30 days for Freyr - Roadblocks.

 I've been desperately trying to keep up on my writing but failing left, right, and center. I've been having some problems over the last several weeks. Three weeks ago, I put my back out and I was out of commission for a week. About two months now, I have been having severe problems with insomnia. This is having a negative impact on my ability to focus to write or do much of anything. The apartment is kinda a mess again because I've had the attention span of a goldfish. Throw on top of this, for the last three weeks I have been having difficulties with my C-PTSD and experiencing a lot of intrusive thoughts and flashbacks at random with great frequency.

I'm working with my doctor to get these things resolved but I know that this is not a case of 'Take this pill and you'll be better in a week.' But, it is making things like devotional writing hard. If you follow me on Tumblr, I'm a bit irregular in my morning little prayers right now. I'm stressed out and dissociating on a fairly regular basis. My problems sleeping make me more prone to doing that. I'm not entirely sure why.

Last night was the first night in the last two months I got something that resembled a full night of sleep. I only woke up twice and that was to get a drink of water. All this stress has my blood sugar running kinda high in the morning and I've been stress eating stuff like cheese. I think the only reason why this post is not gibberish is because I got more than 4 hours of sleep last night. I'm also on my second pot of coffee. That magical potion that turns me from a zombie into a semi-functional person.

Freyr has been concerned. Loki's been concerned. Beloved is concerned. The only ones who are not concerned are my kids, who don't really know what's going on because I do my best to mask my symptoms around them because they find them distressing. Which is exhausting. I don't know what the solution to this problem is going to be. I just hope that all of this doesn't land me into an depressive or a manic episode. Either would be real bad right now.

But that's why I haven't been posting. Because my brain is shit right now. I don't even know why I can't sleep. I fall asleep ok but I keep waking up after a large chunk of my bedtime medication wears off. The other night, I woke up six times in a row, despite taking the melatonin as my doctor advised. I think the fact I slept last night is based on the fact that I was so tired I was literally stumbling over my own feet.

30 days for Freyr - Day 4

 I love him for his generosity and kindness. I love him for how he takes care of his people (and often those who are around them as well). I love him for how good he is to the world and doesn't ask anything for it in return. I love him for the way plants grow and bloom in his presence. I love him for how he is always encouraging me to be my best self. I love him for how he loves me.

30 days for Freyr - Day 3

 I know that he is with me. I know it as surely as I know that objects on Earth fall at the velocity of 32 ft/s/s and that the Sun rises in the East. But today was a bad brain day. I'm heart sick and terrified of things from the past. It makes my head full of noise and shutters my 'second sight'. I just want to cry but I can't because of past trauma. Freyr tells me on a regular basis that there's no shame in my tears. He tells me that they're as natural and necessary as the rain. And that I shouldn't fight so hard to stop them from falling. But pain and psychological agony keep me stone-faced because I was taught as a child that crying was weakness and weakness was always punished. Some day, maybe, I'll be healed enough that I can cry. Today is not that day. At least Freyr understands that and has never told me that my tears (shed or unshed) were weakness.

30 days for Freyr - Day 2: A poem

 Pining for Autumn's beauty
Gazing upon a skin-shed
Holding a hollow skull
Life is fleeting
So it is that I must go
To transform
To transcend
To the little death of the seed
So that the mighty oak may grow

30 days for Freyr - Day 1 (really late)

 I am not well right now. I put my back out around the middle of last week picking up a stupid piece of paper. Life's been busy and a pain in the neck because it's been hard to have the focus to write anything, anywhere, in any format. Now, I have to rest my back and sit or lay and pretty much do nothing until this spasm goes away. I'm hoping that it'll be a week and then everything's fine. The pain is pretty much managed by the Aleve and Tylenol. The muscle relaxer is helping me a lot too but it's making my brain run a bit slower and I feel kinda spaced out (like with Benadryl sans the out-of-body sensation).

Now, you may ask what this misfortune has to do with Freyr. It's really simple. I'm posting here for the whole world to know that he was right. I got cocky and stopped making time for my exercises for my back after I fell about two years ago. Then the pandemic came along and I pretty much stopped exercising all together. The entire time, Freyr was gently telling me I really needed to do at least some yoga to strengthen my core muscles. I hate yoga because the stretching is painful for me to do in 90% of the poses and most of the poses make me lose my balance.

