Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for June 28 - July 4)

I skipped another week of blogging our meal plan because we were so busy last weekend celebrating Adrian for Father's Day. I did plan our meals last week so I at least knew what I was cooking each day, but I didn't take the time to write out the post. We had some delicious meals last week, including air fried salmon with an Asian cabbage salad on the side, my new favorite chicken fajitas in the air fryer and a light summer salad. We continue to get delicious produce from our CSA and plan most of our meals around that.

This is a bit of a weird week because it has the holiday on Saturday and starts Adrian's 10 days off from work. We decided to do a staycation this year instead of a vacation. We're just nervous to go anywhere and unsure what the fall will look like. We're planning to each pick an activity, as well as dinner and dessert, for a day and then have 5 days of just chilling around the house. We have a few projects to do here as well as some board games to play and shirts to tie die. It will be a fun but busy week I'm sure. We are still figuring out what to do, and if anything will happen this Friday or Saturday, but for now I'm assuming those will be days at home so I'm planning meals for them. If we do something else, I'll bump the planned meals to next week.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Kielbasa and Saurkraut with Pierogies
Monday - Garlic Lime Chicken Thighs with Air Fryer Radish and Corn on the Cob
Tuesday - Shrimp Tacos for the adults and Beef Tacos for the kids
Wednesday - Caprese Sandwiches with Roasted Asparagus
Thursday - Chili with a repeat of the Asian Cabbage Salad to use up the rest of the head of cabbage
Friday - Grilled Steak, Air Fryer Potatoes & Asparagus
Saturday - BBQ for the 4th of July!!

Water Flavor: Kiwi. I have a bunch of these from my trip to Costco a few weeks ago and while I have been eating them pretty quickly, there are still a lot left so I'll use them for at least this week in the water and see where I am after that.

Baking this week:  I'm baking blueberry lemon bread for Adrian and I this weekend to use up some blueberries from our CSA. And I'm doing more pumpkin chocolate chip bars for the boys once they finish up the donuts they have from our trip to Krispy Kreme last week.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/19 - 6/25)

Friday (6/19) We all slept in today after the late night last night. Adrian eventually started working and I had a very hard time getting moving around the house, but I did finally manage to find my motivation and start getting stuff done around the house. In the afternoon, I got the boys thru the rest of their stuff for the week including finally teaching Zak to ride a 2 wheeler! We have been working on this for over a year and he finally made it around the block (twice) on his own today! We are so proud of him!!

After finishing up with the boys, I ran to Kroger to pick up a small grocery order and then came home to finish up a few things and cook dinner. After dinner, we played two games of The Mind as a family. The first one we didn't do very well, only making it to level 4. But the second one we made it all the way to level 6, which is pretty good for all 5 of us playing. Then we were supposed to watch a movie but no one felt like watching it so we gave the boys some free time and played another game of Pandemic (we lost). Then we watched "A Series of Unfortunate Events" with the boys before putting them to bed. We finished up our night with a few episodes of "Mixed-ish," the only show we have left on our DVR from last season. This is the earliest we have every cleared our DVR from a season!! We will finish it up this weekend and move on to streaming other shows next week.

Saturday (6/20) We got up and moving earlier than I wanted to this morning after another pretty late night. I got ready and Adrian dropped me off at the church to teach my Zumba class. We had a small group, but we had fun dancing together in person and got a great workout. After class, Adrian and the boys picked me up and we headed out for our weekly walk in a park. We planned to go to Blacklick Woods, but saw that Huber Park had a nice area that was dog friendly (and shady!) so we stopped there instead. We had a great, but hot, time walking around for about 30 minutes checking out the creek and all the different paths in that park. We only did about half of it and would like to come back another time for sure!

When we got home, we all got some water and cooled off for a bit, then played Dead of Winter as a family and we all won! We all really enjoyed this game, even though it's a big long for Zak's attention span. Hopefully if we play a few more times we will get quicker at playing it. After we finished our game, we headed out for our weekly ice cream treat. We planned to go to Orange Leaf, but when we got there, they weren't opened. So we decided to head to Graeter's and got drive thru ice cream instead. It was delicious as always and perfect for such a hot day!!

When we got home, the boys had video game time and Adrian and I spent about 2 hours getting a few things done around the house, including me finally getting a shower and him organizing his games in alphabetical order. Then we spent the rest of the night haning out together, playing board games and watching TV. We played Sagrada (Adrian won), Rap Godz (Adrian won), Pandemic (we lost), Splendor (Adrian won), Reef (Adrian won) and Azul (Adrian won). It was certainly a good day for Adrian!! We also watched all but the final episode of "Mixed-ish" for the season. We let the boys stay up until midnight, as has been our norm since this pandemic started, even though we both struggled to stay up that late. After we got them to bed, we finished the episode we were watching and headed to bed too. It was a long but super fun day!!

Sunday (6/21) Happy Father's Day!! We finally all got a chance to sleep in today after a few late nights and early mornings. We were all feeling so much better about ourselves after a great night of sleep! We started the morning with me cooking breakfast for everyone which included french toast, pancakes and bacon. After breakfast we gave Adrian his Father's Day gifts, which included two new games. We played one right away, Back to the Future, and we won fairly easily. We all liked it, but again it took a long time and some of us lost interest towards the end.

