On vacation this week! See you ladies when I get back, period is expected tomorrow, I took a test yesterday and didn't bring any with me. Disconnecting from ttc because I don't want to be obsessed about it when I should be relaxing, and this period will ring in cycle 6 which will be really hard mentally for me. Had drinks on the beach last night, thought enjoying ourselves so far!

Happy vacation @Kirstie155!!!

How frustrating @Kirstie155! I was so excited reading the first part of your post. I don't think your drinking can do any damage until you have a positive test, don't worry. Keep us posted! Fingers crossed for you! Hope you're enjoying your trip regardless!

@Kirstie155 Any news? I'm dying to know.

So, I totally slept in this morning and am skipping the gym. I'm pretty ashamed I only worked out one day this week. Tomorrow, I probably won't have a chance either. Also broke down and gorged on ice cream last night, the really bad for you chocolately brownie kind and slathered it in peanutbutter. And bacon and half-n-half are back on the menu. Just, craving high fat foods right now.

What nutrients do you ladies track on your food log pages to help you stay on point? I recently took down sodium and added iron. But I wish they had calcium on there or B vitamins.

@Kirstie155 Ack! Sorry AF turned up.

Hi ladies!! I'm sorry I was gone so long! I thought about you frequently, I just couldn't make myself login here. I hated pregnancy for the most part and at some point between the unending nausea and hunger I just said screw it and ate whatever I wanted/helped. Logging on here just made me feel guilty. I also generally avoided the computer at home the whole third trimester and just read and slept. Of course the result is that I gained 60lbs!!! At 4 weeks postpartum I still am 40lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight and 50lbs higher than a year ago.

I plan to slowly read through everything I've missed on here and catch up with you ladies. I hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

@Alioth do you have to be the cheerleader at work? What would happen if you just stopped worrying about those people?

Also my time saving techniques... do the bare minimum for cleaning. Only the main floor (or areas where people actually go) is kept tidy, and not even completely tidy (I have one spot on my kitchen counter than is a catch all for junk I don't know what to do with and there's another in the den). Upstairs is allowed to be messy. I don't dust or vacuum basically ever anymore unless I see it really needs it (with dusting I only do it if Chris's grandparents or my sister are coming over!). Do you have a dishwasher? Put EVERYTHING in it. If it's not dishwasher safe throw it out lol. Seriously though. I lost an ice cream scoop that way and am perfectly happy about it. And run the dishwasher everyday even if it's not full. Dishes are one of those things that it's easier to do often than not often and it's really the only thing I worry about when company is coming over. Seriously. If you're stressed, it's okay if not everything is perfect. Can your partner help you with the house stuff? Laundry? Buy an extra set of bed sheets and more socks and undies. Only wash thing if you spilled, sweated or if they've been worn 4 times or so (it helps kept the clothes in better shape too).

Eep Keith tapped my phone almost lost all that.

For exercise... would walking feel like both me time and exercise? Or can you turn other parts of your day into me time. Like... when I shower (before keith) I plug the tub and let it fill while i shower so I can have a 10 min bath at the end.

And you can also use a vacation day here and There! Or a sneaky sick day which I like to call "mental health days". Because mental health is important.

@VeryKatie Welp, it's sort of part of being a boss and part of dealing with customers all day? Maybe I'm just making excuses.

Hmm, I really like your idea of having messy zones and clean zones. So that if certain areas aren't neat, it's ok and only certain areas are really important to keep perfect. I don't have a dishwasher though. The hubs regularly does housework, but he tends to ruin laundry and break dishes so I try to get to it first. Lol.

I still want to hear from the rest of you guys about your life balancing strategies. But I am feeling a lot more positive now. I went on a cleaning rampage through the house and threw out a bunch of junk. I made a huge pizza at work and ate almost the whole thing by myself. After I got off work, I slept for eleven hours. My joints barely hurt today after that long sleep. Since it's my day off, I actually made it to the gym...3 hours later than usual. I started to feel really guilty for sleeping in and being late (in my head) to the gym, but stopped myself.

Congrats @CursedDiamond !

Congratulations!

@Kirstie155 I didn't read this until after I posted about my own erratic temps! I'm so sorry you're having such a rough cycle. It sucks that we only have control over our data in this TTC effort and even then we can only observe, not drive it. Would you benefit from taking a month off of all the tracking? Are you taking any kinds of meds for your pain? Do you know what is causing it? Anyway there is nothing we can do to help, but endless hugs to you and I hope you can start feeling some hope again soon!!!