Pregnant people should not be asked to make Tuna Melts

That being said, this was the best-dang tuna melt I've had in a loooong time.

I added white beans, greek yogurt, dill and cayenne pepper to my regular tuna-mayo-dijon-salt combo. Bam! Better tuna, plus more protein for the kidlets.

The picture is horrid- bad lighting plus everything is beige, but it was yummy!

Brioche buns courtesy of Trader Joes.

Munster cheese melted on top, courtesy of the toaster and my 4 year old's love of anything orange, hence his irrational love of Port Salut cheese and munster (orange rinds on both, fyi).

If this were a night like the salmon burgers of lore, I would have had avocado and tomato and maybe a salad on the side. See how much prettier that one looks? Except...

did you miss the part where I am pregnant and making tuna melts?

Yah, it's just as fun as it sounds:)

Jessica

A Great April Fool's Day Trick

April Fool's is only 1 week away and while it's not usually a holiday I "celebrate", I did read about this one thing last year that I thought was absolutely brilliant...

Change the settings on your target's car from US to Metric. So instead of miles it will display kilometers.

Or change a scale from pounds to kilos, you get the idea.

Books I read while on bedrest

6 weeks of pseudo bed rest is now over, and at 36 weeks, I am ready to have this baby any time now:)

I wasn't on super strict bed rest, which meant that I could leave the house every day or every other day as long as there wasn't walking involved, but mostly I was supposed to stay on the couch or in bed or (my addition) at a barstool supervising cooking:)

My big out-of-the-house highlights were:
4 trips to the nail salon
a trip to our vacation house where I hung out on that couch
lots of sushi lunches with my hubby
getting to synagogue 5 times, where I pawned the kids off to my husband so I could actually be in the sanctuary and sit.
Oh, and after reading the Hunger Games trilogy in 4 days, I watched the first 2 movies On Demand!

My biggest accomplishment and activity was reading, so I'll share my list with you, just in case you are going on vacation or a long flight or just have some time for yourself. I usually read 50-100 books per year, more when I'm nursing a baby and am physically attached to a baby 8-12 hours per day!

In reverse order:

Hunger Games Trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Real Food for Mother and Baby, by Nina Planck
The Husband's Secret, by Liane Moriarty
The Divergent Trilogy, by Veronica Roth
One Perfect Rose, by Mary Jo Putney
Sleepless Nights, by Sarah Bilston
Bed Rest, by Sarah Bilston
The Trouble with Virtue, by Stephanie Laurens
Everything is Perfect When You are a Liar, by Kelly Oxford
Melting Ice, by Stephanie Laurens
And Then She Fell, by Stephanie Laurens
The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh,
I Shouldn't be Telling you This, by Kate White
The Peculiar Case of Lord Finsbury's Diamonds, by Stephanie Laurens
All Through the Night, by Connie Brockway
Getting to 50/50
This is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper
Dad is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan
French Women Don't Gt Fat, by Mireille Guiliano
The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
French Kids Eat Everything, by Karen Le Billon
Spelling it Like it is, by Tori Spelling
Happier at Home, by Gretchen Rubin
Flawless, by Tilly Bagshawe
The Devil Wears Kilts, by Suzanne Enoch
No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, by Sarah MacLean

So 26 books in 6 weeks, not too shabby. Although technically it was 30 books in 6 weeks since I read 2 trilogies, you know, just to be accurate:)

2 Distopian Trilogies
9 Regency-era romance novels
6 Novels
9 non-fiction books (although 2 of them were trashy memoirs)

Anything else I should put on my list? I'm looking forward to going to the grocery store again. I've been making the list, but it's just not the same as wandering the aisles. Oh, and I can't wait to go to Target!

Jessica

Nursery Plans for Baby Boy #2

So far all we've done is move our daughter out, take away the pink things, and bring in the blue.

Before, the nursery was all pink and aqua, and I'm hoping that with the addition of navy, green and maybe a hit of orange these walls (Benjamin Moore Barely Teal) will transition to "boy"



We have some things in duplicate (2 sets of crib bedding, changing pad covers, clothing, 2 car seat covers, one pink, one red), and others just in pink from the first go-round. So for those, we just throw a blue blanket on top and call it a day. See the blue blanket over the Maclaren rocker next to the rocker? That's our solution:)



It's very much a work in progress, but hopefully the room will be ready before the baby arrives!

Jessica

Adding another bathroom to our house

Because once we finish a project we get antsy for more...




And the vacation house is done...


And we've moved our daughter into the guest bedroom, so we needed somewhere for guests (read my mother in law) to sleep.

We are adding a bathroom to our downstairs gym/basement along with a murphy bed (or wall bed depending on where in the country you come from).

We are still deep in the construction process, but I have to admit to loving the smell of drywall mud and the sound of hammering, so comforting to me!

We purchased everything we needed ahead of time (always a good plan), so we have the vanity, tile, sconces, bathtub, plumbing fixtures, toilet, mirror... Oh, this is the "before".

Jessica

Ikea Bathroom and a Nursery-Closet-Office - Modern Vacation House

I now present you with the kid's bathroom!

Super cute, small and functional. The red vanity is from Ikea, and the kids chose the colors, red, orange and pink, so I indulged them with the shower curtains and towels from Target. Sconces from West Elm, and stools under the cabinet from Ikea.

And now for where the little one sleeps when we are away.

So far no one has told her that her "room" is just about half hte size of our closet, and was supposed to be my husband's office nook, hence the built in desk.



It's sized perfectly for the crib, has cute knobs on the closet doors, and art is coming soon. Considering our son spent the first 2 years of his life in an actual closet, this is pretty much out family's MO, anythign to keep kids sleeping, which for us means separate rooms. And it does have a window and a door!

There she is petting the giant Bison head in our living room. Jus tin case that looked like a bear wandered in!

Jessica

Big Girl Bedroom, and now it begins...

Our 2 year old is big enough to transfer to our old guest room.




Clearly she's the third child since the only picture I have of her in 2014 is this one while she and her brother are each watching shows in their Kindle Fires before preschool. #lowerexpectations

Thankfully when I added the pink and white polka dot wall treatment 2 years ago I knew that eventually the little one would move in. The side table will be moved into my 6 year old's room to make way for a dresser.

Adding the pink and green chevron fabric to the bottom of the curtain panels was on the "to do" list all those years ago as well, but I just let it slide until now. I took the curtains (8 years old from Restoration Hardware) to a local dry cleaner along with fabric I bought on Etsy and voila!

I bought a new rocker from Land of Nod, which I'm hoping will be flanked by a little bookcase, a side table, and maybe a hot pink pouf.

Here's a quick "that it looked like before" reminder...

Another update soon!

Jessica