This Is The New Year!

The first week of Spring 2013 has been busy and fun around here!!

The sun has been shining, wedding bells have been ringing, and the sound of laughter has been all around. Spring is such a wonderful time to review the past year, set new goals for the coming year, and to start everything fresh! I could not be more excited about the year ahead.

Other than cleaning up the house last week, I have also been cleaning up some other matters. For one, I had a dental cleaning this morning and boy does my mouth feel extra awesome right now. Friends, I highly recommend that you go to a dental cleaning at least once a year (ideally, twice a year). You will save a lot of time, pain, and money in the long run by taking the time to have your teeth checked and cleaned annually. K, enough of the dental hygiene pitch ;)

Another think I've been trying to clean up here is Dr. Love and my diet. We are, generally, pretty healthy people, but, in my opinion, there is always room for improvement. Lately, I have been making sure to take my daily vitamins (Super B-Complex, D3, and Multivitamin), I have almost entirely switched over from coffee to green tea (antioxidants are awwwweeesome!), and I have been hitting up my fitness boot camp 2-3 times a week (which still hasn't stopped the boot camp instructor from teasing me for "taking a bunch of days off in the middle," sigh....). Another big change that I'm working very hard on implementing is switching from outside meals to homemade ones. As my legal practice has gotten busier and busier, I have gotten lazier about preparing homemade meals. That being said, recently, I started taking shortcuts that make preparing homemade meals a whole lot easier. For one, I buy my veggies washed, pre-cut, and prepped for cooking. While the pre-prepped options are pricier than their uncut/unprepared counterparts, they take a lot less time to prepare. As a result, I find that I am more willing to cook a meal at home than to buy something from outside. I also have been buying 4-6 chicken breast fillets and marinating them all on the same day then grilling them as the week goes on. The result is that my prep time is cut down by a lot and by day 3, the chicken is absolutely delicious because it has been marinating for days.

One final way that I have been welcoming Spring is by playing really uplifting music whenever I am in the car or relaxing. Here's a new favorite:

Oh, and here are some recent pics:

 Wore this to a friend's wedding. Dress code was "modern hipster cool."  This is about as "hipster" as I get...which is basically not hipster at all...I guess I just went with the "modern cool" :)

 Recent hair and makeup for meeting...you can almost never go wrong with a chignon.

 The bro and me grabbing brunch at Pelican Hills Resort with Dr. Love and a few friends this past weekend.

Cracking the bro's back while enjoying the Laguna Beach sun...Do NOT try this (the backcracking part...the enjoying the sun part is recommended to all) at home. :)

That's it for this week, friends! Does Spring kick your butt into action, as it does mine? If so, what are some ways that you like to freshen up your life when Spring rolls around?

x

Happy Persian New Year!!!!

Happy Persian New Year, friends!!!

Or better yet, Eideh Nowrooz Mobarak!!!

Because it is Persian New Year, and because yours truly is Persian/Iranian, this week is kind of a big deal around here.

For example, I spent all of last night cleaning and organizing our house..."spring cleaning" takes on a whole new meaning (and is executed a whole lot more thoroughly) when you have been told, ever since you were a very little girl, that the state of your house on Nowrooz (i.e., "new day" referring to the first day of Spring/Persian New Year) sets the tone for the entire year. I cleaned just about everything I could, and then finally gave up when it came time to vacuum. I convinced myself that it is better to enter the new year with high energy, good spirits, and a dirty carpet vs. with the cleanest carpet around, but a pissy/exhausted disposition. I'd like to think that I made the right decision :).

As far as Nowrooz traditions go, two of the biggest ones are "Char-shanbe-soori" (translated loosely to "Wednesday festival of fire") and the Haft Sin (translated to "seven S's"). On Char-shanbe-soori, Persians jump over a fire to "wash away the past year's sorrow, sadness, sins, etc..." Check out this page to learn more about the tradition. In any city where there is a good population of Persians/Iranians, there will be organized bonfire events where people come together to jump over the fire and celebrate together. Ever since Dr. Love and I have been married, we have opted to celebrate at home by jumping over a candle.

Please excuse my gym gear...had to get my exercise in before jumping over the fire to set a good precedent for the new year ;).

 

As far as the haft sin is concerned, it is full of symbolism (much like many Persian traditions and customs, including the Persian wedding spread, "sofreye aghd").  I was really interested to learn more about the symbolism behind the pieces that we include in our New Year's spread, so I did a little research and voila:

Here's a more zoomed out, unobstructed view of the components of the haft sin:

A haft sin also always includes a fish bowl with fish, where the water symbolizes the infinity of the universe, and the fish represent the life that exists in the universe.  As you can tell, we don't have a fishbowl on our haft sin, because being the fish lovers that we are, we have a full aquarium of them!

 

Two of our goldfish, William and Sebastian, are actually fish that we purchased for Persian New Year 2010 (our first as a married couple). They survived living in a fishbowl through Persian New Year, so we decided to buy them a more permanent home in the form of small aquarium. Three years later, they have many additional friends and a much bigger home :). "To infinity and beyond!!!"

 So, there you have it, friends! Your own little Persian New Year 101 course!!

If you celebrate Persian New Year, Eideh Shoma Mobarak!!! If you don't, I hope that today's post has been interesting to you and that you have a wonderful first day of Spring!

x