One year

I'm trying to keep a good, healthy state of mind about this, so I keep talking about my house-to-be, my witchy son and stuff. But today is the first anniversary of my oldest sister's death.

I think that nothing I say here will really be enough to describe the terrible months we all went through as we watched, with impotent hands, while she was so ill with her brain cancer. It was devastating for us, specially my mother, and it definitely changed us all. I only thank we have this insane sense of humor that keeps us on the sane side of life (maybe those who are like us will understand what I mean). And I remember the wonderful, supportive words of care I got here from my blogger friends, something that hepeld me a lot.

I keep wondering... in one year of living in another dimension, evolving, getting purer/brighter, how my sister's spirit is right now. I only know that I miss her everyday, but when a date like this comes, feels like we get the hit with a stronger hand. Coincidently (as if there was such thing), in a few days I'll be celebrating Samhain.

Wherever she is, I hope she's in peace, and surrounded by a beautiful light.

Updates on Da house

Hi, my friends!! Seems like ages sinced I last posted here. So basically today is aaaall about the house - bear with me! LOL

Now we're really in the final phase. Painting is on the very begining, and we're trying to finish everything until the end of the month, since now is the coffee harvest time, and my in-law needs to start his harvesting, and let me tell you, this is a very hard work! It's when this little town wakes up in a fever and local commerce gets to its peak. It starts now, April, and goes until June. If coffee is not taken till then, it is lost. So all the farmers are a bit stressed on the hard work that begins, waking up with the birds in the cold mornings, working until sunset. Rodrigo will srtat helping his father on his big plantantion, and at the same time, he will harvest his own little plantation (not the one by the house-to-be, but another small one that in-law gave to him last year.). After a long time, I'll be at home, unpacking and putting things in place while he's out there, being a farmer guy. I like the idea if taking this time to take care of our house for him. Rodrigo spent these six years since Lucas was born taking care of him while I work full-time outside, so I feel happy to switch places. At least until I find something to earn money as well, but not like before - I don't want to be away from home from 9 to 6 anymore!

Last afternoon was great. At the New Moon, while everybody was reting after lunch, I went with Rodrigo and Lucas to bury our Witch's bottle. It was finally completely filled with needles, nails, bits of iron and broken glass, salt and rosemary, and some of our hair. The bottle was sealed with natural lid and purple wax, and a pentagram was made on it. Hubby digged, son put the bottle inside the hole, and the three of us covered it with ground, while we kept thinking protective thoughts. So mote it be!

Then Lucas begged to start paiting his bedroom's walls with the color he chose, turquoise (he was so anxious he couldn't talk of anyhting else all day long), and we decided agreeing even thought the place was a mess of construction material stocked. We started paiting the corners on two of he walls, and that was enough to please my little guy, as you can see below!

We made some protective signs on the wall, and they will be soon covered with the paint, protecting unotticed... Obviously Lucas loved this part!

It's slowing getting a definite new look. The doors and windows are installed, and the wall got this first hand of white paint, to then receive the final color. Outside, it will be temporarily white - as the verandas will be contructed later,during weekends -, and inside, except for Lucas' room, it will be straw color.

Below is my beautiful kitchen's sink (I'll try to get a collser photo of it, it looks like there's chocolate melted on its surface, so cool!), before and after tiles half-installed,with a little "tiling table" beside it where I will prepare breads and cakes...

The only bad note is that it's going to be hard to get water from the ground. A professional team to dig the artesian well came twice here and after hurting the ground about four times,  they couldn't get to the water. Seems like there is a thick layer of stones 16 meters down. Sigh. They'll be back on Wednesday for another try. Rodrigo used his pendulum, and every time, the water was there, but couldn't be taken to the surface by the men. It's enervating, since we do need it to have our own water, independently from our in-laws. Please do cross fingers, ligt candles on Wednesday. Does anyoone know a good spell for this? 

The final photos: Fastly-growing Ringo already feeling at home:

... And Lucas almost - only almost - managed to look ugly with this vampire face (he loves making these faces!)...

Have you all a wonderful week, gods bless you!

Discoveries

Last night Lucas found our old live Led Zeppelin DVD, and wanted to watch it. He immediately fell in love with Kashmir, because, according to him, the riff sounds like the Iron Man song's riff (and it really does somehow!). And he watched it on and on and on and on... He loved the melody, the way Robert Plant sang it (*sigh* I had to refrain my tongue not to speak out my obscene thoughts about that gold god. What can I say, I adore this band, it's a perfect rock band in my humble opinion, and as a bonus Plant was that hot, at least to my eyes) , the way Page played, how intense the drums were... He was amazed as if he had discovered the fire. I was happy to share it with him, it was fun to watch his amusement. After he listened to it a lot, he played Whole Lotta Love and The Battle of Evermore, while air guitar playing them, so cute!

Every time Lucas dives into our box of CDs and DVDs and finds something "new", it's a pleasure to introduce him to those sounds, and to watch his reaction. It was like that with Beatles, with Pink Floyd, with Eric Clapton, and now, Led Zeppelin. It's like the world of music opening it up again to myself too, through his eyes.

