Organizing the your desk

Spring is here and it is time for Spring cleaning and to get organized. Yard sales are going to be popping up so you might save some money by visiting them. You never know what you can find at one.

Today we are going to show some tips for the desk area.

Do you have a napkin holder? Have you ever used a napkin holder? Well here is a nice way to use it. at work I have my desk pushed against the wall and I have pushed things to far back and they have fallen down. Now I am old and I am on the chunky side so it is hard for me to crawl under my desk any more. Nobody at work wanted those metal file slots so I took them and put them on their side and pushed them to the back. I can also use the slots for blank paper and other paper work. Using he same technique you can take a bunch of these and line them across the back of your desk so things won't fall through the back crack. This also gives you some extra place to store things like address books or calendars or stuff that you need to work on. You also have a spot for you to put reminder notes on. If your desk is full of cords then you can use it to organize the cords.

 This is nice for a cheep desk rise. This is not for me but others might like it.

There are so much that you can use PVC pipes. They can be cheaper than a rise from the store. Also you can decorate this to you own needs and likes.

Me and my mother fight for the TV and computer all the time. I put the main computer so you can watch TV and work at the same time. Now there are times that I don't want to watch what she is watching and we don't have another TV that has cable or internet. At these times I get my laptop and put it in front of the computer. I can get Netflix on the computer and watch it while I work on my laptop. When I do this I have to use my headphones and this is a nifty way to store them when I am not using them. They will also be out of the way and not get damaged when someone starts moving things around. Those little hooks are useful. You can also use those hooks around the edge of desk and table to hide cords from little kids that like cords.

Like I said before, I like to recycle and I admit that I am frugal so l like this idea. It is another way to keep your desk drawer organized. Some of those little boxes are strong. You can take kitchen liner paper and cover them or use other paper to decorate them and make them a little stronger. Little bowls and other containers can be used. At work I have little bowls in my desk separating my paper clips and binder clips. I am a file clerk and need to be portable for whatever I am doing.

I hope this gives you some ideas and will help you out. Enjoy.

Secret Garden

Someone sent me this on Pinterest and I had to share it with you. I want to try this with Shanti and Addie. I found the website at http://www.redtedart.com/2014/02/17/grass-caterpillars/

They used tights and stuffed them with compost and grass seed. You need to decorate the faces before the grass grows. To make the segments, you tie string around it. These are just too cute and I can't wait to do this with the girls.

Here are some cute little garden rocks. Now don't forget that these will be outside and you will need to use outside paint. The paint will stain clothes so be careful. Make sure that you use outdoor glue if you are gluing. The Ladybugs and Caterpillars are just too cute, but there are lots more bugs that you can do.

A spiral garden is cute for the yard. You start with a mound and then start at the top with the rock and work down. If we had room I would do this but with our dogs and the pool, we have no room. Don't worry about drainage as the water is supposed to work itself down. You can plant herbs or you can plant flowers.

Here is another cute idea for the kids. Let the kids make their own garden. You can use a pool but you will need to make holes in the bottom and on the sides as you will need drainage. The other thing that you need to remember is that you will kill the grass underneath it. Your garden will also need lots of sunlight, so think about where you will put it before you start. When creating the holes you can use a knife or a drill. The hole doesn't need to be large but big enough for drainage. Then you will need to cover up the holes so the dirt won't leak out. You can use window screen to cover up the holes. Then you can add the dirt. When planting your seeds, remember not to bury them too deep and with your first watering, you want to give it a good soaking but make sure that you do it lightly. Use a water can or use the lightest setting on you hose attachment. You want to soak the seeds but you don't want them to drain away. After you are done you can add decorations or rock bugs that you made. Depending on your yard and neighborhood will determine if you want to add a fence or not. For our area, if we did this I would have to make a top for it, as we have too many cats in the area. I would take some of the extra fencing and make a top. There are lots of possibilities on what you can do.

I hope you enjoy some of the ideas I gave you. Hope you and the kids will enjoy and have fun. My mother has lots of old pots all over the garage, so maybe this year I will make some and put them around. The area past the sidewalk has been dug up so many times that I can't get grass to grow again, so I may put a pot out there. So enjoy.

April Fool's Day

Soon it will be April Fool's day and it is day that I dread. I also dread watching or reading the news on the next day. I really have a hard time listing to the "April Fool's Day pranks gone wrong." My mother always told me it is only funny if both of you are laughing. As a person that already is paranoid and have health issues, I really don't like to be scared. I have a week bladder and I have been scared so badly that I have peed my pants. I also have asthma and it is painful when you have an attack. I am not the only one who has a disability that gets abused on this holiday. I had a co-worker who admitted that they took a person's prosthetic leg and put it up high. Being short, I never liked playing keep away and this was not a joke. Humiliating people is not funny.

