Keeping Up With...Family (Family & New Couches!)

As if going to the circus last Thursday night wasn't fun enough, we had a very full weekend.  We did take Friday night off to recover, after a long and busy week we all needed it!!  The boys went to bed early and Adrian and I enjoyed some DVR time before hauling our old couches to the garage to make room for the new ones.

Saturday morning started with Adrian taking the boys to swimming lesson and me finishing up the week's grocery shopping before rushing home to meet the delivery guys with our new couches.  We are so excited to have new and nicer couches, the first ones Adrian and I picked out together (we both had couches that we used until they died).  We love everything about them and can't wait to finish up a few projects then move on to painting our living room to match them.

Saturday afternoon my brother and his family came over to spend the day with us.  We were supposed to do something outside, but it was cold and rainy so we decided to stay in instead.  It's so nice that the kids are old enough to play mostly on their own and we can sit and chat.  We ate a lot of yummy food, drank a few beers and had an awesome visit!

Sunday I was at the YMCA training and practicing Zumba all day.  Adrian and the boys spent the day visiting with his parents (who are just back from wintering in Florida), grandmother, sister and nephew.  They all had a great day catching up, playing and celebrating my father in law's birthday.  I was able to get home before they left and visit for a few before enjoying the leftover pizza and birthday cake they saved me.

All in all it was a very fun filled busy weekend!  And somehow Adrian and I managed to get most of the chores done that we normally do on the weekends.  This weekend won't be nearly as fun, not a lot planned other than catching up and preparing for the crazy filled month of May!

Keeping Up With...Family (Circus!)

A few weeks ago I entered a contest on one of the blogs I read for a family four pack to the circus...and I won!  I was super excited, then realized we'd have to figure something out since we have 5 in our family.  I emailed the blog owner & asked if it was possible to buy a 5th ticket next to us.  She let me know early last week that Ringling Bros comped us the 5th ticket so we could all go for free.  The boys were excited to all be going out together on a school night.

We started our night out with a trip to Bob Evans for dinner, since it was a fundraiser for their school.  We ate with little incident and headed downtown to the arena for the circus.  We did not have high hopes for how the night would go as it had been a rough week with all 3 boys.  And Zak had woken up at 5am so he was exhausted.  He fell asleep on the ride there, but only about 5 minutes away from the stadium so not nearly enough.

We hit a minor snafu at will call, but eventually got our tickets & got to our seats right as the preshow ended.  We waited about 20 minutes and then the clowns came out and the big opening number started.

I honestly don't think the boys moved for the entire first act.  There were camels, elephants, clowns, a human cannon ball, tight rope walkers, trapeze artists and probably a bunch of other things that I'm not remembering.  When we asked them at intermission what their favorite part was both AJ and Daniel couldn't pick because "everything was so GREAT!"  Zachary loved all of the animals, especially the sleeping elephants.  We grabbed each kid a snack and settled in for act 2.

The second act was more of the same, except for a few potty breaks for Zak.  I'm SO proud of him for telling us when he had to go.  We saw tigers, bikes, dogs, daredevils, trampolines, gymnastics and probably a few other things.  Plus the big finale, which AJ described by saying "There was so much awesome stuff going on, my head was bouncing from side to side!"  All 3 boys loved it and kept talking about it all weekend.

We are very thankful to Macaroni Kid for the tickets and to Ringling Brothers for once again putting on "The Greatest Show on Earth!"  We had a blast seeing the circus as a family and will be anxiously waiting for it to return next year!

Keeping Up With...Food (Menu Plan 4/27 - 5/3)

Yikes, I'm very late getting this post up tonight.  This weekend was full of fun, family & catching up on sleep.  Look for a recap on Tuesday!

This week things slow down a little bit for me.  I'm not volunteering as much at the school and I no longer have my 2 corporate contract classes (but they renewed my contract for another 6 weeks starting in June - YAY!)  I did pretty good keeping up with following my plan last week thru the chaos, although we did have leftovers a few more times than planned.  Not because I couldn't cook, but my fridge was overflowing and I hate to waste already cooked food.

