Lil’ Baby Shaw (AKA, The Peach) Journal – Entry 2

Week 12 – March 26th – First Trimester

Wow. I’m getting pretty excited! Today (3/26) I’m officially 12 weeks! I have 3 different pregnancy apps that are all telling me I’m the sizes of different fruits, lol!  But Large Plum, Apricot or Lime, it’s all exciting because I’m officially 12 weeks today!!

My stomach is definitely feeling more firm in places and it is poking out a bit, that’s for sure. Haven’t taken an official “Bumpie” yet, I’ll have to do that here soon!  I JUST bought a new pregnancy pillow on Amazon and I am so so so excited! Even at 12 weeks I’ve been starting to have stiffness and some back pain when I wake up, but this pillow is supposed to really help. It’s set to deliver Monday… So come on Monday, come on Monday!!!

Still no crazy symptoms, have had some heartburn action this week, but other than that and being so tired I can hardly stand it, I’m doing good! Hoping it stays this easy through the rest of the pregnancy!  28 Weeks left! Signing off for today!

️ 

Lil’ Baby Shaw (AKA, The Peach) Journal – Entry 1

First of all… Holy Cow, I’m pregnant!!!

Secondly, I’ve been wanting to use my blog as a place to journal and share my pregnancy experiences – but I’ve only made it to journal-ling on my iPhone so far.  SO, Now I have the task of updating my blog with all the journal entries I have made up to this point 🙂  I would love for you to follow along on this journey with me and any tips or advice you have is welcome with open arms!

---

Lil’ Baby Shaw (AKA, The Peach) Journal – Entry 1

Week 9 – March 9th – First Trimester

“I FOUND OUT I’M PREGNANT TODAY. WHAT?!? This is crazy!!!!!”

Yes, above was the only journal entry I made on the first day, so let me now elaborate! When I say we had no idea… I mean, literally, we had no idea, LOL.  We weren’t trying to get pregnant at all, but as my husband says, he’s part of that 1%…  he has some “strong swimmers” if you know what I mean 🙂   I had none of the classic pregnancy symptoms – no morning sickness, no sore or tender breasts… and I’ve always kind of had irregular monthly cycles, so it didn’t shock me when I missed the first month.  I had an appointment already scheduled for an annual physical exam with my doctor the next month and by then, I should have already started my monthly cycle for that month, but hadn’t.  So when I went in for that appt., I talked to my doctor about it and she said, we might as well just go ahead and test you to see if your pregnant… we’re already drawing your blood anyways and that way you’ll know!  At this point you would think I would have ran out and taken a pregnancy test, but I was so convinced I wasn’t pregnant, I just waited several days for the test result to come back and actually had forgotten about the whole thing over the weekend.

Monday (3/9/15) rolls around and the doctor’s office calls and I remember, “Oh ya, they have my test results… OH MAN, THEY HAVE MY TEST RESULTS.”  All of the sudden I got super nervous.  I picked up the phone and spoke with the nurse, who had seemingly forgotten why she was calling me (she was a TOTAL ditz, very nice, but very ditzy), so I reminded her… “You were calling me to give me my pregnancy test results”… pause… flips through papers… pauses again… nurse finally says, “Oh ya, you’re totally pregnant!!”, my next words were, “Are you sure?!” and yes, she was sure.  However, I still didn’t believe her, so I did the classic run to Target, buy an at home test and take it in the women’s bathroom there at Target.  Right away those double pink lines  showed up and I then knew I could believe the ditzy nurse – I was pregnant!  On my way back to work, I called the hubs and delivered the news – we were both in shock for a few days, that’s for sure!  But are so excited for this adventure and all that’s to come!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

I took this picture last weekend in Boston, at the Boston Harbor while I was visiting my best friend that moved there about 18 months ago.

