A Fall Saturday

Victory?

Here's to hoping we can get some better sleep in the mornings. This 6 ish am wake up calls to our bed is getting old. Not only will she want to play in our bed, she focuses on my phone charging on the night stand. I wouldn't care about her watching Netflix, but she goes all fingers and ends up stopping and navigating away from the show.

18 Month Appointment

Here we are again at the Doctors for a well baby visit. I was curious as to just how heavy my little girl had become since Mommy was feeling it all the more with being pregnant. Eliza is starting to remember more now about these appointments and that they are not exactly fun moments.

Here is where we stand:

Weight: 23.9 (38th %)
Height: 32" (59 %)
Head: 45.5 cm (20th %)

It looks like I am still cautiously able to pick my little girl up with out concern for my own safety yet in doing too much, but that will of course change when the baby is here in the first few months in lifting much of anything else than said baby. Hard to think I am 26 weeks along now. Last baby at this time I was already into January, feeling like April was so very long away.

If I can just get myself to Christmas, it will be mostly down hill from there. The kids will be on winter break, leaving a lot less stress and physical strain in the daily work details, then January 11th I go on maternity leave. But even trying to get to Christmas seems like a giant mountain in the distance.

Meals

Now I know I might be a tad bit late on the weekly meal planning wagon, but with now only working part time again and having a toddler to feed at regular intervals, I am hating the dreaded question of, "What do you want for dinner?"

We do our food shopping trip week to week, or pay check to pay check depending, so as wild as my imagination can be, its tough to be limited to a tight budget where you have to ask yourself if you want a package of meat or lunch meat for the week. They come to about the same price.

I know there are tons of crock pot concoctions out there, but I don't want everything boiled or soup all the time. Especially when it involves pasta, since I can't be there to throw it in at the right moment. Not to mention by the time I get home from work and picking up Eliza from the sitters, it is already 6:30. Making and freezing isn't all that doable since we have limited space in our freezer. Don't get me wrong, making soup and freezing it for later is fine, but there is an extent to how much my husband wants soup in the week.

So if you have found any good staples in your weekly dinners that can work for a tight budget and/or time frame and substituting canned goods in for fresh can work, send them my way in the comments :)

Stuck

Do you know those chapters or seasons in your life where the cliche "light at the end of the tunnel" phase seems like a real crock?

It seems that both of my pregnancies have been faced with some of the same struggles. The pain, frustration, cries....all swirling inside as this life, a gift from God squirms with no thought or concept of what life means yet.

I am tired

Tired of the same which finds no true lasting progress.

I am tired

Tired of the weight of the responsibility I must continue to drudge through for the sake of making sure my family can be taken care of in the most basic of ways.

I am tired

Tired of wanting to run away from the same pit which has been called home for the last almost 3 years of this season of life. A pit which sides only grow taller as I fight to crawl out of, only to have the sides crumble inward, weighing me down all the more with it's filth and darkness.

And the strange thing is, from the outside...things have been growing, but at what cost? 

Just a Few Thoughts

Pregnancy in your late 2nd trimester and your bowling score do not go well together. Who knew?

Feeling guilty at how much the TV is on playing Netflix. Most of it is educational ie Sesame Street and all....yet I find I have a more pleasanter child that lets me get some sort of work done around the house. Sometimes she just sits there and watches, other times she is busy messing around the house. We live in a very media rich culture and Eliza isn't at an age where I can chase her out of the house to play outside. Even I myself like the noise going on as I go from room to room.

Looking pretty set on sleepers and onesies for baby boy for the next few months of NE weather. Starting to feel the nesting itch, but it feels different the second time around. Feels more like a chore than a fun activity. It could be the fact that both kids will share a room and most of the "work" is done already. No new room decore theme to toil over. Sigh...but things could be much worse.

I have been quite successful in my domestic wife skills as far as meal planning. I love having something more balanced and good to eat than scavenging over bowls of cereal, lunch meat and cheese or potato roll sliders with butter.

I am at that point where even maternity clothes make me feel awkward. Then the normal wear isn't long enough to cover appropriately. Sigh....only 15 more weeks right?

A West Coast Dumpster Score

There is nothing sweeter than finding some piece of discard that has big potential for someone else....

