I do believe we’ve unintentionally bumped ourselves “out of the closet” due to my blog posts about Gillian’s Celiac Disease, and putting the first 504 for it in place in our district. My intention in writing these posts has been to share our experiences and to disseminate information regarding the rights of students with CD, as 97% of people who are suffering from it are still undiagnosed. Many, many parents are going to be fumbling through the dark trying to protect their children in their public school system, much akin to the troubles and confusion that arose when 504s were put into place for children with peanut allergies. There are some great sites that are dedicated solely to assisting those in need of direction with CD, but searching for information online yields too few results at this point. Case in point, my blog posts show up on the front page on Google and Yahoo with simple search strings about Celiac and 504. Considering I’ve written about this less than a handful of times in the history of this blog, that’s pretty remarkable. We should be ranked way, way below sites dedicated to Celiac, such as the American Celiac Disease Alliance.  I’m grateful to have valuable information to share, and I know this blog is highly-trafficked.

It didn’t occur to me that while the school was doing the research necessary to prepare for our meetings (and I’m glad they’ll be prepared, the information they’ll gather will make passing this 504 for Gillian much easier) they would come across our website, announcing us to our community as Wiccan. Needless to say, this was not my intention, but was perhaps an inevitable end.

I’ve always said that we don’t wear signs announcing our religion, but I’m open to discussing it should someone ask. Because there’s still so much misinformation about Wicca, I fear that my children will be punished by misguided people who believe we’re anything other than a tree-hugging nature religion, should local interest be piqued and the suburban phone-chain activated.  We live in a decent sized suburb on the East Coast, in between New York City and Philadelphia. I’d like to think that our town is liberal and open-minded, but I know better from past experiences with parents in our community who shunned my children for fear of our religion, and so I’m a bit gun-shy. Our belief system is no one’s business, and yet I make it so by having a presence on the Web, and taking a stand for religious tolerance, amongst others. I’ve always thought that the bigger picture of the good my voice could bring would outweigh the possible ramifications to my family. Have I been naive?  Time will tell.

This blog was created, and exists in part to illustrate the normalcy of a neopagan suburban household, and the commonality that is shared by families in communities like mine.  We embrace the same morals, values and ethics of the highly principled people who live among us.  My biggest fear is that the gossip mongers (we’ve all been guilty of it at some time) will grab hold of this tidbit and run with it, and that suddenly our kids become unwelcome at the homes of their friends, and face the possibility of being socially outcast at school. My biggest hope is that Wicca has become mainstreamed enough to the point where it’s generally understood and accepted that we’re not ‘witches’, we don’t cast spells to control people, and we’re not worshipers of Satan. Maybe people will see that we’re just not that interesting…and if they are interested, I hope they ask. I’m always happy to dispel myths!

I found myself meeting some incredible craftspeople during the course of the “31 Days of Yule” giveaway that finally ended last week. One of those people was lovely Cheri Ucci from Paper Fetish Designs , who offered to make me a personalized journal. She asked me what I’d like – I told her I’d love somewhere to put ‘my writings’, and that I loved her hand-ripped pages and the triple-moon design she’d used for one of the pocket-journal sets she’d offered us to be used in the giveaway. Beyond that, I wanted her to do what she did, and take artistic control. Although I tend to micromanage, I wished for something that was her artistic vision, not mine.

Matt got home very late from work last night, and sure enough, there was a box from Cheri. I was floored by its contents. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Not only do I have an original by Paper Fetish, I seem to have obtained a bit of a paper fetish myself…

Front Cover

This quilted fabric journal has been hand pieced from quality cotton fabric in shades of teal, purple and green. Cheri has sewn the pieces together with a variety of stitches in purple, with edging to match. A triple-moon design in silver is hand-sewn against a frame of purple and black.

Back Cover

The back cover holds a purple button which serves as a closure. A black cord which extends from the edge of the front cover wraps around the button, securing it. A silver flowered bead is used as a ornate weight to keep the cord straight and neat when the book is closed, and adds to the aesthetics of the appearance as a whole.

Pages Hand-sewn Into Spine

The hand-ripped pages have been sewn into the reinforced spine with a heavy waxed silver thread.

Hand-Torn Pages

Cheri hand ripped pages of high-quality paper, which are sectioned and sewn into the spine. Lining the inside cover on front and back are pockets, thoughtfully included to hold notes or anything I’d like that won’t be written onto or attached to the pages.

Attached bookmark

An attached bookmark will hold my place in between entries, and is finished with beads colored to complement the cover design. A large pewter bead adorned with a serene face weighs the thin cord down, ensuring I won’t lose my place.

Inside front cover

The book opens to a front page complementing the cover, with a triple-moon on a background of purple with cursive writing. You can also see a better view of the pockets that are sewn into the inside cover of the journal.

Bookplate

Cheri created a peel-n-stick bookplate, personalized for me which sits on the second page. From there are pages upon pages of thick, creamy-white paper, all ready to fill with my musings.

What an incredible piece of artwork. It’s obvious that hours upon hours of work when into this journal, and the craftsmanship and eye for detail is remarkable. It is obvious that Cheri not only takes pride in her work, but also puts thought and copious amounts of care into everything she creates.

