are even cooler. But in the mean time, I will busy myself with canning jellies and jams. Making and drying noodles. Sewing costumes for the upcoming Ohio Renaissance Festival. Knitting holiday gifts. Well, I will if I find the energy after work in the evenings and on weekends. Oh, how I long to be a housewife, again. The things I could accomplish. *sigh* But, I march on, with plans for this weekend to make some fresh bread, apple jelly, white grape jelly, pumpkin butter, whole wheat rotini noodles and home made alfredo sauce. Oh, and give the house a good "fall" cleaning. Now, let's see what unexpected plans pop up. hee hee!

Where did I leave the furniture polish?

Well, let's dust this blog off a little. Wow. It's been awhile since I've been in here. Please excuse the cobwebs in the corners. And it's time to get the besom to sweep out the dust. But do sit down, so you can rest, we can chat, and I tidy up a bit

These past months has seen alot of activity. I have moved. Katie has joined softball for another season. I've gotten another year older. My best friend had a baby, after more than 10 yrs of trying for another. My grandmother has passed. And I have inherited her dog. My cats aren't too pleased, but considering that they are bigger than she is, I think they'll get over it. I have started making the house more eco-friendly (no more paper towels, disposable cleaning clothes and such), and have gone back to making as much as I can from scratch. My latest accomplishment has been apple jelly, since I couldn't find any in the store that didn't contain high fructose corn syrup.

We've celebrated the Sabbats as best we could, either due to limited attendance, or limited funds, but we've had fun.

But, here's to the next full moon, as it's the next date to celebrate.

Busy, busy, busy

Wow! It's been a long time. It's been a very busy year, so far, and considering it's November already.

I do believe that I have everyone that is interested in the PIF Exchange. If you are one of the people for that, and I haven't contacted you, don't worry, I should be doing that as soon as I can. I'm clearing out a few projects, finishing charity knitting, and help my room mate slowly move out, but the dust should settle soon.

Anywho! I did celebrate Samhain, even if it was small this year. We watched the Ghost Hunter's live special from Waverly Hills, and Katie prepared a pumpkin bread for me. Here's a pic of the offerings, as meager as they were:

The wine is from my mom. It's her 2006 Plum wine, made from Japanese Table plums from the tree in what's left of their small orchard. Too bad that tree is dying off, because it produced some great plums and some awesome wine. I still have a bottle of the 2004 that is waiting for a major life event before I open it.

Ok, if I drop off the face of the Earth (again) for a while, it's because I am finishing the charity knitting and starting my Yule knitting.

Blessed Be!

PIF Exchange

I got this idea from one of the knitting blogs that I read, and joined it on my knitting blog. I thought I'd carry it over to this blog. It's called the Pay It Forward Exchange. Inspired by this movie:



Here are the rules:

"Here is how it works! I'll send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange! I don't know what that gift will be yet, and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week...LOL... but you will receive it within 365 days, that's a promise! and it will be something yummy!! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog..."

I will be taking the first 3 people that say they are interested. So, if you are interested, just leave me a comment with your e-mail address, so I can contact you for your snail mail address. And please remember, Lady Karma can be really mean, and if you don't follow through, she'll come back to haunt you, in a baaaad way.

Time flies quicker than a witch on a besom!

Boy, that month got by me! Where did it go? I have missed blogging about the full moon past, and Lammas. I did celebrate both, but forgot pics and posts. For my ritual dinner the menu was as follows:

Polska Kielbasa
Mashed potatoes
Corn on the cob (fresh from mom's garden)
Corn cake (which the girls love)

Nothing fancy, but very filling and yummy. I'll post the corn cake recipe to my recipe page at a later date, as it's just about time to leave work and head out into the blazing heat. By the Goddess, I hope fall gets here real soon.

Till later, Blessed Be!

Ok, Blogger won't let me add a title. That's new. But, that's blogger. Any, I thought I'd be a theif today, because I swiped the following from Manic Witch:

Your Name: Miss Tonia

1. Famous Singer/Band: Metallica

2. 4 letter word: shit

3. Street: Princeton

4. Color: Red

5. Gifts/Presents: Made by hand, with love

6. Vehicle: Mini Cooper

7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: shot glasses

8. Boy Name: Nathaneil

9. Girl Name: Mahala

10. Movie Title: Practical Magic

11. Drink: Margarita

12. Occupation: customer service

13. Celebrity: Orlando Bllom

14. Magazine: Interweave Knits

15. U.S. City: Salem, Mass

16. Pro Sports Teams: Dallas Cowboys

18. Reason for Being Late for Work: a Mc Griddle

19. Something You Throw Away: (i don't really like to throw anything away, would rather recycle)

20. Things You Shout: Fucker!

21. Cartoon Character: Hong Kong Fooy

Tag! You’re it!