It has been hard researching the statistics of violence as you have hoaxes and false reporting. I have found several deaths related to April Fool's day. A woman told her boyfriend that she was pregnant and he did not take the news good. He accused her of having an affair and they got in a big fight and she ended up taking a knife to him. Another story was a man poising a roommate to death. The compound was only supposed to make him sick but instead it attacked his kidneys and liver and he died. The man said it was only an accident but he was found guilty of murder.

Other stories are about people getting hurt because of the jokes. You should never scare anyone who has a heart condition. From personal experience I have heard 4 stories of people dying from heart attacks after a joke. People have also fallen because of jokes and gotten hurt. People have jumped out to scare someone only for the victim to seriously hurt the person because of a reflex.

People think the TV show Scare Tactics and other shows are just too funny but they don't really know the damage that those shows cause. There is conflicting information on if the show was fixed or not. But I did read several articles about the mental anguish of the victims. On tape they laughed it off but later on they stated that they began to suffer from PTS that was caused by the prank. There were several articles about several actors that got hurt when the intended victim reacted and against them. With the mental anguish that many people suffer from today, these kind of pranks can be deadly.

People have been fired for practical jokes. One woman was hired and realized that she was working the practical jokers and she went to HR and told them that she would NOT have jokes played on her. That she did not like being scared and she was not going to clean up after someone jokes either. She demanded that they talk to everyone. Due to the fact that this was a new job and she could not take April Fool's Day off, so she had to work it. Two days before she reminded her supervisor that she did not want a joke played on her. Well as you can tell that someone thought it would be a great to play a joke on her. They changed her lights so that they would strobe and replaced her phone with one that was glued. The woman was an epileptic and the lights started to put her into a seizer. She tried to call 911 but the phone was glued and she fell down and had a major seizer. The guys thought she was faking it and all they did was watch her as she lost control of her body. They even recorded the incident as they laughed away. One of the other workers came to see what was so funny and realized that she was not faking it and he called 911. The woman survived but she is now severely disabled and will never have the pleasure to run and play with her children and grandchildren. All because of a joke. I was hired to replace her when they sent her to the hospital. I never met her but I do remember the police coming in to take statements that week. I can tell you that her family did not laugh at the joke.

Let us not forget about the changing of food and liquid items. People going to the hospital because of an allergic reaction. The one I remember the most was when they put alcohol in the water pitcher. A man who was a 16 years sober had the hiccups and drank the "water" fast. That was the start of the end for him. After that incident he fell off the wagon several times and ended up losing his family, job and everything. But hey someone thought it was funny.

What about the property damage that is caused every year. How many personal items have to be replaced or repaired because of a joke? What about the mess and the person who has to clean up. Why should an innocent person have to clean up someone else's joke? It is not a joke when it cost the victim money that they do not have. It is not fair to force someone to spend money because someone else thought it would be funny.

 Then you have the "lottery" joke that can and have cost people lots of money. You can buy fake lottery tickets or other sweepstakes giveaways. You would not believe what people do and say when they think that they have won millions. They tell off their bosses and in one instance someone peed on someone's car. So the question is, should people be held responsible for their action because they thought at the time they won? People have lost their jobs for what they said.

When you play a practical joke on someone, you really need to know them well enough. I tell everyone not to scare me, so if someone scares me, should I have the right to have them charged with assault? I am also very verbal about the fact that I am allergic to everything. I can't eat Pizza Hut pizza as I am allergic to the "secret ingredient." So if they know that I am allergic and they allow me to eat or drink something that will make me sick, can I have them charged with attempted murder?

So like my mother said, "it is only funny if both people are laughing." There are several jokes that you can play that are funny, it just takes some thought. Just remember who you are playing the joke on. Not everyone can take a joke. Once a month we have a family game night, lately we have been playing "Cards against Humanity." This card game is great fun if you have the right sense of humor. My Aunt and several members of my family would not be able to play this game as they take jokes way too seriously. We have great fun in playing the game, but it is the most racist, bigoted and vile game ever and I am going to hell for playing it. But I have the sense of humor to play it and we have a blast playing it. So know what kind of sense of humor they have. You would not want to play a dead baby joke on a woman who has lost a child or had a miscarriage. So like I said know your victim and know what kind of sense of humor they have.

