Nan, not in a nutshell

• Sunday: Roast Beef with Yorkshire pudding
• Monday: Pork steaks coated with matzo meal and fried with carrots and mashed potatoes
• Tuesday: Cottage pie
• Wednesday: Grilled fish (the type depends on what I can get from the fishmonger)
• Thursday: fried chicken
• Friday: burritos
• Saturday: cock-a-leekie soup

I love my boys. They are very special to me.

My adult son is has grown to be a very good man. He had his moments, like all teens do, but I am very proud of him and the youg man he has become.

Thing 1 is my special miracle. My husband and I went through over 4 years of trying and two failed IVF treatments before conceiving him naturally several months after we had given up on having children together. He has Asperger's Syndrome so life is never a dull moment around here.

Thing 2 is my second miracle child. He loves his big brothers. His imagination is a wonder to behold. I never know from one day to the next if I am going to be speaking to a superhero or a lion or a dinosaur or a nurturing daddy with his baby. He started showing sign of Asperger's Syndrome when he was about 3.5 years old and we are now awaiting a diagnosis.

My husband and I met in February 1998 in an internet chatroom. He is an Englishman, I am American. He came to the US to meet me in person in March 1998 and asked me to marry him that same weekend. We were married, a first time marriage for both of us, in August 1998 here in the UK. 6 months after we met online.

We were both in our 30s when we married, and both marrying for the first time. The biggest obstacle we faced early on in our marriage was, simply put, that we had both got set in our ways when it came to doing things and neither of us really wanted to compromise. But, we made it through that. We made it through problems in conceiving. We made it through severe depression - i developed post- natal depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after the birth of Thing 2. We have made it through all this and remained as strongly committed to each other and as much in love now as we were 10 years ago.

When we married, we both knew that we wanted me to stay home and take care of the house and family. It is a role that I have thrived in. There are times when we have contemplated my getting a full-time job, but until the boys are older it is not really a viable option.

I knew when I was 7 years old that I had to be a nurse when I grew up. My entire focus through high school and university was on achieving this goal. In December 1988, I got there. I graduated from university with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. After that I worked for 10 years in the critical care setting. My speciality, my main area of training, was in coronary nursing.

In 1993, I began studying complementary healing styles. I received attunements and training in first and second degree Reiki. I began studying aromatherapy and herbal medicine on my own. The theoretical framework behind my degree fully supported alternative methods of healing. I still utilise the nursing theory developed by Martha Rogers, the Science of Unitary Human Beings within my own Reiki practice and teaching.

I continued my practice and training and obtained status as a Reiki Master in 1998. I've continued to develop my practice and knowledge in this area over the years. My next goal around this is to develop a Reiki practice where I can provide Reiki healing to others and help to train others as Reiki practitioners. I've named my practice Kolnza Reiki Healing. Kolnza is a variant spelling for the Kanza Indians of North America from which we get the word Kansas. A tribute to my birthplace.

Since 1998 I have also obtained a Diploma in Aromatherapy and I have studied Qi Gong.

Back in 1991, I picked up a copy of "Witchcraft for the Solitary Practitioner". I read it, several times. And I thought this is what I've been looking for. So I started reading everything I could find on Wicca and witchcraft and Paganism. Not easy to do in Kansas where even when they have a book on the subject in the public library, some well-meaning soul has permanently checked the book out to protect us poor misguided people who might wish to read it.

About a year later, I created my first ritual circle. I read up on all I could find on the subject, then just did my own thing. And it worked. I very quickly reached a point where I realised that I had learned all I was going to understand from books and I began seeking others who believed as I did. Plus, solitary or not, it's just plain difficult to have a feast celebration by yourself.

Turns out one of the clerks at the New-Age-y 12- step-y bell, book and candle shop I frequented there in Kansas was a witch who ran her own coven group and she had been keeping an eye on me, subtly directing me towards books she thought might interest me over the previous year. It was she who suggested I take the first course in energy healing that I took, and the second. And it was during one of these classes that I was invited to attend an upcoming circle. That was Samhain, 1993. I was able to attend 2 weeks later during the New Moon ritual.

I remained a part of that group until summer, 1998 when I moved from Kansas to London. I also continued my solitary practice. Before moving I was initiated as a priestess within that group and I initiated my friend as a High Priestess. Rather backwards, I know. But she had been running the group for 15 years and felt a need for some sort of recognition of what she had achieved.

So what am I today? I'm a plain old generic witch.

I differentiate this from Pagan as a witch does not have to be Pagan or Wiccan. Witchcraft is not a religious practice, though it can have some spiritual components.