Cue last Wednesday when I stooped to pick up a partial sheet of loose leaf paper one of my sons left on the living room floor. I went to stand back up and it hurt. Being a practical woman, I took some Aleve. It still hurt. Thursday morning, the Aleve had worn off and my pain was a 9 out of a scale of 1 to 10. The last time I had a 9, I was in labor with my youngest son and Beloved cracked a joke which made me laugh during a contraction. As I am typing this, Freyr is reminding me that if I don't put my glasses on soon, I'm going to give myself a headache. So, I'm going to listen to him and put them on. Because failing to listen to him combined with my natural clumsiness equates to misfortune. (And Loki pinning my ears back for not being more careful.)

Pandemic stress is hard on a necromancer.

 I'm writing this here instead of my other witchy blog or my personal blog because I think it fits here better. I don't know.

We're a year and a half (a little over actually) into this pandemic business and I'm frayed. I am struggling on the spiritual level a fair amount because of the fact that I'm pretty isolated geographically from the pagan community that I was participating in before this thing hit. I was just coming out of my shell and stuff. Then Covid-19 arrived on the scene and everything went to shit.

Around the time of early January 2019, my guides and all of my ancestors were telling me not to do divination for the upcoming year. We all know what kind of a shit show 2019 was. I came out of 2019 worn out and confused by why the dead were so many and so restless. Now, I understand. The constant static of a ton of psychic voices was cacophony in my head to the point that I was a little worried that my depression medication wasn't working properly.

Under the guidance of the All-Father, I put up wards around my home to keep all but my familial dead out. Gradually, the psychic pressure of the restless dead reached a point that going out of the house was a literal headache. At that point, the wards got extended to include the entire property and a ward got attached to my medical id bracelet. It went from noise to silence. Again, I was left wondering if my medications were working properly.

I still feel them out there. The lost souls looking for their route to where they're supposed to go. There's so many of them. There's more than just human souls that are in this position. The mass deaths that have happened over the last three years have left an imprint. This imprint on the psychic level of reality isn't going away anytime soon. But, like any other hollow space, it fills up. In this case, with spirits.

I'm a necromancer. It's my thing to talk to and generally deal with the spirits of the dead. Has been since I was a small child (and I suspect it runs in the family). Shutting down this part of myself has left me feeling out of sorts and like I'm missing something vital to my being. But, I'm being cautioned against opening up because we're not done with this pandemic. The warnings I get is that this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

Those warnings set off my anxiety issues. Add to that the legitimate reasons to be anxious about Covid-19 and its possible influence on my family, you just get an emotional mess. Now, the stress of all of this got to the point where my sleep was screwed up. That's very bad for a person with bipolar disorder. It is equally bad for a person with posttraumatic stress disorder. I happen to have both in spades. So, my doctor put me on medication to help me sleep and tweaked my other medications to help me with the anxiety (and attendant depression). 

Here I am, a little over a year and a half later, I still feel that psychic pressure. When I go out, it's like static electricity all around me. It's only gotten more intense as time has gone on. I veil and that static like feeling is pushed back. The problem is, the people where I live are not ... tolerant of anything that looks even remotely Islamic. The veil style that provides the most shelter for me is the headrail, which looks identical to the shyla because there's only so many ways you can wrap a bit of fabric about your head. 

I wear kerchiefs but it isn't the same. I'm working on trying to come up with ways I can both not be overwhelmed by the restless dead's need for someone to point the way and still be psychically active. Right now, the only thing that I can do with out something going haywire is basic divination. But, even that is getting a little weird. Which means the pressure on the wards is getting higher. Which isn't surprising.

Covid-19 jumps and mutates incredibly fast. It kills easily and in a horrific way. It's a terrifying disease. The mass deaths it's caused is warping reality a bit because there are so many restless souls. I pray that with the Hunt season, those souls will all be brought to where they're supposed to be. At the same time, it feels like Hunt season from 2019 never ended.

July for loki post no 19: i surrender.

 Enough stuff has gone sideways over the last two weeks, I just give up. Apparently I am doing to much or trying to do too much or something. I don't know. I just know that I've been having things proverbially go explody left, right, and center for the last several days. I'm tired. I'm frustrated. And I just can't fake a smile and push on. 

