Daily Updates July 12, 2025

 8:59 a.m.

It was a manic night. I woke up at three a.m., itching to work on the website more. I forced myself to stay in bed. I recognized the compulsion - the tendencies toward working for days in a row without regard for food or sleep. So I resisted it, which is something I've never done. I disciplined it. I lassoed it. I leashed it. I wrangled it. And so I stayed in bed until 7 a.m. and decided to get up.

The first order of business was to create the image and label for The Daily Dose. This was the missing 4th door for the blog page, and something I've always wanted. In fact, I used to do something very similar on another blog over 20 years ago. This is where I draw the daily tarot, check the sun's position, the lunar influences, the day of the week, color of the day, and planting/harvest, to get an overall vibe for the day as a whole. I like to do this every morning, and now it has a home.

And, naturally, once I got the page in place, I wrote my first entry.

I think my next task for the day is to start working on the August Enchantmonths article, which I want to have published by Tuesday. I did do the Lammas article (and linked it in The Wheel of the Year in Timely Magic), and I did do the August Full Moon article (and linked it in Lunar magic). I'll probably still need to do one on peridot (August birthstone, which means I'll have to do a birthstone pillar post), one for each of the herbs (which means an herb pillar post), etc. So that's a lot of work to do in three days, which may get modified if I get any freelance clients in this week. I've made peace with it, though. If I don't get every interlinking piece done by the 15th, I'll just keep working on them until it's caught up. I'm sure in time I'll catch my stride with these and have a system for assembling them faster - and it'll be tons easier once I have a content bank to work from (like when all the herbs and crystals are already in place in their longform state). And with that, I'm off to start assembling the main event for July, which is the preview of August.

10:21 a.m.

I finished crafting the content portion of August Enchantmonths. I'm really pleased with it. I still have to go in and add product, now, before I start interlinking other articles. What I am NOT pleased with, however, is that I realized my "Lunar Magic" page is horrific. I mean bad. It was the first one I did, so it's okay - but it means I have to go in and redo the whole thing, which is what I'll be doing after I get the products in the Enchantmonths page. As for now, time to get out of the bathrobe, get dressed, throw the hair in a pony, grab something to eat, stretch, and then come back to it.

11:29 a.m.

Got all the products added, so it's published and it's linked to the pillar. Now I need to go fix my moon magic article.

12:30 p.m.

Finished the second draft of the Moon Magic article and I'm much, much, much happier with it. I don't know what I was thinking with the one that I published already. I must have just been looking for a placeholder or didn't yet have the vision. At any rate, it's now published but I do have to go back and add products to it, which I'll do shortly.

4:25 p.m.

I didn't nap today, but I did give myself permission to sit outside and read. I finished the book. Then I came inside and wrote Steel Toe Boots. Now I'm gonna go add the products and images to the Moon Magic article that I fixed earlier, and then may do pillar posts for herbs and gemstones. It's early and I won't go to bed until about midnight, so lots of time and energy to invest here since everything else is done and caught up. I like being here. I like the space I'm creating. It's cozy here.

6:10 p.m.

I veered left again. Rather than working on products for the Enchantmonths page (which I'm still going to do tonight, by the way), I ended up creating a portal page for the Plants & Herbs portion of Earthly Magic. Of course, behind each of those doors is a placeholder, but I very much enjoy the creative process of building out the infrastructure, and I like mapping out all the topics my mind wants to cover. It may take me my whole lifetime to fill in all the blanks here - infinite possibilities for content. Only one me and one day at a time. But I love the plants and herbs page. It's perfect. And, it's not just plants and herbs - it's also got flowers and trees, but the main portal door just says plants and herbs. I think that's just fine. I did this because I wanted to do an herbs cheat sheet so I could do the two herbs for August's Enchantmonths - and I also want to do the same for crystals, although it's not going to have 4 portals - it's just going to open right up, I think, into the crystals cheat sheet, and I may have a bonus link for "read more articles about crystals here" or something like that for things like articles about how to care for your crystals, crystal grids, the crystal skulls mystery, etc. Then I need to do a birthstones cheat sheet (Oh, maybe I will have portal doors after all) so I can do a longform on peridot like I do for each of the herbs. It's a lot of work, but I'm loving the result and I can't wait to have the whole year mapped out this way. It'll make my planning and productivity so much easier next year.

7:20 p.m.

Finished adding the products and images to the Moon Magic page, so it is now 100% complete.

I think I'm gonna call it a day (maybe) and go read for a while.