Last Wednesday, my coworkers celebrated our babies upcoming arrival with a baby shower. My section did a great job complete with cute polka dot or giraffe invitations, pink & blue decorations, yummy chips & dips, fruit, nuts & mints, delicious punch & such a fun cake.
{food table, cake, gifts table}
I remembered to whip out my cell to snap a few photos but no one took any while I was opening gifts. Everyone was so generous too. I’d recently added a baby food maker {the baby bullet, anyone have it?} to our registries & two different groups thought it was a great idea for us. We also received a Johnny Jump Up, foam play mats, a crib tent {to keep Moekitty out}, Skip Hop mirror, a few onesie sets with matching hats & mittens, pastel bibs, door knob covers, two different owl car seat/stroller toys, as well as a few gifts cards. Our babies are pretty set!
{I ended up taking back the second baby bullet & extra storage system. So with that money & other gift cards, I ordered the Performance Ergo carrier. So excited about it!}Also thought I’d share what I wore since I had my eye on this Boden maternity dress way before I was even pregnant. Luckily for me, it was on clearance, so I got quite a deal. The material is a little thinner than I thought {I wore a super long H&M tank under it}, but I love the ruffles & am so excited to be able to wear it the rest of my pregnancy this spring.
Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood is the first of The Cahill Witch Chronicles series. Y’all know I love a good series {think Outlander, Hunger Games & even dare I say Twilight?!} & figured why not try reading this one.
Born Wicked is historical fiction set in New England in the late 1800s. But it took me a while to realize that. Based on clothing, diction & home descriptions, I gathered almost immediately that it wasn’t a modern day story. But then I was getting confused where & when the story was taking place. Finally, a couple chapters in, the author specifically states New England & mentions the witch trials of the 1780s being about 100 years before. I wish the clues in the novel had been more specific so I wouldn’t have been so confused for the first third of the book.
This is also one of the first witch books I’ve read in a very long time. I wasn’t sure about that part of the story, but I ended up enjoying the magic portions. I enjoyed reading about the sisters, Cate, Maura & Tess, from Cate’s view point. We were able to see the struggles of all three but I cared most about Cate. The stress of her raising her sisters after their mother’s death. The “love” triangle she finds herself in between her childhood, boy-next-door BFF & the bookkeeper-turned-gardener in her backyard. The sisters trying to fit into town society when they’re different & have been sheltered away.
At first, I truly didn’t think I’d like this book, but the more I got into it, the tougher I found it was to put it down. I’d recommend it for light reading & do look forward to the next story in the series!
You can learn more & join the discussion about Born Wicked at the BlogHer Book Club Born Wicked discussion page.
This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are all my own.
I watched it. I didn’t mean to, yet I did & I knew I couldn’t not watch. Yet I realized I wasn’t, I’m not, strong enough to watch it home alone (I turned it on while husband was around Saturday). It’s too close to home. Probably was way
too close. & yet, in some ways so different.
I’m talking about last week’s episode of 19 Kids & Counting. Your thoughts & mine on the Duggers in general don’t really matter for the sake of this. I DVR the show because I find their family & lifestyle so fascinating. I remember hearing Michelle had miscarried her 20th child last Dec, but I also think I half blocked it out during my first trimester triplet high.
I didn’t know the details. I didn’t realize that they too went as an excited couple to their 18 week, gender reveal appointment. They too had told everyone (in their case, really everyone) they were expecting & thus had tons of family & friends awaiting great news that afternoon. They too were shocked & saddened beyond what they could’ve imagined by what they saw or, in our cases, didn’t see on that ultrasound. I’ll admit that the Oprah ugly cry occurred through almost the whole show. I was brought back to that Jan 31st day I can’t forget. Watching them break the news to their children tore me up.
But here’s where our experiences separate. While we carried on with a somewhat different but still healthy pregnancy, Michelle didn’t. That makes our grief in the passing, joy in the brief life & how we’ve dealt with the losses different too.