After the game, we took about an hour to get some work done around the house that we needed to finish up before the week started and I called my Dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day. Then the boys took some time to play video games and Adrian and I played some board games.  We played two games of Roll for the Galaxy and Adrian won both of them. It really was his weekend for games! Then we had dinner together and got a few more things done around the house. We finished the family day with an episode of "Press Your Luck" and then got the boys to bed. When we came back down, we played Castles of Burgundy and I finally won my first game of the weekend! Then we watched the season finale of "Mixed-ish" and headed to bed too. It was a great day and weekend celebrating Adrian!!

Monday (6/22) We slept in a little and then hit the ground running for the week. Adrian headed to work and I got started on all the things around the house that I didn't get done this weekend since we were busy celebrating all weekend. I got a ton of stuff done in the morning and then spent some time in the afternoon doing stuff with the boys, including a bunch of experiments from the space day camp that we are still working thru. They especially liked seeing if the eggs floated or sunk in different kinds of water, and I'm thankful that none of the eggs broke!

After the busy day, I got dinner ready for everyone and then I headed to the church to teach another super fun in person Zumba class. While I was there, Adrian took all of the boys to Hannah Park for AJ's Scout meeting. AJ helped the other Scouts plan out the year ahead while Daniel and Zak played at the playground. They all had a great time and I was thankful they got some extra outdoor time. When we all got home, Adrian and I cleaned up from dinner and then we all watched "Holey Moley" as a family before getting the kids to bed. Then Adrian and I played another game of Pandemic to get ready for our tournament game later this week and we won this time! After we cleaned up the game, we got snacks and watched 2 episodes of a new to us series "Parks and Rec." I thought it was OK but Adrian really likes it so we'll keep watching for a few more episodes.

Tuesday (6/23) We slept in a little today and then once again hit the ground running. We got some stuff done around the house and the boys and I got their stuff done too. The morning flew by and before I knew it, it was time to log on for a mini Zumba jam with one of my favorite jammers. After the jam, I made tacos for everyone for dinner and then headed out to teach my Aqua Zumba class. We had a great time dancing together and then chatting in the pool, even if the weather wasn't terrific. When I got home, we cleaned up from dinner and then had family movie night watching AJ's pick of "Black Panther." We are nearly done rewatching all of the Avengers films! When the movie was over, we put the boys to bed, watched another episode of "Parks and Rec" and then headed to bed too. We were exhausted, especially me after a lot of exercise today!

Wednesday (6/24) Adrian and I got up and moving early so we could get Rocky dropped off to daycare for the day. Then he started working for the day and I worked around the house for a bit. The boys and I did a few of their things for the day and then headed out to their request for the week, the trampoline park. They have been waiting since Christmas to go and check out a new trampoline park in the area called Urban Air. We got them a gift card for a present and planned to go over spring break but that couldn't happen. We had a blast bouncing there for almost 2 hours and they did a great job of keeping us safe while we were there!

When we finished jumping, we ran a few errands including pick up books from the library and donuts from Krispy Kreme. We got home and the boys had some video game time while I got dinner together and got ready to head to the church to work tonight. I picked up Rocky from daycare and heard all about her awesome day. Today was a campout themed party and she got to play in a tent, in a pool and have a smores treat as snack. She was exhausted when we got home and promptly headed to her crate for a nap while I headed to work at the church.

When I got home from work, Adrian had our Pandemic game all set up and ready for us to play. It was a survivor tournament, meaning we needed to try to win and if we couldn't win we needed to be the last team standing to win. It was a rough scenario and unfortunately our decisions didn't line up with the cards that came out and we got knocked out in 4th place by running out of red cubes. There were 3 other teams (out of 7 of us) that got knocked out at the same time. We were bummed to be out so early, but that's the way the game often goes. When we were done, we finished up a few things in the kitchen, then watched the next episode of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" with the boys before putting them to bed. Then we started the last season of "This is Us" since we haven't watched it yet. When that was over, we headed to bed, I was once again exhausted after all of the exercise, but it's a good exhaustion!!

Thursday (6/25) We got up and moving pretty early again this morning. Adrian headed to work and I got online for a mini jam session with Anna, which was great as usual. When that was over, I got the boys ready for the day and we headed out to pick up a Kroger order and to go to Dollar Tree to stock up on supplies for a few movies this weekend. We spent way too much money on junk food, but it will last us a few trips so I'm happy. When we came back, we got thru the rest of the boys' stuff for the day and then they had some free time while I worked around the house. The day passed quickly and before long I got dinner ready for everyone and headed to the church for my Zumba class. I am so thankful to be doing live classes again!!

While I was at class, Adrian played two different games during the virtual BGG conference. I'm glad he is able to do so many of the sessions for his conference and all of them from home this year. When I got home from the church, I finished cleaning up from dinner and then took Rocky for a quick walk while waiting for Adrian to finish up. When he was done, we all watched another episode of "Series of Unfortunate Events" together and then the boys went to bed. It was pretty late after all of that so Adrian and I just watched an episode of "Parks and Rec" before we also headed to bed. It was another fun and productive day!!

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/12 - 6/18)

Friday (6/12) - Day 91 of "Corona break." Today was a weird day and it flew by!! Thankfully I got a great night of sleep and woke up feeling much better than yesterday. Adrian slept in a bit this morning and headed to work a little later than usual, which was fine because he's already got 40 hours in this week & still has all day today to work. I chatted with my Mom this morning, then took a very powerful Zumba convention session called "Moving Towards Change." I learned a lot and cried a lot. It was very powerful and I'm thankful to Zumba for all of the education they have given us over these past few months.

