A dreary, perfect Sunday ......(to-do:)

Today is dreary, cold, and full of weekend goodness.
I often make lists in my head of the things I love, and maybe don't so much. At the top of my love-list is always Sunday. It is the best day of the week, a day for finishing projects and never changing out of your pajamas.

Today for my to-do:



Drink tea. Lots and lots of tea. On days off when the weather is cool, there is always a pot boiling on the stove. When I was a little girl, tea would solve everything. If you had pink eye, your eyes got a tea bath. If you had a headache, you'd breathe in the vapor from the tea. If your stomach was upset, a cup would cure it.
I have been thoroughly ignoring all sideways remarks about the consumption of tea during pregnancy. Outside of our borders, there are countries who use tea as such an important part of their daily life. My Mom drank multiple cups a day when she was pregnant with me, so did her mother, and her mother's mother. And somehow, we all seemed to turn out okay, although slightly addicted to the sweet leaves that seem to course our veins. My favorite way to drink it is dark, black, and plain. No sweeteners, no tea bag, no other flavors.
Like traveling to a place that is completely new to you, other country's traditions are little reminders that we are not the only ones here, and sometimes our way is not the best, or most important, or valid. I have also had to remind people regularly that women in Japan do not all have three-legged children from their daily intake of sushi. And I have continued to eat it often over the last 7 months.

Treating pregnancy as a new addition to my life, and not a disease that holds me down has made it so much easier to transition into these stages as they have come.
Plus a little handful of sarcasm for the anal worry-warts.



A new sewing project. Our couch is getting a little makeover, at a fraction of the retail price.
I paid $77 total for all the fabric, and 3 down pillow inserts. Two are 18 x 25, and one is 30 x 36. The big one is my favorite, and it is serving as a replacement for taking the back cushions off the couch to make it deeper.
Last night, I found this small Marrakesh Pillow online for $125. Yeow, that's steep.



Eat yummy comfort food. This is my Mom's homemade Ash-e-Reshteh. You can find a recipe for it, here.
It is full of beans, so it's a great source of protein for vegetarians (and pregnant women with meat aversions).
It is one of my favorite dishes, I think I could eat it every day. As a little girl, I would love to watch Grandma sit on the living room floor in the sun and roll the noodles by hand. I can still smell the flour and dough as they rolled together to make the little noodles that my imagination turned into worms.



Finish the shadow box. Over the last few years I have filled our house with bowls, vases, baskets, and bins full of seashells, driftwood, and rocks that we've found on adventures. I started this shadow box a few weeks ago, and I think today it needs to finally be done. I am trying to find the perfect spot to place it when it's finished, and right now the shelves above the couch, our guest bathroom, the mantle, or baby room are the top contenders.



Other to-do's: clean, yoga, & paint my toenails before I can't reach them anymore.

Happy Sunday, friends. I hope you have a wonderful head start to this week.


PS: hello to every one that is new, here. This little blog has reached around 50,000 visitors a month. Thank you always for coming here to leave sweet words, I hope you find whatever it is that you're looking for.