cholestasis of pregnancy weight loss | Thirty Five

cholestasis of pregnancy weight loss

Entering my 30s was rough for me. The summer before my 30th birthday I quit a good job, sold a house in another state and was living in a 30-ft camper in a campground. Life was feeling bleak and very much on hold. I felt like there were so many things I had failed to accomplish as I stared 30 in the face, and I was really lonely. 

Five years later, so much has changed. I am in a very different place – literally. We have moved twice in the last five years [Hollywood and Signal Mountain] and we now have two precious boys [Jack and Isaac].

My lower cupboards are full of kids plates and cups. I find toy cars, swords and dinosaurs in the oddest places. I have an ever-growing pile of kids artwork that I havent quite figured out how to deal with. I change poopy diapers on a daily basis, havent had a good nights sleep in a while, and answer a never-ending string of "why" questions. But I wouldnt change my life for anything.

I didnt cross many new items off of my List of 100 Things to do in my lifetime, but that doesnt bother me. My life is full and, even with the hard moments, my 30s have been my favorite decade. Each passing year is better than the last.

I dont know if the changes in me are because of motherhood, or if it stems from the wisdom you can only gain with age. Perhaps difficult life experiences have helped me embrace where I am today instead of longing for what I dont have. I dont know. At 35 I am no longer looking for the adult in the room, and I dont feel like I have to prove myself to gain validation from others. I dont have regrets, even though there are some things I wish I could do. I am embracing the season of life that I am in.

There are elements of my life that I would change if I could – namely Daniels long hours and commute time, but we have learned to make the most of a challenging circumstance, and I know that life as it is right now wont stay this way forever. There will be more hardships, but I believe that there are also wonderful days ahead.

Here are Five Things I hope to do before 40 (though, hopefully I will have many more adventures and projects):
1) Participate in a Triathalon
2) Remodel our master suite
3) Take an epic road trip to visit various National Parks
4) Hike 100 miles on the Tour de Mt Blanc in France
5) Take a multi-day paddling trip in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area

I can say without a doubt that I am looking forward to being 35 and all that the coming year holds.

 

Things Lists From Previous Years:

2007 Things // 2009 Things // 2010 Things // 2011 Things // 2012 Things // 2013 Things

// 2014 Things

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weight loss during pregnancy overweight | Thanksgiving 2015 My Menu

weight loss during pregnancy overweight

The first time I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner was five years ago for my in-laws. It was our first time to use our china, though not my first time meal planning for a crowd (I had previously planned and shopped for 35+ people for weekend family reunions). So I guess you can say I have a little experience in this arena.

Five years ago I felt rushed and somewhat stressed – probably because I planned too many dishes and had trouble allowing others to fully help me. Daniels family all stepped in as wonderful sous chefs, but my own character flaws made it more stressful than it had to be.

This time around, I am older and hopefully wiser. I planned out my menu the week before. Knocked out the shopping on the Sunday before Thanksgiving (by myself!) and felt ready to go.

Along with my recipes, I had a plan of how long items took to cook and at what temps. This made it tremendously easy to get everything done without being stressed. Though the last 30 minutes of prep was a mad dash, but it all came off without a hitch!

Another thing we did differently this time was baking most of the pies the night before. While the pies baked, I took the opportunity to also bake my sweet potatoes for our sweet potato casserole.

Here are my thoughts on each dish on my menu:

Maple Roasted Turkey with Smoked Bacon  
[recipe from Tyler Florence on The Food Network]
This was my third turkey to do with bacon and it did not disappoint. Each time I have tried a different recipe or variation, but this one was by far the simplest to make, and perhaps most flavorful. My 20lb turkey took exactly 3.5 hours to bake. The maple syrup gave it a slight sweetness that I enjoyed and that meshed well with the other dishes that incorporated maple syrup. My mom thought the maple syrup made her gravy a bit sweet, but I thought it was all delicious.

Stuffing 
My mom made her usual stuffing (she even pre-cooked the cornbread and brought it with her from Arkansas). In the future I might consider making another pan of stuffing for such a large crowd.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Cinnamon Butternut Squash, Pecans and Cranberries 
[recipe floating around Facebook]
The week before Thanksgiving I saw this recipe on Facebook and thought that it would be a good addition to our spread. It had maple syrup as an ingredient and that tied in wonderfully with the turkey. I accidentally bought fresh cranberries instead of dried, so at the last minute I ended up adding dried apples (found in my pantry) to the dish instead. The flavors all worked well together. 

Green Bean Casserole
[recipe from Frenchs]
We had the traditional green bean casserole recipe found on the Frenchs French Fried Onion can. I had the wrong kind of green beans (flat, wide ones instead of skinny french cut). I dont think my sister was a fan, and while I agree I like the skinny green beans better, this dish was still tasty and there were no leftovers.

Mashed Potatoes 
[recipe from Pioneer Woman]
The Pioneer Woman NEVER lets me down with her recipes. These mashed potatoes were decadent in a savory kind of way. You could eat them without gravy, they were that good. They were also good cold and I even threw them in broccoli-potato soup at the end of the week. Five pounds of potatoes really went a long way and they were amazing!

Soul Sweet Taters 
[recipe from Pioneer Woman]
Another score for The Pioneer Woman. I baked the sweet potatoes the night before. The only negative was that one of my potatoes didnt fully cook and so it didnt mash up completely in the casserole. It was still good though! Also, I need to buy one more 9x13 dish. I ended up making this casserole in a shorter, deeper dish and the ratio of topping to potatoes was off.

