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Friday Favorites & A Giveaway – June 16th, 2017

Happy Friday! Today is supposed to be my last day of work before beginning maternity leave but if Baby Girl Diamond decides to take her time, I’ll be working and blogging next week until her arrival. I have a few more posts that I am working on unrelated to the baby such as my Savannah and Brooklyn recommendations and a virtual coffee date where I share some of the things on my mind as well as some of our plans post baby. Until then, I’m trying to stay busy with work, some last minute errands, and workouts. I am skipping today’s Orangetheory workout since it is a very fast-paced tornado workout and opting for prenatal pilates and swimming instead.

We may get to participate in our first neighborhood block party as tomorrow our street is being transformed into a block party complete with bounce houses, face painting and more! A popular Brooklyn tradition, we are looking forward to meeting more of our neighbors if Baby Girl Diamond is still nice and cozy. Otherwise, the weekend should be pretty relaxed as things are growing pretty uncomfortable these days. Since there is very little space left for her I have a dull, constant pain in the back of my right ribs and am having a hard time sitting in chairs.

Now, let’s dive into this week’s edition of Friday Favorites, including recipes, articles, posts and other things that caught my eye this week as well as a GIVEAWAY!

Books

  • I loved Slightly South of Simple and finished it within 24-hours this week. If you’re looking for a fun, Southern read this is a great option. Now, I just hope that she releases the next books in the series sooner versus later.

Food

  • After seeing many friends and fellow bloggers rave about Banza pasta, I picked some up at Whole Foods last week. This will definitely be a staple in our house moving forward as Bo and I were both very impressed with the flavor and consistency of the Banza Rotini chickpea pasta. The nutritional stats are pretty impressive as one serving includes 14 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber!
  • We paired the pasta with our favorite, store-bought pasta sauce – Rao’s Garden Vegetable Sauce. I love that this chunky sauce has actual chunks of mushrooms, peppers, and onions and only has 3 grams of sugar which is far less than other store-bought sauces.
  • If you love potato salad, this Serious Eats German Potato Salad recipe was easy to make, delicious and kept perfectly as leftovers!
  • If you are like me and love creamy popsicles versus icy, fruit ones then these Whole Foods 365 Everyday Organic Greek Yogurt Strawberry Dessert Bars are a perfect freezer staple. Now, if only they had more flavors than just blueberry and strawberry.

Beauty & Fashion

  • A few weeks ago my friends at Brooks sent me the new Women’s Glycerin 15 to enjoy in my new, pregnancy shoe size 11. While I typically don’t run in the Glycerin, these have felt like walking on clouds during the past few weeks of workouts, errands, and walks.  The super soft cushioning has provided my sore, swollen feet with some much-needed support and cushioning while the air mesh and stretchy fabric kept my feet comfortable during this week’s heat wave.
  • I know that elastic will be my best friend this Summer so what better time to invest in Lilly Pulitzer’s Kat Shorts? I ordered two pairs of these this week and can’t wait to wear them all Summer long!
  • Because I’m nothing if not reliable, I couldn’t order just one thing from Lilly Pulitzer so I may have added the Essie Top in my cart at the same time. The fun colors and forgiving fit will bring some life to this exhausted momma.
  • I can rarely find Jack Rogers on sale in colors that I love but this metallic pair are 33% off and gorgeous!

Pregnancy

  • As you guys know, I’m having a pretty horrible time with melasma aka pregnancy mask. My favorite foundation no longer matches my skin tone and while I hate to spend money on buying a new foundation, I think I may have to go to Sephora this afternoon. This round-up features the best foundations for melasma, many of which are paraben free and have SPF!
  • If you’re pregnant and still finalizing your registry, a number of friends recommended the Skip Hop Grab & Go Stroller Organizer. We were debating between a number of them including the one that is made by our stroller company but in the end, we figure if more than 50 friends and local moms recommend this one it will definitely work.
  • Experiencing pregnancy pains? Find it impossible to get comfortable in a regular chair? A local mom gave me her large, exercise ball today and it has provided INSTANT relief for my rib cage pain and pelvic discomfort. Why didn’t I get one weeks ago?

