Island Tiffiney's View ...blogging from Emerald Isle, NC

...that make me smile:

Patterns
Spirals Celtic Knots Triskelions Ohm

I also love:
Goddesses (especially Earth Mother ones!) Candles and Incense

Favorite Crystals and Stones:
Chevron Amethyst
Rose Quartz
Lepidolite
Rhodocrosite
Rhodonite
Jade
Fluorite
Hematite
Kyanite
Labradorite
Lapis Lazuli
and
Moonstone
There are many other stones and crystals that I enjoy handling, the above are just a few of my favorites. I also note that there may be a display of 100 or more of each in a store, but the right one chooses the person. It either "sings" to you, or it doesn't. Quality and beauty of each is subjective.

I will leave it up to you dear readers to google images for the above mentioned stones. :)

I know, it's been forever since I last visited this blog.
There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day...

A lot of my friends in RL and Online have asked me, "What is your religious background?"
I don't usually answer that question as it is a personal question, and for me, very hard to explain. So, I have decided to update my blog, to reflect who the real spiritual me is.

I was raised by divorced parents. It's not really a surprise, as my mother was raised Roman Catholic, and my father was raised Protestant. Dad attended a Lutheran Church as a youngster. When I was somewhere between 2 and 3 years old, Dad became a Born Again Christian, and started attending an Assembly of God Church (Pentecostal).

I lived with my Mother along with my older brother and younger sister. Dad had visitation with me on the weekends. So, I grew up Pentecostal.

I was very active in church, attending both morning and evening services on Sundays, youth group events mid week and fund raising for the youth group on Saturday mornings.
All was well until the year I turned 14. That year, our church hired a new youth pastor. The 1st thing that struck me as very, very wrong was, during one of our services, he addressed all of the female members, saying,
"Ladies, keep in mind: If you are sunbathing in your back yard, and your neighbor looks over and sees your flesh with lust and desire in his heart, you are just as guilty of adultery as your neighbor. You should keep yourself covered and modest at all times".
I disagreed, and went to the church Pastor. He actually agreed with the youth pastor!!!
I raised the argument: "So, my single mother puts food on our table by working two jobs. One of them is tending bar at night. Does that mean that since her bar tending shift ends at two AM and she rarely gets out until two-thirty, that if walking to her car she is accosted and raped in the parking lot, it's her fault"?
Both pastors agreed, that as her chosen "profession" yes, she pretty much asked for it!
I said "BULLSHIT"! I didn't like their answer, but the final straw was yet to come.

One of the newest members of our youth group named "Ray" came from a very troubled home life. He had shoulder length wavy hair, a slow but beautiful smile, and wore blue jeans, tee shirts, and a bad ass blue jean jacket. I almost loved him from the day he walked through the door. The youth pastor would often give him strange, disapproving looks which kind of puzzled me. A few weeks after the "adultery" talk, the youth pastor addressed Ray personally in the youth service, he said, "Ray, as you have now been coming here for over a month, surely you know that you dress inappropriately for church. You really need to cut your hair, and start honoring God by dressing decently".

At that I hit the roof and quite frankly had had enough! I got up and pointed out that Jesus didn't break bread with the Sadducees and Pharisees, nor did he wear Nike, Lacoste or Polo fashion. He spent time spreading Love and tolerance!!! That was it for me! Ray and I both walked out the door and never returned to that church. I often wonder whatever happened to him. His father was a mean drunk and physically abused Ray's mother. After we left the church, I only saw him one time. His family ended up moving quite suddenly.

After that incident, I still considered myself a Christian and visited many, many different churches. I never found one that believed as I did. They always seemed to focus on hellfire, damnation and sin. I wanted to focus on love and acceptance. I think that it's more important to teach others through love and tolerance what good values and morals are.

Fast forward 10 years....

I met my Husband Dave when we both worked at Domino's Pizza. Dave is one of the kindest people I have ever known, with a very strong conviction of what is moral and just. He was too young for me at the time. He was 20 and I was 24. That isn't such a big thing now, but it was at the time! We never really discussed religion. As the years went by and our friendship blossomed and developed, the only thing that really concerned me was the fact that he is an atheist. I was not.

