We women have a huge responsibility bringing life into the world. And while we celebrate mothers on a single day in May, the truth is that Mother’s Day is every day, because a mother’s work is never finished. A woman‘s work is never finished. We girls have so much to do in this world.

Girls are born into the world, thinking they have to make every one in their lives happy and comfortable. We nurture our friends, our siblings and ever our parents from a very early age. As we grow our bodies change, from awkward little girls to beautiful young women full of feminine energy. We wear short skirts and eyeliner, and change our core selves to please or save the men in our lives for a while, until we begin to feel this need to reproduce the beauty of life that is in us. So we give birth to beautiful little humans, whom we teach to do everything we know; good and bad. We watch our little seeds grow, the way we once did, attempting to keep the rain from drowning them before they bloom, while they fight us tooth and nail. Once our little blooms are full, we slowly arc back to children ourselves losing our once vital femininity. What a beautiful cycle of womanhood.

Here is a beautiful poem written and performed by Sarah Kay for TED (performed in the first 5 minutes of the recording). I think they will speak volumes to you, whether you are a mom or a daughter (or both). Please listen and share this sentiment, that only a woman can truly understand, with the other dear females in your life.

“If I should have a daughter, instead of “Mom”, she’s going to call me “Point B”. Because that way, no matter what happens, at least she knows that she can always find her way to me. And I’m going to paint solar systems on the backs of her hands, so she has to learn the entire universe before she can say, “Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.” And she’s going to learn that this life will hit you. Hard. In the face. Wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air. There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by Band-Aids or poetry, so the first time she realizes that Wonder Woman isn’t coming, I’ll make sure she knows she doesn’t have to wear the cape all by herself. Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal, believe me. I’ve tried. “And baby,” I’ll tell her, “don’t stick your nose up in the air like that. I know that trick, I’ve done it a million times. You’re just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to the burning house to find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him. Or else find the boy that lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him.” But I know she will anyways, so instead, I’ll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boots nearby, because there is no heartbreak that chocolate can’t fix. Okay, so there’s a few heartbreaks that chocolate can’t fix, but that’s what the rain boots are for, because rain will wash away everything if you let it. I want her to look at this world through the underside of a glass bottom boat, to look through a microscope at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind, because that’s the way my mom taught me. That there’ll be days like this, there’ll be days like this my momma said. When you reach out to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises. When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape. When your boots fill with rain and you’re up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days when you have all the more reason to say “thank you”. Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it’s sent away. You will put the “wind” in win some, lose some. You will put the “star” in starting over, and over, and no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life. And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting, I am pretty damn naive, but I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily, but don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it. “Remember,” I’ll tell her, “your mama is worrier, and your papa is warrior, and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more.” Remember that good things come in threes, and so do bad things. And always apologize when you’ve done something wrong but don’t you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining. Your voice is small but don’t ever stop singing. And when they finally hand you heartache, when they slip war and hatred under your door and offer you handouts on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they, really, ought to meet your mother.” – Sarah Kay

Beautiful words. Hope they touch your heart as they have mine. What a burden and a blessing we carry to bring forth life. We women are powerful beings. We have to stick together through the journey. Hold tight to your girl friends and your mother.

Wishing all the Queen Mums a most blessed day, every day.

For dinner we had pink pasta penne with a tomato/creme sauce, spinach salad with pink lady apples and craisins, pink lemonade, strawberries, french bread, and even pink applesauce for the kids. We also had lots of pink candies, including a vase full of pink whoppers which disappeared in record-time.For activities we kept it pretty simple: the kids decorated their own paper crowns and played in a pop-up tent we have that looks just like a castle. We also let them watch the “Swan Princess” while the birthday girl took a short nap hoping it might cheer her up a bit ~ nope, she was just more mad when we woke her up. I think she wanted to be down for the night!. Anyway, I’m so glad we were able to honor the little princess in our house. Tomorrow I’ll post some of the pictures of the birthday girl I managed to snap in-between the grouchy moments!

Thanks to some of my favorite party blogs for giving me inspiration: Birthday Girl, Blonde Designs, One Charming Party, and Party Perfect

via Wishful Thinking Photography by Heidi Lawson ~ Lake Stevens, WA: P is for Princess Party.

Here’s a little more about our traditions dating back hundreds of years…

May Eve was not just an opportunity for a healthy herd; it was a chance for divination, usually with the express intent of revealing who one’s true love would be.

‘Spirit nights’, or ysprydnos, took place on May Eve. It was one of the three nights in the year when the world of the supernatural was closest to the the real world. These nights offered an opportunity for divination, usually with the express intent of revealing who one’s true love would be.

Also on May Eve, villagers would gather hawthorn branches and flowers and use these to decorate the outside of their houses. It was believed to be unlucky to bring hawthorn blossoms into the house. In some parts of Wales mayflower (probably the cowslip) was collected. These customs celebrated the new growth and fertility of the season.

It is clear that May Day offered a chance for socialising and mirth. After hard, often isolating, winters this was a chance for socialising and celebrating. from Wales History

The Garden Club has decorated the walls of the city with Flower Petals, called Well Dressings, and the Bakers will have their cupcake contest starting at two. This year they had to incorporate real flower petals into their recipe and I get to be one of the taste testers! It will be a day of performances in Clover Square, dancing around the May Pole, food and art markets and festivities all around the kingdom.

