I'm Epically Awesome and I got an award of Epic Awesomeness. Because I am Epic. And Awesome. And stuff.

Good Monday morning everyone!

I will get to part two of my last post later..( It miiiiight be tomorrow...I am still mentally chewing on things for that post. These things can take time, you know. ) but for now I want to share a little bloggy excitement with you.

Last night, one of my favorite people in the world, Vickie from Aoibheal's Lair bestowed the Epically Awesome Award of Epic Awesomeness upon me. ( That is a mouthful! )

See? Proof of how awesome I am. Epic even.

There are rules to go along with receiving this award, and they are as follows:

1.  Display the award on your page - Check.

2.  Link back to the person who nominated you - Check.

3.  State ten things about yourself - Okay. Check.

4. Nominate 10 other bloggers and link them back to your post. ( I hate this part lol. Not the naming, but the going and telling them lol.)


Okay...ten things....hmmmm.

1. I just celebrated my 9th anniversary to my husband Jack back on April 4th.

2. My 34th birthday is in 26 days. ( May 4th )

3. I have an issue with bad smells. I burn incense constantly and use a lot of carpet powder. The thought of anyone walking into my place and it smelling bad terrifies me. My nose is weird as well..I perceive a lot of good smells as bad smells. For instance ground coffee smells like cat piss to me. Tastes great, smells awesome while brewing, but in ground form it smells like cat piss to me. Yuck. Boiling chicken off the bone smells like boiling garbage. Yet I love the smell of boiling cabbage.

4. I wear a lot of men's cologne as opposed to women's perfume. It smells better to me, and smells better on me than most women's perfume due to my odd body chemistry.

5. Jack and I have started keeping fish again. I used to have several tanks growing up, but it has been years. I inherited two tiny gold fish when Perth moved out, and they are now each bigger than my hand. We have since upgraded  to a bigger tank and  now have two set up. I forgot how much I enjoyed watching the fish swim around. Very peaceful.

6. I am a total cat person, yet I have three dogs at the moment.

7. I trained the last 4 cats I had to not use the litter box, but to go to the door and ask to be let out.

8. I hate wearing bras and never ever do unless I am going out and can't wear a coat over my shirt, or if we have company coming over. It sometimes makes me envious of women who do not have to wear them unless they want to.

9.  I am worried about a friend I have not heard from  in a while.

10. I have a really hard time writing things like this lol.

WHEW. Glad that part is over! I wish these came with a set of questions. I would be much happier to answer  them than try to pull random facts out of my ass.

Now for the really hard part, narrowing down my huge list of awesome bloggers to just ten. Especially when some of them hate getting awards, and I can never remember which ones like them and which ones don't. So if I send one to you and you hate them, then I apologize, and feel free to ignore it. Just know that I think you are epically awesome! ( Also, I am trying very hard not to do a repeat of many others who got this award. We all love either other so we tend to nominate each other in these things. I love them all, but I am trying to get some fresh blood in here lol. )

1. Amber at Airing My Dirty Laundry, One Sock at a Time.Amber  is a military wife and mother of two kids, one with Aspergers. She is funny and real and hates a lot of the same things I do. I love her!

2.  Morgan at The Inklings of Life. I am all about laughing, and Morgan seriously cracks me the hell up. Her most recent post had be nodding my head and laughing, as I am the same way and would do the same things!

3. Julia at There's No Wine in Mom. A "real" blogger, I enjoy her tales of being a first time Mom, and all the triumphs and confusion and tough choices she has to make.

4. Mama Tully at Adventures in Tullyland. I am a recent follower of this blog, but it is FULL of house organization tips and I just love it!

5. Gina at Daydream Believer is my 5th choice. The art Gina produces is just amazing and I love looking at her creations.

6. Sarah at Love, Light, and Wine: A Painting, Sipping Beachy Pagan. Another "real" blogger,  I always enjoy her posts.

7. Charlene at My Life between Naps. Although she has not been posting a lot due to family stuff, I love this blog very much, as well as the woman who writes it.

8.  Jill at Made it on Monday.  This blog has a little bit of everything, and I enjoy reading it very much.

9.  Evin at Food Good, Laundry Bad. I think that blog name says it all, eh?

10. Last, but certainly not least, is from Six Sisters at Six Sisters' Stuff. food, craft, and all kinds of fun things can be found there.

Well, there you have it! Thanks again to Vickie for giving me this award, it means a lot! Now, I am off to let all these epically awesome people know how I feel about them. Tootles!

