Teacher's Day Card

I love everything about our Indian culture, its festivals, traditions and special days. The new generation gets to learn so many things. In the past few months, we celebrated so many festivals and special days. During this time my son learned a lot about our culture, tradition and history too. 

On 4th Sep they decorated their classroom to celebrate Teacher's day the next morning. He came home in an elated mood, he asked me " Maa do you know whose birthday is celebrated as Teacher's day before I gave the answer he told me it's Dr. Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli. I was so proud. Then he asked a lot of questions about him and we were discussing a lot of things about Teacher's day together. Then he said something that really touched my soul. He said, "do you know my teacher is a very good teacher but she is not the best because you are my best teacher. You know once you told me "Your first teacher is your mother" so you are my best teacher Mamma!!"

Yes, once I had told him that 'Mother is the first teacher' and he remembered. I hugged him and said thank you!!

He then told me that he wants to make the Teacher's day cards for his teachers and wants to sing some songs for them too. Lots of work for me!!

Well, an idea clicked in my mind at the right time and I decided to make a card that depicts the life of a teacher very well. I recalled a Doha from 'Kabir Dohawali' that goes like this:

                              Guru kumhar shishya kumbh hai, gadh gadh kadhe khot,

                              Antar haath sahar de, bahar bahe chot!!

And I was all set to give this doha a shape............

My little helper was there to help me throughout the process. He tried making coils. After some failed attempts finally, he did it.........

Here is the complete look at Teacher's day card...

Closer look...

Now that most of my time and energy I had put into making the first card the second card had to be a simpler one. The message was that 'Teacher nurtures student's life'...........

Then I asked Lakshya to write the message on the card. The first card's message was:

Teacher is a potter, student is a pot

Gives shape and cures the flaws with care,

Protecting from the palm inside,

while pounding the pot from outside!!

Here is the second card............

Time for some click-click..........

I liked how both the cards turned out. Hope his teachers will like them too.

When Lakshya was done with the cards, he prepared a song too. I enjoyed the time we did this activity together a lot. I must say a day well spent!!

And We Made Giant Bubbles.........!!!

While I was absent here.... a lot was happening in my world.

My son and I spent a lot of time doing different activities during his summer vacations and I wanted to post them all but kept procrastinating endlessly. Now that I have a lot to share let me start with this recent one. We made giant bubbles and believe me it was so much fun.
You can find the recipe for Giant Bubbles here

As we were doing this activity on our small balcony so I didn't make a bigger frame for making bubbles.

I would suggest you do this activity in an open, windy and big space like a garden. 

Here he blows giant bubbles.

As the day was not that windy so he blew most of the bubbles himself.

He was very happy to see the giant bubbles though those were not really giant. Next time I will make a bigger frame to double the joy that I saw on his face. He remained hooked doing this activity for a long time and I was busy capturing those memories and the priceless joy that we got doing this activity together. 

The pure joy of motherhood!!

Gift That I Get Everyday

Every day in our life brings something new and teaches us something very important, 

provided you are ready to learn. Well, this post is about what I learn every day from my five-year-old.

He is notorious but sincere also, keeps me on my toes but cares for me also, hard from the outside but soft and pure inside, naughty, lovable, affectionate and most importantly he teaches me in many ways.

Every day he wakes up early in the morning and goes out with his father and when he comes back hiding something in his hands, I just love to see that sparkle in his eyes, slowly he moves his hands towards me and tells me lovingly in his soft sweet voice "Mumma just for you" and every day he does this just to make me happy and to see a smile on my face, he brings frangipani flowers for me every morning that he finds lying on the walkway. 

He hates waking up early in the morning but then too he gets up, gets ready and goes out and comes back sometimes with one, sometimes with two and sometimes with a lot of flowers even wilted flowers too in his hands and that teaches me dedication and pure love.

And he insists I keep them in water or in a vase so they stay fresh longer. So every day I use them in a different way and never forget to click them. Here I am sharing some lovely clicks.

Offered it upon Ganesha's feet. Looks holy!!

Put among my shells. Looks lovely!!

On Buddha's head. Looks Divine!!

Even on coasters. Look beautiful!!

Near Buddha. Look serene!!

On my heena candles. Look fragrant!!

Hanging up on the lamp. Looks wonderful!!

On the coffee table. Looks magical!!

With Buddha, they look mesmerizing!!

These are the life's little joys that I have engraved in my heart. I will cherish them forever. 

And I will keep learning something new every day from my son and from anyone else who comes across or anything that happens around me. 

Christmas Tree Craft

I have been MIA on this blog and that means I am spending a lot of time with my kid and busy creating memories :) I didn't post anything for the past few months and it's time to post each and every update.

Let me start with this super easy and kids-friendly Christmas Tree craft that my kid and I made today.

Supplies:

Paper plate

Green craft paper

Scissors

Glue

Stones/sequins/ thermocol balls/buttons

1. First fold the paper plate to make a cone as shown in the image below. You can use chart paper instead of a paper plate.

