love, marriage, baby carriage

01/6/17

Buying in Bulk Before Baby’s Arrival

I’m due with my second baby girl on my daughter’s second birthday, and between working, having a difficult pregnancy, and moving into a new house, there’s a lot going on in my life at all times, to say the least.

If there’s one constant in my life, it’s my need and ability to plan – I’ve had my hospital bag packed for weeks, had my husband put the finishing touches on the girls’ room, and created four months’ worth of daily lesson plans for my maternity leave.

The final pieces of the puzzle will be to plan on having a cleaner come to the house while I’m at the hospital and to have our home stocked with the essentials, so when we come home with our newest little munchkin, we can focus on settling into our new family instead of having to run out to the store for this and that.

01/2/17

Healthy open face crunchy French toast

As much as I dislike clichés, I have to join the rest of the world in probably the biggest New Years’ cliché that exists – I resolve to lose my (baby) weight and get healthy. How very original, I know.

Since I was a kid, my favorite food has always been cereal; I’m a huge breakfast person and also like my desserts, so I found a way to combine my love for breakfast and indulgences while aligning with my getting healthy and back on track goals.

Since I’m quite the cereal connoisseur, it means a lot for me to say I found my new favorite cereal of the moment – a healthy cereal that’s not too sweet, definitely not bland, and doesn’t taste like some of the other healthy cereal out there aka cardboard. I used Great Grains®Raisins, Dates, & Pecans cereal in this oh-so-delicious recipe: an open face crunchy French toast dish. I’m not exaggerating when I say not only is this my favorite cereal to eat on its own, but this recipe is TO. DIE. FOR.

11/6/16

Beauty and the Beast Brings Belle to Life with Updated Twists

Since its summer trailer teaser, I’ve been waiting anxiously for more details on the 2017 adaptation of the Disney animated tale, Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson and co-starring Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as the Beast and Luke Evans (The Hobbit) as Gaston. Set to release on March 17, 2017, this classic story takes a much-needed modern turn by giving the leading lady more substance, updating the original costumes, and filming on a UK-based set .

Belle’s Backstory

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Emma Watson explains that since Belle was never really given a backstory in the animated movie, it only made sense to give her more dimension and an explanation as to why she never quite fit in, “other than she liked books. Also what is she doing with her time?’ So, we created a backstory for her, which was that she had invented a kind of washing machine, so that, instead of doing laundry, she could sit and use that time to read instead. So, yeah, we made Belle an inventor.”