After that session, the boys and I did some of their day camp stuff and a few other things on our summer list. When they were done, I ran out to Kroger to pick up our grocery order for the week then came home to get dinner prepped before jumping on for my final convention session which was dancing to salsa and merengue music. I had a great time dancing with Wally and learning a new song. It was a great way to wrap up the week and the virtual convention. I'm hoping to be able go to convention in person next year and experience some of this magic live. But if not, that's OK, I know one day I will get there!!

While I was dancing, Adrian fed the boys dinner and they all emptied the dishwasher for me. I cooked dinner when my session was over and Adrian and I had a nice, quiet dinner together for the first time all week. We cleaned up a little and took Rocky for a walk before having a family night with the boys. We played a game of "Just One" which was Daniel's pick for the week and ordered our donuts for our trip tomorrow. Then we watched "Stand By Me" which was Adrian's movie pick. I had never seen it and really enjoyed watching it! The boys thought it started slow but then really enjoyed it. When the movie was over, we put them to bed and then watched this week's "Man with a Plan" before we also headed to bed. It was an exhausting week!!

Saturday (6/13) - Day 92 of "Corona break." We slept in a bit and then woke up to a surprise - rain! I had checked the weather during the week and it was supposed to be nice all weekend so we planned to go hike this morning. Since it rained all morning, we decided to scrap that plan for this weekend. Instead I headed to the church to meet with our worship minister and he and I finally figured out how to livestream my Zumba classes from the church! Then I headed over to pick up our donuts from our food stop this week, Donna's Delicious Dozen. We each picked 3 donuts and they were all delicious!!

After we had our donuts together, we cleaned up the house to get ready for another sleepover. This time it was Daniel's turn to have a friend over for the night. The boys worked hard and got the house looking great! Ethan came over late this afternoon and the boys immediately started playing video games together. Adrian and I worked around the house for most of the afternoon before we took turns heading out to pick up dinner for everyone. I headed to McDonald's and Taco Bell to pick up dinner for all of the kids, then Adrian headed out to pick up Chipotle and Bibibop for us. After dinner, the boys headed back upstairs to play video games and Adrian and I played some board games while sharing a bottle of wine. We played "51st State" (I won), "Gizmos" (Adrian won) and "Castles of Burgundy" (Adrian won). All three games were super close and the winner only won by 2 or 3 points. We broke up the games with some comedies from our DVR. The boys wanted to stay up until 1:00am so we let them do that and we all headed to bed exhausted then.

Sunday (6/14) - Today we are declaring our "Corona break" over!! Most of our favorite places have reopened, or will open this week. We are hanging out with friends again and getting out of the house. Our summer will look different than we planned and we'll be super careful when we head out, but we are ready to get out of this house! We all slept in this morning after the late night and when the boys finally did wake up, they went right back to video games. They played until Ethan left around noon and then we got our family day started. The boys helped us get some stuff around the house done and get ready for a very busy upcoming week. While we were planning our week, we realized "The Goonies" was playing at the drive in tonight so we decided to get done what we could during the day and then head out to the movies tonight. We had a blast watching the movie and everyone loved it, especially AJ. It was a little cold outside tonight so we opted out of staying for the second movie (Twister) and headed home. It was late when we got home so after playing with Rocky for a bit, we got the boys down to bed. Then we watched an episode of "Mixed-ish" while playing with Rocky before we also headed to bed.

Monday (6/15) We all slept in again today after another late night. Adrian and Zak were the first ones awake and they took care of Rocky and then Adrian headed to work in our bedroom for the day. I got the boys started on our day with showers for everyone and then a little free time for them while I got stuff done around the house. We worked more on our day camp stuff from last week this afternoon and also did a lot of our stuff on our summer daily plan. The day passed quickly while we all worked and played around the house.

Tonight I was super excited to get back to work teaching Zumba in person!! I made a quick dinner at home and then headed out to the church. It was a lot of work to get situated and make sure everything was ready to go, but the class went great. I was able to both teach people live at the church and online using Zumba's livestream service. It all went perfectly and I could not be more thankful! We were all sore, sweaty messes when we left after class which is exactly what you want as an instructor. When I got home, we took Rocky for a walk and did a few things around the house. Then we watched "Press Your Luck" with the boys and got them down for the night. Then Adrian and I played a quick game of "Pandemic" to get ready for our tournament next week before watching an episode of "The Good Doctor" and "Mixed-ish" and heading to bed. It was a great Monday!!

Tuesday (6/16) We did a better job of getting up a little earlier so Adrian could get to work a little earlier today. The boys jumped in to their video games this morning and I got started on stuff around the house. It amazes me how much there is to do even though I feel like I'm doing stuff all the time and keeping up pretty well! The day passed quickly with everyone mostly doing their own thing. Highlights included running an agility course in our backyard for the boys and finishing "Becoming" which I've been reading for a few months. We had a delicious dinner together, tacos for the boys and sausage and peppers for the adults. My Aqua Zumba class cancelled tonight due to low registration, probably because the weather isn't great for swimming tonight, so we had some bonus time together. Adrian and I took Rocky on a long walk, then played another game of "Pandemic." We lost again, but made it a lot longer than last night. Then we had family movie night and watched "Thor: Ragnorok" as we continue rewatching all of the Avengers movies. After the movie, we put the boys to bed, watched another episode of "The Good Doctor" and headed to bed too.

