Caz
There are certain things in a childs' life that are definitely rites of passage... the first girl/boyfriend (you know.. the one in kindergarten that you were going to marry?), first day of school (or not if you're us!), first kiss, going to high school.  But way back before any of that... is the first fishing trip with grandpa  :D

A week ago or so Frodo saw a tv fishing show and mentioned he'd like to go fishing.  We passed this along to Grandpa who promptly presented both boys with their own real fishing poles the next weekend when they visited. The boys watched the fishing dvd that came with it numerous times and pretend fished off the veranda daily.   And a trip to the jetty to test out their new gear was planned for the following Saturday.  It rained BUCKETLOADS, so alas, the trip had to wait a day. 

Sunday morning dawned a fine day, with a cloud free sky.  The boys, Grandpa and Dad set off for the jetty at the bay (a whole 5minutes from the Grandparents home) for their very first fishing trip.  The boys were SO excited and had a great time.  They got a bit bored (fishing being the excitement filled activity that it is lol) but they hung in there like troopers.


Here are a couple of pics of Sam casting a line.. he does so love to give a big cheesy grin!  It was a perfect day on the bay.

Mr. Frodo looks very dashing here wearing the sunglasses that Nana got them especially for such occasions.. Aussies have a very high rate of corneal damage from the sun.   And don't they look very sweet sitting side by side fishing?  Rather like a modern day Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer, don't you think?


 The only person that caught anything was Grandpa, who landed a decent sized Flathead, which he kept for tea (dinner for the rest of the world ;)  Sam was VERY upset that Grandpa was not going to put the fish back in the water.   Being the little sweetheart he is, he didn't see any good reason to kill and eat the fish.  

He declared that next time HE would catch a fish and look at it, touch it, then let it go back to it's home.  That's quite alright with me little dude.


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Caz
June 10
What brought you to the pagan path? Do you feel that you were always on it, even before you knew what it was? Were you raised as a pagan? Did you know any pagans growing up? At what age did you finally consider yourself to be a pagan? What religion were you raised?


This prompt was posted by Mrs. B and, well, it prompted me to write this ;)

I was not raised pagan unfortunately. I think I might have been a less depressed, more happy person if I had been . I was raised loosely Southern Baptist. By loosely, I mean that my parents *never* attended church…but the religions values were generally expected to be ours and they took us once or twice a year to church. I think that’s partly because I was raised in the deep southern US where church is a HUGE part of the local landscape. There are OVER 100 churches in the town I grew up in (which had about 130k residents before several large employers left and people started moving away) and the ‘what church do you go to’ was often the first or second thing a new acquaintance would ask.  

When I was a preteen I started going to vacation bible school and the like, mainly because it was what all the other kids were doing, and as a young teen I joined a small local church. It had a nice youth group, and some of the kids I went to school with were members so it seemed like the thing to do. When I got pregnant (out of wedlock no less *gasp*) at 16, the church I had been attending backed away from me as if I had the plague. I walked away and never looked back.

The father of my child & I married and moved away. His mother & I got along great, and she happened to be pagan at that time (she’s now born again Christian, go figure on that ;) .. At some point she passed along to me a copy of a Scott Cunningham book. I never really thought twice about it. We moved numerous times over the next few years thanks to the US military, and I don’t remember seeing that particular book. But I guess it moved with us for some 5yrs or more. One day I was bored and went searching for a good read, and somehow that book fell to hand as I browsed my shelves. I had hundreds of books, how on earth THAT one happened to be on the front row (they were 2 books deep) on an eye level shelf, I’ll never know. It took me a little while to even remember where it CAME from, and then I sat down and devoured the entire thing in a few hours or less. That would be going on 15 years ago now… I’m not quite as Wiccan as Scott Cunningham writes, but it was a start to my journey.

Think I need to drop my former MIL a note and thank her again for that. ;)
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Caz

Happy belated Litha for you Northern hemisphere folks...and winter solstice for my neighbors down south!  We had a very quiet solstice really,  I'm still getting over being sick so just wasn't up for a great deal of hoopla.   The boys & I did dress up our altar, at least sorta..it's not up to our usual standards really, but better than nothing!   

The boys had to have Father Winter (who's actually Santa from our Christmas decoration collection lol)  and some pretty starry garland and some of the more exciting tree baubles to decorate with.  My sole contribution is the gold painted WINTER mdf letters ;)  The flat round thing in the middle is a palmprint 'pentacle' Mr. Frodo made a couple of years ago.  It's got the chant 'Earth my body, Water my blood,  Air my breath,  Fire my spirit' circling the handprint.    To the left you see Sam's hand 'fixing' something.. he's constantly rearranging it and playing with all the goodies.   He just can't resist lol!  

Last, but not least, there may be some major life changes that would result in a big change on my little blog.  No decisions have been made at this point so stay tuned for updates.

