So we went grocery shopping this morning, a place called Kimberton Whole Foods. It's sort of like whole foods, but not the same company. They are local and fantastic; even better than whole foods for selection, IMHO.
ANYWAY. So I bought a Spinach bunch, as usual and brought it home. I go to put it away and STING! OUCH! There was a stem of Urtica chamaedryoides in there. For those who don't know the Urtica family, that means it was "Heartleaf" or "Fireleaf" nettle. So for the next hour and a half my hand was just BURNING. Lil' herbal story here...there are small "hair-like" bits on the stems and leaves of nettle plants that contain formic acid (yep! the same stuff you find in the bite of a fire ant). When you touch them the "hair-like" bit sort of pops on your skin and instantly feels like a sting. Harmless, but certainly a bit painful for a while.
I was saying to colmunson that now I feel like "one in a million"...LOL...what are the chances? Especially since it got past others secretly. *sighs* One in a million is starting to feel so small right now.....

    In other news, last night I had my "Herbal Remedies" speech at a local group. It faired out pretty well, I think. I'll most likely be doing it again with them, because the group was smaller this time around. They want me to post it on the group and all. I got kind of nauseous and strange feeling last night, but I've been feeling kind of strange recently...not eating much lately (which was the culprit last night). Luckily, being an herbal speech (with examples!), I had some candied ginger which helped out with that.

    I spent much of the week pre-Spring cleaning the house. There's a lot of built up clutter in various places (closets, cabinets, etc.) that I'm emptying out. I'm moving some decor around and adding "simplicity" to our lives. In the end, it's beginning to look better now than ever before. Cool.

    This past weekend we went to our good friends, the Munson's, again colmunson, for their Ausa vatni, a naming/blessing ceremony for their newborn. It was SO BEAUTIFUL, we met so many fascinating folk there that I would love to meet again. We're looking even more forward to the SCA now as most of them are involved there.

    Jesse racked our mead this weekend again. We'd like to get rid of some of the sediment in it before officially bottling them. I'm not sure when he plans on purchasing more honey from the farm we aforementioned in previous entries, but it will be soon...and I can't wait! I've been pondering all sorts of things. We currently have enough carboys to make at least 2 at a time, one for him, one for me. To experiment with. It's perfect. =P

    Friday we had Draven's kindergarten registration. We came in fully prepared and with our vaccination exemption form. Which, by the way, I typed to about 5 pages long...LOL..had to cover all bases so there KNOW we did our homework and made a real decision. Draven wanted to wear his silk tie. He's so awesome! He has about 4 now, which he just LOVES wearing. I put them on him for fun at family gatherings, but he decided it was his trend and now does it frequently, even to the grocery store. But he knows that the silk one is for special occasions. ;) That's my kid!
    Secondly, when we walked up to the lady with our papers, she seemed excited that we had all of our forms properly signed and taken care of. Didn't even give us a fuss about the vaccination form (which apparently they do normally give a hard time with, but I'm assuming because we were prepared and knew why we'd made the choice instead of just making it, they were satisfied). They didn't even smirk at us, which was another expectation. Our neighbor is a teacher there, and since we moved here we've been close to them....She gave me past examples so I kind of knew what to expect. I'm glad it worked out this way...I didn't want the school acting different towards Draven because we're stricter, inquisitive and in some cases, less-than-compliant to the "mandatory" crap the government throws our way. Later I heard her complaining to the secretary that nearly 80% of the parents that came in were almost totally unprepared and that she's been having so much trouble and so delayed because of it. Yikes. It gave a nice first impression to them, anyways, which is always helpful. So all summed up, it went well and D had a good time. He was a bit shy when he came out, but apparently enjoyed himself while with the teachers and other kids.

    So I'm going to be off doing some more cleaning of the house and moving stuff around. Hope you all are having a great week, and that you enjoyed the beautiful weather yesterday....back to cold we are-a-movin!!

    Valete...

This weekend was busy, in a good way.
Our original plans were to attend the Gefjon Blot hosted by friggasgirl & Kindred as guests but towards the end of the week we got a phone call and had to go to J's parents for some "important business" Saturday. We owe them an apology for having to change our plans, which we felt was slightly rude, but the circumstances were pretty important. Jesse also had his annual QA Seminar at work that ran a little later than we'd of liked. OH, and on top of that Rowan (the 2 yr old) got a high fever of 102, pushing 103 Saturday evening/night, which caused us to leave earlier. Draven got it the next night and now I have it. Ick.

Did anyone see the eclipse? Oh it was beautiful! We caught glimpses through the night when the Moon peaked through the clouds. Draven (our 4 yr old) was watching it from his side of the car for a portion of the ride home, trying to comprehend the meaning of eclipse (knowing that it was also a full moon). It was too adorable. I tried explaining some of the stories, such as the native American bear stories, the wolves, the "big belly" theory (LOL)...but I was exhausted and so was he so I just let it go. He learns so much already, he'll be OK. ;)

So on the way to his parents we decided to stop at the local home brewery place and picked up two 3 gal. carboys for some more Mead making, some different varieties of yeast, and a corker.
We also found a fantastic supplier of organic mead LOCALLY, in Lancaster, PA...and at a good price, about $87.00 for 60 lbs. They also have regularly grown honey varying from $60 to $100 in 60 lb. increments of the various kinds of Honey (buckwheat, clover, etc.). So we're going to try and get there as soon as we can (unless colmunson has been able to get in contact about the apiary previously mentioned? Let me know, dear!). ;) The home brew shop is just a few minutes from his parents, but for us it's nearly a 50 mile drive...so we really don't go often to his parents or there, for many reasons.

We also got our income tax this weekend, so we decided to go out on Sunday and run some much needed errands with that money. We picked up some winter clothing that was on sale at a local, "gently used" consignment shop, and a couple of other things to which I'll spare you the bromidic details. However for those who don't know already, Draven will be attending Kindergarten for full days. Crazy. But he seems pretty excited. We picked out some nice clothing and we've been keeping an eye on lunch boxes at markets and such. I prefer to get something with character, that doesn't need to be shipped, and that hasn't been mass-produced of "new materials." LOL. Besides, we boycotted wal-mart YEARS ago and aren't close to many other dept. stores. And no small, locals except the markets, which I'm all to anxious to go to anyway. LOL.

A few of my seedlings had popped up this week for our garden this summer, yay! =) We also have flowers coming up in the front garden. I can smell Spring in the air, even behind the cold arctic air we're getting right now. I can hear the birds singing more. Yesterday squirrels were playfully mating in a fallen tree behind our yard. When these arctic winds slow down we'll be taking a walk into the mountain behind us again (it's too much for the kids right now) as I need a piece of Blood roots' root  for something I need to take care of. No worries, I NEVER harvest more than I need and I am always careful to harvest responsibly  so that the population is not hurt.

So here we are into Monday and Tuesday. My projects for the week are finishing up making some cold medicines for the kids and making husband more aftershave and cologne. Use up my supply for the year soon, before it gets too old.

Hope you all are doing well! Valete.