I hope this will give you some light on this topic. This is a holiday that I hate because of the dirty jokes that have been played on me. I am short and I do not like heights so putting my stuff on the top shelf is not funny. I have mysophobic, fear of germs, so licking me and touching me is not funny. You think that praying on someone's fear is funny but it is not. It only makes people worse and can set them off. Many people are pushed over the edge and commit suicide. So I cannot repeat it enough times, know who you are pranking and what they think is funny. It is all about what they think is funny and not you. I hope this helps you. So have some fun and remember it is only funny if both of you are laughing.

The ABC's From the Cauldron

 

The ABC's of a Wiccan Life

by Victoria Martyn

Accept others as they are. We are all individuals.

Belief in yourself is a necessity.

Concentration is important in any endeavor, both magickal and in life.

Do what you will, so long as it harms none.

Empathy is an important life skill... learn it, practice it.

Find strength in yourself, your friends, your world and your actions.

God is multifaceted... the Lord and Lady, all deities take many names and faces.

Help others every chance you get.

Intelligence is something that cannot be judged on surface.

Judge not... what you send out comes back to you!

Karma loves to slap you in the face. Watch out for it.

Learning is something that should never stop happening!

Magick is a wonderful gift- but it is not everything.

Nature is precious. Appreciate and protect it.

Over the course of time your soul learns many lessons. Make this life count!

Pray.

Quietness both physically and mentally restores the soul; meditate often.

Remember to take time for yourself as well as others.

Spells can help you, but you must also help yourself!

Tools can only do so much... they are not the foundation of all.

Unless you enjoy worrying, keep a positive mindset!

Visualize the success of your goals before you set out to achieve them.

Wisdom can often be found in the least expected places!

Xenophobia (a hatred of those different from you) is a path to misery.

You are a beautiful person who is capable of anything!

Zapping away all of your troubles is not going to happen

 

 

 

 

Black Moon

This year started with a New Moon and this year has not only one Black Moon but two. We get a year with a Black Moon every 3 years or so. But two Black Moons in the same year is a rare. I did some researched and found out that we had 2 Black Moons in 1911,1919, 1938, 1957, 1995, and 2014. Now that is what I call rare and the next one won't happen until 2033.

Now there are some that say that your power is strengthen your spells, but others say that you should not do magick during the Black Moon. I guess that you need to make that decision yourself. So I hope you have a great New Moon and Black Moon.
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

Outside fun

Spring and Summer time is here and the kids will be spending more time outside exploring the splendor world of Nature. There is so much to do and so much to explore. I remember a post from FB of a mother and child going outside and planting flowers and everyday they took a picture. When the flower started to sprout, it was an exciting time. They watched day by day as it grew and eventually bloomed. The made a cute little video of it and it was darling. This was several years ago and I'm unable to find it again.

Bugs will be coming out and kids will be curious. Go to the library and check out some books about bugs and flowers. Having scavengers hunts for Spring would be a nice touch. Take a walk and see how many flowers you can see. How many flowers can you count? How many people are cleaning their yard. Count how many Garden Gnomes your neighbors have. Did you see any painted rocks? Pinwheels are fun to watch as they go around in the wind. How many wind chimes did you hear? How many bugs did you see and how many could you name? Birds are returning, did you hear any? Make a list and check them off as you find them and enjoy the time.

Winter was long and now it is time for some Spring cleaning. The yard needs to be cleaned up so we can play. Kids don't like chores but if we are cleaning up for a Spring tea party picnic, then they might just enjoy cleaning up and getting the yard looking nice. Do you need new lawn furniture or do they just need some repair? Depending on the size of you yard depends on what kind of crafts and activities you can do. Addie just turned one, so I will need to go buy an outdoor picnic table as our glass patio table is to big for her. We have a small front yard so we will need to move things for each new activity. It will be work but it will be worth while. As you are cleaning you yard you can start planning if you want to start a flower garden. There are so many different options for you. You can do them in buckets or planters or even in the corner. Take time and talk it over and get everyones opinion. Planning for it is just the start of it.

As I said before, it is time for Spring cleaning. Soon yard sales will be popping up and you may want to decide if you want to do a yard sale. Then you need to decide what you are going to do with the money. Are you going to save it for a day at the Zoo or buy some outside toys? We have a neighbor who has an autistic child and she has been raising money to send him to a summer camp that will help him. Everyone has donated items for her to sell so she can raise money. Do you have a neighbor or friend that needs something? Maybe there is a family that does not have money to buy a bike for their kids. I remember as a child of a time that someone left a bike on the porch of my friend. She loved that bike and rode it everywhere. She was so happy to have some fun.

Doing something for others is a great way to show your kids compassion and respect. In todays world it seems that too many kids have no respect or compassion for others. You hear it on the news everyday, so take the time to teach your kids about charity and have them help someone out with their yard.  I live with my mother to help her out, but there are many elderly people that are too old to keep up with yard work and their kids don't have time to help out. This would be a great opportunity to teach you kids about helping others.

