Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan 1/24 - 1/30)

We had another great week last week sticking to our meal plan even though there were multiple days that I didn't want to cook! My potluck on Saturday was cancelled, so we all just had leftovers that night and I will be bumping the dip recipes to future weeks. I also added in making my own granola bars using up some of the things we have from school lunches and also making sure I have iron rich options for breakfast. I was finally able to get in to have blood work done and my iron is slowly creeping back up which is good! I will continue to follow an iron rich diet and take the supplements in hopes of keeping it on the right track. I'm also starting tests next week to figure out why this happened and how to prevent it in the future. Our meals were all great last week, we enjoyed everything and barely had any leftovers from our dinners! Here are a few of the picture highlights.

This week we have been off all week since I had Zumba training on Sunday and didn't get all of my prep work done for the week. I also subbed in the school for a few hours and had a ton of errands to take care of this week. I've felt like I'm behind all week, as is apparent from the fact that this post is so late in the week. I did meal plan over the weekend and got all of my grocery shopping done on Tuesday. I almost didn't write this post but once again we've had some good food already this week so I wanted to share the recipes. I'm also starting to add a little bit more exercise into my weeks. This week I'm planning to do our new stepper machine everyday for at least 5 minutes in addition to my walks with Adrian and Rocky. Next week I hope to add some seated weight exercises.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday - Grilled London Broil and Air Fried Potatoes

Monday - Olive Garden Sheet Pan Chicken - I used mushrooms and broccoli that I had in the fridge for my vegetables. This was delicious!!

Tuesday - Tacos for the boys and Burrito Zucchini Boats for the adults

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs with Parmesan Brussels Sprouts for the adults and Marco's Pizza for the boys

Friday - Pasta for the boys and Spaghetti Squash for the adults with meatballs

Saturday - Out to Carrabba's for dinner to use a gift card we've had for months!

Water Flavor - Citrus. I found a lemon in my fridge so I used that with some oranges for my water. I am finally starting to make a dent in the oranges!!

Baking - This week I'm making chocolate cake and blueberry pancakes, but both will be from the box. We're also have croissants for breakfast on Saturday but those will be store bought because I have no idea how to make them. We have a lot of baked goods to eat so I'm not really doing any baking this week, hoping to catch up on what we already have in the house. I'm going to make the 7 Layer Mexican dip I planned to make last week for this weekend because I have a lot of avocados I need to use up. We'll snack on it around going out on Saturday and then have it for snacks during the week as well. 

Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 1/18 - 1/24)

Last week went by super quick and our weekend was weird so I'm pretty far behind on my normal weekly things, like writing this recap. It was a mostly good week, with a holiday to start the week so we all enjoyed an extra day off. The week flew by and the boys did great in school as they kicked off their third quarter of classes. AJ and Daniel started new electives, Career Connections for AJ and Gym for Daniel. We also had a 50 degree day so I forced everyone to go outside to play for a bit before video games. Our plans changed all weekend when Adrian had a funeral and memorial service for a friend from school come up which clearly trumped all of our existing plans. While for a sad occasion, he was happy to see some of his old friends.

I did pretty good staying focused on my goals this week and continue to be either on track or ahead for all of the goals. While my exercise goal is taking a hit because of my still unresolved low iron issues, some of the other goals are being helped by the extra time. I've already finished 3 books (and I'm starting my 4th), I've kept up on daily chores around the house and we are way ahead on our board game goal. And I'm continuing to lose weight which is just reinforcing how important diet is and not just exercise. I'm hoping to have the food part of the equation really under control during this and then slowly add in more exercise.

Here's how I did on my goals this week.

 Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year - I lost another 2.6 pounds this week for 8.6 pounds total this year. I walked 7.5 miles this week for a total of 27.7 miles so far this year. Even though I'm not moving a lot, I'm slightly ahead of pace for this goal for the year.
• Read 15 books for fun - I finished my 3rd book of the year this week "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel. It was a graphic novel and was just OK in my opinion. This is book 18 on the list of 50 books I'm trying to read before I turn 50 in only 5 years!
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 24 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year.
• Attend 12 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I attended my first jam session of the year on Sunday and it was awesome! It was a Reggaeton jam with Ria & Rony and all 4 songs were so much fun! I learned a lot from both of them as I always do and can't wait to bring 3 of the 4 songs to my classes (I have choreo to the 4th song already). I also danced just a little with them, doing each song twice which felt awesome!! 