PW Dinner Rolls 
[recipe from Pioneer Woman]
These rolls were a bit finicky – though I always have trouble with bread. The dough was SUPER moist and I couldnt seem to make it dry enough. I more than doubled the recipes stated 4 cups of flour! I literally kept stirring in flour until I could work with it. And even then, I ended up pouring the batter directly into the muffin tins. So basically we had muffin rolls. They still tasted good though!

5 Cup Salad 
[oranges, pineapple, marshmallows, sour cream and coconut]
This is one of my favorite family recipes. We have been making this dish for Thanksgiving as long as I can remember. Daniel doesnt care for sour cream or coconut, but that just leaves more for me!

Cherry Yum Yum
[recipe found on Pinterest]
Daniels family makes this dessert for every holiday and I have really come to love it. I dont think this particular recipe is the same one as what his family makes, but I have had a hard time getting Daniels Great Aunt Thula or his Grandmother to write down the exact recipe. I need to bug them some more!

Pecan and Pumpkin Pie
My mom made the pecan and pumpkin pies that she has been making forever. I especially love her pecan pie. My parents always gather pecans from the trees around town and share their spoils with us. I think we all agreed we need to make homemade crusts next year.

 
Apple Pie 
[cousin Moriah]
My cousin Moriah made an apple pie with the help of my niece, Izzy. They did an excellent job. I didnt have any shortening on hand for her crust, so she made it with butter and it was SO GOOD. I want her to make all of our crusts with butter in the future!

So that was our meal in a nutshell. It was delicious and decadent and made with loving hands. I didnt feel stressed and everyone had more than their fill of good food (plus lots of good leftovers!).

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signs of pregnancy weight loss | Thanksgiving 2015

signs of pregnancy weight loss

Our years keep getting busier and busier (and we havent even entered the world of sports or school with our kiddos). 

From Halloween through the end of the year there are so many activities and it all seems to go by at lightening speed. I am desperately trying to savor the moments as they flash by.

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. This meant a total of 15 people under one roof over the course of four days. As expected, it was fun, loud and a little crazy. 

I hope we made memories that will be cherished for years to come and that our kids, especially, will have fond memories of these times together.

My sister and her family arrived on Wednesday afternoon, followed by my parents in time for dinner. My brother arrived after the kids were in bed.

After eating the rest of the leftovers in my fridge (I needed to make room for the big turkey dinner to come), we entertained the kids by making spaceships, UFOs and aliens out of cardboard. This was a big hit with the kids and they continued to create puppet shows for us throughout our visit.

At bedtime I may have won Aunt (and Mommy) of the year by setting up Jacks tent in the playroom for cousin camp out. 

The first time the kids were way too excited and woke up at 3am and had to be separated. The second night, Jack came downstairs because he was thirsty and the final night they made it all night together in the tent. Mission accomplished.

Wednesday night was rough on me because Isaac was sleeping in our room in the pack-n-play instead of the nursery and he was teething to boot. I was up every hour with him – not exactly how I wanted to kick off cooking a big Thanksgiving meal.

After I drank a large cup of coffee, my mom and I started knocking out my Thanksgiving meal plan. I will share more specifically about our menu in a later post. But it was all delicious and the timing of everything went incredibly smoothly. To the point that I felt like I must be missing something! 

It did help that we made some of the pies the night before. Also, no burned pies this year! My aunt and uncle and their kids joined us (from Nashville) in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

During our meal I had printed out questions for a little bit of fun – things like "What is your most embarrassing moment?" and "What is your earliest memory?" 

It was fun to reminisce and share stories (our family is good at sharing stories!).

After dinner we continued to visit while Daniel and my BIL, Robert, started a bonfire. It was a perfect night to enjoy smores – it wasnt too cold and the stars were shining brightly. 

We sang silly songs (Lock family, have you guys ever looked up the lyrics to the song, Donerybecks Machine – they are disturbing!!!), songs of thanksgiving, and reminisced about our Grandpa Lock who passed away 3 years ago.  It was a good way to end our day. 

Well technically we ended the day with more pie and Pinocle!

Friday we are slept in and then gathered for brunch followed by coffee and games...

more Pinocle and Candy Land for the kiddos. 

After more visiting we all headed for Signal Point to take some family photos. It was such a beautiful day, we were not the only ones out for pictures!

Following pictures my aunt and uncle headed home and the rest of us headed back to the house for pizza before going downtown to see the Annual Lighted Boat Parade at the Chattanooga riverfront. 

I took a carafe of hot water, along with hot chocolate packets and cups and we enjoyed hot chocolate while we watched the boats drive by.

We were seated on a steep hill and the kids had a blast trying to sled down the hill on discarded pieces of cardboard. 

They wore themselves out on the hill while the adults enjoyed the boats. I think everyones favorite boat was the one decorated after the movie, Frozen.

Saturday morning my brother enlisted our mom and Izzy to help him make delicious Eggs Benedict with hollondaise sauce. 

My little brother has really come into his own with cooking – the eggs were delicious.

Following breakfast, my parents handed out presents to the kids since we will not be together for Christmas. The kids loved all of their gifts, but I think the favorite was the treasure chest they each got. 

My dad had started a rock collection for each of them (from his own rock collection) and they were all enamored with their treasures. I have a feeling the boxes will be filled with rocks found before too long.

After presents, my sister and her crew headed home to Florida. The rest of us enjoyed the quiet and some more visiting. My brother left after supper and my parents left Sunday morning.

We feel so blessed to have spent the holiday with loved ones. Now we gear up for the rest of the holiday season and all that it has to offer! 

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving and were able to spend part of the time with loved ones!

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