Well, I imagined having a lot to blog about once the baby was here. Fast forward about 3 months and I have to accept that I'm not good at making time to write. Turns out that dishes, laundry, and basically any chores increase exponentially with a third family member in the mix. If I were more laid back, I think I could let things sit a bit longer in order to blog. My problem is that my brain gets cluttered with my To-Do list so I can't concentrate on sharing my thoughts here. Throw my busted camera in the mix, and I don't even have tons of cute baby pictures to post when I don't have time to write.
We are in a new season now. Ushering in winter and doing this parenting thing for 3 months means it's time to mix things up. Time to carve out the "me time" and make some things I love happen. I've seen too many What Not To Wear episodes to know that it's a slippery slope in the realm of new mom-dom. When family and home become top priorities, you wake up one day 12 years from now with jeans that make you look like a human ice cream cone, a hair-do that suggests your hair dryer is somewhere under a sink collecting dust, and a faint memory of when you were called something other than mom (like your first name for instance). Perhaps I'm off the deep end worrying about this now, but I know that if you do anything (good or bad) for 30 days, it'll likely become a lasting habit. If you knew what kind of slothful living I've indulged in the last 90 days, you would fear for my future, too.
I have to add that I recently studied Proverbs with my women's Bible study class. As you may already know, this book ends with a description of one godly lady. She does it all, and she does it with so much grace that her hubs can't help but praise her. I am always convicted by her but even more so now since I've been promoted to parenting. How does she juggle all of that and still stay classy? Well, I'm pretty sure her secret is her relationship with God. Since I have him too perhaps I could achieve all that she does.
So with all that in mind, this week I've tried a few things including reading a bit more, running a 5k on the treadmill, doing a little project for something at church, baking & cooking, and making a homemade version of Pinterest (I'll explain that in a bit). My friend Maria also told me about a way to earn a little money by doing a flu shot trial for nursing moms at Emory. My pediatrician recommended getting a flu shot anyways and this way we get paid just to keep track of our health following the vaccine and making a couple of office visits. I used some of our bonus income to pick out a dress for Kyle's company Christmas party. Pretty exciting! All of these things plus hanging out with friends and family are helping me from falling into the loss-of-self mom abyss.
I will say that I wasn't wild about running while still nursing. I've read that marathon women make it happen without so much trouble. I'll be running on the treadmill for the next few months (Bennett's too small for the jogging stroller plus it's getting arctic & dark here). Do any of you have tips or experience in this area? I love to run, but it's hard to be motivated to get out and do it.
Moving along~ Kyle didn't have to work for Veterans day. We've had a great day at home including a fun visit with my friend Laura and son who is 20 weeks away from being born. Kyle baked some spectacular bread and I played with Bennett lots. We got some fun pictures in spite of our wonky camera dilemma. Please enjoy a video of Bennett in action.
If that's not cute enough, I come bearing pictures...
It's business time~ that's why they're called business socks. Okay, so it's not "business time", but instilling the love of music in our young son's heart is serious business in our home.
Bennett & his pony friend are really marveling at Kyle's skill.
It's fun to have a tiny Ham.
The meaty sweetie
As for my home Pinterest, I received a huge stack of magazines from both my mom and Kyle's mom. I love getting fun ideas for things from them, but they were starting to take over. I've begun the process of going through and pulling the pages of things I'll actually use and then tossing the rest of the magazines that I don't really need making secret stashes of fire hazards under our sofa. As if I didn't have enough difficulty with our pitiful cameras, blogger has decided to flip my photos against my will. I just can muster the willpower to try to correct it; here's what I have so far...
My new & cute notebook
A sideways section for recipes
A sideways section for travel
Even a sideways section for fitness
I'm also collecting games (crosswords, sudokus, etc), pretty craft projects, and home design inspiration. It's going to be fantastic some day. While I made my cool notebook, here's what Mr. Hamilton did...
Do you think he could replicate this look for my hair on the night of the Christmas party?
