Kally's Cauldron

The word exhausted barely even begins to cover it!! I thoroughly enjoy the holidays but I can’t say I’m ever disappointed to see them leave. We have one more big family shin dig on New Year’s Day and then we can finally just hunker down for the winter.

I’ve missed you all. I finally sat down and started catching up a bit with the blogs I follow. I was so sorry to miss the Longest Night Masquerade Ball. Yule was very simple this year as I was too busy planning and preparing for Bean’s baptism (do you sense the irony???). We did enjoy ‘breakfast for dinner’ and performed a small family ritual. We also made Hot Buttered Rum (minus the rum so Munchkin could drink some). The days until Christmas were busy cooking and baking with a little last minute shopping and wrapping thrown in for good measure. We spent Christmas Eve day tracking Santa’s route and then spent Christmas Eve with my family. We were so excited to have my daddy home!! We came back to our place that evening and woke up in the morning to lots of lovely gifts under the tree. The boys enjoyed opening their presents and then we got dressed and headed to my in-laws for their family Christmas. We left Munchkin there overnight and came home to prepare for Bean’s baptism on Boxing Day. Bean was baptized Sunday afternoon and we went back to my parents for munchies and presents afterwards. We’ve been vegging ever since! This week will be a quiet one so we can recoup a little!!

How were all of your holidays?

This post came about after reading this article.

There are few things that I’m more passionate about in this life than breastfeeding. I openly admit to being a lactivist. I respect that women choose formula but I don’t always agree with their reasons for doing so. I was a formula fed baby, and I certainly can’t deny that the introduction of formula saved many babies who might otherwise have died BUT it was never meant to be the norm. Thankfully that thought is shifting but we still have such a long way to go.

I recently joined a group on Facebook called Eats on Feets. It’s an online resource that connects nursing mothers who have breastmilk to spare with mothers who need it. Unlike milk banks, this milk would not be pasteurized and of course there would be a certain level of risk involved. In light of this, Health Canada has recently issued an advisory about milk sharing. So what is a mom who desperately wants breastmilk for her baby to do? Move to British Columbia where the ONE Canadian milk bank is located. One. For an entire country, there is ONE milk bank. The government pushes and pushes women to breastfeed their babies and then provides no support whatsoever. I have countless friends who, due to a complete lack of knowledge and support in the hospital, have ended up supplementing and often, completely switching to formula. For those who genuinely couldn’t produce milk, their ONLY option is formula because we live nowhere near BC.

If the government wanted to help, they would start making an effort to have milk banks AT LEAST in every province. More would be better. Instead they issue blanket statements , invoking guilt in mother’s who are only trying to provide the best they can for their babies. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Since the beginning of December, I’ve shrugged off countless Facebook status’ that all pretty much say the same darn thing. The essence is “I celebrate THIS, so you’d better wish me Merry/Happy THIS or else you must be some sort of illegal immigrant who should go bother someone else in your own country.” Ok so they aren’t ALL exactly like that but you get the jist. It irritates me beyond anything that people, of any religion or culture, can’t just accept well wishing from someone. For a season that’s supposed to be about love, giving and happiness, the amount of intolerance that looms over it makes me sick to my stomach.

To make myself feel better (and I suppose to give an underhanded “stick it to you”), I wrote my own status:

I’d like to wish you my best for the season. So if I say Happy Holidays and you’d rather hear Merry Christmas, or I wish you Happy Yule and you’d rather hear Happy Chanukah, please accept my wishes of happiness and health in whatever way makes the most sense to you, regardless of the words that come out of my mouth.

Apparently, I failed to impress people because no one likes it when you refuse to tolerate their intolerance. Do I care? No. I said what needed to be said and I feel darn good about it!

May your Chanukah be light, your Yule be blessed, your Christmas merry and your Holidays happy! :)

Awhile back I talked about wanting to learn how to sew. I had every intention of making my boys each dream pillows for Yule. Well, I finally sat down at my sewing machine today and figured since I was able to make a decent pair of boxer shorts back in the eighth grade, it should be like riding a bike right? I was wrong. Serves me right for thinking I could sit down and just learn/create a week before the holiday. Anywho, if there's anyone out there that knows anything about sewing, I'd really appreciate if you could troubleshoot these photos for me.

In trying to sew a basic straight stitch, the top looks like this:




Not too bad, but the bottom looked like this! (Sorry about the poor focus)



Any thoughts?
(Just FYI, this was just me practicing...thankfully I wasn't stupid enough to actually sit down and start sewing the pillows!!)

