A gift from Vayda....OOOOMMMMM

This image is a drawing that my lovely...self proclaimed- Amazing!- daughter, Vayda, drew for her mommy for Ayyam-i-Ha. It freakin rocks! I LOVE it!!!! It will be framed and hung in the family room for all to "OM" over......lol.

What is Ayyam-i-Ha Anyway???

Baha'is in more than 200 countries and territories are celebrating a four-day festival involving hospitality, gift giving, charity and social gatherings.The festival, which runs from the evening of 25 February until sunset on 1 March, serves as a spiritual preparation for a fast during the last month of the Baha'is calendar, which begins on March 2 and ends on March 20.Celebrations of Ayyam-i-Ha, as the festival is called, are taking different forms in different locations. In Singapore, for example, Baha'is are observing Ayyam-i-Ha with a blood donation drive and a picnic for families in a beachside park.In Hungary, Baha'is plan to celebrate the festival with a musical program and a costume party for children in the Hungarian Culture Foundation building in Budapest.In Milford, New Hampshire, in the United States, the Baha'is have invited friends and neighbors to join them for devotions and then entertainment, which will include learning a local folk dance, watching jugglers, enjoying music, and gift-giving.The Baha'i calendar was initiated by the Bab, the Forerunner of the Faith's Prophet-Founder, Baha'u'llah, who later confirmed it.The calendar comprises 19 months of 19 days. The Ayyam-i-Ha festival falls on the four days (five in a leap year) needed to balance out the solar year of 365 days. The time of this festival is also known as "Intercalary Days".Of this period Baha'u'llah writes: "It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name."During the fast which follows, Baha'is abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset as a reminder of the need for individuals to control their material desires. It is seen as a time of meditation and prayer during which Baha'is refresh and reinvigorate themselves spiritually.There are exemptions from the fast for the young and elderly, and for those who are pregnant, ill or who are engaging in heavy work.The fasting period ends with the joyous Naw Ruz (New Year) festival, which begins at sunset on March 20.

A Sunday Hike

On Sunday I woke up just full of spunk and drawn to the woods. I approached Jody about a hike in the woods. As is usually the case he was up to it.
We nabbed Saige and Maya Rae and off we went. (after the big night of dancing the teens were sound asleep till noon+)
We had a nice long romp. I like this time of year when things are (thinking about) transitioning. A little ice, a little snow, a little mud.

The girls were excited for the romp.
Saige found endless joy in twisting cat tails apart and making the fuzzys fly every where.....including all over her hat and body and eyes!
We took a new path and found that it ended on a different road then where we had parked so we decided to take a few roads back around rather than retrace our hiking path.

After our 1.5 mile road trip the girls came across a small dog shivering in the weeds by the road. The poor thing had been dumped there obviously :( We jumped in the car and decided to stop at a house up the road. The couple there was delighted to come to the dog's rescue with a call to the local warden. When we left they baby sat the dog till the warden came. We were grateful for the opportunity to serve this little critter in need.
Good walk. The girls were cold and hungry by the end so home we went to make hot soup.

Jenna's Reception

On Saturday Feb 21 my cousin Jenna had her wedding reception party. She had been married to her long time boy friend, Scott Ditzel in December in Cancune.
The entire family got dolled up and went.
We had a great time visiting and dancing.

It really was a blast!

I think Jody and I looked pretty shnazzy!

Maya Rae couldn't get enough of the dancing. She was the first on on the floor.
We all let down our guard and danced and danced. I have never seen Jody fast dance.
I guess it just took his daughter to get him out on the floor. :)
Vayda and I had a fun 'slow' dance and Maya loved cutting in on Daddy and I.

Here are all the kids....clean at all the same time!
Of course the girls in the family were concerned about our new clothes ;) so we took pictures to show um off.

We had such a great time! It was nice celebrating Jenna & Scott's marriage. And- surprise....Jenna's having a baby in July! Yippee!

Maya Rae turns 9 !

Friday the 20th was Maya Rae's 9th Birthday.

(waaaaa- my baby is nine- sniff)
For her party she had a few girls over. They made single serving pizzas.They got their faces painted (thank you Vayda!)
Maya wanted pink cheeks and blue eye swirleys.
Kimberly was a cat.

Alisabeth wanted a penguin.
Alexandra got a couple of little rat faces on her cheek. Here shes giving Milton a big squeeze.
After time playing dress up, bouncing on the rebounder, making pizzas and getting their faces done...they did the cake thing.

Maya had decorated her own cake for the event.
The girls brought her a really cool gift!
Say Cheese!
In the evening when Daddy was home from work and Ben was back from visiting his mother, we did it all again. We had dinner, cake and gifts.

