Some of the gifts...

Some of you (you know who you are) have requested pics from my birthday and the gifts i received.
As you know, we didn't have any party or celebration, simply because I didn't want one!
But on my birthday I was woken up by my two precious pumpkins, the little princess and her daddy both came to bring me breakfast in bed. Mona had a made a card with the help of her daddy (but she already draw all over it before i got to take a pic!) and daddy made the breakie and gave a white rose!

And all day long, Mona came up to me with her own gifts. She would take one of her toys, put it in a present paper bag and give to me saying 'Happy birthday mummy, this is your present for your birthday'. Then she would take back the bag and go and find me another gift from my toy stack!! lol... so cute!

As for the other gifts, i got:
1 blue and green flowery top and 1 hot red top from Hamid Jan and Mamani (my in laws). The tops are both in the kind of fabric that i absolutely love wearing, you know the kind that feels like a second skin on your skin, so soft, light and silky like.... really good quality!

They also gave me two sets of necklaces with matching earrings (one in blue and one in green) and both go very well with the blue and green top. And they came from my favourite jewellery shop, aka DIVA.And hubby gift's was so beautiful, the packing was really superb (I wished I had taken a pic before opening it!!!) It was beautifully wrapped in a deep purple wrapping paper with golden ribbons all around it! It look so beautiful... really!
So yeah, i got a perfume from Giorgio and the Gardenia Glam shimmer body lotion and shower gel from Napoleon Perdis! Oh gosh!! I love the perfume and the lotion and shower gel smell so so so good!! Smells like summer in a garden! Love it!

And also, I got to talk to my parents on my birthday and so did Mona! That was the most wonderful part of the day I think, because they called just when I was wishing to talk to them!!

Thank you so much everyone!

Some more crafts

We have been doing a fair bit of crafts lately, well ok got to admit it, it's more like everyday!!
So yeah, we try to do something creative everyday, either some painting, coloring/drawing, using shapes and colors and using all sorts of materials to create something funny and amusing for little fingers...
And of course we do lots of crafts using papers, where little Mona uses her new skill of cutting papers with her scissors!
Everyday, as I bring out my crafts bag (a hot pink cloth bag), as soon as Mona sees it, well first of all she knows it's craft time and secondly she immediately ask for her scissors!!
She is slowly mastering this one out by herself (as she clearly rejects and pushes away any help from mummy, she really wants to do it all by herself like a big girl!). And she is getting quite good at cutting I must say!

So on my birthday we did some painting and cutting and made these lovely flowers called 'Love Stems' out of toilet paper rolls. (I found the idea on another blog).



And yesterday we did some more cutting and I cut out some boy, girl and little monster shapes for Mona. She of course withing a few seconds cut them all apart into little pieces lol (so glad I took the pics just as I gave the shapes to her!! lol).

Counsels from 'Abdu'l-Baha...

This morning, I received these counsels from 'Abdu'l-Baha from my Dad (Thank you papi-joon) and felt compelled to share them with you!
It's not something very easy to do when you are in pain and been hurt by loved ones, but.... for the Love of God, everything is possible... well at least we can try to forgive, forget and try again....

(click image for larger and detailed view)

The text is same for both English and French and it reads:

"If thou wishes to guide the souls, it is incumbent on thee to be firm, to be good and to be imbued with praiseworthy attributes and divine qualities under all circumstances. Be a sign of love, a manifestation of mercy, a fountain of tenderness, kind-hearted, good to all and gentle to the servants of God, and especially to those who bear relation to thee, both men and women. Bear every ordeal that befalleth thee from the people and confront them not save with kindness, with great love and good wishes."

(Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha, pp 619-620)

"Si vous souhaitez guider les âmes, il vous incombe d'être ferme, bon et, en toutes circonstances, doué d'attributs dignes d'éloges et de qualités divines. Soyez un emblème d'amour, une manifestation de miséricorde, une source de tendresse et d'amabilité, bon pour tous et attentionné à l'égard des serviteurs de Dieu, et spécialement envers vos proches, les femmes aussi bien que les hommes. Acceptez chaque épreuve occasionnée par les autres et ne croisez personne sans amabilité, réelle affection et bon vouloir."
(Sélection des écrits d'Abdu'l-Baha)

Dispel my grief...

