Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Jan 26 - Feb 1)

Once again, I did pretty good sticking to last week's meal plan.  I didn't cook what was planned on Friday because I came home completely wiped out after the week and decided to relax and eat junk food.  It was just what I needed that day and I'm happy I did it.  I bumped the salad to this week, but I keep bumping it so I'm wondering if maybe I should just scrap it and move on.  Everything I made last week was delicious, and I am feeling great after returning to eating healthy for these past few weeks.  I continue to follow the eat healthy most of the time (goal is 6 days per week) and then do what I want on the other days.  It's working for me so I'm not going to change it.

This week is another busy one with lots of busy nights for all of us.  Friday night will be weird because it's the first night that I am teaching at 5:30 so I'm not sure if I should eat before or after.  Also Adrian won't be home that night since he has his board game group so I want something quick and easy for that night.  We'll see if I make the salad or just decide to have leftovers again.  Hopefully it won't be junk food!!  I did a giant stock up shopping at Kroger and Costco last week so I'm hoping to not have to shop this week and maybe just do a small fill in trip next week.  I have a ton of fruits and veggies ready to go as well as some lean proteins.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Grilled Steak, Air Fryed Potatoes & Salad
Monday - Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry with Air Fryed Wontons
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday for everyone!
Wednesday - Potato Soup and Salad
Thursday - Pasta
Friday - Italian Sub Salad
Saturday - Adrian and I are going out for dinner!!

Water Flavor - I used up the rest of the mint I had (although I have another bunch now) and combined it with limes for water this week.  It's delicious, tastes a little like a mojito.

Overnight Oats - I once again forgot to buy almond milk last week so I wasn't able to set any up this weekend.  I'm hoping to get it and set them up sometime during the week but honestly I have so little free time I don't know that I will be able to set them up.  I stocked up on grapefruits and protein bars so that will be my breakfasts for the week if I don't set them up.

Use It Up - I'm finishing up some potatoes from our CSA this summer this week.  And also using the veggies that I bought over the weekend for our meals this week.

Lunches - I'll be having salad most days this week.  I'm stocked up on romaine lettuce and avocado so I'll be doing a lot of taco salads this week.  On Wednesdays I now have to eat while I drive so I'll be having sandwiches on those days most weeks.  It's just too hard to drive and eat a salad!!

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Jan 19 - Jan 25)

So my meal plan from last week pretty much went in the toilet once I got sick.  I was too tired to cook or do anything plus I didn't really feel like eating.  Adrian did make the chicken fajitas on Tuesday and also the pork on Monday.  But other than that, he had leftovers, sandwiches and pasta all week.  We ordered out a few times as well because it was Marco's pizza fundraiser night and also because I was sick and craving junk food.  So now we are resting this week and getting back to healthy eating and home cooking this week.

This is an interesting week since we all have Monday off but then the rest of the week is super busy.  I also don't know if I'll be subbing this week or not.  I don't have anything on my schedule right now, but that doesn't mean I won't get jobs during the week.  I'm planning as if I'm working all week and then if I'm not I will enjoy the extra time.  I'm also losing my errand running day on Wednesday because the boys have doctor appointments that day.  So I'll be doing smaller trips on the other days this week and then setting up a big Kroger pick up order for Wednesday.

Here's what we're eating this week, most of it is carryover from last week:
Sunday - Take Out Chinese while we watch football
Monday - Italian Sausage Soup with Air Fried Acorn Squash
Tuesday - Tacos for the kids and Shrimp Fajitas for the adults
Wednesday - Garlic Chicken & Pasta
Thursday - Meatball Subs for the Adults and Regular Meatball Subs for the kids
Friday - Italian Sub Salad
Saturday - Philly Cheesesteak Wraps

Water Flavor - This is the one thing I was thankful to have last week.  The cucumber mint water was great to have while I was sick and trying to recover.  It was so refreshing and felt good on my sore throat.  I'm doing the same flavor this week because I have a little bit of both left over.

Overnight Oats - I didn't make it to the store last week so I still don't have any Almond Milk to make these.  I'll be going early this week so I hope to find time this week to set up at least a batch with the flavored yogurt I have.  If not, I'll do bars this week for breakfast and start with oats for sure next week.

Use It Up - This is the last of my pork shelf in my pantry.  Next week I will move on to the beef shelf.  I'm also really just focused on using up the veggies I bought for these meals last week and never made before they go bad.  It was a pretty easy week to plan since I just bumped everything from last week to this week.

