Friday, September 30, 2016

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 10/14 - 10/20 - Part 1)

Our camping trip was so much fun that it was a lot of writing to recap it.  I'm doing Friday and Saturday in this post along with a photo dump of those two days.  Then I'll do Sunday thru Thursday in Part 2 tomorrow.  Enjoy!!

Friday (10/14) AJ and Daniel had the day off from school for teacher in-services.  We decided to keep Zak home again just to be safe.  We were heading out for a weekend camping trip later today.  Our goal was to get on the road as soon as we could, but we still had most of our packing to do and I had to teach my Zumba class in the morning.  We got everything done and finally hit the road to Big Prairie around 2:15.  We got to Whispering Hills Jellystone Park around 4:00 and started to set up our tent for the weekend.  The park is awesome!!  Our site was right next to the play ground so the boys played there while we set up camp.

When we were all set up, we headed down to the camp store where they had two large jumping pillows for the kids to play on.  The boys had a blast jumping!!  We stopped them for a quick pizza dinner from the cafe and then they jumped until it closed at dark.  We headed back to our site which was right across the street from our friends' site.  They had a fire going so we joined them for some drinks, smores and relaxing around the fire.  The boys and about 4 other kids played on the play ground in the dark.  It was awesome!!

The only downside of the day was that it got very cold at night!  It went all the way down to 38 degrees over night.  That is really cold when you're in a tent!  We did our best to bundle up and had tons of extra blankets.  AJ and Daniel slept fine, the cold didn't bother them at all.  Zak woke up a few times and ended up in bed with us.  Adrian and I didn't sleep well at all.  But we survived and I kind of feel like a bad ass for camping in temps that cold!

Saturday (10/15) everyone slept in until after 8am!!  As soon as the boys woke up they were back on the play ground with their friends running around and having fun.  At 10am they went on a wagon ride to a magical pumpkin field.  They planted magic seeds, watered them with magic juice and went on a 20 minute wagon ride around the camp ground.  They came back to the magic field and a pumpkin had grown!  They were all SO excited!

After the wagon ride the boys did some more jumping and then went to play mini golf and play on the other play ground at the camp ground.  They played until lunch time when we started a fire and cooked hot dogs and sausages over it.  AJ had fun helping make the fire and cook the food, he was working on a Boy Scout badge.  After lunch we headed into the camp ground's corn maze.  We found our way thru and found most of the answers to the crossword puzzle in under an hour.  We went back to camp and rested up for the rest of the activities.

In the afternoon the camp ground had a parade of costumes with Yogi Bear leading the parade.  The kids decided they didn't want to walk in it so we just watched instead.  Then we headed out to trick or treat around the camp ground.  The kids had a great time dressed up as Skylanders from Swap Force.  They wore their original costumes - Wash Buckler (AJ), Stink Bomb (Daniel) & Night Shift (Zak) - for today but they can "swap" their costumes as well.  They want to do that the next time we go out.  We got tons of candy & had a fun time checking out all the decorated camp sites.

After all of that excitement we were all pretty wiped out.  We cooked dinner again over the fire (more hot dogs and sausage).  We went on a short nature walk to watch the amazing full moon.  We went over to our friends' trailer for some wine, moonshine, smores & roasted marshmallows.  The boys played for a while on the play ground and when they ran out of steam we let them play on their tablets until they fell asleep in the tent.  It was a fantastic night to sleep outside - it was in the high 50's.  Way better than last night!!  And we all got a better night's sleep!

As promised, the photo dump of those two days:
The boys on the swing near our camp site
Our view from our "back yard"

AJ & Dad setting up the tent
Jumping Fun!
Roasting marshmallows
Wagon ride to the magical pumpkin patch
Pumpkins!
Trick or Treat!
Beautiful fire on night 2
Zak enjoying some mini golf
Another gorgeous view
Mining for gold (we didn't find any)

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 9/30 - 10/6)

Friday (9/30) was another rainy day.  It seemed every time I had to get out of the car, it rained.  Unless I had my umbrella with me, then it stayed dry.  AJ and Daniel got soaked at pick up because they weren't allowed to put their umbrellas up due to lightening in the area.  Because of all the rain, baseball was cancelled for the night.  Adrian picked up my mom on his way home from work and we had a relaxing and fun night at home.  We played some games, watched some TV and just spent time together staying out of the rain.