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We played 3  games this week for a total of 19 games so far this year. We played Boom Bang Gold with Zak, Catan with AJ & Daniel and Carcassonne. We also played 2 other games this weekend, our newest game Obsession which we loved and Targi which is going back to CABS library next weekend so we wanted to play one more time. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage. 
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We decided to organize the garage this month so we can get the van in it. Adrian worked on organizing a bunch of his tools and stuff in the garage this weekend while I was in my Zumba jam. We should be able to finish this project off next weekend. And we are thrilled the van already fits inside, there has been so much ice recently!
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our Best Buy credit card this month which included the boys' new XBox and their laptops from this summer. Next up we hope to pay off the couches.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We spent the week watching TV shows we want to catch up on. We finished season 2 of "The Mandalorian" this week, it was SO good!! Fantastic end to a great season! We also started working on a few "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" episodes that we have on our DVR. We'll be back to movies next week.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This past week we celebrated Martin Luther King Day, National Popcorn Day, Inauguration Day, National Granola Bar Day, National Blondie Day, National Handwriting Day and National Peanut Butter Day. Below are a few picture highlights of our holidays. I'm also chronicling them on Facebook so if we aren't friends there, feel free to add me or follow along at #CelebrateEveryDay
  
  
  

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan 1/17 - 1/23)

We had another great week and while I juggled some things around, I stuck to last week's meal plan. I forgot that we had Marco's fundraiser night on Thursday last week, so we had tacos on Wednesday instead so the boys could enjoy the pizza on Thursday. Adrian and I resisted the pizza and did a great job of sticking to our healthy eating plan. We are continuing to eat and track calories 6 days each week and then taking one day off each week. It seems to be working for us so far, both physically and mentally since I get worn out cooking, tracking and washing dishes every single day! Here are a few picture highlights of our week, including my first try at healthy bagels which tasted good but did not rise.

This week we will continue to try to eat healthy and fairly easy since I'm still not 100% back to my normal strength. I did a Kroger grocery pick up last week and they accidentally gave me someone else's food. They corrected it and I got my correct order, but since they can't take the food back, we ended up with some extra (free) stuff this week, including Panera broccoli cheddar soup. I'm also still focusing on eating a high iron diet, although I didn't end up with any red meat in the plan for this week. I'll focus more on greens, beans and other proteins for the iron this week. 

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Appetizers including Air Fried Chicken Wings
Monday - Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Chopped Salad
Tuesday - Tacos! Beef for the kids and Chicken Fajita for the adults
Wednesday - Kielbasa Tortellini Soup for the adults, pasta for the kids
Thursday - Instant Pot Mac and Cheese and Chopped Salad 
Friday - Garlic Butter Shrimp over Parmesan Cauliflower Rice
Saturday - Leftovers for the boys, I'm going to a potluck with girlfriends. See below for what I'm making

Water Flavor - Orange again. I did buy mango last week and almost put that in my water, but I will use that for snacks and smoothies instead and stick with the oranges for my water.

Baking - I have an open can of pumpkin that I need to use so I'm making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars for breakfasts this week. I'm also making blonde brownies on Friday to celebrate that holiday. Finally for my potluck dinner with my friends, I am making two iron rich dips for our baked potato bar. I'm making spinach and artichoke dip and 7 Mexican layer dip. I'm also going to make this punch since I'm not drinking wine right now until I get some more answers on what's going with my health. 

Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 1/11 - 1/17)

We are already halfway thru January, this month is flying by! We had another pretty good week here. It started with Adrian have Monday and Tuesday off from work so I had extra help for schoolwork and getting a few things done around the house. We had all of the other students here for school this week and the boys were thankful to see their friends again. We celebrated two of their birthdays this week (Patrick and Hailey) and mourned the end of football in Ohio for the season (nice job Buckeyes and Browns!) We got back to all of our activities this week including Scouts and bowling for Zak, art class for Daniel and Scouts for AJ. I also was feeling well enough to work at our church for a few hours this week, but I'm still not cleared for exercise so my Zumba classes remain paused.

Saturday was a big day around here for the boys. AJ got up early and headed out with his Scout troop to the Klondike Derby. He had to pull a sled to different stations and then demonstrate different skills at each station. His troop was one of the smaller groups, but they did really well and AJ had a great time. He came home all excited about what they did. He liked how each station had a different scenario including making a fire to thaw a cure for COVID-19, building shelter, saving one of his troop mates from hypothermia (they did not) and using a compass to navigate a special course. We're really proud of him for going without one of us and doing such a great job!

While AJ was out, Zak and Adrian headed to Zak's bowling league. Zak bowled his highest game yet, an 87 without bumpers. He was so excited and came running down to tell me all about it when I got home from work. He also drove by his friend Hailey's house for her birthday and was excited to help her celebrate this week. The rest of the weekend was a lot of video games for the boys, board games for the adults, and football. We had a very long and relaxing weekend since everyone has Monday off for the holiday.

Here's how I did on my goals this week.

 Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year - I lost another .5 pounds this week for 6 pounds total. I'm thrilled about since I'm not working out and my body is adjusting to a few new medicines. I walked 7 miles this week for a total of 20 miles so far this year.
• Read 15 books for fun - I finished another book this week "Orphan Train." It was so good that I read it in like 2 days. It's been a long time since I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning reading a book! If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 17 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year.
• Attend 12 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I am signed up for a session in January and March. I still haven't figured out my February jam, hopefully in the next week or so I'll figure it out.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We played 8  games this week for a total of 16 games so far this year. We played Back to the Future, Bad Beets, Bad Maps, Blood Rage, Bounce Off, Blokus, Barenpark and Bang the Dice Game. We also started our purge this week as a lot of the ones we played were bad or missing pieces. We donated Bad Beets and Bad Maps, threw out Blokus and moved Bounce Off to the playroom. We're making room for more games in our shelf! You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage. 
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We decided to organize the garage this month so we can get the van in it. We reorganized our overflow pantry this weekend and made enough room in there for us to be able to move around when the van is in there. We have one more chunk to take care of over the next two weekends.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our Best Buy credit card this month which included the boys' new XBox and their laptops from this summer. Next up we hope to pay off the couches.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We spent the week watching TV shows we want to catch up on. We're watching the current season of both "Cobra Kai" and "Mandalorian." We finished season 3 of "Cobra Kai" this week, it was SO good!! We also finished "The Great Christmas Light Fight" and officially finished our Christmas season. 
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This past week we celebrated Write Your Name in Morse Code Day, Curried Chicken Day, National Sticker Day, International Kite Day, Bagel Day, Fig Newton Day and Ben Franklin Day. Below are a few picture highlights of our holidays. I'm also chronicling them on Facebook so if we aren't friends there, feel free to add me or follow along at #CelebrateEveryDay
  
  
  

  

Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 1/1 - 1/10)

Well here we are about 10 days into the new year and it has already taken a few interesting turns. This recap is slightly more days than I will write about in the future. I'm planning to do Monday thru Sunday each week but since the new year started in the middle of the week, I just did the first 10 days in this one. It's been an interesting mix of days to start the year. The boys didn't start school until this past Tuesday so they enjoyed the end of their winter break. Adrian worked a ton of hours last week, but thankfully got to enjoy some time off for the holiday last weekend and got this whole weekend off. We eased into our schedule with about half of our commitments this past week and will add a few more next week.

I started this week all motivated to work out and eat right to lose weight this year. I was feeling pretty tired though and my muscles were hurting more than I was used to. Then on Thursday I felt really bad, dizzy and nearly passed out during my Zumba class. I talked to my doctor on Friday and we think it's low iron and maybe a few other things. We'll be doing some tests next week and hopefully get a plan in place so I feel better. But for now I am restricted on my exercise and am supposed to focus on resting, drinking a lot of water and eating iron rich foods. That put a bit of a cramp in my plans for the weekend, but we made the best of it.

