Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 8/24 - 8/30)

Friday (8/24) Whew, we survived our first full week of school!  We got AJ up and out on the bus on time, although he was tough to wake up this morning.  Daniel woke up a little early so he got to hang with me for a bit before getting ready for school.  I got Daniel and Zak dropped off to school and then I came home and worked like crazy around the house.  I have been feeling a little out of control all week so I decided to take the day today to get myself together.  I finished a bunch of things on my to do list and even had a little fun with some Beverly Hills 90120 reruns on in the background.  Before I knew it, it was time to pick up the boys from school.  They were excited to get home and play video games since they haven't had them most of the past week because of school and homework.  Although before they started on those, AJ got out his new trombone and showed it off to his brothers.  He is very excited about learning to play it!

When Adrian got home from work, we fed the boys a quick dinner and got ready to go out on a date night!  We haven't been out in a while due to schedule conflicts so we were excited to sneak away for a little while tonight.  We finally went to Frontera's, a new Mexican restaurant near us.  It was really good, especially their margaritas!  We had a nice relaxing dinner of fajitas and margaritas and then did a little shopping looking for a new book shelf for the boys' books.  We came home pretty early because we were both tired after the week.  We watched an episode of "The New Girl" since our DVR is cleared off and then headed to bed for the night.

Saturday (8/25) We all got to sleep in a little today since we didn't have much going on today.  We had a slow start to the morning and then I got ready to head to the Y to teach my Zumba class.  We had a great, sweaty time dancing to all of our class favorites one more time this summer.  After class I ran home and grabbed a quick shower and lunch before heading back to the Y for my 8th jam session of the year.  I had a blast learning 4 new cumbia tracks from a very talented jammer!  I was super tired but I powered thru and got a great workout and learned a lot.  I can't wait to add the new songs to my classes!

While I was dancing all day, Adrian hung out at home with the boys and got a bunch accomplished around the house.  The boys helped him with some of the stuff and spent the rest of the time playing.  They had a relaxing day which was probably best for them after a busy week.  They were supposed to go downtown to the fountains for Daniel's pick for the week but the weather didn't cooperate so we will do that next weekend instead.  When I got home, we all had dinner and then settled in to watch Daniel's movie pick "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull."  It was pretty good, not one of my favorites but the boys loved it.  When the movie was over, we put the boys to bed and checked out a new Netflix series "American Vandal."  We watched the first two episodes, it's pretty good.  We'll bounce between this and "New Girl" until our normal shows come back in the fall.

Sunday (8/26) Today everyone else was up pretty early and I accidentally overslept.  Daniel had a bad dream so I had to go sleep with him in the middle of the night and I did not get good sleep while I was in there.  Unfortunately I slept just late enough that I was not able to get to first service at church.  So we all went together to second service where I served in childcare.  I switched classrooms this week and taught in Daniel's classroom.  It was an interesting experience and confirmed I prefer the younger elementary (K-3rd grade) kids.

After church, we came home and had lunch together.  Then the boys went to play while Adrian and I got some stuff done around the house.  We were all supposed to go swimming but AJ and Daniel both decided they didn't want to go.  So I stayed home with them while Adrian took Zak to his swim lessons.  He did great swimming and had a lot of fun!  After they got home, I got dinner set up in the instant pot and then got the boys ready for Martial Arts.  I enjoyed watching them practice and was super proud of AJ for finally being able to do the rolls (somersaults)!  He has been struggling with them and it finally clicked today.  I'm proud of him for keeping with it!

After class, we drop home thru a horrible rain storm and then got home to have delicious pulled pork for dinner.  After dinner the boys finished up a few chores I needed them to finish and then had about an hour of video games before they are done for the week.  Adrian and I finished up a few things around the house including some food prep for the week.  After their snack and show, we got the boys down to bed and came back down to watch the Cowboys preseason game.  The game got boring fast since the Cowboys looking horrible so we also headed to bed early since we have an early wake up call tomorrow for school. 

Monday (8/27) The alarm went off bright and early this morning for school.  Adrian and I got AJ on the bus on time, which is now 10 minutes earlier than last week.  Then he headed to work and I relaxed a bit before getting the other two up and ready for school.  They wanted to walk again so we did even though it was already getting very hot that early!  After I dropped them off, I came home and did a few things before heading to the Y for my friend's Cardio Fit class.  I was still pretty sore after the jam on Saturday so this was the perfect shake out for my muscles.