The BBQ Bacon Ranch Chopped Salad that I made last weekend was awesome!!  I will be doing this a lot over the summer.  I added more protein to it most days, hard boiled egg, baked chicken & leftover taco meat.  One day I think I added an avocado too.  So nice to have all the greens chopped & ready to go.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken over cauliflower rice - still haven't gotten to this.  It's for sure happening tomorrow
Tuesday - Slow Cooker Minestrone
Wednesday - Pumpkin Sausage Soup
Thursday - Zoodles & Meatballs
Friday - Sausage & Red Cabbage
Saturday - Steak, baked potatoes & corn on the grill
Sunday - Chicken and veggies on the grill

Water Infuser Flavor - Strawberry.  My mother in law brought us 2 pints today so I threw them in for the week

As always, I'm linking up with Laura at Mommy, Run Fast & Jill at Fitness, Health and Happiness.  Go check them out for some more yummy recipes!  Have a great week!

Keeping Up With...Family (Reading Week)

I skipped this post last week because I honestly had nothing to write about.  I mentioned that on Easter AJ got sick.  The boys spent the next week passing the germs around, missing school, changing our schedule and sleeping a lot.  Now you're all caught up.  :)

Finally last Sunday everyone was healthy so we got ready to head back to school and our regular schedule on Monday.  It was Right to Read week at the boys' school so they had lots of reading related activities for the week.  They got to dress up most days for school and have fun activities during the day.  They also had a hallway contest in school to see which hallway could read the most in a week.  This caused all kinds of sibling rivalry (they're in different hallways) and actually caused me to threaten to take away their reading time if they didn't stop fighting.  Sometimes I just have to laugh at the things I say as a parent.

Sir Daniel is ready for school

Bring your favorite book - Daniel's on the left & AJ on the right

During school they got to do a bunch of fun things.  Daniel visited different kindergarten classrooms and heard a different fairy tale in each one.  AJ was read books and did activities in Spanish with the help of some of our high school students.  They both got to meet a local author who is writing a series about dragons (we bought his first 2 books).  And the big finale was a puppet show on Friday about different fairy tales.  I got to watch part of it with Daniel, it was very cute.

In addition to reading activities, we also had a few days of amazing weather.  The boys got to play outside all day at their friends' house on Friday, including building in their sandbox and bouncing on the trampoline.  Then on Saturday they finally convinced me to get out all of their water toys to play.  They had a blast playing with the hose, pool, sprinkler and water guns for most of Saturday.  Adrian and I spent the weekend getting stuff done because it is our last free weekend until sometime in June, and I'm sure those weekends will fill up quickly!

Zak in the sandbox

AJ & Daniel playing in the water

We only have 5 1/2 weeks left in school so things are winding down for the boys and picking up for me at school volunteering for the PTO.  I'm excited and terrified about the upcoming summer break.  Stay tuned for what we're doing!

Keeping Up With...Food (Menu Plan 4/20 - 4/26)

Another week of being crazy busy is behind me and another one is on tap.  Thankfully this weekend we had very little going on so we were able to take care of a ton of stuff that we have needed to do.  I also was able to do some food prep, setting up 2 different salads (Black Bean & Quinoa Salad and BBQ Bacon Ranch Chopped Salad) for lunches for myself for the week and cooking a lot Sat and Sun for dinner so we have a ton of leftovers.

This week is kindergarten registration at the boys' school and while I don't have anyone entering K this year, I am volunteering to staff the PTO table all week.  It will be a long and tiring week to add this on top of all my normal activities.  Then we have a booked weekend next week and we don't really slow down until June.

Since it's so late Sunday, I can report that I made this Parmesan Shrimp over Zoodles for dinner tonight and it was delicious!!  I doubled the recipe and we ate half tonight and packaged the other 2 servings up for lunches this week. 

