Down Time

I don't want to do the math, to work out how many weeks it has been since I posted.. roughly 8 or so weeks. Thank you to those dedicated blog followers who have stuck around and taken the time to drop me a message.

Leading up to Christmas/Solstice I was very busy, preparing for the celebration, getting the house in order for added family members arriving and organising the uplift and international shipping of my sons belongings here to Australia. His things are still in a shipping container on a wharf somewhere - but thankfully he made it here in one piece arriving on 5th December.. I live in hope that the shipping company will come to the party soon, as I was told it was due to be shipped weeks ago.. My son is happily taking a break from his role as a Prison Officer and has settled into a new job fitting tyres, he was blessed to find one very quickly, and about 10 minutes from here, a bonus as we are juggling two vehicles between three drivers, not that I have been capable of late! The new year has also bought challenges.. a big step for Robert and Courtney was them getting through and handling their first Christmas without their Mum.. they had their moments but I was hugely proud of them, the next major milestone for us all was the first anniversary of her passing back in January last year, it hardly seems like yesterday. They have both come so far in that time, and are doing wonderfully well at school.

In the midst of all of this, I developed acute sinusitis which became an infection in my left maxillary cheek bone.. I personally think it was a recurrence of the one back in early November but to add insult to injury my always normal blood pressure is now hovering in the high zone... After more than a month of treatment I am very slowly starting to feel better, I can not recall the last time I spent so much time horizontal.. and for one who abhors being sick and is a lousy patient, my demeanour was not always charming..ha ha so I have been told.

The new school term starts here Feb 1st and as nice as it is to have them around, I am looking froward to the children heading back to school.. with my husband back on board after a months leave, it will be nice to have some time to re-coop get my house back in order and start to look at doing those things that have had to go by the wayside over the last wee while..
I looked at a big box of bottles this morning thinking how wonderful they would look full of homemade tomato sauce and sweet pickles.. one day at a time.. hey they could use that as a song title *laughing*
Bright blessings to you all and I look forward to catching up on all your blogs..

Cabin Fever

I have cabin fever today.. but oddly I do not feel like I want to stray away from my nest. Apart from dinner this evening, most every thing that needs doing is done - I have even made yogurt and it is doing the happy fermenting thing in a small esky. To alleviate some of the cooped up feeling, I decided to eat lunch outdoors, so here I sit with a tuna sandwich and some home made ginger beer and the laptop.. laptops with wireless connections are a luxurious blessing, one I am pleased to have.

Sitting here today, I could almost forget that I am a Pagan in the burbs. I can hear the gentle bubble and tinkle from the wee water feature and wind chimes beside me, my little finches are making cheery beep beep noises as they construct their nests in the small aviary behind me, the two budgies Archer and Merlot are sharing whispered secrets as they take turns ringing a small bell, almost like clearing the air.

A Willy Wagtail is chittering off in the distance and I can imagine that wonderful little tail flicking ritual they do even when standing still. Sacred Temple Cat is chasing a white butterfly through the shrubs by the fence while Mister P is sun bathing on the pavers, a gentle sea breeze blowing off the Indian Ocean is stirring the white strands of fur on his ears. There is the wonderful smell of warm, freshly watered earth mixed with the heady fragrance of Jasmine and now rosemary as the cat brushes through it.

All of my Goddess given senses are being touched by the blessings of the elements of Nature.. Fire, Earth, Water, Air it is something that if one is not careful, you can loose sight of when living in a city or the suburbs... I read something this morning that came from a post on a group I belong to.. basically it said that if we do not put time aside each day for our spiritual walk, then our mundane lives will take it away from you. I'm not sure I fully grasp the theory of us all being "tested" by the universe to see if we really want to walk our chosen path, but I do believe that which we don't use we loose. Lately, I have been rather insular and not in a good way, so I am glad I could take a minute to come out here and feel the Goddess about me... the warmth of the day on my skin, Earth beneath my feet, water on my lips, the wind on my face and love in my heart.

Pay It Forward

I have just finished reading a wonderful post over at Rinas blog Our Slice Of Heaven Now Rina has another blog called Past and Present where she wrote about helping others to settle in Australia when they come here from South Africa.. While I have not moved here from a troubled or war torn country I did immigrate to Australia to start a new and better life and do understand the trials and tribulations of getting used to a new land and culture, now I'm not sure I have done anything quiet like Rina, in helping other immigrants, but I have in the past fostered troubled teens and earlier this year welcomed another woman's children into my home to raise as my own at a time when I thought I would settle to being a Grandmother and not a mother again after so many years.. Maybe this is not paying it forward exactly... but I am going to take on Rina's Pay It Forward challenge.
From here
I will make a handmade gift for the first 3 interested people who comment on this post. I have 365 days to do it in. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise!
The catch is that you must participate as well: you must have a blog and before you leave your comment here, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Just cut and paste this one if you like, which I did. *Change the From "here" link above to now link to my blog on your new post.
Bright Blessings

Curve Balls

It is Sunday night here, the family have been fed on freshly made light rye sourdough still warm from my oven and the last of the tomato soup, that I made and froze some months ago.. today I have tried to stay busy with a few cleaning jobs, some bread making, putting together a couple of litres of yogurt and a bit of gardening. Friday night was a late one to bed, 12.30am and I slept poorly when I finally dozed off, I woke at 5am and felt quiet poorly with crampy tummy and nausea, it is still not 100% I'm not entirely sure if it was the commercial bread I ate on Friday lunchtime or the phone call I received on Friday night, maybe a combination of the two.

