It's NaBloPoMo

National Blog Posting Month begins today and I almost missed it!

Fortunately I was reading Sci-Fi Dad's blog, and he mentioned it so I am going to get a post up today despite my absentmindedness.

I'd love to include Halloween photos in this post but my Olympus POS camera has heard it is being replaced this week with a D40 and is now refusing to download photos in protest. I'm hoping to beat or beg it into submission tonight. It's done this before.

There were some questions about Silent Supper. Silent Supper is something we do on Samhain to honor those who have passed over to the other side. There are 2 ways to do it. Both involve setting a place (or places) at the table for loved ones who have died in the past year (or for everyone you love who has passed). The first way has the whole meal silent. Everyone eats their meal in silence while remembering to themselves or trying to reach out to those they have lost.

This way is impossible with small children.

It is also impossible with all adults I know.

So we do the second way, which is to spend the meal talking about those who have departed. We, meaning my family, not my coven, set a place at the table for 'the ancestors' as well as for ourselves. We have a large, multiphoto frame on the wall beside the table (year round). It has pictures of us and out extended family. DH & I spend the meal talking about the people in the photos who have passed on - my grandparents, his parents, his grandparents, my great aunts. We remember funny things they used to and things they said to us, meals we shared with them, how much we love and miss them, things like that. There is a saying that as long as one person remembers you you cannot truly be gone, so we remember them and they live in us.

We begin the meal by asking them to join us as part of the blessing and thanksgivng and end it by thanking them for their company as part of the closing blessing.

A meal of just adults or adults and older teens might include a guided meditation part where we try to reach out and connect with the departed-Samhain is considered to be the time of year when the veil between worlds is thinnest & when you are most likely to be able to make the connection. I've never done it. My departed are all good Catholics & might not take too kindly to me trying to contact them.

In other news, the fall festival was fun. After it we drove down to the big city to Lowe's and Circuit City. We priced toilets at Lowes. Turns out they are considerably cheaper than we though. The one in the main bathroom might need replacing & DH was convinced it was going to cost $200 minimum when it turns out we can get a nice low flow one for $100. We then went to Circuit City and looked at camera lenses for the D40 I ordered this morning. DH found a 46" plasma tv for $800 and we very very nearly talked ourselves into it. A sales guy showed us a 40" LCD one in a package with a PS3 and home theater speakers for $1700 including installation (possibly. we hadn't mentioned we were 45 miles away) and we very very nearly talked ourselves into that. But we decided to go to Outback for dinner & think about it and were so shocked by the price of dinner at Outback that we remembered the bunk bed, mattresses and sheets we were already buying this month and never mentioned TVs again.