Last weekend I attended the 2014 Influence Conference in Indianapolis. The driving idea behind Influence is to make your online life more meaningful and intentional through the sharing of your faith, the words you use and the mindset behind what you share on things like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.I’m still unpacking my thoughts and re-reading my notes from the two days I spent at Influence. I’m sure that a lot of what I learned at the conference will continue to … Read More
Money-Saving Grocery Shopping Tips
I mentioned in my September goals that we’ve been taking a closer look at our budget and finding new ways to save. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to save money in our monthly budget is to save while grocery shopping. Since eating healthy is extremely important to our family, I’m not willing to buy cheap food just to save a few dollars, but when I can find ways to save without sacrificing on quality, I’m all in. Lately … Read More
17 Weeks
How far along are you? 17 weeks 1 day Generally Feeling: This is the first week that I can say I’m truly starting to feel better. Mornings continue to be hard, since nothing really sounds good, but for the most part the nausea is getting more manageable. I’ve been battling bad headaches in the past couple weeks, but I’m finding that it’s almost 100% related to how much water I’ve been drinking. If I up my water intake they go away, so I’m … Read More
Surprise Baby Shower for Lauren!
My good friend, Lauren, has been mentioned a number of times on this blog. She is one of my oldest blog friends, and we followed each other’s blogs for years, practically since the beginning when I’m sure neither of us had any clue what we were doing. Lauren has gone from corporate finance guru to small bakery owner to her most exciting new role: momma-to-be! I’m so excited for Lauren and her hubby and can’t wait for them to welcome … Read More
Week 16
How far along are you? 16 weeks 2 days Generally Feeling: This week I struggled again with quite a bit of nausea, which is draining because it makes finding foods that satisfy quite difficult. But overall I have SO much more energy and have been able to get a lot done, which makes up for the nausea. I’m thankful that my extra energy has been making it easy to workout consistently, too. Showing? The last few days I feel like I’ve really … Read More
Frosted Sugar Cookie Pumpkins
It’s not often, but every once in a while I get the urge to bake something cute. I should clarify that “cute food” really isn’t my thing, but sometimes it’s pretty hard to resist the seasonal section at Target and I leave with, say, a pumpkin cookie cutter and fall-colored sprinkles that I didn’t even know I needed. Dang you, Target. Thankfully, the cookie cutter was only $1, meaning you, too, can easily get caught up in the excitement … Read More
Work It Out
You guys, let’s get honest for a minute. No one told me that when you get pregnant it’s not just your stomach that gets bigger; everything gets bigger! Honestly, I’m working every day at embracing those changes and loving my growing body, but putting on old clothing that doesn’t fit the same way anymore doesn’t do much for my self confidence. This has been especially true when working out. I immediately went out a bought a size up in some … Read More
September Goals
Over the last couple months I’ve really let my monthly goal-setting fall to the wayside, haven’t I? First trimester took everything out of me and goal setting was last on my list of things to do, behind basic tasks like cooking, cleaning, going to work and washing my hair more than once a week! Now that I’m staying awake past 8 pm and functioning like a normal human being again, I’m feeling inspired to start back up with goal setting … Read More
15 Weeks
How far along are you? 15 weeks 1 day (every day counts!) Cravings? I haven’t really had any strong cravings, but Caesar salads, chicken and homemade sno cones (ice and fizzy water blended with lemon juice and stevia in the Vitamix) have been on regular rotation around here Weight Gain: 10 pounds Fears: We have our 19/20 week ultrasound scheduled for October 6th and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. Will our baby look normal and … Read More
Tortilla-Crusted Baked Chicken Strips with Sriracha Aioli
Remember when I mentioned that I’m working with Food Should Taste Good to create some great recipes for game day? Well today marks the second installment of this three part series and boy is the recipe I have to share with you good. Although the recipe for these chicken strips only makes two it can easily be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled depending on how many people you have coming over to watch the game. Since it was just Joe … Read More
E&C Travels: Napa/Sonoma/Yountville
Early this summer, before I was pregnant, Joe, my mom and I planned a long weekend trip to California wine country. All along, I told myself that if I wasn’t pregnant on our trip, I would think of it as a consolation prize, and if I was pregnant and couldn’t drink, I would be celebrating our baby. Truth be told, I got super sick the first 24 hours of our trip, throwing up three times. Thankfully drinking a little extra … Read More
Second Trimester: Maternity Fashion and Body Image
The first evidence of a growing bump! (above) Hello again! I feel like it’s been forever since I checked in with you all. California wine country was absolutely wonderful and I plan to put a full travel post together soon, but travel posts always take me such a long time. In the meantime, let’s sit down and have some good old fashioned girl talk about babies, body image and maternity fashion, shall we? I’ve always been so excited to be pregnant … Read More