Ellie@Home by Nicole Kapise-Perkins

   Hello! Apparently it's round-up week here @ Home: Monday I gave you some favorite blogs, Tuesday it was family-friendly fantasy moves (in which I made a glaring omission: Howl's Moving Castle!   ...actually, now that I think about it, I may just give you a Hayao Miyazaki post, because Miyazaki! Stay tuned for that!)    Today I give you Instagram! Possibly my favorite time-waster, I love scrolling through and checking out people's photos and stories. I do follow some worthwhile news pages, such as Rachel Maddow, Michelle Obama, and Huffpost Women, but the pages I visit the MOST, well, they're pretty much fluff. For instance: Nerds With Vaginas (@nerdswithvaginas) • Instagram photos and videos www.instagram.com 406.2k Followers, 2,405 Following, 8,681 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Nerds With Vaginas (@nerdswithvaginas) https://www.instagram.com/girlsatlibrary/ Girls at Library (@girlsatlibrary) • Instagram photos a...

     Hello! Two posts in a row, I'm impressed with me! Last night found us crashing on the couch after my boy's Taekwondo class, watching Strange Magic for the umpteenth time. I absolutely love this movie: a fun faerie story, lively music (Broadway superstar Kristen Chenowith sings "Love is Strange," for instance!). My little guy and I can pretty much quote every laughable moment. My whole household is made up of fantasy fans, and there are the obvious favorites like Harry Potter and The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (not exactly family-friendly, even though my youngest has been watching LOTR since he was born....) and we all LOVE Ridley Scott's Legend (again, not for the younger set, unless you are like me and watched it during middle of the night feedings). So...based on how much fun we have piling onto the couch with a huge bowl of popcorn and glasses of lemonade, I thought I would share our favorite fun fantasy flicks with you all. Here they are, in no particul...

   This was a weekend of movement, magic, Mother's Day mania, and much more! (How's that for alliteration?) Despite being on the go pretty much all weekend, I enjoyed a feeling of relaxation, probably because everything going on was stuff I wanted to do and made time for.      Saturday morning found me and my friend Dev at a Tarot-reading class, the second half of the class we had taken last year (!). I have mentioned before that I read my cards every day, sometimes a full spread, other times just a one card "what will the day bring?" draw. This class explored the ties between Tarot and astrology. I know pretty much nothing about astrology, except to wonder if my mother might have gotten my birthdate mixed up with someone else, because I am the most un-Aries-like Aries I have ever met. I've been given a great recommendation for a site to use to explore my rising sign; this may go a long way toward explain why this Aries acts like a Pisces (This isn't ...

Tonight is Beltane Eve, Walpurgisnacht, May Eve! To wrap up National Poetry Month, I give you Beltane-themed poems. Blessed be! "Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day; And give us not to think so far away As the uncertain harvest; keep us here All simply in the springing of the year. Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white, Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night; And make us happy in the happy bees, The swarm dilating round the perfect trees. And make us happy in the darting bird That suddenly above the bees is heard, The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill, And off a blossom in mid air stands still. For this is love and nothing else is love, The which it is reserved for God above To sanctify to what far ends He will, But which it only needs that we fulfill." -   Robert Frost, A Prayer for Spring The Blossom On The Bough Two sonnets for May, and my muse The ...