February Holidays and Festivals

(Taken from the newsletter I create for Just Another Sunset)

Full Moon: February 18, 2011

Full Snow Moon

"Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February's full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult."

-Farmers' Almanac

Sun Sign: Aquarius (January 21 - February 19)

Element: Air

Planet: Saturn, Uranus

Celtic Tree: Rowan (January 21 - February 17)

February Birth Stone: Amethyst

February Birth Flower: Iris or Violet

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, Black History Month, American Heart Month, Creative Romance Month, National Cancer Awareness Month, International Friendship Month, and National Wild Bird Feeding Month

Imbolc - February 2

Also known as Candlemass, St. Briget's Day or Bride's Day

This day celebrates the goddess Brighid as the bride awaiting the return of her Sun god. In celebrating Candlemass, housholds made homemade candles for the year and brought them to the church to be blessed.

"Candlemas' is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course.  The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc.  'Imbolc' means, literally, 'in the belly' (of the Mother).  For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings.  The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows.  'Oimelc' means 'milk of ewes', for it is also lambing season.  The holiday is also called 'Brigit's Day', in honor of the great Irish Goddess Brigit.  At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor.  She was considered a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery)."
-  Daven's Journal - Imbolic

Chinese New Year - February 3
2011 is year 4708 in the Chinese Calendar, and will be the year of the Rabbit.

National Organ Donor Day - February 14

It is beautiful that this day is on St Valetine's Day. Click Here and become an organ donor. It is a loving gift that may save a life, or several lives.

St. Valentine's Day - February 14

Don't let the shelves of year-old chocolate fool you - this is supposed to be a very special day. It began long ago as the Feast of Lupercalia, honoring the Roman god of fertility. Tradition placed it as the first day that birds mated, which inspired lovers to give each other gifts. 

The legend of Saint Valentine has several different stories, including that he cut out paper hearts to give to imprisoned Christians, and that he performed secret weddings when soldiers were forbidden to marry. 

Go ahead and indulge your lover on this day, and share special moments with your family.

President's Day - February 21

Always the 3rd Monday in February, this day honors every U.S. President.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans - March 8, 2011

Here is the method for determining which Tuesday Mardi Gras will fall on in any given year, according to mardigrasneworleans.com:

"How will you know which Tuesday it will be? Ash Wednesday is always 46 days before Easter and Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday. Easter can fall on any Sunday from March 23 to April 25 with the exact date to coincide with the first Sunday after the full moon following a Spring Equinox! There you have it! Voila!"

Balm-A-Thon

I am going to be making homemade salves, lotions, baby balm and cleansers over the next two months (herbal oils need to infuse for several weeks) so if you'd like to join me, here's the shopping list:

1 ounce dried calendula flowers (fills a small bag - maybe 1/2 cup? I just got some today)
1/2 ounce lavender flowers (have some)
1/2 ounce plantain leaves if I can get some
1/2 ounce dried comfrey

1/2 ounce dried arnica flowers
1 ounce chamomile flowers (have some)
1 ounce nettles (have some)
1 ounce rosemary leaves
1/2 ounce dried St John's Wort flowers

Lots of cold pressed olive oil
Small botlle of Vitamin E Oil
Grapefruit seed extract (I already have some on hand)
Lavender essential oil (I already have some on hand)
Tea Tree Oil (need some)
Aloe vera (have some)
2  1-oz bars of beeswax
Apple cider vinegar (or dark beer - I've been reading that it is amazingly nourishing for hair)

Lots of clean 16 oz glass jars
2 oz jars for finished salve and cream

I'll be making a multi-purpose healing salve for cuts, scrapes, rashes, burns, bug bites etc. Think natural neosporin. I'll make a separate salve for bruises, muscle aches and broken bones - arnica should not be used on broken skin, which is why this one will be separate. I will also make a general body cream or lotion that will be gentle on the baby and Connor's eczema. Finally I'll be attacking my own hair conditioner. If there's lots left over, they'll be surprise gifts.

Salve just means it is thick, like chap stick. Ointment is a little softer, like neosporin. Cream is softer still, like toothpaste. Lotion is part water and spreads most easily. If I go this route, I'll probably use aloe juice.

