Last weekend, our baby furniture arrived and we went to pick it up. It's so freaking adorable!!
It looks amazing in our nursery! Once I get all of the packaging and crap out of the room and have it looking all pretty I'll post pictures. I've already begun organizing the abundance of clothing, toys, bath and body products and cloth diapers into each dresser, and now I just can't wait to find out the sex of the baby so I can start adding pink or blue clothing and accessories to the current yellow and green wardrobe! I do have to say though, the amount of packaging that went into making the furniture unbreakable during shipment is ridiculous! I have to fill up the back of my car twice just to get it hauled over to the recycling center! Not only that, but I had to throw away 2 huge trashcans full of non-recyclable foam padding. I cried a little for the environment. Well, at least the furniture is in good shape and I was able to recycle all of the cardboard, so that's good. The picture below is the Baby Cache Manhattan collection from Babies R Us.
Me at 17 weeks!! I know, I just woke up and look like poo, but I don't care.
I've been feeling MUCH better. I think I'm completely over the morning sickness now. Occasionally I'll feel a little queasy, but it quickly passes. I've also learned that coffee doesn't settle well with me anymore, so I've switched to black and red raspberry leaf tea. It's much nicer to my tummy. I haven't really had any ailments yet except for tailbone pain. Since I sit all day at work, my tailbone begins to ache. I guess this is a normal part of pregnancy? I've been propping myself up onto a blanket at work and that seems to be helping a lot. That's really about it though! My energy is returning and my appetite for fresh food has made it's comeback. The only thing I can't stomach preparing is raw chicken. The thought of it makes my stomach turn over. I've been telling Mark that I'll buy chicken if he will grill it or cook it, because I'm not touching the stuff!Recently, Mark and I decided to invest in a HE washer and dryer. Afterall, we will be washing lots of diapers and using more water, so we figured this would be the best time to make the upgrade. We decided to purchase the HE Whirlpool Steam washer and dryer in sage green. We also added the pedestals which makes the washer and dryer taller. Perfect for the 5'9" woman that will be doing all the laundry! Yep that's me. I'm the laundry do-er in this household. I actually really enjoy doing laundry now! After a week of using these amazing pieces of machinery, I just want to keep doing more and more because it's so easy now! And, we're saving 70% more water and 73% more electricity! A lovely added bonus. I will be very grateful for this purchase when we begin to do laundry every day after the baby gets here.
It's summer, and it's farmer's market season. I never really took advantage of farmer's markets until this year. After doing a lot of research and realizing how important it is for the environment for consumers to support local businesses and farmers, buying local became almost a no-brainer. Granted, I don't buy everything local, but I'm getting better about it. I've been buying most of my beef from a local farm only 15 minutes from my house mainly because it's organic, grass fed and about 96% lean and close to my house which brings the cost way down, but then I also realized the economic impact I'm making. There is a little produce store in Denton, only about 8 miles from my house that I finally went into this evening. They featured some local, and some not so local produce, so I chose the local ones. Here's what I walked out with tonight..Texas grown:
zucchini
yellow squash
tomatoes
fresh black-eyed peas
basil
raisins
broccoli
snap peas
Everything was grown within the DFW area! I was pleasantly surprised at the freshness of each selection. They also carried some local eggs, but I just bought a bunch, so I won't be making that purchase until I need them. I don't know if any of this stuff was organic, but it sure looked fresh and didn't seem like it was treated like the produce you see in the store. The tomatoes had a redish greenish yellow cast to them (not all perfectly red like you see in the grocery store) and fresh black eyed peas!? I mean come on, where can you get those in any grocery store chain? I've decided that I'd rather buy local and maybe not organic(but usually local small farms are organic) than buy organic from a grocery store chain that could have organic apples flown in from chile, or organic grapes which are usually from mexico. My next feat is to find a local source for milk! I definitely buy organic milk, but I'd love to find some fresh local milk!
When I got home tonight, I made a nice fresh black eyed pea salad:
Sourced from http://southernfood.about.com
- 3 cups canned or cooked black-eyed peas (2 15-ounce cans, drained)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
- 1 small sweet red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- .
- Basil Dressing
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, or 1 teaspoon dried
- 2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup olive oil
- fresh basil or parsley for garnish
Preparation:
In a serving bowl combine black-eyed peas, 1/4 teaspoon salt, chopped onion, celery, and green pepper. Set aside.In a small bowl or other container, whisk together the vinegar, basil, garlic, sugar, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil until the dressing is well blended. You can use a blender for this step, if desired.
In a medium bowl, combine the black-eyed peas, the chopped onion, celery, bell pepper, and basil dressing. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight. Serve with a garnish of fresh parsley or basil, if desired.
Serves 6.
I didn't let it marinate very long, because I wanted to dig in, but I'm sure the leftovers will taste even better tomorrow! That's all I got for today!!