Saturday (10/1) was a jam packed day!  Adrian took AJ and Daniel to play in their last two baseball games of the season, which they won.  They have the tournament next weekend and then we are done with fall ball.  Their coach is really trying to help Daniel get a hit in the remaining games.  He even gave him a new (to us) bat to try to help him.  I took Zak and my mom and we went to Zak's soccer class and then headed out to catch the last inning of the baseball game.  Zak kept busy (and entertained the whole team) playing in the rocks.
After all the sports were done for the morning, we headed to a very muddy Lynd's Fruit Farm and picked a bunch of apples.  We didn't plan to but we also picked pumpkins.  The pumpkin patch was filled with giant awesome looking pumpkins.  I hope they last until at least Halloween since it's so early.  After all that hard work outside, we headed to Graeters to get some ice cream.  When we finally got home and were all exhausted!  We ordered Piada for dinner, got a few things done around the house, played some games and watched some TV.  Such a fun family day!!





Sunday (10/2) we said "so long" to my mom this morning and she headed over to spend the day with Carl, Sarah, Isabelle and Vincent before heading back to Florida.  We spent the rest of the day watching football and getting caught up on all the stuff we need to do around the house.  We've been so busy having fun (and keeping up with our crazy schedule!) that a lot of things around the house have suffered.  We got a lot accomplished and feel ready to head into another busy week!

Monday (10/3) we got back to our normal schedule for just the five of us.  Everyone went to school and work in the morning.  I was able to spend the day in AJ and Daniel's school helping with the book fair.  It was fun to help all the kids make their wish lists.  And AJ's class had library that afternoon so I was able to see him, which he loved!  Zak spent the afternoon at his friend Noah's house having a "super long play date!"  He had so much fun over there.  I'm thankful I was able to get into the school for the day and to have friends who will help me out so I can do that.

Tuesday (10/4) was another pretty typical day.  It was kids day at the boys' chiropractor so everyone got their adjustments for the month.  Adrian had his last night of his golf league and had a nice time at his banquet.  I took the boys with me to Brain Balance and had AJ's second progress report.  He continues to do well, improving in almost all categories.  They gave us one extra eye exercise to do with him but other than that they told us to keep doing what we're doing because it's working to strengthen the right side of his brain.

Wednesday (10/5) I headed back into school to volunteer in Daniel's class this morning.  I did sight words with about half of the class, including Daniel.  He loves having me in class to help out and I love being in there!  I spent the rest of the morning and some of the afternoon helping make wish lists for the book fair.  In the evening I had Zumba and a PTO meeting while AJ and Daniel had their last baseball practice for the fall season.  Adrian and Zak had a great item exploring a new park, JFK in Reynoldsburg.  We've been there before, but never for baseball practice so it was like a new experience for Zak.
Thursday (10/6) was a normal day of work, Zumba, school and Brain Balance for everyone.  The only notable thing from today is that I had parent teacher conferences for both AJ and Daniel.  Both conferences went great!  They are both at or above where they should be for their grade level.  Daniel is very helpful in class and always follows all of the rules.  AJ is doing really well in the small group work that his teacher does a lot of, still struggling with participating in class.  We are going to work on that as the year progresses.  I'm very proud of the report I got on both of them!!

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 9/23 - 9/29)

Friday (9/23) was the best morning we have had in about 2 weeks.  We all got out on time and everyone got where they needed to go without me yelling like crazy.  We've been on time every day the past 2 weeks but it has required a lot of yelling and punishing.  After everyone finished up their Fridays, they came home to enjoy video games since they only get them Fri-Sun during the school year.  They are all very excited about the new Lego Dimensions characters that are coming out on Tuesday so they are playing that game a lot again right now.  We also got school pictures back.