Each week I will talk about each of my goals for the year and how I'm doing with them. I will also included a section at the end if we do anything fun or out of the ordinary that week. This week we didn't really do anything exciting, just getting back to our routine and trying to help me feel better. Here's how I did on my goals this week. 

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year - I lost 5 pounds this past week despite not working out as much as I would have liked. I worked out 3 days last week and walked every day except Sunday for a total of 13 miles in the 10 days. This week I'm trying to still walk 1 mile each day and focus on controlling my eating to hopefully still see some weight loss.
• Read 15 books for fun - I finished my first book this week when I finished "How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel." I had started it at the end of last year and was nearly done going in to this week so it was easy to finish. I also started my second book "Orphan Train."
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 10 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year.
• Attend 12 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I am signed up for a session in January and think I have figured out my February session. I am waiting to sign up for that one just in case I'm not able to teach still by February.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We have played 8 games so far over the past two weekends. We played 7 Wonders, Avalon and Apples to Apples with the boys. Then Adrian and I played Age of Steam, Azul, Agricola, Arkham Horror and Awkward Guests. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage. 
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We decided to organize the garage this month so we can get the van in it. We started this weekend by pulling down and storing all of our Christmas decorations.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our Best Buy credit card this month which included the boys' new XBox and their laptops from this summer. Next up we hope to pay off the couches.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We spent the week watching TV shows we want to catch up on. We're watching the current season of both "Cobra Kai" and "Mandalorian." Plus we're watching some "Wipeout" and finishing "The Great Christmas Light Fight."
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This past week we celebrated New Years Day, Cream Puff Day, Drink with a Straw Day, Spaghetti Day, Whipped Cream Day, Bean Day, International Programmers Day, Toffee Day, Apricot Day and Sunday Super Day. Below are a few picture highlights of our holidays. I'm also chronicling them on Facebook so if we aren't friends there, feel free to add me or follow along at #CelebrateEveryDay
  
  
  
  
  

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan 1/10 - 1/16)

We had a great first week back to our schedule and eating well last week. We basically followed our meal plan, until the end of the week. I had more ham leftover than I thought I did so on Friday I made an easy ham casserole for dinner and bumped the planned meal to this week. Then on Saturday we didn't go out for dinner so we thru together apricot glazed salmon and broccoli. Here are a few picture highlights of our food from last week:

My exercise didn't go as planned at the end of the week due to some medical issues on my end. I'm taking it easy this week again and hoping to be back to working out next week! Our meals this week will be focused on boasting my iron consumption, easy meals and continuing to eat healthy. Adrian is off Monday and Tuesday this week which will be awesome for all of us! We're hoping to relax a bit, play a few board games and start working on organizing the garage. We aren't going to go on a date, the boys still have school and we have commitments both evenings, but it will still be nice to have some time with him.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Cavatelli for Sunday Supper Day
Monday - Ham and Potato Casserole to finish up the ham
Tuesday - Curry Chicken over Rice and Cauliflower Rice to celebrate Curried Chicken Day
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Taco Thursday!! Beef for the boys and shrimp for the adults
Friday - Chili Stuffed Acorn Squash - carryover from last week
Saturday - Loaded Baked Potato Soup & Salad - we got a ton of potatoes from school this week!

Water Flavor - Orange again to use up some of the oranges from our school lunches

Baking - I'm going to attempt to make my own healthy bagels this week for National Bagel Day on Friday! Other than that I'm not doing any baking this week, I'm hoping to pick back up next week. We will also be celebrating Fig Newton Day on Saturday so we'll have some of those to snack on too.

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

Whew, we made it thru the year. It was by far the most bizarre year of my life! It started off normal and then in March it took a huge left turn and just kept going off course from there. I'd by lying if I said 2020 was all bad for me personally, it was not. There were some amazing things that came out of it, especially slowing down and spending time with my husband and kids. I also really figured out what I want to focus on and where to put my energy. There have been hard times too, which I won't list out on here. I think me and my family made the best of what we were given this year and hope we can do the same next year.

