Pregnancy, Pics, and Plan (of meals)

Greetings from a tired Mama.

This whole being pregnant in your 30's thing is tough stuff.  These old bones are creakin'.  I know, I know, 33 is really not that old (maybe?) but things definitely feel different and harder on the old body this pregnancy.  Ladies, I highly recommend pregnancy in your 20's.  Yes, there's the whole "live it up while you're young sans responsibility" yada yada, but... I dunno.  My feet hurt.  My hips hurt.  My back hurts.  And I'm only 20 ish weeks along.  Today I did what would be for me, under non-pregnant circumstances, a normal amount of standing doing dishes, cooking in the kitchen, carrying my 3-year-old, and I'm toooooootally spent.

 

(The results of my cooking today... prepping some things for the week... banana pancakes and two loaves of banana bread.  Can you tell I over-bought bananas last week and they were all ripening at the same time?)

In the past week I have had to make a big effort to spend a good part of the day sitting down, or by the end of the day I'm good for nothing.  I kept feeling like a weakling and wondering why it feels to my body more like third trimester when I'm barely into my second, but then I realized two things today:

1) When I was pregnant with C, both older girls still napped, and 9 times out of 10 it was at the same time in the afternoon.  So I had two to three hours every day where I was free to at least sit down, even if I was still doing something housework-related (like folding laundry or paying bills).  When I was pregnant with L-- same thing.  A napping toddler meant that I had a solid chunk of time to sit down every single day.  Now, not so much.  N and I do schoolwork in the afternoon while the younger two have quiet time, but it's only for an hour usually, and most of the time I'm up and down while she's working, multi-tasking with laundry or dishes.  Never do I sit for more than 15 minutes at a time any more.  My lifestyle involves a lot more standing and walking these days and my body is feeling it.

2)  Because my body seems to be feeling the stress all of the sudden, I thought I would check my weight and see whether I gained 10 pounds in the last week or something.  So I checked my weight, and compared it with how much weight I had gained in week 20 with C (having kept track of those things here on the blog).  At week 20 with C I had gained 9 pounds.  At nearly week 20 with this baby I have gained 15.  However, even with the 15 pounds that I've already gained, I still weigh less now than I did when I started my pregnancy with C.  (I started my pregnancies with all three of the other girls 20 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant with baby 4.)  So... that made me feel  more certain that the aches and pains I'm feeling have more to do with age and lifestyle difference than anything else.

The point of saying all that was that I'm really looking for the easy way out with meal planning these days, and I'm trying to minimize the time that I'll be standing in the kitchen and cooking.  I just need to start being really conservative with my energy and save it for the things that are most important (namely, taking care of my girls).  Things like prepping and chopping fruits and vegetables are falling by the wayside, and I just don't see any way to avoid it.  I also can't really prepare a salad for myself at lunch time anymore if I'm making something different for the girls.  I have to eat what they eat and make it easy.

I'm writing this to myself as much as to you guys, so thanks for letting me ramble a bit there.  Sorry.

Just a few photos from our week here, and then I'll share the meal plan.

(selfie)

L's preschool had a field trip to a local farm and Auntie Bethie was nice enough to spend the afternoon with N and C so I could go with her.  It was a really nice one-on-one time for us, and as you can tell, she really enjoyed the big slide!

 

M's best friend got engaged this week (so psyched for him and his fiancee!!) and we attended a party to celebrate.  The girls learned how to play Bocce Ball and had an awesome time.  They also shamelessly submitted their flower girl resume to the bride-to-be.  No kidding.  N actually walked up to her and said, "I've been a flower girl three times, so if you need me, well..."

Last Sunday marked the end of an era as we said goodbye to our church in Boston.  M has accepted a position as youth director at the church where he attended youth group as a teenager, and then helped with the youth program as an assistant for many years.  It also happens to be the church where we were married!  A lot of family and old friends are there.  We had our first Sunday attending today, and it was really great.  The girls had a great time both in the service and at children's programs.  I enjoyed having a bit less responsibility in the service, leaving the house at 9:15 AM rather than 6:30, and also not having to pack both breakfast and lunch for the whole family.  We will definitely miss the amazing music and colleagues at our Boston church, but it's nice that Sunday mornings will now be a bit less of a marathon.  Maybe that will give me back some energy for cooking.  :)

 

We took some pictures in the beautiful church garden after the service on this lovely spring day.

The weather is forecasted to be gorgeous this week... we are looking forward to more beautiful days!

Thanks for sticking with me through this super long post... here's the meal plan!

Sunday breakfast: blueberry banana pancakes
Sunday lunch: various leftovers
Sunday supper: leftover pizza or pulled pork

Monday breakfast: leftover pancakes
Monday lunch: more egg salad or grilled cheese with avocado
Monday supper: more leftovers (egg salad, pizza, pulled pork)


Tuesday breakfast: cold cereal
Tuesday lunch: packed sandwiches in between activities
Tuesday supper: fish tacos  (Cinco de Mayo!)

Wednesday breakfast: slow cooker steel cut oats
Wednesday lunch: Annie's mac for kids, salad for grown-ups
Wednesday supper: chicken broccoli alfredo

Thursday breakfast: leftover steel cut oats
Thursday lunch: quesadillas and smoothies
Thursday supper: leftovers

Friday breakfast: popovers
Friday lunch: various leftovers
Friday supper: steak, sweet potato fries and smiley fries for the kids

Saturday breakfast: eggs to order
Saturday lunch: at a memorial service luncheon
Saturday supper: cereal, if we're hungry

Thanks to Laura and Jill for the link-up!