Any fun plans?
I'm about to head outside and get started in the garden. It's time to break in my new gardening boots (my old polka dotted ones made it 5 years) and feel some sunshine on my shoulders.
If you'd like some tips on getting your gardens started this year, you can visit a few posts I did last season on Backyard Farming.
As of yesterday at 4:00pm, I am officially on maternity leave for 56 glorious days. Working on my feet up until 9 days before my due date has not been easy, and I am so thankful to have some time to rest before she gets here.
Since my midwife ordered me off my bike at 37 weeks, I have taken up long walks with Michael to get some energy out and get my circulation moving. Nothing feels better than getting some fresh air and stretching my stiff body. The last couple weeks I've tagged along as he plays disc golf a couple times a week - and I absolutely cannot complain.
The course is 2 miles of thick trees and open fields where I can just get lost and appreciate the first promises of Spring. It completely renews me to watch everything start to bloom. Between dead grass and empty, bare trees that are only bones left from Winter, the tiniest bright blooms and leaves are starting to sprout. The breeze is cool and the sun is warm, and soon enough, everything will be alive again.
This morning before Michael left for school, he said "happy first day of freedom." There is something silly about it, because even though our days are always ours, and we chose what we do and where we go in life, maternity leave feels a bit like the first day of Summer vacation. I haven't had this long off in over 10 years - I started working when I was in high school and have worked/gone to school ever since.
So really, it does feel like complete freedom. And even though my days will be busy with a newborn, cooking, keeping the house clean, and taking care of my shop, there will also be so many wonderful, lazy moments I am so excited to begin. Digging in the yard, sweet sunshine, open windows and my favorite music, shopping the farmer's market, and gardening. Taking photos, long walks with the little one, and hours on the back patio, wasting our minutes away.
Last week I decided that I would pass on this years Arts Market, which was both relieving and sad for me. I was looking forward to using the money towards a new camera, but lately, I am learning to put my relaxation and priorities in line before everything else. I would have had one month from now to get all my products ready, but instead, I have decided that my list of laying in the sun, gardening, and walks will come first. This is my 6th year that I have had my camera, and I guess I can always stretch it a bit longer. My old lady is still going strong, even if she's terribly outdated and behind on all the fancy things she could be doing compared to newer SLR's.
Today, for my first day of "freedom," I am going grocery shopping to stock up on all my favorite yummy foods. I am going to stop by Grandma & Grandpa's to split open a cantaloupe I bought Grandpa for his 88th birthday, write a letter to a friend, clean a bit, and then sit on the patio and start laying out my garden plan for the season.
So far, my first week of Spring feels absolutely right. And just like every other year when this time begins, I am appreciative and completely sound in how good life really is.
I think starting a project like this is a lot like a forgotten New Years Resolution. Everyone starts out with good intentions, and then just as quickly as things began, those good intentions fade into forgotten promises.
I take photos every single day. What I post here is not even half of the things I keep for myself. Personal albums full of family photos, small adventures, and details around our house. For me, starting a project like this is simple in the sense that I am already looking through the lens every day - but almost overwhelming when it comes to choosing just one photo to sum up what that 24 hours meant to me.
There is a quote that says:
"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." -Roald Dahl
And so true it is. Here is an article on how to find beauty in life. A good guideline to inspire you to see things a bit clearer.
But I promise you that looking too far into something like that will not help you find that beauty at all. In fact there is a small irony in trying to teach someone to see the world through different eyes. How can you really teach something that can only be felt in your heart? It's like teaching someone to find happiness, when the only true path there is to stop looking for it.
"If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of the day." -W. Beran Wolfe
Today was a busy day...an end to a busy weekend that left me feeling more tired than rested. I spent the day yesterday pulling weeds and planting new lavender bushes around the patio, and today I felt every bit of 9 months pregnant.
Tonight when evening started to roll around, I realized I hadn't taken one photograph. In that moment the only thing to do was to quiet my mind and look around at what I was thankful for, today. In the end to this busy day, there was such a calm moment in where I was. The breeze outside is so sweet that it almost feels like it is coming straight off the ocean. With all the windows open in the house, sheer drapes gently swaying, everything seems right.
Today, on my brand new day, I am finding beauty in those swaying drapes. The shades of green in every room of our house, finished packages for friends who live miles away, and new garden boots waiting to be worn in and used this season. Soft, evening light through all the open windows, that biting breeze, and the beautiful, quiet moments that come with realizations at the end of a busy weekend.
If you are planning on starting your own 365 project, remember that you don't need to go looking for something beautiful to photograph. There is already so much around you, waiting to be seen and appreciated. These small, quiet details of your day are the ones that we too often forget about by the end of our year. But they are the ones that make our days truly count. We should not remember only the big moments that take place, or else our memories by the end of our years will only fit on our fingers and toes. There are many other moments that slip through our hands and are often long forgotten, like our New Years Resolutions.
Today, on your brand new day, slow down and see the world around you for what it really is. Mundane, ordinary, and absolutely perfect in these still moments.
When I was a little girl, I always felt so lucky to get to celebrate one extra holiday a year. Every March, on the first day of Spring, we would celebrate our Persian New Year. Today is the first day of the year in our calendar, and a day to celebrate Nowruz. It is the first day of Spring, and from the time I was young, I always wondered why my American friends celebrated the first day of the year on a cold, dark day in January.
"Nowruz is the most important holiday in Iran. Preparations for Nowruz begin in the month Esfand, the last month of winter in the Persian solar calendar.
