Blog i heart

Some fabulous parenting goodies here, Noble Mother, great articles and tips, based on Virtues guide philosophies. A good dig at the concept of timeout and super nanny, which i totally relate to.
Comment of the day : 'Allow your children to become bored enough to become creative!'.
Danny, 'mommy, you know the stuff around the lion's face, when his mommy forgot to give him a haircut?' Proceeded to make the visual to illustrate his point.

Gift time...

It's that special time of year for Baha'is, the Intercalary days (Ayyam-i-Ha), 26th Febuary to 1st March when we exchange gifts and do charitable acts...or so we should.
I'm always looking out for ideas on how to make these days memorable for the kids, given all the other over commercialised events they're exposed to which we don't celebrate.
Here's a page full of ideas of how various families celebrate the Intercalary days: Ayyam-i-Ha Ideas. Some practical ones for me are:
A count - down calendar,
Decorations with lights - (check Ikea)
A special gift every morning
A family picnic
Bake for friends
Any other ideas?

A glimpse of history

http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/sydney.html

Random thoughts:

Amazing, inspiring, insane, exhausting, unforgettable event, the like of which Australia has never seen. 5,500 people, that all... hundreds of volunteers and ushers, state of the art technology, awesome location in the heart of metro Sydney (Harbour). Best organised event i'd ever been to, despite the size and logistics of the event.

Between Vahid and I, and plenery sessions, we each caught less than half of the conference. Even though every effort was made by the organisers to provide live feeds in parent rooms, fantastic children's program, etc, it was still quite challenging with our 2 bunnies.

Saturday night was a thrill, a showcase of artistic talent relevant to the theme - 5YP. The auditorium was filled to capacity, show after show. Just can't do justice to it here, so i wont even try. At the end of evening (11pm), two sleeping kids to navigate out of this crowd, i lost my camera coming down the stairs. Within 5 mins of dropping it, i was already retracing steps to find it, asking ushers, security etc. No luck. Until the last minute of the conference i kept checking the lost and found desk - they got sick of me. Came home rather glum about the loss of precious pics.

3 days later, Dad randomly looks up the conference website, stumbles upon the lost and found section and voila - my camera is listed! The pics above would have been lost were it not for a miracle!

During the conference, we made pledges of service, which would go directly to Baha'i institions. The day after we got back from Sydney, we're driving along with dad and Vahid, and discussing what service activities we would like to do now in Adeliade. I mentioned tutoring. The words were barely out of my mouth when dad's phone rang, it was for me - was i available to tutor Book 3 tomorrow night?! 3 days later, we had completed the book (Teaching Children's classes).

Will be offering these spiritual education classes to neighbourhoods soon.

And yes, it was spine chilling to walk into the arena outside the Convention Centre, and see so many familiar faces from such diverse places, many of whom i hadn't seen for years, all in the one place! It got more freaky as the days went by.... But you generally had one chance to say hello before the face would be engulfed by the sea of perpetually hugging humans....

New Beginings

First meeting with my parents at the Baha'i House of Worship, Sydney. Unforgettable

Its been a long journey, but now i feel like i'm finally home. It the most comforting feeling in the world, to be surrounded by love. "Where there is love, nothing is too much trouble, and there is always time" (Baha'i Writings).
To wake up in the morning and have breakfast with mom and dad, be able to leave Amy with her beloved grandpa for the whole morning while i take Danny to school for his first few days at school, and come back to a happy kid who hardly missed me!!! Lunch with my darling grandma and aunty, the odd uncle or cousin always showing up, hardly cook dinner, hardly realize that hubby is so late from work..... This is bliss.... the contrast to my previous lifestyle is stark. I write this to share my joy, and as a reminder to myself to continue appreciating the good bits about living close to family, long after this initial euphoria passes.