After the Feast

Good Monday morning, surprised I'm up so bright and cheery? Me too I thought that the week of sleeping in and indulgences of the holiday would have me dragging and dreading this morning routine(I even got back to exercising without stiffness or fatigue). Been up since 3:30 a.m do to The Renaissance Man working out of town and needing an early start. Let me tell you this year I feel truly thankful and blessed. The last two years November started off with layoffs, but this year is steady and comfortable for us.

Thanksgiving was full of family and food. We are fortunate to have family live near so we did have to travel far. Two full days of feasting at different houses, and then arriving home at 6:00 p.m to put on sweats and snuggle on the couches with blankets and movies. So today brings us to the last day of the month to the next one that will end the year. I hope all your festivities the past week were fabulous! Blessings to a productive week and month.

Let the holiday magic commence!

Everyday Rainbows

"All I'm going to do is just go on and do what I feel"

Jimi Hendrix

Looks like Casa Sol y Luna is gearing up for  Hippie Hollydaze !

A Message From Above

 I strongly feel that feathers in your path are a sign from our angels and spirit guides. I found these feathers near the laundry line as I was talking to my eldest son about our home being our safe haven and keeping it peaceful and humble despite the global atrocities going on. We were also talking about the holidays and what activities we could do that bring us joy to uplift our vibrations. 

I bent down and got excited over the feathers exclaiming " ohhhh gifts from above", and then when I discovered the tiny hearts I wept. The message became clear then:

The spirit needs uplifting by spreading love. Don't just hold love in your heart and carry it with you wherever you go, let it out of it's pulsating shell. Give it here, give it there, the person you see who needs it don't second guess, let it flow freely from you. Depletion will not occur because the more you give the more you receive. Be a love donor.

A Heavy Heart

 A lot of terror and lose of life has happened this past Friday. As the world is globally coming together in mourning over the terrorist attacks on Paris my heart is heavy for my own little town and community. Don't get me wrong I feel for what has happened in Paris but tragedy also struck so close to home that day.

While me and my kids were waiting on our pizza to take home and enjoy with a movie, just a few blocks away a car full of Grant High Football players who were on they're way back to the high school for pre- game pep talk got shot at. The driver passed away and the front passenger sustained a gunshot wound to the arm. These young men our my son's high school peers. My heart breaks in a million pieces for the families and community in whole.

On Friday nights we can sit in our backyard and see the stadium lights glowing into the mist. You can feel the beat of the band as the drums pound away and echo through the streets. Play by plays can be heard you know which team is winning and whose making the plays. But as night rolled in on that Friday the 13th, there was only silence. A deafening silence felt to the core. The only vibe of the Grant Pacer's was on the news.

This shit happens all the time here! Just last week we got an automated call from the high school that a student was detained from walking on campus with a weapon in his backpack. Turns out it was a gun. He got caught with the gun, and mostly likely toted it around everyday until it was discovered. The youth around here have to be on alert every second because anything can happen at any given moment. These streets are taking our babies at a rapid rate no matter how they are raised in there homes.

I write and give the blogging community a slice of our life on our little urban homestead. But in all honestly once I hit the corner we're in a war zone . A war on drugs, gangs, junkies, authority figures, poverty, you name it......this is the ghetto. And yes I said authority meaning the cops jamming up my son , questioning him & running him through gang files when all he is doing is skateboarding with his boombox. The context of this post is all over the place, but to sum up my heavy heart ...... I've had enough! I'm at a lost, we can't move, we sure as hell cannot stay. So what am I or anybody in Del Paso Heights who wishes for a better tomorrow to do? 

Working With Wood

The many illnesses that are going around have struck Casa Sol y Luna.  All six of us have something or other and a combo of  yuckyness. Iv'e been in the kitchen making soups and herbal remedies, my tools of healing are of the wood element. Wood represents the liver and gall bladder and helps to raise energy .

We still have plenty of mandarins left so I've been juicing away for fresh citrus juice. I put the rinds in the window sill to dry out for potpourri.

