Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 6/14 - 6/20)

This was a fairly busy summer week for us with people going in a lot of different directions. Adrian was back to work in the office for 3 days this week so a lot of the coordinating the boys schedule fell on me this week. I'm thankful we still had meals coming this week because I started the week wiped out from all of our fun last week. After lots of rest and naps the first few days of the week, I felt way better the second part of the week. I'm still trying to find the balance between recovering, doing what needs to be done and building my strength back up. It's a rough balance, but I think I'm doing pretty well so far!

The boys kept busy with their summer camps this week. Daniel did a YouTube video creation camp which was a little lower level than what he needed, but he still really enjoyed it. He learned how to use a new software to make his videos and learned about a couple of new things to enhance his videos. AJ did a video game design camp and learned a ton about making video games. He wants to keep using the (free) program to create more video games over the summer which is fine by me. Zak had a lighter week since his fishing camp was cancelled this week. He only had a doctor's appointment this week, but the next 2 weeks he's super busy. 

We were surprised Thursday night to hear that Adrian would have Friday off for Juneteenth. We enjoyed our three day weekend mixing in lots of board games, TV and fun with getting a bunch accomplished around the house. We finished up this week with a day date on Saturday. Adrian and I went to Coopers Hawk to use our monthly tasting and got lunch with our reward certificate that we earned. We had delicious tacos, flatbread and wine for like $10 - it was great! Then we ran a few errands before heading home for the day. Sunday was a quiet Father's Day with board games, TV and a quick trip to Graeter's, plus Adrian got to use his gift (a new grill) to make our dinner. All in all a great weekend!!

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 am not worrying about this goal for the month of June since I'm recovering. Since the doctor cleared me to walk more, I started wearing my Fitbit and got around 3,000 steps each day with Sunday being my highest day with 5,000 steps. My goal is to work back up to 10,000 by the end of this month so I'm ready to go for my vacation. I'll only be weighing in at the end of this month, I know I'm gaining weight, it is what it is.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I finished "That Summer" this week, and it was really good! I didn't love the ending, I wanted more of a resolution, but I really enjoyed the whole story and how it was written. This was my 11th book of the year. This week I will be going back to "Gilead" which I read about half of the last time I had it from the library. I plan to finish it before it needs to be returned.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 171 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For June I picked a plan focused on friendship since we are leaning heavily on our friends this month for help.
• 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 played 6 games this week since Adrian was off on Friday. We played our last version of Funko Versus, Jaws (twice), King of Tokyo (twice), Ice Cool and Imperial Assault as a couple and Love Letter as a family. We have played 85 of our games so far this year. We also played Caverna before we have to return it to CABS and Back to the Future because we still can't figure out how to win that as a 2 player game. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We started staining the fence this week and are about a quarter of the way done. Once again we had to postpone this somewhat since it was raining on and off all weekend. Thankfully next week looks better so we're hoping to finish it then.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We didn't incur anything this week and are paying the minimums on everything until we get back from (and pay for) our vacation next month.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched two movies this week, Mr Poppers Penguins (which was fantastic - we all loved it!) and Never Ending Story 2 (which the boys loved but the adults thought was kind of boring). Our total for the year so far is 25 movies. We also have a list of shows that we are watching as family this summer including Loki (awesome!), Lego Masters, Press Your Luck, The Cube and Holey Moley. We hope to keep up with those each week and watch 2 movies, but it may be tough.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 8 holidays since we doubled up on Friday. We celebrated Flag Day, Magna Carta Day, National Sea Turtle Day, Eat Your Veggies Day, Splurge Day, National Go Fishing Day, National Eat an Oreo Day and Fathers 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 6/7 - 6/13)

This has been a pretty epic week, even though it was also my second week of recovery after surgery. We managed to do some really fun things while I also spent a good chunk of the week relaxing on the couch. Adrian also returned to work in the office for the first time in almost 15 months. He will be working 2 or 3 days each week for the next few months, hopefully longer. I had my surgery follow up and the doctor said everything is healing great and I'm cleared for a little more activity, light walking and cleaning. He said to still limit my lifting and not do anything strenuous. I'm cleared for pretty much everything on vacation and then I'll see him after to hopefully have all of my restrictions lifted.

Now on to the fun stuff from this week! Daniel finally got back to his art classes after a 3 week break. It was just him this week so his teacher caught him up on what the rest of the class has been doing the past 2 classes. AJ also was able to go back to Scouts and get some requirements signed off. He won't be going very much for the next few months because of marching band but he'll go when he can and still work on stuff here at home. Zak started his weekly fishing camp and caught 5 fish in one of the local ponds! He was so excited to do it and had a great time, especially once the fish started biting!! He also got to go bowling with Adrian this week and did really well, staying consistent right around the 90 mark. The boys also did two of the STEM kits that I picked up for them a few months ago. They had fun doing all of the experiments and making a picture of the night sky with glitter (that I will never get cleaned up from my kitchen table, ha!)