Here's what we're (hopefully) eating this week:
Monday - Chinese Chicken & Asparagus Salad - didn't get to this one last week.  We decided to grill instead since the weather was amazing!
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken over cauliflower rice - didn't get to this one last week either.  It only cooks for 3-4 hours so it didn't work on the day that I planned it since I was gone from 8:30-4:30.
Thursday - Out to Bob Evans for a school fundraiser before hitting the circus!
Friday - Slow Cooker Minestrone
Saturday - Out or Leftovers - I'm not sure what the plan for this day is.  We are hanging out with my brother & his family, not sure if we'll do dinner together or not.
Sunday - Leftovers or a Freezer Meal - I'm gone all day for various trainings so it will be something easy.

Water Infuser Flavor - Fruit Salad to use up the last of the fruit salad I made last week

As always, I'm linking up with Laura at Mommy, Run Fast & Jill at Fitness, Health and Happiness.  Go check them out for some more yummy recipes!  Have a great week!

Keeping Up With...Food (Menu Plan 4/13 - 4/19)

Wow last week went by in a blur of workouts and sick kids.  It was a crazy week where I was either running like crazy or cuddling my sick boys on the couch.  Not a bad way to spend a week.  I managed to keep up with most of my healthy cooking and eating, although on Friday I waved the white flag and had Adrian pick up dinner.  That was actually more because I wasn't able to go to the grocery store & didn't have everything I needed to cook dinner.  It was nice to give myself a night off.

The next few weeks are super busy as we wrap up the school year.  Pretty much every week there is a week long event going on in school (book fair, kindergarten registration, teacher appreciation, etc) and since I'm on the PTO board I'm either volunteering in the school or watching my friend's son so she can volunteer.  I'm thankful to have someone to trade off childcare so we can both be in the school so often. 

Expect lots of crockpot meals, salads or easy casseroles that I can make earlier in the day or week and just pop in the oven for the next few weeks.  I'm sure I'll be digging into my freezer meals as well.  I'm also hoping to cook/prep some today for this week.  I need to get back in the habit of cooking more on the weekends so we have stuff ready to eat all week.  I got out of the habit when we got busy on our weekends as well.  We have a few slower weekends coming up this month so I'd like to stock up now!

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Pork Chops & Sauerkraut in the crockpot
Tuesday - Kale & White Bean Skillet
Wednesday - Leftovers or Freezer Meal for the guys, I'm going to a volunteer appreciation dinner at school
Thursday - Black Bean & Quinoa Salad
Friday - Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken over cauliflower rice
Saturday - Chinese Chicken & Asparagus Salad
Sunday - Parmesan Shrimp over Zoodles

Water Infuser Flavor - Strawberry, Raspberry & Blackberry

As always, I'm linking up with Laura at Mommy, Run Fast & Jill at Fitness, Health and Happiness.  Go check them out for some more yummy recipes!  Have a great week!

Keeping Up With...Workouts (Recap 4/1 thru 4/7)

This past week has been very interesting.  It started great with me nailing workouts and eating Mon-Thurs of last week.  And I had a plan for the weekend, workout & eating wise.  Then Adrian got Friday off (YAY!!) and no one showed up for the class I was supposed to teach so I went way off track.  Sat and Sun were planned to be off track since we were celebrating Easter.

This week started out with sickness.  AJ was sick all weekend and had to miss school Mon and Tues.  Thankfully Adrian took Mon off so I could still teach all of my classes, but I had to cancel Tuesday's morning classes.  Last night was a horrible night of sleep between thunder storms and Daniel getting sick.  So today's morning classes also got cancelled.  At least I still have my evening classes and I will be working out all weekend.

I saw pretty good results this week when I weighed in yesterday.  And I'm hoping to see more of that next week.  I find when the scale moves I'm very motivated to keep it moving in that direction.  And it's especially helpful right now because I am shopping for new workout clothes and can't find anything that fits right.  Grr!

Here's how my week went:
Wednesday - Taught 1 hour long Zumba class and 1 90 minute Cardio Dance class
Thursday - Taught 2 hour long Zumba classes
Friday - 3 hours of swimming with the family, so much fun but what a workout!  I was super sore after it...and the next day.
Saturday & Sunday - Rest Days to prepare for 25 classes in 11 days
Monday - Taught 3 hour long Zumba classes and 1 hour long Total Body Conditioning Class
Tuesday - Taught 2 hour long Zumba classes

Boom!  That's a lot of calories burned in one day!

