No More Diet Coke

Well, I finally did it. I cut the Diet Coke out of my life. I have wanted to do so for a long time now, because of the health issues associated with it. But after reading an article about aspartame poisoning, I had the kick in the pants to really do it. This is day 4 with no coke and I feel great. No caffeine headaches, thanks to a cup of chai tea each morn. No cravings for coke or for carbohydrates. Wonder of wonders. :) Here are two articles that really changed my thinking. One health related the other environmental/human rights. 

Aspartame Poisoning

World without Water

So, wish me luck and think hard about your own soda drinking. But remember, aspartame is found in many, many products....read your labels.

My Latest Tattoo

One more tattoo in my tattoo addiction/collection. This is a Triple Moon, in honor of the Great Maiden. Mother, Crone. With the words to my favorite chant added.This is on the front of my left thigh.

Ostara Blessings

Ostara Blessings to everyone. I hope that you all are enjoying what little spring like weather we are all having. At least in this part of the world. It is chilly,windy, and now raining. At least its not snow. :)

I am feeling like a bad pagan parent of late. I really planned nothing to celebrate Ostara with Sophie. In the end she ended up dying eggs with her older sister, and I made her an Ostara basket which she loved. She also got a new dress and shoes which is an old Spring tradition that crossed over to an Easter tradition when I was a child. 

One thing that makes me feel better is that the UU church we are a part of now, has a fledgling pagan group that we are becoming more and more a part of. They are having an Ostara Labyrinth walk tomorrow evening and a pot luck. Sophie and I will attend and honor the returning Spring with others of like mind. In the meantime, I will continue to strive to be a better pagan parent to my little Goddess child.

Moving Again

Well we will soon be moving again. This tiny house has proven to be too tiny for the four of us, used to so much personal space at Witchwood. I hope we can find something in town a little bigger with a similiar price range. We really just need one more bedroom. It bothers some of us more than others. But to keep the family peace and tranquility we need to move. I am hoping for a bit more secluded area, more garden space and another big porch. Wish us luck in the dwelling search again. Stay tuned.......bohemians don't stay put for long.

More of the tiny house

 Finally getting around to posting the other photos of the tiny bohemian house we now live in.
Not the best quality, but first is the kids room.

 The bathroom sink, and the tub area.

 Then last our bedroom with a view into the hallway and the bath.

TIny Bohemian Home

 

 

Finally got the photos of the house to load. The first one is the kitchen as you walk in the back door.

 The next one is the dining 'room'. viewed from the living room

 Then we have the living room with two furry friends relaxing there.

 The best part of the house I think, is the fire place, so awesome during this cold weather.

 The living room looking into the hall and the kids room.

 And finally, the living room looking toward the front door.

Next I will share some photos of the bedrooms and bath, also outside. This little house is taking some aadjustments on all our part, but it is cozy.

Changes

I am not sure why, but Blogger no longer has the tool to upload photos from my computer. So these new posts will be un illustrated. :( I have decided to change the name and address of my blog, since moving and starting over in a number of different ways. I want my blog to reflect those changes and so, I present to you my bohemian soul. Stay tuned for what's new and exciting in my life. Hopefully with photos.

New Year, New Home

Happy New Year to you all out there in blog land. We rang in the new year with Dick Clark's New Years's Rockin Eve~(minus Dick Clark~RIP)~orange soda ice cream floats and sparklers on the lawn for the two kids. It was a fun family evening and we all soon crashed after midnight.

We look forward to all the blessings as well as the challenges that will help us to grow in 2013.

We also have a new home. A small house to be sure for four people and 3 cats and a golden retriever. But we are trying to make it work and create a cozy home for the winter at least. I only have a couple of photos so far. More to come as I get the place organized and comfy.

So I know you were wondering where my resolutions are, or intentions as I prefer to call them. Well in no particular order once a again:

* make better decisions for myself and my family

* yoga! every day or as often as possible

* walk the dog, every day and not just around the house to do her business

* begin eating strictly vegan again

*keep my journal and this blog up to date

* spend more quality time with my kids and hubby

So we will see how this year goes. I have mixed feelings about it honestly. We have been through some really rough challenges lately and I have been dealing with a major amount of stress. But I am feeling good about working hard to achieve the goals and live the life we want. Bring it on 2013. I am ready.

RIP Sabrina

Today we had to say goodbye to our sweet kitty, Sabrina. She developed a tumor in her sinus and was having such a hard time breathing. None of the treatments that we tried helped her enough to ease the suffering.
 May you find peace my little pet. I will think of you every day and miss you always. I still remember how we found you at the shelter, a tiny 8 week old with your brothers and sisters. You were hanging on the front of the cage meowing. I knew you were for me. I remember how you hunted leaves on the back deck and brought your prey in the house to us. I remember how you slept at our feet as a kitten and for most of your life. And I remember how you felt as you lay on my lap every night for the past two months of your illness. I love you my girl and always will. Find sweet rest Sabrina. We will never forget you.

Pagan Thanksgiving

Here is one some of you may have read before, written by Starhawk and published in the Washington Post last year. 

We give thanks for this good green earth and all that lives upon it.

Thanks for the air, the Great Breath that that flows from leaf to lung and back again, sustaining life.

Thanks for fire, leaping flame and glowing hearth, warmth in the cold season.

Thanks for water, the life-renewing rain, the springs, streams, and rivers, the pools and lakes, the great oceans, womb of the first life.

Thanks for soil and for the web of life within it, tiny bacteria, threadlike fungi, slithering worm, that nourishes the grain, the wildflower and the redwood.

Thanks for the sun, for life-sustaining radiance showering down on us each day.

Thanks for the moon, for the waxing and waning light that drives the tides.

Thanks for our living bodies with their miraculous abilities to heal, to give and receive pleasure, to create new life.

Thanks for the food we eat: thanks to all the beings whose death sustains our lives. Thanks to all who tend and grow our food, who plant and harvest, who bring it to us, who cook it for us with love.

Thanks for the great creative spirit that continues to invent, to play, to increase the diversity and beauty around us.

Thanks for the cycles of birth, growth, death and decay that come back around, always, to regeneration.

Thanks for the love and the community we share, for all the ways we express love, all the acts of kindness and compassion that weave us together.

Thanks to the courage of all who stand up for the earth and for justice, who against all evidence and all odds continue to believe in our power to make a better world.

Thanks to all who say yes--yes, we will do it!

We will renew the land and feed the hungry.

We will face down tyrants and set the prisoners free.

We will repair the damage and heal the wounds.

We will learn to live with open hands and open hearts, in balance and in peace.

We give thanks.

Remembering our beloved dead on our Samhain altar.

Samhain Blessings

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides

Figures dance around and around

To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness

Moving to the pagan sound.

Somewhere in a hidden memory

Images float before my eyes

Of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires

Dancing 'til the next sunrise.

I can see the lights in the distance

Trembling in the dark cloak of night

Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing

A waltz on

All...All Souls Night.

Figures of cornstalks bend in the shadows

Held up tall as the flames leap high

The Green Knight holds the holly bush

To mark where the Old Year passes by.

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides

Figures dance around and around

To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness

Moving to the pagan sound.

Standing on the bridge that crosses

The river that branches out to the sea

The wind is full of a thousand voices

They pass by the bridge and me.

(All Soul's Night~ Loreena McKinnett)