Sorry folks, Monday and Tuesday this week really got away from me. I’ve been doing a lot of nursery and baby preparing type stuff. Just to insure this doesn’t happen next week, this is a 2-week link up!!

Share the projects you been working on!! This will stay live until June 3rd!

Love reading everyone’s posts. So inspiring! Please:

*Link to a specific post (no giveaways)
*Post my button (found on the footer) on your blog
OR a text link on the post to be featured!)
*Visit & comment on at least TWO other links posted
*Come back to see if you’ve been featured or pinned!

Please ‘like’ my facebook page!
Follow me on Google +!

I make it my priority to follow everyone’s blog by the second time they link up. I also pin your projects on my Favorite’s Board.

My Take it on Tuesday Project: Nursery Prep

Really this is an all week project. I’ve washed all of Baby Girl’s clothes, sorted the nursery YET AGAIN, added touches of ribbon to a lamp, and created a headband board. My husband has been spray painting frames we will hang. AND we found a great deal on Craigslist for a second car seat base we have been needing!! Here is a sneak peak of the nursery – more to come later this week! (Full nursery reveal might be around the first week of June.)

TIOT Features!

#1. Easy way to Refresh Sidebar Content from Mums Make Lists

#2. Plastic Lid Stamps from Crafty Journal

#3. Hossier Potting Bench from Penny’s Treasures

#4. Nursery Makeover from Mommy-in-Training

#5. Master Bedroom Sneak Peak from Callie’s Crafts

#6. Dry Erase Board Desks for Less from If it’s Not Baroque

#7. Half Pallet Herb Garden from Eyes on the Source

If you’ve been featured today, or in the past, please grab a feature button from the footer!

What projects have you been working on?

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Take it on Tuesday (TIOT) blog hop #79 appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

How I feel

I’m still enjoying the nesting phase! We’ve been crossing more off our to-do list: spray painting the frames we are going to hang in the nursery, and getting all of our “to donate” piles to the car. This weekend we will try to pack the baby and momma bags for the birth center.

Most of the time I feel great, but this week on Monday evening I had a really rough night. I was up all night, going to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so. I called my midwife, my husband ran to Walgreens for some medication, and then I was finally able to sleep from 6am-11am. It took that Tuesday for my body to recover, but amazingly enough on Wednesday I felt normal again (well, pregnant normal)!

Stats

Total weight gain/loss? Didn’t gain anything this week, so overall now I’ve gained 23 pounds. When I was measured at my appointment this week I was 35 cm – so even though I haven’t gained weight the past two weeks, my belly is still growing!!

Movement – Yes, she continues to move a lot! Mostly I’m seeing belly rolls when she is moving her feet and butt and occasionally I can feel fluttering of her hands. It’s so funny to see the outline of her back and butt whenever I have a Braxton Hicks contraction (I am having those daily, but not too often or regularly).

Ring on or off? – My wedding ring is off. So we bought a simple sparkly band for me to wear until it will fit again! I was so missing having something on my hand!!

Hunger/Cravings – Yes, I’m craving random things as random times. Sometimes something healthy like Juice stop (which I usually give in to), sometimes something unhealthy like fries or fried food (which I usually try to ignore and not give in to).

Best moment this week?

Last weekend we had our church shower (unfortunately I don’t have any pictures). It was so much fun and we received a lot of cute girl clothes and some gift cards to spend on the things we still need! By the end of next week we plan to try to have everything we need and want purchased.

What I am looking forward to

I’m looking forward to have the nursery done and showing you pictures of it!! It will probably be the last week of May when we get it done. My husband wants us to be 100% ready for baby by May 26th. That’s our goal, but I think it might actually be closer to May 30th.

Our little “June Bug’s” Growth

We’ve been taking photos since week 6 and showing a fruit or vegetable in the picture that is the same size as our little “June Bug”. Last week: our little girl was almost 18 inches long and 4 3/4 pounds in weight (cantaloupe). This week: over 18 inches long and about 5 1/4 pounds in weight (honeydew melon) – sorry no picture yet!