Wednesday (6/17) I was up early this morning to make sure Rocky got ready and dropped off to daycare. After I dropped her off, I had a lazy morning until everyone else was up and moving. Adrian started working and after breakfast, the kids started playing video games and I headed out to run some errands. I ran to Dollar Tree, Aldi and Meijer to get us stocked up for hopefuly the next two weeks. When I got home, I did our daily stuff with the boys including making Father's Day cards for Adrian and learning about the International Space Station. I also did part of a Zumba class with Gina from California, her class was so fun and sassy!!

After a busy afternoon, I got dinner ready and headed out to the church to work the front desk for an hour. Adrian went and picked up Rocky and her artwork for this week. She made an adorable mug with her paw print on it. Then he called in for his weekly Bible study Zoom call. After we all finished our evening activities, we took Rocky for a walk and then watched "Press Your Luck" with the boys. When that was over, we put them to bed and watched another episode of "The Good Doctor." We only have two left until we are caught up on this season!

Thursday (6/18) We all slept in a little this morning and I even got to sleep in a little longer because Adrian had his computer downstairs so he started working from there while I was still asleep. When I got up, I started working around the house and then got the boys thru their stuff for the day early. In the afternoon, we all headed out to the salon to get the boys first haircuts by a professional after the stay home order. We cut it once here and they needed it done again and Daniel insisted on going to a real place so I made them an appointment with my stylist. We were in and out in under an hour and they all look amazing after their haircuts!

When we got home, I quickly jumped online to jam with two of my favorites, Benjamin & Rodrigo and loved the song they did. Then I got dinner together and got ready to head out to the church to teach my Zumba class. I had another great night seeing friends and dancing with everyone! When I got home, we took Rocky for a walk and finished cleaning up from dinner. Then we had some fun family time playing Ghost Blitz even though AJ destroyed all of us and watching "Don't"and laughing at the contestants. After we got the kids to bed, we played another game of Pandemic and we finally won! Then we watched the two part season finale of "The Good Doctor." We stayed up too late watching it, but it was so good we couldn't stop after we watched the first part. It's a great show and while we were bummed to see one of our favorite characters die, we're excited for season 4!!

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for June 14 - June 20)

I'm back to meal planning after a week off. I didn't mean to miss a week, but things were really crazy here last weekend and I just didn't get around to planning or writing the blog post. I was once again reminded of how important meal planning is for me because I felt like I just floundered thru last week when it came to my meals. I was all over the place, often having to figure things out on the fly. I don't do well with that, I'm much better with a meal plan!

This week I planned all of our meals and made my shopping list already. We are back to eating healthy and using up our veggies from our CSA. Our last two deliveries have been super colorful and delicious. The peaches we got two weeks are so juicy and good, I can't wait to get more! Adrian and I also spent some time this weekend organizing our deep freeze so we know exactly what we have down there. I will need to do very little shopping this summer between what we have in our freezer and what we get from the CSA.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Leftovers
Monday - Turkey Soup and Air Fried Kale
Tuesday - Sausage and Peppers over Zoodles
Wednesday - Buffalo Chicken Salad and Corn on the Cob
Thursday - Sausage and Zucchini Pasta
Friday - Pesto Tortellini and Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad
Saturday - Grilled Steak, Air Fried Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus

Water Flavor:
Pear. We got a large amount of pears from my mother in law so I'm using them up in my water over the next few weeks. They give it such a sweet flavor!

Baking this week:
I did a lot of baking on Sunday so we are set up for the week. I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bars for the boys and Blueberry Muffins for me and Adrian. Everything came out great!!

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/5 - 6/11)

Friday (6/5) - Day 84 of "Corona break." Most Fridays of this time staying home I hit the wall and have no motivation to get anything accomplished. I tried to stay motivated and get some things done around the house so the weekend would be a little easier, but it was a rough day. I did get a mood boost in the afternoon when I took my final session of the virtual Zumba convention this week, Queen of Pop. My favorite Steve Boedt taught a class focused on Madonna songs and it was so much fun to dance with him for an hour to some of my favorite songs! The boys finished up their stuff for the week this afternoon and Adrian worked another long day at home.

Since I didn't feel like cooking dinner, we just had sandwiches and salads tonight. Then I had a video call for our Scout pack committee meeting and Adrian ran to CABS to trade out the game he has had for the past 3 months for a new board game for us. When that was all over, it was time for my pick for movie night and I decided instead of a movie I wanted to finish "The Mandalorian" series since we only had 3 episodes left. Unfortunately we all got really tired and knew we had a busy weekend ahead so we decided to stop after 2 episodes and save the last one for Sunday night. We put the boys to bed and continued to watch last season of "The Good Doctor" before heading to bed too.

Saturday (6/6) - Day 85 of "Corona break." Today was a jam packed day for us! We got up and got ready and headed out to Pine Quarry Park with Rocky to go on a walk. We walked around the park for about 30 minutes and had a great time exploring what we saw. We'll definitely be going back to that park for other walks this summer! After our walk, we came home to cool off a bit and get the house ready for company tonight. The boys did a great job of getting stuff cleaned up and organized upstairs and the house was ready in under 2 hours. We decided to reward ourselves for our hard work with ice cream from Cones and Concoctions to finish up our bucket list for the week. We picked up our ice cream and headed home to enjoy it. Then the boys headed upstairs for some video game time while Adrian and I worked a little more around the house.

