Star Rating: Overall – 4.5, Character – 5, World building – 4, Themes – 5, Plot – 4 Max Brooks generally ticks all my boxes for a good immersion read, and I thoroughly enjoyed his latest book, Devolution. The subtitle cryptically says it best: “A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre.” In short, a natural disaster drives a group…
Author: LadyBoss
Suburban Lady focused on raising her kid not to be a jerk, keeping herself and her husband healthy enough to feel good, and living life as comfortably as possible in an uncomfortable world.
Storytime: The Bored Gardener Outreach Program
So I was having a particularly clingy morning after a particularly short weekend after a particularly long week, and the husband yet again did not believe me when I told him that his work had fictitiously called me and told me to tell him that he should totally take the day off since he’d been working so hard and they…
Imbolc Interlude: Celebrating the Sabbat
Greetings, gentle readers! We are officially halfway through winter, according to both the Wheel of the Year and the ever-accurate groundhog – huzzah! I talked about the spirit and tradition of Imbolc a bit last time, so today I just wanted to show you a little of how I celebrated this year in pictures: Bath with chamomile and lemon herb tea…
Getting Into the Spirit of Imbolc
Greetings, gentle readers! I have indeed been absent for a bit, but I’m going to claim my right to winter hibernation to excuse that lapse, because frankly, winter totally sucks. Well, maybe not everything about winter totally sucks (my kid was born on February 5th, after all!), but the weather certainly does. Especially after the holidays drain every last ounce…
Solstice Sojourn: My Winter Solstice 2018
Greetings, gentle readers! Here’s how I’m spending my Winter Solstice proper this year. This is my actual written plan for the day, without a lot of extra frills – maybe some year I’ll have more time to dive deeper into it, but until such a time, I hope what I’ve put together entertains or inspires you. Blessed Yule, my friends!…
Solstice Sojourn: Hygge Bags
Greetings, gentle readers! Today’s post will be short and sweet because I mainly just want to show you a nifty thing I made for those friends of mine who need a physical and spiritual recharge during the cold months to come. I’ve given homemade gifts lots of times before, but I want to start making it a tradition to put…
Solstice Sojourn: The 12ish Days of Yuletide, Part 1
Yuletide greetings, gentle readers! I am in the period of Christmas preparation when I am staunchly treading water to keep my head above the surface of All The Expectations, as I’m sure many of you are as well. I’ve had plenty of times when the waves of What Must Be Done have crashed over me and I felt like I…
Lady’s Half-Assed Christmas, Part 1
If you’re like me, gentle readers, you love the idea of the holidays, but also dread them because they are a hell of a lot of hard work. When it comes to decorating, gift giving, and treat making, 99% of that hard work falls on me, no matter how my body feels or how worn out I am from trying…
Preparing the Hibernaculum – Magical Housecleaning Part 3 – Decluttering
Roll up your sleeves and get out your recycling bins for this one, gentle readers – it’s magical clutterbusting time. Cleansing and Blessing 4: Clutter Removal (for real this time) I left this section for last because sometimes it can be the most daunting – even worse than moving furniture and disturbing the dust bunnies. I am, as I’ve said…
Samhain Sojourn: Giving Thanks for the End of Harvest
Greetings, gentle readers, and Happy Thanksgiving! Today we have our feast, but before I go once more into the traditional Thanksgiving food breach, I’m taking a moment celebrate the End of Harvest and to truly give thanks to my yard and garden for the joy it brought to my life this summer and abundance of herbs and vegetables it gave…
Samhain Sojourn: Thanksgiving Thoughts
I honestly can’t remember if I told the tale of my strong dislike of Thanksgiving last year, gentle readers, but just in case I didn’t, I’m going to tell it again now. For the first 8 to 10 years of my life, I somehow managed to be violently ill on Thanksgiving — either sinus-infection-can’t-even-move-my-eyes-without-barfing ill or full-blown-stomach-virus-gagging-at-the-smell-of-all-food ill. My loving…
Prepping the Hibernaculum – Magical Housecleaning Part 2
Welcome back, Household/Domestic Generals! (No, really, that’s what Mrs. Beeton called them – think of it as a cross between Mrs. Patmore, Mrs. Hughes, and Lady Cora from Downton Abbey…) Our next installment in the Prepping the Hibernaculum series involves both the mundane and spiritual sides of cleansing and blessing your home. Remember, to get started, you’ll need to have…
Preparing to Seal the Hibernaculum: Magical House Cleaning, Part 1
Fall is fully upon us, gentle readers, at least here in the Midwest, where the leaves and temperatures are both dropping drastically. One of my goals for this season is to get my house, affectionately called The Hibernaculum, mundanely cleaned and magically blessed and protected before Winter sets in and I basically seal the doors until Spring. Traditional witchy sources…
Samhain Sojourn – Ancestor Worship
Hello again, gentle readers! This past week, in honor of the veil’s thinning at Samhain, I’ve been spending some time with my dear departed grandma, Gayle. She had the ability to drive me up the wall in a way nobody else could, but she also was a pretty wise old lady who showed me how to craft with love (not…
Samhain Sojourn: A Different View of a Familiar Season
Halloween is nearly upon us, gentle readers, and for me this year, that means celebrating Samhain – the Pagan festival that marks the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half. Growing ceases and decay and dormancy begin – things in nature that need to die and break down into the earth so…