Name:Aviv Country:United States State:Texas Metro:Wichita Falls Birthday:2/27/1962 Gender:Female
Interests:Herbology,music(especially 60s),theatre,candle & soap making,Egyptology,Harleys,writing,stitchery,antique beading, crafting in general, Traditional Chinese Medicine,Ren. Festivals, my children(obsession really), literature,religion,Scotland,history Gerard Butler(OMG!!)etc... Expertise:I am actually a writer, paid and everything! I have degrees in several subjects,but rarely use them. I am an multi-media artist who has her own online business, homeschooling mom of an ADD tween daughter and a teenaged Asperger's Syndrome daughter, the owner of an old geezer who runs a digital sign company and the kept woman of one fat cat and a semi-hyper Jack Russell. Yes life is good. Occupation:freelance writer/online busine Industry:Entertainment
this is from broom service and ok...it's technically Thursday but it was for Wednesday so my heart was in the right place!
1. List at least 5 BOOKISH things on your desk (I'm thinking your TBR pile or books you haven't shelved...) 2. List at least 5 NON BOOK things. (I'm thinking some of some of the more unusual items on your desk/table?) 3. Tag at least 5 people to do the same. 4. Come back and leave your link, so we can come and visit your blog. Or add your answers in the comments.
WHAT A DUMP! That would describe my desk!
1. I dont know if you can see them but there is a small stack of books under the humungus pile of papers! Both are for research on articles. These include Texas Highways(well officially a magazine), 'The Facts On File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend', 'Natural Healing', 'Ghost Towns of Texas', and a copy of Wilbur Smith's 'River God'. 2. Well not officially on the desk but my collection of comuter guardians: red devil Snoopy, Opus, a stuffed Boeing plane, biker Garfield and Scorch my dragon. To be fair I'm counting this as one. Then there's my small pile of jewelry 'stuff' like mediallions, ear wires and a small pile of beads to be repaired. My Save The Rainforest mug that got turned into a pencil cup and my homemade pentagram wreath that hovers precariously. 3. No tagging. If you want to do it. Take it.
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"> name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11">WHO IN THE *(&^ ARE YOU?(As the song goes....)
Another visit by Featured Grownups
If you do read FG(and I have my doubts seeing very few of the vet writers there anymore) you will know that there is a new sheriff in town. Which means the old favorite question must be raised, 'Who are you?"
I'm hoping it will stir more attendance in the land of FG because it really is a good place to go, to read and to write.
So here we go again..... Who am I? Only the Gods know the answer to such a benign question and to be had in just a few
measly paragraphs. Just who are we in the grand scheme of life, eh?Existentially of course
I’ve been a member of Xanga since 1999. I quit once but
lasted all of 6 months and I rejoined in 2002. Glutton for punishment I suppose.
I consider myself an artist, academic, writer, sudo-philosopher, reader,
teacher, wife, mother, Pagan, college graduate,collector, worker bee, sculptor,
seamstress, renovator, former hippie, vegan and so on and so forth.But what's in a label? Not much.
I’m in my late 40’s, have a couple of daughters known world
wide as my ‘read headed heathens’. I have been married for 20 years to the
same guy! Imagine that!I put up with
him when no one would. Besides he’s broke so no upstanding women would give him
the time of day! I am of Scot-Irish-German-English-Souix ancestry. I'm a descendant of Ben Jonson, Reginald Johnson(the teacher of the last emperor of China) and Chief Quanah Parker.
My long-term dream is to return to Scotland, to my roots and to my family.
I homeschool the kiddos since my 16 has Asperger’s
Syndrome and has reached the aggressively surly age and my 14 yo has
Inattentive ADD as no teacher would have the patience/tolerance that I do with
her(‘Columbus discovered…oh look something shiny!”). But that’s all right
because her mom and dad have it as well and understand fully.
I operate my own online gift business where I made
everything there that I sell and a separate EBay business. I’m one of those people who
like turning garbage into useful ‘stuff’! I’m also a freelance writer which
means not only am I on the lookout for stuff at garage sales but topics I can
write about(usually from the same place).
I have a congenital hip, SLE, arithritis, ADD, bad teeth,
pre-menopause hair, and curvature of the spine. Lovely huh? Walking medical disaster.
I have an old Diva of a Tabby, a spoiled baby of a Jack
Russell and a crazy baby Calico cat. They are like big teenaged sister(who
wants to be left alone), bratty baby sister who’s always into things and little
brother who just doesn’t want either one of them to pick on him or he'll run cry 'Mommmm, they're picking on me!".
All of 7 of us reside in a 60 year old ‘haunted’ looking
house in a small poverty-stricken town in North Texas.
The hubby works as a part-time renovator and part-time Wally World flunkie
because neither pay worth a damn!