And while Mr. Hamilton was baking fancy bread, here's what lil Mr. Hamilton did...
That is a hickey on my arm. I promise I feed him~ you can tell by his meaty thighs.
Well, time to tend to the fam. If you are interested on reading more about desiring to be a Proverbs 31 kind of lady, my friend Pat wrote this blog about homemaking. I think it's wonderful & highly recommend it. Later friends!
We have entered the fourth week of this parenting experiment (how has it already been three+ weeks?). I had another bad bleeding day on Tuesday, but thankfully we were prepared for it this time and didn't need a trip to the hospital. We pray my weird health issues are behind us so I can have more strength and energy to care for the wee one. Getting more accustomed to our funky schedule has been super challenging~ having a newborn isn't for weenies. I'm happy to report, though, that we are getting better at family outings. Last weekend we semi-struggled going on our first party-of-3 date. Kyle took us to Douceur de France; it's our favorite French bakery. It's really special to us because our engagement day picnic had mostly food from DdF. Kyle also got a sweet groom's cake from there (a delicious croquembouche).
Looks like a tower of doughnut holes but tastes like wonderful bite sized eclairs
Oops, pastry tangent... I felt a little pressed getting out the door and then back home with the baby~ he requires a lot of gear. We made it out again Sunday for church as well as Monday to go to Babies'R'Us to pick out a shower gift for a friend. Now that we are starting to feel like pros, we planned a fun Saturday morning. First stop~ our local Chik-fil-a for free breakfast sandwiches. Then we made our way to the Chamblee farmers' market. We had heard good things and were happy with what we found...
Lots of stands with produce, baked goods, sweet treats, and tasty meat
Bennett napped after enjoying alternative methods of pacifier use.
Kyle tries gazpacho for the first time!
Too bright and sunny for our babe's delicate complexion
I have been dying to try a popsicle from King of Pops~ worth the wait! I got strawberry lemonade & Kyle got chocolate sea salt. Yum!
Bennett missed out on the pops.
We sure do love his cute feet.
This afternoon we settled in to enjoy some cooking shows while Kyle baked some bread. It has been a glorious Saturday, and we're enjoying life as a family of three!
Boy, I hope so! This might be my final pregnancy update. Woohoo! I had an appointment yesterday and learned that we've progressed to 2cm in the dilation department. Everything looks good; baby's heart beat sounded strong. We are just waiting and praying there won't be a reason to induce (though my midwife did offer to strip my membranes~ that was a first! Saucy midwife...). I've been trying my best to use gravity and fitness to bring about little Mr. Hamilton's debut. I went to the gym 4 times this week to work it on the treadmill and walked a total of 14.3 miles. Not bad for a big pregnant lady. Since I'm sharing random pregnancy tidbits, I learned recently that it's pretty hard to gain weight right at the end of the pregnancy. The past two weeks my weight sort of leveled off (a nice change of pace). So for my overall pregnancy weight gain, I put on 20 pounds since baby's conception. I'm pretty happy about that. Alright~ here's how we look!
In my work out clothes~ I'm going to have to retire those shoes once this baby comes.
Speaking of my belly, I thought I'd share an easy summer salad pizza Kyle and I made. It was inspired by yet another something I spotted on Pinterest.
The vegan pie that planted the seed~ click the picture to go to the source!
So Kyle and I had to corrupt the vegan essence of this pizza as we are carnivores. Kyle made the pizza dough from scratch (I helped with folding the dough while he was at work). We switched out the tempeh bacon in the recipe for the real deal frying up a few strips to crumble all over. We also skipped making our own ranch dressing; thanks to Kraft we already had some in the fridge. We also went for spinach over romaine because I can get a huge bag of spinach for cheap at the store.
We tossed the spinach, dressing, and bacon in a bowl before topping our crust.
Yummy avocado~ we sprinkled some feta on the top for funsies, too.
