What's up Wednesday

What we're eating this week: It's pantry challenge time! This means I'm going through my very full pantry and cellar and eating through any meals I can make there with minimal shopping. When I recently cleaned out my pantry to organize it again I noticed how many meals I could make there - this challenge not only forces me to eat through that stockpile but also saves money! I'll just be buying fresh produce and some meat, if needed. 

Also I've been tailoring my portion of the meals to my health goals. For example, when we have butter chicken, rather than having mine over rice, I have it over sauteed veggies. Enchiladas aren't wrapped in a tortilla but stuffed into a zucchini boat. By adding most dinners to veggies I'm enjoying the flavors I love but feeling the way I long to feel healthwise! 

What I'm reminiscing about: Floating prebaby! I love Avelynn but there was something extra special about summer days on the lake without worrying about another human! 

What I'm loving: My sweet baby has slept through the night three times this past week!!! BABY! I love you!

What we've been up to: Hikes, walks, adventures! Grocery shopping, Pantry cleaning, laundry. The mundane alongside adventures!

What I'm dreading: Possible baby sleep regressions! Please, say it won't happen.

What I'm working on: Some blog posts about projects I've worked on - and some other projects to finish. Also coming, an outfit blog post!

What I'm excited about: After 2 and a half weeks cracking down on my health and getting to the gym and adding in regular exercise I have lost 5 pounds and a few inches and am feeling fabulous! I am seriously so excited about this I can hardly stand it. 

What I'm reading: The Baby Whisperer, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and Reshapping it all by Candace Cameron Bure. For fun I'm reading Shell Cottage.

What I'm listening to: It's sunny and I'm happy - I've been cranking gospel music and pop loudly. 

What I'm wearing: Jean shorts and more jean shorts with birkenstock sandals. Loving it! Swimsuit as appropriate and work out clothes when active! 

What I'm doing this weeked: Heading to the lake with my sister and Avelynn, of course - we're visiting our hometown to swim and float and hang out. 

What I'm looking forward to next month: Avelynn and I are volunteering at Teen Camp! And then we're off to a family wedding in Oregon. Between those two adventures there's a lot to look forward to!

What else is new: My new coffee station! I revamped an old piece of craiglist furniture (a $50 find) in 2 hours and am in love! More to come soon.

Avelynn is 3 months!

Outtakes

Checking her weight on her 3 month "birthday" at Ravengsong clinic

Baby life is certainly interesting - for example I apparently, like, never blog anymore (except this week - 4 posts after a month without!), which is a real shame. But you see - this is the real problem - I can't figure out which of my photos to edit and post. So many photos....

Chillin with her cousin

Lunch!

Avelynn is great in her car seat

Family time!

Avelynn is a super cutey. So it makes it hard to narrow it down, you see?

Lets see. What else. Last night was her 5th night in her own room AND the second night in her life that she slept all the way through the night. Or at least, that we slept all the way through the night. She went to bed at 9 and I woke up at 7:15 and she was still asleep! Only I realized that the monitor was on mute. Upon talking with our students I found out that she probably did wake up and cry (around 2am) but that we didn't hear her. Thankfully she actually seemed more cheerful this morning so that's an interesting sign. Edited to add: sadly the rest of the week she has woken up every hour all night. So yeah. fun. 

Let sleeping babies lie

She got stuck during a nap and was quite put out.

We adventure a lot with our girl. Lake days, pool days. walks, the gym, etc. She's used to going every where with us and deals well with it. We went to the lake with her last weekend and even though we brought her little tent to sleep in, she wanted walls so we ended up putting her down for a nap in a big costco bag (very supervised) and she slept for over an hour there happily. She's funny. 

Breastfeeding in the water - for when you have to feed and desperately want water time. 

She also sees a lot of family! Nana | Jonathan | Auntie Sandy

She's so far still pretty stationary - she can roll a little but mostly just spins in place when napping. I tried seeing if this toy would work for her to play with - I laid it on her and mostly she stroked it twice and then ignored it. So thus far toys are pretty useless to her. She likes holding blankets and shirts and grabbing hair and necklaces, as all babies do. 

