Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 6/28 - 7/4)

This was another busy and exhausting week for us, but so much fun! The biggest thing going on this whole week was Zak going to Cub Scout Day Camp at Camp Lazarus for the week. I normally go with him but I decided to skip this year since I'm still recovering and it is a very physical week. He had a great time this week and I'm proud of him for going without me. His favorite things this week were shooting off rockets, exploding soap, cooking over a fire multiple times, learning how to fold a flag and participating in a flag ceremony. And of course he also enjoyed archery, slingshots, catapults and BB guns, but those are getting to be routine for him. He did have a few struggles including dealing with rain and storms just about every day. It was also extremely hot on Monday and Tuesday and by late Tuesday he was suffering from heat exhaustion and needed a trip to the med tent. He recovered after some Gatorade and cool air and was fine by the time he got home that night. Adrian and I were able to go with him for half day on Friday and he was so excited to have us both there. It was a great week and I hope he made a lot of memories! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures the leaders took this week.

While Zak was at camp every day, I hung out at home with the other two boys. Daniel had art camp each afternoon and his friend Addy came here so they could do the camp together even though it's a virtual camp. They made 3 different mosaics here on Monday-Wednesday and then had a field trip to an artist workshop on Thursday where they made 2 more mosaics. They had a great week, Daniel really enjoyed this camp. AJ worked on his summer project for Biology and his Family Life merit badge this week as well as helping me around the house since he was the only one not in camp. Adrian worked in his office most of the week and had a few late nights. But then the Senate finished for the year on Wednesday and he ended up getting Friday off so he had a long 4 day weekend for the holiday.

Our weekend was jam packed as well! After going to camp on Friday, we spent Saturday relaxing at home and playing games until later in the evening when we headed out to Gahanna for their annual fireworks display. We also spent some of the afternoon celebrating Rocky's second birthday! We made her a cake, got her a new collar and some new toys and gave her lots of walks and treats all day. Sunday was the 4th of July and we spent the day much like Saturday, relaxing and playing games. Around 9:30 we headed outside and watched a bunch of our neighbors set off a ton of fireworks. Zak loved seeing them and was outside for over an hour watching them with Adrian. They eventually got in his car and drove around to find better viewing areas. AJ, Daniel and I were out watching for about 45 minutes before we came home to rest and keep a very scared Rocky company. We also got a few things done around the house and ready for vacation over the weekend, it was a great mix of fun and work and we feel ready for this last week of work before hitting the road on Saturday!

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 again not worrying about this goal for the month of July since I'm still recovering and building my strength, plus we're gone on vacation for half the month. This past week I averaged about 7,000 steps each day and also hit my first 10,000 step day since surgery! I'm trying to walk as much as I can to get my stamina up, but also being careful because I still get tired pretty quickly. I did weigh in on the 1st and I gained 4 pounds in June which is not surprising considering I ate a ton and didn't move. I honestly thought it might be higher. I will definitely be focusing on this goal in August!
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I finished "Gilead" this week for my 12th book of the year. This week I'll be starting "The Outsiders" and since it's short I'm hoping to finish it before we leave for vacation.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 185 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For July I picked a plan focused on peace since we have 2 weeks in the car together and I feel like I might need some peace, ha!
• 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 5 games this week, we had a 5 day weekend but lots of other stuff on our agenda as you saw above. We played Marvel Champions, Maracaibo, Machi Koro Legacy and Golden Girls Monopoly as a couple and Magic Maze as a family. We have played 95 of our games so far this year, and seem to be on a good pace to get thru them all this year. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We continued staining the fence this week and are almost done. The weather was tough this week with a lot of rain and some very hot days which slowed us down. But we have about 2 hours of work left so we're confident it will get done before we leave next week.
• 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 again this week, European Vacation (just OK, but the boys thought it was hilarious) and In The Heights (adults loved it, boys were confused). Our total for the year so far is 29 movies. Our one month of HBO Max really helped bump this number up. We seem to be on track to his this goal, but we're skipping most of this month so we'll see. 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 Sunday. We celebrated Paul Bunyan Day, National Waffle Maker Day, National Meteor Day, National Chicken Wing Day, National UFO Day, National Chocolate Wafer Day, Independence Day and National Caesar Salad 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