My goals continue to be all over the place. Some of them I kicked butt on this year, changed to be harder and still completed them. Others I struggled with, changed to be easier and still didn't complete them. I have taken a real long look at my goals and decided to simplify them in the upcoming year. I will also be updating my goals each week next year instead of waiting for the monthly recap. I am hoping that is a more streamlined process for me and that everyone reading it enjoys it more. I will still have occasional special blog posts describing what we do as a family, just not the weekly ones writing out everything we do each day. I hope you'll stick around and continue reading!

Now, for the last time with this set of goals, here's how I did this past month and my thoughts on most of them for the year.

• Lose 25 20 pounds - Nope. I'm not even sure how much I gained this month. It has been a rough year with little exercise and lots of stress eating. I gained a bunch this year and I do not like the number I am seeing on the scale. I am ready to recommit to my health with more movement and less junk food next year for sure!!
• Exercise for 20 minutes every day - I exercised 23 days this month, 338 days for this year!! All of these days were walking at least 1 mile with Rocky. I missed a few days when I was sick and then another few because I was just super busy with the boys, Christmas prep and Adrian working a ton of overtime. I'm proud that I worked out just about every day this year, I missed less than 30 days! 
• Finish 12 exercise related calendar challenges - DONE! I walked a mile 23 days this month, however I finished with 44 miles for the month. So while I didn't walk everyday, I did exceed my goal of 31 miles. I will be continuing trying to walk a mile each day next year and my goal is 400 miles for the year.
• Do 30 40 60 Bible Plans in the You Verse app - DONE! I finished 3 plans in Dec and finished 66 plans this year. I enjoyed doing this for the year, I feel like I learned a lot about Jesus, the Bible and myself. Next year I'm switching to scripture writing for my goal. 
• Read "A Little God Time for Women" - DONE! I finished this book and really enjoyed it. I am holding on to it and would like to read it again in a year or two.
• Read 20 books - I finished 14 books this year, much lower than I expected.  In December I finished "Charlotte's Web" and "Feminine Mystique." I enjoyed rereading "Charlotte's Web" with Zak and his class, it's been over 30 years since I read it! 
• Read the 12 How to Train Your Dragon Books - I finished 0 book in December and 9 books so far. I have the last 3 books out from the library, they will be the first 2 books I read in the new year.
• Read "Feminine Mystique" - DONE!! I did not love this book and it took me forever to read it, but I'm glad I powered thru and finished it. 
• Write 45 35 meal plan blogs - DONE!! I only did 2 posts this month, but hit my goal of 35 blog posts this year. I will be continuing doing these most weeks next year, but not stressing about it if I don't blog it. The more important part for me is to actually plan my meals each week.
• Write 52 weekly summary blogs - DONE!! I did 6 posts this month, some of them were catching up on weeks I missed and finished 52 blog posts this year. I actually skipped Thanksgiving week and decided not to go back and try to write it now, just didn't feel like an efficient use of my time. I will not be doing these the same next year, it was very time consuming!
• Write 12 4 9 goal recap blogs - DONE!! Again, I won't be doing these monthly posts next year as part of my trying to simplify things. 
• Pay off $5,000 of credit card debt - DONE! We paid off $750 this month, $5,250 for the year. I'm super proud of us for sticking with this even though our income took a hit when I stopped working in March. We are on track to pay off everything in 2021 and then start working on the cars, student loans and finally our mortgage.
• Renovate the boys' bedrooms kitchen deck - DONE-ish! We didn't get to the kitchen, but the deck looks great. We are going to make a schedule next year to get one thing done around the house each month.
• Finish my daily to do list every night - I did this about 25 days in December. I have deleted some things off of the list to try to make finishing it more achievable. 
• Watch 50 70 movies - DONE!! We watched exactly 70 movies this year.  Our December movies were "Elf," "Grinch," "Christmas Chronicles," "Christmas Chronicles 2," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas Musical," "Christmas Vacation," "The Santa Claus" and "Jingle Jangle." So fun to watch all of those Christmas movies!! And still so many more that we want to see!!
• Go on 12 dates with Adrian - We finished the year with 10 dates. I'll take that as a win since we were staying home for a good chunk of the year. 
• Sub 80 days in the schools - I subbed 22.5 days this year, including 2 half days in my church preschool in December. This was way below what I was hoping but the schools have been virtual most of the year so I haven't had many opportunities. I'm hoping to get back in the schools safely soon!!
• Go to 6 Zumba jam sessions - I did a total of 4 virtual jams this year plus a ton of mini jams. I'm thankful for all of the training Zumba provided us virtually this year. They really went above and beyond for us instructors!!
• Clean out master bedroom - DONE!!
• Play 1 game with Adrian each week - DONE!! I have done this all 52 weeks and we have loved it! It has really brought us together as a couple and given us a fun hobby to have together. Next year we plan to play thru every game we own. 
• Play Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 with Adrian once per month - DONE!! We played the last month this month and had to play twice to win. This second season was a lot harder for us than the first one. We mostly enjoyed this one, but sometimes it felt like it was not possible to win which was frustrating for us.
• Play Machi Koro Legacy with the boys - DONE!! We played one game this month with the game we created over the past 9 months and Daniel won. It's fun to play the game with the choices we made over the past few months.
• Have 6 9 nights out with friends - DONE!! I had 9 nights out with my friends this year. In December we did a quick tacos and margaritas night out over Christmas break when we all needed a few hours break from our respective houses. So thankful I prioritized this and that slowing down a bit in other areas gave me time to do more with my friends. 
• 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 debated about doing something else as a family but decided to just stay home for the summer instead. Adrian is taking a week off in July and we'll do a few day trips but that's all we have planned for the summer now.
• Do 100 fun family things (one thing each week during school & one thing per person each week over the summer) - DONE!! We did 108 fun things this year!! Obviously this ended up being a little different than we expected, but we are still had fun. It's just a different kind of fun right now.  This month we did: Santa visit, light show, Dungeons & Dragons night (x2), Trans Siberian Orchestra concert, game night, Christmas light scavenger hunt, Wildlights, WonderLights, Creekside, family dinner
• Go on 2 family camping trips - Same as with vacation, we went back and forth and decided not to do this but instead save our money and energy for a few fun day trips and invest in one or two big vacations next year.
• Deep clean the whole house - Done!!  We only have the basement left, but that is on hold until we renovate the kitchen.