2. Cut the extra part of the paper plate to make an even base. Now you can keep it upright.

3. Cut 2" wide stripes of green chart paper. You can paint white paper green if you don't have green craft paper.

4. Now fold each stripe and cut as shown in the image below. 

5. Now apply glue on the reverse side of the stripes and stick it on the paper plate cone as shown below. Start from the base and work your way up.

6. This is how it will look after sticking all the stripes.

7. Now comes the decoration part. I chose red and white stones for my Christmas tree. You can decorate it with sequins, thermocol balls, buttons, satin roses, quilled flowers or any other thing that you find interesting and suitable.

8. Here is the complete tree. I cut out the star from a leftover paper plate and put it on top of the tree.

9. Here is a star on the top. Yay, my Christmas tree is up :)))

Hope you liked the craft. For more Christmas craft ideas click here.

Linking this to #HuesnShadesXmasDIY

My Pregnancy: A Poignant Memory

Lakshya, my son was expected to arrive on 14th Sep 2008 instead he arrived on 15th July to be our wedding anniversary treat. Here is a story about how I gave birth to my love.
Pregnancy is the movement of life inside a woman and there is no better feeling. But I have a completely different experience. My pregnancy was a roller-coaster ride.
One morning I confirmed my pregnancy and was super excited to know that there is a new life that is taking shape inside my body. I did every possible thing that I could to make my pregnancy healthy and memorable, below are a few lines that can describe my feelings very well.

Running errands and talking on the phone,

I am pleasantly reminded that I'm not alone.

Little tiny hands and a precious rounded knee,

pushing and twisting that no one can see.

Oh sweet child kicking up your heels,

It is our little secret that only I can feel.

I look forward to your birth,

when I can kiss your skin.

but for now I'll just smile,

as I feel you play within.
                                     -Unknown

    

Okay now ends the happy part of my pregnancy. By the end of the first trimester I already had experienced so many things that are called 'normal' during pregnancy, from bad morning sickness to nausea and vomiting, from heartburn to palpitation, from an altered sense of smell to metallic taste in the mouth and to make it even worse spotting were there to put me on bed rest for a few weeks. It was heartbreaking but I continued to enjoy every bit of it and the thing that still I cherish and love to think about is my baby's kicks. They were amazing, they were very strong and very frequent and they always reminded me that someone is growing inside me every day. I happily felt them, sometimes baby's kicks made me smile and even laugh too.

At the end of the second trimester, I missed my antenatal appointment and suddenly I started to experience swelling, first on my feet then on my fingers and hands and then slowly on my face too. At first, I thought I am putting on a lot of weight and even I had to take off my engagement ring because it started hurting a lot due to swelling. Every day I woke up to some new complication. I thought this must be part of pregnancy. We visited the nearest physician and I was given some medicines and was assured that everything is fine. At 30 weeks of gestation, I noticed swelling on my eyelids that got worse the next day which almost closed my eyes. My husband was going on a business trip the very next day and wanted me to be with him as he didn't want to leave me alone in such a situation. As my antenatal appointment was scheduled for the next month and we didn't want to take any risk so we decided to visit the nearest gynaecologist who can give me go ahead to travel with my husband.

We drove to the nearest hospital it was around 6:30 PM and it was getting darker due to the cloudy weather. There was a gynaecologist who went through all my prescriptions and reports and then she measured my blood pressure. Her eyes popped out and she frantically said that she has to be admitted RIGHT NOW. My husband and I were in shock. She then explained to my husband that "she has developed a fatal condition called 'Pre-eclampsia' and her blood pressure has shot up to a dangerous level". She was not ready to let us go just like that. She advised us to go straight to our previous hospital where I had all my antenatal checkups. By this time my husband and I became extremely anxious. He then drove me to the hospital and to make the situation even worse it started pouring down heavily. While he was parking the car I reached the emergency section of the hospital and got myself admitted there. I was in an emergency ward and was being checked up by a team of doctors who then told my husband to terminate my pregnancy. Hearing that I broke down like never before. It was heartbreaking.......I can't explain how upset I was. It was my worst nightmare. I was crying endlessly. Because of hypertension, I had severe headaches and seizures. I was shifted to a ward where I was on complete bed rest. I wasn't allowed to lie on my sides I had to lie only on my back. Though the team of doctors were monitoring me closely and I had been given all the medication to lower my blood pressure but my condition was worsening by the day. I became rounded and my neck disappeared between my spherical face and totally rounded body because of swelling. I had a severe headache, severe like never before I felt like veins and arteries in my head will going to burst now and I started feeling like this is the end of my life. I was worried for my husband and for a new life that was still there inside me. The only best thing was that baby's heartbeats were normal and I wanted to live only for him. I kept praying for my baby's life, mustered the courage to keep calm, started telling myself that all is going to turn out well and filled myself with a lot of optimism.

Here I'll take a pause for a week and I'll continue this post after a week. In my next post, I'll share my postpartum experience and believe me that is even more horrific.
If anyone among you has had any such bad experience during your pregnancy please share it here. Would love to hear from you :) One more thing if you find mistakes in my writing then please just forgive me I am very new to it, and just wanted to share my feelings :)