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Something that touched my heart!

Yes I know I am on a roll with blogging today, but I just had to share this, because it touched my heart and made me smile.

I received an award for my blog in my email today, from Maia over at The Earth Tales of a Starseed Spirit Witch and with her permission, I am sharing what she wrote:

I am presenting this award for you because I think you have one of the most heartfelt, loving, truthful, inspiring blogs I have ever read. I am honored to follow you on blogspot and I look forward to reading every single post that you do.

In the spiritual community I think it is incredibly important for everyone to come together and not only support each other, but also help share, promote, and give to others as much as we possibly can. 

This is a great way to show appreciation to other people for their creativity and the sharing of their energy but it is also a wonderful way for us to come together and "link up" as a community so to speak.

I ask that you do a search on your own for blogs that mean something special to you and pass on this award to as many people as you can!

Thank you for sharing your light, creativity, magick, insight, and love with the world! Keep up the good work!

Magickal Blessings & Love,

Maia

**************************

That was the most awesome thing I could have read today. It is sometimes hard to bare it all, throwing it all out there for the world to read at times, and things like this make it all worth it.

It also really hit home what she said about coming together as a community and supporting each other, especially now, when there has been unrest in our corner of the blogosphere, with nasty things said to people. We are here to share in each others experiences, show support, and come together as a community. We would all do well to remember that! 

Thank you Maia for the lovely award, I really appreciate it!

Time flies....

Good grief. Every time I want to sit down and blog, something else always comes up! Such is life right?

Anyway, I have been keeping myself busy with mundane tasks over the last several days, and some not so mundane. I FINALLY got Alex's room painted, although it is just the gods-awful purple undercoat. I am going to be sponge painting it over with pink and teal to match her bedspread and so when I get the paint and get that done I will post some pics. I did this room all alone, a couple of nights ago, stayed up all night to do it. Alex has decided she does not need to sleep more than 3 hours a night so might as well be productive while I sit up all night right lol?

I do not know what it is about this shade of purple that I despise and Jack and Alex love. It honestly looks to be the same color as grape bubble yum bubble gum. It is dark and horrendous, but everyone loves it but me lol. Oh well, I don't have to sleep in there, right lol?

In other news, I found out today that Alex got accepted into the school that I really wanted her to be in today! It is a charter school, Pre-K through eighth grade, small, with excellent staff and teachers, and with small classes ( hence the pre-k waiting list from last year that we did not get called in for ) so the students get way more of the teachers time than the other two schools she could have gone in, with 45 kids crammed into a class. I feel more comfortable with the smaller school as well, since she will be going into kindergarten and I am afraid she will be shell shocked since she has been here with me for 3 years. I know I am underestimating her, but she is my last "baby" and all of the sudden she went from independent big girl to "omg she is to little to be away from me already" lol.. That is all in my head of course, she is STILL the "way to independent for my peace of mind" almost 6 year old! I am so relieved and she is so excited.

That means I will get a few days of empty house bliss before I have to go hunt something part time for work. Jack and I sat down the other night and had a talk and decided that if I make enough to cover groceries and gas for our trucks, all will be fine, and I will not have to work full time if I do not want. Which I do not, not until Alex gets used to her new routine. Plus, being a charter school, one of the requirements of her being able to go there is for a parent to volunteer so many hours per year at the school, which is fine with me. I am going to be one of those moms who are involved in everything, so excuse me if I get annoying in telling you all about how I did this and that with her school lol..I missed out on so much with my older two, I am not going to let my last chance slip by!

Let's see, what else? Nothing much out of the ordinary has been going on, other than Alex's weird sleep schedule. Suddenly she runs wide open on only three hours of sleep and it is killing me, because if I lived in a perfect world of no responsibility, I could EASILY sleep 12 or 14 hours a day lol. I love to sleep when able, what can I say?

My birthday went well, my Mom made me an awesome cake and I got flowers and her awesome chicken salad ( I think I already posted about that ) and some other stuff, it was really nice. I am STILL weeding clutter out of my house, I think that will take the rest of my life I swear! The kids are doing well, parents are doing okay, so life is pretty normal!

I was recently honored by Magaly at Pagan Culture with an award, which is really cool. She asked 10 questions, and after I answer them I am supposed to nominate some people, but to be honest, I see so many of those "award cauldrons" and people bitching about them, I am not sure of who to send what to anymore, so if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged!