Not too long ago I won the giveaway over at Ramblings of Newbie Pagan where she was celebrating her one year blogging anniversary. I received my parcel today and am so excited about all the lovely things she sent me.




Thank you again Jen! I always look forward to reading your blog :)

Here's a few fun websites for you to check out with them:

Decorate your own gingerbread house (minus the sugar high and mess!!)

Get the lates updates from the North Pole, play a new game each day of December and then track Santa's flight as he delivers gifts around the world with Norad.

Check out the Yule issue of the Pooka Pages.



Planning a Secret Santa exchange with friends this year? Use Elfster to sign up your group, pick your Secret Santa partner (without the organizer having to see who has who) and create a wishlist.

Most of you probably know from previous posts (and my About Me section) that I’m still mostly in the broom closet. There are a lot of reasons that I made this decision but for the most part, it’s due to family members who would never accept me as a witch.

I’m part of a mommy group in my city and have made many incredible friends through it. Obviously, so has Munchkin, but let’s face it, playdates are for the mom’s too! Either way, today was a big day for me. I “came out” as it were to a few of my mom friends. We were talking about religion for some reason or other and I was directly asked what I believed. Up to this point, I typically avoided the whole conversation but since I was asked specifically, I decided it was ok. Wow, am I ever glad I did!! Although none of them know an awful lot about witchcraft or paganism, they knew enough not to assume I worshipped the devil. No weird looks, no backlashes. Just acceptance. One of my friends even asked if she could borrow a few books so she could read up on it.

I admit, it was terrifying. I had never wanted to say anything for fear that I would lose friends and they wouldn’t let their kids play with my boys anymore. I was worried for nothing. I can’t tell you how encouraging it was to be able to talk about my beliefs and not feel judged or harassed.

Beyond the obvious not having to hide anymore, I'm glad all this came about because it's so easy to let your faith fall by the way side when there's no one there to hold you accountable. Not that I'm expecting my friends to ask me if I remembered to do my Full Moon ritual but it motivates me to make sure I'm living my faith daily rather than when it's convenient.

Ok, I've seen this on a few pages now and really like the idea so here goes:

Age: 27

Bed Size: Queen (hoping for a King at some point though so we can have an actual family bed rather than a rotating one LOL)

Chore you hate: Cleaning toilets

Dogs Name: Tatum

Essential start to your day items: Coffee, coffee and more coffee

Favourite Colour: Pink

Gold or Silver: White gold

Height: 5'3"

Instruments you play: Does the recorder count? I can sing.

Job: Stay at home mommy

Kids: 2 boys

Living Arrangements: Townhome with Boo, Munchkin, Bean, a dog and two cats

Music You Love: Name it and I likely enjoy at least some of it

Nicknames: Minou

Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None...and even for Bean's birth there was no overnight stay at the hospital :)

Pet Peeve: Oh, where do I start? Drivers who don't give you the "wave" when you let them in front of you

Quote from a movie: I don't really watch a lot of movies

Right or Left handed: Right

Siblings: 1 little sister

Time you wake up: Depends on when the boys wake up

Underwear: Yes?

Vegetable you dislike: Tomatoes (ok so they're a fruit)

Workout Style: Yoga and chasing a 2 year old while carrying a 5 month old

X-rays you’ve had: Back and teeth

Yummy food you make: Not sure about yummy but I love decorating cakes

Zoo, best place to visit: Tigers baby!

I believe in Jesus. That probably sounds a little weird coming from someone who’s a practicing Pagan, but it’s the truth. I don’t, however, believe everything that Christians, or even the Bible, say about him. I believe he existed. I believe he wanted the best for humanity and tried to share this view but as people so often do, we’ve taken his words out of context and thrown in our own interpretations.

As Christmas approaches, I find myself in the same awkward spot that I have for the past couple of years. As a family, Boo, the boys and I celebrate both Yule and Christmas. I grew up surrounded by the “magic” of Christmas and I hope to give my boys the same thing. Yule has become an extension of that and I hope over the years that we will create traditions that reflect my Pagan beliefs and we can flawlessly mould the two together. But right now, that just isn’t happening for me.

I’m not sure how to look at Christmas anymore. It feels like more than a commercial holiday, but since I no longer follow Christianity, I don’t feel entirely right celebrating the “true meaning of Christmas”. But since I believe Jesus existed, is it ok to celebrate it in a less “religious” way? Do any of you celebrate both holidays? How do you go about it? Is there a way of bringing the two together or must they be kept separate?