No idea what that means for all the stuff I have to do. Loki keeps telling me to open my hands and let the pieces fall. Whatever pieces I'm holding on to, I'm just letting drop. I don't have the spoons for all of the drama. In other news, thieves suck and I want my planter back so but I can't have it back because it's evidence now. I was going to get some flowers and put them in it and I was going to take that strawberry planter and put the ton of spider plant babies into it. But some moron stole a big planter full of dirt and a mostly dead rosebush and my strawberry planter. 

*sighs* This shit is exhausting. I don't know wtf the message is, if there even is one. Who the hell fucking steals a two cubic foot planter full of dirt? Seriously? I guess the flowers I get to have are the ones I either make out of yarn or buy from the store. 2021 sucks.

July for Loki post no, 18

A Litany for Loki (from my new book)

Hail Loki

Hail to the Friend of the Traveler

Hail to the Sky-Treader

Hail to the Cunning One

Hail to the Scar-Lipped Speaker of Unwelcome Truths

Hail to the mischievous Lie-Smith

Hail to the Tale Spinner

Hail to the Thunderer's Companion

Hail to the Dweller within Victory's embrace

Hail to the Net-Maker and the Salmon

Hail to the slayer of Otar of the waters

Hail to the thief and restorer of Sif's hair

Hail to the Father of Monsters

Hail to the Mother of witches and trolls

Hail to the Bound-God who walks free

Hail to the Lover of Angrboda

Hail to the Blood-Brother of Helblind

Hail to the Curious One

Hail to the Friend of Humanity

Hail to the Guardian of the Hearth-fire

Hail  to the famed son of Laufey

Hail to the Champion of the outcast

Hail to the Giver of Strange Gifts

Hail to the Wolf's Father

Hail to the Watchman's Bane

Here's the link if you want to buy a copy. It's a short read. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099NX9HLL

July for Loki post no. 17

 I have been slowly feeling my mood drop as we move farther away from the summer solstice. I am pretty sure it's my seasonal affective disorder beginning to rear its head. This morning, as I was attempting to write in my journal, Loki said to me, "It's not too early to break out that special light and start using it." I've been resisting the urge to do so because I just feel like a fool sitting there with that 'happy light' running when the sun is in the process of rising. I was considering bickering with him about it when he reminded me, "If you can't make your own neurotransmitters, store bought it fine. If you can't get enough sunlight, a sun lamp is fine. Think about your plants and grow lights."

So, this argument in place, I have to figure out how I am going to fit in 30 min of time with the 'happy light' where it's the only major light source in the room at the correct angle. I don't know how I'm going to do this. My apartment is laid out terribly and the one room that would be ideal for that doesn't have enough outlets or a table for me to put the light on. Ugh. I hate being wrong but I hate even more not being able to implement the solution to the problem that I was in denial about. I'm sure that Loki will have some kind of idea, he's crafty like that.

But yea, SAD sucks.

July for Loki post no. 16

 So, Beloved and I get back from visiting his elderly parents. As I go to get out of the car I see that his travel mug of coffee from the day before is sitting in the cup holder. I pick it up. Instead of finding the usual handful of change sitting in the bottom of the cup holder underneath the mug, I find a calcified chicken nugget. 

Beloved's confused and then he starts howling with laughter. He says to me, "Hey, babe, I think your boss gave you a chicken mc-fuck-it." It had been an exasperating day. I was about to say something to the effect that I was out of fucks to give. Then this happened. I tossed the chicken nugget out into the wild so some feral cat could have it.

"Well, there goes my last fuck," I said. Beloved exploded with laughter. The boys, who were out of the car and on their way into the house at the time were very confused by all of this because they didn't hear the conversation.

Flame-Hair, supplier of fucks when you run out?

July for Loki post no. 15

 I keep having emotional flashbacks to trauma from when I was a kid over the last few days. Loki sat with me last night and told me, "Just because they feel real doesn't mean that they're happening now." I got very upset when he told me that. I asked him then if what I experience with him and Freyr are just simply manufactured by my broken brain. Loki reminded me of the time I was inpatient for a suicidal episode including psychotic features. After I had gotten a dose of Haldol to quiet the auditory hallucination of my mother screaming at me to kill myself, Loki said quiet calmly, "Can you hear me now?"

I just about wept with relief. I was terrified that my mystical experiences were all hallucinations after the first bout of psychotic experiences about ten years ago. Haldol is a serious business antipsychotic. It shuts down that part of your brain that is putting out the garbage information that's telling you something is there that isn't. It has a few odd things about it, like going from absolute panic to feeling like you're wrapped up in a warm, heavy blanket and your heart rate slowing down. But, I knew that with the Haldol I was going to get relief from the screaming. 

