Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 2/22 - 2/28)

Last week was crazy busy and exhausting! I'm clearing still getting over it since I'm almost a week late in writing this update. We had so much going on last week that I was behind all week, then the weekend was jam packed so I never got to catch up. Thankfully this week is much slower and after this, I am caught up and ready to head into this weekend. I probably should have done this past weekend as a separate post but I decided not too so this is a long one!

The week started with AJ getting braces on Monday and us finding out that Daniel will eventually need them too. It has been a steep learning curve for all of us with the braces but we're figuring it out together. There are a lot of foods AJ can't eat, some of his favorites unfortunately, but thankfully we're finding some good replacements for him. He also has to remember to brush after every meal, use mouthwash at least once each day and use his water pick each day. I'm thankful we did this while he is still virtual for school so we can make these habits now! I'll be sure Daniel gets his on early in the summer when it's his turn.

School was fairly light this week, the boys had a few Zooms that cancelled and we didn't have some of the kids here on Thursday or Friday since I had a medical procedure on Thursday. We did have our favorite fundraiser for school this week, Marco's pizza box night where Zak designed a pizza box and when we bought our pizza, it came in his decorated box. He was super excited to get his bacon pizza in his box! I also had his spring parent teacher conference and his teacher thinks he's doing as well as possible for the year we're having. We were thrilled to learn on Friday this week that the kids are going back to school 4 days per week starting in a few weeks! I'm thankful to our school district for all they did to make this happen, and for giving the parents a choice to stay virtual or be in person. I'll be even more thankful when the kids return to school and I can return to the classroom as a substitute!

After the jam packed and emotional week, we had a full weekend. Saturday morning I worked and Zak had bowling. He bowled his highest game yet, an 89 without bumpers! The Saturday afternoon was Zak's Pinewood Derby for Scouts. His pack did a great job to get this together with all of the COVID restrictions and I'm thankful we were able to have the event this year. Zak designed and made his car almost all by himself this year. He had an idea for a certain design and even though people doubted it, he did it anyway and his car ended up coming in second place, just barely behind the first place car. He was beyond excited about how well his car did and we are very proud of him and his hard work!

We finished our weekend on Sunday with church from home in the morning, working around the house all day and then heading to the church to participate in a meal packing event with our church family. We helped pack 25,000 meals that will be sent to Hondorus to help the people there who are struggling after two hurricanes and COVID in the past year. It was a great event and we loved working with our friends to pack our meals. The boys really enjoy doing this as an act of service so I'm sure we'll be doing more of it in the future. This event also finished Zak's Duty to God requirement for Scouts and he is officially done earning his Bear badge! He'll continue to work on the electives so he can finish all of those over the next few months. I'm so proud of him and his dedication to Scouts!!

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 walked about 6 miles this week for a total of 61 miles so far this year. I'm very close to averaging 1 mile each day so I will need to pick it up to hit this goal. However as we move in to the warmer months it will get easier to get more miles in! I weighed in and my weight is very high right now, I'm super disappointed with how February went. Lots of stress and pity eating over here.
• Read 15 books for fun - I finished "Christmas Shopaholic" this week which is my 6th book of this year! I'm really proud of myself and how many books I have read already. This one was cute, a typical shopaholic book. I also started my next book on the books to read while I'm 40 list "The Goldfinch" which is super long and will take a while to finish. I may need to take a few breaks and read a few other books while reading it as well.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 59 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For March I picked a plan focused on perseverance which feels appropriate for the season of life I'm in. 
• Attend 12 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I attended 1 jam in January and am registered for one in March. I decided not to do a February one since I'm not teaching right now. Hopefully I can make it up later this year.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - With all of our activities this weekend, we didn't have much time to play board games this weekend. And I was exhausted so I didn't want to learn anything new. We played 2 games this week for a total of 34 games so far this year. We played DC Deck Building and Doctor Eureka. We also played another game of Obsession with the expansion and I finally won! Actually I won all 3 games this weekend, maybe I play better exhausted. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage. 
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We did not have time to do any of these projects this weekend. We did make a plan for the next few weeks though. We will spend March finishing up the garage and play room and then prepping the kitchen for painting. We'll send Rocky to stay at daycare overnight one day over spring break and we will paint the kitchen. Then in April we will finish off everything else in the kitchen. This will hopefully get us back on track for this goal.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our Best Buy credit card last month which included the boys' new XBox and their laptops from this summer. This month we paid off our new couches, and are down to only one credit card left to pay off. We incurred some new debt this month since AJ got braces, but we hope to pay it off quicker than the 2 year payment plan we will be on.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - This week we watched "The One and Only Ivan" and "The Wolverine" and have watched 8 movies so far this year. We enjoyed both movies, especially Ivan since we're all read the book. I lost interest in Wolverine, but the boys loved it! We also caught up on "WandaVision" and are waiting on new episodes each week now. I think we are going to watch the last few "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" next to finish those up.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This past week we actually celebrated 8 holidays because we doubled up on Monday. We celebrated Margarita Day, Take Your Dog for a Walk Day, Banana Bread Day, Tortilla Chip Day, Chili Day, Tell A Fairy Tale Day, Pokemon Day and International Scouse 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