Friday night AJ and Daniel had a great baseball practice.  It is finally cool and I don't mind sitting and watching them practice.  They did a great job catching pop flies, hitting and practicing base running.  Zak had a park play date with his friend Noah.  Noah's dad took them to Hannah Park to play for about an hour.  Zak said he had the best time!

Saturday (9/24) was a great, busy day!  Zak and I headed out early to go to Zumba and soccer.  He did great again at soccer, he's really enjoying playing this session.  And Adrian got AJ and Daniel over to the baseball field for another double header.  They easily won their first game and AJ got a hit and and RBI.  For the second game they had quite the cheering section - my parents, Adrian's parents, my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew all came to watch.  They won again and everyone had a fun time watching the game.

After the game, my parents came back to my house for the evening.  They hung out with the boys and played while Adrian and I got a few things done.  We had a nice dinner all together and just hung out watching football at night.  It was a nice relaxing night after a super busy day!

Sunday (9/25) started with a great morning at church.  I volunteered in Daniel's class & had a great time with him and AJ in large group.  They went through circus training with about 50 other K-5th grade students.  It was chaos but also so cool to see.  My parents joined Adrian in service this morning as well.

After church, Adrian took the boys to swimming and I came home to get a few things done around the house.  Then we headed to Carl's house to hang out together as a family before my Dad heads out tomorrow.  We ate, watched football, cuddled the new baby & the kids played.  It was a pretty perfect day, other than the Jets dismal performance.
Monday (9/26) we struggled to get out to school in the morning after our very full weekend.  But we got back to our routine and everyone had a good day at school.  After I picked up Zak, he and I headed over to Carl's to spend some time with my parents.  We had lunch, played games and hung out.  Then we said so long to my Dad who was heading back to Florida today.  We picked up AJ and Daniel and headed back to our house where we (OK, they) made homemade pizza for dinner.  We enjoyed pizza, racing cars and reading before heading to bed.  It's been a full and fun long weekend!!
Tuesday (9/27) My mom helped me get everyone out to school on time and then she came and took my classes.  After we worked out, my mom "picked up" Zak from school and we all went out to Chick Fil A for lunch.  Zak loved playing in the play area and eating chicken nuggets and ice cream.  He also insisted that we go thru the car wash next door.  After all that fun, we dropped my mom off to my brother's house for a few days and then headed home to pick up the big boys from school.  Adrian finished up golf league that night and I took everyone to AJ's Brain Balance appointment.

Wednesday (9/28) we were back to being on our own and trying to keep up with our schedule.  We were all dragging from being so off our routine that past few days.  But I got everyone to school and managed to find the energy to teach three Zumba classes.  The weather was horrible so baseball practice was cancelled tonight.  Daniel and Zak came with me to a PTO meeting where there were two other boys for them to play with.  Love when we can have a productive meeting while our boys tire each other out!
Zak & his buddy Noah leaving school - so cute sharing the umbrella!
Thursday (9/29) was another routine day with school and work for all.  But the past few days at school, AJ and Daniel have been hearing about joining Cub Scouts.  They begged us to join (again) this year.  It didn't go well last year when we tried, but the boys assured us this year would be better.  So they went to their first meeting tonight and will be joining their dens in two weeks.  I'm exhausted just thinking about adding something else to our schedule.  But it's hard to say no to something I think is a pretty good thing.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Keeping Up With...Workouts (Recap of 9/14 - 9/27)

This is a two week recap because I didn't have time to write last week.  I'm actually surprised I didn't find the time because I had a fantastic week...that probably shows how truly busy I was.  So I started the week still on a Zumba high from B2 training the prior weekend and it just continued all week!!