Full Moon Saturday, Henna Sunday & Pic Spam Monday

Since Saturday was a full moon, it was the perfect time to start making my Full Moon Cornbread.
And what goes better with cornbread, than a big ol' pot of beans, pinto beans. Here is a pic of the cornbread, hot out of the oven:

Here is the pot of beans:

For the beans, I just used a medium size bag of pinto beans, boiled till they softened, added 1 ham hock and salt & pepper to taste. Some people add all kinds of things to their beans, but I love them simple. The only thing I was missing was some fresh green beans with a little bacon, salt and pepper cooked into them. And here is a pic of the cornbread cut, so you can see how it looks inside, since I use white cornmeal.


Now for Henna Sunday. Every summer, we love to paint ourselves with henna. We decided that yesterday was the perfect day for it. I packed up Annie, Katie went to her dad's, and headed off to Miss PJ's, with henna basket over my arm, sorta like Little Red Riding Hood. I took the left over beans and cornbread, and PJ made fried potatoes. Yum! Then, we got down to business. The first pic is of a Celtic Heart design. The arms belong to Katie, PJ and me:

Next up is my favorite for my left calf, crescent moon with clouds and stars.


Here, we have the design that we always have on our feet:


On my right calf is a Tibetan fireball (yes, I am that pale):


Up next is the sun design that PJ favors, and this time I added a Triple Goddess symbol to the center:

And last, but not least is the cherry blossom on PJ's palm.

We did several more that I don't have pictured, some of which was a small kitty on Annie's arm, Chinese characters on my left arm, and the same moon on Katie's leg, the only difference from mine is that she didn't want the clouds filled in.

I've added a few new recipes to my recipe page, go have a peek.

Ritual Night

Ok, so things didn't go as they should. But, then again, they never do. I didn't get the cookies started last night, like I wanted to, because I didn't get in until 10 o'clock. Plus, when I went to get the stuffed shells that I wanted, the closest store didn't have any. S, I got some round cheese ravioli (for the Goddess aspect), and some square beef ravioli (for the God aspect), some 3 cheese marinara (the Triple Goddess aspect), and some strawberry wine (for summer). And I didn't get to make any fresh bread, so Texas toast it is. Below is a pic of the meager offerings.


Hopefully the next Sabbat ritual offerings will be more plentiful and season appropriate.

Happy Midsummer to all!

Happy Summer Solstice!

And may it be a good one for you! Today, here at work, it seems to have flown by without me. I guess that's what I get for leaving my broom at home again. Hee hee! I won't be able to preform my ritual this evening, as we have a softball game. So, on the way home from the game, I'll stop off at the store to pick up the few items that I need, and prepare anything that needs to chill when I get home. Then, as I have taken the day off of work tomorrow and Monday, I'll have plenty of time to run my errands, make dinner, and do rituals after dark. I have decided that I will make the almond crescent cookies and some Litha Sun cookies, as well as a pasta dish with marina sauce, and some home made bread. So, tonight's shopping list will consist of lemons, wine, and what ever I need for my pasta dish, which I think I'll make stuffed shells. That may make a good representation off the fertile and pregnant Goddess. I'll figure it out by then, as I still want to look through my recipes.

Speaking of recipes. I did start a page for my favorite recipes, it is Ramblings & Recipes of a true Kitchen Witch. I have already added a couple of recipes to the page. Have peek, and keep checking back. You never know. You may find something you like.

I'll post tomorrow after I'm done. And after that, I'll be relaxing until about Tuesday, as my birthday is Saturday, and I want to do nothing but relax and see what Mr. S has in store for me, since he's keeping most of this weekend's events secret. Darn him!

Happy Solstice (again), and may the Goddess and God smile favorably on you and yours!

Wow! Two posts in one month!