I've never done any of this before so it will be an adventure.

If all goes as planned, I'll be growing a lot of these herbs myself this year so I can use fresh plants the next time I make herbal oils.

Here's a video on how to make herbal oils. They use almond oil but Connor is allergic to almonds.

Lion Moms, Tiger Moms, and Bear Moms - Oh My!

If you watch TV, play on the internet or pay attention to book circles, you've heard of Amy Chua's memoir "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom" and the advocacy for hardline parenting.

"No sleepovers or playdates. Grueling rote academics. Hours of piano and violin practice. Slurs like "lazy" and "garbage," and threats to burn stuffed animals when things don't go mom's way...

No TV, no pets, no computer games, no grades under A, no parts in school plays, no complaints about not having parts in school plays, no choice of extracurricular activities, nothing less than top spots in any school class except gym and drama, no musical instruments except piano or violin."

What people, the media, and her publishers seem to be skipping over is the conclusion of this memoir, which summarizes some of her regrets.

"Chua stands by much of her tiger mom ways: intense attention to academics, for instance. And she has some clarifications: Her girls HAVE had sleepovers and playdates, but they were few and far between."

Regrets? "I wish I hadn't lost my temper," she said. "I wish I hadn't been harsh. I wish I would have let them have more freedom."

The Tiger Mom has, in fact, been largely a product of her publisher's promotion tactics.

The intertubes are alive with responses to the Tiger Mom, the tough love parent who produces top-scoring, high achieving offspring who aren't coddled, their "self-esteem" not padded, their failures not tolerated.

Amy Chua Parenting Memoir Raises American Fears

Tiger Mom Amy Chua getting clawed

Tiger Mom Amy Chua A Good Mom? A Past Tiger Dad Reflects

Mom bloggers mixed on ‘Tiger Mother’ Amy Chua’s rigid parenting

'Chinese Tiger Mother' Amy Chua -- Is Her Parenting a Form of Child Abuse?

Pussycat in 'Tiger Mom'? - The real story behind Amy Chua's Book 'Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother'

A remarkable number of people are coming out in favor of this style of parenting in response to the increasing number of parent enablers who sue the school when their kid gets a poor grade or refuse to let their kids climb on a jungle gym because they might get hurt. I call this mom the Bear Mom, after Sarah Palin's Grizzly Mom.

Sarah Palin pushes fundamentalist Christianity while in the same breath demanding privacy and non-scrutiny for her own teenage mom daughter who got pregnant out of wedlock. Bear Moms, in my opinion, aren't doing their children any favors by covering up for them. Love that enables children to never take responsibility for themselves isn't any better than love that hurts because it loves.

Lion Moms are those moms who parent tribally. Lion moms are the attachment parenting moms. Lion Moms are the Consensual Living moms. Lion moms are the democratic moms. Lion moms are all those moms running the wide spectrum in between the seemingly uncaring Tiger and the seemingly paranoid and entitled Bear Mom.

Lion Moms have mother groups they turn to for play groups, parenting advice, mom's night out, social networking, chat rooms and group trips to the museum. Lion Moms are sometimes Attachment Parenting moms, sometimes Natural Living moms, and sometimes both. Lion Moms are those moms hanging out on Celebrity Baby blog to see what the latest style of baby shoe or stroller is and leave a comment about how cute Natalie Portman looks pregnant. Lion Moms have birthday parties where no presents are required and everyone makes a craft, or birthday parties planned weeks in advance with coordinated cakes and decorations where the take-home party favors are often more elaborate than the birthday kid's presents.

Lion Moms are all us moms in between the two ends of crazy.

I came across the video of one of my favorite Lion moms, Arianna Huffington. She is one of the most successful women I know. She was also not raised by a Tiger Mom, and did not raise her two daughters that way, either. As these four discuss this type of strict parenting, Arianna says , ""I'm completely against it. The most important thing a mom can give her children is that sense of being loved no matter whether you succeed or fail."