Here are the 10 questions:

1. How old were you when you first showed interest in the written word?

I was three years old when my Mom taught me to read. Both my parents were ( and still are ) avid readers, and neither of them could sit down and read without me crawling in their lap asking " What is this word?" so Mom said enough, and taught me to read. I have read avidly ever since!

2. What is your favorite old time book and why?

The first book that impacted my life was The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. I read it when I was 8 or 9 and fell in love with it, and read the whole series. It was unlike anything I have ever read, it went into so much detail about hunting and gathering, from food to medicinal, and with practical application, and prehistoric life. The research Jean did for her books are nothing short of phenomenal and I highly recommend the entire Earth Children Series if you have not read it.

3. Superstitious?

Nah, not really.

4. Are you afraid of the dark or do you chase the things that go bump when the lights are out?

With the exception of certain bugs, I am the one who chases away all the things that go bump in the night. I am a creature of the night for sure!

5. Done any skinny dipping lately? Ever? 

Lately? No, I do not want to cause any fish or aquatic creature any mental trauma, I am not so sure that they have therapists down there to help them unsee what they might have seen LOL. In the past I have gone a handful of times!

6.  What makes you go "DAMN!" when you look at an attractive person?

On males, long hair, muscular ( but not crazy steroid buff ) arms and legs, and some well placed tattoos. On a female, usually longer hair, kind of punk rock look, with great legs, preferably in sexy heels, but I am also attracted to the "Earthy" types as well. That is more of an attitude thing more so than looks however. A sexy and confident attitude can make anyone look hot to me!

7. What do you know about Witches?

That there are good ones and bad ones, just like everyone else. Which Witch is Which? Lol..

8. Environmentally friendly or environmentally terrorist? The last kind would get really pissed if others don't conserve water. 

Environmentally friendly, those that are the terrorist type make me run the other way.

9. Have you been in a strip club?

Several in fact lol...some good, some sleazy. If twirling around on a pole in your undies or less feeds your kids better than working at the fast food restaurant, more power to ya.  It is your body, flaunt it if you got it!

10. What was the last book you read?

I am currently re-reading Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. (I think that is how to spell her name!) I read it years ago, but I currently own all the Avalon series, and read them in chronological order ( when they take place in a timeline, not the order they were written )  and in keeping with the series I am reading it again as I am sure there are some parts I have forgotten!

So there they are! Thanks again to Mags for bestowing me with the award, I am very honored! Again, if you want to snag her questions, or even write 10 of your own, feel free!

So I think that about sums up what has been going on in my life. I am hopefully going out for the first time in two years with two old friends of mine next weekend, so I am pretty excited about that, and will post about it when it happens!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

The Random Before The Serious...

Good afternoon guys and gals. Yes, I am still alive, I have just been busy doing and thinking about other things, but I HAVE been mentally blogging lol. I really need to find some dictation software, half my blog posts form while I lay in bed trying to sleep at night lol.

I have been busy, and I have been relaxing, and everything in between for the last couple of weeks. The weather has been beautiful and we have been getting things outside ready for planting, and in fact I already have some of my herb seeds in the ground. Lemon Balm, Lavender, Garden and White Sage, Mallow, Basil, and chive, just to name a few.

We have also been talking about repainting the inside of the house, it really needs it, and we got the paint already, now it is just a matter of cleaning any dust off the walls and painting it. You would think this would be easy for me, I am, after all, a daughter of a paint contractor. My whole life I have watched and been involved in painting with my Dad, since I was old enough to understand "DON'T touch the wet walls!" Lol.

My soul sister moved to Canada today, to begin her new life with her new love, and now that I know she is there safe, it was my cue to fall apart. I am so happy for her, she deserves this, but I would be lying if I said I would not miss her terribly, as her living in another country will complicate us seeing each other even farther.  It is okay though, I know she will be very happy, and if she is happy, I am happy, so it all works out lol.

Other than that, I have been watching movies and cleaning and reading and just living life!

I have a couple of serious blog posts to get to soon, hopefully one of them today, and I have some things I want to do on my writing blog, plus I need to make a button and all that good stuff.

While I have been "away" from blogging, I have been given three awards, and I want to take the time now and say thank you. I received the "Beautiful Commenter" Award from Ryan, over at Old Man Sutton. However I am not sure I am deserving of that one, because I have been so lax in my commenting on anyone's stuff...I read it, but by the time I read it, someone else has already said wonderful things and I hate to be repetitive if I can help it lol. Even when it comes to commenting! But still, I am very thankful Ryan!