Then Loki spoke up. Suddenly, I understood that all of my mystical experiences were real. He was with me, even when the place turned into utter chaos later at dinner time. It wasn't like a full scale riot. But the moment the full moon cleared the horizon, chairs were getting thrown, people were shoving each other, and I was trapped in a corner cowering behind a table, praying that the violence was going to stay on the other side of the room. As I was there, Loki was with me telling me that I was going to be ok and I just had to focus on my breathing so I didn't hyperventilate. Eventually, the hospital staff got the dining room under control. I came out of my hiding spot, shaking but doing my best not to show fear. When they sent everyone back to their rooms early, I was relieved. I laid down in my bed and just faced the window and prayed that it wasn't going to happen again.

Loki sat at the foot of the bed and told me that everything was going to be ok. One may ask, where was Freyr in the midst of this. Well, he was standing between me and the brawl. Later, when I was in my room, he was standing at the doorway. And as I had been pacing, Loki was on my left side as Freyr was on my right, just quietly bearing witness to what I was doing and dealing with. I think the reason why Loki spoke up and was focused on calming me down is because I've known Loki longer and was more likely to listen to him.

But, yeah, that was a thing that happened.

July for Loki post no. 14

 I should have put this in the last post, but here's the book cover. It's out under the pen name I use for my religious oriented and spiritually oriented writing. Here's a link if you want to grab a copy: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099NX9HLL

July for Loki post no 13

 Nothing like having life get in the way of blogging. Somedays, I feel like I should give up but those are particularly bad days. Mainly, I've been busy trying to get through stuff like my eldest son having an emergency dental appointment on Tuesday and family business on Wednesaday. The apartment is a disaster with laundry piled up everywhere and a stack of dishes waiting to be done. On the other hand, I finally finished the Lokean devotional I was working on and got it published.

Working on that project was an experience and a half. Loki put in a lot of input on how he wanted me to assemble the thing. He insisted that the Lokean rosary (he insisted it was a rosary, not prayer beads) be the first thing people encounter in the book. So that wound up at the beginning. I can't help the anxiety that this is going to rile a lot of people up and get me a bunch of hate. Loki, however, assures me that this is going to be fine and I have more to worry about the Aristasian's coming out of the woodwork to bitch about my work on the Clear Recital: Children of Déa Version. 

I checked on KDP to see if there'd been any book sales of any sort this week. Some eager beavers decided to pick up copies of the Lokean devotional and someone read it all the way through in one sitting. Now, it's not a long or a hefty book. Coming in at a mere 20 pages, you can get through this pretty quickly. I was just surprised that as soon as I posted the link to the sales page, there were to purchases. I figured it'd take a week or so for that to happen. I've only started the marketing process.

It is my hope that this devotional gives other Lokeans a jumping off point for building their own devotional practices. I honestly don't know why Loki wanted a Catholic style rosary but that got in there. Maybe to introduce people to the concept that the can repurpose prayer traditions from their former faith. All I know is that I just hope this helps devotees of Loki feel more secure and comfortable with their practices. Loki assures me that this book is going to help people, and that's all I want.

July for Loki: Post 12

 He laughs and it's music to my ears no matter what form he takes. Loki is just someone that I adore. He's been with me through horrific times and wonderful times. He basically threw me at the love of my life, going 'NOW KISS!!' when we were little more than kids. Loki's been the source of humor that carried me through some horrible shit when I was a kid. Loki's sense of humor is dark, sardonic, and hilarious. He is the one who cracks jokes at a funeral about the dead guy in the box that make people giggle despite themselves.

Sometimes, Loki speaks through me. The experience of channeling Loki is probably one of the most intimate things I've ever had. Channeling can put you in the position where you're in the passenger seat of your brain observing what's  happening. It can also throw you into the trunk and leave you completely in the dark about what's going on. Loki, typically, puts me in the back seat as he is doing things and holding a conversation with me at the same time. The times where I end up in the trunk, it's always with a bit of warning before hand (unlike some deities) and he usually makes smart comments before it happens about my kinks. It's a weird experience to have him hitting the kink buttons before he takes over to talk to someone. When I come out of the trance, I'm frustrated but not at the same time and he's smug.