GIVEAWAY ENDED — WINNER IS bexpenn@gmail.com. Congratulations! 

 

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored and instead is a list of the things of my favorite things this week. As normal, it includes lots of beauty and fashion items which means there are a few affiliate links via ShopStyle. It takes time and money to maintain a blog so I thank you for the support and few cents that come from clicking through the links!

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Four Tips To Work More Effectively

four tips to work more effectively

A few readers have emailed me asking for tips on working from home. As many of you all know, since moving back to New York in July 2015, I work from home 80% of the time. I’m lucky that my company has a terrific office in a WeWork space near Union Square, but I tend to only work there once a week. Due to pregnancy discomfort, last week was the first time in ages that I’ve worked from home every day. Even though I had two very urgent work projects I needed to complete, I had a hard time focusing. Between Baby Girl Diamond’s upcoming arrival and the nesting instinct, my mind was racing constantly.

I leveraged these four steps to help work more effectively last week, even when I had a number of distractions. In no time I was able to make my way through my to-do list and immediately felt a weight lift off my chest. They can be used together or alone but I found that when used together, I was able to power through my to-do list and work far more efficiently. Whether you work from home or in an office, hopefully, you’ll find at least a few of these tips helpful and applicable.

TURN ON A TIMER

If I know I have a time limit, I find that I work more effectively during that time period. Last week I set a time for 60 minutes and focused on my primary task during that time. After each 60 minute block, I allowed myself a few minutes to check email, go to the bathroom or stretch. Some people prefer the Pomodoro Technique, which is a technique that trains your brain to focus by breaking the work into short, timed 25- minute intervals.  While this may work for certain projects, for the task I was working on last week, I found longer intervals to be more effective. I set my iPhone timer to 60 minutes and then, turned it over and worked until the buzzer rang.

GET RID OF EXCUSES

Before setting your timer, make sure to get rid of any excuses to take a break. If you’re like me, when I’m distracted I can easily find 10 other things that need to be done instead of the task at hand. Before setting my timer I refilled my water, grabbed a quick snack, and went to the bathroom.

CREATE A CALM SPACE

This can be easier said than done, especially if you work in an office setting, but try to bring some calm energy to your work environment. I opened my shades to allow natural light to shine through the windows, lit my favorite candle and turned on a chill playlist on Spotify. If you work in an office, bring calm to your work environment could mean putting on noise canceling headphones, taking a few deep breaths or even doing a few minutes of guided meditation before diving into the project.

TURN OFF DISTRACTIONS

Our computers and phones are wonderful tools but they can also be very distracting. Whether it’s the Outlook pop-up window that shows you when you get new mail, a gChat ping from a friend or an internal messaging system that allows co-workers to ping you throughout the day all of these can be very distracting when you’re trying to focus. Before starting my timer, I closed out of Google Chat, Microsoft Lync, and Microsoft Office so I wouldn’t be distracted by incoming messages or pings from co-workers or friends. Next, after setting my 60-minute alarm on my iPhone, I actually put my cell phone in my desk drawer. I personally found this tip to be so effective that I’ve found myself turning off my distractions for at least a few hours each day this week.

I would love to hear your tips for working more effectively, especially if you work from home like me.

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Baby Diamond–Week 38

39 weeks

Happy Tuesday! It’s another warm one here in Brooklyn with temperatures forecasted to reach the high 90’s. The extreme heat means that I’m staying inside as much as possible and very thankful that my desk is right in front of our window air conditioner unit. I’m taking the advice of my friends, family and doctor this week and doing my best to stay busy in order to keep from counting down the minutes until Baby Girl Diamond decides to grace us with her presence. I know that the average first child comes at 41 weeks and 1 day which means that at 39 weeks and 2 days, I could very well be pregnant for another two weeks.  Today I’m staying busy by finishing a few more work projects, blogging, cleaning, reading, pampering myself with a pedicure and enjoying an evening swim date at the YMCA with Bo.