Constant coughing and body aches has lead to teeth pain. Ground up cloves wrapped in cheese cloth left to soak in olive oil is a great way to extract the oil from the cloves and create an analgesic clove oil for mouth pain.

 The weather here lately has me feeling that we had a Summer and then Winter with no Autumn in between. Maybe that's why our immunities are out of whack, no adjustment period. Well I'm off to get a little rest. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

A Slice Of Pumpkin Goodness

Now that Halloween has came and gone I have pumpkins that went un-carved laying around which is great fall decor and an awesome food source. Since November arrived the weather has swiftly shifted to cold and chilly. Time to use the oven again and make some soul warming food. 

First pick a medium sized pumpkin and split it. Scoop the seeds out and set them aside so you can make Sweet or Savory Seeds. I put the pumpkin on a baking sheet for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees in the oven. Let the pumpkins cool and slice off the rind. Chop pumpkin into pieces to blend in the blender. It was really thick  so I added a little milk.

This pumpkin produced 4 1/2  16 oz mason jars of puree. I plan on using this yield this week so into the fridge it went. You could also freeze it for further use. Perusing pinterest for recipes is on my to do list (wink).

 I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread for a rainy day after school snack and coffee accompaniment. Even though I folded in the chips they still sank to the bottom, but I had no complaints. As I write this the last slice was just devoured. What soul food are you making now that the wheel has turned?

This is Halloween 2015

 On Friday {M} turned 5 and wow I don't know where the time has went since I gave birth to him. We celebrated by having a Halloween Birthday Bash. It was a great event with may spooky foods, treats, and games. I will have to give you a verbal run down since I didn't have time to take photo's ( a blogger nightmare for sure). The menu consisted of hot dogs, nachos and pizza. Punch with floating eyeballs, cake, orange & purple cupcakes, veggie tray with ranch in a small pumpkin, watermelon jack o lantern fruit salad were a few eats. We also had Monster bowling, Flying Ghost and Eyeball Toss as games.

We used sharpie to decorate mandarins. This was really fun, we filled a whole bowl.

                      The Law & Renaissance Man                              {S} & {E}                                          

 {S} on the left, {E} sitting next to him, {L}in all white, and {M} ninja on the top row. The rest are my nieces and nephews.

 The whole trick or treat crew! We were quite a parade going up and down the blocks. They night continued with outdoor viewings of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" & "Labyrinth" around a warm glowing Hallow fire.

Feliz Dia de los Muertos

This beautiful cover was in a special addition of the Sacramento News & Review. A lot of celebrations around my city, but we stayed inside. This arte is on my fridge and brings about vibrancy of the life cycles each time I pass by it.

 Artist John S. Huerta

As I taste the sweetness and sip my coffee out pours honor, love, and respect. The heart pulses and burns brighter as you are forever held by eternal fire.

3 Day Halloween Time Warp

It has been non stop celebrations at Casa Sol y Luna since last Thursday, from birthday, Halloween, and Dia de los Muertos. Lots of photos to share so I will break these post up into three. It's currently raining here in Sacramento and this is a new month blessing in itself. I'm baking a pumpkin in the oven as I compose these post because the outdoor duty's are on rain delay....and that's just fine with me.

On Thursday we carved pumpkins. Yes the children used real knives under supervision. If you teach children how to use tools correctly it benefits them and teaches them necessary skill sets for life.

My Renaissance Man ( yay I gave my husband a blog name instead of just my Hubby) helped finishing up the jack o lanterns. We have two carved but I only have a pic of one. Tooth picks as razor sharp teeth..very effective.

"The Lost Boys" was playing as we enjoyed our pumpkin night festivities. Which reminded me that Lizzie Borden's dress was still in need of something.

Good ol  Corn Syrup did the trick ! Very realistic and I saved money and time, I'm glad these items are in my cabinet. Tomorrow I will share the Halloween party pics.