On Wednesday I had a very full class in a tiny classroom at my YMCA class at our satellite branch at Clark Hall.  I needed to figure out a creative way to still teach a great class.  I used some of the strategies I learned in B2 and then an opportunity presented itself.  I have a student who loves my class but sometimes is unaware of how much "space" she is using.  But she is bold, courageous & smiles all class.  So I asked her to come up to the front and dance with me up there.  She did the whole class up there.  She and I switched sides so the class was still able to see me most of the time.  She loved it.  They loved it.  I loved it.  It was a great hour!!
This was followed up by great classes all week, including one of my students coming back from NJ with two bags of my favorite potato chips.  And then on Saturday the stars aligned and my schedule worked so that I could attend a jam with one of my favorite jammers, Kaitlyn from Michigan!  It was just as awesome as I expected it to be!  We learned choreography to 5 songs, and all of them are awesome.  I already use one of the songs (with different choreo) so I'll use 4 of the ones we learned.  That's still really good for a jam.  I also had a great time there just chatting with other instructor friends and dancing for 3 hours.  I can't say enough how much I love going to jam sessions!
After all of that, the next full week of classes was great!  I was so energized from all that had happened the week before.  I added a new merengue to all of my classes and everyone really likes it.  Then this week I added a new soca, which is a new rhythm for my classes.  And everyone LOVES it!  I've gotten great feedback about that new song.  My schedule will change again next week when a new month starts, but it's actually a perfect schedule for me now.  I'm crossing my fingers (and working my butt off!) to keep this schedule as it is!

OK enough chatting about all of that.  Here is what I did last week:
Wednesday 9/14 - Taught 2 one hour Zumba class and walked back and forth from school
Thursday 9/15 - Taught a one hour Zumba Gold class & a one hour Zumba class and walked back and forth from school
Friday 9/16 - Walked back and forth from school (Didn't teach because AJ was sick)
Saturday 9/17 - Taught a one hour Zumba Toning class, did 20 minutes of core work after class and went to a 3 hour Zumba jam session
Sunday 9/18 - Worked in the concession stand at baseball for an hour (lots of walking) and practiced Zumba for 10 minutes
Monday 9/19 - Taught a one hour Zumba Toning class & a 45 minute Zumba Gold class and walked back and forth from school
Tuesday 9/20 - Taught a 45 minute Silver Sneakers class & a 45 minute Zumba Gold class and walked back and forth from school
Wednesday 9/21 - Taught 2 one hour Zumba class and walked back and forth from school
Thursday 9/22 - Taught 4 classes - a 45 minute Silver Sneakers class, a 45 minute Zumba Gold class, a one hour Zumba Gold class & a one hour Zumba class and walked back and forth from school
Friday 9/23 - Taught a one hour Zumba class and walked back and forth from school
Saturday 9/24 - Taught a one hour Zumba Toning class
Sunday 9/25 - Walked around my living room & kitchen for 10 minutes to keep the streak going
Monday 9/26 - Taught a one hour Zumba Toning class & a 45 minute Zumba Toning class
Tuesday 9/27 - Taught a 45 minute Silver Sneakers class & a 45 minute Zumba Gold class and walked back and forth from school

Whew!  That is a lot of exercise.  I've also been doing really well with eating well and staying under my calorie goal each day.  I tend to take Sundays off and that is working for me.  Last week I lost 4 pounds (yay!) and this week I lost another 1 pound (yay!)  I'm really excited to see the scale moving so much.  This past week was hard as my parents were in town so we were off our schedule and I was eating things I don't normally eat, like delicious homemade pizza.  I'm also getting in as many walks to school as possible before it gets too cold for us to walk.  And with my schedule change I should be able to get to 1 or 2 classes each week that aren't mine.  All good things happening and I'm excited!

Friday, September 23, 2016

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 9/16 - 9/22)

Friday (9/16) started the way every other day this past week started, with AJ being too sick to go to school.  I think he honestly probably could have gone but figured one more day of rest wouldn't hurt anything.  He did some of the make up work his teacher sent home for him, played some video games & played with Zak a lot.  By afternoon I could tell he was on the mend so I decided he and Daniel would both be heading to baseball practice tonight.  It was a gorgeous night to chat with the other moms while the boys practiced!  The only downside is that now Adrian seems to have caught the crud from AJ.

