Preparing for baby, spring gardening, and a cozy weekend

Good morning and happy Monday!

I hope you all had a great weekend filled with sunshine and spring temps! I’m living for this weather right now. With only five weeks left before the baby comes, I have gotten this crazy wave of energy. Even though I’m battling sciatica, heartburn, and other pregnancy discomforts, I’m pushing through to make sure everything is up and ready before my due date. We did so much this weekend, and I’m feeling it today! The good thing is that I can take a morning to relax, have a coffee, and hop on here to connect with you all!
Last Monday started in the best way possible. I had the best morning date with a friend, which began with a trip to Wilson’s Nursery! This is my happy place, and seeing all their spring flowers sent me over the limit. I filled the cart with flowers for my front porch pots. I have four on my steps, two on my chairs, and one outback. I love filling them with verbena, lantana, and petunias. I also purchased two of their hanging pots with a colorful variety of flowers. My goal in the spring and summer months is to add so much color with flowers to my house. It makes me so happy! I know I’m like a broken record saying this, but “I can’t wait to just water, deadhead, and take care of the garden with the baby in the mornings.” I purchased a cute outdoor lounger with a netting over it so they can be out there with me. I hear getting the baby outside is so good for them (as long as the summer temps are low, which they usually are in the mornings!)After leaving the garden center, we drove over to The Common Market. I hadn’t been to the Common Market since 2014 when they had it in Southend Charlotte. I’m so excited they have one closer to our house now. I tell Kyle every day that I love where we live because it’s growing so fast, and all of my favorite spots are expanding out this way!

I ordered the chicken salad over lettuce with ranch and a bagel with cream cheese on the side. This chicken salad was divine! I brought the leftovers home, and Kyle and I ate the chicken salad with crackers for dinner. We ended our afternoon date with ice cream and coffee from Two Scoops as if things couldn’t get better. I’m not joking when I say this ice cream was probably one of the best flavors I’ve ever had. I’m usually the type of person that can have a few bites of ice cream, and I’m over it, but this maple granola flavor was unlike anything I’ve ever had, and it was even better when washed down with an oat milk cortado!

I told Kyle we had to go back to get ice cream after working on a few projects this past weekend, and when we got there, the line was wrapped around the building. I talked the ice cream up so much, and he didn’t even get to try it. Oops! Well, we’ll be back 😉

When I got home, I finished up last week’s recap blog and then laced up my shoes to go work on potting some flowers for the front yard. The weather was sunny and in the ’70s, so I could not stay inside for long! I cannot wait to see the pots when they start filling in these next few weeks.

Next weekend, we have plants to touch the paint on our front steps and add a fresh coat of paint to our back patio for spring. I have all my fruit plants on the patio, so it needs a major spring cleaning!

If you want to learn more about my gardening and planting pots, check out my latest garden guide & tour I just posted a few weeks ago!

Last week was the peak for these tulips! They’re officially in their final days, making me so sad! I have LOVED seeing them while sitting on my porch each morning. The amount of joy flowers bring me is probably unhealthy 😆

Here in a few weeks, as they die down, I’ll be digging the bulbs up and storing them. After that, I’ll replace the area with fresh annual flowers for the season. I want to do annuals because I plan to put the tulip and hyacinth bulbs back into the ground this fall.

I have a tulip blog coming later in the month as soon as I store them! I think they were super successful this year!
The ultimate leftovers smorgasbord for dinner!

On Tuesday, Leo and I went out for our morning walk. I have still been getting my walks in each day, even though they are much shorter and a bit more painful. I’ve had so much pressure and lightning twitches in the pelvis. I’m officially looking like a waddling duck on my walks, but Leo still appreciates the effort!
 Gardening round two on Tuesday! I filled my blue pots (initially intended for blueberries) with pink petunias! They turned out so pretty. I also lined the garden bed with over 30 petunia plants. I did this last year, and they made the edges so full of color! The only downfall is having to deadhead them constantly, but gosh, they are so pretty in the summer, and they love the full sun. I replenished myself with a cold shower and a delicious smoothie! I’ve loved those tropical dole fruit packs with elderberry juice, almond milk, and vanilla plant protein powder scoop.
I had a chicken salad wrap with fresh fruit and a handful of unpictured Cheez-its for dinner.

