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
  
  
  
  
  

Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 6/21 - 6/27)

We had a super busy week and I honestly felt like I just spent the week making sure people were where they needed to be on time. Daniel had virtual art camp Monday thru Wednesday and then a field trip to OSU for art camp on Thursday. He enjoyed learning a new skill and making some cool art in this Mandala and Labyrinth themed camp. Zak had two different camps this week, Roblox virtual camp in the mornings and Art camp at a local church in the afternoons. He loved them both and was very creative in making things in both camps. We had a few technical glitches in both of the online camps, mostly on the days that Adrian was in the office, but we figured out work arounds and made it all work.

In between all of those camps, we had two doctor appointments, one for AJ and Zak with the pediatrician and one for Zak at Children's to figure out why he's still struggling with his writing. AJ also had Boy Scouts Monday night and worked on his Honors Biology summer project during the week. He also built a  crab robot from a kit we got as a gift. I had a Cub Scout planning meeting Tuesday night, which was nice to finally meet in person. And Zak went fishing for a few hours on Thursday and bowling with Adrian on Saturday. It was a super busy week and I was very thankful that we had a ton of leftovers and easy meals to eat all week because I could barely keep up with everything we needed to do.

Our weekend was a nice mix and fun and relaxing. Friday night we had a family art camp with Daniel's art teacher and we had a scavenger hunt and made a family labyrinth with the items we found. It was a ton of fun, even though we had some frustrating moments. Saturday night we spent a ton of time playing board games, video games, watching TV and recovering from the busy week. Sunday we had Adrian's parents over for dinner and they took Zak fishing again for a few hours. We enjoyed BBQ cooked on Adrian's new grill and had a nice visit. We didn't get as much accomplished around the house as we would have liked, but that's OK, we'll catch up over the next week.

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 5,000 steps each day with Saturday being my highest day with about 7,300 steps. That is my highest step count since surgery! 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 25% of "Gilead" and am planning to finish it up next week.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 178 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 again this week. We played Labyrinth, Lost Cities, Marvel Legendary, Machi Koro and Lords of Waterdeep as a couple and Just One as a family. We have played 91 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 continued staining the fence this week and are about halfway 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, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (just OK, but the boys thought it was hilarious) and The Witches (new remake - we thought it was great!) Our total for the year so far is 27 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 9 holidays since we doubled up on Monday and Saturday. We celebrated National Giraffe Day, National Selfie Day, National Chocolate Eclair Day, National Hydration Day, National Bomb Pop Day, Beatles Day, Smurf Day, National Tropical Drink Day and National Ice Cream Cake 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 6/14 - 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