Those of you fortunate enough to have won the pocket journals she made for our giveaway are fortunate indeed. Those of you interested in obtaining a piece of your own should visit Paper Fetish Designs. Along with her fabric and leather journals, Cheri also designs Annotated Note-n-Quote Bookmark Journals, business card wallets, coptic bound journals, matchbook notepads and destash supplies. If you can’t make up your mind, Cheri offers gift certificates to aid gift-giving, so the recipient might be as fortunate as I to obtain a personalized piece.

Every Tuesday, Juniper and/or Fae will pick a great blog post from our friends and write a paragraph about it. We’ll include a link to their post in our paragraph. We’re going to invite you to do the same – find a post that you’ve found that moves you (and it doesn’t have to be from today, it can be an older post) and share it here. We’ll have a centralized list of of recommended posts here, and a button that can link us together. The group can grow and grow, we don’t have to limit the amount of recommended posts…but it would be a way for us to find incredible things to read, and remarkable people to meet, recommended by our peers, without having to surf for hours. The goal is all about sharing interesting posts, and interesting people. I doesn’t have to be limited to ANY topic, religion or ideology. We can’t wait to read what you find!

Here’s Fae’s pick this week:

I was lucky enough to prepare for childbirth utilizing natural childbirth and the *wonderful* ideology behind Attachment Parenting. While the women around me puffed their Lamaze breathing, scheduling Cesarian Sections and sharing their excitement about how quickly they could get their “Happy-Dural” before the pain set in (and this worked for them, it was what they wanted, so the power to them), I was reading up on home birth, and being totally present as I brought a child into the world. I was told, and took on as my mantra “It ‘aint called ‘labor’ for nothing!” Now, in retrospect, after 52 hours of labor including 8 hours of vomiting in back-labor, a broken coccxy two blown eyes, grossly swollen private parts and a partridge in a pear tree (I had scar tissue on my cervix that no one could find, so I couldn’t dilate: wrong doctor, no question), a “happy-dural” might have been welcomed (the second one was 7 hours, after which my mom looked up and blinked and said “That’s it? I feel kind of cheated”). Jupiter Greenmoone at The Carnelian Chronicles (an incredibly well-written blog) wrote a post about a new book called Pagan Pregnancy is trying desperately to be born: Pagan Pregnancy: Please Read! She includes a description of the book and topics covered, which seems an awful lot like a resource new parents pagan religions would deeply welcome. Unfortunately, it’s been dropped from publication by the publishing house. Jupiter is kind enough to have done her homework, and supplies a plethora of contacts to who could get the wheels moving on getting it picked back up. If this intrigues you as much as it did me after reading the post, send an email or six to help! Enjoy the post…
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So here’s what you do…if you’d like to read the post, click through to The Carnelian Chronicles and read the article. If you’d like to leave comments for her, feel free!

If you have a friend whose post you want to share, here’s how you do it…(look at my post as an example if you have any questions…it’s easier than it looks:)

1. Write a paragraph or two about your friend’s post in your blog, and make sure to include a link to the post you’re writing about so your friends can click through to it.

2. Name your post “Turn Around Tuesday – [and then the name of your friends' blog]“. Look at the name of my post today for an example.

3. Copy and paste the code below at the bottom of your POST (in the HTML tab). This code will put a button on the bottom of your post so the readers can join Turnaround Tuesday if they wish.

4. After posting, come back here and fill out the Widget below the button with the following information:

Link Title: Name of your friends’ post (the post title, not the blog name).

Email Address: YOUR email address (it won’t show on the page, don’t worry).

Link URL: Copy and paste YOUR Turn-Around Tuesday POST, not your main website.

5. Hit the ‘Submit Link’ button.

That’s it!

The “31 Days of Yule” giveaway, AKA “The Giveaway That Keeps On giving”, AKA “The Contest That Wouldn’t End” is almost over. Tonight is the last night, and we’re giving away $42.00 Dichroic Glass Runes…

Dichroic Glass Elder Futhark Runes

This was our first stab at this, and despite a clueless start and a few hiccups along the way, I think it was a success! We accomplished our goals, to bring more traffic to online small business owners, and make people happy with the chance to win something beautiful. Thank you to everyone who donated their wonderful products!

Now that we’ve got it down to a smooth changeover from day to day, we’ve agreed that it’s something we should do every few months…we’ve had people during the course of the month wanting to be involved, and we’d hate to let them down! We’re going to take some time to breathe in between giveaways, though, and we’ll be drawing the winner closer to 10PM EST than 9 – we need both kids in bed before Matt and I do “dueling computers” for the drawing and posting each night:)

By the way, thank you, Matt, for all your help! I had promised Juniper that she didn’t have to be a part of the contest because it’s more than she can handle right now, but I found out pretty quickly that I couldn’t do it myself. I give many kudos to all the bloggers who do – they obviously handle stress better than I do:)

I can’t believe I missed it… It’s 2pm, I just looked at the clock and said “OH NO!!”

I’ll post it tonight at midnight when Matt’s home to put in the widget (anyone want to explain why we can both be signed in as admins and he can see the widget in the draft and I can’t??). We’ll have Turnaround Tuesday on Wednesday this week – and you may all call me A.B. Normal:)

If you have no idea what I’m talking about and you’d like to, click the button on the top of the right column, that will take you to the Turnaround Tuesday page…