Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 5/24 - 5/30)

This was a weird and emotional week for all of us. It started fairly calm with everyone finishing up their last days of school. All three boys had field day and fun activities all week since the quarter was over and they were caught up on all of their work. They all finished their school year strong with all three of them finishing with perfect attendance for the year and most of their grades were A's and B's (AJ got a few C's in ELA but I know he was trying his best). AJ also spent some time this week at school recording 3 songs for a virtual band concert for the parents to watch. We are all thankful to put this year behind us and hope next year will be a little closer to normal for our 4th grader, 7th grader and high school freshman.

For me personally the week was all over the place as well. I subbed for the last time this year on Tuesday. I am so thankful I got back in the classroom this year, but it was also exhausting to be back to work. I ran a ton of errands and got a ton done since I'll be recovering for the next few weeks and not able to do much. I got my first pedicure of the summer, which felt awesome to just relax for an hour and read. I also took a few sessions from this year's virtual Zumba convention. It wasn't a great week for me personally to have this convention, but I'm glad I made it to the few sessions that I did. They announced that next year will be in person again so I'm considering making the trip to Orlando next summer. Finally I finished up the week with my hysterectomy on Friday. Surgery went well and I was able to go home that night which was great. I spent the rest of the weekend resting on the recliners in the living room while everyone else took care of me. I'm sore and tired but hopefully my recovery will go smoothly.

In addition to all of that, we had some fun celebrations this week. My parents flew in Thursday night to spend the weekend with us, both helping me and celebrating some milestones for the family. Adrian and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on Thursday with take out food and some board games. It wasn't the celebration we were planning on (a cruise earlier this year) but we made the best of it. Then over the weekend we celebrated my parents' 45th wedding anniversary together and AJ graduating from 8th grade and moving on to high school. We also celebrated AJ's birthday early with everyone and will celebrate him again next week as well. It has been a very fun weekend, even if I had to spend most of it on the couch! 

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

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 20 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year hitting 10,000 steps everyday -  I only hit my step goal 2 of 7 days this week, but 2 of them I was just under 10,000 and 3 of them were surgery and my recovery days. I'm not allowed to do anything strenuous for the next 4-6 weeks so I'm not even walking this week and will hopefully start light walks again next weekend. My eating is a the mercy of whoever is cooking for me over the next two weeks so I'm just enjoying resting and letting my body heal.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I started my next book "Only the Pretty Lies" and read about half of it this week. It's a pretty quick read so I anticipate finishing it in the next few days.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 150 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For May I picked a plan focused on marriage since we are celebrating our anniversary.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We managed to  squeeze in a few games on Thursday for our anniversary. We played Gloomhaven and Ghostbusters and enjoyed playing both games. Then we also played Good Cop, Bad Cop with the family on Sunday. We have played 73 of our games so far this year. We also played Caverna which we borrowed from CABS and we really like that one! It's now on our to buy list and can see playing it often if we owned it. We are a little behind, but again we're hoping to catch up some over the next few weeks when I'm recovering from surgery. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We got a quote for power washing for the fence and the play set this week and the guy will be out to do it next week. Then we will stain both things before vacation to finish up both of those projects in June.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We technically incurred some new debt this week because we have to pay for my surgery. We'll be on a no interest payment plan for the next few months but should be able to pay the balance off this year.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We didn't watch a movie again this week because my surgery was Friday and I didn't get home until late. We are planning to watch two movies each week over the summer so that will hopefully lift our total for the year. Our total for the year so far remains at 19 movies. We also kept up with the new Wipeout and finished the first season of Mighty Ducks Game Changers which was a great show! We started season 2 of The Hollow and are watching the current season of Press Your Luck together. We have a lot of TV shows we want to watch together this summer!
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated National Asparagus Day, National Wine Day, National Paper Airplane Day, National Grape Popsicle Day, National Hamburger Day, International Jazz Day and Mahlon Loomis 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 5/17 - 5/23)

We had another super busy week this week! I am excited that things are getting back to normal but it is also exhausting. I'm hoping this summer we can find more of a middle ground between staying home and getting out. I subbed just about every day this week again and we once again had stuff most nights. The week started with a birthday party for the boys' friend Cameron. They had a great time at Urban Air jumping on the trampolines and finally having a chance to use their virtual reality headsets. Then they enjoyed pizza and cupcakes and watching Cameron open his gifts. It was rough to have a party on a Monday night but we made it work.

I spent a lot of this week with Zak. I was in as his substitute teacher for two days, then we had the party on Monday night and his Scout awards ceremony on Tuesday night. We had a few times that we butt heads but got along for the most part. We had a nice time at our Scout end of the year awards ceremony together. The Bears led the families in games for a little bit and then everyone got their end of year awards. I'm proud of my Bear den for working hard this year and getting everything done even though we had less meetings and more of the work had to be on their own.

