Right now, on the site or on my Etsy, I’m giving a free tarot reading for every book purchased.
I got my book in the mail today and I’ll be taking orders starting now.
I will also be doing a giveaway and giving a copy of my journal away.
Month: February 2019
I’m currently working on guides for various divination methods for beginners — Astromommy
They will be separate sections in this site. I will have basic how to guides with tips for tarot, astrology, numerology, IChing and the runes. I am also contemplating doing a tarot reading online course. I’m going to break it down to 5 “classes” dealing with everything that’s needed to be known to start reading. […]
via I’m currently working on guides for various divination methods for beginners — Astromommy
Blogging niche- yay or nay?
I’ve read a bit here and there about niche. I’ve read both the opinion that niches aren’t that important and I’m assuming my regular readers don’t look at the fact that my writing is all over the place and I talk about random things to avoid this being just personal thoughts and stuff.
If pushed, I’d probably have to say I’m a blogger mommy. I write and I’m a mommy but I’m definitely not a mommy blogger in the traditional sense. I won’t post anything (hopefully) that will ever embarrass my kids when they grow up. (one loves the limelight anyways, I’m trying to get her to start a Youtube with me and hey, maybe we could get the not so social girl involved as well…)
I have silently promised to take 20 pictures to make sure I get the perfect shot, if it ever comes up when my girls are teens or adults I don’t want them to be embarrassed.
I also lost my identity when I first had my oldest. She was born 3 months early, had an 8 month NICU stay and when she came home, we took her out once and she ended up back in the PICU because of a cold. Due to that, we were afraid of putting her in care and my parents worked, so I had to stay home. We tried home health care but the nurses kept leaving (better opportunities out of state or in other areas) or weren’t stable enough for us to leave them alone with her.
I stayed home for 4 years until she had been in pre-k for a while (it wasn’t 4 years by choice- when she started pre- k I started looking around but the job market is hard to get back into when you’ve been gone for as long as I had)
In the years I was unemployed, I started slipping out of my identity. I got very actively involved in the “Mom Facebook community” to the point I adminned in several groups but ended up getting tired of the drama and being expected to post multiple times daily. I very slowly quit those communities.
Now, I have two healthy kids. The youngest is 3 and I’ve been working on losing the identity of just “mommy.” I’m working on trying to get in touch with my real interests, hopes, dreams and who I am as a person. Thanks to that, my mind is typically all over the place. One minute, I’ll be listening to “Baby shark” with Bubble Guppies on in the background and the next I’ll be listening to Within Temptation with Lord of the Rings on. It hasn’t been as huge a process as it seems or even feels like it would be. I love reading “mommy blogs” and connecting with “mommy bloggers” but I don’t feel like I would fit into that.
I know I’m not a travel blogger, beauty, fashion or lifestyle so I’m guessing I don’t fit in any of the neat little categories.
The cons I have read about not fitting one is that it’s harder to find a target market. Since I write and have my business, I spend a lot of time trying to determine my target market and in that realm I’d need a niche, right?
I can name one huge pro with not fitting a niche- you aren’t confined to only writing about one topic. I was writing for a pregnancy/baby website for about 6 months. In that six months, I wrote 72 articles. Those 72 articles were all about either pregnancy or having babies under 2. By the time I left that site, I was burned out and wracking my brain to figure out what to pitch for them next. I was starting to think of random topics and pitching 2 or 3 bad ideas based around the one topic. It got to be a huge pain. Pregnancy is something I know very well but there comes a time you can write too much about a topic and run out of ideas. Since this isn’t a pregnancy site, I don’t have to stick with writing about pregnancy.
Do you have a certain niche?
How did you decide- just an interest, business or hobby or did it fall into your lap once you started writing?
I did notice a change pre and post 25- alcoholism/alcohol tolerance
I read a little while back that a woman’s brain is fully developed in her 25th year (for men, it’s 30)
It’s had me thinking and since I’m now half a decade away from 25, (I’m 31) I have been able to see how true that really was for me.
I have an impulse control disorder, it’s commonly joked about but it is real and makes impulses hard to control.