At one o’clock today the May Parade will process down the main street of the Capital City. Here’s a picture of me getting ready. I have to lead in the procession… so I’d better get going.

What are you doing to ring in the sun of spring and summer today? Enjoy May Day!

So have a little faith in yourself. Love,

Its really the ultimate way of recycling, because from good spells come more good spells.

Look at all this positively precious pixie dust! Its just the right size for a little fairy princess!

“Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.” – Alfie Kohn

This is a terrific question. How can we “enforce” our limits?

The short answer is, we can’t force anyone to do anything. All we can do is help our child WANT to meet our expectations and help him develop the emotional regulation so he’s able to do so.

Sure, force, or the threat of force, works temporarily. Timeouts scare young children into complying because they’re a form of ritual, temporary abandonment. But they don’t teach kids to regulate the emotions that drove them to behave badly, so the misbehavior continues. Eventually, kids rebel and you have to escalate your force. You can drag your flailing child, but sooner or later you won’t be able to do that, and in the meantime he’s not learning to manage himself.

What’s more, the more often you resort to force, the less your child will WANT to cooperate. I hear frequently from parents of six year olds who have become defiant, now that they can’t be dragged to timeout. The six year olds who were never punished with timeouts (or other punishment) but were instead taught loving family expectations and emotional regulation are much better behaved and cooperative. So force doesn’t actually get kids to behave any better. In fact, research shows that punishment makes kids misbehave more.

Read more of this GREAT article!… via Can you “enforce” your limits without force?.

The Sweetbells cleansing technique comes from the same tradition of newlywed couples ringing bells at their Wedding Ceremony, to ward off ill spirits from their union. Fairies believe that shadows of negative energy collect in the corners of their rooms, under tables and chairs and in the back of their closets, over that cold and grey stillness of the months of winter.

Negative energy can literally make you ill, especially if you are exposed to it on a regular basis. Energetically, everything that happens in a building – thoughts, actions and emotions – is held there like dust, imprinted on the walls, floors, and furniture. Arguments, upsets, illness, traumas and other unsettling energies (or unwanted entities) can linger and disturb the harmonious balance of your home.

When the Chi energy in our home or workplace isn’t flowing properly, and has become stagnant, it can cause problems such as depression, arguments, ill health, lack of motivation, tension, frustration, even financial loss. It is as important to cleanse the energy in your home, as it is to cleanse the energy in your own personal field.

If the energy in your home feels, heavy, stale, chaotic, even threatening, a good cleansing with any of the methods listed below will help to lighten it up! via Squidoo

QUICK & EASY WAY TO CLEANSE YOUR HOUSEfrom Kenlai
You may want to do a cleansing of your house if:

• you feel depressed lately
• you feel tired or no energy all the time
• many people get sicked in your house
• overall family luck drops or suffer more accidents
• your house is full of tension
• annual end of the year cleansing 

Fairies are collectors by nature and often to their fault. If you wanted to be completely honest about it… they are “pack-rats” who allow things to pile up over time. It’s good thing they are forced to reassess their collections each year, because if not, they would let their homes pile up so much that there would be no place to sit! The next day, Saturday (which, though not this year, at times falls on April Fools Day – which is a story all in itself), they gather together in Petal Square to trade their junk for new treasurers.

What do you do around your home to prepare for spring?

Kisses,

Fælia

This came as a twofold request. First, both Kings knew well that the pureness and good charm of the Four Leaf Clovers would not stand a chance against the industrial growth and greed associated with it. They realized that the power of the Lucky Clover could be misused. And second, Unicorns feed on the energy of kindness and well wishes. Once the earth began to make the switch into selfishness, the Unicorns became very weak and many of them of them died. With the changes in the earth occurring and without the Four Leaf Clovers the Unicorns would never stand a chance in the world.

Leprechauns were commissioned to move to Azuria and tend the Four Leaf Clover crop until it thrived on the fresh soil of the new Isles. In their contract, they were required to stay for ten years to over see the growth of the Clover Fields, but they became so friendly with the native Flower Fairies, that most of them stayed. Today they reside among the Fairies in the Enchanted Forest, and in celebration of the true Irish roots are the hardest of party-ers in our Lucky Clover Festival celebrations.

So it was agreed upon world wide, that the Azurians would keep their location secret to keep the clovers and Unicorns safe. It was declared that all maps of the world that included their where-abouts be burned and redrawn omitting Azuria. That is why modern cartographers to this day still cannot find the geographical location of the Kingdom of Azuria.

The early Kings’ agreement has stayed strong over hundreds of years. Thankfully their pact has kept the Unicorns safe from becoming animals of display and the power of the Lucky Four Leaf Clover getting into the wrong hands.

Did you know that…

Originally, the colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue. Over the years the colour green and its association with Saint Patrick’s day grew. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick’s Day as early as the 17th century.

The reason the color blue was associated with the holiday is because of the promise made by the Azurian people. As you know, blue is Azuria’s national color. It is said that St Patrick used the shamrock as a symbol of the holy trinity.

Legend (dating to 1726) also credits St. Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of ‘three divine persons in the one God.’ For this reason, shamrocks have definitely become a central symbol for St Patrick’s Day.

This in turn made the three leaf clover extremely symbolic to the people of the time, and thus the Four Leaf Clover was forgotten into the ancient folklore of the earth. To this day, though rare, an occasional Lucky Four Leaf Clover can be found in a patch a clover.