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This is a prayer from Baha'u'llah

Dispel my grief by Thy bounty and Thy generosity, O God, my God, and banish mine anguish through Thy sovereignty and Thy might. Thou seest me, O my God, with my face set towards Thee at a time when sorrows have compassed me on every side. I implore Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord of all being, and overshadowest all things visible and invisible, by Thy Name whereby Thou hast subdued the hearts and the souls of men, and by the billows of the Ocean of Thy mercy and the splendors of the Daystar of Thy bounty, to number me with them whom nothing whatsoever hath deterred from setting their faces toward Thee, O Thou Lord of all names and Maker of the heavens!

Thou beholdest, O my Lord, the things which have befallen me in Thy days. I entreat Thee, by Him Who is the Dayspring of Thy names and the Dawning-Place of Thine attributes, to ordain for me what will enable me to arise to serve Thee and to extol Thy virtues. Thou art, verily, the Almighty, the Most Powerful, Who art wont to answer the prayers of all men!

And, finally, I beg of Thee by the light of Thy countenance to bless my affairs, and redeem my debts, and satisfy my needs. Thou art He to Whose power and to Whose dominion every tongue hath testified, and Whose majesty and Whose sovereignty every understanding heart hath acknowledged. No God is there but Thee, Who hearest and art ready to answer.

Bahá'u'lláh

It's my birthday today... I'm older than yesterday...

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Happy Birthday to Me!

It's already the 24th of August here in Australia and that means I am officially 30 years old!

So...

Tender Seedlings - Week 10 - The Midnight Sun

So today is Saturday and it's 'Tender Seedlings' Day!
As you all know by now, Tender Seedlings is our first Baha'i Toddler Class and playgroup in South Australia. And I can't believe it's already week 10 since we started the classes!!

Today the story was 'The Midnight Sun'.
But we first started as usual, we prayers. We all sang together the Baha'i prayer from Baha'u'llah 'Blessed is the Spot' and we also watched two videos of the same prayer, one animated version and one sung by many children from around the world in their language!
The little tots loves those videos and we watched them both twice and sang along each time.
Then we had our story which was all about the Love of God shining in our hearts, followed by crafts and arts where the children came up with brilliant ideas for their shape collage. They made little boys and girls, little animals, the sun, and trees of love!
Then later on we had music and dancing and last but not least, snacks and refreshments and playtime!
It was lots of fun and the little toddlers loved it all.
Here is a new layout from today's class and below is the story we did today.

(click image for larger and detailed view)

The Midnight Sun

It's night time and Rikki sleeps in his bed.
But outside, the sun is shining, because in his country the sun shines all night and all day long! It's the country of the Midnight Sun!

When Rikki wakes up, he runs outside and play in the sunlight. Everything is beautiful. The icy mountains shines under the sunlight and in the meadows, the beautiful pink and yellow flowers grows under the snow. There are lots of black and white penguins who loves to jumps and swim in the cold cold sea.
The sun is always shining in Rikki's country, all day and all night long, and all the people and animals and all the birds and flowers and trees are happy in the country of the midnight sun.

But when winter comes, the sun goes to sleep for a very very long time.
The sun does not shine all day and all night long anymore.
It's always dark, all the time, even during the day! It gets really really cold and everything is covered in snow!

But Rikki, he is still happy, because in his heart, there is a different kind of Sun shining.
It's the Sun of the Love of God! And this Love shines all the time, even when it's really cold outside and even when it's dark all the time.

When the sun shines, we feel warm and happy!
And when we love God, we feel warm and happy too, all the time!

'Abdu'l-Baha says:
"When a man turns his face to God he finds sunshine everywhere."

------------------------------------------------

Activity:
Play Baha'i songs for children (the ones they enjoy dancing to, here they love the French Baha'i Songs for children from the album 'Demain les enfants de la terre') and invite toddlers to come and dance and sing along!

Crafts:
Cut out different shapes in different sizes from different color papers. Show children how to make a collage (create a boy or girl, animals, trees, flowers, scenery, robots etc from the different shapes). Let children use their creativity to make their own collage. When finished you will be amazed at what the children created and they will be so proud of their work of art!

Her first Fish....