This afternoon AJ had two friends come over for a small birthday party. We were so thankful to those parents who allowed their kids to come celebrate AJ today! The boys had fun eating pizza and snacks, playing video games (especially the VR headset) and catching up after not seeing each other for 3 months. It was great to hear them joking and laughing!! While they were playing, Adrian and I played some board games. Today we played Roll for the Galaxy (Adrian won), Azul (Adrian won), Five Tribes (I won), Ticket to Ride (Adrian won) and Takenoko (Adrian won). It was a rough night for me! We broke up the games with some TV shows and some time with the boys when they came downstairs. The boys decided to stay up until 3am, which was too late for me. I went to bed around 1:00 and Adrian held down the fort with the kids. We're all going to be exhausted tomorrow!

Sunday (6/7) - Day 86 of "Corona break." As I predicted, we are SO tired today! I got up earlier than I wanted to because I signed up for a virtual jam with a jammer in Vienna this morning. When I got up Daniel and one of AJ's friends were already up and playing video games. I did my jam while also trying to cook breakfast for the 5 boys, get the two friends ready and picked up by their parents and maintain order in the house. I loved the songs and choreo we learned in the jam, but this experience solidified that this format isn't for me. I can't get 3 hours to myself to focus on a jam, plus my laptop isn't the best for Zoom calls and there isn't another one I can use. I think I'll just wait until they are back in person to attend another one.

After my jam, we took some time to reset the house and get a few things done while we all still had some energy. Then we got dinner ready and had Adrian's parents come over for a visit tonight. It was the first time we've seen them since they headed to Florida in November since when they came back we were quarantined. We had a nice visit with them and enjoyed a delicious dinner together. When they left, Adrian and I cleaned up as best we could but were really running out of steam. We decided to postpone our viewing of "The Mandalorian" until tomorrow and instead watched "Holey Moley" while we all enjoyed some ice cream. After laughing thru that episode, we all headed upstairs and went to bed. We were really struggling to get thru the day!!

Monday (6/8) - Day 87 of "Corona break." We all got a ton of sleep last night and woke up feeling so much better! Adrian and I woke up first and hung out for a bit before he headed to work upstairs for the day. It will be a long week for him since there is Session every night this week so the Ohio Congress can finish up for their summer break. At least he's at home for this and not stuck downtown all week. I did my first session for the virtual Zumba Convention this morning, Flamenco Flow with a trainer directly from Spain. It was so much fun and a great way to kick off my Monday morning!!

This afternoon we kicked off our week long virtual Scout daycamp with a Zoom call with an engineer from NASA and a few other activities. We have a long list of stuff to do for this camp and it is all space related so I think it will be a lot of fun! The rest of the day passed quickly with me trying to get stuff accomplished that I wasn't able to get to this weekend and the boys playing. I was super productive today thankfully, that will be the mission for the whole week! After dinner, Adrian got a short break from work so he did some yard work and then we took Rocky on a walk. AJ had a Zoom Scout meeting where they worked on their Cooking merit badge and talked about taking care of the flag. When we were all done for the night, we did finally watch the last episode of "The Mandalorian" and finish this season. Adrian and I loved this series, the boys were hit or miss. They thought it started slow but then got interested as the action picked up at the end. They are now all excited for season two! After the episode was over, we put the boys to bed and watched another episode of "The Good Doctor" before we also headed to bed for the night.

Tuesday (6/9) - Day 88 of "Corona break." We all got another great night of sleep and slept in a little bit today. Zak moved down to the sofas sometime overnight so he was woken up when Adrian and I got up and therefore Rocky woke up. He said he wasn't comfortable in his bed so he decided to sleep downstairs instead. Adrian went to work upstairs and I started working on stuff that I need to get done this week too. My schedule is jam packed this week and I have a ton to get done, I'm not sure why there is so much going on but I'm doing my best to stay organized and on top of everything!

The day passed quickly with me working around the house and getting the boys thru the second day of virtual day camp. I also attended a Swing session this afternoon for virtual ZINCON and had a blast dancing during that one! I know I keep saying this, but that may have been my favorite session yet. If I ever get to an in person convention I hope to be able to take this training live. After the busy day, I made tacos for dinner for everyone then headed out to teach my first in person Zumba class since March. I taught an Aqua Zumba class for a few friends from church in a backyard pool. It felt SO great to be back in person with students and we all had a great time. I even got to hop in the pool for about an hour after class to cool off.

When I got home, thankfully Adrian was done with work for the night. He's worked a lot of hours this week already and it will probably continue all week. I had a ZINCON session on Cuban dancing at 9pm so I headed upstairs to attend that while the boys and Adrian started family movie night without me. We watched "Spiderman: Homecoming" and I saw the last hour or so with everyone after my session. When the movie was over it was late so we got the boys to bed for the night then watched one episode of "Mixed-ish" before we headed to bed. I was exhausted after a full day of exercise!

Wednesday (6/10) - Day 89 of "Corona break." Adrian and I got up and moving early so that we could take Rocky to daycare today for the first time in two weeks. She was super excited when we got there and had a blast playing with the other dogs. They had a special event today and she went to a doggie luau. She played in water and with beach themed toys, took a beach picture and had ice cream for a treat. They said she played hard and had a blast, which was evident when she came home and passed out in her crate.

