Living Life

Sorry I haven’t been around much. Life has been crazy and although we’re in a slow-spot at the moment, I know it’s not over yet.

Mini-Me moving down here has changed life for all of us. Now that Draco and I have someone else to care for, and to consider, a lot has changed (or changed back, anyway). It’s mostly been good and, aside from the occasional bad day here and there, everyone seems happy.

The business isn’t really moving yet, but some of that has been a hold-up on my part. If someone were to place an order, I’d fill it, but I haven’t really gotten up new pictures on the FB page yet, or started advertising some new ideas I’ve had thanks to a few dear friends. Most of that is waiting until we move and I have room to work.

Mini-Me is still job hunting and although Draco still has his job, he’s still searching for something local. Eventually, this job will run out and his company will move on to other places. We’re here for keeps, so a local job must be found.

The move thing is still up in the air. We all finally agreed to look for something else, somewhere else, but when Draco gave our notice to the landlady, she said she wants us to talk to her when we get our taxes. There’s a possibility we could get the house we’ve been secretly wanting for months. That would keep me in this neighborhood for sure. It has (almost) everything I was looking for!

So, in a few more weeks, we should know something there. I’ll be so happy to have that question finally answered!

I’ve been cooking more, and breaking out new — and old — receipes, but I forget to take pictures when I cook. So no new receipes for the blog yet. 😦

Last night, Draco and Mini-Me cooked spaghetti together while I watched Monk and tonight, Draco has been cooking pulled BBQ chicken for sandwhiches all day, so I’ve gotten a couple days off dinner-duty. In return, I got up and made homemade biscuits and sausage gravy with sliced canteloupe this morning. It was awesome and they ate it all.

We’ve been spending time together as a family, and it feels good, so even though I have missed my blog in a lot of ways, I’ve been taking my own advice and taking life by the horns.

Life hasn’t been all good, or all bad. It’s been a steady combination of the two, kind of like that place where two rivers meet. In some places, the blending is seamless, in others, the water can be down-right turbulent, but we’re all  learning to navigate the rapids much better than we ever have. We’ve come close a time or two, but so far, we haven’t flipped the boat yet!

In spiritual news, I’ve had some things happen recently and my previous path is being mostly left behind. I’ve been eclectic Pagan for years and now I’m looking for ways to blend my heritage. I’m Cherokee-Welsh, (Welsh has Celtic roots), so I’m searching for where those meet and forging a new path for myself.

If 2013 has had a theme so far, I think that’s what it is — blending and combining — searching for that place where more than one way meets and can travel together for a while. It’s strengthening my bonds with those I love most and creating an over-all peace in my life that I’m not certain I’ve ever known before, and that, dear friends, is fabulous!

I’ve made progress in my Shadow Work with Hecate and I’ve made peace with a lot. I know I still have work to do, but for now, the lightening of the load feels good.

It feels good to just be myself. No regrets, no excuses.

Well, I suppose that about wraps the news from my side of the forest. What’s going on in your neck of the woods?

Blogging, seriously?

Today, I took a leap of faith and began the process of bringing PoM to where I want it to be. I have signed up with a review company and will be (hopefully) starting to do product reviews soon.

I don’t intend to turn my blog into a review machine and not blog like I usually do. Reviews will most likely be one or two out of the week and will be in addition to my regular blogging.

At some point in the near future, I am also supposed to do a give-away for my own business (that Mini-Me and I will be running) at a friend’s blog (we’re still working out the details there) and I will be reopening that business officially on January 1st.

To say that starting 2013 will be different from any so far is an understatement. Mini-Me lives with us, is currently job-hunting and volunteering at the Equine Rescue three days a week, Draco still works (and I’m still the only person in the house that can drive), I’m reopening the business I closed last summer, I still intend to blog and doing reviews means stepping up my social media presence. I will be busy, busy, busy whie I work on balancing all of this and still have time for connecting with my spirituality and my family.

Needless to say, this will be my last round caring for my landlady’s pets while she is away. If I find time to give pets, other than my own, a piece of me, I will go volunteer at the local SPCA where the demand is not all day, every day. I love them all, and I’ve enjoyed it, but I honestly don’t see me having time for much besides what I’m already committed to.

(I see me blogging on my phone in parking lots and carrying a craft-bag on my shoulder everywhere I go to optimize my time usage as it is.)

Needless to say, I’m all kinds of excited, but I know that what I’m undertaking is huge. I’m sick of empty, mindless hours watching TV shows that are surely killing my brain cells faster than any drug ever could.

For years, I avoided having a full life, so afraid that if I attempted anything, it would be another failure. Something else for my mother to shake her head in disdain over. Well, Mom is gone now and I see the damage years of brainwashing has done and I intend to break the cycle. If I don’t succeed immediately, I will keep trying until I do. I’m not giving up this time. Period. I will become the person she, nor I, ever gave me the chance to be.