It's an experience and a half to channel Loki. Especially when it is his World-Breaker aspect because there's something of a D/s thing between him and I. Of all the deities that I have channeled, Loki is on the short list of the ones I trust completely because he's always taken care of me. There've been times where the handling was a bit rough, but in the end it always works out for the best. (Even that lesson where I fell down a flight of stairs and a snow shovel caught me. He resorted to drastic measures because I was being particularly hard headed. When I start heading down the path of being that hard headed, he reminds me about that little trip.)

July for Loki: Post No. 11

 Posting this one a day early because tomorrow is going to be busy.

On a more serious note, Loki isn't the cause of all of the Aesir's problems. Some of it is the Aesir doing dumb shit. For example, the prophecy that Fenrir, Jorgmundr, and Hela were going to cause the destruction of the Aesir got put into motion when the Aesir took the children from Angrboda. If they just left them alone, I suspect that things would have gone differently. When Baldur gains a degree of immortality from Frigga running all about Midgard asking everything not to harm her son (except for the young mistletoe plant), he should have kept that under his hat. Frigga shouldn't have talked about it. But, she did and Loki puts that dart in Hodr's hand to ensure that Baldur goes to her Thing.

Loki's mischief is not malice (most of the time). He's acting as the hand of the Norns in many cases. In other situations, he's bringing the solution to a larger problem by way of creating smaller problems. (Remember, the wall about Asgard is not complete for a reason. And that made a place where they could put the fire to burn Thjazi.) I tire of people saying that Loki's evil. I tire of people saying that he is the Norse Satan. Most of all, I am exhausted with people saying that Loki is "just a myth".

That, however, will be a rant for another day.

July for Loki: Post No. 10

 Y'all have seen the Norse crisis flow chart? Allow me to present another flow chart that works as well.

July for Loki: Post No. 9

 I don't know what to write because I've been so busy trying to organize the chaotic mess that is my home. Loki just chuckles at my efforts because the boys manage to undo them right behind me. Children are chaos engines. They don't tell you that. They say that they're cute and adorable. They say that they're bright and full of potential. They don't tell you if you give your 11 year old the slightest information about how mechanics work (talking about physics stuff), they will immediately build a catapult with out having seen one in operation before. They don't tell you if you give your 13 year old any information about relationships that it rapidly leads to awkward questions about sex. (Loki finds it hilarious that both Beloved and I are unsure how to explain it to the kid who wrote a 'romance' story in school that made his teacher blush. The son in question has refused to show me the story he wrote, insisting he needs to revise it and make it better. We're kind of dreading what better means.)

As Beloved and I stumble our way through parenting, Loki has been amused, given suggestions, and outright laughed at the situation as we're trying desperately to keep our cool and not do the same. Apparently we're hilarious as a family. Like the day we caught the boys trying to impress each other with the best insults they could think of. Vulgarities were flying and then they both went "OH SHIT! IT'S MOM AND DAD!" Beloved and I damn near died with the effort it took not to start cracking up. Flame-Hair was in hysterics. Stuff like this happens just about every day. I was not warned about this aspect of raising children. It is SO hard not to laugh when they're at their antics. And if you crack and start smiling or laugh, they'll keep hammering on the ridiculousness button until it breaks. (I swear they get that from their father, who's been attempting to assassinate me via jokes timed while I have been eating for over thirty years. Again, Loki finds it hilarious. Especially the time that whiskey shot out my nose. Whenever I start coming down with a cold, Loki suggests a nasal rinse with cheap whiskey as he giggles.)

But, yeah, kids = chaos engines. And that's why Loki love kids so much. They naturally just get along.

July for Loki: Post no. 8

 An excerpt from the Lokean devotional that I'm working on this month.

A Lokean Creed

I believe in Loki. I believe in the early days of Midgard that Loki, with Odin and Hoenir, gave humanity their shape, nature, life essence, and all of the comely hues of humanity. I believe that Loki is mighty and benevolent. I believe that Loki is the Lie-Smith who speaks the unwelcome truth. I belive that Loki is the Bound-god who walks free. I believe that Loki is the Giver of Strange Gifts and the wondrous treasures of the Aesir. I believe that Loki is both mother and father to wondrous and mighty children. I believe that Loki is the Sky-Treader and the companion of the Traveler. I believe that Loki is the Tangler and the breaker of knots as the World-Breaker. I believe that Loki, as the World-Breaker, brings change and serves the Norns in his mischief unto the end of Ages and the time of the renewal of all things.