Leo headed to the groomers early on Wednesday (Tux has his appointment this week!), and I took it easy most of the day. I felt like I had a bit o a stomach bug, but it went away later in the evening. The crazy thing is that I fell asleep on the couch around 10 am and slept almost all day long! Kyle was working from home, so he took care of the dogs and let me sleep the sickness off.

I finally got my appetite back and decided to order a Chickfila salad with some fries instead of cooking anything.
I woke up Thursday feeling so much better! It was still a cold and rainy day, but at least the sickness was gone!

I decided to make some Chicken & Noodle soup for the week. The rainy weather had me in the mood for my favorite comfort food! Kyle loved it so much that he asked if I could make it again this week, so I picked up all the ingredients last night to make it again today. It is the best dish to keep in the fridge! My mom said she’d make this for me when we get home from the hospital.

With being pregnant, foot pain is insane! I needed new slippers for walking on the hard floors, and I found these slippers on Amazon! I cannot believe how foamy and soft these are! They are fantastic quality, and I feel like ordering a few more to have upstairs and downstairs. They are under $20 and are one of my favorite purchases. I’ll have to include them in my third-trimester roundup.

Kyle and I plopped on the couch to watch Jeopardy on Thursday evening, and he loves getting in his baby kick time. The baby seriously does cartwheels all day, especially in the evening.
Happy spring porch! 😊
One of my neighbors across the street had a baby a few weeks ago, so I decided to make her How Sweet Eats lactation cookies! I ordered the brewer’s yeast powder for mother’s milk and flaxseed on Amazon a few weeks ago while planning what to store in my freezer for breastfeeding. I thought this was an excellent opportunity to try this recipe out. I plan to make many lactation snacks to keep in the freezer here in a few weeks. I hear that breastfeeding can make you so hungry, and it’s great to have snacks on hand, especially ones that can help with milk supply. If you read the reviews on her blog, many people have made these and said they have helped!
 
This cookie recipe was pretty easy to make, and it tasted delicious! Even Kyle had himself a few lactation cookies 😂 The recipe makes so many of them, which is excellent as well. I highly suggest adding in the pecans! 😋
On Saturday, we worked on getting a few baby items put together. We have been following a guide that said it’s essential to put the baby items out early so the dogs can get used to them before the baby arrives. We don’t want to overwhelm Tux and Leo with these new baby gadgets and a new baby. Leo was so confused about having his bed rearranged in our bedroom, but he got used to it quickly! We plan to have the baby in our bedroom for the first six months, and we decided to go with the Snoo since we’ve heard so many amazing things. 
After getting the Snoo put together in our bedroom, we headed over to the garden center to grab a few things before the weekend crowd. I picked up four new white iceberg roses to plant next to my patio dropoff. Last year, I did zinnias, but I wanted to switch it up and add a perennial that will do great there, and I’ll never have to replace it again. I’m so so so excited to see all the white roses this year! They are sandwiched between my pink drift roses and pink cut roses.

After all the yard work, I snuck away to nap with Leo and then did a hot foot bath later in the evening while Kyle and I watched Windfall.
Sunday morning yard play with the boys! I love how happy Tux is in the mornings!
Leo already being the best big brother! It’s so crazy how gentle he is with my belly. He used to jump all over me, but now he’s so soft, and I feel he senses something.

I spent the afternoon cleaning out all the upstairs closets, organizing the laundry room, washing more baby items, and putting together a postpartum cart. I’ve also been working on putting together everything for my hospital bag!
 I was so hungry later in the afternoon, so I made a bagel with cream cheese, bacon, eggs, and a banana on the side! It was sooooo delicious.

The next thing on the list was to get Leo used to the stroller. He’s not sure about it right now, but we put it in our kitchen and kept putting treats next to it so he becomes comfortable with it. He keeps staring at it like it’s a person! But I want him to get used to it because I plan to take him and the baby on early morning walks this summer. I also bought lights to attach to the stroller for early morning walks.

We ended our evening with chicken noodle soup and watched a little bit of basketball!



Before heading to bed, I had to head outside to snap some photos of the flowers in the sunset. ♥️

I hope you all have the best week!

Questions for you!

1. Have you started any gardening yet?
2. Tips for getting your pets used to the stroller?
3. What is one store near you that makes you so happy every time you visit?