Saturday (9/17) started with the big boys' baseball game getting rained out at the last minute.  They enjoyed some extra time at home to play, although I wish they would have cancelled earlier so I could have let everyone sleep in.  Then Zak went to soccer with Dad.  He did great again & had an awesome time!  Then I spent the afternoon at at Zumba Jam session while all 3 boys went to their friends' house to play for a while and Adrian enjoyed some quiet time at home to work and watch college football.  We end the day with an awesome dinner and some Buckeyes football!

Sunday (9/18) was another busy day!  It started with Zak and I heading to church (I was volunteering in children's ministry) and Adrian taking AJ and Daniel to their make up baseball games.  As soon as church was over, Zak and I headed up to the baseball field because we also had to volunteer in the concession stand.  We did that and watched both games, one they won and the other they lost (their first loss of the season).  Daniel finally got his first hit in the second game and because of very fast base running he was able to score a few hitters later!!  AJ continues to hit pretty well this season.

After we finished up with all of that we headed home and tried to get as much done as we could in between watching football.  I cooked a big turkey for dinner because we are trying to clean out our deep freeze in the basement.  It was so good!  I can't wait to eat it all week for leftovers.

Monday (9/19) was back to our crazy routine.  The kids are all healthy so they all started back to their stuff.  Adrian is still not feeling well, so he stayed home from work.  Zak had picture day at school where he told me he smiled very nice.  Then he and I had a play date at his friend Noah's house where the boys played and the moms did PTO stuff.  I'm glad Zak and I are able to do that. 
Tuesday (9/20) Adrian stayed home again because he still isn't feeling well.  The rest of us did our normal routine of school, work and Brain Balance.  We also found out that AJ did not with the election for student leadership council that he gave a speech for last week.  But he did earn a goody bag for his bravery in giving a speech to his whole class.  He said he feels like he won anyway!
Wednesday (9/21) Adrian felt a little better so he was able to go to work and then take the boys to baseball.  Zak had a blast running around with him on the play ground while the other boys practiced.  Their practice was cut short since it's getting dark earlier, boo!  I was able to go into school and volunteer in Daniel's class this morning.  I did sight words with about half of his class.  It as so fun to be in the class!  I love being able to go in and volunteer and talk to all of the students.  He's got a great group this year!
Thursday (9/22) was a pretty typical day for us.  School, work, Zumba and Brain Balance.  In between all of that Zak helped me cook some pretty awesome turkey soup.  He loves to help me in the kitchen, especially when he gets to use the food processor, which we did for the carrots, celery & onion in the soup. 

Monday, September 19, 2016

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 8/5 - 8/11)

This post is really late & I almost didn't write it since it happened a month ago.  But I like the idea of having the whole summer journaled so I decided to go ahead and write what I can remember.  We pick up with the last few days in Gatlinburg, TN.  If you missed the start of the week, you can read about it here.

Friday (8/5) was our last full day in TN.  The boys wanted to go to another arcade and I did not.  So Adrian took them and I got to spend time with my family tasting moonshine.  We went back to Sugarlands Distillery which was so fun.  We even got to see the bar tender Andrew again.  Then we hit another one next door which wasn't very good at all.  We ended the day at Doc Collier's Distillery which had some pretty tasty moonshine as well.  We were quite buzzed walking and riding the trolley home!


After we all got safely home, we spent some time packing up and getting ready to go our separate ways in the morning.  We played a few more games, took some selfies and mostly had a relaxing night.  We watched the Dollywood fireworks one more time from our deck and called it a night.


Saturday (8/6) we were all up early to hit the road back to NJ/FL/TX/OH.  It was a really great week and we had lots of family time together!  But all good things must come to an end so we packed up our stuff, cleaned out the kitchen (so much food!) and headed out.  Our ride home was very rough, as they always are.  We are all tired and cranky and the ride home seems to take forever.  We did enjoy stopping at Steak and Shake for lunch.  We did not enjoy somehow losing AJ's brand new sneaker (yes, only one) at a random gas station along the way.  He must have kicked it off and it fell out of the packed car before we noticed.  So frustrating!  We were very glad to get home and relax for the evening!
Sunday (8/7) was a recovery day.  Not a whole lot to write about.  We unpacked, did laundry, set up some things for the week & the upcoming school year, played video games and rested.  It was SO nice to have a day between traveling and getting back to our daily routine!

