Random Thursday

This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.  -   Douglas Adams

Thursdays are usually my Mondays.  I just feel tired on Thursdays!  So I'm just going to write about a bunch of random things that intrest me, yet wouldn't be long enough for a full post.  

First off, It's official. I'm a geek.  HA!  That's alright though, I married an even bigger one.  I'm super excited today!  13 people from Canada helped capture particles of Antimatter.  As long as the ever elusive "they" use it correctly, it is a great discovery.  The big excitement of this?  The possibility of using antimatter as rocket fuel.  Essentially,  antiparticles make up antimatter just like particles make up matter.  From Wikipedia:  "For example, a positron (the antiparticle of the electron) and an antiproton can form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom" Link Here.  Once you mix matter and antimatter, there can be high energy photons!  And further on down the line we get fuel out of it.  Here is the original article. 

Sean is super into comics.  As in, I didn't have a linen closet for the longest time because it was filled with comics.  He is more into Marvel Comics, but lately with our Smallville obsession he is definitely starting to tolerate DC even more!

This movie is going to be great though.  Ryan Reynolds is a great actor, and he will be a great Hal Jordan.  He even looks like Hal Jordan!!  See picture on Wikipedia here.  I'm really curious whether or not the Flash is going to have a wee cameo.  This is going to be one of those movies we will have to see just because of it's correlation to Smallville. See info about the movie on IMDB.

You know what this post needs to finish it off?  Spaghetti Baby!!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

S.

A Homemade Yule - Part One

Yesterday morning, I woke up to snow.  Unexpectedly.  It was a jar to my system, I tell you.  I love snow, I just wasn't ready for it.  However, it did get me thinking about Yule again.  It's not so far away, and I don't have much time to make our gifts.

Just like most people in this slowly recovering economy, we are broke.  BA-roke.  With a capital B.  Polls done by retailers show that this year, more people want to pay down debt and save money instead of buying more gifts.  Article Here.

Enter: The Homemade Yule.  Or Christmas.  Whatever holiday you observe.  Making things by hand has a number of advantages, a few of those being:

1.  People are usually impressed that you made something yourself.  I'm always surprised by this, because it really isn't hard to make something yourself.  Not everything can be bought at a big box store.

2.  The person you are giving the gift to will be touched that you put that much time and effort into something just for them.

3.  It's inexpensive.

So, this year, I am making most of the presents we are giving to people.  You have to start early, because it takes a while!  I made a scarf (see picture) for my friend's newborn son.  It's tiny, so it won't overwhelm.  It is also big enough to fit my one year old, so they can use it next winter as well.  The best gifts are the ones that can keep being used.  And I love to crochet.

Unfortunately, this scarf was made during the dark days of no SD cards.  So I have no pictures of the process. 

I'm also going to be giving things that I bake myself.  Muffins, cookies.  My peanut brittle.  I will have to buy a couple of things, like for my brother who is 15.  What do you make for 15 year old that they'll want?! Part of the reason we are doing this is selfish, I'll admit it.  We want to save what money we do have for gifts to spend on Brianna.  Like she needs more toys.  It's her first Yule where she will be aware of it though, and she did such a good job ripping open the gifts at her birthday!!!

Beyond the frugality, however, there is really a deeper meaning behind a homemade Yule.  Certainly our ancestors never had Toy's R Us or Walmart to go to for shopping.  Our ancestors gave of their time and skills, and of things they made themselves.  We live in such a way that not many people have the skills to do this, and those that do STILL buy gifts because it's "expected".  I'm guilty of this as well.  How excited our ancestors would have been to see something store bought!  If you've ever read the Little House books, you know what I'm talking about.  How excited Laura and her sister are to get a couple of sticks of candy, a little cake their mother made, and a single penny.

A great gift idea would be to buy some wick and a sheet of beeswax from your local craft store.  Make a candle for someone on your Yule list!  Not only would it be inexpensive and you would make it yourself, but it would really symbolize the holiday.   Clothes are a traditional gift for Yule in Iceland.  You could make a set of divination tools for someone, or maybe some bath salts like these found at about.com to use in a bath before a Ritual.  You could make incense, as on this website from mother and daughter witches, Cassandra and Miranda.

Next week, I'll post about homemade Yule decorations.  There is no reason that a homemade Yule should be limited to gift giving!

Goddess Bless,

S.

Update: Here is a link to A Homemade Yule - Part Two

Blood Test Results

Well, I spent a lot of time thinking about whether or not to write this post.  Did I really want this information "out there"?  I decided yes, if I can put it out there and help someone else with the same sort of issues, then it's worth it.

I had blood drawn about a month ago, and was called in to get the results.  I had that appointment last night, and wasn't really expecting what my doctor told me.  The reason I went for the blood tests is because my cycle wasn't at all regular, I could go 6 months without getting it and then bleed for 2 months straight.  Well, the doctor told me that I have PCOS, or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.  Click Here for a link to the Wiki page explaining it, it's way to long to get into it all here.  The just of it, however, is that PCOS and my weight are the two things that are causing 90% of the problems I have.   I have a lot of the the symptoms.  So, what's really going on and what's being done about it?

I have low blood count and my red blood cells are smaller than normal, so I'm now on an iron supplement.  I have high androgenic hormones (in English, that's essentially testosterone.) because of the PCOS, which I'm on birth control for.  And the big one, my body is becoming resistant to insulin, so I've been put on Metformin,  which is usually prescribed to diabetics.  And oh, what was that?  I should lose at least 40 lbs.

So Sean and I had a long talk.  I reluctantly informed him that we were all probably going to have to eat a lot more green things.  He's a butcher, he likes his meat.  I told him he was really going to have to push me and help me exercise, and stick to this plan (see my previous post) because I'm going to have a hard time of it if I'm eating salad and drinking water and he eats a lot of meat and drinks pop.  After I tell him this, he is silent.  And still silent.  Finally, I start to get worried.  When I asked him what he's thinking, he asks if I really thought he would put eating meat over his wife's health.  And that was it, I started to cry.  Sean is a caring guy, but he doesn't really articulate it very often.  Of course, given the above I could just blame it all on hormones.  We talked about having faith, and how no matter what we know that the Goddess will be there for us through this journey, and She will help is where we need it.  I'm usually the one telling Sean to have faith, and he threw it right back at me!  That's why I love him.  So, we will do what we can, and have faith.  The Goddess will get us through. 

I'll keep updating as updates come.  If anyone out there has any personal experience with any of this and wants to share, let me know!  As always, comments are always welcome.

S.

*update* I actually  just weighed myself, and since starting the WW plan last week I've lost 7 lbs!