Linking up at The Friday Baby Shower and My Pregnancy Journal.

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Week 35 of Pregnancy appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

Day 5: On the Fridge

This was a much simpler task I was able to accomplish this week. After clearing off all the surfaces on my kitchen, I was motivated to also clear off the fridge. It has a TON of stuff on it and usually looks messy. Like clearing off the surfaces, the challenge is to keep everything off the fridge and if after a week you still miss it, then feel free to add it back on.

I decided to take off everything except my magnetic spices and calendar. I KNOW I use those on a regular basis and like where they are placed. Here are the before and after pictures:

And view from the other side:

Next week I’ll be posting about applying the minimalist lifestyle to Time, Limiting Social Media, Routine, and Outgoing.

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Simple Living: On the fridge appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

So, you’re asking…

How do I participate? Easy!

Be a Pinterest Follower of the three hosts as well as our co-hosts!

Living on Love and Cents: Pinterest | Blog

The Taylor House: Pinterest | Blog

Sew Much Crafting: Pinterest | Blog

Bev @ Eclectic Red Barn: Pinterest | Blog

 

Betsy @ Romance on a Dime: Pinterest | Blog

 

Let’s party!! Help us spread the word by grabbing the above button and putting it on your blog! Then come back and link up your favorite projects, tips, and ideas! Also, please pin the two links before yours {and any others you like too!!}.

But wait, there’s more!! Be sure to stop by next week and see if your link was featured! If you’re featured, grab a button and wear it proudly on your blog!

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Pinterest Power Party!! appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

Share the projects you been working on!!

Love reading everyone’s posts. So inspiring! Please:

*Link to a specific post (no giveaways)
*Post my button (found on the footer) on your blog
OR a text link on the post to be featured!)
*Visit & comment on at least TWO other links posted
*Come back to see if you’ve been featured or pinned!

Please ‘like’ my facebook page!
Follow me on Google +!

I make it my priority to follow everyone’s blog by the second time they link up. I also pin your projects on my Favorite’s Board.

My Take it on Tuesday Project: Clearing off Kitchen Surfaces

Besides continuing to work on the nursery, for the months of May and the first part of June I will be going through a 25ish day process of simplifying my life. I’m going to need to simplify my life before I have our first child in mid June right? Cause then things are going to be getting REALLY crazy!!

I started reading Simple Living by Lorilee Lippincott – so good! Lorilee breaks different areas in life down into 30 days in which you get rid of stuff, organize, or simplify your life. I love some her tips of how to minimize what comes into the home and what stays in the home!

This weekend I worked on clearing off my kitchen surfaces. Today I cleared off my refrigerator. The room looks so much bigger now – and it really is a lot less stressful!!

TIOT Features!

#1. PBK Inspired Buckets from Our Pinteresting Family

#2. Lemon Sugar Scrub from Krysta Steen

#3. Popovers from Crafts A la Mode

#4. Painted Fireplace from At Home in the Northwest

#5. Rustic Wedding Series from The First Year Blog

#6. Our Home Bar Stool Transformed from The Stones

#7. Pressed Penny Books from Entirely Emily

If you’ve been featured today, or in the past, please grab a feature button from the footer!

What projects have you been working on?

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Take it on Tuesday (TIOT) blog hop #78 appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

Day 3: Surfaces

Last week I took a couple of days to clear the surface spaces in our kitchen (and some in the living room). In order to take things off our counter – even the toaster and other appliances, I needed to reorganize and sort through our pantry and other cabinets.

I was really pleased with how our pantry looked after organizing it (sorry, no before picture). See, even extra space!!

Once I made some space in the cabinets, I was able to clear our dishwasher off:

I cleared off our kitchen table (which usually has piles of to-do lists, menu plans, and other things I’m currently working on).

I was able to take all the piles and make this command center. It has all my printed out recipes, to-do lists, goals, coupons, my journals, and the latest magazine I need to read. Even though the challenge is to get everything off the counters, I gave myself permission to keep this on the counter space, because now it’s not spread out all over the kitchen table.

