4 Tiny Ideas+Rituals

#8 A Softer Start to Your Week

Parrot tulips I found at the flower market

Hello, dear friends,

We’re already a couple of days into the week, but if you’re still feeling a little fragile after the weekend, after whatever else life brought, I hope you’re finding small ways to move gently through it.

This past weekend it was Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day can be complicated. Maybe you celebrated. Maybe you were celebrated.

Or maybe the day carried something more complicated, some longing, absence, or pain.

Whatever you were holding, I’m sending softness your way.

My Mother’s Day cinnie bun

My Mother’s Day began with a cortado and a cinnamon roll at a local café I love, followed by a walk through the neighbourhood with my family—slow, quiet, and exactly what I needed.

Then a lazy afternoon of pilates and grocery shopping with a friend, while my husband and son went about their day.

I hope your week has been gentle to you so far.

Here are 4 Tiny Ideas+Rituals I am leaning into, I hope they will make your week more gentle:

1) What I Made (and You Can Too): Chili Cheese Toast

I’ve been making chilli cheese toast for my son, lately. It’s become the after-school snack in our house. It’s gooey, spicy, and buttery. It’s what my son loves to have, in that little window between school and soccer practice. Because I work for myself, it’s also become a small ritual for me: stepping away from my screen, making something with my hands, and sharing it with him.

It’s not fancy—just something fun. I'd adore to know if you make it.

The chilli cheese toast my son loves

Recipe

Chilli Cheese Toast

2) A Sweet Sunday Tradition (Because It Just Works)

Here, in Toronto, Trinity Bellwoods Farmers' Market opened again this week. It’s one of those tiny joys I try to make space for. I picked up rhubarb, rosy and tart, and came home dreaming of making something cozy (well, it’s still been cold in Toronto). So I made a rhubarb bread pudding. It’s the kind of dessert you serve warm, maybe with dollops of cream, maybe just as is.

I am sharing my recipe, in case you want to make it, too (if you have rhubarb, you absolutely must make it).

My rhubarb bread pudding

Recipe

Rhubarb Bread Pudding

3) Spring Ingredient Spotlight

Ramps are in season for just a short time—those wild, garlicky greens that chefs and cooks go mad for every Spring.

Fresh ramps at the market, and the green hummus I made with them

We had friends over last night, and I decided to make this green hummus: I quickly blanched a bunch of ramps, then blitzed them into a beautiful, verdant hummus in the food processor.

If you spot ramps at your local market, grab a bunch. Sauté them, roast them, or do what I did—fold them into something familiar and watch it turn into something new.

I served it with red endives (my fave) and sangak (Persian flatbread)

4) Comfort, in Advance (is that so wrong?) 🤍

There’s comfort in choosing something before the moment asks for it. It’s a way of saying: I’ll care for myself when the day feels heavy. I won’t leave it to chance.

I came across this idea in Slow Scottish Stories, Molly Ella’s Substack—and it stayed with me.

This week, it’s a film I’ve saved—Almodóvar’s Julieta. I won’t watch it tonight. I’ve set it aside for later, for a day that may feel a little tender.

Back when I was a student at Cambridge, I’d take the train down to London with my best friend to see Almodóvar’s films at the repertory. That memory—of youthful excitement, of being pulled into his vivid, emotional world—still comforts me.

And sometimes, the most generous thing we can do is make room for comfort before we need it. That, too, is a kind of care.

Julieta is a film about memory, motherhood, and the silences that stretch between people who love each other. It’s one of Almodóvar’s softer films, and maybe that’s why I return to it.

Me, as a wee baby

On Mother’s Day (here I am, with my mother), I found myself thinking about the passing of time, love, and memory. I found myself feeling tender about it all. Grateful for the people I hold close, and especially for the ones who’ve held me.

May my 4 Tiny Ideas+Rituals be useful, and bring a little ease to your week. If you give any of them a try, I’d love to hear from you—please share your thoughts in the comments (and a ‘like’ ❤️ helps this post reach more readers, so I’d be grateful for that).

Wishing you a calm and intentional rest of the week.

All love, Shayma x

All photographic beauty in this newsletter is by me, unless otherwise credited.

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