The Bewitching Hour.......(or month....)

Tomorrow is October 1st, my favorite month, for many, many reasons. Firstly it is when Gaia flaunts her autumnal glory, the colors! the smells! the crisp air! the apples! the PIES!

October is also the birth month of both my daughters, as well as one of My Honey's daughters. She refers to the entire month as OctTinaFest! What a way to celebrate one's birthday than to dedicate the entire month to yourself. And what a month to have to wallow in such a celebration! I love it!

It is also most Witches's absolute favorite time of year, there is a feeling of magick in the air, we all admit that we start to itch to do more magick, more ritual. For myself, I find my tarot decks calling my name on a daily basis, they are practically begging to be taken out and used, (more often, that is). I open my magickal cupboard and the smells of incense, herbs and oils seem to be ten times more intoxicating and alluring, there's just something about being a witch that defies explanation...there is a intense heart-felt joy, an exhilaration that sends my soul soaring! My opinion is that the fabled "flying" witch comes from descriptions that our ancestors used to describe some of their more magickal moments. It feels exactly as it is pictured, but figuratively.

October is also very special to me because My Honey and I met three years ago on October 2nd and next year on October 3rd we are getting married! We are getting married in the park were we shared our first kiss (in Squire's Castle, how romantic was that!). We are going to have a lovely outdoor wedding with an awesome cookout. We wanted to incorporate all the things that we love into our wedding day: our friends, this park, autumn, picnic's/cookouts. I can't imagine a more perfect way to celebrate our day with our family and friends.

Last weekend the season started off with Homecoming and late Sunday night, as we finally found our bed, I commented to My Honey that as of that moment we don't have any time "off" until the first weekend in November. It's an exhausting time of year but I wouldn't trade it for anything. We make a point of sqeezing every loving last drop of wonderfulness from this month and savory every moment. There will be the Covered Bridge Tour of Ashtabula County, (one of our very favorite things to do!), apples and cider, pies and doughnuts from Patterson's, walks in the park, stolen kisses at Squire's Castle, plans for the Peanut's costume party, our friends potluck and a moonlit walk in their meadow, and then of course Samhain....I have gone to taking this day off each year, this way I can experience the dual nature of this "holy" day......during the day I stay home, by the hearth and celebrate it with lots of quiet time and meditation, some magick work and just have some plain ole witchy fun! Then in the evening, My Honey and I will take the Peanut and Suki out for trick or treats. I'm very excited this year because it will most likely be the last time the Peanut goes out trick or treating as a child, in fact last year I thought would be the last but she and her friends decided that they would like to go this year as well, that made me very happy! And next year our darling AJ will be old enough to go out, but we'll see if we will be able to go down and go with him.

What does October bring to your life, how do you celebrate this glorious time of year? Share with me and......HAPPY OCTOBER to all of you!

Homecoming.......

Homecoming.... Last night was the homecoming game for the Peanut's high school. It was also the very last one I would attend, as she's the baby and now a senior. It was so very sad on so very many levels, where to begin.....Firstly, it was a reminder that this is the last of the years of innocence for my Peanut, secondly it was almost traumatic to see how the world has changed in the six years plus since Sweet V (my eldest) has been in school. When she was attending, she was a cheerleader, so I attended many, many games during those four years. I hadn't been to one since she graduated and it was quite the eye opener. Firstly, there were NO cheerleaders, and more shocking, no BAND!...it was horrible, no one, no blue and white Spartan's outfits to lead us, to focus our energy, just people, and very few at that, wandering around, aimlessly, barely watching the game. (the football team, on the other hand, was great, kicked the opponents butt!) Then I started noticing THEM, girls with sparkly crowns on....ah, Homecoming Court, but my thrill was cut down to shock rather quickly. Every girl I saw wearing these crowns was dressed as if she grabbed the first thing she could find from the clothes pile in the corner of her bedroom, tattered jeans, sloppy, tight, raggedy tee shirts....where were the dresses, the gowns, the high heels, the perfectly coifed hair????? I was so very shocked and dismayed. It was almost as if the whole event was a joke. There was one girl, the girl who actually was crown Homecoming Queen. She looked like a Queen alright, a DRAG Queen! She was wearing gray dress slacks (yes, I said SLACKS), a white button down shirt and a grey argyle sweater vest, if it weren't for the high heel pumps and longer hair I would have sworn she was a slender male on her way to the office. It was so disheartening! I remember the days, and not so long ago when being picked for Homecoming court and being chosen the queen was quite the honor and something where you wanted to look your absolute girlie best. You wore a beautiful gown, got your hair done, nails done, wore your loveliest heels. seeing these girls take such a careless attitude made me feel so sad. This should be something that should make them feel honored, cherished by their friends and their school and here they were treating as if they were dressing to go clean out the garage! The lack of cheerleaders, band and the courts disregard really slammed home to me how our little community has failed our kids in respect to community pride and school pride. Some of that is my own fault, but it is hard to defend your child's school to your own child when most of the students aren't even from our community. The level of excellence has fallen so miserably that by middle school most families leave our community or send their children to private schools. By 6th grade most of the students are from another community that is on the verge of becoming a ghetto, lost children from broken families. How sad and how broken the world seemed on this night and it made me sad for my Peanut, she has such a jaded view of the world already and now I see why.....I must teach her more sincerely on keeping the Magick in her life, so as to not become so jaded and hardened that she loses her humanity, her innocence, her sweetness. Some motherly fairy-dust to keep her sane.......

A Second to a First

So my eldest child calls me and urges me to start my own blog. "It's easy" she claims and proceeds to send me her first posting, (which is quite witty, btw!) So here I am, seconding the motion to her First!

I am a writer who has been on an extended vacation from writing and now my dtr has handed me a No Excuse clause and so it seems I'm about to be on my way.

So without further meandering (for now, lol) I bid you Hail and Welcome to my world!