Yesterday I think I fell in love with a with a 60-year-old!

A 1950’s vintage Beetle that is.  Isn’t it gorgeous?!  I love classic cars like this that have been lovingly restored and brought back to their shiny best.  This one was actually for sale and I would have happily snapped it up if I had won the lottery last week.  I think it would quite suit the Oxfordshire countryside – she’s definitely a stunner that’s for sure. 

We spotted the Beetle at a flower show that was being held at Blenheim Palace.  It’s practically on our doorstep and we have annual passes so Alfie and I decided to have a wonder in the sunshine.  There was all different types of flowers on display plus actual gardens set up too (think the Chelsea Flower Show).  Also there were stalls selling crafts, baked goods, ales, jams, clothes etc. I really enjoy things like this especially on a gorgeous day like yesterday.

We sat in the sunshine and ate 99 ice creams that actually cost a whopping £3.50..talk about inflation, oh well! 

Still rocking that blue nail polish!

These bottles of Fentimans ginger beer and rose lemonade were amazing!  We’ve had them before, but it’s not something that we buy often so they always feel like a treat.

My more regular meals have been pretty tasty too and nicely balanced.  I’m really enjoying big bowls of stir fried veggies at the moment and made this during the week, whilst Alfie had a meat dish for dinner. It’s just broccoli, peppers, red onion cooked in chilli, garlic and lemon and topped with almonds and avocado, yum! 

I did my first ever online shop at Ocado this week and loved it!  I’m testing all of the online grocery delivery services as I think they will be handy for when the baby is here.  It was so easy to pick out the ingredients for my Moroccan Lamb Tagine with a simple click of my mouse.  I served the tagine with cous cous spiked with coriander, parsley, lemon juice and flaked almonds and topped it with 2% Greek yoghurt and pomegranate seeds. 

Thursday night seems to be fish nigh in our house.  This week we had pan-fried sea bass that came with its own sauce (can’t remember the name..baby brain!) with baby new potatoes and mixed veggies.  The vegetables included green beans, peppers and red onions sautéed in garlic and lemon juice, my new favourite way to cook veggies.  Such a light and summery meal, I will definitely be making this again for sure. 

All I’ve wanted for lunch this week are summery salads.  My favourite was this one that I had al fresco in the garden yesterday. I was just mixed leaves, tomatoes, prosciutto ham, Babybel cheeses and red onion.  Simple but effective, the kind of food that I enjoy.

There have been the usual culprits at breakfast such as green smoothies made with spinach, banana, chia seeds, unsweetened almond milk and vanilla protein powder.  Also, I’ve been addicted to big bowls of fruit in the morning with Greek yoghurt, honey or agave and cashew butter:

Ruby red strawberries and pomegranate seeds are a fab combination!

Snacking whilst crossing things off my to do list.  A chopped pink lady apple with pitted medjool dates was a lovely afternoon snack and tide me over until dinner. 

You have no idea how much I needed this steak sandwich with chips and gravy that I shared with Alfie on Friday.  After having to fast for 14 hours for a glucose tolerance test to determine whether I have gestational diabetes, it was safe to say that I was ravenous afterwards.  I could have eaten us out of house and home I’m sure.  This was very tasty though and really hit the spot. Making a pregnant lady fast for so long is just plain mean!

This week my workouts have looked like this:

Monday – REST

Tuesday – morning gym session (20 minutes gentle cardio and strength routine – bicep curls, shoulder presses, chest presses, squats against the wall and weighted bum raises)

Wednesday –  lots of walking

Thursday – morning gym session (20 minutes gentle cardio and strength routine – bicep curls, shoulder presses, chest presses, squats against the wall and weighted bum raises)

Friday –  REST

Saturday – REST

Sunday – 1-3 miles walk and prenatal yoga

Well this week hasn’t been great on the exercise front, I’ve just not been in the mood at all.  I’m glad that I got the two gym sessions in though and some walking.  My legs have been aching loads recently especially after long walks.  I’ve got something up my sleeves to make me more accountable next week and I will be spilling the beans in tomorrows blog post. 

Talking of walking we did quite a bit tester day at the flower show.  Here’s me and the bump at 27 weeks, the final week of the second trimester…yikes!  I had my first bout of heart burn this week which wasn’t pleasant.  We didn’t have anything to take for it at home so I had to grin and bear it for the rest of the evening. It’s only occurred once so far, but I think that I might stock up on some medication just incase it happens again.

There has been lots of movement again this week and they are much more pronounced. It’s funny seeing my belly move and twitch every which way and it’s totally out of my control.  I love feeling him kick and stretch though, he seems to be on some kind of a schedule, but sometimes he will be super hyper and erratic too or sometimes he won’t move for ages!  Last night he was rummaging around in there at 1.30 in the morning giving me a good beating. 

Heading into the third trimester means that we are really getting serious about being prepared.  We have finally decoded that we’re going to do up the guest room as his nursery.  We can technically take our time with this though as we’ve already bought an organic moses basket from Nature’s Purest and will be in our room for a few months.  The nursery furniture is all picked out and we have settled on a sort of theme that we like, mainly things that we love, lots of colour.  The walls are completely white so we don’t have to be  too restrictive in terms of colour either.

The clock is most definitely ticking, but we still have time to get things sorted and buy the last of the stuff we need.  More immediate purchases include the travel system, swing/bouncer, baby monitor, baby sling and maybe a tummy time mat/play gym.  It is common for African women to carry their babies around in slings made in from clothe.  Alfie’s family are Ghanaian and his cousin is organising a sling for me in a beautiful African fabric that I can carry him in.  Alfie’s mum is cursing over the fact that she didn’t commercialise baby clings herself, she would have been a millionaire by now, ha!  Alfie also wants to get the Stokke MyCarrier for himself too.   I’ve been thinking about my birth plan, what to pack in my hospital bag as it was recommended to me on Twitter that I should start packing it now (eek!), antenatal classes and postpartum care.  All these will be documented in posts on the blog.  I’m currently in the middle of writing the recap post of my second trimester which will be live soon.

Well that’s me signing off, enjoy the sunshine and the rest of your weekend everyone! 

If you are pregnant, or had a baby did you feel the pressure of having to get things organised and buy last-minute items around this time?  Did you or have you used a moses basket?

Do you love vintage cars?  Would you ever like to own one?