Put On Your Big Girl Panties.

Blessings Darlings!

I have typed that phrase, "Blessings Darlings", in almost 500 posts now.  It's not that I'm blessing you, you know - it's more like the Irish concept of "Catch the Blessings Already Sent Your Way."

But it's becoming more and more apparent that what my view of a 'blessed state of being' is is different from how others see it.  And we differ primarily in the role of the God/dess/es in achieving that state.

I see being blessed as being an adult, handling the every day events of life yourself.  Many every day events of life are great - birthdays, graduations, getting jobs, etc.  Some aren't great - deaths and diseases, money issues, etc. 

Being blessed, to me, is being able and WILLING to handle those things yourself.  Get a splinter?  Remove it (yes, own tweezers, and face the discomfort, and get it done), wash the area, maybe slap on some antibiotic ointment and a band-aid, and go one with life. No need to ask anyone else for tweezers you don't have and get your body fluids on their stuff, no need to get paranoid and make offerings to the God/dess of your choice that you don't get an infections.  And I DO assume your tetanus shots are up to date.  Because as a functional adult, you should be able to handle this.

So, too, most aspects of, say, storms.  You'll have homeowners insurance, flood insurance if necessary, know where you can evacuate to if needed, have the sense to get out in time to get to where you can evacuate to, etc. 

Others don't seems to see things the way I do.  They can't start their day without checking Tarot or some other form of divination to see what's going to happen.  They start their day asking for peace and protection, rather than for the strength and ability to handle what happens.  And, yeah, they've been doing this for so long that they do NOT have any personal strength, no personal flexibility, no ability to handle things.  And no skills at first aid. 

Functionally, they've been asking the Gods TO MAKE THEM INTO INFANTS, totally dependent on the God/dess/es and others.

Fuck that bullshit.

How about asking the Gods to send what you need to grow strong, wise, and experienced.  Ask them to send you challenges that will, over time, push you to learn new things.

In other words - ask to grow up, while you work on growing up yourself.

And, if you have to pull that Tarot card/set every day ... pull the cards in the morning, but don't look at them then.  Look at them in the evening, to see what you should have learned from the day.

Frondly, Fern

Chubby Hubby's Birthday - While Broke

Blessings Darlings!

We celebrated the CH's birthday today.  He took almost the whole day off! 

It started with a huge breakfast, eggs and toast and hamburger patties and two, not just one, pastry from the local great bakery.  Sundays are the only day we have meat with breakfast, and usually we have bacon, occasionally ham.  Today he opted for burgers.  So - big high fat high protein meal.  And the only thing I bought special (since I always have frozen hamburger patties in the freezer) was one pastry, since we usually go one and buy one to share every weekend.  That was $2.50.

Then we headed out, and spent the bulk of the day at Harper's Ferry National Historical Park ... because not only did we WANT to go there, but the park was free today (it's the birthday of the National Park system).  We visited lots of museums, walked along the Shenandoah river, looked at ruins of the canal system and factory buildings.  Learned a lot about John Brown's raid, water powered manufacturing, how often the Shenandoah river floods, etc. Had a great time.  Treated CH to a Coke and a box of candy cigarettes.  $3.25 for all of that.  Oh, and, for the first time, set foot on the Appalachian Trail!

Then we figured we'd have the dessert we had planned for after dinner BEFORE dinner, so we went off to Nutters Ice Cream Parlor in Sharpesburg, MD.  We shared this HUGE banana split (with extra hot fudge).  CH was astonished to see the size of it.  And even with the extra hot fudge, it cost only $6.75.

Total spent - $12.50.  Had a great time.  And too full for the steaks I bought (within the food budget) for dinner.  We'll have them some other night this week.

Happy happy happy.

Frondly, Fern

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Blessings darlings!

I'm glad you're here. 

Now, go read THIS, because it's the most useful magical advice you'll get today, this week, maybe this year. http://candlesmokechapel.com/2013/06/29/that-candle-is-not-magic/

Frondly, Fern

Cool, damp summer

Blessings Darlings!