We finished up the week with a very fun weekend. Friday night we went to see the high school drama department's performance of "Rock of Ages." It was so much fun to see live theater again and the kids all did a great job! Daniel skipped the play to go spend the night at his friend's house and he had a great time there. Then on Saturday Adrian and Zak went bowling and Zak bowled his first game over 100 without the bumpers. He was very excited to tell me about it when he got home. Saturday night Adrian went out with some friends from work to play board games while I relaxed at home alone. And Sunday we spent the day cleaning and getting the house ready for me to be down for a few weeks after surgery. It was a great weekend, both productive and relaxing.

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

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 20 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year hitting 10,000 steps everyday -  I only hit my step goal 3 of 7 days this week, it was an exhausting week and I just didn't get the steps each day. My eating was not great and I gained 2 pounds, a total of 5.2 pounds lost so far this year. The eating is going to be hit or miss for the next few months and I'm choosing to just be OK with it.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I finished "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry" this week, it was really good. I'm glad Daniel recommended it to me as a good book to read. He read it for school and enjoyed it too. This was book number 9 of the year for me so far. I expect to read a lot over the next few weeks since the boys are done with school and I will be recovering from surgery.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 143 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For May I picked a plan focused on marriage since we are celebrating our anniversary.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We finally got back to playing thru our library this weekend in between a lot of other things going on. We managed to play two games this weekend, Funko Versus - Harry Potter and Feast for Odin. Feast for Odin took us a lot longer than we were expecting, but we really enjoyed playing it. We have played 70 of our games so far this year. We are a little behind, but again we're hoping to catch up some over the next few weeks when I'm recovering from surgery. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We got a quote for power washing for the fence and the play set this week and the guy will be out to do it next week. Then we will stain both things before vacation to finish up both of those projects in June.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We have not incurred any new debt this week. If we can maintain that for the next 7 months we will be so happy!
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We didn't watch a movie again this week because we went to see the high school's musical instead on Friday night. We really enjoyed watching "Rock of Ages" together as a family, hoping the boys get a little more into musicals as they get older. Our total for the year so far remains at 19 movies. We also kept up with the new Wipeout and Mighty Ducks Game Changers and finished the first season of The Hollow. It is a pretty interesting show and we're anxious to see where season 2 goes.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 8 holidays because we doubled up on Monday. We celebrated National Cherry Cobbler Day, National Pinot Grigio Day, I Love Reese's Day, National Devils Food Cake Day, National Bee Day, National Strawberries and Cream Day, National Solitaire Day and National Taffy 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 5/10 - 5/16)

It has been another busy and interesting week around here! I'm loving that we are getting back to so many activities and that we are busy, but man are we also tired. We need to build our stamina back up for these busy days, ha! This week started with one more day of celebrating for Adrian's birthday, although it was a pretty laid back celebration. He had to work and the boys had school so we did our normal day and then played a few board games and had cake to celebrate after we all finished. Tuesday and Wednesday were crazy because our internet went out for about 24 hours and caused all kinds of problems. Adrian had to go downtown to work for a few hours and Daniel had to go to his friend's house for his art class. We missed having TV and the internet, but thankfully no one had virtual school and we kept busy with board games, shows on the antennae and video games that don't require WiFi.

Zak had a busy week this week. Last Friday I had his last ETR meeting and he was officially released from speech therapy - yay! He got his certificate and a treat during school this week. Then on Wednesday he and I went on a Scout field trip to a local sanctuary to learn about the primates that live there. It was really interesting to learn more about apes and see the 5 or 6 that live there. We also enjoyed spending some time with friends and checking out the fish in their pond. His week ended with another Scout camping trip with AJ's troop. This time I went with them and we had a fun time hiking, using a compass, cooking over the fire, doing archery, splitting logs with axes and hanging out with friends. I enjoyed the other parents who were there, getting to know some of them better & meeting a few new ones. And it's always fun to have some time away from electronics with the boys!

This week also included lots of work for me, both subbing jobs and at the church. Zak started his summer bowling program as well. He and Adrian will bowl two games each week with the kids bowl free program to keep him in the practice of bowling each week. We didn't want to commit to paying each week and having a specific time to bowl so we opted to take a break from league play but he'll be back in the fall.  Finally, the week wrapped up with AJ and Daniel's final Dungeons and Dragons night with their friends for the summer. We just have too much going on this summer so we're taking a break until August. And Daniel had two of his buddies sleep over Saturday night while the rest of us were camping. He had a great time having the house to himself with Patrick and Ethan while his brothers weren't home. Adrian did a great job of making sure they ate and went to bed at some point that night.