And a weekly update on my goals:
1. Continue teaching at least 6 Zumba classes each week.  I taught 9 classes this week, wow!  I was so sore and tired after Monday's marathon of a day but so happy that my body held up for all of those classes!
2.  Attend at least 2 classes other than mine each week.  Nope, again not a single extra class.  My goal is one class in the next week.
3.  Do at least 10 minutes of strength training at home 5 days each week.  No, I did a few days of Zumba toning practice and one day of teaching TBC.  I also think I had a few days of completing the whole body circuit from Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans.
4.  Do at least 60 minutes of yoga or pilates each week.  Nope, none again this week.
5.  Continue doing the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans monthly calendar.  I have not been able to keep up with this month at all.  Part of it is the crazy class schedule I have this week.  And I think part of it may be that I'm just a little burned out on these calendars.  So my streak will end at 15 in a row.  I may try again next month, depending what it is.  I did join another friend in a 45 day challenge.  Each day there are new exercises to do.  Today is day 4 and I've done every day so far.  I'm hoping the added social part will help me stick with this!

6.  Make the changes in the year long challenge called A Year of Small Changes. I've been keeping up with everything on this.  This week is to "green" up your cleaning.  I'm not technically doing this yet, but I ordered a spray bottle that I will get this weekend and will be using my essential oils to start cleaning instead of buying the chemical stuff at the store.

Finally, my weigh in:
4/1 - 224
4/7 - 221
Change for the week - down 3 pounds!
Change for the year - down 4 lbs of the 52 lbs I'm trying to lose (14th week of the year)

I think this loss shows how much water weight I was actually retaining because my eating on Fri-Sun was pretty horrible again.  But between nailing the other 4 days, picking up my exercise and using citrus oils in my water all week I am feeling SO much better!  Hoping for a big loss again this week.

Keeping Up With...Family (Spring Break and Easter)

Last week was very fun and relaxing!  The boys were off from school for the week and we made the most of it by sleeping in, playing with friends and enjoying not having a schedule.  When I asked the boys what they wanted to do for spring break, they really didn't want to do much and I figured taking a week off from the hustle wouldn't be the worst thing for all of us.

We had play dates on both Monday and Tuesday and the boys enjoyed playing with their friends.  Then Wednesday and Thursday we had "stay home" days where we just chilled around the house playing and watching a little more TV than we normally do.  All four days I had to teach in the morning, so they also spent some time in the gym child care with other kids.

On Friday we were surprised with Adrian getting the day off for the second week in a row!  I had a class to teach in the morning so I headed there (alone!)  When I got home, we headed out to Scramblers for a family brunch.  Daniel has been asking to go here as a family for the past 2 weeks, but we haven't been able to find a good time.  It went surprisingly well, everyone was well behaved, ate everything and there were no potty accidents.  We headed to Target after eating to buy Adrian's Father's Day/Birthday gift of a new TV.  AJ also spent some of his allowance on a new super hero masher.

Friday night we had a friend's birthday party to attend.  It was a swimming party at a local community center.  We had a blast!  It was so fun to see the boys running around and swimming with their friends.  They all did a great job of swimming and listening to all of the adults.  I even got to sit for a few minutes in the hot tub!  We swam for nearly 3 hours and also enjoyed some cake and pizza.  We left exhausted and happy.

Saturday AJ woke up with a very high fever and a headache.  It seemed to come out of no where.  He was sick all that day and all Sunday as well.  That altered our plans for the weekend to be mostly time at home.  We skipped swimming lessons and chilled at home for the day.  We colored our eggs that night so we were ready for the Easter Bunny.  The best part about this change was that I finished every thing on my to do list!!

Before

After

Sunday we had planned to all head to my brother's for breakfast but since AJ was still sick and Zak was still sleeping when it was time to leave, only Daniel and I went.  Daniel had a blast doing the egg hunt at our house and at Uncle Carl's house by himself.  We had a nice visit with Carl, Sarah and Isabelle and then headed home to re-hide our eggs so Zak and AJ could find them.  The rest of Sunday was spent eating candy, finishing the to do list, playing, relaxing & getting ready for a busy week.