Lunches - I'll be having salad for lunch everyday this week in an effort to get back on track and eat healthy.  Wednesday I'll be eating on the run so I may have a sandwich that day but the rest of the days will be salads.  Not super exciting but it's what I need this week.  Plus I bought lettuce last week and didn't use it so I need to use it up soon.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 1/10 - 1/16)

Friday (1/10) We were all exhausted this morning and no one wanted to get up!  Between school, work and all of our activities starting, plus a few extra things we are wiped out from this week.  We did finally get up on time and got AJ and Daniel ready for school.  AJ decided he didn't want to take the bus today so I drove them both to school and then came home to get Zak ready.  I dropped him off at school and then came back home since I was only subbing in the afternoon today.  I got a ton of stuff done around the house this morning and was super productive in the short time that I had at home.  Then I headed in to school to sub and taught a few small Math groups this afternoon.  Thankfully it was a very easy and fun afternoon working with great kids!

When school was over, we all came home for the weekend.  The boys helped with Rocky and then headed upstairs to play on their VR headset and watch YouTube.  I got a few things done and tried to rest a little.  Adrian got stuck at work late again and when he finally got home, he told me he really didn't feel like going to the play that we were supposed to go to tonight.  I was SO happy because I didn't feel like going either.  So we decided to cancel our plans and stay home and relax.  We had junk food for dinner, watched some TV, relaxed on the couch and had an amazing night!  We let the boys stay up a little later since it's the weekend and when they went to bed, we watched one more comedy and then I headed to bed to rest up for a very busy weekend ahead!

Saturday (1/11) After a great night of sleep, Adrian and I were up early ready to start our weekend.  I got ready and headed to the church to teach my Zumba Toning class.  We had a great class, got a great workout and laughed a lot and also did some extra exercises after class.  While I was there, Adrian took Zak to his first week of his new bowling league.  He is super excited that a boy from his class is on his team this season!!  He did pretty well this morning, bowling a 95 and a 73.  When we all got home, we cleaned up the living room and kitchen and got ready for my parents to come over for a short visit.

My parents got here and we had a nice lunch of sandwiches and salads and then celebrated Christmas with them.  We all got some new clothes and gift cards and are very excited about using them!  Then we played a game of "Just One" with them before all heading out to AJ's first basketball game of the season.  His team got crushed, but AJ played pretty well, especially as the game went one.  He almost scored his first basket & I nearly passed out when he did.  It was a fun family afternoon visiting with my parents, I'm glad they were able to see all of us!

After the game, my parents headed back to Carl's house and we came home and had dinner and got some homework done.  Then the boys had some video game time while Adrian and I cleaned up and watched the end of the NFL playoff game.  Then we settled in for family movie night watching Zak's
pick of "Paddington."  It was pretty good, better than we were expecting it to be!  After the movie, we got the boys down to bed and then watched the second half of the other NFL playoff game.  When the game was over, we headed to bed for the night as well since we have an early morning tomorrow.

Sunday (1/12) We were up and moving early to get to Sunbury for my niece and nephew's Baptism.  We met the family for church at 11am and after a nice mass, they had the ceremony to baptize Isabelle, Vinnie and a few other children.  Everything was very nice, but a little long.  The boys were champions thru the whole process and are very excited to be going back to "our" church next week.  After the service, we went back to Carl's house to spend some time with the family and friends who were there for the ceremony.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch together and some quality time catching up with each other.

After a few hours of hanging out at their house, we needed to head back home for the night.  The boys had homework to finish and Adrian and I still had some stuff to do before our week starts.  Unfortunately on the way home, I started to not feel well.  By the time we got home, I had a horrible sore throat and headache.  I went upstairs to lay down & fell right asleep.  When Adrian came in to check on me later, I had a raging fever.  I pretty much slept the rest of the night while Adrian got the boys thru dinner and homework and did as much stuff around the house as he was able to get done.  I called out of work for tomorrow already in hopes that a lot of sleep will help me feel better.  If not, I'll be heading to the doctor first thing in the morning.

Monday (1/13) I slept for like 15 hours last night and woke up feeling OK.  I'm glad that I made the decision yesterday to call out and for Adrian to get up with the boys, deal with them and work from home for the day to help me out.  He got everyone up and out on time to school, and even packed their lunches mostly right (Daniel said he forgot to open his fruit snacks but other than that it was good!) I got up and came downstairs to hang out with Adrian and Rocky for the day.  I spent most of the day resting and trying to get a few things done around the house.  I decided to not teach my Zumba class tonight in hopes of a full rest day today meaning I'm OK for the rest of the week.

The day passed quickly and before long it was time to get the boys from school.  AJ and Daniel took the bus home and Rocky was so excited to see them that she jumped the gate we put up to keep her in the kitchen and living room!  She may have popped one of her stitches so she's going back to the vet tomorrow to double check.  Adrian walked up to pick up Zak and I continued to rest most of the day and get a few things done around the house.  I helped the boys finish their homework and then we all had dinner together since we were all home.  Then Adrian took AJ to his weekly Scout meeting where they learned how to tie more knots and prepped for their upcoming camping trip.  When they got home, we got the boys thru their night routine and then down for bed.  Adrian stayed up to watch the college football championship game but I decided to go to bed early in hopes that I wake up feeling 100% tomorrow.