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

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 20 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year hitting 10,000 steps everyday -  I hit my step goal 6 of 7 days again this week, I missed it again on Sunday. I came home from camping and was exhausted. I did still managed to get over 7,000 steps that day so I'm happy to still be moving so much. My eating was a little better this week and I lost 2 pounds, a total of 7.2 pounds so far this year. The eating is going to be hit or miss for the next few months and I'm choosing to just be OK with it.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I continued "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry" and read about 100 pages so I'm about 2/3 of the way done. I should finish it this week!
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 136 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For May I picked a plan focused on marriage since we are celebrating our anniversary.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We didn't play any games again this weekend since we were so busy with other things. But we played two during the week. Adrian and I played Everdell (our favorite!) to celebrate his birthday on Monday. And then on Tuesday since our internet was out, we played Marvel Splendor (one of our new games) with Daniel and Zak. We really enjoyed it and like it more than the original Splendor, which was always a family favorite. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We decided on our project for May, we will be staining the inside of the fence. We are waiting on a nice day for the power washing quote and then the work to be done, then we will stain.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched "Monster Zone" this week, which was Daniel's pick. We thought it was just OK, not one of our favorites. Our total for the year so far is 19 movies. We also kept up with the new Wipeout and Mighty Ducks Game Changers and went back to watching The Hollow. 
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated Clean Up Your Room Day, Hostess Cupcake Day, National Nutty Fudge Day, International Hummus Day, International Dylan Thomas Day, World Baking Day and National Chocolate Chip 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 5/3 - 5/9)

This was another super busy but super fun week! Thankfully I didn't work very much this week which was OK with me. I had a ton to do around the house and a ton of holidays to celebrate. We once again had something every night this week including me getting out twice with my friends, once to walk and once for drinks and dinner. We also had the introduction meeting for marching band for AJ next year. We both left feeling excited, and a little overwhelmed! It's a big commitment and a lot of work but AJ is excited to do it so we will make it work.

We had two super fun holidays during the week this week that we celebrated pretty big. On Tuesday we celebrated Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) and on Wednesday we celebrated Cinco de Mayo. For Tuesday, I made (Bow) Tie Fighter Pasta for dinner and R2D2 cookies for dessert. Then we watched the pilot episode of Clone Wars, which no one really liked. For Wednesday, I made tacos for AJ & Zak, nachos for Daniel and fajitas for Adrian and I. The adults also enjoyed some adult beverages and found a new delicious margarita flavor, Pineapple Coconut. It was a lot of work to pull these two together, but we had so much fun so I'm really glad that I did.

Then this weekend was our annual "parents" weekend where we celebrate both of us. Since Adrian's birthday is always the same weekend as Mother's Day we always take the whole weekend "off" and celebrate both of us all weekend. This year we decided to have a relaxing weekend mostly at home. Saturday we started our day with Zak's final bowling session for his league. He has improved a ton and we are so glad he is having so much fun bowling! Then we came home and picked up the other boys and headed out for mini golf together which was a great time. Later Saturday evening, we dropped Daniel off at his friend's birthday party and went to pick up Schmidt's from their food truck that was in town. In between that and all day Sunday, we played board games, opened presents and got a few things done around the house. We enjoyed some yummy dinners and desserts and lots of time relaxing!

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

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 20 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year hitting 10,000 steps everyday -  I hit 30 days in a row of 10,000 steps each day this week!! Unfortunately I also missed it for the first time this Sunday. Between the rain all day and relaxing since it was Mother's Day I only got about 5,000 steps in, which I am OK with for that one day! My eating was horrible this week and I gained almost 4 pounds, a total of 5.2 pounds so far this year, ugh! 
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I continued "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry" and read about 100 pages so I'm about 1/3 of the way done.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 129 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For May I picked a plan focused on marriage since we are celebrating our anniversary.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We got back in the swing of things this weekend and played 6 games this weekend for a total of 68 games so far this year. Adrian and I played The Godfather, Air, Land and Sea, Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Empires of the North. We liked most of them, except Air, Land and Sea, that one was just not for me. We also played Food Chain Magnate with AJ which is a long but fun game. And finally we played Ghost Blitz with the boys which is fun but loud and chaotic! You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We decided on our project for May, we will be staining the inside of the fence. We are waiting on a nice day for the power washing quote and then the work to be done, then we will stain.
  
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We have not incurred any new debt this week. If we can maintain that for the next 7 months we will be so happy!
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched "The  Mitchells versus the Machines" this week, which was Zak's pick. We all loved it, it was super cute and funny!! Our total for the year so far is 18 movies. We also kept up with the new Wipeout and Mighty Ducks Game Changers and went back to watching The Hollow. 
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 8 holidays, we doubled up on Sunday this week. We celebrated National Raspberry Popover Day, Star Wars Day, Cinco de Mayo, National Day of Prayer, International Space Day, National Mini Golf Day, Mother's Day and National Moscato Day. Below are a few more 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