While she was there living her best life, the rest of us were hanging out at home. Adrian worked another long day and I worked around the house. I took Zak and AJ out to Game Stop so AJ could use his gift card that he got as a birthday present. We did some of the day camp activities that we have to finish. I went and picked up new masks for the boys so we are ready to head back out in the world next week. After a quick dinner, I headed to the church to work for an hour and was happy to see some friends there and get to catch up with all of them. The boys played outside for a while and then played a lot of video games. We finished our night by watching "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" together as a family. I loved seeing Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen work together to help each other's charities! After the boys went to bed, Adrian and I watched another episode of "The Good Doctor" and then we headed to bed too.

Thursday (6/11) - Day 90 of "Corona break." Today was a long day with lots of disappointments from a lot of different directions. I know these days will pop up but they do seem to be more frequent in this time that we are staying home all the time. I didn't sleep well last night so the day started rough for me. We had a pretty lazy morning and then at noon I had a Zumba convention workshop from South Africa where I learned about dance from that country. It was a great session and pushed me out of my dance comfort zone for sure. After I finished that session, the boys and I worked on some of their day camp assignments and played outside for a bit. The afternoon passed quickly and we were busy for most of the day.

I lost track of time with all that we were doing so we just decided to have leftovers for dinner tonight. Then I headed out to the church to do another test class on ZIN Studio which unfortunately didn't work again. It's very frustrating that this program will work from home but will not work from the church's WiFi. After locking up there, I headed home and started cleaning up from the day. Adrian worked another long day but thankfully he finished up in time for some family time tonight. We played Zak's board game pick of the week "Flip Ships" and we won!! Then we got our snacks and settled in to check out the new game show "Don't." It's pretty silly, but it was fun mindless entertainment. We all enjoyed it and look forward to watching it this summer! After we got the boys to bed, we watched another "The Good Doctor" and then headed to bed too. I was exhausted!!

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 5/29 - 6/4)

Friday (5/29) - Day 77 of "Corona break." We were all up and moving pretty early this morning which was good because Adrian started working earlier than he has been so he can finish earlier tonight. I got the boys thru breakfast and showers and then headed out to meet my friend Sara for pedicures this morning. It was so relaxing to sit and get a chair massage while the lady worked on my feet, although it was weird having to wear my mask the whole time. My feet are now summer ready and I enjoyed almost 2 hours of relaxing away from the house!!

When I got home unfortuntely I had to jump right back in to being a little stressed out. Rocky hasn't been feeling well and has been dealing with some stomach issues. I called the vet today and after multiple calls, two trips over there and a fairly large bill, we found out she has worms and a bacterial infection in her stomach. She has medicine for the next few days and will hopefully be back to herself soon! In between that, I tried to get some stuff done around the house and refereed what felt like 100 fights between the boys. They were having a rough time getting along today for sure!

Adrian finally finished up work a little after 5 so he took over taking care of Rocky and I started on dinner. We had meatball subs at the request of the boys which came out delicious! Then we played our final board game of the week, AJ's pick "Dead of Winter." It was a really good game, but was very slow getting started and after just over 2 hours all of us were losing interest, including AJ. We decided to stop playing this game but try again in a week or two now that we all know how to play in hopes that it will go a little quicker. The boys headed upstairs to play some video games and Adrian and I watched an episode of "The Good Doctor." When the boys got in another fight, I sent them to bed for the night in hopes of a good night of sleep and a better day tomorrow. Adrian and I watched an episode of "Black-ish" and then also decided to call it a night and head to bed. This week has been exhausting!!

Saturday (5/30) - Day 78 of "Corona break." We all slept in today and no one was up before 9am and it was fantastic!! After a slow breakfast and some coffee, Zak asked Adrian and I to play Forbidden Dessert with him. We had a ton of fun playing, but unfortuntely we weren't able to beat the game this time. We forgot what the best strategy is and also didn't get very good gear cards to help us out this game. After our game, we all got our showers and did a few things around the house. Then we packed up and headed out to finally go visit Carl, Sarah, Isabelle and Vinnie. We haven't seen them since all of this COVID stuff started so we were excited to reconnect, and also meet their newest additional, Rosie the puppy!!

We got there and the cousins were very excited to play together. Soon after we got there, we all crowded around the television and counted down together to watch the space shuttle launch into space and head to the International Space Station. It was a great moment and we were all excited to watch it. Then we headed outside to smoke our dinner and enjoy the beautiful weather together. The kids played while the adults chatted and enjoyed some adult beverages. After a delicious dinner, we headed out to a local ice cream place to get dessert together and to check off one of the last things on our weekly summer bucket list.

After enjoying our ice cream, we headed back home to take care of Rocky. The boys headed upstairs to play some video games and after a long walk with Rocky, Adrian and I played Viticulture. It was a super close game and we tied in points, then he won in a tie breaker, only because I made 2 significant mistakes in the last round - I blame the margaritas! After our game, we headed outside with the boys and Rocky to watch the ISS fly over our house which was super cool! Then we headed in and got the boys down to bed, watched two episodes of "Black-ish" and headed to bed too. It was a pretty amazing day!

Sunday (5/31) - Day 79 of "Corona break." We slept in again this morning, although not quite as late as yesterday. We again were enjoying a slow breakfast and some coffee and while I was browsing Facebook I saw that the shuttle had reached the ISS and they were docking. So we put that on and watched them successfully dock into the space station. It has been so exciting following this journey! After that, we got started on our stuff around the house since today is our work day for the week. The day passed quickly and we got a ton of stuff done! The boys emptied their bookbags for the school year and cleaned the loft really well in preparation for AJ's birthday party this weekend. We also transplanted our flowers that we've been growing since seeds into bigger pots and are excited with how well they are doing. Adrian fixed a broken board on our deck and tried to get new paint for our kitchen, but the machine at Lowe's wasn't working. I got a ton of stuff done and am feeling ready to head into this week! We got everything done by around dinner time and were able to squeeze in a little more fun this weekend. Adrian and I played our second game of "Pandemic Legacy" since we lost our first game in May and we won this time, but just barely. Then we played a game of "Valeria" which is one of my favorite games and Adrian won. We finished up the night with another episode of "The Good Doctor" before heading to bed. It was a productive day and a great weekend!!

