A very special Ostara celebration!

After spending most of the day downstairs in the altar room cleaning up and performing some much needed updates on my two laptops on Friday, I finally finished preparing for yesterday's Ostara ritual.

The altar before we began. The bunny bag of goodies was a fun little gift that I planned to give to my sister Aurora. I also decided to utilize my ceramic mermaid incense burner as we will soon be getting into the season of summer and thought it rather fitting.

For our ceremonial cakes and offering, we had chocolate mint cupcakes and instead of our usual ritual wine this year we used mint-flavored rum with cream. 😊

The Ostara ritual for two which we had used.

As you can see, we placed colored eggs all around the perimeter of the circle before we started.

Dark Elf joined us via SKYPE from Pendeli, Attiki, Greece - a very lovely surprise indeed! ...

We "saged" ourselves (cleansed our bodies using the sage smoke) and anointed each other with the Ostara ritual oil following the calling of the corners and before invoking the Lord and Lady.

The symbolic Great Rite - one of my absolute favorite elements during any ritual ceremony. After our entire ritual was over, we continued to head outdoors to give back to the Earth as we always make sure to do. 💕

We had some leftover beverages and snacky foods to enjoy such as pastel-colored M&M's, vanilla cakes, and chocolate mint flavored cupcakes!

Monday montage

Greetings everyone! Not much happening here today so I thought that I would post a few random pics of the cats and such. 💜💗

Sir Leo

Tabitha just chilling out like every spoiled house kitty ought to be ...  >^^<

Merlin playing with my birthday balloon from a couple of weeks ago ... 😺 (apparently, he only just last night noticed the balloon tied to the tall lamp in the living room.)

GOT IT!!!

An extra pic of my mom and my sister Aurora from my birthday lunch ...

And in other news, I received an email message from the Feedspot site just this morning that our blog has made and been awarded number 20 out of the Top 50 Pagan Blogs. Many thanks! 👍😃

 

Have a great Monday, my friends!

Saturday this and that

Happy Saturday everyone! First off, I want to wish my good friend and fellow co-author of my blog, Dark Elf (aka Peri), whose birthday was yesterday, a belated HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY, PERI!!

What's for dinner? Well, last night I tried another new soup recipe from the Taste of Home Soups cookbook. It is for Hot Dog Potato Soup. This recipe was submitted by a woman who lives in Lancaster, PA - which I thought was pretty cool since I live in Reading, PA. 😎

Hot Dog Potato Soup

(400 calories per cup, serves 5)

Ingredients:

2 cans (18.8 ounces each) ready-to-serve chunky baked potato with cheddar and bacon bits soup

4 hot dogs, halved lengthwise and sliced

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar-Monterey Jack cheese

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup milk

In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine all the ingredients. Cover and microwave soup on high for 8-10 minutes or until heated thoroughly, stirring soup every 2 minutes.

😸 😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸😸

On a totally separate note, I finally received my 1095-C from in the mail yesterday from my former employer. Now I can drop off our 2018 income taxes to be completed this coming week.😒

Have a blessed weekend all!

Being a Witch

Being a Witch is something you are, and it’s a part of your everyday life. It’s not an alter ego you put on when the moon is full.

After all the revelations, mystical rituals, classes, there is a point where you need to run all the threads through your own life and make it your own. The first time you experience ritual or feel the presence of a Deity can be mind blowing. The next step is to make it part of your day to day life.

You wake up in the morning, put pants on, pour whiskey to the gods, or greet the sun (whatever your witchy thing is), say a daily devotion, go to work deal with your boss, run the kids to school, feed the animals, shop for groceries etc. etc. It’s not separate from your life. It weaves into the flow of your everyday life.

Source: Just Your Everyday Witch (Facebook page)

Friday odds & ends ...

Happy Friday everyone!!  It has been raining here for the past two days and they are calling for more rain into the weekend. Good day to stay in the house and clean. 

https://www.facebook.com/Wiccan-Life-123300665208799/

Quick heads up regarding the NetworkedBlogs followers app/widget, Dark Elf was able to create a page on FB for our blog so I will be getting rid of it sometime within the next couple of days and replacing it with a link on our sidebar to the FB page. Many THANKS, Dark Elf!!! 

