Maternity Wardrobe Essentials

Every pregnant lady writes this post, right? Here's a few things that I could not have done without so far in the pregnancy:


Garnier BB Cream. I used to be the best sleeper. I slept from 10:30 to 6:30 every single night, without fail. I never woke up in the middle of the night, not to roll over, not to use the bathroom, nothing. Now that I'm sleeping in, at best, 4 hour stretches, I decided an addition to my morning routine might be helpful to combat the zombie face effect. This is when you're grateful for a sister who's a make-up artist. She recommended Garnier's BB Cream especially since I don't wear make-up on a daily basis. Just this, and maybe a swipe of mascara, makes all the difference.


A great maternity coat. I'm pregnant for a good 3 months of winter, and that doesn't include post-postpartum time, so we decided that a maternity coat was a wise investment. Mine, shown above, is super cute, with a punch of color and the belt emphasizing the bump. I feel put together, even when only a handful of items fit.


Speaking of things not fitting, thank goodness for black flats. Back in September I bought two pairs from Kohl's and wear them daily. My Ugg boots still fit, so I'm currently running around in Uggs for outdoors, with a pair of flats in my bag.

Black Leggings. I have two pairs that I switch out under my dresses. They're not maternity leggings, I just wear them under my bump and I'm good to go. This is necessary as it gets colder and as my dresses get slightly shorter by the week!!

I'm also wearing cute earrings, other accessories and my hair down more, in an effort to distract from the insane bump that is Caleb growing by the week. We're now at the point where people say "Are you having that baby this month??" I'm sure they mean well...

32 Weeks: Our cup overfloweth

Our cup, our dining room, our living room, everything. Everything overfloweth.

A family at church with three little boys passed down bins of their clothing. We went through it on Saturday morning.

My favorite, anything with a cowboy on it!

Brian says "He doesn't need more than 3 or 4 pairs of shoes, right?" Me: "I have no idea. You choose."

More cowboy!

Brian's favorite, obviously.

This is what we think we're keeping. Not shown: 6 grocery bags full to go to friends and UMC Family Services. Also not shown: the swag received at my baby shower yesterday. OMG. As Brian keeps saying, "Why does such a small baby need so much stuff??"

Me, 32 weeks pregnant. Our bedroom is still a clean, sane place, unlike our living room and dining room.

Fall 2013 Hits and Misses

One of the reasons I started keeping a blog was to have a place to journal my favorite recipes, so I'd be able to come back to them. I still check my old blog for recipes that would otherwise be long gone. In that spirit, I thought I'd share some recent recipes that I'd like to be able to find again someday:

Hits:

The Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. These were a huge hit with Brian and a couple other families I gifted. The dough is beautiful- I let it rest at least as long she recommended, which resulted in a shiny, malleable dough that had no problems rolling out or rising. I found, with a lot of icing, these were way too sweet for me. I'd cut the amount of icing in half, or maybe skip it altogether next time. That "one" recipe made three 9x9 pans of rolls, so this is great for gifting.

The Kitchn's Orzo with Carmelized Fall Vegetables. I made this for dinner last night. The flavors are so great. I could always come up with sauteing veggies with pasta, but adding in fresh ginger took it to whole other level. Two mistakes that I'd right next time: follow the instructions and cook the orzo first. Prep the veggies before you start. I thought I could chop as I went but it caught up to me and then I got behind.

A Couple Cooks' Cinnamon Ice Cream. This is a really easy recipe that I managed to screw up. Here's the golden rule of ice cream that you do not, do not, do not break: You must freeze your KitchenAid ice cream bowl overnight. 7 or 8 hours in the fridge will not do it. Trust the Rule. I made the mistake of churning the ice cream on Sunday afternoon, only to have it not come together. I dumped the ice cream base back into my mixing bowl and threw it in the fridge, washed out the KitchenAid ice cream bowl and put it in the freezer. OVERNIGHT. Then I tried again yesterday evening- success! The ice cream took about half an hour to come together.

Serious Eats' Baba Ghanoush: I made this sometime over the summer for one of our potluck dinners with friends and it was a hit. Our non-dairy, gluten-free friends could eat it. Our friend who doesn't eat vegetables was incredibly intrigued by everyone's rave reviews, but upon hearing it was eggplant, wouldn't even try it. Their loss, our gain.

Misses:

A slow cooker red beans & rice. I won't even post the recipe, because that's not nice, the recipe is probably fine. But it made WAY too much for 2 people. Here's the deal on red beans and rice, especially when you live in Wisconsin: Zatarain's is delicious. You need a quick meal? Use the box. Add some sausage. The end.

Week 31: So Pregnant, So Busy

I didn't post at all last week, and there's a reason for that: I am entirely too busy. It's true. I was too busy to remember to take a photo last week, too busy to think about writing a post. I'm packed at work and I'm jam-packed outside of work. I have to start saying no, because Brian and I don't do well when both of us are crazy busy. It's especially difficult to say no to things that, in general, make me incredibly happy: leading a book study for a group at church, participating in bible study and prayer weekly with my girlfriends, but there are only so many hours in a week. Caleb is coming, the stuff is piling up, things have to start getting washed, the holidays are soon to be here. Plus, there's usual: dinner, dishes, laundry, keeping the house fairly picked up and clean. I'm in no way saying these are all my responsibilities: they're shared between Brian and I, always have been, but they have to happen.

This weekend we took it easy: we said no to a party on Saturday night, choosing to stay in, walk to Culver's for dinner and watch a movie. We chose running our errands in a leisurely fashion, finishing up Caleb's dresser, putting up artwork around the apartment that's been sitting on the floor. We asked to push an appointment back half an hour yesterday so that we could eat lunch without rushing. I took an hour half an hour in the kitchen to make the first batch of holiday cookies, Brian's favorite, my Chocolate-Gingerbread cookies. We reconnected and recharged, ready to push forward into this week.

The dresser is finally done! We picked up hardware at Home Depot and Brian promptly attached drawer pulls to finish this project.

We also pulled out the bedding and made the crib look super pretty.

So pregnant. Shortness of breath has definitely kicked in.