I almost forgot to post this one...
Yesterday we were doing some more painting, and Mona actually drew her first Fish!! We were really surprised, because well it was her first Fish ever drawn by herself and it does look like a lot like a fish!!
Here is a pic:

(Click image for larger and detailed view)

What I Want...

Since it's my birthday on Sunday, and since I am doing a lot of thinking about turning 30,
I thought I'd share a bit more about me and my thoughts here (since this blog is mostly about Mona and that I rarely post about anything else that doesn't relate to her).

So this layout pretty much resume everything!! I named it "What I Want".

(click image for a larger and detailed view)

Title reads:
"At this very moment, today, right now, I want to"

Text reads:
"Take a class in photography, take a dance class, read more books, take a yoga class, go to a spa retreat, exercise consistently, become a vegan, pray more often, love and serve God more, be a better mother, have another child, adopt a child, keep holding hands with my husband, control my anger, go out more often, go shopping, be in the Holy Land, go on holiday in Mauritius, spend time with my parents, laugh like crazy with my brothers, travel and explore, start a new career, study child psychology, become a Montessori teacher, open my own preschool. I want to be happy. I want to be in love. I want to grow and learn. I want to teach and share. I want to create and make art. I want to leave a legacy. I want to be me."

Flashback

I am having a kind of flash back today, so I did this:

(pictures of my childhood - click for a larger and detailed view)

I don't know, maybe it's because my 30th birthday is coming up, or maybe just because I was having a bad day today... I don't really know, but all I know is that I've been thinking a lot about my past lately, about those 30 years that just flew by.... What I've done so far and all that I have achieved in my life and also a lot about all that I have ever dream to be of and all of those things I dreamt of achieving but still haven't....

But who am I kidding?
My life so far may not have been all that I have ever dreamt of it to be, I may not have done and experienced and lived all that I am meant to live....but....
There is still a new chapter to be written about me, and I intend to make it good!!
A very good one!!
Even better than those last 30 years....

...To be continued....

Crafts and some learning too

Today we did some cool work of art and at the same time Mona learned a few new things.
It was all about shapes and colors and sorting.
I cut different shapes in different sizes and in different colored papers.
First I had Mona sort them by shapes, then by size, and then by color. She really enjoyed the sorting game and this is one that we will be doing a lot in the future.
Then i took the glue out and Mona got so excited!!
I first let her experiment how to glue the shapes on a piece of paper. She was having such a blast at it.
Then i showed her how to make a robot out of the shapes. I only showed her once, and she quickly got the hang of it. She actually did 3 very different robots by herself. The first one was with a little bit of instruction of where to put the body parts and for the other two she did it on her own and she was really proud of her master piece!
Here is a picture of her robots and shapes.


And earlier in the morning, we created a little tambourine/shaker!
I got the idea from another blog. We used two paper plates, we drew/decorated them first, then put some swirly dry pasta in one of the plates and covered it with the other plate and then stapled them together all around. She loves her little tambourine/shaker!
It was quick and easy to do and we have another instrument to add to her big collection already!
More noise in the house!!! lol...

Mona: 19 Day Feast, wall drawings, birthday cake and imaginary play

Lots to tell about Mona's doings lately...

First let's start with the Baha'i 19 Day Feast last night.
We were sitting at the dinner table and she was playing around and talking a lot instead of eating her food (which i was trying to get her to eat as quick as possible so that we don't get late for the feast). So i told her to please eat her food as we have to go to the feast. Mona replied "I don't want to go to the Feast!". I told her that when we go to the Feast it makes 'Abdu'l-Baha happy.
Mona looked outside and said: "It's dark outside mummy, i can't see the car!"
I told her, well we will put the lights on, so we can see where we are going!
Mona continued: "It's really really cold outside!"
I told her, well we will put our coats on, so we don't get cold!
Mona stop to think for a while and said: "Abdu'l-Baha doesn't have a coat mummy, he will get cold!"
I was stunned and didn't know what to answer...... lol....