Well, I'm trying to stay in the habit of posting on this blog. I have been very neglectful lately, but I have noticed that seems to be the same for some other pagan bloggers. I guess that we, as a collective group, get distracted easily by everyday life. Well, that's my problem, anyway.

I have been preparing for Midsummer. I have looking through my recipes to see what I can make out of the cupboards, as I am really poor this week, and for the next several weeks. So far I have decided to make some of my famous almond crescent cookies, and I think I can spare enough change to get a lemon and make some sun cookies. The girls will love all the cookies. It's not often, anymore, that mom makes cookies. Granted, I used to, along with a monthly full moon corn bread. I really need to get back into those good habits. We seemed much happier then. Granted, we now have to allow for a busy sports schedule (read: softball games at least twice a week, Mondays & Thursdays). So, let's see what we can do about fixing that.

Speaking of recipes, I may add a page of my favorite recipes, with references of where they came from, and in the new label area at the bottom of the posts, I will reference which holidays I use them for.

And again, I'll leave with some Pagan Humor. All you cat lovers/owners will love this, and strangely identify with it. This one is courtesy of Silver Wolf's Lair:

How to Give A Cat A Pill
1) Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.
2) Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.
3) Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.
4) Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm, holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.
5) Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.
6) Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.
7) Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.
8) Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.
9) Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1beer to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.
10) Retrieve cat from neighbour's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard, and close door on neck, to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.
11) Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.
12) Call fire department to retrieve the cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbour who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil-wrap.
13) Tie the little bastard's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table, find heavy-duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of steak filet. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.
14) Consume remainder of Scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and remove pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.
15) Arrange for RSPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and call local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.
How to Give A Dog A Pill . . .
1) Wrap it in bacon

Long Time, No Post

(picks up laptop, dusts off blog, clears cobwebs out of the corners)

Wow!

What a year this is shaping up to be. After my last post, we had an unfortunate run in with 5th disease. Annie brought it home from school, and I was lucky enough to catch it. After that, it all becomes a blur. It doesn't really seem like that much time has passed. But the short of the long is... I have started dating again. Or I should say, I was sorta forced to sign up for a dating service. But, something good came of it. I have met a man (Mr. S) that encourages me in anything my little heart desires to do. He understands and encourages me in my faith, and even makes sure that what ever he wants to do does not interrupt any rituals or observances. And better yet, he actually enjoys doing things with me and my children, like attending Katie's softballs games as his schedule permits.

And of late I have had horrible migraines, partly the side effect of medication and partly from stress. To counter the horrid pain that I have been going through, Mr. S has encouraged me to go back to meditation, rituals and chants, basically anything to relieve the stress portion. So, next week approached Midsummer and my birthday. There should be lots of celebrating going on. Well, at least next weekend. So, in the spirit of the up coming Soltice, I'll leave you with a little pagan humor, courtesy of Pagan Path:

You Know You're a Witch When...

1. Your BOS has spots on the pages from spilled brews.

2. When cleaning house you have to specify. "Where is the broom? No, not the broom, where is the one to clean the floor with?"

3. Candle wax has dripped on your keyboard.

4. There are more jars of strange smelling plants in your cupboards than there are cereal boxes.

5. Friends know they can always give you candles and incense as a gift.

6. When watching old re-runs of Bewitched, you find you side with Samantha's mother Endora.

7. When travelling, stranger and stranger strangers tell you their problems.

8. You find yourself making corn dollies in the checkout line at the grocery store (well, I thought about it).

9. You ask for Halloween off, because it's a religious holiday.

10. You start answering the phone with "Merry Meet".

Blessed Be!

Belated Imbolc post

Friday was a very busy day. I had little time to myself. I was unable to accomplish my ritual and light my candle, but I did get an amazing shot of the sunset with my new camera. Have a peek:
Please excuse the dirty windshield. Since it's been rather cold, they have been putting down plenty of salt and brine to keep the roads from freezing.

Happy, late, Imbloc!

That old, familar, creepy feeling

Have you ever gotten the feeling that there is something in your house that shouldn't be? That's been happening lately. My room mate and I have been seeing shadows lately. And my cat Mr. Vinny has been acting weird. He's been running around the house, ears pinned back, like he's running from something, and then stop short like he's trying not to run into something. I have seen other cats do this, but only in houses that supposedly have spirits in them. Granted, I grew up in a house that had a spirit in it, so the feeling is nothing new, but this spirit is new. We have lived in this apartment for almost a year, and it's only been the usual, family spirit. This one is definitely new, and lurks all around the house. It almost makes me want to find out why it's there and where it came from, almost. If it keeps creeping us out and doesn't move on soon, I'll find a way to gently push it out. And if it doesn't want to go quietly, well, let's just say that the lease will be up and the end of February.