Monday (8/8) was another recovery day for us.  We did some food shopping, watched a lot of Olympics, unpacked and got ready for school to start next week.  Not very exciting but very necessary.

Tuesday (8/9) we had a totally free day so we headed up to Zoombeezi Bay.  We spent a few hours playing there.  We did the wave pool, Baboon Lagoon and the lazy river multiple times.  We tried to go to Tiny Tides but it was closed for the day.  It was pretty hot so it was a perfect day to go to the Bay!  We really enjoyed ourselves, wish we had more time over the summer to go.
Wednesday (8/10) started with AJ's well check at his pediatrician as well as his 3 month med check.  He's doing great, he gained a bunch of weight in the past 3 months, probably due to all the yummy food we ate on our vacations.  He also grew about an inch in the past year.  His doctor told us to just keep doing what we're doing.  After that we headed to the library to exchange out some books and make sure we had what we needed to finish our summer reading projects.  I asked the boys if they wanted to do anything else, but they just wanted to spend the day watching the Olympics...and reenacting them in our living room.
Thursday (8/11) we had a play date with AJ's friend Brooks from school.  Brooks has 2 brothers as well, ages 7 and 5, so we invited all three boys over the play.  It was a little chaotic, but all six boys had a great time and I survived the three hours!  They played in the yard, played video games and played with their Pokemon cards.  It was a fun final play date of the summer for us!!  I'm thankful AJ and Brooks have become such good friends and am also thankful they will be in class together again this coming school year.  He is a great kid from a great family!!

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Keeping Up With...Food (Menu Plan 9/19 - 9/25)

It was a crazy week last week, but I managed to mostly stick to my menu plan.  On Friday Adrian came home not feeling well, so I just had leftovers for dinner and bumped one dish from last week to this week.  Our favorite dish from last week by far was the Homemade Taco Hamburger Helper - SO good!  We have a beast of a week coming up with lots of stuff going on, plus lots of make up homework for AJ and still fighting off some of these germs.

I'm mostly using up the leftover turkey from the turkey I'm roasting today.  We got another CSA bag last week with tons of tomatoes, string beans and different types of squash.  I'll be using up that stuff if I run out of turkey.  Most of the veggies will be used as I can this week and then I'll really focus on using them up next week.

Our weekend plans are up in the air right now.  My parents will be in town so I'm assuming we'll be getting together with them and my brother and his family.  But we haven't made any solid plans yet.  I'm not planning anything for Saturday or Sunday.  If we end up on our own for dinner one night, we'll have leftovers.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Tilapia Scampi with Zucchini and Ricotta Casserole
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday
Wednesday - Turkey Soup with English Muffin Garlic Bread
Thursday - Turkey Pot Pie and Roasted Squash
Friday - Tex Mex Turkey Soup and Salads
Saturday - leftovers or family dinner
Sunday - leftovers or family dinner

Water Flavor - Peach.  This is the first time I'm using peach in my infuser.  I honestly forgot about anything for it and haven't been able to get to the grocery store much the past week.  I'm looking forward to it!

Food Prep - I'm roasting the turkey today that I will use most of the week.  I have the food list made and I'm ready to shop tomorrow.  The water is set up for the week.  Fruit is cut up for snacks.  And I made protein ranch dressing and hard boiled eggs for lunches.  I'm also making Eggplant Pasta on Tuesday for lunch and Turkey Salad on either Tuesday or Wednesday for lunches.  I think I'm ready for the week!

As always, I'm linking up with Laura at Mommy, Run Fast.  Go check out the other blogs on the link up for some more yummy recipes!  Have a great week!!