This evening, Mona was doing some drawing... i was busy in the kitchen doing the dishes and daddy was in the computer room. All of a sudden daddy called me to come see what Mona had done!
Mona did this to the walls in the living room:

And this on her hands:

When I asked Mona what has she done to the wall, she simply replied that she had made 'happy faces' !!!
It's the first time Mona actually draws a face, so we were very proud of her and at the same time not happy with her drawing on the wall.
Daddy didn't say anything to her, because he said he didn't know if he should tell her off for writing on the wall or congratulate her for her new master piece... lol.
We told her that her 'happy faces' were really beautiful and then I asked her where do we draw with pen, she looked down to the floor and said in a low voice "Mona draw on paper".
I said ok then, next time you draw on paper, now help me clean up.
But daddy said, wait, let's take a picture first. And so we did!
Mona even help in taking a picture!
Here is Mona's pic of her 'happy faces' drawing on the wall:


And while I was cleaning the wall, i mean rubbing off the wall, I was complaining how hard it was to clean up this mess Mona made. Mona who was watching me closely then said in her very encouraging tone: "You can do it Mummy!!"
lol... Isn't she just precious!!

Today, she was also singing happy birthday to me. My birthday is actually on Sunday, but she starts early! I asked her: what are you going to do for mummy's birthday?
Mona excitedly said: "A Cake!"
Then she said: "I need money, to buy a cake for mummy, and birthday hat, and a present!!"
She continued to say: "And then we all say 'surprise' mummy!"
She is so thoughtful!! I love her!!
Yes indeed honey, you need money for all of that!! lol....

Then a bit later on this evening, she was playing with her little pram and came to me in the kitchen and said: "Mummy can you see baby?" I looked in the pram it was empty. I asked her where is baby? She said: "In the pram!"
So i said hi to her 'imaginary' baby. She then put her two little hands together, bend over the pram and scoop out the baby very slowly, and held it like you would hold a new born and gently stated to rock her side to side and she started to sing her a lullaby song from the Wiggles show!
So i asked her if i could hold baby too, which she was so happy about, and i did the same thing as her. She was so happy that i played along with her!! I also made 'chi chi' (milk) for her baby!
My two year old is so much fun!

I am featured on Baha'i Views again...

I love George W. Dannells!
He is so sweet and really encouraging! And his work on Baha'i Views is just amazing!!
Visiting his website every morning is how i keep myself updated about what is going on in the Baha'i World and what others are saying and thinking about us.
If you've never been to his site, you should go and check it out right now. And don't forget to RSS feed, so that you can get the latest posts.

So today, George featured me on Baha'i Views. It was of course about our brilliant Musical Fireside held last Sunday. And I was just blushing reading his comments about my videos productions. People do often tell me that my videos are beautiful and nice etc, but I always thought they were just being polite, because in my view, they are very much still amateurish...
But it could also be that I am my worst critique.... Ha!

So here is what George said about it:

On a Singing After Supper Baha’i Song Karaoke Fireside Video: On par with anything a media conglomerate can create

By george wesley dannells on Aug 19, 2008 in Baha'i Views

What a blessing it would have been to be present in Sabby’s home in Adelaide for the musical fireside the other day! She reported 12 adult Baha’is and 3 Baha’i children
and 11 adult non-Baha’is and 2 children in attendance. “The house was just packed and crowded and we were all so happy and it was so exciting to feel this energy and the power of the Forces at work!!!” she wrote. Check out her blog (www.sabbynur.blogspot.com) or watch the video on her YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFk5n9mLuqA.”

I love the high “production values” of her videos. There is such creativity in all her “computer-mediated communications,” to use some 90’s-era computer jargon! -gw

Production values - A term derived from television, film, etc. The æsthetics and quality of presentation of given information content. … A big-budget Hollywood motion picture is said to have high production values; an amateur home movie of baby’s first steps shot with a handheld camcorder is said to have low production values. Right now the Web is something of a levelling influence for CMC, because it is possible for a creative person with modest tools to build a Web page with production values on par with anything a wealthy media conglomerate can create.

CMC - Acronym for ‘computer-mediated communications.’ Any human communications in which digital hardware is used as a medium. Email, Usenet newsgroups and Web pages are all forms of CMC.

http://teladesign.com/ma-thesis/glossary.html

Musical Introduction to the Baha'i Faith

Last night, we had our very first musical fireside at home.
The musical fireside is actually a Musical Introduction to the Baha'i Faith where we invite our friends to come and learn more about our Faith.
We eat, sing, chat, and share.

The Musical Fireside was awesome!!
So many people turned out and our house was so crowded with love, joy and friendship!!
We had a total of 23 adults and 5 children. (11 adults and 2 children were friends of our friends that we hadn't met before, how cool is that!!).

