what's helping me thrive during pregnancy

The weed issue has grown to an all time high in the garden. Literally, the weeds are ridiculously high. We’ve been blessed with a ton of rain this past week which is wonderful for the actual plants in the garden, but is also unfortunately wonderful for the weeds. Each day we’re doing our best to get up there and pull as much as we can, but man they are outrunning us! Though all that to say, we knew that this first year would be an absolute doozy for weeds and esp grass (which is indeed a major problem) since we tilled up literal grass to break ground for the garden. (watch here) Like it was inevitable for grass to grow because we essentially spread grass seed all in the dirt. But c'est la vie baby! The squash is thriving, everything is growing, I think we maybe finally hopefully figured out the deer issue (only for us to now be battling a groundhog), and I do my best to just go up there and be grateful to God that I get to spend time in the garden with my husband and daughter while we try out hardest to grow our own food. My final note, we also knew that this year would be a learning curve for us because in the past we have only grown in raised garden beds. At our old house we ended up with seven total garden beds and some berry bushes around the back yard, but a 60’ x 60’ plot with 16 rows, fruit trees up on the hill, and berry bushes around the perimeter is a whole other beast.

1. I have purchased some ~props~ that aren’t really props at all, but let’s just say “props”, for my gender reveal video. I plan on filming a little video and sharing the news with you all once those couple items arrive.

2. My Braxton hicks are still annoying, but I’m just getting farther in my pregnancy so they’re feeling less concerning. Plus, I’m trying to be even more mindful of hydration which is helping a lot.

3. I have my glucose test this week! I plan on filming a WIA that day to show some insight into how I “prep” for it. And spoiler alert, I’m just doing the glucose drink they provide. I did that with Celia and I also wasn’t concerned. Yes, the drink has disgusting ingredients like high fructose corn syrup which I would never chose to consume, but in my personal opinion, drinking that sort of stuff once during my entire pregnancy isn’t that big of an issue. I strive to eat clean 99% of the time so one little drink isn’t going to stress me out. Plus, the idea of calling my doctor to see if they will take the fresh test or something else and sourcing that and planning it yada yada yada just sounds like too much for me rn - even though yes, I realize it’s not “that hard”.

4. Daniel and I decided to give a specific local church another try. If you’ve been following closely, this is a church that we have tried over and over and over and never felt like it was a perfect fit, but at this point we’re just not going to church and that’s not something I particularly want for my family so I think I would rather a church not be a perfect fit than not go at all. We plan on going next Sunday.

📚 WHAT TO READ: Tonight I plan on starting the book The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson. This once again will be a joint “book-club” read with me and my sister, so feel free to join if you’re interested!
“The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson is a witty, drama-fueled novel about a young New York writer who moves to a seaside town in Massachusetts. She falls for a local man, disrupting his tight-knit childhood friend group and forcing the group to face the messy realities of adulting and long-held secrets.” - Google AI lol

📺 WHAT TO WATCH: Daniel recently found the Youtube creator Xander Budnick and we’ve been watching some of his videos. Think Outdoor Boys meets Alone. It’s really relaxing and has been nice in the evenings after Celia goes to bed while we just want to causally watch something while we fold laundry. Side note, how funny it is to be a parent and the thing you look forward to at the end of the day is sitting on the couch folding laundry.

Also, we along with probably most other people, are watching the new season of House of Dragons. It’s heavy and stressful, but it’s phenomenal.

🎧 WHAT TO LISTEN TO:

1. Defender by Abby Gamboa: Our old church often played Defender during worship so listening to this really brings me back to those moments. I’ve been belting this while I pull weeds lately. Hallelujah!

2. The Problem with Hydroxyapatite Toothpaste | Zebra’s Jenn Thatcher by Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark: I am already such a fan of Zebra so it was really cool listening to how the company started, the intention behind the ingredients, and how Jenn really prioritizes following God’s plan for how we should care for our bodies.
   (Don’t forget I have a 10% off code for Zebra - code TESSA)

3. Lip Service: The Dirty Secret Behind Celebrity Beauty Brands | Laura DiGirolamo, ESQ by Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark: Sorry guys, I listen to a lot of Culture Apothecary. I need to start switching that up. But! This episode was fantastic and really made me start looking at my ~clean~ lip products differently.

I’m 26 weeks pregnant and therefore in my final week of my second trimester. So it feels like the perfect time to share some of the things that have helped me so far through each trimester.

During the first trimester I was able to distinguish each week and really provide you with a week by week update/recount of what was going on. I wrote that in a substack which I’ll link below. Spoiler alert, I didn’t do that during the second trimester. Also, I filmed a YouTube video overviewing the things that helped me in the first trimester last pregnancy - you can watch that here.