Menu Plan Monday, March 30th

Menu Plan Monday with Laura at Org Junkie

Upcoming week: 

Monday: Crockpot Pork Roast with Baked Potatoes, Broccoli & Potatoes

Monday was a stay at home sort of day - I rested and tidied and prepped food. I slowly made dinner and was thankful for the pace. I also did some parking lessons with my Dad to get the feel for our new van - it's so big but as always, vehicles are never as big as we think they are. It was a super useful time and I'm so thankful for it! Also this crockpot pork roast recipe was a HUGE winner and I will definitely make it again. So good!

Tuesday: Carnita Tacos

Tuesday is Carnita day - I've got a pork shoulder ready to put in the crockpot for the day and we will enjoy Carnita Tacos for dinner. My plan for the day is to swing by Costco to get the groceries we need - but aside from that I'm staying home and not doing anything. 

Wednesday: Coconut Rice with Chicken in Peanut Sauce (served with green beans)
Wednesday is a bit of a busy day, women at prayer in the morning, lunch with a friend and then my weekly doctors check in. I plan to rest in the afternoon before dinner. 

Thursday: Crockpot Creamy Chicken Tacos

Thursday is a walk with my parents and a relaxing visit with a friend, before an evening with my sister and her boys. An easy crockpot dinner is definitely in order. 

Friday: Man Pleasing Chicken with Vegetables & Rice
Friday is Good Friday, so Paul will be off work. Who knows when Baby will come, though it'll be getting much closer to I wanted to plan a meal that is a bit more intensive since I know I'll be taking a break soon. 

Saturday: Italian Baked Chicken with potatoes & vegetables
Saturday is free of plans! 

Sunday, April 5th - 40 week, Due Date: YOYO
Sunday is my Due Date, as well as Easter Sunday. I'm DEFINITELY not cooking dinner that night, no matter what happens. 

Monday: Mitchell Family Dinner

Monday is a Mitchell Family dinner for Easter and a nice day off with Paul. Again we have no plans since the wait is truly on for our sweet girl!

Dressing the Bump, Week 37

So week 37 has come and gone and I'm well into week 38 now - consequently I'm officially done with one month of Mat leave and it's awesome. Let's look back at week 37's outfits! My body continues to grow and expand and make room for our sweet baby girl. 

Also my room is getting ready for her arrival - bassinet at the ready! The pillow was only there momentarily...it's now cleared out and ready for her. 

And speaking of getting ready, some sneak peaks of the nursery!

The pouf feature, new crib skirt and girlie ruffly bed

Menu Plan Monday, March 23rd

Menu Plan Monday with Laura at Org Junkie

Upcoming week: 

Monday: YOYO

Monday was dinner with new friends Mark & Janis at their house after a morning of Mac learning (Organizing Your Mac & Personalizing Your Mac) and a brief USA trip to pick up a few packages. The trip was fast and easy, the learning in the morning was great and our time with our new friends was so wonderful. Plus they made me gluten free pasta that tasted fabulous!

Tuesday: Maui Ribs, Vegetables & Baked Potatoes

Tuesday I am staying home - folding newly washed baby clothes, working on our taxes, prepping food & cleaning the fridge, RESTING and working around the house. Then it's dinner with the house, ending with D Group at 8 at Lindsays place.

Wednesday: Man Pleasing Chicken with veggies & potatoes 
Wednesday I am seeing my good friend Sarah for coffee, we haven't hung out in over a year so I can't wait! I will also be seeing my doctor for my weekly check in and having a 38 week mani/pedi to celebrate hitting my due month, thanks to a gift from my boss. Stoked! I have no evening plans so this is a good night to make a great dinner. 

Thursday: Crockpot Creamy Chicken Tacos

Thursday is family walk, lunch with Paul's grandparents, time with my sister and a movie date night with Paul to see Insurgent at the VIP theatre. Awesome day. Mexican food after a day with family and before a date - win!

Friday: YOYO
Friday is lunch with my cousin LeAnna at her work & an evening with the Froese's - Laura is kindly cooking since I am so pregnant - so that's a nice treat!

Saturday: YOYO
Saturday Paul is most likely away all day for a stag so I'll be doing more of the resting and nesting that I'm prone to doing now and will spend some time with family as well hopefully. 