We are Pagan. Not Wiccan; just Scottish Pagans who believe in the Gods and Goddesses connected to our homeland.. I was raised in my
faith as some are raised as Baptists or Methodists or Catholics. Unlike most of your ancestors who came here seeking freedom in their Christianity, my ancestors came here to escape persecution from the Christians and to pray the way they wished. It's always been a two way street just my side doesn't get heard from a lot. Which is OK. We like it quiet on this side of the road!
I love my faith just not what I have to do to maintain security and sanity in the process. I have watched an Uncle die because of it. I have had my house egged, and TP'd, paint bombed and had effigys burning in my yard. I've lost jobs because of my faith and watched my children cry because of cruelty of adults living vicariously through their children.
I like to read a
lot of the Christian blogs and dont consider it us or them. I even watch the Duggar family on occasion(but
shy away from that Kate and Jon thing for good reason). I have quite a few Christian friends(although I may not after this ) I haven't belonged to a coven since I left home and don’t wear black or lots of jewelry and pretty much look like your
average Jo-sephine I suppose because most are shocked that I’m Pagan when they find out. . I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing. My faith doesn’t make
‘who’ I am just part of the mix. I do miss the days of 'community' with fellows of my faith. That's the one thing that I envy of the Christians.I miss that a great deal.
If you've read this blog for any amount of time or have the fortitude
to go back a couple of years, you will know that I lived all over the
place from Israel to Germany to Russia to my beloved Scotland. Then
there was my military time and my abusive husband time and loss of
child time. But I won't bore you with stories that have already been
told and can be read upon here.
More benign stuff....
My kids have been raised in our faith just as they
have been raised Vegans(actually GFCF vegans), pet lovers, book fiends and
board game fanatics.
We spend our Springs and Autumns working our local Renaissance festivals and have even traveled with them.
My parents are dead. My brother lives in West Texas. Our relationship is strained but we're working on it. I have an older sister to whom I don't speak to anymore which involves lies, slander and bipolarism. Long story.
I am strong on the exterior but overly sensitive on the interior. So much so that sometimes it disturbs my sleep because I can sense when someone close to me is upset. . My 14 yo says I have visions and that is my power. Great...sign me up for 'Heroes' now.
I like being a blonde although now it needs touch-ups.
I hate arthritis and winter and cold. But I also hate extreme heat. October is a good month for me.
I'm a certified herbalist and practice daily because of bad experiences, hate doctors and pharmaceuticals.
I make my own laundry soap, bath soap, bread, candles, furniture, clothes and insist of having a compost. I'm still a hippie at heart.
I love to read tea leaves and an old Tarot deck made somewhere in the late 1800's.
If I ever win the lottery(and I play religiously) I want to buy a Silver Eagle RV instead of a house and travel across the US and Canada.
I was once a professional musician
I have 5 different degrees.
So there you have it. If you think you know me...Great! If not, it'll come in time.
One of my earlier posts I wrote about losing my muse. Well apparently it is coming back to me in abundance. NOW I'm too busy! So busy I discovered I'm now suffering from exhaustion. When it rains it pours.
Hubby and I decided to address the issue of cross stitch and why certain themes just drown in so many while other areas have nothing. After numerous conversations, we are now in the throes of creating pagan cross stitch kits. Which is not as easy as it sounds especially when you are doing it from scratch! We struggle from paycheck to paycheck even though I continue to make sales on my Etsy site and bring in money from writing freelance articles. But dh has ordered me a cross stitch program because he has become 'dotty' from attempting to create the graphs for the cross stitch designs I've come up with.
His talent as a former Boeing welder has also been put to good use. I've been designing some necklaces and earrings and laying them out in jewelry molds. At night, when I'm working that boring part time job he gets out his little pliers and gets to work putting them together. Too many years of working as an artist has strained my eyesight and at least he doesn't have to take off his glasses to see the 'small stuff'.
My muse seemed to return to me in two different ways. I ran across a sister site to a site called 7witches.com. It is called real_wishes.com. I found it while looking for vampire graphics for a girlfriend's MySpace site(she has dialup and we all know how that is!). The site promised free wishes by this group of 7 witches. Sounded hokey and like an e-chainmail but I was stirred on to give it a try. Afterall, I didn't have to give them any money, right?
So I did and asked for a 'this-isn't-going-to-happen-in-a-million-years' kind of wish. To win a million in the lottery. I haven't yet but odd things began to happen.
My muse came back and with it my items in Etsy(which hadn't been selling) were selling both on and off the internet. My articles were deluged with hits(I get paid a minimal payment for the articles but get bonuses for the viewhits) therefore my payments skyrocketed. The second part was the conversation of recycling and renewable housing with a friend. The next thing I know I was staying up late to search the world wide web for a former dance instructor who was now building sustainable housing...in Huntsville. Then my Facebook page was hit with all these people from my past....in Huntsville. Then ideas began flowing about how to use recycled items as part of my art.
