Mere coincidence?

I had an unusual experience today which i'm sure can be interpreted many ways. As i came back home from dropping off Danny at school, Amy was at home and when i left was watching TV. It's often a battle getting her into the shower. As i walked towards the locked front door, a strong whiff of strawberry shampoo hit me, and i immidiately thought, 'Amy must be having a shower with dad. Too good to be true...' then i unlocked the door, walked in and there was no smell inside the house, but i heard them in the shower. How could i have smelt shampoo way outside the house? When they finished, i asked dad if he'd used the strawberry smelling shampoo on Amy(which he never does), and he said yes, how did you know? I smelt it outside. Huh! So we walked outside to check. No smell.
My thoughts: there's WAY more to reality and human nature than what our 5 senses percieve. I strongly believe that all humans are in essence one entity, with individual souls, deeply connected. We are far more inteconnected than we realize, and the more we love someone, the more we are connected to them, and the more we tune in to their spiritual vibrations.
Okay, not the best way to express this i know, but you get the drift. This experience may have been totally in my head only, but i've had many similiar unexplained coinicidences, as i'm sure everyone does, if we choose to notice them.
The concept of the interconnectedness of humanity is something that came to me as second nature, growing up with Baha'i beleifs, - mankind is one, etc. But its only just sinking in at a much deeper level through an array of life experiences and 'aha!' moments, like learning about near death experiences, about the world of dreams, and living in times when the general consciousness of humanity is rising to that understanding - its so exciting! And at the same time its like peeking through a tiny hole in the wall into a world which i know so little about, the world of the spirit, its humbling.

Hmmm, how carried away can you get with the smell of shampoo?!!!

FIGilicious

There is an emormous 40 yr old fig tree in my parents' backyard which is fruiting at the moment. Fresh figs are a delicacy in most places, but an acquired taste in Australia, where many people are either unfamiliar with them or don't quite like the texture/taste. Persians on the other hand would do anything for fresh figs, so we've been picking and sharing loads of figs.
They ripen slowly so we get some every day, and picking figs is part of the routine here, with the kids helping to carry the fig basket while i pick from lower branches. The rainbow lorikeets get the loot up the top.
The tragedy here is the fate of this tree. Due to exorbitant land prices here, the backyard has been subdivided and building will begin soon on the site where this great tree sits :( and many other well established fruit trees :(

A peek at our day

With Danny now settled into the new routine of school, its a wonderful new phase of life for me to have that precious mother and daughter time with Amy. She is now 2.8 yrs and able to engage in lots of activities. I'm trying to get into a routine of some structured activities in the first hour of the morning before we get carried away with other things like outings, chores. So far, she's responded very enthusiastlically to any learning experiences where she has mommy all to herself, and i simply can't keep up with how fast she learns. Here she's doing a simple aphabet matching activity and felt board













The girly stuff, which Danny never really got into even tho i exposed them both to all sorts of toys. They both LOVE my fabric box in the background. Lots of imaginative play comes out of that

They both love gardening, hmmm, wonder where they get that from (says mommy who's been dreaming of the country life, la de da, someday). And yeah, a little housekeeper in the making, just give me something REAL and USEFUL to do, i do it "my byself". Gotta love the enthusiasm of preschoolers hey....before 'I'm bored' enters their vocab.

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.

Adieu Tropicana...

Woohoooo!!! only 2 more nights in this house! I'm so over this moving and packing and cleaning thing! If i ever get that butterfly feeling again, please remind me of this part, i tend to forget...
Mixed feelings as usual about leaving, but the joy part far outweighs any fleeting nostalgia for this lifestyle. I miss the Baha'i world sooooo much! Its been waaaay too quiet on that front for what I'm used to.
All roads lead to Sydney now, where over 5000 Baha'is have registered for one of the 41 conferences called for by the House of Justice. Talk about a sea change, from a tiny community of like 10 people here, to that! The ultimate meet and greet of just about everyone i know in planet Baha'i!!! I'm just thrilled beyond measure at how it all worked out for us to slot this trip right into our interstate move, sheer coincidence. Will be posting more about that from Adelaide.

May's visit

My sister in law May came to visit for a week, alone. Her hubby Derek stayed home in Canberra to look after their 3 gorgeous kids. A much needed break for a hard working mama, first time in 9 years she had a real 'break', or shall we say, 'therapy'! Having 'Aunty May' here was a good excuse to do the tourist route again, and for the kids to get to know their aunt, whom they don't see often due to distance.
Leila, the eldest is a calisthenics champ and very mature for her age, the boys Jalal and Rowhan keep mom and dad VERY busy.
Doesn't Rowhan look soo much like cousin Danny? You'd think they're related!

Soaking in last of tropical summer

Baby turtle, dead. Its nesting time all along the beaches here, lots of turtle nests.

Kookaburra sits on an ol gum tree,

Merry merry king of the bush is he, laugh kookaburra laugh, kookaburra gayor life must be... so goes the rhyme....