vision piece

I noticed as my second son rode off on his bicycle with only one training wheel, that the training wheel wasn't touching the ground. It was time to take it off!! He rode with the bicycle without falling for the first time(without the training wheel)this past Sunday. My older son started riding earlier this summer, and our daughter has difficulty reaching the pedals of the tricycle, so has decided to use "the too small for her" scooter. Maybe next summer she will learn. We'll see.

Have you watched "The Secret"? A friend had left it at our house be mistake, and i have since watched it and shared it(with permission). The main premise is that we need to imagine ourselves achieving what we would like to achieve in our lives. And, I have a secret for you! Twelve years ago I created a life plan for myself, and right now it is coming to fruition. My plan was to move to China, and other countries around the world, with a husband and children. We are waiting to hear that we have the visa in order to move to TEDA. I have a job teaching 5th grade, and the children would attend the same international school.

On Saturday, my children and I were able to visit the gravesite of Corrine True, and say prayers in commemoration of this day when 'Abdu'l-Baha was here in Chicago in 1912. Some people sang the prayer for the Hands of the Cause, another the prayer for the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, and a quotation about "these heavenly children". It was a small and reverant group. I was able to contribute by reading a prayer that was given to Corrine by 'Abdu'l-Baha for her husband. Prior to going to the gravesite we attended children's classes at the Center(as we do almost every Saturday) but it was special because it was the 95th anniversary of when 'Abdu'l-Baha met with the children's Sunday school class of the Baha'is in Chicago. 5 years ago, for the 90th anniversary I had taken the children, which now consist of children in the Rahmat sector of Chicago, to Lincoln Park Zoo, where 'Abdu'l-Baha visited on the 4th of May that same year. There is ...

Since August of 2000 until now, I have been at home in the process of having and producing 3 lovely children. On May 14, the day after Mother's Day and two days after my daughter's second birthday, I will go for an orientation at a philanthropic children's hospital in Chicago. This will start my new life as a working mom. I will only be working 20 hours a week, which are flexible, to cater to the needs of our little family. The job pays ok, and has great benefits. I will do administrative duties, and handle educational materials for the department. There will be a few graphic designers who will help me create the materials, and I will guide them. The past year has been a bit of a whirlwind of indecision, and i am looking forward to more stability. I have never worked in a hospital before, so this will be a new environment with many new things to learn. This summer, I will also start attending my alma matter for graduate level courses in order to pursue a degree in C...

I surprised my lovely husband for the first time with a party for his birthday! I can not take credit however, because our friends hosted it at their home staging it as a LONG overdue visit. Dear friends came, at short notice, and brought gifts that made us laugh and smile. We opened the gifts the day after. (The baby and I were at home due to sickness, and were unable to participate in the party.) So it was rather nice to open the gifts with my dear husband and the kids. One of our friends, gave 8 pairs of eyeglasses(the kids are constantly knocking off his glasses and breaking them--so my husband was either running around saying 1) "Where are my glasses?" 2) "I look so professional with my broken glasses!" or 3) "@^&#*!@(farsi frustration)!!" We laughed so hard when we saw them--but were also SOOO thankful. We decided to try them all on!! Another item which causes frustration for my dear life partner is not being able to find a nice, match...

While the baby and I were at home, due to a stomach flu, the boys had fun at a family outing for Easter. The boys were VERY proud of their new outfits and ties!! Can you tell?? I wish I had taken a closeup of the younger one's tie--picked out by his older brother which has soccer balls on it. Th older one is in one of his favorite colors(PINK!!--because he likes girls so much(he likes quieter calmer people)--Oh goodness! What does this mean for puberty??!).

With the help of friends and family, we have been figuring out a prototype for our Fast and Ayyam-i-Ha calendar, which includes the pocket(made from my son's hand shape) to place service assignments or clues for a trasure hunt to find gifts, etc. By threading a piece of wax linen through a single hole, through a bead and then through a button, we created a way to easily put our ring which would indicate which day in the calendar it is. I have yet to write the days of the month on each petal of the flower, or numbers on the hand. I will( if we choose to number the hand) number it from the pinkie towards the thumb. In addition to the calendar we have worked on counting 19 9-pointed stars for each day of the Fast. My friend was so excited about these ideas, I decided to do them for all 30 families who may be coming to our Ayyam-i-Ha party on Sunday night, just prior to sundown so we can say the prayer together before going home to bed!! 600 clay stars, and the makings for 30 cal...

Over the past few days I have been consulting with friends about what we can do for our children for Ayyam-i-Ha, and I have come up with this sketch of a Baha'i calendar which would be made out of fabric. Next to each of the flower petals, on the outside are small circles which are buttons. A small beaded something would be moved from petal to petal depending on which month it is, and the 19 petals(days) would be attached with velcro to the flower, and when we are not using them, put in the small pockets below. On the left, is a small hand reperesenting the 4 or five days of Ayyam-i-Ha(service), again with the buttons to move the small beaded something. Maybe I would add another pocket next to the hand to place "service assignments" for each of the days of Ayyam-i-Ha. On the right, would be a pocket for Holy Day petals. Another idea is to compile special recipes people use during the Fast, maybe with small descriptions about why a particular recipe has special memori...

starting out the first day of my 36th year with hidden presents(from a husband in distant location), and banana bread we celebrated and then the kids created a home with the dining room chairs in the living room...the baby was trying to figure out how she could ride inside the little car...it was a lovely day.

Yesterday the boys (ours and some dear friends)decided they would create masterpieces, and in order not to be upset if they were broken, I took photos of each one(I'm not sharing all of them). The boys were very excited about what they accomplished. I put in one photo taken earlier in the day of the little one. She likes breaking the houses, hence the need for taking photos in the first place.

In December, I went to Italy to check out the job we finally recieved our paperwork necessary for the work permit from Italy...I like the school, but the cost of living was too much to make it possible. My dear husband is in California checking out jobs there, for a month now and another month in Feb-March.