Dave and I started dating 5 years after meeting when I was 29 and he was 25. We were very compatible and the best of friends as well. That was a difficult year for me as I had been separated from my 1st husband for a year (a total douche bag I might add), and was just finalizing my divorce with him.

I admit, I had reservations about dating Dave, as I thought I might someday change my mind and want to have children. I know from experience how difficult it can be on kids that have parents with different religions, let alone one christian and one atheist parent!!! I told Dave that if I were to have kids, I would want to raise them with "christian" morals and values. He asked me if I believed he had neither since he was an atheist... I thought about it for a short time and realized that I had pre-conceived notions in my head that didn't reflect what I knew to be true.

And that, my friends what set me on my journey to truly examine what was ingrained in my head from indoctrination, and what set me on a quest to find my own path, the one that is unique and right for me.

I have read many books, attended seminars and have talked to a lot of people from every walk of life, religion and belief system possible. What I came up with is this:

My 10 Statements of Truth:

1. I am spiritual, without being "religious".
2. I don't accept that there is one true god, or supreme being.
3. There may well be other highly evolved beings out there, but if so they live on a different plane of existence or in a dimension that I can not see. I don't believe that it is impossible, but I can't prove that they exist either.
4. My beliefs are closer to Pagan (some might call it heathen) than any other belief system.
5. I do not bow down to or worship anyone or anything.
6. I believe life force is energy. That I can feel.
7. I experience great joy when I feel positive energy around me.
8. Everything elemental holds energy. I feel when I handle crystals, stones, when I light candles, when I breathe in salt air from the ocean, in the sand under my feet.
9. I accept that animals probably have a better understanding of these things as I don't believe they are encumbered by emotional thought like humans are.
10. I believe that our life force is energy that recycles back into existence when we die, but do not accept a soul as something that goes to heaven or hell, but rather is released from our bodies to rejoin energy, as power.

The ten statements of truth above are mine. They may not ring true for you, and that is fine. We each have our own path, our own truths, and our own realities.

Green Bean Artichoke Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:
3 (15.5 ounce) cans of green beans drained
2 (14 oz) cans artichoke hearts, drained
1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
8 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
2) Pour the green beans, artichoke hearts, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese AND mozzarella cheese into a 9x13 baking dish.
Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper, stir to blend everything thoroughly.
Drizzle olive oil over the top, then cover the dish with aluminum foil.
The trick is to distribute the artichoke hearts evenly.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, then remove the aluminum foil.
Bake for another 15 minutes to brown the top slightly.
Be careful with the salt because the cheese has salt in it.

A big and heart felt thank you goes out to my good Plurk friend @MarilynMcGeorge for sharing it with me!!! I love it! This recipe is sure to please with a new take on a traditional recipe!

Tiffiney's Summer Easy Peasy Cake in a Hurry

Ingredients
1 Premade angel food cake
2 Regular sized packages of vanilla instant pudding. (and the 4 cups of milk that the packages call for!)
1 Small jar of your favorite fruit preserves
1 Small container of Cool Whip (or real whipped cream if you prefer)

Directions
1. Follow package directions for instant pudding, set aside after mixing.

2. Slice cake into 1 inch slices spread the slices out evenly to cover the bottom of a plastic dessert pan
(roughly 9" x 13")

3. Spread preserves over sliced cake as evenly as possible.

4. Pour pudding mixture over preserves.

5. Top with Cool Whip, or whipped cream.

6. Refrigerate until set. (about 1 hour)

Note: You can use any flavor of pudding that you like, but vanilla goes with any type of fruit preserves so well!
Best preserves for this cake IMHO are: Peach, Apricot, Strawberry, or Cherry. Get creative and enjoy!

7. Enjoy.

I’ve been tagged by Eaglehawk for a seven things you (possibly) don’t know about me meme.

The Rules?

* Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
* Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
* Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
* Let them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I can't tolerate silence, so I rarely stop talking. Seriously, if I'm writing/typing it, I'm probably saying it.! ;)

2. I love hip hop music. Especially Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, and Ja Rule, they each have incredibly sexy voices. I don't find the lyrics offensive, but I would if they were spoken in conversation. Doesn't make sense, but all true. Other artists voices that I find incredibly sexy include: Shawn Mullins, Eve, Toni Braxton, Toby Keith, and Randy Travis.

