Transitions and Change

So, it’s a bit dusty around these parts! That’s okay though. Life has been busy. I thought before I got back into posting regularly I’d do a little life update, so the next posts have some context.

There have been different life…erm, things…(sorry, My Little Pony is on in the background—brain not totally functioning!)…stewing for awhile and it seems like, all of a sudden, many of them might be on the high-boil.

First, I found out I was pregnant (again) in early December. I didn’t let it affect me for months and months. I went through the motions, but I haven’t really connected to the pregnancy yet. I’m 20 weeks, and on Friday we’ll have the anatomy scan where we’ll find out the sex and see if there are any complications. I think if the scan goes well the pregnancy will finally feel real. The baby will be due in late August/early September.

Second, we’ve been looking to downsize for a couple of months. J and I have some pretty specific parameters—a couple of acres, a liveable mobile home that we can (maybe) rent out after we build a custom home, cheap, and near my work at the vineyard. We started considering this move before I found out about the pregnancy, but when we did we felt more uncertain about actually moving that far south and 45 minutes away from our support network until…

We happened upon a property 15 minutes from my work, nice land, okay mobile home, and below our price point. It was very tempting, but with the nature of my job + pregnancy and the newborn stage was moving down to Dripping Springs really feasible? Would I still even have a job?  Then…

My bosses told me yesterday that after the baby is born they want to work me into a full-time salaried position! There is a lot of factors that go into this—it’s very tentative due to profits, etc.—but exciting nonetheless.

So now, baby + new home + job. Which means a move, putting our house on the market, weighing J’s career ambitions and my own. Deciding about still being accessible to town but 30-45 minutes away from most of our friends, not to mention my new Pagan buddies. And that decision will be made tonight, probably.

Whew.

To throw more into the mix, I’ve joined ADF and am starting the Dedicant Path. I’m excited to participate in a formal learning program, and even more excited that our proto-Grove is hosting a Druid Sunday School so a group can do it together over the course of a year. I’m not really sure that I’m a Druid, but I’ve only heard highest compliments of the program.

That’s all I can remember in my addled state. Hope that this spring season is off to a good start to you and those you love. I’ll be back soon 🙂

Foods of Imbolc

Imbolc is my favorite Sabbat. I adore it. I love the time of year–the harshest month of winter begins just as the season itself fades under the lengthening sunlight. Texas maybe gets its one day of snow a year. Then the air begins to warm, and it’s time to plant tomatoes again.

Incorporating food into my Sabbat work and ritual is important to me. It’s also important that the food be seasonal and fresh. If it’s straight from the garden, all the better. For those of us in Zone 8 that generally means no tomatoes at Yule and no green peas at Lughnasadh.

Now is the end of the citrus season. Grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, clementines can all be used to symbolize the returning sun or just enjoyed because of the fresh zip they add to food. It’s a good time to make marmalade, especially when all of the oranges and grapefruits go on sale.

My own UPG is that cultured foods are appropriate for Imbolc. In colder climates the winter stores would be nearing their end, and much of the wine, ale, fruits and vegetables that were either cultured or stored would be fermenting. Cheese, kefir, yogurt, curds and especially butter could/would be made of the milk arriving from the newly lactating sheep, goats and cows.

In my garden right now (Central Texas, Zone 8) there is an abundance of broccoli, cauliflower, collards, cabbage, green onions, snap and sweet peas, kale, turnips, lettuce and carrots. The herbs are doing well thanks to a very mild winter. I have bushes of cilantro, parsley, dill, spearmint, lemon balm, chives, oregano and rosemary. The calendula and chamomile look to be about ready to flower.  Pansies, stalwart sentinels of winter that they are, are still going strong.

For our Imbolc meal this year I’m making braised lamb, a garden salad and roasted carrots. We’ll drink wine, eat almond-honey cakes and toast to the coming spring.

Happy Imbolc/Candlemas, everyone!