We gave her a bunch of stuff including a sewing kit, a small sewing machine, a new crochet needle....
A bunch of new clothes and her new favorites...crocks.... for spring. And....Several new little doobly do toys to make her smile.

It was a great day!!!

Me at 19

I was going through some old pictures with Heather over the weekend and came across this one.

I thought it was cute....me at 19.

A weekend with Heather

Over Valentines weekend, my friend Heather, came to visit just for the heck of it. We had a great time. She left her kids at home and I farmed out most of the kids to sleep overs etc. Jody worked. She and I just hung out the first night and watched a Tony Robbins video. Sat was Valentines day. We had to stay home all day to finish up my store closing sale. That in itself was fun. In the evening we got all dolled up (Ben took our picture) and went visiting. First we stopped in to see my mom but she wasn't home. We left flowers and cookies for her birthday and Valentines. Then we popped in on my X sister in law. I gave her a T-shirt and book for her birthday and cookies for Valentines. Then it was to my brother's. I gave him a paper bag stamped with kisses and hearts. In the bag where two T-bone steaks...nice man gift ;) We had a nice little visit. We chatted and played with my nephew for a bit. After all that we headed to Victor to an Indian restaurant. We enjoyed good food (very new to me) and endured..."Josh"...the icky 24 yr old boy who thought we were all that and a bag-a-chips! Ick. "Josh" invited us back to his place to play a few rounds of 'beer pong'...whatever the heck THAT is?!?! Ick. I was like 'Josh-dude- I have raise kids older than you!' Later "Josh" complained that his Valentines day was going badly because his girl friend was yelling at him :( I said, "Hey Josh, do you suppose your girl friend is freakin out because you keep inviting old ladies back to your place to play beer pong?" He was like..."Uhhhh, yeah, maybe"

LOL - Good grief! On Sunday morning we just hung around, chatted and ate left over Indian food then Heather was off....back to Rhode Island!

Good times!

Closing the Store- the big sale!

Over the weekend of the 14th I held a store closing sale!

50% off of all stamps and 40% off of all supplies.

I advertised in 'The Shopper' and hung posters in the local stores. I didn't get tons of people but the many who did come spent lots so that was good. In the end I made enough to finish paying for my trip to see Tony Robbins and pay for our entire biking trip to RI (more details on these trips here... http://bodyenlightenment.blogspot.com ) I am very pleased.
Since the sale day I have had several people come by appointment. After I get back from Tony Robbins in March I am going to box up the rest of the stuff and sell random lots on Ebay until its gone. Any additional $ I bring in will go toward our Pilgrimage to Haifa Israel fund.

Web site closed down

Well its a new era- thats for certain!
When 9/11 happened I was in my 4th year of day care in my home. On that very day I realised life was too short to be tortured and miserable so I gave notice and quit on the following
January 1.
Shortly after that I opened my rubber stamp company. At the time it was called "Brilliant Stars Stamps and Stuff". After several months of learning how to build a web site with images that would open and make fliers and how to make stamps...I renamed it "Norton Designs". I met a nice older man in Ithaca who kindly taught me how to make rubber stamps. He sold me a vulcaniser and hooked me up with all of his suppliers.

I spent that year just learning and learning. After a fun weekend of selling at a rubber stamp expo my friend, Heather, joined me in the business and we called it, "Pretty In Ink". My step daughter, Lynde, came up with that name. I rebuilt the web site in all pink and green and came up with a great logo.
Over the years I made 1000's of custom stamps, sold 1000's of stamps on Ebay, created my own line over 2000 art stamps using my own art. I spent 100's of hours (for real) building and rebuilding my web site. The site always got rave reviews! It was pretty and girly, easy to navigate and had 100's of card samples. About 3 yrs ago I realised yet another part of the dream and opened a physical store front in my home. That was great fun!
Though the business was a lot of fun it was also an immense amount of work! Most of my work hours have been after my kids go to sleep at 9 pm and go on till 3 or 4 am. Then its up to home-school the kids. This Thanksgiving weekend I woke up and knew it was "a new era". I didn't know why. I just knew it was. (you can read more about what came of that on my body blog... http://bodyenlightenment.blogspot.com ) So- several weeks ago I finally got the guts to say I was done with the business. It took a lot of emotional strength to say 'I didn't have a money making job'. I took the big step and disconnected my web site. 100's...even a 1000 + hrs of work all deleted! Wow! What an enormous step.

I have to say it was freakin AWESOME!!!! What a load off! I took these pictures of the site to remember it by. I learned so much over the years doing it. I suppose that is what led me to be the owner of 4 blogs huh? ;)