I have been thinking back and trying to remember years (typially by my kids’ ages) and I did realize that I may not have woken up on my 25th birthday different, but that year did make a huge difference.
Pre-25 Me
When I was 21, I drank. A lot. Like, so much that people were trying to get me into rehab for it (I actually did try but the cost and waiting time made it unfeasible). I would blow my whole paycheck at the bar after work. I got tired of going through my check so fast, I started giving myself an allowance (the rest would go in savings) and I’d only spend a set amount a night. It worked but there were some nights random people would offer to buy drinks (one guy hit the jackpot on a game 3 times and bought 3 rounds for the entire bar- that was the night I was trying to only drink 1-2 beers a night)
At 22, I met my husband and he was too young to go with me, so I very slowly quit drinking. He was never a drinker either so it wasn’t fun to drink without the man I was dating.
At 23, I had my first child. It was extremely easy for me to go the pregnancy with no alcohol.
It was also easy to go her NICU stay without it but I did pick some other habits up. I started overeating.
I also picked up loom knitting to kill the stress and it was very therapeutic.
While she was in NICU out of state, I went home for a weekend to study and take my state board exam for school. While I was home, we went to a game convention and the after party.
I met one of the workers and his wife and I ended up getting drunk. Instead of how I usually was, I cried most of the night about being there instead of at the NICU, even though the nurses themselves told me I needed a break and I made sure they would have a volunteer to go in and cuddle her a bit.
I didnt drink again after that for a year, when I drank with some neighbors, then again a year after that with neighbors. Both times the pain wasn’t worth the alcohol. I had to get drunk to avoid the pain so I slacked even further off.
Post-25 Me
By the time I was 25, I had one living 2 year old and 25 was the age we lost miss Cassie. It was also the literal year I found the side effects from drinking weren’t worth the taste. I got to a point I hated how I acted drunk, but I couldn’t even drink one small glass without getting a buzz. By that time, I was drinking maybe 2-3 times a year.
After 25, I started to notice how bad my joints would ache after taking just 1 sip.
I started just saying yes to the occasional offer when I was around someone else drinking so by the age of 26-27 I was down to maybe 1 a year.
This past summer, we took both kids to the beach with my parents. My mom and the kids were asleep and my husband and I went to a small restaurant at the hotel.
I was strictly on the gluten free diet by this time, so I researched and the margarita seemed safe. It had been over a year since I had drank last and I ordered a small margarita.
I had such a bad immediate reaction I couldn’t finish it. My stomach bloated up and I couldn’t breathe, I started to feel like my throat was closing up and it took me 30 minutes of walking around the beach to regulate my breathing. That night scared me to the point I’m now saying I’m allergic, although there is probably something I cant tolerate in most alcoholic drinks. I’ve been unable to drink most drinks for years anyways.
I say sometimes that my family has saved me from alcoholism and I do mean it but age is also playing a factor. When I was 21, I didnt get the severe pain in my joints I do now with one sip. I didn’t feel nothing but guilt for drinking and I didnt bloat up.
Either way, I prefer staying sober to being blacked out and passed out.
My Dream Journal is Up For Sale
After talking about it and working on it for the past few months, my dream journal is up and ready.
In this, there is space to record your dreams along with descriptions of common themes. I’m already in the middle of working on a dictionary to go along with this and am hoping to release that out by the end of the year.
It’s 10.00 a copy, you can get it here.
“I can’t keep plants alive”
I’ve heard that “argument” for not having kids a few times.
I have to ask, is that a true worry or is that one of the random “excuses” people feel they are forced to come up with when they don’t want kids (by the way, the only valid excuse should be “because I don’t want to have kids.” I’m sorry, but people should never be pressured or told they are selfish if they don’t want to have kids.
This question is coming from someone who has managed to keep 2 kids alive- for 8 years almost now (8 years next month for one and 3 years for number 2) but still managed to kill cacti and other “impossible to kill” plants. It’s so much easier to keep children and pets alive than it is to keep a plant alive, at least in my book.
With kids you just have to provide food, shelter, water/milk, teach safety and make sure they aren’t in dangerous situations.