Spring cleaning, or Khouneh Tekouni (literally means 'shaking the house') or 'complete cleaning of the house' is commonly performed before Nowruz. Persians start preparing for the Nowruz with a major spring-cleaning of their houses, the purchase of new clothes to wear for the new year and the purchase of flowers.
In association with the "rebirth of nature", extensive spring-cleaning is a national tradition observed by almost every household in Iran. This is also extended to personal attire, and it is customary to buy at least one set of new clothes. On the New Year's Day, families dress in their new clothes and start the twelve-day celebrations by visiting the elders of their family, then the rest of their family and finally their friends. On the thirteenth day families leave their homes and picnic outdoors."
This week my Mom and Dad came over to help do the deep cleaning of our house. These days I'm not good of much of anything but doing dishes and vacuuming, and getting down on my hands and knees to scrub is out of the question. I started my cleaning a few weeks ago, emptying closets and getting rid of extra clutter around the house before I knew I would be too tired, and entirely too pregnant to do anything. We had our carpets cleaned Monday, and on Thursday they came over and my Mom scrubbed every corner of our house spotless, while my Dad planted a few new shrubs in the yard.
Everything feels light, new, and ready for the start of new life. Vases around the house are filled with blooms and flowers, the windows are all open, and there is an overall sense of readiness and peace around our house.
We celebrated Nowruz a day early, yesterday. Here are the traditions we follow on the first day of the year.
Nowruz always begins with a few people (usually Grandpa) napping while my Mom runs around in the kitchen, finishing the last touches on dinner. Don't worry if for a minute you thought he was dead in this picture - I had to check and make sure he was breathing before I was myself convinced that he was still alive, and ready for his 88th birthday, tomorrow.
The house is always filled with the smell of all the wonderful food being cooked. Especially the dried herbs from my Mom's garden every past Summer. I want to bottle up this smell.
The coffee table is set and prepared with the Hafstin. All the pastries carefully covered until it's time to eat.
"Haftseen (Persian: "Haftseen/Haftsā") or the seven 'S's is a traditional table setting of Nowruz, the traditional Iranian spring celebration. Today the haft seen table includes seven specific items, all starting with the seen (Sā) in the Persian alphabet. Traditionally, families attempt to set the most aesthetically appealing Haft Sîn table they can as an expression of traditional, spiritual, and social value, for visitors during Nowruz visitations. The Haft Seen items are:
1. Sabzeh - wheat, barley, mung bean or lentil sprouts growing in a dish - symbolizing rebirth
2. Samanu - sweet pudding made from wheat germ - symbolizing affluence
3. Senjed - dried oleaster fruit - symbolizing love
4. Sir - garlic - symbolizing medicine
5. Sib - apples - symbolizing beauty and health
6. Somāq - sumac fruit - symbolizing (the color of) sunrise
7. Serkeh - vinegar - symbolizing old-age and patience
The house is also filled with the smell of Sonbol (Hyacinth flowers). They remind me so much of Spring, and every year after the Hafstin comes down, my Mom plants the bulbs in her yard. On Nowruz, outside the window the Sonbols from past years bloom outside while the new ones wait on the table for their time to be planted.
We sit around for a couple hours visiting and waiting for the food to be ready. By this time we're usually starving and ready to pick at everything on the table, which is probably why my Mom keeps everything covered up. So I just wander around to take photos.
When it's finally time to eat, Grandpa is always the first to the table. We eat the traditional foods, like Sabzi Polo, fish, and Maast-o-khiar, a cold yogurt with cucumbers and herbs.
And we eat. A lot. It's like Thanksgiving for Persians, and your plate has to be filled over and over until you can barely breathe.
With our bellies full, we all squeeze onto the couch to try and get a photo together. With a handful of adults, two people in their 80's, a baby, and a couple dogs around, this always turns into a huge ordeal, and we hardly ever get a photo that every one looks good in. They usually end up looking like this:
With a little (and very little) time to make room in our bellies, the Haftsin is uncovered and it's time to snack on dried fruit, lavash bread and paneer cheese with cucumbers, and the traditional Persian sweets.
My Mom spends days preparing them all from scratch.
We sip our tea and eat plates full of them, almost dying from the overload of sweetness.
It is one of my favorite days of the year. A time to be with family, eat all my favorite foods, and make big plans for the new year ahead.
Happy New year, friends. Spring is here, and it's time to think about all the big hopes and dreams we want to set for ourselves, this year.
Every year I plan on starting a 365 project - taking one photo a day. I never feel very inspired or moved to start this on January 1st, when the world seems cold and dead. So this year, I decided I would start this project for myself on our new year.
Every day, a brand new day and opportunity to find something beautiful in the world. This morning, it was the new shrub my Dad planted for me this week.
I can't wait to put together an album of 365 photos next Spring, to see where this year will take me.
Sorry for the quiet, friends. I haven't been online much, but it has really been a nice break. My mind is always so quiet when I am away from the tv and internet.
We're down to the last couple weeks until the baby is here, (any day now!) and I've been so busy trying to get everything finished. In the moments I have left, I am trying to spend my time enjoying this calm before our worlds are turned up-side-down. The weather has been so lovely, and today I spent the afternoon and evening swinging on the porch swing, getting some sunshine on my big, round belly. I am glad we have a privacy fence, because I look pretty ridiculous in my teeny bikinis, these days.
Here are a few things I've been working on around the house, and for the shop.
This weekend I washed and put away all her little clothes, blankets, and socks. Everything is in it's place, and ready to go. We're ready for you, little baby.