Lorilee’s challenge is to keep everything off the counters for 1 week and if after that time you feel yourself missing something, then you can put it back on the counter. The only other thing I’m still debating about clearing is our dish drying rack. I don’t like that it takes up space, but I’m not sure I want to buy another one just so it can fit in the sink. So, I’ve decided that for this one week I’ll keep the dish drying rack out and think about it.

Do you have a dish drying rack out on your counter? Or in your sink?

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Simple Living: Clearing off Surfaces appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

How I feel

I’ve DEFINITELY been getting into the nesting mode, and enjoying it! My husband is also feeling that the time is nearing when we will get to see Baby Girl – he is really excited to see her. I’m not so impatient to see her yet, because there is so much I still want to accomplish before she arrives! (Though we got alot accomplished this weekend. More on that later.)

We’ve been to the birth center a LOT this last week. Last Wednesday we went to the water birth class. After hearing the instructor lay out what a typical water birth looked like, I really liked how she described it. It was nice to actually be able to visualize what birth might look like (instead of wondering what position I might be in, not knowing how long I would be able to hold Baby Girl, or when they would measure her, etc.) Knowing more helped me to feel like birth is something I could tackle/handle better. I know for sure I want to labor in the tub and if it’s still comfortable enough I think I might even give birth in the water!

Stats

Total weight gain/loss? Didn’t gain anything this week, so overall now I’ve gained 23 pounds. So, right on track to gain 30 pounds total.

Movement – Yes, she continues to move a lot! There have been several times now Matt has been around when she’s been moving quite a bit. He’s enjoyed it. Also, my mother-in-law felt her kick for the first time!!

Ring on or off? – I had to take my ring off last week. I’ve been wearing it around my neck on a chain. We ordered a simple band for me to wear for the rest of the pregnancy! I was so missing having something on my hand!!

Hunger/Cravings – Not really craving anything this week.

Best moment this week?

I’m feeling less stressed out, because we got some things checked off of our baby to-do list. Matt installed the car seat base in his car. Pretty soon we will order a second base and put it in my car. We finally got the remaining extra stuff out of the nursery that doesn’t belong there and organized the gifts we have received by category. They are just piles and not put in the dresser and closet yet, but that will be the next task.

We made a list of the “must haves” we will still need to buy if we don’t receive them at the church shower.

We also finalized our birth plan!

We found a rug and lamp we like – both for pretty cheap!! (Pictures to come on another post.) Thanks to my sister Amy pinning this, I also saw the perfect solution to drawer pulls that I like. Our dresser drawer is an older dresser and the holes for the pulls are a lot smaller than they make them now a days, so we were not finding any we could purchase. Then I saw this fabric drawer pull:

What I am looking forward to

Last week we got a diaper bag!! So, now we will be packing it this week! I also plan to spray paint the frames I have to we can start hanging things on the walls above the crib and changing table. Things are starting to look more final in the nursery!!

Our little “June Bug’s” Growth

We’ve been taking photos since week 6 and showing a fruit or vegetable in the picture that is the same size as our little “June Bug”. Last week: our little girl was 17 inches long and a little over 4 pounds weight (pineapple). This week: almost 18 inches long and 4 3/4 pounds in weight (cantaloupe).

Linking up at The Friday Baby Shower and My Pregnancy Journal.

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Week 34 of Pregnancy appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

I’ve been working on Day 3′s assignment: clearing surface spaces in the kitchen. I’ve done a little bit of it, but have not have a big chunk time to clear out cabinet space so I can clear the surface space. Lorilee’s challenge is to keep everything off the counters for 1 week and if after that time you feel yourself missing something, then you can put it back on the counter. I thought I would post about Day 4′s task today and then after tomorrow I will be able to work more on clearing counter space.

Day 4: Incoming

This week I’ve been focusing on what comes into the house – mostly by email. I don’t know about you, but I get a TON of emails and I have 3 different email accounts – my main account, my spam account (I use to apply for FREE things and give out more freely), and my blog email account. So, I’ve been unsubscribing from a lot of the emails that come my way.