Have Faith and She will provide

A number years back, I bought a small wooden box to keep my favorite deck of Tarot cards in. Inlaid on the lid was a brass Pentagram. After being recently separated from my former husband, and have difficult financial times, I had about $3 in my pocket. I picked up that box, took the $3 out of my pocket, closed my eyes and said, "I place this money in this box with the with the faith, Mother Goddess, that as long as it stays in this box, you will always provide for me. You will always see to it that I have the money I need for me and my children. So mote it be." I put the money in the box, set it down and walked away. Ever since that moment, She has seen to it that I have what I need. Even when my house was broken into in '03, and they took everything I had of value, that money remained inside of that box. They never touched it. A year after that, I placed another dollar in it, again with the same chant, and walked away. Once again, She has provided for me. Every year at this time, the company that I work for asks the employees to take a one week, voluntary, unpaid vacation to help cut costs in the slow months, and they give us 4 comp days to use later in the year, and they let us choose up to 5 pay checks to have the monies taken out of. I opted to do it again this year, and I always take the week between the girls' birthdays. But lately, money has been tight, after moving into a more expensive apartment. I was worried about how to make sure I still have gas and food money. Once again, She has provided for me. Remember my little car accident in October? Well, my shoulder was strained from the seat belt, and I had to go see the doctor. After the first visit, the doc gave me an exercise sheet to follow for it, and had me come back after 2 weeks. When I came back for the 2 week visit, she released me and sent me on. Then today, I got a call here at work. The person asked for me by my first and last name. That's unusual. Granted, I work customer service and take tons of calls all day, but no one ever asks for me by first and last, unless it's one of the girls' schools. Turns out that it was the other person's insurance company calling to settle my bodily injury claim for my shoulder. They asked to settle and offered me a small chunk of cash for my trouble. Being that it was only a sprain, I settled. Most of my worries have been laid to rest. So, have faith and She will provide.

Blessed Be!

Time got away from me again!

Boy! With the death of Grandma Peachie and the holidays, time just slipped away. I completely forgot to blog about the Soltice and Chanukah. I even forgot to take pics. Fore shame on me! What made me realize that I totally missed blogging was the fact that I picked up my Sabbat Entertaining book to plan Imbolc. I did have a lovely time, lighting the fire place, doing the planned ritual, lighting the candles and baking. Then came Christmas eve, and as I baked cookies, I burned myself. Which post-poned knitting and gift wrapping. But, all in all, it was a lovely holiday season.

Now with the New Year, let's see if I can get myself back on a schedule. But, I'll elaborate on that later when I have time. Right now, I'm off to read the ok parts of MJD's Undead and Unappreciated to Katie.

BB

A little less Christmas cheer

I recieved some very bad news today. I heard from my Aunt that my last living great grandparent died early this morning. My grandma Peachie was born in 1913. While I know she had moved on to some place better, it's still a little painful. She lived a very long, and very good life. She had 13 children, and out lived her husband by just over 32 years. And I will always remember her as the strong woman that she was. She was always smiling, and very patient with all of us grandchildren, and there were plenty of us. Come to think of it, I don't ever remember her getting angry or yelling. And since she lived in the middle of the country, I always remember the good ol' meals we had while we were there. Breakfast was usually biscuts, fried eggs, fried potatoes and sausage gravy. Dinners were things like ham hocks and pinto beans with corn bread. So, Saturday morning, I'm off to Southern Ohio to attend the funeral, and spend a little time with my grandparents, sisters, aunts, uncles, nephew and all the cousins.

In memory of Grandma Peachie 1913-2006

Time flies!

Life seems to have run me over. Next week is Yule, and I still have tons to do. I still have lots of hand knitted Christmas gifts to make. Also, next week is mom's birthday and I have no idea of what to get for her. For Mother's day I made her a pair of socks that she is leaves in a drawer, and for Christmas I am making her a Irish Hiking Scarf and matching hat in red. But, I guess I'll figure it out.

