This morning I felt the closing down of the energy around this Pisces full moon so intensely.
It was as if my entire body was tensing up and waiting for me to let go, to trust the support of 
Goddess and all my ethereal allies.  And once I relaxed into that support, I slipped into the most
deeply, regenerative sleep I've had in a while.  I felt swept clean.  Today I found this prayer that 
I share and hold the vision for all of us to be open to having a clean sweep happen in our lives.
And I ask that it happen with as much grace and ease as possible.

Once upon a time when my daughter was much younger than she is today, she discovered a love of all things Japanese, especially in the art and animation in the form of anime and manga (Japanese comic book/graphic novel).

Being a supportive parent and animation lover myself I joined her in watching many series and I too grew to love this art form.  I was especially enchanted by the beautiful depiction of the lunches many 
high school anime characters brought to school.  I set out to make bentos (japanese lunchboxes) for us to enjoy while watching anime.


This bento making obsession went on for many years and in that time I amassed a plethoria of tools 
to enhance the cuteness factor of the food, joined several online communities dedicated to sharing pictures 
of their bentos and shared a bento making panel at an anime convention.  Then I began working a full time
job and had little energy left for making cute lunches.  I stopped shortly after that and didn't think about them 
any more at all.

Until this week.  

As I sorted through boxes in the garage looking for something else, I rediscovered all the tools, japanese 
language  bento cook books and plans I drew of planned lunches.  I remembered how much I loved using 
food as a creative medium to help my family have healthy, beautifully presented lunches.  

Now I've decided to start again.  

You may find some pictures of lunches showing up on Instagram (dteapriestess if you'd like to follow along)
But I'm choosing to take it slow and see how it goes.  If it still ignites me. I'll continue.

As part of our homeschooling education, Fridays are usually dedicated to doing something creative.  So far we've done watercolor painting, made goop, baked bread, cookies and play dough.

I've seen these wonderful melted crayon canvas art  on Pinterest and decided I had to do it with my son.

He's melted crayons accidentally leaving them in the car but never
on purpose so I knew it would be something he would love.
I was right and now his art work is proudly on display in his room.

Here's what we used:

a heat gun (I've heard a blow dryer will also work)

A large canvas (ours is 9 X 11)

A large selection of crayons~my son always takes home the crayons from restaurants
and we have extras from other boxes.  We ended up using 42 total this time.

Hot Glue gun and glue sticks

Contact Paper (it's what we had on hand)

1. Decide on your design. I showed Ian all the different things I'd found so he could get an ideas. In the end he decided to try doing his name.

In a document, I enlarged his letters to 600%, printed them then cut them out of contact paper to stick on the canvas.

While I was doing that he chose the colors he wanted
and put them in the order he wanted them to be in across the canvas. He also decided he wanted to keep the 'crayon skins' (his words!) on instead of taking them off.

2. After placing your design, use your hot glue gun to attach all your colors to the top of the canvas. We were actually glad we left the 'skins' on because our glue was so hot the crayons started to melt right when they touched the glue!

3. Lean your canvas against something and place some cardboard underneath to catch the drips) then starting on the lowest setting, hold your heat source close to the crayons.

We did a slow back and forth motion very close to get started then pulled back as the crayons started to melt.

4. Continue to melt the crayons until they have dripped down over your design and until you're happy with the amount of melt. Turn off your heat source and let the project sit for 3-5 minutes, then remove your stencils.

This is where we discovered that the heat from our gun was so hot it lifted the contact paper. But once we removed them, we scrapped some of the crayon wax off then took some acrylic paint and filled in some of the spots left.

Done!

Before I set you loose, I must give you some words of caution:

~the crayon wax will pool under your project.
Make sure you have something to scrape the excess drips off especially if it drips to the back of your canvas which will leave crayon marks on your wall when you hang it.

~I cannot stress enough to let the work sit for a few minutes. Ian picked it up too soon and got a little burned by an errant drip.

~This is quite addictive...no crayon may be safe in your presence!

Yesterday morning I sat in the front yard with my journal.  The rhythm is definitely different with people getting themselves ready for their work day and kids in new clothes toting full backpacks waiting for the school bus to come rumbling in.  It's the start of the new school year; a fact I had completely forgotten as I decided our school year won't start until September 4th.  I'm so glad I have the privilege to home school!

Talk to any home schooling parent and you'll get loads of different stories as to how they got started and what their reasons were. I'm no different. Today I thought I'd share my top five:

1.  Bullying.  My first experience came about five years ago when once enthusiastic, learned daughter started coming home from middle school not wanting to go back.  Every day was a fight with her to get her up.  Turned out she, and the 17 other multiracial kids, weren't 'black' enough or 'white' enough for the school bullies. 

Despite our repeated attempts to get the Principal to do something, it never improved.  After weighing all the options I chose to home school her.  She blossomed again.  She decided to return to public High School and felt much more confident to stand up for herself against bullies.

I noticed kids in the Pre Kinder classes were bullying our son, so back to home school he came!

2.  Experiential Learning.  Budget and program cuts leave school little room to bring the what the kids are learning to life.  That means no field trips and limited hands on experience.  I know I enjoy things most when it's an experience.  Why shouldn't my child's learning be an experience too? 


3.  Personalized Schedule.  Being a Priestess, its part of my calling to honor cycles and rhythms.  Home schooling allows us to work within the cycles and rhythms of our family life. My son has a set morning schedule and a set afternoon schedule as those are the times he's most receptive. 

Bonus: because we're not bound by a school calender, we've been able to take advantage of off season vacation deals. 

4. Choice of Learning Materials.  Last year my son was in love with Thomas the Tank Engine.  As a result we did lots of academics around trains.  This year he loves Legos.  I get to take something he already loves and apply school subjects to it in a fun way. I can also incorporate subject requirements into real life situations.  I think more of the learning 'sticks' that way.

5.  Individualized Learning Style.  We all have a different learning style; audio, visual, or kinetic combining in a multitude of levels.  Home schooling allows me to tailor the learning experience to my child's learning style and what he wants to learn.

My daughter has graduated and is now on to college and there may come a time when my son decides he wants to go into school.  We'll look at our options and decide what's best then.  Meanwhile, I will fill myself with gratitude for the blessing this has been for me.