Caz

Goodbye evergreen bunching shallots, farewell cos lettuce... you were with us only briefly but you will be missed in our salads forever.  Or at least until I start some more seeds... Merry decided to make himself, well, merry... by dumping out two of our newly started seed punnets today *sigh*   Life with a 3yo is sometimes enough to make me mental ...but I did have to laugh as I came out and he was gleefully digging with my mini garden fork in the little pile of dirt that used to be in the punnets that were tossed about.     Ah well, at least they were 1 day in the dirt, and not ready to be transplanted!   I rather doubt I'd have laughed at that point lol.  

A moment of silence for my dearly departed future veggies please....

Caz

Today the ratbag (Merry hehe) finally went back to preschool.  Of course he had to pick THIS day to sleep in till past 8am though, and I was not about to wake him up & deal with much crankiness... so we made a late appearance ;)   The other two and I came home to potter in the garden,  it seemed rather fitting, since Frodo's science this week was on plant structure and photosynthesis!

 We started quite a few new seeds.. some bok choi (can never have too much), grape & black russian tomatos (yum, the ones out there are dyyyyin), shallots and cos lettuce.  We also put some corn seeds out in the garden bed with the shrubs just for fun... they may or may not come up though, because the soil there is quite crapola.  But we can always hope for some fresh sweetcorn *drool*  

No photos though, mainly because my hands were filthy from helping the boys plant lol.  Then again... theirs were a mess as well!

Caz

So I'm finally feeling *mostly* better.. but as is typical, just before that happens someone else has to get sick.  Poor little Merry started with the fever and spews on Saturday... we finally were able to get a doc out to see him (let's hear it for house calls!) and he has a lovely ear & throat infection.  I was lucky to find a chemist open, as it was a public holiday here.. but I got his antibiotics and fever reducers, much to Merry's dismay.   Let's just say he is NOT amused with taking them and proceeds to shriek the walls down at every single dosing *sigh*  Ah well, this too shall pass.   He has been a tad perkier today and had a nice long nap and then consented to eat something... nothing nutritious mind you, just Snakatas hehehe.  

I must share about his guardian bear there... that white teddy is pretty sad looking, rather threadbare and flat.  But he has been comforting little ones in DH's family for OVER 35 YEARS!  It belonged to hubbys' older cousin, then his older brother, etc etc etc.  Family heirloom bear :)

Anyway, while he had a nice long snooze, Frodo, Sam & I decided to get back into the swing of schoolwork now that mum can almost talk normally and doesn't feel like she was hit by a truck lol.   The boys decorated their History Odyssey notebooks collage style, using great graphics I googled up online.  They were very pleased with their results!   Then we read about the two Kingdoms of ancient Egypt, why Lower & Upper Egypt 'seemed' to be reversed back then, and the types of food they ate. We did our long awaited project, Overnight Fig Bread! (ok, it was on the schedule nearly 3weeks ago when I got sick so not *that* long awaited ;)


Here's Frodo measuring the salt into the yeast, water & honey mixture mum already had started.   I have the most pedantic child ever.. it had to be a TOTALLY level 1/4tsp hehehe.


Samwise stirring in the flours.  It was supposed to have barley flour & wholemeal... but barley flour was impossible to find so we just went with plain & WW.  Unfortunately it won't be a 'heavy' style bread like the Egyptians would have eaten, but the kids will still think it's cool to eat something like an ancient Egyptian might have eaten.




And here they are rolling out their dough 'snakes', and Samwise cheering when they had them all scrolled up.   They are currently waiting in the oven rising, they are supposed to wait 6-8hrs OR overnight.  I think we're going to bake ours shortly as they seemed to be getting HUGE lol.  

***Just thought I'd edit to add that we did bake them tonight.  We drizzled them with a little honey and they were VERY nice!  They were slightly heavy/chewy so I can only imagine how much moreso they would have been made with the proper barley flour.  The boys are still enjoying the fruits of their labours as an after dinner treat.***

The kids seemed very happy to get back into the routine.  Frodo wanted to do some Math so he cranked out a couple of pages of that... subtracting doubles today, easy peasy.     I'm seriously hoping Merry is feeling better by Friday so we can go to our extra curricular day!

 Then in a fortnight we have our end of term excursion... we're going to Steve Irwin's  Australia Zoo!  I've been once, about 7yrs ago, but they have some some extensive improvements and I'm looking forward to sharing it with the boys!

Until next time...


Caz
Today I was finally able to take Merry back to kindy, he was thrilled beyond belief and would have none of breakfast... but did finally agree to eat some yogurt.  All he said from the moment he woke up was 'go for drive in da car!'  So we did.  He couldn't be bothered giving his old mum a cuddle before I left even, c'est la vie.  Me & the other two arrived home and I promptly collapsed into bed while letting them play Connect 4 and the other board games that Merry simply must disrupt if he's around.  Win win situation if you ask me.

I woke up just as DH came in from work at lunch time and was still feeling a bit run down to actually try to DO anything.   After thinking for a few minutes I decided what more perfect way to waste a couple of hours than to hit Eden Seeds  website and drool over their selection.   I love this company.. they forever won my business when I received a hand written note thanking me for my order in my very first purchase!  Awesome people, awesome business.  I swear, if I tried to grow everything that caught my fancy... I'd need an acre of solid garden space lol.  

