How does everyone do it?

Hope everyone had a yummy, fun Thanksgiving. Mr. C and I went down to his parents' house for dinner, which was really yummy. I made the pies (and totally failed in the taking pictures of them before being eaten department) while his mom went to town on everything else. I felt a little on the loser side since making those pies the morning of did me in and I was too sore (back, tummy, legs, feet...all you mothers know the drill) to help much in the kitchen. On a side note, I was not prepared for just how much gravity affects giant bun-in-the-oven bumps. My lower abdomen was so sore from standing that long just because gravity was pulling on my whole stomach more than usual. Not fun. Anyway, Thanksgiving was good. After dinner we played a couple of games then I was tired enough that I had to head home.

In other news, the doctor said I really need to watch what I eat and make sure I'm walking at least 30 minutes a day. Now, I had the best intentions from the start but with 80% of this summer being close to or over 100 degrees with humidity, I was lucky if I could stand in that heat for close to a half hour so actually walking in it, especially the 2 very hopeful miles I had planned on everyday, went completely out the window. All-day morning sickness does that to you too. Then came the super stress of wedding planning, which I totally used as an excuse when I shouldn't have, especially considering how it probably would have helped the stress levels and now here I am 30 weeks (7 months) pregnant and so lazy that I'm embarrassed to admit it. So, since the only clothes I have that still fit comfortably are not really exercise clothes, I bought some yoga pants and plan on buying some super large under shirts on the cheap so I can't use clothes as an excuse for not walking.

Of course the other limiting factor we've been dealing with this pregnancy is an incredibly limited budget. I'm suffering from worry and guilt over the fact that I haven't been able to do quite a bit because we just can't afford it. Part of that includes making sure every meal is a well balanced healthy meal. The first few months I was lucky when I could keep anything down and the further along I was, the less food stayed down so my options were very limited. When that finally stopped, I was just so happy to be able to eat again that I kind of went nuts on the foods I had been missing. And with most of our money going into the wedding and honeymoon, it's been more about what we can afford these days. So the point of this post's title, how do people on a really tight budget afford to buy the stuff for well balanced, healthy meals? Oh and keep in mind that about half of what anyone is going to come up with for meal options my husband won't eat. So for me, it's buy stuff that we can both eat, or buy the ingredients for something healthy as well as what he'll eat, follow these yummy sounding recipes that are meant for 4-6 people, eat as many left-overs as possible but still end up throwing out some food because there just aren't enough people to eat it all. And by having to make separate meals, not only are we wasting food but we're also having to spend extra money. Do you see my dilemma? I did come across this book the other day at Borders, which is nothing but recipes for dishes with hidden veggies (like adding pureed squash to a sauce) that allows kids to eat their veggies without knowing it. I really want to try it but again, I'm afraid my husband will be able to tell the difference and his picky eating will keep him from eating those recipes and I feel like saying what's the point until I have a kid old enough to make it all worth it. In the mean time, I think I just need to suck it up and buy some of those 'eating for two' cookbooks, whose recipes are only meant to feed 2 people.

I'm open to any and all other suggestions, especially if you have experience with super picky eaters. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!

And the Christmas panic has set in...

Six weeks and five days until Christmas. Normally, I would not be panicking this early, I mean, Halloween just happened last week and I like to enjoy the fall and Thanksgiving with only minor Christmas present planning happening but this year I'm worried that we just won't be able to do it up as much as we'd like after our wedding and now having to save up for baby stuff. I know we scored getting a bunch of needed stuff at the baby consignment sale last month and I'm hoping we get what else we need from the baby shower but between those two huge life events, I think Christmas is going to be put on the back-burner, which sucks because I love Christmas and want to do something to show everyone who has been supporting us this last year that we appreciate it. I guess Christmas cards it is, right? You know, it's times like this when I remember that I had less people to buy for when I was single and think that no matter how much I love Charlie and love being married and that we're starting our family, those little joys of being single were awfully nice.

2 weeks and counting...

Today is our two week anniversary of getting married. Sunday, Oct. 17th we officially tied the knot, figuratively and literally. It was a beautiful ceremony with almost all of our closest friends and family. We wrote our own vows, had a Celtic knot tying ceremony, had a surprise with the rings, got some surprise roses from the officiant, had our recessional to the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean and ended it all with a private horse-drawn carriage ride through the local town before heading back for photos and the reception. Due to the weather we ended up having to rush our first dance and the father/daughter dances as well as the toasts before moving everything indoors and out of the rain and as a result we didn't get to have the dancing I wanted, but the food was good, the cake as amazing and the whole thing was so much fun I didn't want it to end. For our honeymoon we flew to Florida, spent a couple days there, caught an overnight cruise to Grand Bahama Island where we stayed for 3 days and 2 nights, and cruised back to Florida where we stayed for another day before flying back home. It was a crazy couple of weeks but we both have such good memories. We already can't wait for our one year anniversary so we can try to go back to where the wedding was held and spend a bit more time there relaxing. We also need to go back to Disneyland, which is where we had our joint bachelor/bachelorette party but I unfortunately could not ride all the rides due to little Bump. I bought the bride ears while we where there but the whole park was completely sold out of groom ears. We decided to compromise and get the pirate ears and have "groom" embroidered on them but they were completely sold out of those too! So we decided to save my ears and go back for the one year anniversary, hopefully buy the groom ears then and celebrate on our own. Poor Bump will not be invited to that trip. :)