One thing you can't tell from this photos is that Avelynn talks all the time. Sure she doesn't use words you can understand yet but she loves to express herself and test out her vocal chords. She chatters away often. She coos and giggles and smiles all the time. Even when I'm tired I am still just so happy to be with her. Plus, it's great to be home from work! She's sweet and she loves me, so that's pretty rad. 

Menu Plan Monday, July 20th

Menu Plan Monday with Laura at Org Junkie

Upcoming week: 

Monday: Crockpot Spinach Pesto Lasagne

Monday I was out with a girlfriend over dinner time so I left this in the crockpot for the house, and while I fed Avelynn before leaving I had butter chicken served over roasted zucchini & peppers instead of rice. I spent the evening overlooking water with my friend Arlene and it was lovely. 

Tuesday: Wontons (on sale at Costco), Yellow Curry Chicken (marinated with TJ's Yellow Curry) served over carrots, green beans and potatoes. 

Tuesday night Paul is out and I'm home with Avelynn in the evening, but we're all home for dinner. Paul was home sick and I ended up cancelling my plans after being up through the night with Avelynn so it was easy to pull dinner together.  

Wednesday: Freezer Soup (sent by Nancy) with Beer Bread
Wednesday night I am out with some women for dinner and conversation, so I'll be defrosting some wonderful chicken soup and popping some beer bread in the oven for the house. 

Thursday: Deer Roast (with Horseradish Gravy) with potatoes & veggies
Thursday night we are going on an adventure to Lynn Valley Canyon with our student Santiago and will be having this dinner before hand. I've made the deer roast (from Paul's hunting trip in the fall) before, but this time I am going to follow this beef roast recipe and see how it tastes!

Friday: Grilled Chicken (thighs and legs) with corn on the cob & greek salad
Friday is an at home night since Paul probably has plans. I think we'll end up going for a walk, me and Avelynn. Either way we'll all eat dinner together as a house before hand. 

Saturday: Ribs, Potatoes & Veggies
Saturday we have an event in the evening but I can put ribs in the slow cooker and that is Paul's favorite so he'll be happy and nice and easy for summer. We'll have an around the house day so having an easy meal will be helpful. We'll work on house stuff, especially clearing out the laundry room. Then that night we go watch our friend Sam play. Love it! (Though we must confirm that baby can come to the venue!)

Sunday: Leftovers
Sunday we have a picnic to attend for our homestay student, Santi,'s class. It's at Jericho beach. Rather than bring the grill for sausages I think I will do all cold foods....greek salad, veg & dip, meat & cheese tray. Nice and easy. 

In the night

It's 3:36am as I sit down to write this. It feels familiar. During my pregnancy I often had pregnancy insomnia, waking up early and staying away for a few hours or until morning. That was the trademark of my time growing Avelynn. Right now I am awake because of her again. I'm not complaining though - she is usually a great sleeper. Tonight she kept napping all afternoon and evening and I feared that did not bode well for overnight and it seems that was a valid fear. But at least I took the opportunity to nap when she napped this afternoon and MAN that straight two hour nap was so helpful and so necessary. I can't imagine my heart feeling so ok about being up this last couple hours if I hadn't taken that chance to sleep! Thankfully her awake time tonight was cute and cooing and sweet, rather than crying. She is such a wonderful little baby, I'm so thankful for her.

Butter Chicken Stuffed Peppers

Living in Vancouver has stretched my plan "white" taste buds in wonderful ways. Moving over from a small town on an island meant mostly I ate at chain restaurants - White Spot, ABC Pantry, Smitty's, Swiss Chalet, etc. We ate white people food. Sometimes we would go "foreign" and eat at the Pine Cafe (westernized "chinese" food - I use the term loosely since it was very westernized) or Wait U (for "chinese" food to go). Moving to a very asian big city was a BIG adjustment. Slowly I have grown to love vietnamese food and thai food. I have found a Dim Sum place I LOVE, as well as a little chinese cafeteria I really enjoy. Also I was introduced to butter chicken and man am I pleased about that. I first had Butter Chicken made by my Auntie Debbie and then felt brave enough to try it out at restaurants. I always love it. I got my aunts recipe and it's something I love to make at home.