{life with a curious and crazy 10 yr old}
The sass is strong with this one. She’s as imaginative and funny as she is sassy and forthright. I wouldn’t change a thing. She’s very independent – in her desires and her expressions of them, she knows who she is already and she’s not afraid to show it. I admire her every day. She is aware that she is a magickal faerie and a witch and that both things are possible at once.
For Samhain Duende was happy to get a purple velvet cape with hood (why don’t I have a picture of her in it, she loves it!) and her November book is a new comic venture called Snapdragon by Kat Leyh (we’ve been buying monthly books to help our home library grow) which is perfect for my little witch. The glorious moon was full and portentous, reviving our energies and exciting our creativity. I wish we were better at celebrating the mid-seasons with specificity – we always make sure to spend the time together directly, make a special dinner, clean, decorate, and sometimes read appropriate things – for Samhain we pay respect to our ancestors and loved ones who have passed by remembering them or telling stories by the fire – but it’s a very casual observance and one that is usually generated modestly. Sometimes I wish we made clear overtures to the celebration day and purpose; evoked the elements directly, had a specific place to honor nature, and had at least banners if not other decorations designating each festivity (I have a banner for D’s birthday, the Equinox’s, and the Scotch party but I never got around to making one for Solstice’s or mid-season’s). We have a giant blue spider and web somewhere we used to try and hang up for Samhain but to be honest, we’re really lackadaisical about specificity – there is always nature bits everywhere, we see the seasons change outside and then inside just as a regular occurrence. We go for seasonal walks to celebrate the changes but we don’t make a thing about it – we just do it. We build fires all the time, whenever we’re together, so there aren’t too many of these types of things that we do with a separate sacredness – our whole lives are relatively sacred and already in tune.
But then again, she spent the day dressing up as her extra witchy self (witch dress, cape, black pointy hat) and I cared for some dry herbs and medicines while Josh racked hard cider. I did make a ‘faerie food cake’ (angel food cake but we don’t have angels in our lives, just faerie folk) with whey caramel and thawed strawberries, we had that lovely monkfish dish (see previous post) and we loved each other, as we do. What more could I want?
Rock Bottom Homestead 