Sunday, September 17, 2017

Shouldless Days of 2017: September

Julia Child Night was so much fun, but it was also exhausting. Plus I got an RA flare on Friday night, this time in my left elbow, and got less than 5 hours of sleep on Friday night since the pain was pretty bad. Luckily the steroids kicked in quickly and I was still able to enjoy Julia Child Night on Saturday.

However, after a poor night of sleep and being on my feet for about 12 hours, I was in need of a shouldless day! Plus the flare moved from my elbow to my left hand so it was clear that my body needed some rest.  Here's how I spent my Sunday!

I was in bed later than usual on Saturday night as it was almost 11 by the time we got home from Julia Child Night, so I slept in a bit and laid in bed until 8:30 which felt glorious! After having breakfast and watching part of Face the Nation with Phil, I got started on making some banana bread with some overly-ripe bananas that I needed to use up. I got to use the Kitchen Aid mixer my parents gave me for my baby shower for the first time!

 The finished product!


After that I had a few errands to run, starting with the library. I love that they make the returns area extra fun. I am sure it's meant to entertain children but it made this adult smile!


I picked up this book which I am excited to check out! I've heard nothing but great things!


After stopping by the grocery store, I came home and had the rest of the leftover Chicken Tikka Masala that my sister and I made last week. I think it might have tasted even better as leftovers!


For dessert, I enjoyed a slice of banana bread. For some reason, the chocolate chips were not evenly distributed, but it still tasted great!

 

After watching a couple of episodes of Suits, I headed outside to do some reading. Phil had set up the hammock for me before he headed to his mom's that morning. It was a beautiful fall day so the perfect day to spend some time in the hammock. It was a bit chilly (for me, I get cold easily) so I brought a blanket to make it extra cozy. I read a little bit of Refugee, which is a middle-grade book that my a good friend recommended to me. It tells the story of 3 different refugees - a young Jewish boy during WWII, a Cuban family trying to get to the US in 1994, and a Syrian family that is trying to get to Germany in 2015. Truth be told, I didn't read for all that long as I kind of dozed off for awhile.


My good friend Courtney stopped by that afternoon to get a couple of books from me and I ended up picking her brain over pregnancy stuff for longer that she probably intended to stay! She has a little boy who will turn 2 in November and is due with another boy in January. We are only 6 weeks apart so our kids will be so close in age. It's nice to have a good friend who has a similar lifestyle to us and has been through all of this so recently and can share advice on things from breast feeding to which cloth diapers to buy to what stroller to get.

After she headed out, I got going on meal prep for my lunches for the week. I decided to make taco salads this week so I browned some ground turkey and sauteed some peppers and onion with salt, pepper and cumin.


By now it was dinner time so I made one of my favorite comfort meals - eggs over easy with GF toast. I stopped eating this when I found out I was pregnant as I read that runny yolks weren't safe to eat during pregnancy. But when I saw my OB a couple of weeks ago, she said that it was actually ok to eat eggs over medium as there isn't a risk to the baby - just a risk of food poisoning, which is so unlikely since I eat fresh eggs. I'm not going to eat these every week, but they sounded good on Sunday night so I gave into the craving.


I pretty much laid on the couch for the rest of the night. I caught up with Phil when he got home. He brought Oscar back with him as she had spent the week out at his mom's - I was so happy to see her! And I will be heading to bed soon!! All in all it was a really wonderful shouldless day and just what my body needed!

Stay tuned for my Julia Child recap which will be coming on Tuesday!

10 comments:

Jeanie said...

Sounds like a perfect day to me -- the banana bread looks delish. (Love Face the Nation, too.) And nice to spend time with a friend. Sorry about the flare coming though. No wonder you were zonked. Glad the steroids are working but sure wish this was a thing of the past.

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

That sounds like the perfect day! I can't wait to hear about Julia Child night! I love those stay at home and bake and read days; they are my favorite! I just got back home and am trying to stay up long enough to get back on Pacific time, so my weekend mostly consisted of traveling, although Friday was a bit of a travel day-shouldless day! The rest of Sept/Oct are slammed, but Nov or if not then Jan should bring some more days at home for me (although shouldless also = yard work unfortunately).

Marlys said...

Banana bread looks so good! We are all anxious for the JCN recap, as you can guess.
Now, get that RA into remission, ok?

Nora said...

What a lovely day you had! Definitely well deserved and necessary to rest and relax given that you're growing a tiny human plus battling an RA Flare. You're a rockstar!

Charbelle said...

I'm so glad you were able to have a shouldless day, it sounds necessary! I love that you were able to enjoy time out on the hammock! I loved the pictures you posted from Julia Child night! I am praying that you truly start to feel better for longer periods of time! It seems you will have a brief window of feeling better and then BAM you get hit again with something. Hugs!!!

Stephany said...

You definitely needed that shouldless day and it sounds like it was a restorative one for you! I love breakfast for dinner and don't have it nearly enough.

Sending prayers that that RA flare was the last one for a long, long time. Sorry you're still dealing with them! :(

Amber said...

I have been eating over easy eggs basically my entire pregnancy if it makes you feel any better! I am more at risk of harming the baby when I drive to work every day, and I LOVE over easy eggs, so I decided the very tiny risk of food poisoning was worth it to me. Especially since I buy fresh, high quality eggs from the Farmer's Market. I only eat them once a week or so as well.

Your hammock looks SOOOOO cozy!! What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon!

Abby said...

Looks like a perfect should less day. It was SO beautiful Sunday

That banana bread looks awesome! I love your red mixer!!! I kind of wish ours was a fun color. nevertheless - those mixers are so great!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

That sounds like a very relaxed shouldless day. I totally want a hammock in my backyard. I loooooove hammocks. That's too bad that you had an RA flare the night before Julia Child night, but I'm glad to hear that you didn't have to miss out on it :-) I can't wait to see what you guys made!

If I were pregnant I would have a difficult time avoiding the long list of foods you're not supposed to eat, as I know I'd crave them just because I couldn't have them. That's great that your doctor gave you the go-ahead for over easy eggs. I too love runny yolks. Honestly, I grew up eating raw cookie dough, and whatever else, and I never got food poisoning once, and have never heard of anyone getting sick from raw eggs. There is so much paranoia with things today. Your doctor seems reasonable :-)

San said...

Oh damn, so sorry about the RA flare... but I am glad you were able to enjoy Julia Child night and use Sunday for a Shouldless Day! How are you liking your Kitchenaid mixer? I am so in love with mine :)