My pictures will never turn out as appetizing as the inspiration foods. You'll just have to believe me when I say that the pizza was as delicious as I hoped it'd be. This may be a good appetizer or salad substitute for us when we have friends or family over for dinner down the road.
I invite you to pray with me that my next blog post will be dedicated to introducing our son to yall. We are so excited to meet him (even though I think I'll miss his little movements and hiccups in my tummy). My prayer today is that he comes on his due date (this Sunday, August 14th). I may have to ask Kyle to take me for another walk this afternoon... I better get on my Project Runway time now before he gets home. Happy Friday friends!
I've still been trying to keep on making a meal per week for my husband since he works hard for the money. So hard for the money... So, between relying on meals I make all the time (tuna fish casserole~ my favorite go-to dish) and pillaging Pinterest for meal ideas, I feel like a little chef. Here's a couple of things that have inspired me~
*click the picture to go to the source*
This yummy treat is a french toast sandwich filled with sweetened cream cheese (using "sugar powder" as one of my french friends calls powdered sugar) and blueberries. I made my version of this last week but had to substitute some ingredients based on what we had. I made french toast using my husband's delicious baguettes. We had some mascarpone cheese left over from an Italian food night so I used that as my spread and sweetened it with honey. Our blueberries had started growing some friends (re: they were fuzzy) ~ so I sliced up some banana as our fruit filler. It was a real treat, and it's fun to have a new way to enjoy french toast without syrup.
*click the picture to go to the source*
Tonight we are going to enjoy this quick and easy black bean soup. We had most of the ingredients on hand (Kyle picked up some feta while picking out a fancy cheese to enjoy from Fresh Market). In place of chili powder, we have a super spicy mix of peppers that were dried by Kyle's mom and then ground by Kyle in the food processor. Don't inhale or touch your eyes when handling this super hot treat. I left out the cilantro since Kyle and I aren't huge fans. I also ditched the chives but would probably splurge on them if we made this for family or friends. How I miss our little French herb garden~ remember when we could enjoy fresh herbs any time we wanted to?
Basil and parsley galore~ it was all ours.
Chives, rosemary, and thyme~ so much flavor in such a small box.
It's a shame we have an all shade no sun porch... Back to dinner!
My modern day cookbook~ I copy and paste a good number of recipes into notepad and increase the font while enjoying a scenic shot from Strasbourg two winters ago.
One of the last times I'll be able to dress my little boy in flowers~ I love my girly apron. I'll be glad to have my tiny kitchen companion seated a safer distance from the stove very soon.
It may not look crazy delicious here, but it is super good.
Topped with feta, this is comfort food central.
Hopefully I'll be able to be handy in the kitchen once the baby is here, but I make no guarantees to be a consistent cook in the weeks to come (sorry Kyle). Only time will tell on this matter...
I don't know what got into me, but I was a baking fiend on Tuesday. I just had this drive to cook like wild. Now I didn't snap shots of my banana nut bread (which was a hit at Kyle's work~ he brought home an empty dish) or my Chex Mix (seriously, nothing too fancy there). I did document two new dishes I undertook. The first is a French dish that we enjoyed once with our friends, the Reindls. Lauren, a pastry chef extraordinaire, introduced us to the clafoutis. Kyle and I had a lot of blueberries and strawberries that we thought would be perfect in it.
My aunt Pam gave me this treasure. Kyle & I love our Julia cookbooks.
She calls this dish a fruit flan, but I think it's inaccurate. WordReference.com calls it "fruit baked in batter". That's definitely a good description; it's like an enormous sweet and fruity pancake.
My back-up dishes after I broke that one the other day....
Yummy fruit & blended batter
Tiny treats
All we need is a dusting of powdered sugar and some friends to enjoy it!
As for a surprise dinner for Kyle, I whipped up a Giada recipe for twice baked potatoes. I substituted some cheese and left out the prosciutto and parsley, but they were still awesome.
Underneath that layer of cheese is a ridiculous mixture of mushroom, onion, garlic, creme fraiche, more cheese and (of course) potato. I need to make this one for Miss Foo sometime...