Sunday: Melt in your mouth chicken with veggies & rice
Sunday is a Women's Ministry Meeting in the afternoon, then church, and dinner with our house and maybe some friends? Hopefully also some resting and sleeping in as well, and putting up a collage wall in Avelynn's room with Paul. 

Target

Target Canada closing is a real shame. It’s too bad about the jobs (really too bad), but what bugs me the most is there was potential for them to do well. The first month they were open I had the opportunity to do a thorough comparison of the two targets (USA versus Canada). I spent an hour wandering through Target USA in Bellingham, WA, noting layout and stock and pricing (this was done purely for fun – I sure do love me some Target), and the next day I spent an hour systematically wandering through Target Canada in Delta, BC noting the same three things. What I noticed impressed me – the layout was the same (virtually identical), the stock was the same (in that store) and the pricing was super comparable (despite our lower dollar and high taxes). I left Target feeling very optimistic about Targets  chances here in Canada. Unfortunately I noticed shortly that all Targets in Canada were not created equal – and brand equality or consistency is vital in a stores success. For example, I discovered that Target in smaller towns (like Nanaimo) were often better laid out or stocked than in high volume places like Metrotown – and it’s not that Metrotown was just out of stuff because of high volume, often they just didn’t have the stuff other store had. I discovered that Surrey and Delta and Nanaimo (to name a few) had wonderful Targets but that Target in Richmond, Burnaby and other places didn’t compare at all. And that’s what was so surprising to me – why so different? Even in Victoria – the Tillicum Target was only decently laid out – mostly the same but not quite right, and yet the Hillside Target was really well laid out and stocked. Why this disparity?

Dressing the Bump, Week 36

Well it's been another week of pregnancy and of getting to dress this thunder bump. I think I'll quite missing getting to accentuate my belly - it's not the typical way we women think to dress ourselves! I've been taking full adventure of being away from home and really making sure to chose to rest and not be productive. It's been great! Lots of great chatting and sitting with my Nana, great restful visits with Tami and some great naps and baths. It's been marvellous. Tami even had a bath deep enough to COVER MY BELLY - which at this stage is pretty miraculous! I definitely enjoyed that. 

Starting last weekend (at the start of 36 weeks) I started feeling some very mild contractions. I only feel them for a short period before they leave again. I get those every few days for a couple minutes and then it's over. It's an interesting feeling and I'm curious what contractions will feel like at full blown. Lately after I eat, especially in the morning, I feel a bit sick - nauseous - and am more prone to feeling a bit ill throughout the day, though mostly I just feel tired. 

Ahh Pregnancy Insomnia…I am loving growing this bump but man, I actually like sleeping through the night…especially when I know that very soon sleepless nights will even more so be the norm!

My view as I type away

Dressing the bump, Weeks 32 to 35

Finally I had time to edit the many outfit pictures I have taken this past month. And I had the time in the best way possible - while I edited I sat on my friend Tami's couch and chatted with her while watching Property Brothers and other such renovation shows. A great way to spent 6+ hours - chatting, laughing, hearing a great birth story, watching mindless tv and editing pics. Love it. 

Speaking of things I've loved, continuing to dress the bump. Now I'm really really dressing for two - she's super noticeable!! We've taken to calling her Thunder Bump - she's loud and proud and super obvious. I love it. I also love how proud Paul looks when we take photos together right now - biggest smiles that he's ever had for photos! This is especially cool when you remember how much he hates getting his photo taken. 

{taken at 34 weeks}

{taken at 33 weeks}

32 weeks was right around the time that I discovered some new necklaces (you can see one of them on the turquoise sweater) and that I picked up some new colors of my favorite cardigan at Target on sale (navy and pink). We were also doing a lot of painting and other prep work to get ready for the nursery. You can see my "gettin'er done" outfit on the far right.

