Life Lately

Some highlights (and lowlights) of the past few weeks:

1. We passed our foster care home study! We have a few more paperwork items to turn in and a few more classes to take, but we passed all the interview portions and the safety audit! We should be certified foster parents by September. That makes this process about a year long…not bad, considering we have also gone through the process of growing a biological child!

2. We are looking forward to a packed month of June, and a laid-back month of July! We will be traveling the next 3 weekends of June….and boy are we looking forward to it! We will basically be having family reunions with the Hines side and the DeValve side, but the most important part is the weddings that we will be attending for both sides of the family. We are so excited! Theo and I are also planning a little get-away for our anniversary/babymoon in between the two weddings.

The past three weeks have been packed, but we have thoroughly enjoyed them, and are looking forward to the weeks to come as well!

We have attended weddings…

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My students graduated from Kindergarten, and I had to say goodbye to all their precious faces, as well as several of my co-workers

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The cats keep us entertained…this is BB sleeping in the boppy pillow. He thought it was perfect for him!

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…and we sorta got a new kitten. Theo found her in a dumpster, and I wouldn’t even let him bring her home until I found someone that would take her. So I found someone and he brought her home. Then, she escaped into the woods so I had to tell the person that we lost her. Then, of course…we found her and I told the person that we found her. Then we lost her again, and I think the person gave up on me. Sooooo then the cat has decided she is staying. We decided she can stay…outdoors. She mostly dissapears for a few days and then appears at one of the windows howling we like we abandoned her.

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Since I finished work, I have been trying to be useful with my time around the house. I learned how to mow the lawn….  (and, in my personal opinion…these lawn pictures make me look huge. Never wearing that shirt again, lol!)

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We finally painted the dresser in baby girl’s room…

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Now I can truly ‘nest’ and put away all the clothes I’ve already collected!

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I’ve been trying to maintain my protein intake, as well as maintain a healthy diet. During pregnancy, I should be getting 75-100g of protein a day. Basically, I have to eat something protein packed at every meal and every snack. Anyone have any great ideas? I usually have two eggs for breakfast, eat something with a bunch of peanut butter, have greek yogurt for a snack, and try to get my main meat at dinner. But I’m still only getting about 80g a day (which is good enough…but like I said, that is with the MAXIMUM effort).

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I volunteered to cut out box tops for my school. Did you know that box tops need to be cut out along the dotted lines? Oh, yes…they do. I’ve probably cut a couple thousand of these…and I have a couple thousand to go. I don’t mind, though..I just do it when we are watching a show.

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We also had a lovely memorial tree planting for our late Pastor, Rick Wilson. A sister church purchased a tree in memory of him, and some men in our church created a small garden area to plant the tree in. It was a beautiful memorial, and a touching time of fellowship and service. There were not many dry eyes in the crowd as we all remember the truly eternal impact that Pastor Rick had on each and every life in the congregation, even those who were not attending the church a year ago when he passed. It has been amazing to see his impact and his legacy continue on.

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I guess that’s all for now!

8 comments

  1. Anne Jisca says:

    I don’t know if you like cottage cheese, but it’s a good form of protein. Adding it to a smoothly makes the smoothie super creamy and you’d never know it’s in there. 🙂 or protein packed pancakes: 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup eggs (7 whole), 2 tsp baking powder, and some sweetener. Really yummy and packed with protein!

    • sdevalve@cedarville.edu says:

      Oh, thanks for the recipe and tips! Those both sound good to me…I hadn’t realized there was so much protein in cottage cheese!

  2. anna says:

    It was a chore for me to try to get enough protein when I was pregnant. One thing that helped me was drinking a lot of milk every day. I tend to want it when I’m pregnant anyway. I found it to be a perfect middle of the night snack because it’s filling and very quick. I also would do tuna or egg salad sandwiches with homemade bread. None of those might be helpful suggestions though, because you probably either don’t like them or are already consuming them. You could make protein balls with nuts and oat and fruit and things.

    • sdevalve@cedarville.edu says:

      Now, this is going to sound weird…but I think that milk gives me heartburn..? I was told that it is because it is so un-acidic that my stomach produces so much more acid in order to digest it? Anyways, I’ve been trying to drink a cup of milk a day, but I don’t enjoy it. I try to pour a little extra in my cereal, though!
      Homemade bread…check! Tuna..oooh, I’ll have to have some tuna sandwhiches soon! I actually love them but just hadn’t thought about them in a long time! Thanks for the suggestion!

  3. Nancy says:

    Lots of beans….things like hummus will increase your protein. Like Anna above said, milk. I know you’re not a big milk drinker but you need the calcium, too, so it’s a good way to get both calcium and protein. Snacking on nuts is another way to get protein. I know you like pistachios. And you don’t look fat!!! Just pregnant, but cute pregnant, not bloated pregnant.

    • sdevalve@cedarville.edu says:

      Ha, yeah…I’m not a big fan of the milk, but I try to get enough each day. I love my pistachios and do try to eat nuts, but the pistachios are so expense! =( I do really good with peanut butter, because I can grab a huge spoonful and eat it real quick and then I just got TONS of protein.
      Theo says I’m cute pregnant, too. But I don’t know if I can believe my Mom and my husband…you two will think I’m cute no matter what! =)

  4. Aunt Natalie says:

    Don’t worry too much about the protein…Just eat an overall balanced diet and you and the baby will be healthy. I think this new recommendation of amount of protein is way over the top!! Don’t forget that your greens contain protein! Spinach has lots of protein. Kale has lots of protein.

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