Monday (6/1) - Day 80 of "Corona break." Back to our normal routine today, or whatever our normal routine is now. Although we did all sleep in a little later than we thought we would so Adrian started work later than he has been. I spent the day working around the house and hanging out with the boys. We played outside to enjoy the beautiful weather and also made cards to mail to a friend. They also had some video game time while I attended Day 1 of the second edition of the Zumba Virtual Convention. I attended a Q&A with some of the home office staff and was thankful for what I heard there and also got to dance with two of my favorites in Brazilian Funk.

After a busy afternoon, I ran to Meijer to pick up Adrian's prescription, drop off the boys' prescriptions and get a birthday cake for AJ for tomorrow. Then I came home to cook a delicious and veggie packed dinner for us. After dinner, we got AJ set up for his Zoom Scout meeting and then took Rocky for a walk. When we were all done for the day, we watched the new version of "Press Your Luck" with the boys and they loved it! Zak said it's his favorite game show! Then we put them down for the night and watched an episode of "The Good Doctor" and one of "Black-ish" before heading to bed for the night. It was a pretty great Monday.

Tuesday (6/2) - Day 81 of "Corona break." Happy 13th Birthday AJ!! It is definitely not the way we planned to celebrate him turning a teenager, but we made the best of the day. We slept in a little and then I had a Zumba session with another favorite where I learned how to twerk. It's still not my favorite move, but I always enjoy dancing with Maurice and learning from him and this morning was no exception. The boys spent the morning playing video games, at AJ's request then went outside to play in water this afternoon.

Later this afternoon, I logged on  for my second ZINCON session and danced with Jhon Gonzales again in another Latin Urban session. Once again I loved every minute of dancing with him, he's becoming one of my favorites for sure! While I was dancing again, the boys went back to video games and AJ returned all of the birthday calls and texts that he got today. After a quick shower, I got ready for dinner and soon Jets delivered our delicious pizza for dinner! After dinner AJ opened his presents and is super excited for his new puzzles and his new STEM kit. After one more video game session, the boys came down and we had cake for AJ's birthday and then we watched "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2" as a family. When the movie was over, we got the boys down to bed and watched an episode of "Black-ish" before we also headed to bed. It wasn't the day we had planned for AJ's birthday, but we made the best of the situation!

Wednesday (6/3) - Day 82 of "Corona break." We slept in a little today and then got up and moving. Adrian started working in our bedroom and since Rocky still isn't feeling well I hung out with her for a while before starting my day. When the boys all got up, the 5 of us headed to Krispy Kreme to get free donuts for donut week, but unfortunately they only had glazed ready. They were hot off the line though so we took them and enjoyed them anyway even though they weren't what we were planning on. Then we picked up my Kroger order and headed home for the day.

The boys mostly played upstairs while I recorded a new Zumba class and worked around the house. The day passed quickly and we all got a lot accomplished. The boys and I had an early dinner before I headed to work at the church for an hour tonight. Adrian was stuck "at work" late today doing support which we're not complaining about because we could use the overtime. I worked at the front desk at church and also met with some of the leaders about starting my Zumba classes up there in the just over a week. I'm so excited to be able to start them up in person again! When I got home, I did my Daily Burn workout then cleaned up from dinner. When Adrian finished work, we all watched the next episode of "Series of Unfortunate Events" with the boys, then got them down to bed. Then Adrian and I watched the winter finale of "The Good Doctor" and headed to bed for the night.

Thursday (6/4) - Day 83 of "Corona break." We woke up and got moving pretty quickly this morning. Adrian got called "in" to work early today so he started right after I got up. The boys started right away watching YouTube because they were in the middle of watching something last night when we had them stop. We had a pretty good day mostly hanging out at home getting stuff done in hopes of having very little to do this weekend. I took two sessions for virtual ZINCON including Puerto Rican Flow again with Rony (I missed part of his session last time) and Dancing Thru the Decades with Kass. It was a full day of working out for me!!

In the afternoon, I took Zak and Daniel on a quick run out to pick up a few things. We went to the library to pick up a few new books that we had requested and then we went back to Krispy Kreme to get more free donuts. AJ didn't want to come with us but I was nice and gave him my free donut this time. After a delicious dinner, we finished the night playing 3 family games of "Good Cop, Bad Cop" and I was on the winning team each time! Then Adrian and I took Rocky on a long walk before watching last weeks "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" with the boys. Then we put the kids to bed and watched another episode of "The Good Doctor" before heading to bed too. It was a productive day!

Keeping Up With...2020 Goals (May Recap)

May was another pretty good month around here. We spent most of the month at home but did start to venture out a little at the end of the month. We are finished up with school for the year (yay!) and are now trying to figure out how to still have a good time this summer while most of our favorite places remain closed. We have come up with a weekly plan which includes reading, riding bikes, doing an art project, doing some Math & STEM, putting together puzzles, watching movies and playing board games. We are also planning on going to either a donut shop or an ice cream shop each week to get out of the house a little and support small businesses.

