Herbs

Thank you, Illustrated Bites, for sharing the lovely herb illustration!  Check out the other great food illustrations they have on their website as well!

Chocolate Banana Protein Shake

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Since being pregnant I’ve been striving to get 80-100 grams of protein a day. Protein is vital to a healthy pregnancy and baby development. My midwife is a stickler about getting enough protein everyday and one of the ways she recommends doing it is by making a protein shake (or two, depending on how far along you are) everyday.

It makes it easier to get a lot of protein in one place and not feel like you are eating all day long. You can also add different things to it for even more protein, like Greek yogurt (Chobani has the most protein per serving I found so far).

One thing to watch for though is to make sure that the protein powder you use has very little or no sugar in it.

The one thing that stands out the most to me about getting enough protein everyday is the difference it has made for me personally as far as swelling. If I have all that I am supposed to, I barely swell at all, even after being on my feet all day. If I don’t, I can tell, as my ankles get puffy. It really makes a difference!

There are lots of different recipes online for protein shakes. The one that I use I found on Pinterest. It is low sugar and high protein. Here is the link for the original, but as you can see I tweaked it for my own use.

Chocolate Banana Protein Shake

1 cup 2% milk (about 8 grams of protein)

1/2 frozen banana

ice cubes

1-2 scoops of protein powder (I am using 2 scoops of vanilla flavored powder and getting 52 grams of protein from it)

2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend till smooth.

Enjoy!

Baby Shower Number 1

After this photo was taken MORE gifts showed up—this is just a fraction of what we received.
Two weeks ago the ladies in our church gave us a FABULOUS baby shower for Olivia Grace. This was the baby girl shower in a long stretch of baby boys that have been born in our church over the last year, and I think the ladies were excited about buying pink ruffles and frills.
My mom, sisters and one of my grandmothers were able to come in to town and be with me for the shower—I enjoyed getting to have them with me. Olivia’s aunties enjoyed the shower and were very interested to see what all she would get.
Here are a few photos from the evening, taken by Wendi:



The ladies did an amazing job with the food and decorations and my dear friend Kristin from In Mother Words, made my delicious and lovely cake.
I’m *quite* pregnant feeling now, and by looking at me there is no doubt that there is a bun in the oven, not just too many extra donuts.
We are at almost 30 weeks and it is so exciting to see the number of weeks until I get to hold my girl in my arms grow smaller.
In amongst all of the baby fun, I am working on projects for not one, but THREE wedding this summer. They are a monthly occurrence (literally!) beginning in June and ending in August. Two miniature brides dresses, a mother of the bride dress, a bridesmaid dress and for the wedding in August I’m altering and modestifying ;) the bride’s gown. Most of these will be completed by the end of May. Needless to say, I’ve been busy and will be for the next several weeks.
I’m thankful for all of the busyness, as it will help the time till Olivia gets here go by fast. I’m so ready to meet my baby girl!