Prepping for Summer Vacation

School ends June 14th and introduces something we have never had to deal with...a daughter who is used to structured activity, and lots of it!  Horror of horrors!  Well, I have been surfing Pinterest like the frazzled mama I am and stumbled upon one solution...The Jar of Fun! 

It was created by a homeschooling mama for her three little girls.  I will let you read the story on their blog at : The Daily Digi.  In essence you put 100 different activities in a jar and draw one a day for 100 days, the used activities go into the We Did It jar.

I counted the days and there cannot be more than 80 days between the last day in June and the first day in August (no clue when the start date is yet).  I spent a whole afternoon and evening searching Pinterest for different activities that are easy and do not take too many supplies.  I plan to have a large bin of the supplies needed for all the activities ready by June 14th so we can do any of the activities.

Below is the list in the order I came across them.  Some of them I will hyperlink for you, and they will open in another window so you don't have to keep using your back button.

1. Go for a walk
2. Do each other's makeup
3. Paint rocks
4. Read a book
5. Plant some seeds
6. Write a letter and mail it
7. Take silly photos and email them to Daddy
8. Do a photo scavenger hunt
9. Make breakfast for dinner
10. Bake cookies for someone and deliver them
11. Try a new recipe together
12. Make a time capsule (include predictions for the future)
13.  Cut sponges into shapes and make sponge paintings
14. Make play dough (I will post this recipe below, it is the one my mommy used)
15. Make sock puppets
16. Make paper beads
17. Make bath paints
18. Write a story together and illustrate it
19. Build an indoor blanket fort
20. Play Hot/Cold
21. Play red-light/green-light
22. Make popcorn and watch a movie
23. Make mud pies
24. Have a water gun fight
25. Make homemade bubbles and bubble wands
26. Make tambourines using disosable plates and beans, then staple closed.  Decorate
27. Create a Family Chore Chart
28. Have a tea party
29. Make a collage with a theme
30. Go outside with a pair of binoculars
31. Create party hats and wear at dinner
32. Make placemats for dinner
33. Make masks from paper plates
34. Make a bunch of birthday cards so you have them when you need them
35. Make your own memory game
36. Make a windchime
37. Sidewalk chalk
38. Make garden stepping stones
39. Make a nature journal
40. Make paper fans
41. Paint a sheet with watered down acryllic paint in a spray bottle
42. Make smoothie popsicles
43. Make rain sticks
44. Make a dream catcher
45. Make a tin can windsock
46. Make treasure stones
47. Spray dye a shirt (like #41)
48. Make fruit leather
49. Make a crown
50. Make an Herbarium
51. Make scented stones
52. Go on a Listening Walk
53. Make a kaleidoscope (have a kit for this but you can Google homemade ones)
54. Make a birdfeeder
55. Make a birdbath
56. Frozen Grape Skewers
57. Make clothespin dragonflies
58. Make a memory box
59. Make crystal geode eggs
60. Create pirate swords
61. Make gummy treats
62. Paint with watercolors
63. Activity/Exercise Cube
64. Go outside with a magnifying glass
65. Pool Noodle Bath
66. Decorate a Fairy House (wooden birdhouse from Michaels)
67. Mason jar glitter globes
68. Send a Hug
69. Make a cape
70. Stained glass painting
71. Nature Filled Suncatchers
72. Cement Garden Stones
73. Make a spin drum
74. Make an Anemometer
75. Make paper airplanes
76. Make a yo-yo
77. Make Fairy Wings (use sheer fabric and permament markers)
78. Make Chihuly "glass"
79. Aluminum Foil Art
80. Make a Magic 8-ball

Phew!  That was a lot of work!  :-)

Now for the Salt Clay recipe:
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
Water

Combine flour and salt, then sift into another bowl.  Add enough water to make a workable dough.  Add food coloring to make different colors.  Shapes will dry out in a day depending on their thickness.


I also plan to have her doing a daily journal, and a weekly art journal. Plus all the usual summer time fun: swimming, running wild, etc.

As always, comments are very welcome.  Have an activity to add to my list?