Mat Leave thoughts

Mat Leave Week One/thoughts: [written Friday, March 6th]
Paul and I are away for the weekend. It's our "Paul and Tara time" before baby. We went out for dinner on a Thursday night - we used a gift card I got from work to eat at Black & Blue downtown - an amazing meal. Then we wandered around downtown with Timmies tea and eventually drove over to West 4th to have drinks and play board games at "The Cove". It was a lovely night. We tidied up the house and hit the hay. Friday morning we had Paul's grandparents over for tea - they wanted to see the nursery all done up. Then we were off to Langley to hit up the theatre - we watched the Kingsmen. It was a good movie - a bit graphic at times, but very engaging. We headed off further to Abbotsford to go to our hotel - Nancy had got us a wonderful Christmas gift - a nights stay at a B&B. We've rested and enjoyed the surroundings. We hit up dinner at a Greek restaurant in town and it was really really good. We're watching Forrest Gump now in the big attic theatre room of the B&B and It's perfectly lovely. Tomorrow morning we're off to Lynden Washington to visit our friends Mark and Heather who are there for the weekend. We haven't seen them in a year so that will be a nice treat. Then we're off to Bellingham for groceries, a final stock up before the baby comes. We'll grab some Mexican food and then head home. So far it's been a lovely weekend and I'm so thankful to be married to someone that I love to spend time with, who I can talk to and play games with and feel totally comfortable with. 

It's been a lovely first week of Mat leave. It didn't sink in until Thursday since there was stuff going on every day until then - I was teaching a class Wednesday and doing the nursery over the weekend but finally, finally, I am able to rest. I had such fun pulling together our little girl's nursery - Paul was amazing at the renovations and I loved doing all the decor and organizing. Speaking at the class on Wednesday was awesome but oh so nervous!! It ended up being so fun and I am so glad I pushed through my nerves to do it. It was a powerful night. I also spent a few times hanging out with my Mom and Sister since my Dad is out of town. 

Sweet Southern Baby Shower

Shower photos credit to Paraphrase Productions

I love to throw parties. I love to attend well executed parties. And now I can say for the record, that I LOVE to attend parties thrown for me by my amazing friends. The baby shower my girlfriends threw for me was AMAZING. They knocked it out of the park. I'm not sure I could have even pulled off what they pulled off - especially with the level of calm that prevailed. I felt so loved by their attention to detail and their attention to the things I like. I was blown away. 

Many of you have seen my #nurserysneakpeak 's posted on facebook and instagram and you'll notice some of the decor moments from the shower that have eeked over into the room. The planning ladies took the time to make sure their decor could be used again in my house and nursery! They were so very very thoughtful. These poufs, dot strings and banner  were all party decor that is being repurposed in the room

There was a crack team of women behind this party: Lindsay, Hanne, Irene, Jenna & Ana were the main power women and they had a team of other women who jumped in to help with other aspects (Stefany, Kayla L, Crystal, Laura [photography], Jackie and more!). My Auntie Debbie graciously allowed for the party to be hosted at her place, which is always beautiful already and big enough for all my friends. 

Lindsay, Jenna, Hanne, me, Ana & Irene

Maternity Shots & Pineapple time

My baby is the size of a pineapple, according to my pregnancy app. It's definitely not stationary like one! She moves like crazy right now and I love it, despite the mild discomfort at times. Though she is pokey like a pineapple at times, for sure. It's been a crazy couple of weeks! Between my baby shower (details to come on that as it was fabulous), my grandpa's funeral, training my replacement at work and all the other regular life things life has been speeding along at an insane rate. I know that's pretty normal in my life and yet frustrating as I worked so hard to try to slow it down in pregnancy! However death waits for no one and so life was accelerated of late. But the funeral is passed, I'm done work and only have a few big tasks hanging over my head going forward (nursery prep, a class I'm teaching tomorrow, and general tidying of my house - it's pretty crazy after a couple weeks of events). Phew!!!

Symptoms lately: still some lingering heartburn but honestly I feel silly even mentioning since it's so mild. I know I know. Haters, come at me. My fingers and toes do swell up still at times, not all the time but different days and scenarios. Also the exhaustion is pretty intense, thankfully I've only been working 4 hour days, so I have been having amazing naps in the afternoon and I am so so so thankful for that. Two weeks ago I only worked 1 full day and 2 half days - then my boss gave me Thursday off to work on the funeral and man was that needed - I don't have the push through ability I used to have! The following week I worked half days to complete my time at work and then by Thursday I was done at work.  PreNatal Classes are over (!!), I'm now onto bi-weekly doctor's check in's, and I'm on the first week of prenatal classes.