As a mother, we want the best for our children, no matter their age.
We want them to achieve and accomplish the goals they have set for themselves and watch them raise their families.
It matters not how old they are or how young they are as parents we still hurt when they hurt, we want to protect them from some of those lessons in life we have learnt and been burnt by, and yet, we can not. When life throws them a curved ball, we can't catch it for them... all we can do is help them back onto their feet when it hits them and at times us squarely between the eyes. Nothing can really prepare you for the time when you hear their voice break with hurt, over thousands of kilometres of phone line. This is what happened on Friday night.

When I heard the phone go, I thought it was Sarah telling me she was home safe after the Seal concert she had been too, the last thing I expected was her brother calling, as it was nearly 3am in his time zone. The call has left me feeling very sad, for him and for our family. He rung to tell me he and his wife had separated, I "felt" something wasn't all ok when he was here for the wedding several weeks ago.. and got a stronger sense of this 2 weeks ago. .. long story short it is irreconcilable and mutual. I didn't ask him why, he is an adult and if he wants to tell me he will... In the mean time I will love him through this as best as I can.
He is going to come over for awhile to recoop and clear his head, when he was here last with all the preperation for the wedding we had very little time to sit and talk.. it is my hope that with the support of his family over here, he / we will get through this and come out stronger for it.

T'is the season

I have sat a couple of times to write a few lines in my blog here, but when I opened it up... big juicy blank'o. Some of this feeling, is that icky wishy washy feeling that creeps into me poor wee head when pollen is a foot. Poor Miss C is suffering as well... trying to find alternative treatments for Hay fever has been a challenge, so much so that we have reverted back to paying a visit to the chemist shop. I so do not like snorting chemicals, but this spring has been worse than any I have suffered in the last 5 years.
I had thought it was something I had been doing, a change in washing powder ( no I'm not quiet at the stage of making my own yet) was it the fact I turned the air con on the other day when it reached 39c here and the kids were both melting..... but noooooooooo and I have to admit I was pleased to find it wasn't me, but the reason was the season, apparently according to the news, yes it was news worthy, it is the worst pollen season in a very long time. More so when the wind is blowing in from the East, across desert plains, bringing with it invisible sneeze makers.
It is a wild flower season here in Western Australia, and they be full of pollen......they are gorgeous and tough managing to survive where little else does...believe it or not people join tours from all around the worldd to come and see the wonder of the WA wild flowers... they are a State treasure and it is a serious no no picking them either.I first encountered Western Australian wild flowers, on our drive last October from the East Coast to Western Oz, on the third day of driving we hit Coolgardie/Yellowdine which happens to be in some pretty arid no whereness but I digress... out of this desert no whereness, bloomed amazing expanses of the prettiest, flowers... I have found a couple of piccies on the web, to show you the wonder of a land that is hot, dry and beautiful.. even if it does contribute to Miss C and I having sneezy wheezy bonding time. Some relief is sort from this blizard of pollen whent he wind chances and the 'Freeo Doctor' blows in off the Indian Ocean.. *smiling* and this Doctor is the best medicine.

Image Source: These photos are off the web, credit would be given if I knew the photographer, I do not claim copy right to these.

I'm guest blogger at Mrs B's

Several weeks ago Mrs B from Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom, asked me to be a guest blogger for her on a special blog she was putting together. I was delighted and very honoured to be asked to contribute over on her site's 31 Days of Halloween.. It's a truly amazing blog and I do love to visit. You can check out my post over there and all the wonderful things Mrs B shares, over at Guest Blogger: 3 Days of Halloween.

Rise and Shine

I got yanked out of a peaceful slumber this morning by an alarm set 20 minutes to early..uh huh 20 minutes can make all the difference to my abilities at remaining sane while uncurling myself to the world, but also by an alarm whose dial had been bumped to ear deafening proportions! I did take comfort in the fact that the culprit was also left with heart palpations after being propelled out of bed by what seemed to be an ejector mattress. It was amusing, very amusing and while I am not one to shriek revenge, sometimes payback can be a tiny bit sweet...
Since I was awake and filled with mirth at 5.30am, I decided to put the day to good use. By 9am, children were fed and packed off to school, several battles with a dragon had been fought in Castle Age *insert suitable shamed face* yes on Facebook (justification-I was eating breakfast at the time), two loads of laundry were done and flapping in the breeze, and a cup with yeast was bubbling on the bench ready for the days bread, which Dh said had to many seeds attached to it last time pffft - today I put the decoration on the inside he doesn't seem to notice them then.
I also got around to making the toasted muesli I posted about last week. I really enjoy making my own... knowing what's in it and mores to the point, I know what's not in it! It is like reading an industrial chemists handbook when looking at the contents of some packet food at the supermarket., some of those words I can't pronounce never mind know what they, and we as a nation eat this stuff.
For sometime now, about a year, I have been having stomach problems. Mainly some pain and nausea, I succumbed and went to a Dr who after numerous tests and ultra sounds could find nothing, he wanted to treat it as an ulcer with no proof that it was..go figure, so it had to be what was going in. It has been some what better if I do not eat too much processed food, I could be barking up the wrong tree but for now it's working for me along with some probotics.
Making my own bread, muesli, yoghurt etc is also about making good choices for my family and for the environment, and while I am just one person, I do like to think I am making a difference in some small way.
I have posted the recipe for this muesli over on The Witches Kitchen