I think a natural segue would be to look at my belly. After all these good eats, surely I must look more pregnant. Seriously though, I am at the point where I can tell a difference from week to week. I just feel really big all the time. On a different note, I had lost some of my fitness momentum when it got so ridiculously hot this month. I've been active but not really in a way I can keep track of. This week I decided to hit the gym and get used to relying completely on walking on a treadmill in an air conditioned room. I've also been doing some squats and lifting 5lb. weights to strengthen these arms for serious baby lifting and holding.
I didn't change out of my workout clothes before capturing these precious moments.
This may be the most comfortable outfit I own at this stage in the game (33 weeks).
I talked to a midwife this week who recommended I get a little more serious about planning for the natural birth (turns out my hope and dependence on alternative pain killers during labor don't hold a candle to that all mighty epidural...). So with that, I turn to you, my web community, for tips and resources for going natural. I'm not wild about taking another class~ are there videos you'd recommend for practicing at home? I need to get serious about preparation at this point instead of just dreading having to bring this baby into the world the hard way.... Help me!
It seems my pregnancy clumsiness is as effective as malicious, hungry squirrels...
The inaugural use of this dish was a bust~ Ha!
I'll let you in on a secret~ I'm going nuts in the kitchen today (and yesterday). So far I've made banana nut bread for Kyle to take in to work to share with his co-workers and (gluten free) Chex Mix (or as we call it: Chex Mix a la KHud). This dish was for a fancy French clafoutis. No worries~ we have substitute dishes on standby so I'll reveal those results and maybe even what I'm making Kyle for dinner here later. For now I'm just sad that I never used this dish before I broke it (with heat on the stove~ not dropping it). Pregnancy brain made me a little careless I suppose...
Kyle and I love to travel. I would say it's our favorite thing to do together, but it's really hard to pick one thing when I love everything we do together. We selected Charleston as our babymoon destination so we could enjoy a little time on the beach, historical sightseeing, and (of course) excellent food. Silly as it is, I also love staying in hotels where we are guaranteed to have cable (a luxury we don't indulge in at home to save pennies). Where to start? Let go with food...
Each place we ate had great seafood. Kyle let me indulge in some serious fried seafood here at Sullivan's (on Sullivan's Island). We split crab stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer and a plate full of fried shrimp, scallops, flounder, oysters, and devil crab for the entree. Kyle loved a heaping side of hushpuppies.
Kyle's boss highly recommended Poe's Tavern for fish tacos. We loved this place splitting an order of chips & queso, 2 mahi mahi tacos, and a burger. Vacation eating is not for wimps; good thing Kyle brought a pregnant wife as his date. We also learned that Edgar Allen Poe had lived briefly on Sullivan's Island; the restaurant website says, "Poe enlisted in the army under the pseudonym Edgar Allan Perry and was stationed at Fort Moultrie at the western end of Sullivan's Island for thirteen months beginning November 18,1827."
We went to Hank's in downtown Charleston on our last evening. We both enjoyed she crab soup. For entrees I ordered mussels (a girl really learns to miss moules frites leaving France and all...) while Kyle ordered "Seafood a la Wando". This dish had 3 kinds of fish, shrimp, scallops, crab, and mushrooms served on a fried grit cake covered in a buttery cream sauce. Woah it was rich.
We learned a valuable hotel reservation lesson. Kyle wanted to take the hassle out of staying somewhere far from the beach. We stayed for two nights at a hotel right on the beach at the Isle of Palms. It is beach-goers central. Our first afternoon there, Kyle and I took a long walk up and down the beach~ a scene which can only be described as a real life Where's Waldo? illustration. What we hoped would be convenient was kind of frightening. The biggest motivation to find a calmer & less-populated beach? Too many smokers along the Isle of Palms. We happily spent the next two days on the beach at Sullivan's Island where we saw these things:
You may have to enlarge this one to get the full effect. There was a man who had these huge kite sets and was doing all these impressive tricks with one set in each hand. It was so fun and entertaining~ how does one get into rhythmic kite flying?