As for Yule, I can't wait to lite the fireplace next week for the ritual. I just need to figure out what I'm going to make. Maybe some Serendipity Bars, or some good ol' fashion almond crescent cookies. I'll have plenty of time to think it over, as I'll be knit during every spare moment between here and there.

As I have started this blog fairly recently, you don't know that at this time of year, we celebrate 3 holidays in our house. As the title implies, I am a kitchen witch. But as my Christian family is highly unaccepting of this, I do observe some Christian holidays. Christmas being one of them. And a few years ago I asked, "why should I be limited to Christian holidays while I practice my pagan holidays, and not observe any others?" I decided that we would celebrate Chanukah as well. Where I work, we had an older guy that worked with us who was Jewish. I asked him where I could go to buy a menorah and candles, and he told me to leave it to him. A few days later, he brought me a little brass menorah, a box of colorful candles and phonetically wrote out the Hebrew blessings for me with the english translations. My girls thought it was the greatest thing, to watch mommy light the menorah and say the blessing in Hebrew. Ever since then, he has brought me a box of candles and given my girls presents the first night of Chanukah. This year when I went to get out the menorah, I couldn't remember what box it was packed in. So, I gave in, went to Bed Bath and Beyond and found a lovely little silver menorah and pretty blue candles. This year when I pack down the Chrismas tree, the menorah is going in the box with the tree and my Yule candles. And since this Friday night is the first night of Chanukah, I'll post pics everynight of the lit menorah.

And to everyone:

Happy Holidays

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas

Happy Chanukah

and

Happy Yule

No matter how you say it, may it be everything you wished for.

My favorite time of year

I love fall. It's my favorite time of year. The chill in the air, the leaves turning and falling, and my favorite holiday, Halloween (Samhain). I had to stop at Wal Mart the other night, to get Over the Hedge for the girls, and I came across some great deals. At first, I only had in mind to get the movie. But I was sucked into the bargin isle. I saw some funky shaped plates and bowls, and in the back of my mind I knew I was looking for something like that, but couldn't remember why. Two isles later, it hit me. I wanted a different shaped plate and bowl for rituals, so I could stop using the regular dinner ware. So, I turned myself back around and searched for what I wanted. I found a black, square shaped plate for $1 and bowl for $.75. I couldn't pass that up. And they must have been marking stuff down to make room on the shelves, because I found a set of four wine glass for almost half off. I got them for $2. I needed a new one anyway, as Moonie pushed the one I used for ritual off the kitchen counter and broke it. So, for less than $4, I got everything I needed. I am very proud of myself.

Also, for the upcoming holiday, I am preparing for my week of ritual fasting. However, I don't go the complete week without. I do daylight hours only. Sun up to sun down. A few people raise an eyebrow at me when I do this, but everyone else if used to it. And one of the main reason why I do this is to pay homage to the several times in my life that I have had so little food, and still survived. Also to clear my mind, and cleanse my body for the rituals that I have planned. I think I'll also do some clutter cleansing, and space cleansing this time around. Granted, I got rid of a ton of crap when I moved, I can stand to get rid of more. I guess I'll just have to see how motivated I get, huh?

Until later.

New direction needed

After reading Angel's latest post, I have remembered exactly what I have been forgetting for the past several years. Positive thought, focus and meditation. As I told her, I kinda got side tracked by life. And not in a good way. I honestly can't remember the last time I sat down to meditate. I can't remember the last time I focused on a goal that I really want. And positive thoughts have been in short supply, except when it comes to my knitting. It seems that I have let life run away with me. I have been so wrapped up on failed relationships, my children growing up too fast, money problems, and a myriad of other things. I feel as if my life has left me behind. That has resulted in depression. And in my depression, I have let so many things go. For one, I have gained back alot of weight that I worked so hard to get off and keep off for several years. And I have turned into the other "itch" word, the with the B and not the W. And I mean with a high, royal, capitol "B". That's not me, and that's not who I want to be. So, over the next several weeks, I will take the opportunity to plan for Samhaim. I will plan a really good cleansing ritual, and a good spell for a better new year. I also think that a ritual fasting is in order. That always seems to help clear my mind. So, if anyone would like to join me, in your own way, from where ever you are, let me know. 'Cause the moral support and postive thoughts always come in handy.