Let’s dive into the latest and greatest details of this pregnancy, focused on how I felt last week, June 4th through June 10th during Week 38 of pregnancy.

Baby Size: As of Week 38 Baby Girl has plumped up and is around 7 pounds and over 19 1/2 inches long. Her organs have matured and she is ready for life outside the womb. She is extremely active, still moving frequently and loves kicking me on the right side.

Weight Gained: As of last week’s 38 week doctor appointment, I have gained 32 pounds, some of which could be water weight due to the extreme Summer heat.

Symptoms:  Last week I continued to grow and truly had to waddle anywhere I went, unable to avoid turning my legs out due to the growing, dropping baby. I started to have some minor back pain behind my right ribs but luckily Epsom Salt baths and showers helped relieve some of the pain. In addition, to continuing the symptoms from previous weeks, my blood pressure had significantly increased when I was at my 38 week appointment last Tuesday. This led to an unexpected NYU test run as my doctor wanted to rule out any issues such as pre-eclampsia and sent me to the hospital to be observed for four hours.

Workouts: My doctor continues to reinforce the benefits of staying active, as long as the activities are workouts that I’ve done throughout pregnancy and are indoors with sufficient air conditioner and fans. Based on this, last week I did one prenatal yoga class, one prenatal pilates class at Aline Pilates and four Orangetheory workouts. Based on how I was feeling, I opted to bike instead of incline walk during three of the Orangetheory workouts. In addition to workouts, I’ve started doing a few different prenatal stretching workouts that are supposed to help reduce swelling and provide comfort before bed time.

Cravings: I craved meat, smoothies, ice cream or sorbet and cold, fresh fruit last way in a major way. In fact, when I went to Whole Foods on Friday my cart was filled with so many cherries, pineapples, strawberries and mangos that the staff never thought we’d eat it all before it went bad. Little did they know that within five days it was all devoured! I really wish I liked watermelon as the fresh watermelon I bought for Bo actually looked quite delicious but after one bite I was quickly reminded just how much I despise that popular, hydrating fruit. The most random craving was an urgent need for angel food cake and berries on Friday night. Luckily, the Whole Foods angel food cake delivered on my dreams especially when topped with a single scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and berries.

Food Aversions: As I stare at my morning cup of coffee which remains half full, this seems to be my only aversion. The only way I can finish my coffee is if I have iced coffee.

Sleep: Last week was tough as I started waking up at least four times during the night to use the bathroom. One night it took me more than an hour to go back to sleep which was beyond frustrating. I also find that each night a different pillow configuration provides comfort than the night before. Some nighs I only use the Snoogle while others I find comfort surrounded by five or six different pillows. I am large enough at this point that I HAVE to have support under my stomach when lying on my side or I feel a painful pull.

Wearing: Last week I think I wore and washed my black dress four days. Otherwise, I rotated through the same clothes and shoes as last week.

Other Random Thoughts: While the first 37 weeks of pregnancy FLEW by I felt like time came to a halt last week. There were a few days where I caught myself wondering if she’d ever arrive but after some frustration and realization that it could be WEEKS not DAYS until she arrives I changed my thinking and realize that the most important thing is that she and I are both happy and healthy. If she wants more time to incubate, then I am happy to meet her when she is ready. So while I’m avoiding subways and staying in the neighborhood, I’m filling my days with things that bring me joy such as reading, time with friends, cooking, working out and relaxing when I’m not working. This change in perspective has helped so much, especially as I start to received daily emails and texts from friends, family and readers asking whether Baby Girl Diamond has arrived.

Want more frequent updates? Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Insta Stories for daily updates!

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