July for Loki: Post no 7

 Loki is a stickler for authenticity. He wants me to be who I am regardless of who it pisses off. I think this is why he's so proud of the work I did on the Clear Recital and the team's efforts. He keeps telling me not to be upset and anxious about the Aristasian/Shining Daughter of Harmony's kerfluffle over it. They're coming out of the wood work to complain and it's upsetting. I've written a rebuttal to the post decrying the edition that we put out and I've been doing my best to put that out of mind (and not read the comments). But my social phobia is acting up and makes me want to clamp down on all kinds of expression.

Loki has been firmly admonishing me for that. He says that the point of my growth process through the pandemic period is having enough breathing room for me to throw off the shackles of the past. The irony of discovering that wearing my bdsm collar helps me stay grounded in the present (very important for both my anxiety disorder and my ptsd), boosts my mood (very helpful with my bipolar disorder and seasonal depression), and reminds me/makes me feel loved by Beloved when he's not here to cuddle me when I'm upset ... well, the reason why that is ironic is because my parents (whom I am estranged from) flipped out in a bad way over a joke keychain that involved a teddy bear in bondage gear. They threatened to disown me if I was 'into that shit,' among other things. Now that I am just about 20 years out from under their thumb, I am finally wearing clothes that makes me feel good and that collar fits right into the look and makes me happy.

I'm still trying to figure out what's ok for what Beloved calls the NPCs. I had a ribbon choker that I made but I started reacting to the metal finding that served as a clasp after I wore the fake patina off of it. I'm reacting to the bdsm collar's metal work because it's not stainless steel. Beloved's ordered me a new collar. I'm both excited and nervous about wearing it. Loki is very firmly stating when I get like this, "Wearing it is healthy for you, so you're going to wear it." This is the same side of Loki who admonishes me to take my anxiety medications. He says that there's a solution to the problem of something collar like that will not upset the more vanilla family members that we're involved with. The kids are all 'whatever, Mom's just being weird again.'  Loki hasn't said what the solution to that problem is, but he seems to have an idea that he'll reveal at the 'right' time.

July for Loki: Post no 6

 Dear Reader,

I know I'm behind by 3 posts. I may cheat and post up some memes that remind me of Loki. It's been a very busy week so far with the kids going to summer school and my having two days worth of errands to run. Loki has been insistent that I don't skip my time doing tarot reading in the afternoons. As he put it, "You need to talk to real adults too." My social phobia has been acting up again. I was just about ready to walk out of the store with out getting anything when Loki said, "You really need to get more black shirts for your wardrobe, this way laundry day doesn't break your aesthetic. And maybe you should look for some jewelry." I thought about arguing with him when he continued to say, "You don't want to have wasted the gas to drive here just to turn around and not get what you need, do you?"

Practical Loki is practical when he feels like it. It's maddening when he does that. Happy Fun Ball Loki is silly and full of jokes. When he's being practical and shit, I know that he's serious about something. In this case, it is getting me used to the idea of being the person who goes out into public to do stuff. The pandemic and the isolation of it all did not do good things for my brain. It was Loki pushing me to go out and mail the package for my niece while the weather wasn't awful that got me moving. And the next thing I know, I'm at the store buying clothes and being semi-social with random strangers. It was a bizarre and uncomfortable experience to be one of the very few people still masking right now. Again, Loki assured me that everything was going to be fine and that I was definitely making the right decision to wear the mask.

Yesterday was exhausting from the shopping trip to keeping up with a couple of kids who were wired most of the afternoon (which lead to some  personality collisions). Loki assures me that once they're settled into the routine of summer school things are going to get easier. He's also insisting that the projects that I am worried are going to be a disaster are going to go just fine and the kids will have some awesome memories to come out of them. I hope so. I feel like we're on the verge of a shut down again. I don't know if I can handle the business of homeschooling for a few weeks while the school gets everything sorted out to do distance learning for the whole district again if that happens.

On that matter, Loki doesn't tell me that I'm over reacting. He says that it's wise to be cautious. When Mr. I Don't Fear Anything but Thor When He's Pissed Off says that, I get a little more nervous. So, my family are practicing the Covid-19 safety protocols with the encouragement and blessing of the gods, including Loki. Who regularly reminds me when I go to leave the house to bring a mask. It's the little things that show you they care.