Pregnancy Update and The Day Planner

Why, Hello there! I feel like my brain is sort of devoid of any communication skills this morning. I was all excited about posting something new and now I'm having a hard time formulating thoughts on anything specific.

I think initially my main goal for this blog was to give a general update on my pregnancy as well as post some info about the nearly 800 page planner I had printed for myself. So we'll start with the update!

(And by the way here is another sneak peak from the maternity session with Brittany Mauldin)

[caption id="attachment_602" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Feeling a little round in the facial region in this photo.[/caption]

How far along: 29 Weeks, 6 Days

Total weight gain: 13 lbs

Maternity clothes: Absolutely. I bought a couple pairs of maternity jeans a few weeks ago that I imagine I’ll wear every day for the next foreseeable future. And I’ve been wearing maternity shirts for a few months now because they’re flattering and comfortable :)


Stretch marks: None to speak of

Sleep: Fairly well. I don’t usually get up to go to the bathroom or anything, so that’s awesome.

Best moment of this week: A healthy check-up.

Miss anything: Seafood. I know I can eat it, but my desire to do so has significantly diminished. I also miss the occasional beer as it is the beginning of tailgating season.

Movement: Lots of that. LOTS. Stretching and punching galore. Possibly a couple cases of the hiccups as well.

Food cravings: I don’t really crave anything. I have noticed that I eat a lot more grapes and pancakes though.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Brach’s Juicy Berries Gummies. The scent of them is horrifying and I’m not totally convinced that it has anything to do with pregnancy.

Have you started to show yet: Obv.

Gender: Girl as of 20 weeks… let’s hope there aren’t any surprises when we have our next U/S in about 4 weeks.

Labor signs: None

Belly button in or out: In. It’s pretty far down there, so I don’t think it’s going to pop out, but who knows.

Wedding rings on or off: Off. I can still wear them, but with the weather so hot and humid, anytime I go outside the house my hands tend to swell a bit and getting my rings stuck on my fingers terrifies me.

Happy or moody most of the time: Generally happy. Cory oftentimes wonders when the pregnancy rage will come out.

Looking forward to:  Checking more things off the to-do list. Mainly our master bathroom remodel and the electrical update. Once those two things are done I can finish pretty much everything else, i.e. the nursery.

 

So there's that! And now onto the day planner.

[caption id="attachment_603" align="aligncenter" width="560"] The Book[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_604" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Tabs[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_605" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Spiral bound[/caption]

There's what she looks like! A massive display of organizing goodness on paper. I love technology and being able to pull up a calendar at the touch of a button.... but I REALLY love writing things down and books. As you can see from the photos, the front has a clear cover and the first page is actually a weatherproof material. The backing is cardstock. I did actually ask for a clear binding, but alas, something is always bound to go wrong and since this is my first planner and there are a lot of thing that I already know I want to improve upon for my next one, I let it slide.

 

Here is a PDF of the basics you'll find inside the planner. Taylor_Planner_Lite I was initially going to post screen shots, but I think if you're that interested, you can just download the PDF :)

Here's a list of things you'll find in my planner:

• Yearly Goals


• Important Dates to Remember


• Monthly Calendars


• Monthly Priorities


• Weekly Meal Planning


• Weekly Chores Checklist


• Weekly Cleaning Schedule


• Daily Planning/Routines


• Important Info (Contacts, Medical, Billing, Budgeting)


• Blogging (Editorial Calendar, Possible Series, Future Post Ideas)


• Seasonal Planning/Crafting (Craft Ideas, Party Planning, Seasonal Cleaning)


• Notes

I definitely can't take credit for a lot of the information in here. You'll have to go to Life As Mom and check out all the things she has about planning and organization. I bought her PDF planner and basically adapted it  to my own needs and wants.

When I initially started putting everything together in inDesign, I was thinking about all the little things I wanted to put in design-wise, like quotes and images, etc. But the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted a blank canvas. I like to doodle and write things down. You should see my old notebooks. They're filled with colorful writing, doodles, song lyrics, and anything else you can imagine. I want to get back to that so I left a lot of white space around the edges.

And there you have it. Shipped it off to Office Depot and the next week I had a beautimous personal planner.

 

Until next time...

 

*Officially* in the Third Trimester

NOW we're in the third trimester! Fully and officially. 28 weeks and 1 day. I promise to post a new picture tomorrow.