Tuesday (1/14) We all planned to get up and moving on time this morning, but unfortunately Zak was up most of the night throwing up.  And even though I'm still not feeling 100%, I'm hoping to power thru the day so I got up with AJ and Daniel while Adrian and Zak slept in and stayed home for the day.  I got AJ and Daniel ready and dropped them off at school for the day.  Then I came home and got myself ready for the day and headed into school.  I subbed in kindergarten all day today and had a pretty good day, although I did have a few coughing attacks during the day.  Thankfully the kids mostly behaved and I had a pretty easy day.

After school I stayed after to teach a Zumba class for the staff at the school.  There were only two teachers who came so we had a lower intensity class today.  It felt good to move, but I did struggle thru the class.  After class, I came home and helped Adrian make tacos for dinner for everyone.  Then Zak and I got ready and headed to our first Scout meeting of the year.  We practiced our skits for next week and I was very thankful to have a lot of parents helping out because I was feeling really bad.  When we got home, I did a few small things around the house and then headed to bed.  I'm hoping to feel better in the morning but if I don't, I will be heading to the doctor to figure this out.

Wednesday (1/15) The alarm went off and I felt worse than I have all week.  I went downstairs and Adrian told me to go call out of work and go back to bed.  He got the boys out to school again and then headed to work.  I went back to sleep but not before setting my alarm to wake up to call for a doctor's appointment.  I called them when they opened and got an appointment for 1:00 so I went back to sleep for a few hours and then got up and showered and headed to my appointment.  My diagnosis is walking pneumonia and I got a prescription for antibiotics and a few suggestions for over the counter medicines for some relief.  She also told me lots of rest and fluids and no work until at least Friday.  I went to Meijer to pick up my supplies, then picked up all three boys from school before heading back home for more rest.

AJ was excited to tell me that he had a short day at school today because the last two periods he had his reward for good behavior in the second quarter.  He went to the gym and got to hang out with his friends and play games like basketball and dodgeball.  He said they could also have their phones but none of his friends had theirs so he played and chatted with them instead of playing on his phone.  When we got home, I got the boys thru their homework and then ordered Marco's pizza to be delivered for dinner tonight.  I called out of work for tomorrow and took care of a few things while waiting for Adrian to get home from work.  He thankfully skipped Bible study to come home and help me with the boys.  When he got home, I headed to bed for the night and he took care of the boys the rest of the night.  He got them down to bed, cleaned up from dinner and took care of Rocky as well.  He slept downstairs so that I can get a good night of sleep and also told me to turn off my alarm and sleep in tomorrow morning and he will take care of getting the boys out to school for the day.

Thursday (1/16) I slept in again today and Adrian got all three boys up and out to school on time and then headed to work for the day.  I got up late and came down to hang out with Rocky for the day.  We did more of what we did yesterday, watched some TV, read, rested and relaxed.  The day passed quickly and before long it was time for the boys to come home from school.  AJ and Daniel got off the bus and took care of Rocky like they usually do.  I went up to pick up Zak when it was time for him to come home.  Then I got the boys thru their homework while I was still resting on the couch.

Adrian came home a little early so he could get dinner for himself and the boys.  Then he headed out to the church with Zak for his basketball practice.  They had fun and Zak did a great job!  I hung out at home with the other boys while they were there.  When they got home, I went to bed for the night because I was feeling bad again.  Adrian got the boys thru their  night routine and down for the night.  I was really hoping today would be the turning point for me, but it does not seem like it was.  My fever is back so I'll be calling out of work again tomorrow and resting.  Thankful we have a three day weekend to recover!!

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Jan 12 - Jan 18)

I did OK sticking to my meal plan for last week the first half of the week, and then it fell apart the second half of the week.  On Thursday it took us forever to get home after school, work and dentist appointments so I did not have time to cook before our night activities.  So we just had pasta that night to make a quick and easy meal.  Then on Friday neither Adrian or I felt like cooking or eating anything healthy so we decided to just eat whatever we could find to make that day.  So some of our meals from last week are being pushed to this week.

This is another busy week around here, as are most of them for the forseeable future.  We have something every night and most of our weekends are full.  I'm really working hard to make sure we have healthy, easy meals each night and that we aren't eating out.  I'm going to continue to make sure we have pasta and sandwich stuff available all of the time so that we can always fall back on those items if we don't have time to cook whatever I have planned.  I will say that having the instant pot and air fryer are making things easier for sure!!