With the weather changing the kids will want to spend more time outside so we need to make sure everything is clean and in working condition. Becareful when opening outside umbrellas for the first time after a long Winters nap. Birds or bugs could have made there homes in it so, open slowly. Outside furniture needs to be checked for damages and they need to be cleaned off. Need to check the tires on the bikes and make sure to wipe them down if they were exposed to the wet weather. Don't forget to check the chains to make sure they don't need to be oiled. Do the same for all the outside toys before you let them play with them.  I use vinager and water in a spray bottle and spray them. Let them sit for a couple of hours and they are good to go. Many people forget that the playgroud swing set needs to be cleaned too. I know that I may be paranoid but just think about the birds. Get a bucket and put vinager and water in it and get a sponge and wipe it down. in the areas that you cant wipe, you spray. With all the birds and pollution that was brought down with the rain and snow, a good cleaning once and while is a good thing.

Hope this gives you some ideas to start out with. I have lots more suggestions for you but it is time for me to start my own Spring cleaning. Remember Mary Poppins and Snow White, work can be fun, put on some music and whistle while you work. So lets get cleaning so we can enjoy our good weather to come.

Spring Flowers with Origami

Someone gave this to me last year. They are directions to do flowers with origami. It is nice to do with the kids. As I am allergic to flowers, I like the idea of  paper flowers. I would take time to experiment on scratch paper before you use your colored paper or tissue paper. During your test runs, take time to figure out what side of paper the kids will color. On some of them you have to color both sides.

The one thing about these flowers are they are just not for Spring. You can use these for Mother's Day and all other Spring Holidays like Ostara, Beltane and Midsummer. I hope you have fun with them.

This is labeled Lantern but it looks like a flower bud. It confused me too.
 

Spring time has come

Spring has finally come and I am ready for its beauty to bloom. Addie is has tasted nature and she likes it and she is ready for more. All Winter long she has longed for our daily rides outside. She misses me coming home and bundling her up and taking her outside. Aubrie, being a new mother, was a little concern keeping her outside too long in the cold Winter months. So her time outside for the Winter was very limited. At the beginning of the month we celebrated her fist birthday and she is walking now. It will be only a matter of time for us to spend endless time basking in the beauty of Spring. I hope I will be able to share some of these scenes with Addie soon.

 

Ostara

 Winter is finally coming to an end and Spring is creeping around the corner. I just got done with Mardi Gras and packing everything away. St Patrick's Day is celebrated for just a day in our house but Osatra we like to celebrate and decorate a little longer.

Several years ago my nephew, Kody, gave me a purple tree for Yule. Purple is my favorite color and I wanted a Holiday Tree. It was a great gift and I use it all year round. The tree is 3 or 4 feet tall and it sets on a pedestal nest to my Altar.  So like I said it is time to take down the Mardi Gras beads and decorations so I can put on the Ostara and Spring decorations.  So lets get crafty. Over the years I have collected a large collection of crafts and pictures. Many of the were given to me and one time at a yard sale, I bought a bunch of cd's full of holiday fun. Most of it I do not know where it came from but I do want to share and give some ideas for everyone to enjoy.

 Here are our family Ostara and Easter from last year.
 

 
Addie was born on March 8th and she slept though Ostara and Easter. Aubrie said that Addie can spend the Pagan Holidays. She will be very spoiled for being able to celebrate both holidays. Right now Addie is in a throwing stage so I will not be hiding real eggs for her. I am planning to get her snacks and put them in plastic eggs.  They come in different sizes so I could small toys or some more hair clips. Addie has her Uncle Jeffie's hair, which looks like a mad scientist. hopefully she will get her mommy's hair.

As for the stringed eggs project, it was not as easy as it seems. I blew up the balloons and mixed school glue with water. I cut the yarn and dipped in the glue mix and wrapped it around the balloon. You need not use lots of sting or yarn to make the eggs sturdy. When you think you are done, you are wrong, you are only half way there. You keep adding and adding more. Now depending on your skill will determine if you can make a design or not. The one thing you need to know is that it is very, very, very messy. You are also going to need to figure out how to hang them as you decorate them as they are very messy. Make sure that you have lots of paper around you craft area. You will also need a area for them to dry. After they are dry you pop the balloon and remove it. The glue will also leave some pieces that you will need to break or cut off. In the end it was a good project but hopefully I won't need to do it again. You have to be careful when packing them that they don't get squished. They are stiff but they will still break easily.

 



If you decide to make the sting eggs, I hope you have fun. Enjoy and have a Blessed Ostara.

Coriander Bats