With pets, it’s the same.
With plants- make sure the soil is perfect, the temperature and lighting is perfect and give them water- but not too much. That’s not enough… no! that’s too much… you just killed it.
Inside plants are the worst when you have cats. You can’t put something by the window, if you do, the cat will perch. With the cat perching, they will likely destroy the plant, make a mess and destroy the blinds.
Outside plants are a bit easier, until it rains and you end up with mud soup. You go outside in the morning after a hard rain and watch your flowers floating around your garden. Or you see huge bite marks in your sunflowers. Or your tomatoes are ate up.
I’ve had successful gardens a few times but more than once I’ve had unwanted visitors eating my plants and over watered succulents. Every year I’ll keep trying to keep plants alive, but I will always say- it’s much easier to keep kids alive than plants.
My writing has been featured
A while back I submitted a “Share your story” post about losing my Cassandra to Pickle & Poppet. They submitted the post to “ABloggingGoodTime” and they selected it as their featured post this past week.
Three year olds say some of the funniest things
My three year old has my imagination. She is always someone different.
Yesterday, she was Doc McStuffins and I was her patient.
“You have a bleed on your cheek. When your cheek has a bleed on it, I’ll get some cheek paste for the bleed.”
She got sick one day, I’m guessing from drinking too much soy milk before her meal. She threw up in the restaurant and asked my mom “what is that? That’s not my favorite thing.”
I guess it’s good to know that throwing up isn’t her favorite.
Another time, I got glutened. We went out to eat when it kicked in (almost exactly 12 hours later) and I was sitting in the restaurant crying unable to move or sit still. She had to run over and inform the waitress mommy was sick, then she had to tell every single customer that we walked past that mommy was sick.
She has also announced to all of Walmart that “that milk is diarrhea” or “that juice is diarrhea”
She is learning and she now verifying with me if food is “diarrhea” or safe and is doing a good job avoiding “diarrhea’ foods.
What are some of the funnier things your young kids have said?
Today is my 10th day
on my Facebook fast. I looked back yesterday and realized I was wasting too much time on Twitter, so today I deleted all social apps on my phone and have logged out of every social network. Outside of sharing articles and stuff like that, I’m not going to log in (and this shares directly to my social networks)
I never really thought about how much of a real time suck social media really is. When you’re bored, you log on and mindlessly scroll. I read yesterday that going online when you first wake up actually is bad for your brain. (I’ll post the link once I can find it. It disappeared, but it was in my pocket yesterday)
I try to get as much stuff done as I can when I first wake up before I go out for my first cigarette (part of my way of cutting back to quit- I can now go 1-2 hours after waking up, sometimes longer) depending on how much stuff I can find to work on.
I’m trying to do that now with internet.
I’m now 1/3rd of the way away from the end of my facebook fast, although I may keep pushing to see if I can make it longer. As long as I have messenger and am still able to contact my friends, I should be fine. I do miss the groups I was in.
I’ll see how easy it is to stay off ALL social media for the rest of the month- shouldn’t be too hard.
A Few Updates on Projects I’m working on
Astrology and Divination Newsletter
By the end of this weekend, I’m planning on having my first newsletter ready to send out.
This will be a once monthly letter, within the first week of the month. I refuse to spam but I will send out random updates occasionally but the updates will never be more than one to two extra a month.
Guided Dream Journal
I’m almost finished with my dream analysis journal. There will be a dictionary that will go with it, but that will be later this year.
When I get it published, I’ll be posting it on here. It will be 15 and will contain information as well as a journal to record your dreams.
Bethcessories Design
I’m putting the finishing touches to cleaning up the look of my shop, Bethcessories It’s been up and running but I am going to be holding a special sale to celebrate the official grand opening when I have more stuff.
Bethcessories Design is my personal brand. I create every item myself. I also offer dream interpretations, tarot chats, tarot readings, rune/iching readings and Astrological charts, as well as spell SUPPLY kits.
I’m currently working on some Zodiac coloured decorations, and I’m hoping within the year to add curtains.
You can see my reviews here.