It wasn't exactly the spring break and Easter that I had planned but it was wonderful.  We didn't get to go to the zoo, COSI or swimming at the Y.  But the good news about that is we still have all of those things to do this summer!  And since AJ took Monday and Tuesday off from school, he is feeling better.  Hopefully this is the end of anyone being sick for the rest of the school year!

Keeping Up With...Food (Menu Plan 4/6 - 4/12)

Happy Easter!!  Hope you are enjoying time with family and friends and candy.  We are having a lazy Easter, partly because family was all doing something else and partly because our oldest has had a fever for 2 days.  He is resting on the couch, hoping he'll be recovered quickly and that no on else will get whatever it is.

This week is spring break for most of the schools in the area, although not ours we were off last week, so I am subbing a bunch of classes this week.  Because of that, there are numerous nights where I either won't be home for dinner or will need to eat on the run.  The theme for most of the week is quick and easy.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Quinoa Cashew Salad - never got to this one last week
Tuesday - Tacos for the boys & Zoodles & Tomatoes for me (will be on the run)
Wednesday - Chicken Parmesan Casserole - didn't make this last week either
Thursday - Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
Friday - Thai Peanut Zoodles
Saturday - Cajun Shrimp Pasta
Sunday - BBQ Bacon Ranch Chopped Salad - will probably add chicken to this

Water Infuser Flavor - Strawberry & Cucumber

As always, I'm linking up with Laura at Mommy, Run Fast & Jill at Fitness, Health and Happiness.  Go check them out for some more yummy recipes!  Have a great week!

Keeping Up With...Goals for 2015 Update

Since we're just over a 1/4 of the way through this year, I figured it's a good time to look at some of the goals I set for this year and see how I'm doing.  Some of these I update weekly on my workout recaps.  My original goals are listed and my update for the first three months of the year is in italics after the goal.

Fitness Goals:
1. Continue teaching at least 6 Zumba classes each week.  I have 7 on my schedule right now and I'm super excited about it.  I know things will change as the year goes on so I'm targeting 6 per week.  That still gives me time to sub and time to take some other classes.  I've been pretty much meeting this goal.  May have missed a week due to the weather, but I think it's averaging out to 6 classes each week.
2.  Finally get under 200 lbs.  I don't know where I'm at right now, but I'm assuming it's around 220.  I've had this as a goal for over a year now.  It's happening this year even if I have to cut off a limb.  My BFHG (big fat hairy goal) is to lose 52 lbs this year, one pound per week.  It's a stretch but I think I can do it.  I've lost one pound in 3 months.  It hasn't been pretty.  I'm very much recommitted to this goal right now.
3.  Get at least 2 new certifications and start teaching new classes.  I'm signing up for Zumba toning in March and I'm so excited for it!  I'm also doing a bunch of training at the YMCA and would like to get either spinning or step class certified.  I'm also interested in Zumba Step, Gold & Aqua so we'll see which one works out best.  I am officially licensed to teach Zumba toning!!!  I am signed up for the group fitness license through the YMCA and will be signing up for the AFFA group fitness certification in September.  Not sure any more Zumba training will work this year, but that is OK.  I think Step will be in my future next year.
4.  Attend at least 4 Zumba jams this year.  That's one per quarter, I think that's doable.  They are such a great experience.  A fun way to learn new choreography, meet other instructors & burn over 2,000 calories.  I've already gone to 2 so I'm ahead on this one, yay!
5.  Attend at least 2 classes other than mine each week.  This will be a stretch goal, but one I really need.  I need some variety in my workouts to help lose the weight, tone things up and help me become a better instructor.  This has been a big fail so far.  I'm going to try to step my game up with this one this next 3 months before school is out and it's much harder to get to the gym.
6.  Do at least 10 minutes of strength training at home 5 days each week.  I'm going to start doing the 10 min kickboxing DVD I got last year for Christmas and then branch out from there.  I know there are a ton of workouts online and other 10 minute DVDs so we'll see what I'll do when I get bored with kick boxing.  This has been hit or miss the past 3 months.  I'm doing a fitness calendar that is a 10 minute full body circuit this month so hopefully that will help me hit this goal.
7.  Do at least 60 minutes of yoga or pilates each week.  This will go hand in hand with goals 5 & 6.  I will try to take at least one yoga class each week and if I don't make it, then I'll do it at home.  Huge fail so far.  There are now 2 yoga classes that fit great in my schedule so hopefully this will be easier.
8.  Continue doing the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans monthly calendar.  This is a habit for me now.  I finished all 12 months last year & I saw the difference.  I've already started January's squat & push up challenge.  I finished January and February but fell off the wagon in March.  I will be doubling up this month to finish both March and April.