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan 1/3 - 1/9)

After a few weeks break, I am back to meal planning for the new year. I enjoyed my mental break of not really planning or cooking for the two weeks around Christmas and New Year's! We did some take out, lots of leftovers and very easy meals. I know it was good for my mind to take the break, but my body started to feel the effects of not eating well for that long. I am ready to be refocused on healthier eating and watching my portions starting this week. I have lofty weight loss goals and they will not happen if I don't get a better handle on my eating.

I'm trying to simplify my life in this new year and not have as much hanging over my head. Again, meal planning helps with that because I know exactly what I'm cooking and eating. I will try to continue to only do large grocery trips once each month, with small fill in trips the other weeks. Our plan was to eat some of the stuff in the freezer over break but we didn't really make that big of a dent in it so that will continue to be a focus in the new year. The boys will continue to get breakfasts and lunches from the school until the end of May so that will also be a focus in what we're eating.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Leftover Ribs from New Years Day
Monday - Spaghetti & Meatballs to celebrate Spaghetti Day. I'm also doing spaghetti squash for the adults.
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday! Ground beef for the boys and Shrimp for the adults
Wednesday - Ham & Bean Soup and Brussels Sprouts Salad
Thursday - Cilantro Lime Chicken and Quinoa
Friday - Chili Stuffed Acorn Squash
Saturday - Out to Carrabba's since we have to do returns near there and have a gift card to use

Water Flavor - Orange. I still have a lot of oranges from the school lunches so they will be in my water most weeks for the next month or so.