Some days it’s really hard to “look up”.  Some days you just feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.  Some days, you just want to throw your hands up in the air and say, ‘I don’t care!’ and quit.  Personally, I have been going through this lately… Life is a tough thing to balance (can I get an AMEN?)!  There is a lot going on in the Shaw household right now :

We are in the midst of trying to find the perfect home for us and let me tell you, it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. We also will need to find renters for our current house, once we find that ‘perfect home’ and decide to purchase it. On top of that, my husband and I have completely opposite work schedules, so being able to go look at homes, or even spend a moment of time together is also a huge challenge. At work, I am busier than ever and although that is a GOOD thing (I am definitely thankful for my job!), it is adding to the stress & pressure of everything going on.  And on top of all of this, I have let my workouts and healthy eating fall way down on the priority list, to where I feel like, in a way, I’m starting all over.  I could list off more things going on, but I think y’all get the idea… I feel so busy, stressed and just plain overwhelmed.

However, there is a bright side… there is that silver lining… because the great thing about all of this is that it’s just a season and every single day is a NEW day!  I love the quote by T.D. Jakes – “a setback is a setup for a comeback”.

I constantly have to remind myself that even if I failed in one area of my life yesterday, I get to wake up the next day and start over. And even if that same day I don’t get it right & I mess up, the important thing is to just keep swimming. To continue to do my best and let God do the rest.  To consciously wake up every morning, pray and give all of these situations to God and let him be in control! I think sometimes we can over dramatize our life and think ‘Seriously God?? How am I ever going to make it through this?’ but the reality is that God will never give us more than we can handle.  AND He knows that what we’re going through is only going to make us stronger! God is Faithful & in Romans 8:28 we are reminded that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.  It also goes on in that chapter to say that we are More Than Conquerors – if God is for us, who can be against us! I wanted to be really transparent with this blog post, in hopes that maybe this will help someone else who might be feeling the same way. He has never left me, never forgotten about me and always loves me.  He is my strength when I feel like I can’t go on and I am so thankful that I can lean on Him and as I do, He reminds me to look up, have faith and just keep swimming.

Workout Playlist: Some of the Best Tunes to get moving to!

Do you like really awesome, high energy and fast paced music to workout to?  Me too!

I am a HUGE music person.  Not that a lot of people aren’t… but I love love love making playlists.  I have a playlist for my every mood, specific genre’s, Bridal Showers/Weddings/Baby Showers and just about every Season and Holiday there is.  Just ask my friends, they have me make playlists for every event!  I have shared some of these playlists publicly and its all via my new favorite music app Spotify.  Spotify is totally free and amazing.  I have given more information about Spotify at the end of this post 🙂

The playlist I wanted to feature today and talk about is my “Workout!” playlist with 104 Songs & 6 hours, 35 minutes of Music.  I gotta be really honest, if I didn’t have good music to listen to (aka, this workout playlist), I wouldn’t workout.  Like, seriously, I wouldn’t.  So I’m really hoping to inspire someone to get moving by following my playlist and then you will have the perfect tunes to move to!

To give you an idea, here are some of my favorite songs on the playlist:

• Burn – Ellie Goulding
• Wake – Hillsong Young & Free
• The Spark – Afrojack, Spree Wilson
• Ain’t It Fun – Paramore
• Next To Me – Emeli Sande
• Runaway Baby – Bruno Mars
• Roar – Katy Perry
• A Sky full of Stars – Coldplay
• DONE. – The Band Perry
• Shake It Out – Florence + The Machine
• White Nights – Oh Land
• Relentless – Young & Free Remix – Hillsong United

Spotify Info!

To get started, just download Spotify to your computer and download the Spotify app to your iPhone/iPad…etc. You can follow people’s playlists, browse tons of music and create your own little music world within your profile.  Here’s a little blip from Spotify’s website: “Spotify gives you millions of songs at your fingertips. The artists you love, the latest hits, and new discoveries just for you. Hit play to stream anything you like.”  Look me up (Savannah Shaw) once you are on there and follow some of my playlists (which I do continually update)!