Going Inward

This post was inspired by an article on The Wild Hunt asking for people to post/blog/tweet their personal spiritual belief in an effort to help in a 101 course-type experience.  When I was just starting out on the Pagan path I assumed that I had to be pigeon-holed into a preconceived spirituality.  As time went on, with reading and experience, I learned to create my own spirituality, one that I am completely at home with.

I believe Universe is energy with masculine and feminine polarity; and everything contains both just to a more or lesser degree.  All deities are characteristic manifestations of this energy.  Almost as if they were separate personalities of the energy.  It is possible for a one manifestation to be stronger than another due to a person's energy feeding them (worshiping them).  A deity can also claim a person for their own and act as a patron to that person.  I have had this happen with two Goddesses -- Athena and Brigid -- but no Gods as yet.

Unless I am making offerings to my patrons, I think of the deities in general terms of Mother and Father.  This makes things earsier in terms of praying and devotion, as well as teaching my daughter.  I have trouble thinking of the Goddess and God in terms of Maiden/Mother/Crone and Youth/Father/Sage through the Wheel of the Year, so I have a loose belief in some of the Sabbats.  I will TRY to list them below:

Samhain: A time to honor our ancestors, last harvest
Yule: rebirth of the sun, longest night
Imbolc: celebration of Brigid
Ostara: celebration of Spring and Persian New Year (Hubby is pure Persian.  Ain't I a lucky girl????)
Beltane: celebration of love, not just romantic love either, and the way the divine becomes one in each of us.
Litha: celebration of the fae, longest day
Lughnasadh: First Harvest
Mabon: Second Harvest

Not your typical Wiccan Wheel of the Year, but not much about me is typical. 

My "afterlife" beliefs are more Karmic in bent.  I believe we are reincarnated into each life with a lesson to learn.  If we do not learn that lesson to the Universe's satisfaction we will be born again to learn it.  If we have racked up any Karmic points (either for good or ill) they will be worked off in that next life.  If we have learned our lesson, then we are reincarnated to learn a new lesson, but will still work off our Karmic points.  Each time we learn our lesson, our energy reaches a higher frequency and eventually when we have learned all our lessons our frequency will match that of the Universe/Deity Energy and we will merge with it.

So, that is me belief in a "nutshell" after almost 18 years of searching and learning.  I believe I am still at the 101 stage because I am always learning there is so much more to learn.  To me there is no such thing as a Master, or if there is we are all one because we each are all Masters of ourselves and bring different experiences to the table.  Alright, I am just rambling now.  Comments are more than welcome, I love a good discussion!!!

Beltane Blessings!

The Firefly House Maypole 2013

I am just bursting at the seams with pride and love for my daughter and my Firefly Family.  Today was our open Beltane ritual and potluck, and it also happened to be my daughter's first ritual ever.  David, one of our High Priests, asked if I minded if my daughter helped cast the circle.  I was overjoyed!  Of course I didn't mind!  She would follow Kali around the circle sprinkling flower petals.

When the time came she did a wonderful job and smiled the whole time.  Then all through the calling of the corners, she closed her eyes and opened her arms to the corners, she even said "Hail and welcome" once or twice.  She really liked the chant David had us sing and the Conga line was a big hit as well.  She was still wanting to sing the chant at bedtime. 

The Maypole was hilarious at first because of her height, but her Daddy joined in and helped out so we didn't have to duck down THAT far.  She also loved We All Come From The Goddess as well and hand me sing it again before bed.  She really enjoyed Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes as our grounding.  I think that surprised her that "grown-ups" know that one!  :-)

She crashed half-way home while coloring; the crayon was still poised in her hand.  She was so tuckered out from all that energy raised and used.  I could not have asked for a better first ritual for my daughter.  It was fabTABulous!

I have saved some of the flowers she carried around the circle to press and then I plan to make a scrapbook page for today.  I might scrapbook all of her rituals, I have not decided yet.  She asked if they were going to go in the "sticky book", her term for a scrapbook.  She was excited when I told her yes, so that is a good sign.  Now to look forward to our Litha ritual in June!