After the fun class, I came home, grabbed a quick lunch and changed to head into the school to sub for the first time this year.  I did a quarter day this afternoon for one of the 3rd grade teachers and had a very easy afternoon.  It was a nice way to get my feet wet again after the summer off.  When school was over, I came home and dropped the boys off and then headed back to the Y to teach my Zumba Gold class.  We had a sweaty fun time in class!!  Then I headed back home to do dinner and homework with everyone.  After dinner, Adrian and AJ headed to his Boy Scout meeting where he continued to work on his first aid badge.  I hung out at home with the other two boys and got the house back in order.  When everyone was back home, we got the boys to bed, had a snack and watched another episode of "American Vandal" before heading to bed.

Tuesday (8/28) We got everyone up and moving and out on time to school this morning.  Adrian and I got AJ on the bus, then he headed to work.  Then I got the other three ready for school and dropped them off before heading to Harcum to teach my two classes.  My first one was full so we started early and I had a great time in both classes.  After the classes, I ran a few errands and then came home to grab a quick lunch before heading to the school to volunteer in Zak's class for the afternoon.  I did sight words with most of the kids and had a fun time seeing all of them.  Even though it was super hot, we walked home from school which is always a fun time!

From there, the day got really hard.  AJ had a tough day at school and we had a horrible time getting thru homework.  I barely got dinner on the table for the boys before we had to leave for soccer practices.  Adrian took Daniel to his practice and I took Zak to his while AJ stayed home to continue working on his homework.  When we got home we finally finished the homework and fought with the boys to get thru clean up.  The only bright spot in the evening was our dinner - amazing jerk chicken tacos in the slow cooker that were ready when we got home from soccer!

Bedtime wasn't much better.  Everyone was cranky but didn't want to go to bed.  We finally got everyone down and headed downstairs to finish cleaning up and started an episode of "American Vandal."  Zak came down three times complaining that he was scared and couldn't sleep.  We finally agreed to let him sleep on the couch, so we had to switch over to "New Girl" since he was there.  He still refused to sleep and kept screaming that he was hungry.  We gave him another snack and attempted to go to sleep.  Finally after one more snack around 11pm he finally went to sleep to we could as well.  Tomorrow is going to be an early morning!

Wednesday (8/29) As expected this morning was rough!  We struggled to get up, AJ would not get ready and the other two boys didn't want to get up either.  We did barely manage to get AJ out to the bus stop on time and then his bus was 20 minutes late!  I know this happens but today was just the worst day for it to happen.  When he finally got on the bus, I headed in and got ready for my day.  I got the boys up and ready and we walked up to school for the day.  Zak was really upset and crying that he hated school and didn't want to go.  Good times over here!

When I finally got back home and had a quiet cup of coffee and some encouraging texts from a friend, I was ready to start my day.  I got caught up on some stuff that I didn't get to yesterday and made a plan for the rest of the week.  While I really want to be subbing more, it is nice to get these big chunks of time to get things done.  The day passed quickly and before long it was time to get AJ from the bus and walk up to pick up the other boys.  I got them home and settled and then I headed out to the Y to teach my Zumba class.  As always, I felt better after dancing and ready to face the evening.

I was on my own for the evening because Adrian is checking out a new board game club that meets every Wednesday night.  I made it easy and had leftovers for dinner for everyone and then we got thru our homework.  I baked Avengers cookies to try to put everyone in a better mood and it seemed to work!  We got thru everything we needed to do tonight with time left to play quick game of Machi Koro.  After the game, we cleaned up and then the boys watched a show and had a snack before I put them to bed.  When I came down from putting them to bed, I finished up a few things, made my snack and sat down to watch mindless TV before heading to bed too.  

Thursday (8/30) We did a little better getting up and moving this morning but we are still struggling.  I hope we can all get good rest this weekend and have a better week next week!  Adrian and I got AJ on the bus and then he headed to work and I got the rest of us ready.  I dropped Daniel and Zak at school and then headed to Harcum to teach my two Silver Sneakers classes.  I had smaller classes today (only 19 people in each, lol!) because lots of my students are traveling for the weekend.  We had good classes and lots of laughs as always.  When class was over, I ran a few errands that I needed to get done to be ready for the long weekend.

I got home in time to get AJ off the bus and walk up to pick up the other boys.  Then I came home and got ready for a busy night.  I fed the boys and got Daniel ready for soccer practice.  Adrian took him to practice while I stayed home and ate dinner before heading out to help at the Cub Scout registration night.  We had a lot of new Scouts come and register and we are excited about the new year.  I was exhausted by the end of the event and headed home as soon as I was able.  When I got here we put the boys to bed, finished cleaning up and watching the season finale of "Younger."  It was really good and left a lot of questions for next season!  After that we went to bed because we are exhausted and struggling thru this week.