Baking - I'm not doing any baking this week because we still have a ton of cookies from Christmas plus a lot of granola bars from school breakfasts. I'm hoping to use up most (or all) of that this week and then maybe bake again next week. This also goes along with simplifying my week and I knew I had a lot going on this week, including tons of errands & Christmas returns on Monday which is normally the day I bake. 

I'm also going to start including my workout plan in this weekly blog. I'm hoping it will inspire others to get moving and also to help keep me accountable. I'm still figuring out exactly what will work for me and there are a few things up in the air, but this is my general plan for this week.
Sunday - 1 mile walk with Rocky and Adrian
Monday - Teach Zumba class
Tuesday - 20 minute YouTube video and 1 mile walk with Rocky and Adrian
Wednesday - 30 Day Shred Day 1 and 1 mile walk with Rocky and Adrian
Thursday - Teach Zumba class
Friday - 30 Day Shred Day 2 and 1 mile walk with Rocky and Adrian
Saturday - Either walk a 5K or take a virtual Zumba class and 1 mile walk with Rocky and Adrian

Keeping Up With...2021 Goals

As the year changes, I am looking forward to a reset after a really weird 2020. All things considered, my family and I made the best of last year even though we were forced to cancel a lot and change plans often. One of the big things I learned last year is that I am just doing too much. I had 27 goals last year, and all of them required a lot of time each month. I was blogging every day and a lot of what I was writing was repetitive. I was working a lot and not always enjoying what I was doing, especially when I was teaching 10ish exercise classes every week. I noticed this back in February, then everything shut down in March and I thought I missed everything. I spent about 6 months in limbo and then in the past 6 weeks or so I've really focused in on what I want to accomplish in the next year and where I want to put my efforts.

The big things this year will be getting back to an exercise routine for myself which will include not teaching as many classes as I have been. I will start the year only teaching 2 classes each week, and may stay there all year. The other big goal we have is to play thru all of our board games and decide which ones we want to keep and which ones we want to swap out for new ones. I'm thankful last year forced us to stay home more and I started playing board games with Adrian. We really like playing them and it has been great for our relationship. One of the big changes I will be making is how I blog. I will still blog weekly, but it will be updating these goals. I will still do the meal plan most weeks and will have special blogs when we do something fun and out of the ordinary, hopefully lots of that this summer!

Here are the goals that I have chosen to focus on this year. We have talked as a family and we have all agreed to work on these together and help each other out along the way as best we can.

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year
• Read 15 books for fun
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year
• Attend 12 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family)
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year

I'm hoping having this paired down list and really focusing on these things will help us have a successful year. There are a few other general/large goals for this year including the boys successful finishing their school year either all virtually or hybrid. We are also planning at least one vacation this summer, probably a road trip somewhere. And Adrian and I would really like to get away for our anniversary this year since it is our 15th and the cruise we had planned to do has been cancelled. I may also do a girls trip this summer and Adrian may go to one or two board game conventions. But a lot of that travel depends on what is going on in the world with COVID as it comes up so we're not making them a priority right now.

I hope you will join me in this adventure and set some of your own goals for the year as well. Or just follow along with mine and keep me accountable. I wish you all happiness and health in this new year and that we can get back to some sort of normal living sooner rather than later.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 12/28 - 12/31)

Monday (12/28) After an amazing long weekend, we are back to our weekday schedule, sort of. The boys still have another week of winter break, but Adrian has to work three days this week. He and I got up and moving a little early so that he could get started at work in our bedroom. I started working around the house including having the boys help me put away some of the Christmas presents and try on all of their new clothes. Now I have a giant pile of laundry of the things we're keeping and a giant pile of returns! Hopefully I'll be able to figure out all of the returns and go on Monday to get everything sorted out.

The day passed quickly with Adrian and I working and the boys playing video games. Around 3:00, Zak, Daniel and I packed up and headed out to the zoo to meet Carl, Sarah and the kids for some fun at Wild Lights. We had a great time seeing some animals before the sun went down and then checking out the lights after it got dark. It looked beautiful as always and I'm so glad we met up with them to walk around for a bit. It was a little cold, but we survived! We walked around for about 3 hours and then split up and headed home, with me and the boys stopping at McDonald's for a quick to go dinner.

