Dinnertime: Fast, fast, fast!

Not fast, as in fasting. I didn't ever fast pre-pregnancy and it sounds like a horrible idea now. No, I'm talking about getting a meal on the table fast. 

I'll be honest: this isn't my specialty. My specialty is getting home from work at 5:15 and having dinner on the table sometime before 7. I like to pour myself a drink and stand, hip to the counter, chopping and stirring. I like to let Brian work a little longer and listen to some music. Or I ask him for help and the kitchen fills with conversation about our day. I don't like to rush. But this season in our lives, the last pre-baby season, the working three jobs for Brian, prenatal yoga class and bible study for me, youth group and church council meetings season? It's not conducive to long bouts of simmering soup. I make our meal plan most Fridays and here's how next week goes:

Sunday: Brian is at youth group from 4:30 to 8. This is my night in the kitchen, West Wing on my laptop, baking bread and making dessert and long dinners. We're having our favorite "risotto" - Heidi's Lemony Risotto with Greens.

Monday: Now that Brian's on staff, we're both going to church council. It's at 7pm. We'll have leftover risotto.

Tuesday: I have Bible Study with girlfriends at 7:30, so I'm making a quick dinner of Tortellini with pesto. I'll be swapping out parsley in the pesto for the spinach I saw at the farmer's market last weekend. I'll make the pesto on Sunday.

Wednesday: Now that we're back to the school year, Wednesday is a night off for me. We eat at church before youth group.

Thursday: I have prenatal yoga from 5:30 to 7. It's not conducive to cooking, but I can stick something in the oven when I run home to change. Praise Jesus I live 15 minutes from work and my yoga class is 2 minutes from my house. I'm trying a pinterest recipe, Spaghetti Squash Alfredo with chicken Milanese-style. The squash will roast while I'm at yoga and the rest will come together quickly.

Friday is up in the air. It's our only real, uninterrupted night in next week. I might decide to take the night in the kitchen or I might decide to pick up a pizza.

I'm aware that this is the direction our family is going. In few years, when Caleb is playing three sports and I'm forcing him through piano lessons and we've got other kids we haven't even dreamed about yet, this is going to look like a cakewalk. But right now, it's new for us and it's bittersweet to slowly ease away from the days of leisurely wine and chopping.

The TV Corner: Before & After

When I met Brian, his roommate's TV was sitting on this huge side table, rescued from a curb at some point or another. When we got married and moved in together, the huge side table came with us, holding up our tv. It was decent. At holding up a tv. There was enough room to hold the PS3 and the cable box, although all the wires had to come around to the front.

It looked like this:

The table stuck out funny under our sleek tv and the wires sat around, just waiting for us to have friends with children over. 

This was my inspiration for a new tv stand. It's from The Marriage Confessions, an adorable blog about raising a family, but it was the white toy shelf/bookcase that caught my eye. You see, our apartment is not even close to a "forever" home. So we knew that any tv stand solution would probably be reconsidered whenever we move again. I thought, perhaps we make a piece that eventually goes into a kid's room...much like this one: 

Photo Credit: The Marriage Confessions.

 This is what we came up with:

It's smooth and sleek. It doesn't stick out into our living space anymore. The open space behind the upper shelves let the wires run behind the piece. They're hidden by the middle box. The boxes will hold toys and things for Caleb. The brown and green fabric boxes match the colors in our furniture and can be cheaply replaced to match colors in Caleb's room someday. 

The white doesn't match the rest of our living room wood furniture, which is dark, but it does match the white wood I'm putting in the nursery. Also, you know you've become an adult when you say things like, "As long we've got that spot cleared, let me just vacuum and scrub the baseboards real quick!" 

We love it and the living room feels like a whole new space!

Week 24

24 weeks pregnant, racing towards the third trimester. This is the week in which Brian admitted that, previously, he didn't believe nesting was a real thing. Now he understands better.

Did so much this weekend and yet the bedroom felt too messy for the usual "selfie." Asked Brian to snap this silhouette. Bonus: You can't even see that I'm not wearing make-up!

This weekend was a fantastic mix of lazy and productive. We felt like we accomplished a lot, but got lots of downtime together, watching football and a movie.

Accomplishments:
Bought a crib off of Craigslist! It's still sitting in pieces in my car, but we'll get it pulled out and put together as soon as Brian moves his desk out of the office/nursery.
Switched out our tv stand! This deserves its own post. It looks SO much better. In the process, we rearranged the living room slightly and the whole place looks awesome as a result.
Brian did a serious clean-out of his woodworking shop.
We ran the dishwasher probably four times. All the dishes are clean now. ALL OF THEM.
Laundry.
Ordered a photo for our frame that we had everybody sign at our wedding. Which was 13 months ago.
Booked our pre-baby in-town getaway at the Iron Horse in October.
Cleaned out the fridge. It was so scary.
In addition, the bathroom and kitchen floor are squeaky clean and there's new sheets on the bed. It doesn't happen every weekend. Sue me.

A cool, rainy, fall Sunday afternoon makes me want to bake ALL THE CARBS. This is cinnamon-raisin swirl bread. Not shown: the cranberry-orange muffins I made as well.

I also managed to squeeze in some girls time on Friday night and Saturday morning, catching up with dear friends who I don't get to see nearly enough. On Sunday Brian had to lead confirmation orientation during our usual traditional worship service, so we attended the earlier "contemporary" service. One of the priorities in our marriage is worshiping together, so we don't mind switching around the schedule. Not only were we pleasantly surprised at how much we connected with the contemporary service, I loved having the extra hour and a half in my morning. I went grocery shopping and to the farmers market and was still home by 11:30. I won't be disappointed if we go to that service more often.

The Caleb's stuff bin is now overflowing, which is a good sign that things need to get moved into the nursery...

We're still having one boy child. Our friends, who have two little boys, are expecting a baby girl soon. We were gifted a beautiful pink and brown bouncy seat before we knew we were expecting a boy. We switched! The girl seat is off to friends' house this week.

The all-day rain on Sunday meant I did not get in to plant kale or clean out the garden.

Grow little Brussels Sprouts!

23 Weeks and the nesting seriously starts

Major baby bump happening this morning.

Nesting starts outside.

Voila! It's hello fall on our porch.

And hello fall in our dinner table. That's braised red cabbage, pan roasted chicken with sauce and mashed potatoes.

Plus apple tart. No, I couldn't wait to cut it before I took a picture.

This is not high season for the garden. Kale hasn't gone it yet. Everything's just about done except...

The Brussels Sprouts! Teensy, teensy sprouts.

Teensy, tiny football butt for Caleb. Love it.