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Out to eat at my brother's house for my niece and nephew's Baptism
Monday - Air Fryed Acorn Squash and Frozen BBQ Pork
Tuesday - Tacos for the boys & Fajita Stuffed Chicken for the adults
Wednesday - Instant Pot Potato Soup
Thursday - Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry and Air Fryer Wontons (carryover from last week)
Friday - Italian Sub Salad
Saturday - Philly Cheesesteak Wraps (carryover from last week)

Water Flavor - Cucumber Mint.  I got some mint last week from the grocery store and could not wait to use it in my water.  I grabbed a cucumber from Aldi as well so I'll have light refreshing water all week.

Overnight Oats - I'm out of almond milk and didn't realize it so these are on hold this week.  I will grab more milk on Wednesday when I do my shopping and hopefully have time to set them up that night.  If not, I will be without oats this week and just have bars for breakfasts.

Use It Up - I'm continuing to use up my squash supply and using an acorn squash.  I also have a lot of pototoes so that's why I decided to make that soup this week.  Finally I have a lot of lunch meat opened after hosting a lunch last weekend so I'm using those up in the salad on Friday.

Lunches - Most of my lunches this week will be salads since I am trying to get back to eating healthy and that is the best option for lunch.  If I don't have time to make a salad, I will bring leftovers for lunch.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 1/3 - 1/9)

Friday (1/3) Easing back into our routine today with some commitments.  Adrian got up early and headed into work for the day.  I slept in a little bit, later than I had planned because I accidently turned off my alarm instead of snoozing it, then got up and moving because I was teaching an Aqua Zumba class this morning.  I got the boys settled for the morning, then headed to the Y and taught an awesome Aqua Zumba class.  We had so much fun and I saw some friends I haven't seen in a while!  It was great to catch up with everyone and dance with some of them.  I was there longer than I thought I would be but it was a great morning and I'm super excited to get back to teaching next week after a long, but much deserved, break.

When I got home, I got everyone lunch and then we did some of the homework we have largely been ignorning for the past two weeks.  Thankfully the boys didn't have much to do so we'll be done before they go back on Monday, but I wish we had spaced it out a little better.  Then they played video games and I worked around the house to pass this rainy day.  We were planning to go to ZooLights, but since it rained all day we are postponing until this weekend.  The day passed quickly and soon Adrian was home for the night.

We all had leftovers for dinner, it has been great not cooking for the past few weeks too!!  I'm really going to be in for a rude awakening come Monday when I have to go back to doing everything.  Then the boys played more video games, doing a nice job of taking turns playing on their new VR headset.  Adrian watched the OSU basketball game and then we played one of the preliminary games for Pandemic Legacy Season 2.  It's a totally different game than Season 1 which isn't exactly what we were expecting.  We won, but just barely, tonight.  It will take some practice to get better at this new game.  We'll probably do at least one more preliminary game before we start the first month.  After the game, we got the boys thru their night routine and then down to bed.  Then we watched an episode of "Bless This Mess" and headed to bed too.

Saturday (1/4) We all slept in this morning for the last time for probably a month or so.  We had a lazy start to our day and then Adrian and Zak got ready and headed out to Home Depot to make a mini hockey game.  They had fun, Zak really enjoys doing these workshops!  While they were there, I got started on some work around the house that I have been putting off for the past two weeks.  We spent most of the day working around the house, including taking down all of our inside Christmas decorations.  The boys helped us with some of the cleaning and also played video games while we worked.  Adrian and I watched both of the NFL playoff games, we were happy for the Texans to win the first one, although we would have liked to see the Bills win too.  The second game we were cheering against the Patriots, and we were so happy to see them lose.  It was another great game and I'm glad they were both interesting.  We let the boys stay up a little later since it's their last night of vacation, but eventually got them down to bed.  After the football games, we also headed to bed since I need to get up and moving in the morning and then we go back to our regular schedule on Monday!

Sunday (1/5) I had to get up with an alarm for the first time in weeks and I did not enjoy it.  I got up and moving so I could head to church to serve in childcare in the first service.  I had a fun time in the class and then got to go to a great service for the second service.  When that was over, we had a childcare meeting because we have a new director for that ministry so they shared some changes and improvements they are hoping to make in the next few weeks.  While I was at church all morning, Adrian and the boys got some things done around the house.  When I got home, we alternated between working around the house and watching the two NFL playoff games.

The day passed quickly and before long it was time for dinner and to start getting our stuff together for the week ahead.  We all go back to our normal schedule tomorrow so we need to be ready.  After dinner, the boys did the rest of their weekend chores, had a little bit more time on their VR headset and then we did their normal night routine.  We got them down to bed at their early bedtime so they are ready for school tomorrow.  Adrian and I came down and finished a few things while watching the Golden Globes in the background.  Then we watched an episode of "The Goldburgs" and headed to bed for the night.  It was a weird break for us and while I'm sad to see it end, I'm excited to get back to our schedule and break out of this lazy funk we seem to have fallen in to.