I also looked through my wallet and pulled out several retail accounts that I haven’t really been using and I closed those accounts. It’s nice to have less in my wallet.

Finally, I filled out information to stop the flow of credit-card offers. We get SO MANY credit card offers – I hope this works! Just go to: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t

I encourage you to think about what you can cancel from coming into your home:

• newspapers?
• subscriptions to magazines?
• retail accounts?

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Simple Living: Incoming appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

Day 2: Underneath

Yesterday my husband and I took just under 20 minutes to go through all our socks and underwear. He does a pretty good job at getting rid of socks and underwear when there are holes in them and I need to start that habit! I have socks and underwear that need replacing soon, but I won’t replace them unless I get rid of them first!

Not only did we get rid of socks and underwear that were too old and worn out, we also asked ourselves these questions:

• Is there a match for this sock?
• Does it still fit?
• Have I worn it lately?
• Do you hate wearing it?

If we answered no to any of the questions, or yes to the last one, we got rid of the item. Matt actually had several pairs of underwear he never wore, so we got rid of those. Here’s the pile of stuff we got rid of:

Since Matt got rid of some stuff, I was able to fit my socks in the top drawer of his sock organizer. (Which we keep in our closet.)

I had been wanting to get the socks out of my top drawer for awhile, so I could better fold and organize my camisole tops. See how pretty it is?

Do I need all those camisole tops? Hmmm – that might be a project for another day. I do wear them a lot since I am long waisted, but probably not every color that I have.

Today’s project will be clearing off counter space in my kitchen. I’ll tell you about it in the near future!

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Simple Living: Underneath appeared first on Romance on a Dime.

How I feel

I’ve DEFINITELY been getting into the nesting mode, and enjoying it! (See more below in “Best Moment this week”). I’m now ready to have the baby yet, but I just want to spend all my time reading and prepping for a baby coming! Why didn’t I have this drive 2nd trimester? Weird. Right now I feel anxious to be done with work, so I can nest. Maybe if I wasn’t working, I would be anxious to have the baby. So work keeping me busy right now is good.

Stats

Total weight gain/loss? I gained 1 pound this week!! Overall now I’ve gained 23 pounds. So, right on track to gain 30 pounds total.

Movement – Yes, she continues to move a lot! I’m trying to track her movements more, to see what “schedule” she is awake and sleeping. But sometimes I’m pretty busy when she is moving and I don’t have time to make a note. We had another appointment with our midwife this week and I’m so glad that Baby Girl is still head down. She’s in the same position (Left Occiput Anterior).

Ring on or off? – I had to take my ring off this week. When the weather was warm on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday my hand was so swollen that my ring was pretty tight. So you will see my wedding ring around my neck for the bump photo.

Hunger/Cravings – I’ve been craving smoothies. I think I’ve been to Juice stop 2 times this past week and I’ve made smoothies 3 times (including the extra I put in the freezer for tomorrow morning).

Best moment this week?

Getting the DIY Baby Armoire done!! This has been on my mind awhile. Thanks to my parents for supplying a bookcase, the project was completed in two days, despite my busy schedule. I think I still want to add more baskets to it, so that the pants don’t look so messy but I’m also happy with how it looks.

What I am looking forward to

I saw some curtains I LOVED at Target, so I bought them. Now, I just have to get the curtain rod and hang them up! I’m going to try to get that done this week.

I will be looking for small organizational pieces and really need to start making piles of where everything is going to go. Next weekend I have my church shower, so if the room is organized it will be easier to add the extra gifts in as well!!

Our little “June Bug’s” Growth

We’ve been taking photos since week 6 and showing a fruit or vegetable in the picture that is the same size as our little “June Bug”. Last week: our little girl was over 16.7 inches long and 3.75 pounds in weight (4 oranges). This week: 17 inches long and a little over 4 pounds weight (pineapple).

Linking up at The Friday Baby Shower and My Pregnancy Journal.

© 2013, Betsy Pool. All rights reserved.

The post Week 33 of Pregnancy appeared first on Romance on a Dime.