I'd love to grow broccoli & cauliflour, rockmelon (cantaloupe for y'all in the US), multiple tomato varieties, climbing beans, peas (which I am growing :D), corn AND popcorn.. the kids would adore that one,  and last but definitely not least (hell, probably not even last really lol) good ole South Georgia Collard greens *sigh*   That's a little slice of home.    Oh, and I really NEED to grow these ,

because they are simply the coolest looking watermelon EVER.   And wow, what a bit of crappy formatting that is eh?

For now though, I'll have to settle with my myriad selection of potted veggies as I'm sure the owners of this brand new house really wouldn't like me decimating their lawn or garden beds to grow watermelon & pumpkin & popcorn ;)   But a girl can certainly spend a couple of hours on a rainy sick day dreaming, can't she? 

Caz

This is something I saw on Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom  and thought it looked amusing, so I have shamefully stolen it with absolutely no intention of following the *insert ominous music here* RULES.

THE RULES: Mention who tagged you. Complete the list of 8’s. Tag 8 other people.  ***note from me.. I like to break rules so I'm breaking the tag 8 people rule lol**

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:

1. Getting over this damn pneumonia!
2. My trip to the US in July to see mah boys!
3. KFC for dinner (hey, I'm sick.. I'm exhausted.. fuck cooking :P
4. Sleeping a full night
5. Winter days, it's nice not to sweat.
6. Winter nights... cozy blankies and mochas, yum.
7. Resuming my beading hobby that I haven't touched in a LONG time.
8. Owning our own home in a couple of years!!!


8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY:

1. Attempted to clean the bathroom floors because they were gross... this activity does not go            well with pneumonia.

2.  Drank several cups of coffee :D

3.  Mucked around on the computer for a while.. ok more than a while.

4.  Ordered very cool pants from Teh pants  

5. Grouched at the boys more than once :(

6. Watched some West Wing on dvd!

7. Vegged on the veranda with the boys for a while.

8. well.. there is really no 8.. I have pneumonia, only enough energy for 7 things sorry :P

 


8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO:

 Fly my boys over whenevah I wanted to :)

Get rid of the stupid double spacing in this meme.

Have more time for crafting & creating.

Rent a whole condo floor and have all my girlfriends from around the world down to visit for like a MONTH!

Sleep in... every.single.day!

Write a book.

Win lotto (how else did ya think I was going to fund all those airline tix and hotel rooms!?)

Invent the never ending cup of coffee...


8 SHOWS I WATCH:

House

Law & Order SVU

Criminal Intent

West Wing (on dvd)

Better Homes & Gardens

ANY gardening/home improvement show is WIN

Nigella Lawson's cooking shows

Same with Jamie Oliver


8 FAVORITE FOODS:
SUSHI!
Homemade pizza
Chocolate
Roast leg of lamb with balsamic vinegar & pomegranate (to die for)

coffee.. ok it's not technically a food, but at times I feel like I live off the stuff lol

My special spinach mini quiches *yum*

Steak & spinach salad

Really good Greek yogurt

chocolate (yes, it gets mentioned twice ;)


8 PLACES I’D LIKE TO TRAVEL:

Scotland
Ireland
New Zealand
Iceland
The Antarctic
Azeroth hehehe
Italy
around Australia
Caz

At least sort of,  or they could be death twitches.. I'm not sure yet.    Along about tuesday night (tail end of day 4 of this crap) my body decided that throwing gasping for air into the mix would be fun.  Obviously as soon as humanly possible I had DH take me to the doc  where she took the usual vital signs etc.  She asked if the white 'spots' on my tongue were normal for me and had me look in the mirror.. OMG my tongue was blue & white lol.  (the blue was gatorade which I survived that first week on).  NO no no this is not normal, get it off! was pretty much the gist of my reply.  

Then she had a listen to my chest and told me what I sorta knew was coming at this point, 'Mrs. M, it appears you have pneumonia'  *splat*  No effing way?!?!   But alas, she was not joking.  So off to the chemist I go with not one, but two scripts for antibiotics in hand (well hubby did, I can barely hoist myself out of the car without collapsing at this point) and orders for lots of fluid and rest.  Dh has been cleaning out the supermarket of my favorite gatorade flavour every other day or so, it's very handy since antibiotics taste like dirt.. and a chest full of infected crud makes everything else taste just rotten.  

On the upside (see, I'm being optomistic!) DH swears I look like I've dropped about 8kg. hehe  Then again, when nothing but gatorade and ibuprofen passes your lips for a week, you're pretty much assured that'll happen.  NOT my preferred way to kick start a 'diet' .. but I suppose if I have to be THIS DAMN MISERABLE, at least losing a few kg along the way is a small silver lining ;)

Today I am a *wee bit* better...I can sit at the puter for a few :D and I've been able to eat a bit of this and that, and even drink a couple of half cups of coffee. (oh blessed elixir of the Goddess!)  Breathing still isn't like it should be by half, but at least the temp is mostly gone and I can almost pretend to be human again.  It will probably be another 10days or so before I'm back to blogging 'regulary' (if I was blogging regularly before lol) But I think I'm probably going to survive, and I just thought I'd share that :P