When we got home, Adrian was still working. The boys helped me unload the car and then they had some video game time while I took care of Rocky and finished a few things downstairs. I also enjoyed relaxing and watching the "Real Housewives of Potomac" reunion, they are always my favorite part of those shows! After we got the boys to bed, Adrian came downstairs to work for a while and we watched part of the Broadway special that was on a few weeks ago. It was OK, but I really just miss live theater. I was exhausted after our fun time at the zoo so I headed to bed fairly early, while Adrian was still working. It was another great day of break!

Tuesday (12/29) Most of us slept in again today, except for Adrian. Since he was working downstairs when I went to bed, he slept a few hours down there and then woke up and started working again while the rest of us slept in upstairs. When the boys and I finally got up and moving, Adrian headed up to our room to work and the boys headed upstairs to play video games. I got a very slow start, but eventually started working around the house and made some huge progress on things around the house. The day passed quickly and we were all very productive. Adrian's co-workers insisted he finish up early tonight so around 5:30 he finished up, we all ate quickly and then we finally headed out to see the Wonder Lights display at the National Trails Racetrack.

I drove us to the track just in case work needed Adrian he could help from his phone. We waited in line for about 45 minutes when we got there and then spent at least 45 minutes driving slowly thru the light show. They adjusted it from last year and it was even better than before, which we didn't think was possible! The music was great and all of the lights synced to it were amazing. It was a fun time with lots of singing, laughing and chatting as a family. When we got home, the boys wanted just a little more video game time and Adrian needed to work for about an hour so they headed upstairs and I cleaned up the kitchen with Rocky. After we put the boys to bed, we watched an episode of "Card Sharks" from our DVR and then also headed to bed. This break has been amazing!!

Wednesday (12/30) We slept in again today, enjoying every day of this break! Adrian got up and moving and dropped Rocky off at daycare for the day. Then he stopped at Starbucks to pick up coffees for us this morning on his way home. When I got up, he headed upstairs to work for the day in our room. I worked around the house all day and got a ton of stuff done, almost feel like I will have everything done by the end of the weekend and ready to start the new year off with a clean slate. The day passed quickly with the boys playing and the adults working. We had leftovers for dinner after I went to pick up an exhausted Rocky from daycare. After dinner, I headed out to the church to work for an hour and had fun chatting with some friends there. When I got home, Adrian finished up working and we played one of our new games Parks, which I won and thought was OK but a little slow. Then we watched two episodes of "Big Sky" before getting the boys to bed and following soon after them.

Thursday (12/31) We slept in again on the last day of this weird year. Adrian unfortunately got called in to work this morning so he did that while I got the boys breakfast and started on their day. We have very little on the agenda for the next 5 days before we got back to our school routine and we're planning to enjoy every minute of it. They headed upstairs to play video games and I got a few things done around the house while I waited for Adrian to finish working. He ended up working a full day which kinda stinks for our plans, but the overtime will be good. When he finally finished up, we took Rocky for a walk, made some appetizers for dinner and then played Camel Up with the boys. It's a super fun game, we all had a great time and laughed a lot. Zak and I tied for the win!

When the game was over, the boys wanted to play the video game "Among Us" together. So the 5 of us played a bunch of games in a private server so we could all play together and no one else would join us. We had fun playing, it's a crazy game! Adrian and I were the imposter most of the time which was making the boys frustrated because they wanted to be it. After we played a bunch, we split up and the boys headed back upstairs to play video games and Adrian and I played Quacks of Quedlinburg together while sipping on margaritas. That game was super fun, we both really enjoyed it! We tied in points and then I won on the tie breaker. At midnight, we all watched the ball drop and Adrian and I toasted with moonshine in hopes it will bring us good luck this year. We let the boys stay up until almost 1:00 while we laughed with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper on their NYE show. Soon after 1:00 we all headed to bed ready to start the new year off together!