Food Goals:
1.  Continue to menu plan every week & cook what I plan (or at least use up what I buy).  This saves time and money and is also less calories than going out.  I'm doing great with this goal!!  Hope you enjoy me sharing my menu plan every week!
2.  Use my new water infusing pitcher and try a different flavor each week.  I currently have lime and grapefruit water.  Next week I'm trying cucumber mint.  Yum!  I'm killing this one as well!!  Love this pitcher and the variety of water I've tried!
3.  Stay under my calorie goal 27 out of 30 (or 31) days each month.  This gives me 3 days to "cheat" if I feel the need to.  I will continue to use My Fitness Pal to track my calories and keep it set to lose 2 lbs/week.  This has been up and down, probably why I haven't lost as much weight as I would have liked.  Starting Monday I'm getting back to this!
 
Family/Life Goals:
1.  Take at least one picture each day for the whole year.  I have done this the past 2 years and I love it.  It's a great way to look for the good in each day.  Killing this one!
2.  Continue to learn more about essential oils and possibly start selling them.  I love how much they have already helped all of us!  I'm doing great with this one as well.  I use essential oils for everything now, love them.  I've also started teaching classes and selling the oils to make a little money, basically enough to pay for my oils.
3.  Read 12 books.  My reading has fallen off recently but I have a ton of ideas and 2 book clubs so I have a lot of material to pick from.  I've finished 2 books so far and am about 1/2 way through the 3rd one.  Hoping over the summer I can pick up my reading a little.
4.  Significantly declutter this house!  I had this under control and now it seems out of control again.  My main areas of focus will be the loft, basement and our closets.  But there's clutter everywhere!  I finished the loft and our closets yay!  The basement is about half way done.  My next area of focus is our spare room.  I did take a break for about 2 weeks and put this daily time towards preparing our taxes, which are finally done!

 All in all things are going pretty good.  The one glaring area of improvement is my eating better and workout variety which will lead to weight loss.  This is the focus for the next three months for sure!  Come back in July to see how it goes!

Keeping Up With...Workouts (Catching Up & Toning Training)

So it's been a while since I did a workouts post, over a month!  It's not that my workouts haven't been happening, I've actually been teaching a ton of classes recently.  But my eating for most of March was horrible!  I hit a bit of a slump and just didn't feel like doing what I should.  I knew my bad eating was totally negating how hard I was working out, yet I just keep eating.  And I was feeling it, just not able to do as much.

Last weekend we celebrated my birthday.  This weekend we will celebrate Easter.  I was going to take yet another week "off" and start fresh the Monday after Easter.  Then I decided, why wait?  So I'm back to it this week.  I'll take Easter Sunday off to enjoy our traditional Polish breakfast and some candy.  But that shouldn't be enough to derail all the good I'll do the rest of the days.

Part of the reason I decided to get my butt in gear was that I finally went to Zumba Toning Training on Saturday.  It was an amazing day of fun and learning!  I love everything about the Toning program and am working hard on getting my playlist together so I can start teaching classes.  I love the mix of dancing and toning for maximum calorie burn.  I feel like to teach this class I need to be in good shape and I am in my best shape when I am eating correctly.

I'm SO excited to have this license.  While I love Zumba, I have been talking a lot about how I feel like I need just a little more.  I know I need more than cardio to achieve my goals.  This program combines both strength and cardio.  I loved every second of training, didn't zone out or get bored (that can happen in 9 hours of training) and retained a ton of information.  Best day!!

