Raising Witchlets, or The Care and Feeding of Pagan Babies!

New Recipe Added!

witchletmum — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:50:16 +0000

I’ve added my Almond Moon Biscuit recipe to the KitchenWitchery Recipes page. Easy peasy to make and utterly yummy. Unless you don’t like almonds.

In which I go for a consultation about getting sterilised…

witchletmum — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:38:04 +0000

We’ve discussed it, not necessarily at length (thanks to a three-year-old who considers adult conversation a waste of everybody’s time because it doesn’t involve him) but quite frequently, and we have decided that our family is fine as it is. We don’t want another baby – actually, that’s not true, I’d have half a dozen more babies like a shot, but it’s the toddler years I am far more wary of and exhausted by! We really can’t afford it, I’m getting WAY TOO OLD (it’s *gulp* the big Four-Oh next year), far greater risks to me and potential sprog – and that was that. Darling husband turns green and nearly faints at the thought of a vasectomy, and as I have had two c-sections and recovered incredibly quickly from both, I was quite happy to have my tubes clipped.

Not any more. The consultant was lovely, but warned me that the risks included bladder or bowel issues, with a low chance of ending up with a colostomy, and if anything goes wrong, an incision from my navel to groin. And that’s without talking about risks of the general anaesthetic. Plus, even if it all goes without a hitch, it’s done using a laperoscopy so bang goes my nice, neat tummy button (and I like my nice, neat tummy button.)

So, other options. The pill. Well, I’m too old for the combination pill, which suited me prior to having Witchlet One. The progesterone only pill. Yuck – never suited me, didn’t know whether I was coming or going and no rhyme nor reason to when I would bleed (although it was a safe bet that running out of sanitary products would initiate it). The Mirena coil, or the contraceptive inplant – uses the same hormone as the POP, so has similar results, either no bleeding or erratic.

I’ve never really had a problem with periods, you see. I rarely suffered with much pain, it only lasted four or five days and it was pretty light. And I was regular as clockwork. I like having a cycle, I like being physically in tune with the moon and frankly, at pushing 40 and with my family history of early menopause, I’d rather enjoy every period I have left. Impending crone-dom is making me appreciate these things.

Back to condoms, then.

September, and the new school term looms…

witchletmum — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:12:55 +0000

It’s Monday, and tomorrow Witchlet One returns to infant school for three hours a day. I can’t say I’m desperately sorry; seven weeks of keeping a three-year-old amused all day has been exhausting to say the least. He started at a lovely school after Easter, and he seems to like it, although I think that he thinks he’s missing out on something fun at home (he eyes me suspiciously when I tell him all I do is tidy up, make dinner and pray that his little sister has a nap.)

Having a child starting at school has made me re-evaluate being Pagan. It all started when I was faced with the school information form I had to fill in. Name, address, contact numbers, GP, allergies, dietary requirements – no problems. Then the tricky one loomed. Religion. I debated adding “N/A”. I debated deliberately leaving it blank. I eventually took a deep breath, and wrote “Pagan”. I handed the form in with trepidation. I awaited questions, funny looks, odd comments. And? Nothing. Nada, zip, zero. I wonder if they actually read it!

So, after twenty years as a witch, I guess I’m now raising a pagan family. It’s not that I’m going to be swanning around in black velvet Morticia-style outside the school gates, but being Pagan is no longer just about me.