Monday (1/6) We are back to our regular routine today & hopefully we will be here for a while!  Everyone got up and moving bright and early this morning.  Adrian helped me get AJ ready and on the bus before he headed out to work for the day.  Then I got Daniel ready and dropped him off at school, then came home to wake Zak up.  I had a special surprise for him, his class was on TV doing the Pledge of Allegance this morning.  They taped this back in Sept and he has been SO excited to see himself on TV.  He was very excited to go back to school & see if everyone else saw it too.

After I dropped this TV star off at school, I came home to work around the house for the day since I wasn't subbing today.  I got a ton of stuff done around the house and feel really good starting this week.  The day passed quickly with me working and Rocky making sure that I wasn't leaving the house like all of her other humans did today.  Before long we heard the bus and ran to meet AJ and Daniel at the door.  Then I walked up to pick up Zak from school.  All three boys had a great first day back to school today and I was happy to hear all about them.

After some free time for the boys, we got started on our homework.  Everyone had homework tonight, it seems like second semester will be tougher than first around here.  While they worked on homework, I got dinner started for everyone.  We had a quick dinner and then I headed out to the church to teach my first Zumba class of the year.  I had 28 people in class and we had a blast!!  I'm so thankful for this opportunity and I look forward to an awesome year with all of these ladies.  While I was there, Adrian took AJ to his Scout meeting tonight.  They had a good time and AJ continued to work towards his next rank.  When we all got home, we got the boys thru their night routine and down to bed for the night.  Then we finished up cleaning up from dinner, got our snacks and watched two episodes of "Bless This Mess" before heading to bed too.

Tuesday (1/7) Day two of our routine and we are killing it so far, ha!  We all got up and moving on time this morning.  Adrian helped me get AJ ready and on the bus and then he left for work for the day.  I dropped Daniel off at school and then came home to wake up Zak and get him ready for school.  I dropped him off and came home for the day again since there were no subbing jobs again today.  I was super productive again today, although not quite as productive as yesterday.  I got a ton of stuff done and the day passed quickly.  I also took a nap with Rocky on the couch for about 30 minutes and it was awesome.

Before long it was time to get everyone from school.  I headed over to pick up Daniel since he asked me to pick him up today, then came home and we waited for AJ to get off the bus.  Then I walked up to pick up Zak from school since the weather is pretty nice today.  After I got everyone home for the day, I headed back up to the school to teach Zumba for some of the teachers there.  We had an awesome class and laughed a ton during the hour!  Then I came home and got everyone thru their homework while making tacos and fajitas for dinner.  We enjoyed our dinner together and then Adrian took the boys to get haircuts since all four of them were overdue.  We didn't notice over break because everyone was sick and unshowered.

When they got home, it was time for the boys' night routine.  We got them down for the night and came back down to finish up a few things in the kitchen.  Adrian also installed Daniel's new hard drive in his computer, which took a while since he wasn't sure exactly what he was doing.  We got our snacks for the night and then watched some TV and headed to bed.  I've been really tired all day today, I think it's getting back to our busy and early routine!!

Wednesday (1/8) We got up and moving on time again this morning.  Adrian helped me get AJ up and ready and on the bus and then headed out to work.  I got Daniel and dropped him off, then got Zak ready and dropped him off.  Then I came back home and picked up Rocky to drop her off at the vet for her spay and microchipping appointment.  After I dropped her off, I ran a few errands before heading to the Y to teach my two Zumba classes.  We had an awesome time and it was great to be back with everyone after a long break!!

After class, I ran a few more errands, then went and picked up AJ and Daniel from school.  We made a quick stop at home before heading out to pick up Zak from school and head to the dentist for AJ and Daniel's check up appointments.  Both boys teeth look great and there are no cavities, yay!  The dentist did recommend that we get an orthodontist consult for AJ as he has a slight overbite so I'll get that figured out in the next few weeks.  After the dentist, we headed to the vet to pick up Rocky.  She is doing great after her surgery, just a little disoriented from being put under and then having to wear the big cone.

When we all finally got home, the boys got started on their homework while I worked on dinner for all of us.  We had breakfast for dinner, the boys had pancakes and I had a quiche and breakfast sausage, everything was delicious!  When we were done, they headed upstairs to watch some TV while I cleaned up and got a few things done down here.  Before long it was time for their night routine and bed time.  Adrian came home from Bible study as we were reading so he was able to help get everyone to bed.  When the boys were in bed, Adrian and I finished cleaning up from dinner, then he headed to bed and I finished up a few things and watched some of the "Real Housewives of Dallas" reunion before I headed to bed too.

