Posts Tagged: Smudge
Tour of My Holiday Home
Welcome. Mayhaps you found your way here from the Babbles, as I peaked your interest and you wanted more. More Holiday Home Tour action. Because that coffee and Bailey’s I told you to pour yourself is not quite finished and if you’re like me, you find small pleasure in A. Christmas and all things decor related and, B. Pilfering your time away on the internets 2 days before said holiday C. Drinking bailey’s during the holidays. ICed or on coffee. (I should be the Holiday spokesperson for Bailey’s with the amount that i go on about it. Seriously. Uhm, hello Gilbey’s of Ireland? Or Diageo? I’m right here. I’m your woman for 2012.
Abigail’s Birth Vlory
Like a birth story, but in video. What? I’ve been doing the parenting thing on my own for the past week with an added 2 more kids to ours (who really have been more of a help than anything else – older kids who have been raised well rock my world!)
So excuse me if I am creating weak analogies about blogging and vlogging and birth stories and birth videos. Can someone also please tell me why my adorable (heck, but she is ridiculously cute) baby girl has gone from having 1 daytime to one evening solid sleep (like 2 or 3 hours) to only sleeping in 20 min. intervals? Please, dear sweet buddha, why? My eyes are burning out of my head and the walls/floors feel mighty floaty most of the time. Vertigo is the new norm.
The Naming Ceremony
Over the weekend, our elder came to visit. This woman, this goddess, this Midewin Healer, has brought so much cohesion, knowledge, love, ceremony, healing and understanding into our family. I am grateful everyday for the relationships that have transpired because of you and me, songbird. Songbird is one of my best girl’s and our elder is her mama.
The Naming Ceremony
This particular visit was to ‘officially’ offer her sema (tobacco, one of the four sacred medicines) to seek a name for our new growing baby, still on the inside, so that she may begin the task of prayer and fasting. For those of you who don’t know, this is part of the process called, The Naming Ceremony, a First Nations Cultural ceremony.
It is where one receives their spirit name, which tells you something about that person, their personality, their mission in this life. Parents may choose to use the spirit name given by their elder as a first or second name.
When a name is decided upon, the naming ceremony begins. Most of the time, the one who presents the name is the one to whom the sema was given, but this is not always the case. The name is presented to the grandfather spirits in the four directions, and everyone who is in the ceremony has to say that traditional name is presented. The family usually prepares a feast and does a giveaway.
Peter Cotton-Tail was in the Hizz-ouse.
There was feasting and ceremony and treasure hunts and skype visits and flying chickadees, but above all glee. Glee to be gathered, but missing our beautiful kwe’s. They have been flying reindeer, making music and a documentary with Adjagas, (courtesy Big Soul Productions and a whack of other talented film peeps), some fabulous Sammi musicians of Norway. However, we were grateful for the miracles of the interwebs, in that Skype allowed them to be a part of our ceremony of re-birth and giving thanks.
I crafted and baked our gifts to wee ones, except for the chocolates for the hunt. Really now.
I cooked all day with some (missing a couple), of my coven and an exceptional young man home from B.C. Thank-you Nicholyn Farms phone in grocery order capabilities and local Barrie Farmers Market drop-off to pick up. That’s some 100 mile love right there.
bless
apricot & dijon glazed ham, scalloped potatoes, mashed yams, lemon & thyme pickerel, honey & mint glazed carrots!
The Bacterial Death Squad
Has come to pay me an ever. So. Sweet. Visit. Arrooogaaahhh. The good part? I was not contagious. After all my homeopathic/natural medicine, rest, clear, non-sugary fluids by the gallon, several home sweats. With oils. After all of this I still felt like the Grim Reaper was at my door. Today is the first day I felt well enough to do more than barely scrape by my absolute responsibilities. Of which there are many. Thanks to good ‘ole penicillin. So. The benefits of believing in both science and nature I shall reap.
To Have & Have Not
What no words can paint. You, my Little Big Spirit Running; my Leader From The Sky, my prodigal son, have bequeathed unto me a blessing of the highest order.
Your presence, your trust, your life, your love.
As I sit and flounder over adjectives to describe the ample hole you have filled in this well-traveled soul; I mire against the trite. My love for you is vast and huge and deliciously intense. Although, to write about YOU is for another day. That deserves a dedication all it’s own. This day is for me to talk about a conception, I never thought I’d have.
Son, I laid tobacco down the other day; under that tree, the kind that speaks to your momma.
CONNECT WITH JENNIFER
CONNECT WITH SELENA