I'm not going to do a run down of all that I have done the past month.  I'll get back to that recap next week.  But, here is a quick update on how my weekly goals have gone the past month:
1. Continue teaching at least 6 Zumba classes each week.  I have been keeping up with this, most weeks I'm teaching 7-9 classes.  I'm up to 9 standing classes for the next 2 weeks, but I've missed one or two in the past month.  I'm tired but it's a good tired.
2.  Attend at least 2 classes other than mine each week.  I have been horrible with this one, barely going to any other classes.  I did a Zumba jam session and the Zumba toning training.  But other than that I haven't done anything other than my class.
3.  Do at least 10 minutes of strength training at home 5 days each week.  Nope, not even close on this one.  But I will be doing the April Tone Your Body calendar this month.  My goal is to do it once on all 30 days.  I will count this as this goal.
4.  Do at least 60 minutes of yoga or pilates each week.  Fail again.  I don't think I've done any this past month.
5.  Continue doing the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans monthly calendar.  I finished the Lose Your Love Handles February challenge.  I didn't like their March challenge since it was pushups & squats again, which we just did in Jan.  So I decided to do last year's whole body challenge again.  It was only one exercise each day but I couldn't keep up.  I kept a list of what I didn't do and will do it this month in addition to the April Tone Your Body calendar.

6.  Make the changes in the year long challenge called A Year of Small Changes. I've been keeping up with everything on this.  Again, too much to recap but I'm up to date on all of the small changes.


Finally, my weigh in:
2/25 - 218
4/1 - 224
Change for the week - up 6 lbs in 5 weeks
Change for the year - down 1 lbs of the 52 lbs I'm trying to lose (13th week of the year)

Yikes!!  I have some work to do!  I'm leaving all of that in the past and moving on to the second quarter of the year.  Here's to progress!!

Keeping Up With...Family (My 39th Birthday)

So on Friday I turned 39.  My guys did an amazing job of planning a special day for me!  Honestly, we had a great weekend celebrating my birthday!

The morning started with Adrian getting up early to go get Dunkin Donuts and Coolattas for us for breakfast.  He also surprised me with roses and chocolate.  He had told me he would go in to work late so we could have breakfast and he could help get the boys off to school.  Around 7:45 I asked him what time he was going to leave for work and he surprised me again by saying he had the whole day off.  YAY!

After some shock and confusion, we decided to send the boys to school and I would be able to go out ALONE to run my morning errands.  I forget how easy it is to do things without little people in tow.  I was so early to my eyebrow wax appointment, I read for almost 30 straight minutes!  When I got home, we decided to pull AJ out of school early when we picked Daniel up.

We spent the rest of the day doing nothing except being together as a family.  We opened my gifts from the boys, a video game and a necklace.  Adrian got me a new box for my essential oils, but it isn't in yet.  We played board games, video games, watched TV and I got to finish my book.  We ordered Jets pizza for dinner so I didn't even have to cook or clean up.  And finished the night with an Oreo Coldstone cake.  It was a truly perfect day.

Daniel & I celebrating my birthday party!

The celebration continued all weekend, as it always does with me.  I spent Saturday at Zumba Toning training (recap tomorrow) and then got free Noodles & Co for dinner and Graeter's Ice Cream for dessert.  Sunday my brother and his family came over and we had homemade pizza and Carvel cake.  It was really a fantastic weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it!

As I enter my last year in my 30's, I can't help but think back to my 30th birthday.  I was freaked out to turn 30.  It felt SO old to me.  But now that this decade is almost over I look back and it has been an amazing decade for me.  I feel like I really found my place in this world taking on the roles of wife, mother, ASL interpreter, Zumba instructor and essential oils wellness advocate.  I have met amazing people through all of these roles.  I feel whole and complete.

As I look forward to turning 40 next year, I'm not freaked out at all.  I'm excited about what the next decade holds.  I don't know if it will top my 30's, but I know I'm gonna give it my all to make it another amazing decade!  Stick around to see how it all plays out!