Cory and I spent the past weekend in Knoxville for my niece's 10th birthday party. It was a wonderful weekend much like the previous one for the baby shower. We stopped at my favorite restaurant (Louis') to pick up dinner on our way in to my moms. Delicious as always, but I did forget to bring my leftovers back to Chattanooga, so there's that. Saturday we took a trip out to Buy Buy Baby before heading to the birthday party. I'd never been there before and of course we don't have one in Chattanooga. It's a lot like BabiesRus, but to me it seemed like they had a LOT more stuff. And possibly better organized. Then again, we have very limited options when it comes to baby stores and supplies in Chattanooga. We didn't buy anything but it was nice to see what kind of selection they had. I'll probably be back after the next baby shower to pick up the few things we might still need.

I did come across one item that's fairly new in the world of baby things. The Kiinde Twist Universal Direct Pump. It's a breastmilk feeding and storage system. Seems neat and I like the idea of not having to wash bottles constantly. Here's the video for it if you want to know more. There aren't a whole lot of reviews for it since it's relatively new, so that sort of turns me off from it a bit. I don't know.. I'll think it over for a while and try to decided if it's something I'm interested in enough to try out.

I've also been fantasizing and planning our family's first trip to Disney World. The 5th birthday is when Nana likes to take the grandbabies to Disney and it just so happens my nephew will be 5 next October. Now... Colette will just allllmost be one at that time, but maybe if we all stay in a big house we could pull that off... maybe. It's good to dream. Right Cory? Right?! :)

Anywho, here's a couple of pictures from my nieces party!

 

[gallery type="square" ids="578,579,580,581,583,584,585,586,587,588"]

 

We polished off the weekend with a nice little trip to Dollywood on Sunday morning and a delicious fajita dinner on the back deck with the family.

And now it's Monday and back to work.

Planning to Plan

I've made one small step in getting organized this week. I used to do fairly well in the meal planning category, but since we moved away from the city and into a more rural area, I let that slide into a weekly meal plan consisting of very unhealthy fast food choices. As for keeping the house clean, it was a lot easier to do when we were in our starter home. Now we're in a very old, large home that needs a lot of love... and often.

There are four categories that I really want to hone in on when it comes to 'getting organized.'

• Home/ Household duties
  -Keeping it clean


• Meal Planning
  -Steering clear of the yuck and excessive spending


• Business
  -Photography goals/contacts/to-do's


• Blogging/crafting
  -Yeah... that. More on that another time.

I know a lot of this is going to change over the next few months after Colette arrives,  but I think it will be good for me to break out into a routine now. Then I can easily work my way back into it once I figure out how to work a baby and stay awake for long enough to think a coherent thought.

My first step was to invest in a day planner. This isn't new to me. I've had a day planner every year since I was a freshman in high school. I usually bounce around on brands but a few years ago I came across dot.mine Day Planners and loved them. However, as of this year, they are no longer making printed copies. *sobs* They're only doing digital versions. One of the things I liked the most were the covers; they always had a classy metallic version and were very consistent... (basically they look good on a bookshelf when they're full).

So now that I'm back to looking for a planner, I thought, "Hey, why not make my own!?" So what I'm doing now is taking pages and tips from others and crafting them into a super planner just for the Taylor household. I've started with information from Life as a Mom. It has a lot of what I want in it as far as meal planning and household duties. Not to mention they also have a blog section. I actually purchased the $12 package and I will be going through it, making notes and revising the information to fit my personal needs. Then once I put the red pen away, I'll put it all into inDesign and make it all purrty-like and send it away for printing. With any luck it will be something I can just tweak for future years and have reprinted. I'll keep you updated on how that turns out.

It will probably take me a couple of weeks to get that done so in the mean time I want to get back into meal planning. I'm trying out a salad plan this week for lunches and dinner sides that's going fairly well. I'll get more into the actual meals starting next week. I got the salad plan from *where else* Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/pin/67202219412710533/

I also made my own ranch dressing which is pretty tasty, maybe a little garlicky. But you can find the recipe for that below. You can use fat-free mayo/sour cream for a lighter version, but it was quick to make and much better than a store bought version.

http://pinterest.com/pin/67202219412710541/

With Pinterest these days, how can anyone every run out of ideas for pretty much anything. Thanks Pinterest.

Here's a peak at the salad bar I created for the week.

[caption id="attachment_456" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Mm. Salad.[/caption]

This is for cooking as well. Carrots, peppers, tomatoes will all be used for other dishes.

That's all for now folks!