The reason for my wish was that we could move back to SE Texas to the town of my alma mater...Huntsville, Texas. My youngest daughter who didn't want to leave before became excited as the prospect. We began talking more seriously about this not just as a place to go to retire but as a reality(which we never let ourselves feel this way before).
I was told(in the wish site) that I would see the time 11:11. I did. I was told to believe. Well I didn't really but dreams of why we wanted the money in the first place began to occur. I still don't know if it will work. I've always accepted my lot and the fact that I was most likely going to be stuck in this town but now....as my dh told me, "I'm not willing to say no to anything anymore. Stranger things have happend so why not that?"
Oh I know it sounds hokey...but as Gary says...I'm not in a position to doubt anything anymore! So give it a shot but you have to tell me if your wish came true!!
Since spooky eyes didn't work, go to real-wishes.com. Do what it tells you for 8 straight days. Come on, what else do you have to lose?
Like my dear dh says, 'I dont doubt anything anymore.'
One catch, you have to tell me if something truly did happen!
Summer Solstice is quickly approaching which only means one thing....I let the months escape me again! Alyssa's 14th birthday came on June 1. Her party was pushed back to the following Sunday because that is the only day that both Gary and I have off at the same time and when he isn't asleep(read details later). She opened a multitude of gifts that I had been hording since Christmas. She has become really addicted to 'Mama Mia' and was amazed when one of her gifts was a box of old ABBA cassettes. It's a good thing that this Mama never throws anything away. She recieved music, clothes, a Brain Age 2 game, a fashion video game, a herb garden kit, a lava lamp, a new Ren-fest gown sewn by me and her first wand. [I make them and she wanted 'something special' so there you go].
Birthday tradition also states that the honoree can chose their favorite meal. Hers was an Chinese resterant in Denton which surprised both of us. I thought that we be spending a mint at a trendier place of her choosing. We took her shopping at Walmart in Denton for summer clothes and bought her a new swimsuit via Land's End as part of her day. There is NO shop locally that sells her size because both her and her sister's torsos are so long. Even the woman at Land's End thought that I measured it incorrectly. That's what happens when you're 14 and 5'7"(Jessica now is 16 at 5'11-1/2!) I'm officially the shorty of the family.
Alyssa 14 and growing Jessica...don't ask about the rabbit-toothed smile. I don't know either.
Gary and I pass each other via our shifts at Walmart. He now works graveyard shift while I work evenings. He took initially as a supplemental job but when his sister learned of this, well all of a sudden they had no work to do at the shop. Oh well.
Now Walmart nation-wide is severely cutting hours and laying off all of their full timers. Our small store is now exception. Poor Gary went from 33hours to 20 which means he works only every other day and is now supplementing that with remodeling work. If it wasn't for my freelance writing and my online shop at Etsy (http://www.othilldesigns@etsy.com) some things would be going by the waste side like cable, phone, etc. We started a vegetable and herb garden to cover some of the costs, make our own bread,laundry soap,etc and spend a lot more time clipping coupons, checking out circulars(Walmart will take competition ads for a 200 mile radius) and storing canned and dry goods as if Armaggedon was happening tomorrow. After all, who knows how far Wally World will cut us?
Our small town is suffering immensely. Thirty year old companies are folding up, fast food chains and retail stores aren't hiring this summer, former oil field employees and truckers fill the food stamp office and more people are moving away. Bowie has always suffered due to the fact that our city council doesn't push to bring in new business, we're not on the interstate and the people who can have always commuted to the cities of Denton, Dallas and Fort Worth for their livelihood. So getting worse for Bowie is a major stab in the heart.
Jessica and her hormones has also played a large role in my stress. Asperger's, hormones and being 16 do not mess well. She gets frustrated, aggravated and plain ol' anger. She slams doors, screams and at her worst moments has hurt both Gary and myself. She actually dislocated his middle fingers by slamming a door on his hand. Since starting her on a full fledged GFCF diet and different set of vitamins, she has calmed somewhat. SAM-E is a wonderful vitamin for her mood and it's OTC. Which is a good thing since we have no insurance and can't afford to visit a doctor at $60 a pop.
So stress, angst and good dose of minor depression keep me away from blogging these days. Hoping to relieve some of it this summer by taking on a teaching job. I think winning the lottery and getting out of Walmart would do a lot for that!
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I am of Scot-Irish-German-English-Souix ancestry. I'm a descendant of Ben Jonson, Reginald Johnson(the teacher of the last emperor of China) and Chief Quanah Parker. 
) I