Thursday (1/9) After a late night, it was rough getting up and getting moving today but we did it.  Adrian helped me get AJ up and ready and on the bus before he left for work for the day.  Then I helped get Daniel ready and dropped him off at school and then came home to get Zak and myself ready.  We headed in together because I was subbing all day in the school for the first day since break.  I had a great day with some awesome 3rd graders and it passed quickly and went really smoothly.  It was also fun to see all of the other staff after having just over two weeks off from work!

After school, Zak and I headed to the dentist for our 6 month cleaning appointment.  They both went well, although I do have a small cavity that I need to go back to get filled.  We were a little late getting there so our appointments went later than I thought they would.  Adrian also got stuck at work late so when we all got home, we had less than an hour to get homework and dinner done and get back out the door.  Adrian cooked pasta for everyone while I helped the boys finish their homework.  We ate quickly and then Adrian and Zak headed out to their first Crossover basketball practice and I headed to the church to teach my Zumba class.

AJ and Daniel did a great job taking care of Rocky while we were gone most of the afternoon and evening.  She is adjusting to having the cone on and is doing pretty well not jumping and running.  She does get really excited when we get home, but we're working on keeping her calm during that too.  I'm proud of AJ and Daniel for stepping up and helping out!  After we all got home, we were really wiped out.  We did as much as we could around the house and also took care of Rocky & let her take her cone off for a little while.  We got the boys thru their night routine and down to bed for the night.  Then we watched an episode of "Bless This Mess" and "Superstore" and then headed to bed for the night.  Getting back to our routine is hard!

Keeping Up With...2020 Goals

Happy New Year!!  We're about 10 days in to the new year and thankfully it's off to a better start than the end of 2019.  I wrote earlier this week about how my goals for 2019 went and all in all I was really happy with how the year went.  As I was trying to figure out what I wanted to work on this year I realized that I wanted to build on what I did last year and keep the momentum going.  I made a few tweaks to my list of goals, but for the most part it's a similar list to last year's list.  I'll be trying to update how I'm doing each month like I did last year and will adjust as necessary as the year goes on.  Hope you'll follow along and see how I do this year.

Here are my goals for 2020:

• Lose 25 pounds
• Exercise for 20 minutes every day
• Finish 12 exercise related calendar challenges
• Do 30 Bible Plans in the You Verse app
• Read "A Little God Time for Women"
• Read 20 books
• Read the 12 How to Train Your Dragon Books
• Read "Feminine Mystique"
• Write 45 meal plan blogs
• Write 52 weekly summary blogs
• Write 12 goal recap blogs
• Pay off $5,000 of credit card debt
• Renovate the boys' bedrooms
• Finish my daily to do list every night
• Watch 50 movies
• Go on 12 dates with Adrian
• Sub 80 days in the schools
• Go to 6 Zumba jam sessions
• Clean out master bedroom
• Play 1 game with Adrian each week
• Play Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 with Adrian once per month
• Play Machi Koro Legacy with the boys
• Have 6 nights out with friends
• Go on an awesome family vacation to the Outerbanks
• Do 100 fun family things (one thing each week during school & one thing per person each week over the summer)
• Go on 2 family camping trips

Keeping Up With...2019 Goals (December Recap)

Wow, I can't believe the year is over!  2019 was a weird year for us with lots of changes.  We had a pretty good year, until this last month.  In December things tend to get a little off course but this year they went really left.  We had at least one sick kid almost every day this month and had everything from a stomach bug to pink eye to a horrible cold that lasted for a week for each kid.  We lost two appliances between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And then the real shock was when my Uncle Tony unexpectedly passed away right before Christmas.  I tried really hard to see the good in all of that, and there was some, but it was really hard!!

Our winter break didn't go as planned either and we missed quite a few fun things we had planned for Christmas since there was like 10 days that we couldn't leave the house with sick kids.  The boys were upset to have missed some of our traditions, as were Adrian and I, but we are pitching the idea that they will feel that much more special next year when we get to do everything.  We did have a lot of downtime over break which was great, I slept a lot, ate a lot and played a lot of games.  It wasn't what I planned but may have been exactly what I needed.

I tried to stay focused on my goals this month, but it was really hard.  I fell behind on just about everything around here and am just now pulling my head above water.  Even this post is later than I wanted it to be by about a week.  And I haven't written about what my goals are for this year, although I'm hoping to get to that tomorrow.  Overall I'm very pleased with how this year went.  I accomplished a lot of my goals and made progress on almost all of them.  I think the only one I didn't accomplish anything on was going camping with our family, but we got a dog instead so that put a bit of a wrinkle in our plans for that.  We are hoping to get back to that next summer though!