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 9/9 - 9/15)

Friday (9/9) we woke up to rain and was expecting to have our night plans cancelled.  Luckily it cleared in the afternoon and we were able to walk home from school and then have baseball practice at night.  Fall ball is feeling more like sweltering hot summer ball, but hopefully soon we'll have actual fall weather.  I enjoy going to the practices on Friday nights and chatting with the other moms while we all melt into the bleachers.

Saturday (9/10) was a busy day!  We split up for most of it, with our busy schedule we often have to divide and conquer.  I took Zak and went to teach my Zumba class and then took him to his first soccer class.  He had a blast & did a great job!!  I'm so excited that he wants to play sports again after a brief period of refusing to do anything.  He listened to everything the coach asked him to do and was laughing and smiling the whole hour.  When he finished he said "My favorite part was everything!"
While we were there, Adrian took the older two boys and went to AJ's Brain Balance appointment then got them ready for their baseball double header.  They play two games each Saturday, usually back to back.  The three of them headed out for game one while Zak and I had lunch and relaxed.  Then we switched places & I watched game 2 while Adrian and Zak came back home to watch the OSU game.  AJ and Daniel's team won both games again this week!  AJ got a few hits, Daniel is still struggling with hitting.  They both did a nice job in the field.

Finally after all of that, Adrian and I headed out for a date while the boys stayed home with their sitters.  We were delayed a little since the OSU game was late and then was weather delayed, but we made it work.  We went to Iron Chef for dinner, then to Old Navy and Target to pick up a few things.  We finished the night with some ice cream and TV time on the couch.  What a full day!!

 
Sunday (9/11) I headed out bright and early for my Zumba training and Adrian had the boys all day.  He took them to church, then to swimming lessons and then out to McDonald's for lunch.  They spent the rest of the day trying to get the house in order, playing video games and hanging out.  We finished up the day watching football since it was kick off weekend.  Both the Jets and the Cowboys lost (by 1 stinking point!) so it wasn't a happy day for us, but we were just excited that football is back.  Hoping the season turns around for both of our teams!

Monday (9/12) started with a rough overnight.  Both AJ and Zak weren't feeling well and were up over night.  Zak has a stomach bug and a very sore bottom.  AJ has a head cold and horrible cough.  We spent the day resting, relaxing and trying not to share germs!
Tuesday (9/13) Zak was feeling better but AJ was still not 100%.  However he begged to go to school because he had decided to run for the school's leadership board and he had to give his speech today.  He worked very hard on it all weekend and was very excited to give his speech.  So I sent him to school with a horrible cough.  He was really tired when he got home so we spent the rest of the night watching TV and playing with cars.  He will find out later this week if he won or not.

Wednesday (9/14) AJ is still sick.  He stayed home from school again.  I honestly think he was sick yesterday but was determined to do his speech.  I'm proud of his determination!  The other two boys went to school, but we did all skip baseball practice tonight.  I'm hoping all of this rest will get us back to our normal, healthy selves quickly!!

Thursday (9/15) AJ was home sick again today.  He woke up coughing really bad again and is just really worn out and struggling to kick this.  He did seem to be perking up some later in the day, even asked me to email his teacher for his make up work.  He did his Math (of course!) but then seemed really worn out at the end of the night.  We'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Keeping Up With...Workouts (Recap of 9/7 - 9/13)