Of course, there are also those "Shark Moms." Some sharks give birth to live young who then need to swim away as fast as possible before Mom decides to eat them. Those are the Moms who really can't stand their kids and think Motherhood is boring or a waste of time. But I've ranted about those before...

Here's to all of us middle-of-the-road Lion Moms!

Very Well Said

"The real hard part is dealing with being imperfect. When we make a mistake, be it raising our voice, making a cutting comment, or making a judgment about our children's needs or wants, we let it consume us. We beat ourselves up, questioning not only our performance in the moment but our fitness as a parent altogether. We lose our ability to be objective about all of the amazing things we do each day, all of the things that create an environment of peace and harmony. We imagine nightmare scenarios about all of the ways we are damaging our children, and we place the blame squarely on our own shoulders, leading to remarkable bouts of self-doubt and feelings of unworthiness. But in doing so, we are forgetting two critical things.

First, parenting a child in joy and freedom is, quite simply, one of the most challenging jobs in the world. For many of us, it is different from the way we ourselves were raised. We may be trying to do it in the face of resistance from partners, family members, and other parents. Our children may have needs which are challenging to meet - needs which, in some cases, are precisely the reason why we didn't turn their education over the strangers in the first place. And we do this while facing many of the same pressures faced by traditional parents: financial hardships, physical limitations and disabilities, and multiple children with competing interests. Parenting is hard, and unschooling is advanced parenting. Our path was not the one of least resistance, it was the road less traveled - and many of us are on that path in relative solitude, with only our wits and our hearts to guide us.

Second, we get caught up in the "pursuit of perfection" instead of in the "pursuit of better." "Perfection" requires that we make no mistakes, that we have no bad moments, that we have no off days. "Better", however, allows for growth. It requires introspection. It enables us to live in the moment of each experience, unencumbered by expectation of our own performance, and to learn from that experience. It enables us to be connected to the changes that occur in our own lives and in the lives of our children."

- Just a Bald Man had this on his blog, but took it down. It was still in my RSS feed reader, and so I'm posting my favorite part here. Hopefully many of you will get to read it before he hunts me down for plagiarism and makes me remove it. It made me think.

Why Republicans Should Be Thrilled By The Health Care Public Option

The very last line is my favorite. ;-)

Thrilled With This Painting Background!!!

Okay - I got out the actual canvas. I mixed three cups of paint with 1 part paint and probably 10 parts water. Very watered down. The first cup hat brown with some red and white, the second green and white, the third blue and white. I cut up a cloth diaper, dipped it in the paint water, and spread my colors in sweeping motions from left to right. Then I went over the whole thing with the pink/brown cloth, starting from the bottom up toward the top. I am giddy thrilled with the result!

Once this dries, it is in Bryan's capable hands!

Trial Run For Original Playroom Art

I want an abstract tree painting in our playroom. After looking at many desirable and inspirational pieces online, I remembered that I married an artist.

SOOOOO.....Voila.  The background is too dark, but it's a great first run.

I bought some small stretched canvases to practice making painted backgrounds. Bryan draws and is not comfortable with paint, so I volunteered to take on that part myself. I mixed paint medium with the colors, which thins the paint without lightening the color itself. In this next picture you can see those practices on top - one was still not thin enough, one was just right, and then the last one came out too light, though now I'm thinking it wasn't too light after all, now that I see the tree in its completed form and texture.

You can also see that when I bought a large piece of art paper to practice in large scale, I made the background way too dark.

The picture does not do it justice. It is smoother and has more color changes than is apparent with my crappy photography and dull indoor lighting.

I decided to go with it and turned the paper horizontal instead of vertical. Once it was dry, I started to make a tree trunk myself because Bryan has been so lazy busy lately, but once I started I realized I needed to defer to the master, so I sweet-talked him into doing the outline for me. Once he got started, the art took over and he finished it in twenty minutes. I added some colors here and there and helped blend things, but really I think he would have preferred to tell me to go crochet something and let him work.

Color and blend and color and blend...

And for those of you who have actually read this far, this version is free to whomever wants it. If more than one person wants it, leave a comment and I'll use an online number generator to select a winner. If no one wants it, I'll wait until one of us is famous and then auction it off on eBay.