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