Help me add great Workout music to my Playlist!  What are some of your favorite songs to workout to?  I would love your feedback

Savi’s Green Thumb

Ok, I guess I wouldn’t say I actually have a Green Thumb considering I’ve only ever plant 1 flower pot a year.  BUT STILL, I’m just proud of myself that I can find some time to do that and I really do enjoy it!  Here are the photos of this Saturday… and part of Sunday project 🙂

Here are the Flowers I hand picked and purchased at McLendon’s for this project!

The Pot right after I arranged my flowers

Here is the PROOF that I picked, purchased and planted these flowers… notice the dirt on the gloves 🙂

The Finished Product!!! I love all of the colors, it’s just beautiful!

Lastly I’ll end with this quote that I really like…

“Flower’s are like Friends… they bring COLOR to your World!”  – Unknown

I hope you get the chance to plant some flowers this Spring and enjoy doing it as much as I did 🙂

~Savi

Healthy Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe that is actually… Delicious!

I promise, these look as good as they taste! Ooey, Gooey and Delicious!

So… I am usually a skeptic of weird cookie or dessert recipe’s because let me tell ya, I LOVE my sweets!

However, I have been working towards cutting out white/processed sugars and sticking to only all Natural Sugars and it has been a little tough.  BUT with these cookies now in my Recipe Box I feel I have found a really good substitute for a YUMMMMY dessert that is healthy AND it really easy to make!  And added bonus is that these cookies are also gluten free 🙂

Photos and the link to the recipe are below!  I hope you try them yourself – let me know how you like them!

I used my Food Processor to make the dough, then transferred to a separate bowl to add the Dark Chocolate Chips.

Close Up of the Dough with the Dark Chocolate Chips.

Then you take the dough and roll them into small rounds and place on cookie sheet with Parchment Paper (this is much easier to do if your hands are wet… keep water nearby!)

And Voila! Here is the finished product along with the Chalkboard artwork I did last week! “People who love to eat are the best people!” – Julie Child

 

Try the recipe out for yourself and let me know how you like it!

Recipe: http://www.teacher-chef.com/2013/11/13/chocolate-peanut-butter-cookies-gluten-free/

Why Getting Paid by Your Church Doesn’t Make Serving Easier

Why Getting Paid by Your Church Doesn’t Make Serving Easier.

Is there more?

Love this post from my friends Blog! Please check it out!

Is there more?.

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

One of my Favorite days throughout the Year is the day that my Family goes to the Pumpkin Patch!   Instead of explaining what we did, I’m going to show you!

The first thing you want to do is go see all of the cute Animals!  This Baby Pygmy Goat was ADORABLE.

After the Animals, it’s time for the all so daunting CORN MAZE!

Annnnnd… as usual, we got lost.

But we always find our way out and take fun family pictures on the Bridge that overlooks the whole Maze!

As you will see below, it was a SUPER fun day!

After the Pumpkin Patch, we always go to Starbucks and get their amazingly delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte’s!  The Last thing we did that night was Carve the Pumpkins we got that day!  Mine is the one on the bottom left – The Witch!

What’s your Favorite Fall Tradition with your family?  I’d love to hear from you ~ Thank you for reading this post!

Love, Savi

Crazy About Crew Neck Sweaters!

I am so excited to go buy some of these Crew Neck Sweaters!

Here are some of my top picks for Graphic Women’s Crew Neck Sweaters for Fall all under $50!

1. “Fox” – Sweater from Old Navy
2. “Standout Spiked Sweater” – with Tiger from Forever21
3. “Standout Bejeweled Pullover” – Sweater from Forever21
4. “Eversoft Dot Pullover” – Sweater from Gap
5. “Faux Leather Tiger Sweater” – from Nordstoms B.P.
6. “Volcom Badtoda Stone Sweater” – from PacSun
7. “Mix-Print Pullover” Sweater From Gap
8. “Eversoft Dot Pullover” – Tan & Mint Sweater from Gap
9. “Easy Rider Sweater” – From Forever21
10. “Coincidence & Chance Foxy Geek Sweater” – From Urban Outfitters

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed creating it!

Love, Savi