Earth Day

Boheminan Mom reminded me of this special day. We should celebrate her, respect her, take care of her, love her, admire her, honour her every day...

Free Book Day Part II

Hi there, old me again! :o)

So the Free Book Day was great! I forgot commenting that I do write somthing inside the cover of the book, so people don't get afraid of picking it up! This year I wrote: "April 18th is the Book's Day, and I am a Free Book. Take me to your home, read my story, and after that, set me free again, so another person with have the same pleasure you had with me." I'm sure this was the first time someone left a book to be taken in the place, not something usual here at all...

We ended up leaving two books, we had two copies of both: The Mmiracle of Lazarus, by Morris West, and The Mystery of the Blue Train, by Agatha Christie. We ended up leaving them in Alto Jequitiba's square, because in the morning, with two impatient dogs and one very upset cat in the car to get their vaccines, it would be impossible to enjoy the fun. So in the afternoon, there we went, Lucas doubled proud because to top the day, another tooth fell the previous night! Now he DOES look very funny!!

 

He left one book on the bench under the local school's founders' statue...

And the other one on another bench nearby...

As everybody knows, this is a tiny town, and the square is very seldomly used. We waited to see if anyone would pick it up, but no one passed by during the almost 20 minutes we stayed there! As I wanted to take Lucas to get an ice-cream to celebrate his new super-gappy smile, we left. The ice-cream was soo yummy, we mixed several flavours and they ended up perfect - despite Lucas' face! Funny little guy...

When we passed along the square on the way back home, the books were gone! Lucas jumped up and down as if he won the lottery! I'm happy that it became an yearly tradition for us, I bet he will remember this forever!

Free Book's Day

Just came by for a quicky hi! Thank you all for your lovely words on my little gappy smile boy! :o)

And to remind you know that next Saturday is the Free Book's Day! I know there are similar projects all over the world, and I love it! Every year I keep this ritual with Lucas, of letting go in the streets a good book we have already read and want to pass along. This time it will happen in the city "next door" where Lucas studies, Manhumirim. As we need to take our pets to get their vaccines shots, we'll take the chance to have fun one more time watching who'l be the one who will take the book! We still don't know which book we'll choose, we'll decide tomorrow. I'll take some photos to post here afterwards!

What about this idea, do you want to share it at your place?

Happy belated Easter!

Hello, everyone! How was your Easter? Tons of chocolat? Fun with family and friends? Or simply relaxing and enjoying the holiday? Here everything was ok. To start with, on Friday night, after brushing his teeth, Lucas' loosen tooth fell! This one took THREE MONTHS to fall! I was all worried, since his other milk teeth fell after two weeks, and I've even booked an appointment with the dentist to see what was wrong (on the phone, he said it's rare but could happen), but thankfully it fell and the Tooth Fairy came and left a coin for him. He looks soooo funny now!

Then, on Saturday Lucas made his little Easter basket, filling it with paper and decorated with little bunnies I draw every year and one by himself. He still believes in the Easter Bunny, so I follow every step of this ritual! After he's asleep, I put his chocolat eggs on the basket, make bunny paws out of flour on the ground and even spread some M&M on the floor as if he dropped some on the way to the basket. On Sunday morning, at 6 o'clock, Lucas was already up! He just couldn't wait... As always, he became happy and amazed because he didn't hear a sound when the bunny came! LOL We make suprise faces when we "find" our own eggs on the bed, and so he starts the day eating chocolat and feeling very lucky, because even being so far from Rio, Easter found him...

To celebrate his fallen tooth, we had a picnic as breakfast on Saturday morning. We simply prepared sandwiches and juices and took everything to the tolp of a hill next to our house-to-be, where the view is great. We sat there enjoying the early morning, watching the birds come and go, curious about us invading their realm. Ringo followed us and was sweetly pampered, and even a woodpecker could be seen! It was a very good morning, as Lucas pointed out so well...

But Lucas also gave us a little fright on Saturday afternoon: while preparing a new fishing stick with dad, he took the hook without us noticing, and it went deep into his finger. I guess his scream could be heard in Rio, so high it was. I became white, because he was really frantic and didn't want to show us his finger and I thought it was still there. So i took him in my arms and we took him to the bedroom where he laid down on the bed, and after some time, he finally showed me the damage done. I could only see blood all over his little finger, so there we went to the restroom to wash it and see how bad it was. Fortunately there was only a little hole, but I could see the track the hook left inside his flesh, no wonder he screamed so loud! It must have hurt a lot! But Lucas felt relieved when noticed the cut wasn't big - this was his fear, to see a big fleshy, bloody cut along his finger. Since it was like that, he let me clean and properly take care of it. Oh well, it was enough to literally shake my morning for some time... And I'm sure he'll never hold a fishing hook again so soon!

To close the post, of course I had to talk about da house - or do you think you would escape this time? LOL Tiles being put in place! They really change a lot on the look of the place...

I wish you all a wonderful week, stay in peace!