As this pregnancy winds down, I’m thrilled, elated even, that we’ll sooner than later be bringing home (God willing) two babies. That’s what we have & are focusing on. But the impending birth also means we will meet what’s left of Baby B soon too. This week, we’ve discussed this & plan to discuss it further with our doctor next week. We’re not sure our plans. One thing I know from this experience, is that it has bonded me even closer to my husband. And for that, I’m so grateful.
Post written post-midnight Sunday when I couldn’t sleep. I’m learning it’s better to type out these feelings than let them linger inside.
By this point, y’all are familiar with how much I’m continuing to eat in order to grow & sustain these babies. A lot. Still something every two-three hours.
The weather here has been in the 80s for the last couple of weeks. So now not only am I looking hugely pregnant, I’m also looking sweaty. But the one one of the great things about warm weather & spring/summer is that fruit will soon be in season locally! Bring on the NC strawberries, blueberries, & peaches!
And while bananas aren’t grown local, I didn’t get the childhood nickname of Suzanna Banana by coincidence!
Fruit is by far my favorite go to when I’m hungry. Add COOL WHIP whipped topping, and even the most basic fruit becomes a special, exciting, delicious snack or dessert.
Top plain white cake with strawberries & COOL WHIP, BOOM, you’ve got Strawberry Shortcake. Perfect for Easter weekend when our fresh strawberries should be coming out.
But my all time favorite dessert is banana pudding. {if any of y’all try to call me Suzanna Banana though, it’s on.} Since I eat dessert every night now, & since Target had both bananas & COOL WHIP on sale this past week, I took advantage and whipped up this banana pudding for the weekend. This recipe makes a lot. Like feed-a-family-reunion, take-to-church-pot-luck, perfect-for-girls-beach-weekend lot. Or, you know, feed-Suz-&-her-growing-babies lot. 🙂
I’ve shared this recipe before but it’s been a while, and it’s my favorite & also one of the easiest Banana Pudding recipes I’ve ever made. I swear the reason for it’s awesomeness~ COOL WHIP. I used two small containers of COOL WHIP this time & it made the pudding part so moist & light. The recipe is from my friend Kim’s Mississippi Momma. You can’t beat a southern lady’s recipes y’all!
Directions
Make pudding as directed on package: Using wire wisk, mix pudding into cold milk for 2 minutes in large bowl.
Continuing whisking while pouring in condensed milk then COOL WHIP.
{ingredients; adding the good stuff}
In 2+ qt container, place layer of wafers, then thinly sliced bananas. Top that with pudding mixture. Continue to layer until all gone. Enjoy!
{1.5 qt full; COOL WHIP containers make great banana pudding holders}
And for some reason you have COOL WHIP & bananas left over, throw them in a dish with strawberries & blueberries & call that breakfast! Happy spring & summer eating!
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April’s book club pick was The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. We came up with the idea of venturing in the the world of graphic novels because another #booknerd’s dad had received this book for Christmas & then left it at her house.
Hugo is thick y’all! Like intimidatingly so. Enough that it sat on the top of my couch for long enough that I kept having to renew it from the library before I got brave enough to open the first page. But when I did, I “read” 75 pages in just over 30 minutes. Gotta love pictures, especially intricate, interesting ones like in Hugo.
The story wasn’t super-duper, over-the-top fasinating to me. A ten year old boy living in a train station & the wonders he encounters there. But the pace of the novel was quick & that kept me coming back for more.
I think it would make for a great movie {clearly it did since Hugo won so many awards}. I’d definitely recommend this as easy light reading. It could be fun to read with children as, I’d imagine, the photos & story would keep them entertained. I’m interested in seeing the movie now too!
Also thought I’d share what I wore since I had my eye on this Boden maternity dress way before I was even pregnant. Luckily for me, it was on clearance, so I got quite a deal. The material is a little thinner than I thought {I wore a super long H&M tank under it}, but I love the ruffles & am so excited to be able to wear it the rest of my pregnancy this spring.