The second is the Beautiful Blogger Award, and that came from Moonwolf over at Howling at the Moon. Thank you so much Moonwolf, and about my sigs, it is just a little Photoshop editing lol...

Last, but certainly not least, I was honored to receive the Black Hatter Award from Cattra over at Celtic Black Hat Society. This was a very pleasant surprise, and I have long wanted to be a member of The Black Hat Society, which Cattra is affiliated with, so this is the next best thing, and was totally out of the blue! Thank you so much Cattra!

Please forgive me for taking so long to thank you three for these!

I think that about sums it up for now, I have to get my dinner started and some laundry in the dryer! Be on the look out for my next post, as it will ACTUALLY be about something Witchy! *Gasps in shock!*

Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

Whatever Wednesday

Boy this is a bit harder than I thought! Sometimes your just not in the "mood" to post lol. But, here I am.

Whatever Wednesday means I can post whatever I choose, it could be an article, a story, a picture or whatever pretty much. I am still reeling over yesterday's monster post so today I am going to acknowledge that the wonderful Mother Moon has bestowed an award upon me, and part of the award had a "10 things that make me happy" requirement. Now if you go check out her post about it, she gave delightful answers with pictures, and you can find that here. Because I am tired tonight I will give the list, but not nearly as eloquently as she did lol...

1. My kids
2. Jack
3. My best friends
4. Blogging
5. Music
6. Time alone
7. Sleeping in
8. Glitter
9. Reading
10. Learning

Later I might add to this, or write a more in depth post about it all, but I has the brain fog tonight and really just want to go back to my book I am currently enchanted by lol..

I want to thank Mother Moon again for honoring me with this, and if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged because I love you all and would love to hear your answers, be they long or short!

Happy Hump Day folks....

More Awards and a rant of sorts...

For those of you who do not like or see the point in blog awards, or my opinion about them, feel free to skip this one lol...

Last night and today I got two more awards, one from Rowan and one from Mother Moon, which can be seen in my side bar. I want to thank both of these lovely ladies for bestowing me with a bit of sunshine to my mind over the last couple of gloomy and rainy days.

I guess now is the time to throw my two cents in about blog awards. Some people find them bothersome for whatever reason they have ( and they are all valid and good reasons mind you ) and let's face it, we ALL have our pet peeves, even in the blog world. Mine happens to be commercialism. Nothing wrong with it by itself, money is money honey, but as far as I go, if I have to wait 20 minutes for your page to load because of all the ads and crap on it, I am not going to linger there and really check you out like you deserve, because even as big of a multi-tasker as I am, unless your title or synopsis in my reader or dashboard REALLY caught my eye, I am not going to bog my machine down trying to load it you know?

Anyway, about the blog awards. I do not write so I can receive awards, I write to fulfill a personal need. However, because I do write in a public form, the fact that people who read me, even perfect strangers, like what they read enough to think of me for these awards is a honor. I may or may not "pass it on", but if I do, it is not because I want to annoy the person with blog clutter, it is because their blog is something that I enjoy, and it moves me or speaks to me in ways that I would like to let others know about, and let the author or authoress themselves know how much I appreciate and enjoy their work. Because even if you do not want or require the praise or acknowledgment, it still gives one a sense of satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment, even if only for a fleeting second, to know that someone out there liked what you wrote enough to give you props for it.

On one hand I guess it is a good thing that this topic has come up in so many blogs, because at least you know who not to send them to anymore right? LOL. Kidding....

Seriously though, everyone's opinion is as valid as the next persons, so its all good. I just want to let the people who have or ever will send me an award know that  I have been and will be SO grateful and appreciative and a little humbled each time....

Hell, if nothing else, this topic is sort of like a writing prompt if you look at it. Even people who do not post much has sounded off about this, some for it, some against it. Writing is gooooood.

*Music of the Moment: Novocaine For The Soul by Eels*

Honesty...

Is more than just the best policy for me, it is a way of life.

I am a very blunt person, as some of you know lol. I rather hurt from the truth than be happy over a lie.

But I digress. It is a gloomy day here, rainy and muggy and bleh. I was sitting here kind of bummed because I had to close the house back up yesterday and turn the air back on. So I was perusing my comments on the entry I posted yesterday, ( Thanks to everyone by the way ) and Mel from over at From Clutter To Shine left me a comment saying she had left me something over on her blog.

