Have I really not posted even a hello here since november?!? Things got very busy over the holiday season, as I'm sure they did all around.  I hope everyone had a lovely Yule/Midsummer  (whichever it happened to be)  We had a wonderful, quiet time at home.  In laws came over on xmas eve & we had way too much seafood (prawns, lobster, a couple of different types of crab etc etc etc) and just generally an awesome day!  

Our car battery decided to go tits up a couple of days before christmas (much to hubby's employers dismay!  He had to take a day off because he couldn't get there on the 23rd because we had no way to get a new battery)  Our new year has gotten off to a reasonably good start :)

 After over 10yrs of being a solitary pagan, I'm looking into meeting up with a newly forming eclectic group that is VERY close to me.   I think the first get together I'll be going to is on the 12th  =D  Will share how it goes, the organizer/Priestess seems great thus far.  

 Off to drink a coffee & play WoW with hubby before calling it a VERY early night tonight.  Be well..

I'd like to say Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends & family!  I hope you had a wonderful day filled with family, food and freedom!  Here at Serenity Cottage down under.. we pottered around in the garden!  We now have yellow button squash seeds that are sprouting, poking up thru the soil nicely.  The herb seeds we planted the same day (tuesday this past week!) are going mad too... no sign of carrots sprouting though.. not giving up hope.   I know I won't get a LOT but it will be exciting for the boys to pull the tops and have a baby carrot pop out!

The moon is supposedly full out tonight... not that I can see Her thru the clouds and treetops though.  Today as a mini ritual the boys & I gathered twigs from the back yard and we created a lovely pentagram from them using twine to tie the points together.  It's hanging in our dining room at the moment.   http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/CariOfOz/twigstar.jpg

We'll spruce it up a bit at some point..  But for now I'm going to charge it by the moon and it will serve to keep our house safe & happy.  The kids loved making it.. they love 'magick stars' =)  There will be lots of those around this month.. we started our solstice decorating this weekend!  Got the tree up, only to discover the lights went tits up last year and got thrown out (forgot all about that OOPS!) so Can't decorate it till wed night when hubby will bring lights home from work =)  The wreath is on the door, with it's multitude of jingling bells chasing away negativity before it can sneak in the door to ruin our holidays with stress!  I hope you & yours are enjoying the silly season so far :)

Slowly but surely we're making Serenity Cottage our own.. still have yet to get a lot of our framed pics etc up, but still feels more & more like us every day.  I'm outside with the boys off & on during the day and they are just fascinated by the gecko's that live here.  There are ZILLIONS of them... if our digital cam was working I could probably catch a pic of 5 on the small garden retaining wall at just about any given time!  And they are totally not people shy... I swear when I was sitting on the patio (ok I was surrounded by boxes, but I CAN sit on the patio & drink a cuppa!) there were three on the lattice just watching me.    Got me started thinking about what the possible meanings are of so many of these little guys appearing in my life all of a sudden?

This site  http://chianagray.gigienthusiast.com/gecko/tales    had some interesting info. 

  In spiritual and symbolic meanings geckos don't stray too far in their meanings from one culture to another. Though superstitions can be fairly varied, geckos often have very profound, mystical and important meanings and rolls to play in various indigenous societies. As a twilight and night creature they are among the dream keepers and shapeshifters. Also because of their molting, color changes and generally mating in the spring months, they represent transitions and change such as transformation, death and rebirth, metamorphosis and letting go of old things for the new.

Geckos also represent overcoming, cope, the under ground as in emerging, transportation as in emerging from a transition, dream guidance, beauty, mystery, communication - song/tone and dance, mysticism and awakenings.

 I bolded the aspects that really jumped out at me.. Maybe I'll have a quiet chat with them next time I'm outside relaxing with them :D  I also saw some gorgeous gecko wall hangings at a gift shop.. one of them may be destined to hang on my wall somewhere ( I rather loved the one that was curled into a circle :) in honour of our new housemates.

In other interesting news... along the kitchen patio on the side of the house I've discovered perfect little planters built in to plant herbs in =)  And I'm thinking possibly the old brick bbq might make a nice outdoor altar of sorts (although it's very exposed, I could probably put a few pretties there without scaring the neighbors)   This little home of ours keeps getting more and more perfect!  Be well friends.

Hello again!  We have moved and *sorta* have net back (temp dialup while our dsl is transferred) but it's better than nothing I guess.  The move to 'Serenity Cottage' (yep thats the name of the new house hehe) went fairly well.. even if it did take forever.  Finishing up the final clean from the other house, then I can focus on making this one HOME.  Thinking I will do a house cleansing/blessing after I recover from the last weeks events.   It already feels much more comfy than our last house did... and even mr 5yo wants to be **outside** all the time (instead of on the computer lol) because the back yard is so great!  Have picked out the spot for my veggie patch already =)    Also discovered that bloody Cujo lives at the house behind/beside us *sigh*  Big scary dog that barks & GROWLS at us whenever he happens to be out (he's barking at someone else at the moment I hear)  Ah well, no house is perfect I guess.  

 Anyway going to get moving and get some stuff done here~  be well friends :)

since I popped on here to post or surf around... there has been lots going on here.  We are moving in 10days as the owner of our house has decided to sell (for an absurd price at that..good luck to them lol)  We're moving to a lovely house a little more 'country' than the cookie cutter suburb we live in now .. with a wood stove (and air conditioning lol) and a big country kitchen =) and a playhouse in the yard for the kids.  It's smaller than this place, but just perfect... really feels like home.  Must plan a home cleansing & blessing now =)

 We've also decided to homeschool mr 5 for the next couple of years at least... he spends so much time out of school sick that when you factor in the bullies on the schoolyard and the fact that he really is ahead of the work they are doing (and thus bored & misbehaving) he's just going to do better at home.   So far it's going really well!

 And on a less positive note, I found out my mother has what is most likely terminal cancer.  She has started chemo & is doing positive visualizations but the docs are only expecting it to buy her time... I'm fully hoping for a 'miracle'  I was in shock for a week or so, but I'm trying to cope because she needs me to.  Trying to see it as a natural part of life.. but with her being 53 it's easier said than done....  Think positive thoughts my friends.