Tat-Stick
Topic: Updates to site
Yay! I'm in business - Tat-Stick is now officially released. And another step taken on this journey.

Updates
Topic: Updates to site
Well, I've been working on Alina Shea this morning. If you get a chance, take a look at the home-school page. It still needs a lot more work but at least I've gotten started.

Gardening?
Topic: Updates to site
What's this? I've started gadening on a day we got 6" of snow? Yep. Check it out.

New Stuff
Topic: Updates to site
Well, I figured it was time to change my front page picture and while I was at it, Lady Dreamer asked if she could make a page too. Fairymoon is where she will begin learning about web design and stuff. I think it's pretty cool that she wants to learn this. I do have a feeling that it won't last too long, though. She's still at an age where she likes to do things then loses interest. We'll see how long it will be before she jets off into another interest.

Herbals
Topic: Updates to site

Well, I decided to add a "Coming Soon" section to my Herbal Healing page. I'm still working on the chest rub and finally was able to get some camphor oil. It doesn't smell as strong as Vick's, but I can feel a difference in the temperature of my skin (ack! I'm doing human testing! ) and I can feel my sinuses clearing up as well. I want to make a batch with elecampane in it as well for severe coughing. That will come later, right now I need to get the bills paid.

The weather is a little dreary today and will be raining later. I'm a little tired so I was really hoping for sunshine. I will be going to bed early tonight to help catch up with some of the lost sleep I've had lately.

Tonight Lady Dreamer will be having pizza for dinner (I guess I will too.) She's earned her "Book It" awards for the last two months. According to the website, I should set her goals around 300 minutes a month. That only averages 10 minutes a day! Well, being her teacher, I changed it to at least 30 minutes a day for the books I choose for her. The one she's currently reading is 335 pages long and was gotten from the "Teen" section of the library. So far she's done a great job.

Anyway, I need to get going on my day.

A New Look
Topic: Updates to site

I've remodeled the Spirit page. The information is still the same, but I needed it to have a new look. While the old one was nice... it just seemed too bland.

Now I'm in the mood to do more changes to the site, but I need to focus on work today. I am still trying to figure out what I want my Herbal pages to look like.

New photo album
Topic: Updates to site

I am finally working on the Family Album. Check back in a day or two to see any new pictures. I also added links on the directory page for the knitting and garden blogs.

New Blog
Topic: Updates to site
Well, I finally got more of my stuff transfered over - Shayla Knits is now on this site instead of the old one. There are new pictures of the Corset Top and my Halter. Enjoy!

Harvest?
Topic: Updates to site
I went in to update the "upcoming holiday" section of the front page and realized how soon Mabon is! We've only had a few tomatoes this year and one pumpkin. Our cucumbers didn't even come up and nothing else really grew. My sage and rosemary are doing well, but that's about it.  Hmmm.... Could it be the weather? Could it be my own attitude toward this place? I'm not sure.

Photo Albums
Topic: Updates to site

Here are a couple new photo albums:

• Henna 2007
• Beadwork

I still need to get a picture of the corset top, but we are down to cell phone cameras today. Enjoy!

New website
Topic: Updates to site

Well, Sir Goth has been bitten by the website bug. He asked permission to have his own web site and after thinking about it for a little while I said yes. GothikPunk is the name of his site and, while it is fairly simple right now, I think he'll get more and more creative as time goes by.

Last night I slept all the way through for the first time in days. Was it the extra time I spent in the sun? Was it the tea I drank before going to bed? Was it the fact that I removed the doorbell from the front of the house? I do not know for sure, but I sure feel better this morning.

Another woman I know has been diagnosed with cancer. She says it is small and will be removed. I said a prayer for her last night. I still wonder about the state of the world, though.

When I was growing up, I heard things about how we would destroy our planet with nuclear weapons and how we would never survive. There were movies on television that showed the horror of the world after a nuclear war. "Damnation Alley" (which seemed pretty cheesy, even to my young eyes, though I fell in love with J.M. Vincent) and "The Day After" (which scared me deeply) were movies I saw after I was about 14 or so. It seemed I was always hearing about the "Star Wars" (no, not the movies) and the threat of Kadhafi. All of this was vaguely filtered through the haze of trying to grow up, trying to save the wildlife (not sure how many letters I wrote to the Secretarys of the Interior, J. Watt, W. Clark and D. Hodel) and trying to figure out who I wanted to be.

Now, I do not believe we will destroy the human race with bombs and nuclear warfare, but instead a slow, steady invasion of cancerous cells. Does that sound fatalistic? Perhaps, but more and more people I know seem to be affected by this. As a teen I figured our family was unusual to have one person with cancer (found out as an adult that it was actually several family members). After all, none of my friends' moms had cancer and my mom had a couple different kinds. Now...

With that thought I feel, even stronger, the need to keep my children healthy and strong. To keep them away from foods with unpronounceable ingredients and household products with high toxicity levels. To keep them outdoors and active.

Anyway, I'm getting out of here for a while. The day is already too nice to be inside.

New look for Poetry
Topic: Updates to site

Well, I finally got to work on the poetry pages. They have a new look and hopefully this one looks good on everyone's computers. Hopefully I'll get to add a few more pages to the site pretty soon.

New doll
Topic: Updates to site
Well, I found a new website today. Doll on the Hill" has a wide variety of "dolls" which I found out today are basically used to express your inner creativity. Since I am still learning about how to use PhotoShop I don't quite feel comfortable with all the options. Lady Dreamer and I played around a little while with them (I guess we never really out-grow the desire to play "dress-up") until I finally said we had to stop and get back to reality. Here is the little witch I created earlier today:

Lady Dreamer is looking forward to creating one of her own. We downloaded several objects (clothing, hair, body, accessories) from a Harry Potter theme and she will be working with those. Funny thing about teaching her to do this - I can use it as school hours under "Technology".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There have been several storms rolling in tonight and I am glad for them. I love the sound of thunder crackling through the night. I am concerned about the seeds we planted a few days ago, but I won't worry too much. After all, even if they were all being washed away, there's not anything I could do about it, other than replanting when the storms roll away.

I let Arya-Satya swim around the shower a little while this evening. She's not left any stools or urates in the tank in a while and I am starting to get worried. (The movement and water are supposed to help move things along a little faster.) The rats are dripping wet when she eats them and I've seen her drinking water, so I know she's not dehydrated. I wonder if it is time to move her to a larger rat... Still, the small ones create a slight bulge after she's eaten, so I will probably hold off a few more months. In the meantime I'll let her swim around the shower for a few minutes a day.

For now, I am heading to the shower and off to bed.

More updates
Topic: Updates to site
Well, I am finally working on my Spirit page. There is still so much to get done. Currently I only have two pages on there, but will be creating pages for how we celebrate the holidays and ideas on how others can do the same. Eventuallyi want to include a Pagan Parenting page as well as a page that deals with Solitary practice.

So much to do... I know that when the warmer weather gets here (it was 57° today!) I will be spending more and more time outside. I actually had the thought of getting a laptop computer so I can work on this while sitting out there with the kids, but I don't really believe that would be a good idea. I will just have to limit myself to web stuff in the evenings.

I'm late to bed tonight, but I feel more energy with the longer days.