3. I love the thought of camping, but have never been. There was a massacre in NE Ohio before my birth, so camping was prohibited by my father.

4. I have ridiculous phobia's, including bathophobia, and acrophobia. Living at the beach, I rarely swim in the ocean beyond shoulder depth, and will immediately body surf back to shore once my feet leave the sandy bottom.

5. I'm an avid fantasy book reader. My favorite authors include J.R.R. Tolkien, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Terry Brooks, Tad Williams, Christopher Paolini, J. K. Rowling, and George R.R. Martin.

6. I am mildly Obsessive Compulsive and know exactly how many pieces of cutlery, Dishes, Pots, Pans, etc... that I have at any given time. I also have a difficult time breaking routine for the sake of saving time, if any part of a task can reasonably be skipped.

7. I was foolish enough to watch a P.I.T.A video back in 2006, and was unable to eat meat for eight months after! The only way I eat it now is by convincing myself that the meat purchased in the store was never an animal at all. they just made that package in the store just for me!

I am tagging:
Sheryl
Mom
Shailee
KDFrawg
pritcharddesigns
Matthew Hughes
Krysta

I ran across this video while surfing YouTube. I didn't realize that the spiral dance was such a large practice with non Native American cultures. I wish I too could travel to San Franciso this November! It looks like a lot of fun celebrating the never ending cycle of life and death.

Make sure to visit Starhawk's web site at:
http://starhawk.org/
There is a lot of useful information there.

Dave and I have spent the last few days going through our local MLS to find houses that we like, and are considering purchasing our first house to call home. Yesterday, we drove by a few of the homes that appealed to us.
The first home is in a community on a creek that leads to Bogue Sound. There is a community boat ramp about 400 feet from the house. The house is 2 story with a basement and a detached shed. We felt very drawn to the home and neighborhood, and decided to look at a few more houses that caught our eyes.
The second home for consideration is a bit older, sits on an acre of land. The square footage is a bit smaller at 1518 sf. but it does have a basement with electricity, heat/air ducts, it just needs finished walls, overhead lighting, and defined rooms/spaces. The finished basement will add an additional 1160 sf. bringing the total square footage to 2678! We're not too crazy about the location, but with a bit of landscaping, finishing the basement and a few minor improvements, and we should be able to make a significant profit in a few years time. That will move us closer to our dream of having a large sand castle home ocean front on the island!
The third house up for consideration is actually a modular home, in a neighborhood that borders the Croatan National Forest. The price is ridiculously low, resale might not be as quick, but the financing will be very easy.

Dave and I decided to call in a professional, and called Kitch Ayre, Broker, ABR She won the top honor of Top Producer for 2007, selling an astounding 24.3 million dollars worth of real estate! I hope to have great experience with her, I can't think of a more knowledgeable real estate agent in this area.

We shall see how it all goes :)

Dave and I just spent three days in Atlanta, Ga. We had a wonderful time. We arrived Sunday night (5-11-08) and left Wednesday noonish (5-14-08). Monday night we caught a Georgia Force Game. Anyone who knows me, also knows that I am not a sports fan, but I had a Great time! Arena football is a lot different than NFL/AFC game. The field is 5o yards long 85 feet wide,and has 8 yard end zones. The padded walls mark the sidelines, so it's a little like hockey as well!

I came across this beautiful dance video while surfing youtube. The most amazing thing about this troupe is that all of the young performers (male and female) are deaf. What an incredible performance!

Last week I purchased my first deck of "Oracle Cards". They are absolutely beautiful! I purchased this deck. The most reoccuring cards for me personally are Kuan Yin (Compassion) and Isis (Past Life). All of the Goddesses are intricately illustrated. I pick a random card each morning for my personal Goddess of the day.

What is the difference between Tarot Cards, and Oracle Cards? The main difference, in my opinion is that the Tarot deck usually consists of 78 cards (56 minor arcana and 22 major arcana cards ). The minor arcana can further be divided into 4 suits. and the major arcana (or trump cards) consists of 22 cards.
The Oracle deck is usually themed (animals, fairies, angels, goddesses... etc...) and there are no minor arcana bad cards (i.e. death, the fool, the hanged man). I use my cards as a form of self focus, and a tool for meditation.