The big excitement was this weekend when my uncle and cousins came for a long weekend. They stayed at Carl's house to give me some extra time and peace to recover, but we spent a lot of time together. Friday I headed up that way with the boys and we went to the dam park, had dinner together, watched Vinnie play t-ball and went out for ice cream. It was a hot day, but super fun! Saturday they came down to our house and we had a giant pizza party for dinner, they played video games with the boys and we all played a fun board game together. Sunday they headed to Alum Creek for a bit in the morning and we chose to sleep in. Then we met up with them downtown and went to North Market for dinner. We finished up the weekend with a trip to Easton for ice cream and a little walk before saying so long for now. They will be heading back to NJ on Monday and hopefully coming back out to visit very soon! It was a great family weekend but we were all wiped out by the end so I know we'll all need some time this week to recuperate.

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 am not worrying about this goal for the month of June since I'm recovering. Since the doctor cleared me to walk more, I started wearing my Fitbit and got between 2,000 and 3,000 steps each day. My goal is to work back up to 10,000 by the end of this month so I'm ready to go for my vacation. I'll only be weighing in at the end of this month, I know I'm gaining weight, it is what it is.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I read about a third of "That Summer" this week, it's starting out really good. Thankful to have good books to read while I'm stuck on the couch!
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 164 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For June I picked a plan focused on friendship since we are leaning heavily on our friends this month for help.
• 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 played 2 games this week, Isle of Cats as a couple and The Game of Things with the whole family. Isle of Cats is one of our favorites, Game of Things was kind of slow and probably not one we'll play much. We have played 79 of our games so far this year. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We didn't work on this at all this week because there was too much rain to stain anything.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We didn't incur anything this week and are paying the minimums on everything until we get back from (and pay for) our vacation next month.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched one movie this week, Wonder Woman 1984. It was really good, we all enjoyed it! Our total for the year so far is 23 movies. We also have a list of shows that we are watching as family this summer including Loki (awesome!), Lego Masters, Press Your Luck, The Cube and Holey Moley (premiers next week). We hope to keep up with those each week and watch 2 movies, but it may be tough.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, National Oceans Day, Donald Duck Day, National Iced Tea Day, National Corn on the Cob Day, National Rose Day and National Weed the Garden 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 5/31 - 6/6)

This has been a very interesting week around here. I am actively recovering from surgery this week so that meant very little moving around for me. I would get up and do anything I needed to do upstairs, then come down for the day and spend most of the day in recliner. I felt good some days and horrible other days. I finally started to feel better this past weekend, but am still relaxing a lot so I don't have a set back. My plan continues to be to take it easy for the month of June and be ready to go for our vacation in July. Adrian and the boys have been a huge help the past week! They are doing what I ask them and helping to keep me entertained while I sit around. It's not easy for an active person like me to sit around and do nothing! We are also thankful we had friends drop off meals a few times this week, it is a huge help to not have to think about cooking every day.

In the middle of this week we celebrated AJ turning 14!! We had a pretty laid back celebration this year since I'm still recovering. We celebrated with an ice cream cake on Monday with Carl & his family and my parents. Then my parents were still here on Wednesday so we had pizza with them before they headed to the airport. We all played chess and video games with AJ all day and then watched his movie pick that evening, Roblox: The Last Guest. He got a phone upgrade, new Switch game, new FNF shirt and a lot of money for gifts this year and he is excited about all of it! Can't wait to see all he accomplishes over the next year.

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 am not worrying about this goal for the month of June since I'm recovering. As soon as I feel ready, I'll get back to my step goal and I'll refocus on healthy eating after vacation. I did weigh in on the first to see where I am for the year and I am up a few pounds this month and down 7 pounds for the year so far.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I finished "Only the Pretty Lies" this week and it was a fun, easy read by one of my favorite authors. I was able to get Jennifer Weiner's newest book "That Summer" from the library so I started that this week as well. Thankful to have good books to read while I'm stuck on the couch!
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 157 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For June I picked a plan focused on friendship since we are leaning heavily on our friends this month for help.
• 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 played a lot of games this week, thankfully I am feeling good enough to sit at the table for short stretches! We played Flick 'em Up with the boys, which I did not enjoy but Daniel & Adrian did. The Adrian and I played Hanabi, Horrified and The Gallerist together and enjoyed all three games. We have played 77 of our games so far this year. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We got the fence and play set power washed this week so those two projects are halfway done. Now we have to stain both things over the next month and hopefully cross both things off our list.
• 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 watched three movies this week, Roblox: The Last Guest, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Dumb and Dumber. Our total for the year so far is 22 movies. There was so big excitement around this goal this week since we got HBO Max for the month to watch a bunch of TV shows and movies together. And this weekend we finally returned to the movie theater. Adrian, Daniel & Zak went to see Willy Wonka and loved being back! We hope to go more this summer. We also kept up with the new Wipeout and Press Your Luck and were thrilled that Lego Masters came back this week! We can't wait to watch season 2 together.
  
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 9 holidays, doubling up on Tuesday and Friday. We celebrated Memorial Day, Oscar the Grouch Day, National Nail Polish Day, National Leave the Office Early Day, National Egg Day, National Donut Day, National Cheese Day, National Pineapple Day and National Frozen Yogurt 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