So, with that said, I say “Come on, 2013! Let’s do this!”, and prepare to step into my future!

Blessings,

The Cards Speak 12/13/12

I’ve felt a pull to my cards all week but due to my anxiety, I’ve avoided them. In reflection, that was probably the opposite of what I should have done.

In any case, this morning, I pulled my basic 3-card spread that I use when reading for myself on a day-to-day basis.

The cards I drew were The High Priest (also the Magician in some decks), Justice and the Page of Pentacles.

The High Priest speaks to new ideas and thoughts being revealed. Some of this card’s energy is already in play, I believe, although I can’t be certain it’s done. Over the last week or so, I’ve been nearly bombarded with new thoughts, new ideas, new ways of looking at things.

I’ve begun exploring again spiritually. Everything from Chakras to Feary Wicca to yoga. I also found a local UU Church that Draco and I plan to check out on Sunday.

There’s also been ideas and planning for the future passed between Draco and myself, but in the context of the other cards, I believe this reading is mainly referring to the spiritual.

My 2nd card was Justice. Although it can refer to justice in the mundane sense, it also speaks to balance. Balancing the scales between spiritual and mundane.

It’s no secret that my practice has fallen by the wayside, especially since my Mom’s health began its decline nearly 3 years ago. It wasn’t a lack of faith, or even a crisis of faith, so much as I know that whatever I could have attempted to do for her had to be with her consent, and she never would have given it to me.

I was afraid that with her health so fresh in my heart that there was no way for me to ask for anything that would not have been in an effort to help or heal her. I didn’t want anything to backfire and bring me bad karma or to interfere with whatever the Divine intended. So, I did nothing. Six months (to the day, in fact – she passed June 13th) after her passing, I’m finally turning back to my faith in an effort to heal myself, both physically and spiritually.

I believe it’s time for me to balance my life once more between the spiritual and mundane. In life, you can not live wholly in both, and live a balanced life. 3 years have been spent almost entirely in the mundane world. Now it’s time to reconnect spiritually.

The Page of Pentacles made me stop and ponder for a moment. It can refer to a child-like person, or a person holding a child-like job (such as taking care of someone’s dogs perhaps?), so I wondered if this was an identifying card, which I sometimes get in readings.

Or can also refer to a good turn in health and as I said, healing myself is more foremost in my mind right now.

The anxiety has been so incredibly bad this week, that I find myself hoping the cards are attempting to ease my mind and comfort me, letting me know that I’m thinking and moving in the right direction. That the decisions being made recently are sending us in the direction we’re meant to go.

Tarot reading is something I’ve felt pulled to since I learned what it was, and my cards are usually pretty accurate, but like Amy other form of divination, it’s all open to interpretation and an objective self-reading can be difficult sometimes.

So for now, I’m left with my interpretations and a glimmer of hope that better times and things are coming. I will continue in the direction I’m heading in the hopes that I’m right.

Blessings,
Raven Moon

Irons in the fire

Lately I find myself with too much time on my hands and no sense of direction. I’ve felt adrift with no purpose. I know that these feelings aren’t good for my depression or disposition so I have decided something must be done.

Around the time that Draco and I got married, my parents bought into a leather business. It included Indian crafts as well as hand-made leather items and jewelry. A few years later, we bought the business from them.
I won’t go into huge amounts of details, but while we were moving a short time later, our equipment was stolen and I’d pretty much forgotten about it.

While at my dad’s sorting through boxes filled with 30 years of marriage, I began to come across supplies. Not the equipment, because I’d bought that myself, but supplies for the jewelry and Indian crafts. My dad said throw it away but I talked to him and he agreed to let me have it.

After some talking to Draco and E, I’ve decided to re-start my business. I’m hoping to pick up some of the supplies this afternoon so I can decide how much of it has survived the years in storage and what hasn’t.

To say that I’m excited is an understatement.

I need this badly. It’s no secret that my health and mental/emotional issues prevent me from holding a normal job. Some days I’m great, other days it’s all I can do to peel myself off the mattress. This will allow me to work in my own time and at my own pace.

Blogger doesn’t really allow selling on their blogs, but eventually I will be adding a link or button on the side-bar for a website where I can sell my crafts.  For now, though, I’m in the sorting/gathering/planning phase.

Note: I wrote this post a few days ago and got caught up in a few link-ups.

I’m happy to report that most of the supplies I picked up from my Dad’s on Wednesday is still in great shape! That means my start-up costs should be minimal beyond the crafts I’m intending to add-on. I’ve even started filling my 1st order and have got a 2nd order today!  Stay tuned for more details to come!