Here's how I did on my goals in December and some thoughts on how I did for the year as well:

• Lose 50 30 pounds - Lost 0 pounds this month, and actually gained 1 more pound this month.  However, I'm down 19 pounds this year and I am thrilled!!  The past few years I have gained each year so I'm thrilled to see a loss this year and hoping I can ride that momentum into next year and continue losing.
• Exercise for 20 minutes every day - I finished the year working out 340 days out of the 365 days in the year.  I really ran out of steam this month and there were a lot of days that I did not exercise.  I was just really worn out from the holidays and all of the stress, plus eating a little heavy makes me not want to move.  I'm proud of how many days I exercised this year and I'm going to try again next year!
• Read the Bible in a Year - DONE!!  I fell behind here and there during the year but I was able to finish on time.  It was a challenge but I'm glad I stuck with it.  I enjoyed reading it and feel like I know the Bible better.  This is my second time reading the whole book and definitely not my last!
• Read 100 Days to Brave - DONE!!
• Read "Be Still and Know" - DONE!!  I also fell behind on this book but it was easy to catch back up.  I enjoyed this daily devotional and have another ready to go for 2020
• Read 20 books - I read 18 books for the year.  In December I finished "A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons" and "Escape from Mr Lemoncello's Library" both of which were quick reads.  The Library one was a recommendation from Daniel because he read it in school and really enjoyed it.  It's a series so we may read the rest of the books together too.
• Read the 12 How to Train Your Dragon Books - 6 books done this year.  I really like these books and plan to finish the rest of the books in 2020.
• Read "The Beauty Myth" - DONE!!
• Write 45 meal plan blogs - I did 33 blog posts this year which is pretty good, although short of where I was hoping to be.  I did plan almost every weeks, just didn't always have time to blog about it.  
• Write 52 weekly summary blogs - I wrote 50 summary blog posts this year, I missed only 2 weeks.  One is from the summer when I fell behind which I will just not be doing.  One is the last week in December which I'm working on now and will be publishing sometime this week.
• Write 12 9 goal recap blogs - 8 blog posts so far this year including this one.  I'm really hoping to do better with this one next year!!
• Pay off $3,000 of credit card debt - DONE!!  We actually paid off $3,800 this year, but we did buy our new refridgerator on 6 months same as cash.  I'm hoping to pay that off in one month, but we'll see how our finaces from this month shake out, it was an expensive one!
• Renovate the living room - DONE!!
• Watch 40 50 movies - We watched 50 movies this year!! In December we watched: "Klaus," "Elf," "Home Alone," "Home Alone 2" and "Rise of Skywalker."  I am so proud of us for sticking to watching at least one movie each week most weeks.  Some of them were movies we had seen before but they still counted.  We are excited to try to do this goal again next year!
• Go on 12 dates with Adrian - 14 dates for the year, yay!!  We are loving life now that we can leave the boys home here and there on their own.
• Sub 70 days in the schools - 67.5 days for the year.  I was so close to hitting this one and I had to call out multiple times in December because of sick kids and craziness.  I'm really enjoying subbing in the school and will be continuing next year.
• Do one group fitness training - DONE!!  I'm officially licensed to teach Aqua Zumba now.  I'm super excited to add this license to my resume and that I am teaching one class each week at the Y.  I'm hoping to add a few more this summer at their outdoor pools.
• Go to 6 Zumba jam sessions - 11 jams attended so far this year - Yes, another goal completed for the year!!  I went to 3 jams in December and loved them all.  I am convinced that's why I didn't gain more weight this month with all of that exercise.  And so much new choreo for my classes, yay!
• Clean out master bedroom garage - DONE!!  We decided to wait on our bedroom and instead clean out our garage.  We spent about 2 hours one morning and got the whole thing cleaned out.  It looks awesome!!
• Clean out play room - DONE!!  The boys did great helping out in the play room and we got rid of a ton of things.  I'm super proud of them!!
• Have 12 family board game nights - We've had 10 family game nights so far this year, including one more over winter break.  The boys aren't always wanting to play with us anymore so we didn't do as many of these as we would have liked.
• Play Pandemic Legacy with Adrian once per month - We played all 12 months and won the game!!  We did have to play December twice, but we played once and lost and then played right away and won in less than 30 minutes.  It was a fun game and I'm glad we did this!
• Have 6 nights out with friends - DONE!!
• Go on an awesome spring break vacation to Florida - DONE!!
• Do 100 fun family things (one thing each week during school & one thing per person each week over the summer) - We did 95 things this year which is pretty awesome!  We missed a few weeks due to sickness, including some of our Christmas traditions.  But we had a pretty fun year and are looking forward to doing more fun things in the new year!
• Go on 2 family camping trips - none planned so far and now it's too cold here in Ohio.  This goal will not be finished this year for sure, but we were just talking about possibly going next spring so it may be back on the goal list next year.