You can hardly see them, but we were visited by some dolphins in our cove one morning.
Bleh~ jellies were everywhere. I thought I loved the beach, but these creepies have me thinking I only love the Gulf of Mexico...
A sand covered crab in its shell. I managed to step on at least one crab and maybe two starfish that scared me out of my mind. Ocean life is good to observe~ not to tread on.
Boldly going where perhaps no pregnant girl should go~ a swimsuit picture! I unsuccessfully have been trying to tan over my running shorts tan lines for a while... looks like I'll be rockin' paler thighs until summer '12.
My handsome hubby and all our new beach goods thanks to Target. We got two beach chairs, two beach towels, and two Nalgene water bottles at great deals compared to the beach shops in the touristy areas. Our little set up made spending time on the beach so comfortable and perfect for reading.
Happy Hams on our wide open sandscape
We weren't beach bums the whole trip~ we managed to get in a little culture. We thought it'd be cool to visit Fort Sumter after having watched the Ken Burns Civil War documentary a couple of months ago, but we only ended up visiting Fort Moultrie. The fort had an impressive victory against the British during the Revolutionary War, but since then had done little to preserve the safety of the homeland. It has been decommissioned so now it's just a tourist sight where folks like we can pose with cannons.
Fort Moultrie
Kyle posing on the frontline of many a military conflict
We were trying to think of a way we could "Evel Knievel" that baby into this cannon. We went for a cute pose instead.
We loved the large water mines and did the best explosion faces we could muster. Kyle's working his explosion look all the way down to his calves~ what a stud!
With a helpful gust of wind that came right as I was posing, I think I look like I'm being blown away more than blown up... Kyle got a kick out of my expression.
Here are some other landmarks you may recognize from the area~
Ah, there's Fort Sumter off in the distance.
It was so sunny and hot at the Battery that we spent most of our time in White Point Gardens.
Pretty place
Every time I see a gazebo, I want to sing "Sixteen Going On Seventeen".
The yellow building is the old Exchange Building and Provost Dungeon. We wondered if our friends in Metz would find this corner of architecture in Charleston similar to messin buildings. The pinky-brown building definitely reminded us of Metz's post office.
Every port city has a custom house, but not all port cities have such a handsome fella to present their landmarks.
We meandered through the old City Market and thankfully made it out of there without buying something woven.
Lastly, I know this may sound weird, but we love hotel hopping on vacations. Kyle found a deal on a very fancy hotel in town for our last night. We say fancy because they had a wine & cheese hour, cookies and milk at bedtime, and an insane breakfast brought to our room whenever we wanted (I guess we think of food a lot). It was a beautiful place to stay. We couldn't afford to be there for the whole trip, but it's nice to go all out for one day.
Our room was the largest at the Harbour View Inn; it's exposed brick wall and tension rod date back to the 1830s. I wanted to move in.
A basket full of pastries, a carafe of regular coffee for Kyle & decaf for me, cups of fruit, and a small glass of chocolate milk for my husband. These were the best pastries we've had since we left France.
On the left side of this picture you can see our room's enormous window. On the right side you can see the pier by the harbor.
We met a lovely man who took our picture on the rooftop terrace.
From the roof we could see the harbor as well as a fountain that children love to play in. How fun!
It was a wonderful trip. I loved celebrating two years of marriage with my sweet husband as well as getting in one last big freedom excursion before the baby arrives. I was worried it wouldn't be very much fun for me because I feel so pregnant, but I definitely recommend traveling and babymooning (we were able to do it at 31 weeks or 7 months easily). I loved all the quality time we had reading, doing Bible study together, exploring, swimming, walking, eating, watching Food Network and House Hunters for hours, and talking. It was super restorative and such a blessing. I have more pictures to share with you, but it'll have to be another post since this one is ridiculous. A bientot!