A fun craft

As I'm still here waiting for my in-law to come back from the bank, here's something fun I've found at the Crafty Crow to do for Ostara/Easter: How to melt crayons on a hot egg! How cool is that? Of course I'll have to try this with Lucas...

Mom of the Year award!

Kris, my amazing friend from Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom, just gave me this - although I do think I'm far to deserve the title! :o) Thank you, sweetie, you're the one who should wear this throughout the years! But she's right, I do love being a mom, and I'm grateful for the chance the gods have given me, no matter he drives me crazy sometimes!

Well, here are the rules:
First, Admit one thing you feel awful about involving being a mom. Get it off your shoulders. Once you've written it down, you are No Longer allowed to feel bad. It's over with, it's in the past. Remember, you're a good mom!

Then, Remind yourself you are a good mom, list seven things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you. These are the things to remind yourself everyday that you Rock!

1. I love when my little witch wakes up and comes straight to our bed to lay down for a bit between us, giving us a sleepy "good morning". It's definitely the best way to start the day!

2. He truly cares about eldery people. I've seen him many times treating my grandma with love and care without needing to ask him to, and now with his gran-grandma is the same thing. Even when she asks him over and over the same question due to her Alzheimer condition, he's patience and answer her without getting upset.

3. I love searching the net (specially the Crafty Crow) after some new craft to make with him, like home-made crayons or building a paper robot. It quenches my own thirst for fun.

4. We share the same love and respect for animals. He's never been afraid of any kind of animal, not even spiders, eeeeekkk!!! If I let him, he would sleep with his new puppy plus Baruck plus thenew kitty on his bed!

5. His new phase of curiosity is great. He asks me tons of questions everyday, about everything, and I almost get crazy trying to remember the right answers. Many times we research at our Encyclopedia about how many levels the Earth has, what's the exact weight of a red ant, or something like that.

6. I love reading for him before sleeping. Since we moved to my in-laws, we gave it a break, but now that we opened one of the book boxes from the moving, I'll start again reading the fourth Harry Potter, can't wait!

7. Actually, I love all those little details on the daily routine that link us as a little family of three. From the waking up to the enervating discussions on eating everything that's on the plate, I wouldn't trade place with anyone else.

Now, Send this to five other Mom's of the year that deserve credit for being great moms and remind them that they are the best moms they can be!! Remember to send them a note to let them know you've selected them, and add a link to the person who nominated you.

That's a hard!!! There are many wonderful moms here that I know, even those, as Kris so wisely said, whose kids are not humans! But ok, let's see...

1. Kelli, the awesome mom of three and with her fourth on the way, from Walking Away. She's so dedicated to her lovely kids, and deals with them with such wisdom and calm, I admire her a lot. And amidst all her care, she still has the inspiring Dancing Goddess Dolls!

2. Marcia, from Learning Mama. She was one of the first friends I made at the blogsphere, and I just love to see how gorgeous and smart her cute V is growing up. Marcia is a very strong young woman, and keeps her balance on a not-always-easy-to-live world, raising her little daughter with a positive attitude.

3. Lilith, from Crunchy Green Mom, is another old friend in terms of blogland. She's sweet, fun, smart, sexy, and would become a lion for her five kids. She's devoted to them and you can feel her love all around her blog.

4. Boho, from Words from a Bohemian Mom. I love her! She is a fighter, creative mom, with a mind and a heart full of positive vibes, raising so well her sweet daughter on a single path with a wonderful light. She deals with her past, present and future with wisdom and strenght, it's no wonder her hatchling looks so confident towards life, with her as an example!

5. Maebius, from Maebius Musings. Ok, he's not a mom, he's a dad, and I'm sure there's a wonderful mom with him. But this sharp-minded guy copes with his kid - same age as mine - with such lucidity and so much care & love I just couldn't help adding his name to the list. You can feel the love and proud in his words (if you read his sweet Sprogie Stories post, you'll know what I mean).

I could add many other great, great moms to this, but rules are rules, alas! Ok now, you guys go and spread the word on your page if you feel like it! :o)

...And Da House goes on...

Hello, everybody!!

And life goes here at my little corner of the world. I catch myself walking long the narrow sidewalks downtown and thinking how amazing life can be... Now this is my life, in this place, sometimes like detached from the world outside. It is weird to really get the notion of your life being in course, realizing the moment is of a turning point. Am I making sense? ... It's just that I still don't feel myself being really part of here. Waking up at the strange bedroom everyday where all our immediate stuff is, waiting for the house to be ready to greet us as masters, it's still like odd vacantions. Oh well... Me and my sometimes blurry mind!

Last week arrived the house floors' tiles! Here they are, I love the abstract pattern...

Below, for the restroom walls:

And even the kitchen sink arrived - along with the new oven:

Soon the house will be very different from this:

Lucas had fun getting into the water tubes' hole - hidraulic system is almost ready now - I had no idea how much hard work it requires!!!:

Rodrigo varnished the doors and they now look great:

Now he works on the windows - my poor man needs to wear this mask because the smell of varnish is too strong:

In the meantime, Lucas pampers Ringo, who's getting bigger day after day!

He sends a special "Japanese look" Hi for everyone!