Yesterday I had the chance to meet up with a very dear friend of mine of 30 years. We try to get together and catch up whenever he comes to Pennsylvania ...

Having a delicious lunch with Stew at an Italian Restaurant named, "Giovanni's."

A pic taken in his lovely motor home which he lives in when visiting PA six months out of the year. The other half of the year he travels to Georgia. 

I  also had the pleasure of meeting his neighbor's doxy, "Maddie"

Her guardian told me that Maddie was a rescue dog who they found after some very cruel former owners used to mistreat her terribly. I will spare you all the sad details. All I can say is that Maddie is a very sweet little girl and I am so happy she found the loving home she so deserves! As you can see, she loves to be petted and when she placed her tiny little legs up on my lap, I bent over to pick her up and she sat on my lap contentedly for a few minutes. Her owner looked at me and said, "OMG, I can't believe she actually let you pick her up. She usually does not let any strangers do that!" LOL!

Anyway, wishing all a wonderful weekend!!!

Problem with NetworkedBlogs! (2nd post for today)

Does anyone else out there use the NetworkedBlogs app/widget for their blog/blogs? I have been using this thing for many years (with my Facebook account) and I noticed that the last two days I went from 147 followers to 140 and they just keep on dropping!

Now, I understand that followers come and go, but this is ridiculous. Since I am far from a "tekkie" and much of today's technology escapes me, I am both upset and confused regarding this. So, I did a bit of research on google and found the following links:

https://www.babble.com/mom/quit-networkedblogs/

http://bloggingforfoodies.com/is-networkedblogs-taking-your-page-views-and-your-link-juice/

I am not even sure that the followers listed are even actually still SEEING my blog posts! I do not deal with Twitter and the like, so perhaps this is the problem? After reading the above links, I get the feeling that NetworkedBlogs is currently obsolete and useless. I have decided that if I continue to lose followers on it, I will just delete the thing altogether! 


UPDATE TO THIS POST:

After conferring with my co-author Dark Elf (who is actually a  "tekkie") and who has looked further into this matter regarding the NetworkedBlogs app/widget, he suggested we delete it from our blog page and create a new page via Facebook (since apparently Facebook is what screwed the entire thing up in the first place when they changed (as is far too usual a practice with them!) their format. Not too crazy about the idea and not too crazy about Facebook overall, but I kept my account in order to keep in touch with my relatives out of State and my former classmates as well. 

And so, we shall see how it goes ...  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARK ELF (aka, Peri)!!

Blessed Samhain ~ 2017

Blessed Samhain and a Happy Halloween to everyone! Today, I enjoyed this wonderful sabbat holiday by celebrating with my sister, Aurora Skye (Robin) and Dark Elf.

As is our tradition, we set up a special altar for our photos in honor of our loved ones who have passed on ...  

 )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(     )o(

Me 'n' Aurora Skye

Dark Elf

Our personal ritual ceremony written for us. ;)

After our ritual rite, we toasted with our libation which I had reiked and blessed, then spent the rest of the evening enjoying some relaxing "sister" time. These, my dear friends, are truly special occasions for both of us. In this fast-paced and very busy day and age where we all must set aside time for ourselves and our loved ones, it is even more important that we remember our beloved friends and family ... both those who are living and who have passed from this world.

Samhain

Gather we here on Samhain eve
Some to remember, some to grieve
All to join with hand and heart
To see the misty veil part
Stand we here, hand to hand
While spirits roam across the land
Ash to ash, bone to bone
They rise from earth, from sea and stone
Seek their wisdom in the wind
Through curls of smoke, our love we send
And on this night of falling leaves
Gather we here on Samhain eve
We raise a glass
We toast you all
Our Ancestors
From king to thrall
We welcome you
This Samhain night
Come warm yourselves
By firelight
Come join our merry
Feast of Red
We hail you,
The Welcome Dead!

~ written by Sokarjo Stormwillow