This is what I found:

Suddenly my day got a lot sunnier, This award means a lot to me on a lot of levels. Sharing some of the things I have shared here have taken up all the brutal honesty and courage I have in me, and I was scared of putting it all out there for the world to see, because you know how judgmental people are. But then I realized that it does not matter. All the people who love me know all these things about me already, and I draw strength and security from that. If outsiders do not understand or look down on me, that is ok as well. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. It is more important to me to be fully honest as I can be with people than to be the most popular chick around lol.

So thank you again Mel, for this wonderful honor, I am so appreciative in so many ways!

There was no obligation to pass this on to anyone, but I feel the need to do so, because there are a few blogs that I read that lay it all out there on the line. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. They may have already gotten awards, and maybe even this one as well, but I want to let them know that I enjoy them and am glad they post with such honestly.

Rae at Life: A Journey Worth Taking
Rayden at Rayden's Rants
Lyon at The Wandering Hearth ( My new personal favorite )
Bridgett at Doog and B Boo + Two
Rowan at Candles and Wicks ( Another personal new favorite )

I think that sums it up for now. Thanks Mel, again, and thank you to those that I nominated for being so open and unafraid to let it all out!

*Please note there is NO obligation to pass this along, I just wanted to share the love after reflecting on what this award means to me.

Blog Award!!!

After a very long night and half a day of being awake so I could tackle the housecleaning monster, I took a two hour nap, and when I came back I read all the wonderful comments on my last post, and I saw one from Jupiter Greenmoone and she told me that she nominated me for a blog award!!!

My First Ever Blog Award!!!!

Thank you SO much Jupiter, this really made my day.  It has just been the day for good things to happen so far :)

Ok, here are the award rules:

1.) Thank the person who gave this to you.
2.) Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3.) Link the person who nominated you.
4.) Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5.) Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers.'
6.) Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7.) Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.




Seven (More) things about me:


1.) I have three kids. My oldest daughter is almost 13, my son just turned 11, and my baby girl will be 5 in less than a month.  I had a really tough time as a teen, got married at 16, pregnant 3 months later, and split up when my oldest was 2 months old. Being a kid still who had no job and no clue how to take care of myself, my parents took my daughter in so she would have everything she needed. I had my son 18 months later, and had him until he was 5, when another really bad relationship found me with nothing again, and they took him in as well. There is a lot more history there, with some not so nice things done to me in the middle, but that is the sweet readers digest version of it. My youngest daughter lives with me and her father. He is the only one that stuck around to be with me and help raise his child. I see the kids often, they live less than 10 minutes away from me.


2.) People tend to judge me for the above information, until they hear all the horror stories, and I am ok with that. The only thing that matters is that my kids have everything they need, and are well taken care of, and they have a relationship with me and we love each other. If no on else ever understands our situation, that is ok.


3.) I have a zillion things I want to write about at any given time, but my mind works so fast I have a hard time slowing it down enough to get all the posts out lol.


4.) I  am a music and music trivia junkie. I know more useless info on music over the last 50 years ( 50 years of music that is, I am only 30 ) than I know what to do with. It also means I am the person people go to when they have 3 words to the lyrics of a song and they need title and artist lol.


5.) I am also a movie junkie, and have been known to have entire conversations using quotes from movies lol.


6.) I am double jointed in my elbows..which is essentially useless lol. But it does gross my kids out heh heh.


7.) I am more content and happy than I have been in my whole life. Considering my life...that is one of the most epic things I could possibly say.


Now I get the very hard part of trying to narrow the field down to only 7 bloggers, because I love and adore every blog I follow, and all the people I have met in the blogosphere. If I did not get you this time, please do not think I do not love your blogs, and I will get you next time! I also did not name anyone in Jupiter's Post  or  Boo's Post in the spirit of no repeats right away. So here are 7 of the blogs I love to read and I think deserve the award!


1.) A Racing Mind
2.) Eco Yogini
3.) Girlichef
4.) Raydens Rants
5.) From Clutter to Shine
6.) Octoberfarm
7.) The Secret Diary of a Mountain Witch


There you have it. It has taken me two hours of deliberation with myself to pick these 7 wonderful people, so if you have not yet checked them out, please do so. They are ALL wonderful in their own unique ways and I think you will enjoy what you find!


Thank you again to Jupiter, this has made me feel SO awesome!


*Music of the Moment: He Wasn't Man Enough For Me by Toni Braxton*