Yuletide Wishlist

For those who asked...I'm taking the lazy route. ;D I'm trying to make up for that laziness and impersonality by giving you lots of options.

This Yule, I'm wishing for:

~handmade bookmarks

~small stones, shells, sticks, or other earth-treasures from your local environment

~crystals, minerals, or other sparkly whatnots to add to my collection

~meditation messages or psychic/tarot/astrology/you-name-it readings you might have for me.

~a copy of a favorite inspirational poem or story

~icons of my family, thrifting, the ocean, or anything else I need to match my journal entry themes.

~a recommendation or copy of a song/songs you love.

~spools of old curling ribbon. You know the kind you wrap presents with? The narrow, ridged kind? Yeah, that. The new, cheaper made stuff doesn't work for my strange purposes--it isn't thick enough. What used to be the norm, five-plus years ago, is awesome and much needed. :D So yeah, if you have old curling ribbon laying around, it'd be worth gold to me. It is too weird to explain.

~pagan-appropriate ornaments for our Yule tree. Stars, pentacles, hearts, animals, snowflakes, stags, suns, leaves, pinecones. Bonus if they're homemade or thriftily found.

~holiday feel-good charitable stories from your local paper or the story of something charitable you did for the season. The more sappy details and photos, the better. :D

~something from a thrift store that cost less than a dollar. Candlestick, old holiday ornament, wooden spoon, small altar bowl, used book-- I don't care. It'd be fun to see what you came up with. :D

Good Things...

Enough with the bad things, on to the good!

1. My aunt checked in at the hospital this morning and found he'd been released yesterday. I still haven't heard from him, but my brother did and the news was that his blood work showed an extremely high potassium level, potentially related to one of his heart medications, so they've adjusted that accordingly and are going to monitor to make sure it takes.

2. Graeme is the cutest boy on earth. He's talking up a storm now, working his way through the logic of sentences and complex thoughts, making every day interesting. Some of my favorite sayings of his:

"Hey, you guys!" (Addressing more than one person.)
"No, please." (His version of "No, thank you" when turning down something he doesn't want.)
"Book me!" (When wanting someone to read to him.)
"No, self!" (Along with an emphatic chest thump, this is his way of saying he is going to do something, like climb stairs or brush his teeth, by himself.)

His favorite new game is playing Animal Rescue. We have a box of Schleich animals and he'll take one and hide it under a blanket, balance it in fear at the top of a toy slide, or lay it down on the floor.

"Oh no! Baby cow need help!" he'll say, running up to us wide-eyed.

Daniel or I then sing a bastardized version of the Wonder Pets rescue song.

There's an animal in trouble!
There's an animal in trouble!
There's an animal in trouble somewhere.

Oh no! The baby cow is in trouble! Who will save her? Who can help her?
She's stuck! Under the blanket! She can't find her way out! It is tooooo dark! Who can help?

Graeme chooses a rescuing animal and then sends the animal to help. There is helping/taking to the doctor/waking up/encouraging to try something scary (like the slide) and then the two animals become friends, kiss, and do a happy dance together. This past week, Graeme has gotten the hang of putting voice to animal and some, like the lion or the ever-helpful crocodile, he lowers his voice dramatically for. ;) So cute. The animals he chooses to help are freaking-hilarious. Baby lamb pulled a full grown elephant out from under a chair. The sea turtle "swim-swim-swim-swim"'d around to teach the giraffe how to go down a slide. The crocodile and the great white shark help more often than anyone else and make great friends with all the little fuzzy woodland creatures they save. Slay me! :D

3. Being in Outer Temple has given me the boost I needed to go back and revamp my altar setup and tools. I've had a few tools over the years that weren't quite right or were easily replaceable and they're, slowly, changing for me. I found a new athame and pentacle in Salem this past month that resonate strongly with me as well as an antique bell at the thrift store that has three brass clappers and sounds perfect. I bought a pentacle pottery chalice from thoughtskill a few months ago that sung to me and slowly, surely, things are resettling into another energy pattern entirely. I have a few more needs to meet but feel really good about my toolkit now. In a lot of ways, it is my Mother kit--the Maiden stuff doesn't all fit me anymore...if that makes sense.

4. I'm slowly gearing up to create a pagan parenting website. I want it to have a lot of features like book reviews and recommendations, holiday sections, and crafty Craft ideas. I'll have to hire the design work and I'd like to hire some writers for things like childbirth articles/etc but I'm really cool with that. (Just have to start tucking pennies away for this little project.) I want to build something really approachable, helpful, bright, cheerful.