While we DID have a dry month early this summer, on the whole this summer has been coolish and dry.  There have been less days over 90 degrees than usual, and rain levels have been more than usual since the early hot dry spell.

So now I have issues from those factors in my garden!  I've only lost a couple of zucchinis to end rot from the rain, but on top of those losses some of the zukes haven't been well pollenated - they grow right the first few inches then sudden narrow and don't develop the rest of the way down the fruit.  Others, while properly pollenated have seemed to started to hibernate instead of finishing growing.  And my tomatoes are not just waiting for a few hot days to suddenly have hundreds of them suddenly ripen all at once - the indetermanent ones that ARE coming ripe one at a time all have big cracks at the stem end, the standard sign of too much water. 

I'm concerned I won't get any of the sweet potatoes, as they need rather a lot of days over 90 degrees to move from forming vines to forming tubers.

By the way, the DE didn't do squat for any of the bugs on the beans.  I don't think I'll be getting even enough beans for a dinner side dish, let alone freeze or can any.  The leaves of the beans look like delicate lace.  And the daily rain means that anything I use on the plants gets promptly washed off.

To paraphrase the folk saying:  humanity proposes, nature disposes.

Frondly, Fern

 

Meh Ravioli

Blessings Darlings!

Tonight I made our fortnightly Vegetarian Dinner.  I decided to try Spinach and Ricotta ravioli, with the budget substitutions of plantain weed leaves for spinach and cottage cheese for ricotta.  Once again I found that wild greens suck up a lot of flavor and recipes have to be adjusted for that - had to double the salt, black pepper, nutmeg and add basil and garlic in order for the filling to have flavor. 

The pasta part was pretty typical, except I've never made ravioli before.  OTOH I've made more than a few recipes of Chinese dumplings and egg rolls!  I did run into a problem with them sticking to the parchment paper and tearing, because using cottage cheese instead of ricotta make the filling more moist.  I'll be making steamed dumplings (instead of boiled ones) out of those tomorrow. 

Chubby Hubby asked for a pink sauce for these, instead of a red sauce.  So I added a cup of cream to a red sauce and he was happy.  Spawn and I weren't that impressed, it didn't 'sparkle', but it was adequate. 

It all tasted fine, but it was not Restaurant or Company Quality.

I'm sure I'll do better if I make it again soon, but I probably won't make it again until next summer - the plantain  plants are going to seed.

Frondly, Fern

Pagan Dreaming

Blessings Darlings!

So in my dreams this morning ...

First remembered dream, I was back in grade school.  Which was not a fun time.  I came out of the restroom into the classroom and could not recall which was my desk. There were no visual signs - no backpacks, no books/pencils on an empty desk, etc.  I admitted I couldn't recall, but didn't get any crap.

Then there were fires in the area, along with flooding from thunderstorms in denuded areas.  I went to look at the near by river, and saw a bear on fire.  I 'willed' it to go into the stiller water to put out the fire.  It did, then came over.  It was a very small, young bear, and it's coat was very like a sheep's coat.  I took it back to the school for the school nurse to help (had to put a collar on it to have it come along!)  I was then sent to room D-1 for something.

Later, I was magically avenging something, a death of a relative.  Related to going out a hotel window into a fire. This somehow involved dealing with an A/C unit. That was part of a seat in a movie theater.  I gathered the materials I needed.  Then got together with Kerian Nox (who had her own doom to deal) and Shae McQuoid.   And then Pagan Illini somehow joined the dream, meeting in a university owned camping site .... which I was sure was D-1.  I turned to lady bugs to spread the word, getting in touch with them using some bushes that I was sure my father had had planted outside the dream-version of the Jewish shul I attended as a child.  The Chubby Hubby helped me advertise the ritual I was doing (Keri's was not connected), which was to be Pagan interfaith.  Kevin Costner drove by in a pick up truck, and was going to return for the ritual.