My goals are still in two categories, the ones I can work on during this lock down and the ones I can't. Some of the ones that are on hold will just have to wait until things open back up, they are just out of my control right now. I'm really trying to focus on working out, spending time with the boys and keeping the house clean. I'm also really hoping to get thru my giant to do list that I always have, there are some things on there from last summer still! I'm planning to do one thing each day until they are done. The problem is that half of the days I do one thing then add 3 things back on so I'm not making any progress.

 

Here are my goals for 2020 and how I'm doing.  The blue ones are new goals, crossed out ones are revised goals and red ones are done (none so far).

• Lose 25 pounds - This one has been hard between the quarantine and the fact that two scales have broken so I don't have an accurate picture of where I was at the start of the year. I decided to reset on May 18th and see if I can still hit this goal. So far this month I lost 3 pounds!
• Exercise for 20 minutes every day - I exercised all 31 days this month, 134 days so far this year!! Some of the days were just walking with Adrian and Rocky, but every day I did something that got me moving and I'm proud of that!
• Finish 12 exercise related calendar challenges - I finished a push up calendar in May so I've done all 5 months so far. For June I'm challenging myself to do my Daily Burn 365 workout every day this month.
• Do 30 40 Bible Plans in the You Verse app - I finished 4 plans in May, and have finished 21 so far this year. I think I'm on track for this revised goal.
• Read "A Little God Time for Women" - I've read all 152 days so far this year, I'm on track to finish this goal too.
• Read 20 books - I've finished 5 books so far this year.  In May I finished  "How to Break a Dragon's Heart" which was really good, it was one of my favorite in this series. I also made good progress on two other books I'm reading.  I'm hoping to finish a bunch of books over the summer since I'm a little behind on this goal so far.
• Read the 12 How to Train Your Dragon Books - I finished the 8th book this month. They are quick and easy reads and I'm enjoying them.
• Read "Feminine Mystique" - I have read 26% so far this year. I think I read more this month, but I can't see my progress since I don't have the book checked out right now. I want to make a huge dent in this reading over the summer too.
• Write 45 meal plan blogs - I did 4 posts this month, 13 blog posts so far this year.
• Write 52 weekly summary blogs - I did 5 posts this month, 20 blog posts so far this year
• Write 12 4 goal recap blogs - I've done 3 so far this year so this goal looks doable. I will probably revise it again.
• Pay off $5,000 of credit card debt - We paid off $600 this month which is what we've paid off so far this year since we incurred the debt for our new sofas earlier this year. So far it looks like we can keep up our aggressive payments for the summer, but we're making the decision month to month right now.
• Renovate the boys' bedrooms kitchen - The boys decided that they wanted to finish downstairs first before moving to the rooms upstairs. We decided on our colors for the paint and went to buy it, but the machine was down so we'll be moving on with this next month.
• Finish my daily to do list every night - I did this about 18 days in May, falling apart towards the end of the month. This continues to be a huge problem for me, that I don't finish everything each day then I feel stressed out and behind all the time. I'm committing to this again in June!
• Watch 50 movies - We've watched 23 movies so far.  Our May movies were "City of Ember," "Avengers: Civil War," "Knives Out," "Spies in Disguise" and "Doctor Strange." 
• Go on 12 dates with Adrian - We've gone on 5 dates so far this year. This month we got creative and went on two dates, kind of . We went out for a morning date going to the salon, then picked up lunch and dinner and came home to spend the day together. Then we did a take out dinner, drinks and dessert for our anniversary and played two board games together while the boys hung out upstairs. They are different than the dates we had in mind, but they are helping us stay connected so I'm thankful for the option.
• Sub 80 days in the schools - I've subbed 21.5 days so far since January.  Unfortunately this goal is on hold until schools reopen, or possibly next year.  
• Go to 6 Zumba jam sessions - I haven't gone to any in person but have done a bunch of mini-jams at home.  All of the in person ones have been cancelled or postponed.  They are doing virtual ones but since my income is non-existant I am holding off on those for right now.
• Clean out master bedroom - Done!!
• Play 1 game with Adrian each week - I have done this all 22 weeks so far! This has been great for us while we're staying home so much!
• Play Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 with Adrian once per month - We have played all 5 months so far.  We lost the first game in May, and then barely won the second one. This second season is much harder than season 1.
• Play Machi Koro Legacy with the boys - We have played all 5 months so far and are having a great time playing this game as a family!!  Zak won in May and once again we were surpised and excited by the twist that was added this month.
• Have 6 nights out with friends - I've had 3 nights out so far.  This month I met up with friends to walk and catch up one night and met up with a different group of friends for a wine night. It was so nice to hang out in person with people and we all laughed so hard during our wine night. 
• Go on an awesome family vacation to the Outerbanks - We have decided to cancel this trip due to the uncertain nature of travel right now.  We are waiting to hear if someone else books the week for the house we're committed to.
• Do 100 fun family things (one thing each week during school & one thing per person each week over the summer) - We did 18 fun things so far this year and obviously this is on hold for right now.  We are still having fun, it's just a different kind of fun right now.  This month we did trips to Krispy Kreme and Sticky Fingers, had a family game day, hiked at Hannah Park and did an art project together.
• Go on 2 family camping trips - hopefully this can still happen!!
• Deep clean the whole house - Done!!  We only have the basement left, but that is on hold until we renovate the kitchen.