A Weekend, and Homely Activities

It is Sunday afternoon as I write this, snuggled under a fuzzy blanket with my tea. We had a wild windstorm here in Seattle last night that swept the skies and left me a view of the Full Moon and Jupiter this morning. I have been socializing more than I normally do (I’ll admit the bar is low, so it’s still not a lot), so this weekend I had to reset with lots of homely (I like the British way of saying “homey” better, it just feels softer) and restful activities

Western sky from my home early Sunday morning, the Moon and Jupiter with a green orb of unknown origin

:

• I brought my mom over to spend the night on Friday. We had an indoor Trader Joe’s sourced picnic and watched a few episodes of A Man on the Inside on my laptop, a cute Ted Danson Netflix series I found through Oldster’s latest Friday link roundup.

• I helped my mom analyze a doozy of a dream. Her soul had some important messages for her conscious self and it was super interesting. (Plus, from the other side, my dad holds out hope that she will wake up to a few things about life, and I now feel strong enough to hold my boundaries and facilitate what I am able to from this side.)

• I made three different types of cookies. The only official holiday cookie (Candy Cane cookies) of the three was from my apparently vintage copy of Martha Stewart’s Christmas. “Vintage”, because when I looked up the book to get a link just now, I saw that it is going for $59.99! I paid $21.95 in 1990. Fun fact, it is the only Martha Stewart book or thing I own. The other two cookies were from my adored Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking. My mom helped me package these up in little treat bags to go along with cards from me to her friends at the senior apartments. I plan on offloading most of the remainder of the cookies to my musician son and his five roommates. I must remember to keep some back, because I find my younger son and I often have zero baked goods in the house since I give them all away. A variation of the adage about the cobbler’s children having no shoes, I guess.

• I made a big batch of elderberry syrup from this issue of the excellent Folk Herbalist’s Journal. I will deliver a quart along with the cookies to my musician son, as the last batch was a hit (also, six people sharing a house could likely use some immune support). I also infused some safflower and sunflower oils with a combo of dried herbs for my next batch of salves.

• I continued reading Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson for Susan Wittig Albert’s Guerrilla Readers group. I have been mostly avoiding current events and humanity’s dilemmas this year as I have been learning how to be and not simply do, which has involved processing my own heavy stuff while learning to manage my energy and my newly discovered connection to Spirit. I am glad I am able to educate myself through this book group, at this crucial time.

Have a wonderful week. Be cozy and be kind!