We are definately gonna host more Musical Introduction to the Baha'i Faith at our house more often!!

Check out the video of last night (you can even see and hear us sing some of the Baha'i songs and prayers at the end of the video).
Enjoy....

More scraps layout

(Pics are clickable for larger and detailed view)

Baha'u'llah and the Fishes

Today's class of Tender Seedlings in brought to you in video.
The story today was "Baha'u'llah and the Fishes".
It was mainly the childhood of Baha'u'llah and the dream His father had of Him swimming in the big blue sea with lots of fishes, each holding a strand of His hair in their mouth.
The tots loved the story and enjoyed even more when it was time to make their own 'Sparkly Fishes'.
They were also given a picture of the Shrine of Baha'u'llah with the short obligatory prayer on it.

Enjoy the video!!

Playing around in photoshop again...

(click on images for a larger and detailed view)

Artsy Mardi (Tuesday)

Today as craft project, we made stuffed fishes!!
Mona really really really enjoyed this one...
First we cut out the shapes of the fish from colored papers (4 shapes for front and back of two fishes).
Then we let our creativity run wild.... Mona loved drawing (scribbling) on the fish while I colored the other side. I love watching Mona CREATE!!! The way her face is concentrating and her little brain thinking about how to and what to draw next. Her little hands and her unique way of holding her crayons and pens as they move to make lines, circles, zig zags and now sun!!
It's all just fascinating to me...
Anyway.. back to the fish making...
We then glued the fish together and add some stuffing with old pieces of teared newspaper and closed the fish, then we added ribbon and hung them on the door frame!!
We did one multi-colored fish and one sparkly fish!!
And since Mona really enjoyed this craft activity, i think i will use it for Baha'i Class (Tender Seedlings), on the Story of Baha'u'llah, you know the dream His father had with the fishes in the sea...
I cant wait till Saturday to make more little fishies with the tots... lol
Here are some pics of our fishes and of Mona being goofy!!

Mona playing at Baha'i Classes with her dolls

Last night, after baking some baby cup cakes with the help of mummy, Mona decided to play 'Baha'i Class'.
She gathered all of her dolls and made them sit on the floor in a circle.
She then started to tell them stories. She was actually telling them stories that we have done at 'Tender Seedlings'. Of course it was not exactly the same as she mixed up all the stories into one.
She also sang the Baha'i Prayer 'Blessed is the Spot' and was teaching them how to say 'Allah'u'Abha!
It was just really cute to see her imitating me... and I was really proud of her as it was her very first time role playing me!!.... a little mummy moment right there...

Of course as soon as I got the camera and started recording the class quickly came to an end and she was more interested in putting on a show for the camera!! lol
Then it was time to feed baby, and guess what baby had for dinner... "RICE AND KEBAB"!!
Ha!... Isn't she a true Persian girl or what? lol...

Here are some pics of the baking time and a quick video montage of Mona from yesterday.

Video of Tender Seedlings Classes

As some of you might already know, I am holding 'Tender Seedlings' (Baha'i Class for Toddlers aged 1 to 5) on a weekly basis at home, with the loving support and help from the Local Spiritual Assembly of my community.

So far the classes have been wonderful and a great success.

The little tots have showed so much interest and progress.

These little gems now can sing the Baha'i prayer by Baha'u'llah "Blessed is the Spot" and if you show them a picture of the Shrine of the Bab and ask them what it is, they will they you: "It's the Bab!", and if you show them a picture of the greatest Name, they will happily tell you: "It's Allah'u'Abha!"

They now understand that each day when we wake up in the morning and just before we go to sleep, we have to say our prayers to thank God for the beautiful day we had today!

They have been learning all of this and a lot about virtues through the medium of animated stories (with the help of puppets and toys), songs, and beautiful creative arts and crafts activities.

The little angels have also been bonding together and really show signs of true love and fellowship...

It is truly an amazing and blessed experience to share with them, and I am so happy each week after doing the class. That happiness keeps me going all week long till the next class.

I wanted to share this little video of 'Tender Seedlings' with you all.

Enjoy and please feel free to share with friends and invite them to join us at our 'Tender Seedlings'.

Much love,

A few new scraps layout...