My mother found this glider foot stool out by the dumpster near her boyfriends retired apartment complex. The fabric was faded and missing a button in the upholstery, but the mechanics and bones were in excellent shape. So when we did our big San Diego trip, she pulled this treasure out to see if I could do anything with it.

Uh.....YES!

You seen, right before Eliza came into our lives, we had our 2nd year wedding anniversary...not to mention our tax return check:) Before we were married, I declared a rider to the marriage vows, "If you knock me up, you will gift me with a nice padded glider rocker for this blessing." When that time came, I looked and looked for something in our budget, and something that would also look more like any room furniture when those fleeting chapters were no more. After finding something, I came to the conclusion that I didn't have to have the matching $150 ottoman. It was nice, but trying to consider room...it was a bit too much. Oh how I wanted one though since!

Mother and I promptly went to Joann Fabric to look at home decor material. I had always admired the geometric and modern prints, but it is always a bit pricey and I haven't felt the urge to make curtains or throw pillows for myself. The sex of the baby was not 100% identified, but enough to make me try and consider possibilities of something boy friendly. Yet, we still have a girl who will be sharing the room. This might be a tad girly, but HEY, its for me ain't it?

Here you will see the easy step by step process of reupholstering the pad. I know many may know this stuff already, but if you haven't taken that plunge with a staple gun and fabric...this is for you! 

Not much for chic decor

Hey, it's got a nice frame

Cut your fabric long enough so it will wrap along all sides that will be exposed, plus a little extra to be stapled. Put one staple on each side at the mid point. This will ensure you don't have any wrinkles on the other side which will be seen.

Do each side, pulling an inch or so of fabric to be stapled until you get to the corners. Leave those for later.

I took the extra corner fabric and folded it inward, much like wrapping a gift. It should make an angled overlap to be seen on each side.

After you've tackled the corners, feel free to be a perfectionist and cut away any extra fabric past where your staples are in place. Depending on your piece of furniture, you can now reattach it to the base. If it can't be removed, all is still possible but may take longer to staple.

And Voila! A new cushion pad with no wrinkles or having to spend big $$$

Photo (who cares what day of the week it is)

There is something about a child when they sleep...no matter what the age. I decided to creep inside Eliza's room and hope the hallway lighting would be enough for the lens to get some sort of focus. I was surprised of how short the exposure was to nab this :)

Oh Goodie Goodie Gosh!

My fabrics finally came in the mail! The designer Michael Miller, which can be found on Fabric Worm and Fabric.com has given me hope that there really ARE cute boy fabric selections out there. I hope to use these in our baby boy's quilt some how, but wanting it to not be too baby-ish. I want this to be a blanket they will be fond of for a long time and never think they've out grown it. 

I Like These Visits

Just got back from my 23 week OB appointment. I was nervous for this one simply for the fact that it feels weird to be showing this early compared to my last pregnancy. I hadn't gone crazy on the food, but less careful with being low fat conscious.

When I step on the scale, I make sure to remove as much extra clothing weight as possible like shoes, jacket, keys and cell phone. Then I step on it backwards as to not see the digital display. Questions are then asked if I was up or down and by how many pounds.

I felt VERY good hearing I was down a pound, so my pound gained from last visit is gone!

I am still under my starting weight for this pregnancy :)

After gaining 36 pounds in the last round, hearing 4 pounds gained after each appointment was rather discouraging. With only have a little over a year after the birth of Eliza and getting pregnant again, I of course was worried about added weight gain.

I like these kinda of appointments :)

From the Sewing Machine

I've discovered applique for the sewing machine. I know a lot of people have known about this for a long time, but it is a whole new world for me....and SO simple and cheap to do.

I found the robot template at lil blue boo in the freebie section. The tie was either a Pintrest find or even Googled. Yet, I found these quite cute for an alternative baby boy design. The red bow tie was my idea, as I wanted it to be a little more gussied up and just free handed it. The hard part was going around it with an 1/8 in inseam  It isn't perfect all around, but I think it just makes it look more organic.

I up-cycled some old onesies of Eliza's stash from the past. Mr. G loves it when my projects don't cost him any extra money. The fabric patterns were not of what I have recently ordered through Fabric.com, but used of my limited boys stash. I have a few more to put to use with the new additions.