What a fantastic Sunday at Zumba Basic 2 training!  I'll be honest, I wasn't super excited to go to the training.  I felt like I already knew a lot of the rhythms that they teach there, I've learned a lot of them at jams and am using some of them in my classes.  But I still learned a ton!  And had a blast.  We learned six new rhythms, and even the ones I'm already using I was able to improve on.
I also got to spend the whole day with great Zumba instructors.  Here are some of them, there was about 20 of us in total doing the training.  We talked a lot about other things to do with instructing, not just learning the rhythms.  One thing we talked about was the burnout cycle.  I think I was definitely on the down swing in my teaching career.  The summer really burned me out with low class attendance, the boys complaining about going to the gym and just general life business.  Now that the boys are back in school, my students are all coming back (and some new ones too, yay!) and my schedule changed for the better I'm back on the up swing.  Plus I did this training, have a jam this weekend and caught some of Beto teaching a class on the live stream this past week.  I'm back on my Zumba high!
The other big news from this past week was last Thursday I taught 5 classes!  This was a big deal to me.  Most of them were lower impact, but I'm still really proud and impressed that my body was able to handle all of that exercise.  Sometimes I get frustrated by the scale not moving, then I have a day like that (or the 8 hours of dancing on Sunday) and think how my body could not have handled that a few years ago.  I also listened to my body and took Friday morning off to rest.  I did teach my class but didn't go to Relentless or PiYo since I was a little sore and tired and knew I had a busy weekend coming up.  I'm getting stronger and smarter!!

Here's what I did last week:
Wednesday - Taught 2 one hour Zumba classes
Thursday - Taught 2 one hour Zumba Gold classes, 2 one hour Silver Sneakers Classic classes and 1 one hour Zumba Toning class
Friday - Taught 1 one hour Zumba class
Saturday - Taught 1 one hour Zumba Toning class
Sunday - Danced for about 8 hours at Zumba Basic 2 training
Monday - Taught 1 one hour Zumba class (my morning class was cancelled because AJ & Zak were sick)
Tuesday - Taught 1 one hour Silver Sneakers Classic class and one 30 minute Zumba Gold class

All in all a pretty great week of workouts!  I was a little disappointed the scale didn't move much, I'm still where I was.  My eating was pretty good, although we did eat out twice over the weekend.  I know I was over calories on Saturday, but Sunday I burned a ton and was not over the calories.  But as I just wrote, it's not only about that so I will continue to be positive and continue working hard!

Monday, September 12, 2016

Keeping Up With...Food (Menu Plan 9/12 - 9/18)

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I planned last week, but I had a really busy week and wasn't able to do a lot of cooking.  I stuck to the plan the best I could, threw in a pasta day for a break and survived the week.  I also forgot that we had a sitter last Saturday so we went out to dinner instead of me cooking.  I'll be carrying over the few meals from last week that I didn't get to cook.  That's a nice way to start a week when I had very little time to think over a busy weekend!

The meals I did cook last week were awesome!!  We are loving all the veggies from our CSA and I have been cooking a ton with them.  I made Homemade Tomato Soup last week that was excellent!  I am planning on making another batch this week to stock the fridge with some lunches.  Adrian told me it was better than Campbell's!  We also really enjoyed the Lasagna Pepper Boats and are thrilled that they made so many so we have lots of leftovers!
This week is slightly less busy.  Plus I'm actually writing this on Monday, which we spent at home due to AJ and Zak not feeling well.  They seem to be on the mend so it should be back to school for everyone tomorrow.  I'm very glad I have everything I need for the next few dinners since I probably won't get to the store until Wednesday morning.  I'm also trying my best to eat food that we have in our freezer downstairs as we really need to defrost it.  I've cleaned 2 shelves out so far, 3 more to go!

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Pork Chops in Mushroom Soup & Pierogies
Tuesday - Chicken Caesar Salads with English Muffin Garlic Bread
Wednesday - Italian Turkey Zoodle Bake with Roasted String Beans
Thursday - Zucchini, Tomato & Feta Omelettes with English Muffins
Friday - Homemade Taco Hamburger Helper
Saturday - Tilapia Scampi with Zucchini and Ricotta Casserole
Sunday - Turkey (to use it up) with Mashed Potatoes & Veggies

Water Flavor - Watermelon

Food Prep - Zero.  We had a super busy weekend and I was barely home.  I set up the water today, have some snacks ready to go, and have shopping done for meals thru Friday.  Next weekend I will do more because I plan to use up the leftover turkey for most of our dinners next week.

As always, I'm linking up with Laura at Mommy, Run Fast.  Go check out the other blogs on the link up for some more yummy recipes!  Have a great week!!