What knowledge from this life do you hope to take into your next life? Think carefully about this question, spend some time on it, and record everything that you can think of. Feel free to explain any or all of your items in detail.

This can be done as a journal entry, a list, or as an essay. Your choice. It is not mandatory, but if you would like to add your answer to the comments you are free to.

DragonMajesticka

Merry Meet!

So far today, things have been pretty quiet. I have been baking since yesterday in preparation for today. I baked pumpkin bars, apple bread and zucchini bread yesterday, and Skye baked a pumpkin pie. Everything was made from scratch. We also made Witches Hats and Ghosts in a Graveyard.

We had homemade apple pancakes for breakfast, and made some caramel corn and hot apple cider to have this afternoon and evening.

We did a simple divination with apple peels that the kids threw over their left shoulders. They each found an initial. Then they each burried their apple to feed any spirits that happen by this evening. They hung the peels in the trees for the birds and animals. I.W. also threw out the leftover popcorn for them.

Tonights meal is going to be yummy. It is a harvest roast, which I will later add to The Samhain Gazette:

Harvest Garlic Pot Roast

Ingredients

1 boneless beef roast, an appropriate size for your family.

10 cloves garlic, peeled. Slice through about half way lengthwise.

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 large onion. Cut off ends, peel. Then peel into layers.

2 large carrots. Cut off ends and cut into fourths.

2 stalks of celery. Cut each in half.

Potatoes. Enough for your family. Cut in half.

Water to cover vegetables.

Directions

1. Put roast the roast in the center of a roasting pan.

2. Lay potatoes flat on one end of the pan. Peeled onin on the other end. Put carrots on one side, and celery on the other.

3. Using the tip of a sharp knife, make 9 slits about 1 1/2 inches deep on the top of the pot roast.

4. Using your fingers, insert the garlic cloves as deep into the slits as possible.

5. Cover vegetables with water, but do not add enough water to completely cover the roast. 

I have been busily updating pages, as well as deleting old pages and adding ne pages, to the site. I hope you will check it out. There are also three sabbat gazettes on the site now. Just look down at the bottom of the navigation bar on the right.

I am not yet done, and will work more on it when I have a chance.

DragonMajesticka

I am currently working on the Yule Gazette. I am going to have a Gazette for each of the Sabbats, as well as an Esbat Gazette. I am finished with The Samhain and Ostara Gazettes.

I am also going to start a newsletter for pagan homeschool families.

I am also woring on a shoppe for the site, and doing other updates.

Obviously, this is all keeping me very busy.

Brightest Blessings,

DragonMakesticka

Merry Meet!

I just wanted to mention that I have created The Samhain Gazette. You can also get there from the cottage entry in the navigation bar.

Happy Autumn!

DragonMajesticka

Okay, I am slightly upset. All month I have been waiting for the Harvest Moon in all of its beauty, and I cannot see it because of the cloud cover. I am hoping that the rain will stop and the clouds will go away before it is time for bed.

I had planned to make a hot cocoa and sit outside to observe the Moon in all of her glory this evening, contemplating whatever comes to mind. Maybe it will clear up out there so I can do so before 9:30. I hope so.

Salem, Massachussetts is a popular place to visit in October. I thought that I would pass along the city guide, in case you were planning on being there: http://www.salemweb.com/. In particular, I would like to pass along the link to the Psychic Fair that is going to be going on there: http://www.festivalofthedead.com/psychicfair.html.

I may fiddle with the site tonight. We shall see. I have some time on my hands.

Shannon

DragonMajesticka

Hello, everyone. I am always so busy during the summer months and the beginning of autumn. I work a lot, try to spend time with my girls, and update all of my websites. Well, not this one so far, but I am done with the rest. I just have to get out the autumn issue of The Down Home(School) Gazette, then I will begin updating this blog and site.

I actually have the planning part done already. I worked hard on it all summer, coming up with special, and important, information and other things to add. I have put a lot of thought into it all. This autumn/winter I will be incorporating all of it. This is very important to me, and I find it all very exciting.

I have learned new things on my journey that I would like to share with everyone. I have new insights, and I have new dreams/goals. I hope that you will all enjoy hearing about everything.

I will be in Salem, Massachusetts on October 6th. I am very excited to be there for the Psychic Fair this year. I have been to Salem 4 times now, I believe. It is one of my favorite places. It is the only place that I could be persuaded to move away from my home to. Salem has some great people, whom I admire and would like to get to know better. If I were to find that I could make a living writing, I may actually move there some day. Who knows.

Anyway, this time I am going with my best friend and my daughters. My sisters will be there as well on this day. It will be a great deal of fun.

I will be updating here again soon, so keep stopping by to see what is going on.

Brightest Blessings,

Shannon

DragonMajesticka

Summer is a beautiful time to be out and about. The magick of nature is all around us.

Spend some time outside. Early in the morning, during the evening hours, and late at night. Pay attention to the natural world. What is happening? What do you see? Hear? Feel? Smell?

What magickal knowledge cn you acquire by doing this?

DragonMajesticka

I know, I am a little late with the blessing. Anyway, we had a nice day and I hope you all did as well. I wanted to post to update you a little on what has been going on:

* I will be updating the site some this summer.

* I am now a lifetime member of witchschool.com, where they have some nice classes. I have learned quite a bit.

* I also joined fireflyacademy.org and am taking a couple of classes there.

* The Grey School of Wizardy caught my attention due to their Wortcunning major. So I joined that school as well. It is pretty organized with majors, minors, etc. I will only be taking one class at a time from the other two schools.

* My grandmother died on May first, and her sister died last week.

* We are wrapping up our (home) school year in the next few weeks. My oldest will be a senior next year, the younger daughter a junior. Only two years of homeschooling them left. I will truly miss it.

* I am currently reading An Ye Harm None: Magical Morality and Modern Ethics by Shelley Rabinovitch and meredith Macdonald.

* I have cleaned up the yard, done some planting, and plan to do more. My goal is to give a cottagey type feel to my yard, even though I live in a trailer park with a tiny lot. I am working on it anyway. I wonder the best plants would be for that here in the east. I have planted chives, assorted flowers, 2 kinds of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini...that is all I think. My plan is to get some soil next and plant some herbs in planters. I also intend to get a few more hanging plants.

* The spring chores are all done, so I switched the chore chart to summer chores. There is not much there for us to do. Thank goodness! We did a lot this past spring.

Well, I hope you are all doing well.

Brightest Blessings,

DragonMajesticka

With Ostara just around the corner, I thought that I would offer up some ideas. First some crafts.

Children can gather around the picnic table to make:

* Ostara cards from construction paper.

* May baskets to leave on doorsteps.

While they are working on this, mom can be decorating spring colored curtains, placemats, napkins, posters and throw pillows using stencils and fabric paints or fabric pens.

*****

We decorate eggs on Ostara, then my daughters paint symbols on them. Here are some ideas: Pentacles, pentagrams, suns, moons, goddess symbols. I blow out the eggs first, and rinse them.

*****

I make scrambled eggs from the blown out whites and yolks, and sometimes even muffins.

*****

I purchased a few decorative eggs to hang from my porch. I will fill them with dollar bills and/or cadies on Ostara.   may fill others and hide them with riddles. I am not sure yet.

DM