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Jan 5 - Jan 11)

Happy New Year!!  I'm back to meal planning after a few weeks off.  I did have a plan for some of those days that I didn't write about, but it often changed at the last minute because there was a lot of life going on over here.  I've also eaten pretty much whatever I want for the last three weeks, which has been delicious but is definitely taking a toll on my body.  I have gained a few pounds, but I also feel tired and sluggish plus cranky.  I'm also not sleeping great, probably a combination of not eating well and not exercising.  While I have enjoyed my break and I know I needed some time off, this was probably a bit excessive & longer than I needed.  I'm excited to get back to eating healthy this week!

I also got a new toy for Christmas - I got an air fryer!  We have been using it all break to cook not healthy things like pizza rolls, pierogies, grilled cheese, mozzerella sticks, fried pickles and so much more.  I love this thing and can't believe I have waited this long to get one!  Adrian loves it too so he has said he'll cook more if he can cook meals in it.  So I'm changing how I meal plan a little starting with this week.  Each week I'll still have a pork, chicken, beef, seafood and vegetarian meal.  But I'm also going to make sure I have at least one instant pot meal and one air fryer meal (or side).  I will probably still have one cheat day each week and then eat clean the rest of the week, but I may try to get a few weeks of eating well everyday for a while to jumpstart my weight loss.  We'll see how the next few weeks play out.

I am also continuing to try to use up what I have and will be really focusing on this goal for the year.  I still have about 10 squash left from our last CSA delivery in November so I'll be using one or two of those each week until they are gone.  I have a few more things on the pork shelf in my deep freeze and then I'll move on to the beef shelf and continue to clean that out.  I'm also working on the ice cream shelf with the boys and having them eat all of the gallons of ice cream that are down there before I buy them anymore.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Leftovers or frozen appetizers - one more day of junk before we buckle down!
Monday - Cauliflower & Butternut Squash Soup (instant pot) and Air Fried Carrots
Tuesday - Chicken Fajitas for the adults and Tacos for the kids
Wednesday - Spinach Quiche and Breakfast Sausage (finishing up the last of that from the freezer)
Thursday - Spaghetti Squash (from the CSA) and Sausage (finishing up the last of that from the freezer) for the adults and Gnocchi for the kids
Friday - Philly Cheesesteak Wraps
Saturday - Air Fried Wontons and Shrimp and Broccoli Stir Fry

Water Flavor - Kiwi.  I bought a big thing of kiwi a few weeks ago and then Zak broke my water infusor!  So I bought another one right after Christmas and took about a week off from having the flavored water.  The kiwi are still good so I used it for this past week & I'll finish it up this week.

Overnight Oats - I set up one batch of these with a flavored yogurt that I had.  I'm not sure how often I will eat these this week because I honestly may be home most mornings for breakfast.  These tend to be what I eat when I'm on the go.  If I eat them early in the week, I will set another batch up but I think I'll be OK for the week.

Use It Up - I'm using a butternut squash and a spaghetti squash.  I also have some veggies (cauliflower, carrots, peppers, mushrooms) in the fridge from over the holidays so I'm using those up first before buying more.  I have a pie crust leftover in the fridge and a ton of stock so I'll be using those up this week.  And I have three things left on the pork shelf to finish that up so I'm using two of them this week and will use the last one up next week.  My shopping list is very small this week, I'm proud of myself for using up what I have!

Lunches - I got some lettuce last week so I'll start with salads for a few days, then probably just have leftovers.  If I need something else, I'll have sandwiches because I have lunchmeat turkey to use up soon.  Again, I will probably be home most days for lunch so I'll figure it out each day instead of having to plan for it in advance.  I'm sure I'll be back to subbing full time next week so I'll plan more for lunches then for sure.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 12/27 - 1/2)

Friday (12/27) We tried to sleep in today since we didn't have anything planned but Daniel woke Adrian up around 6:30.  The rest of us were at least able to sleep in for a bit.  Daniel still wasn't feeling well so we decided to just hunker down at home and relax and postpone our Christmas light scavenger hunt again.  We had a lazy morning filled with coffee, bagels and TV.  Then Adrian headed out to his friend's house to play a game with them.  I did a few things around the house while he was gone and made sure Daniel was comfortable and hydrated.

When Adrian got home, he made a big pot of chili for us for dinner.  While it was simmering we played a new to me game, Wingspan.  It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed playing it, even though I lost.  I'm considering it a learning game and hoping to pull out the win next time!  We enjoyed chili for dinner with an appetizer of fried pickles made in my new air fryer!!  After dinner, we relaxed some more and played games of Hanabi, Potion Explosion and Lost Cities.  We let the boys stay up a little later than usual in hopes they will sleep in a little tomorrow.  It was a pretty relaxing day and while it wasn't exactly what we planned it was still a nice day.

Saturday (12/28) We were all able to sleep in this morning and I especially woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go.  Zak is finally 100% better, minus a little cough.  Daniel is at about 50% but he is really trying to will himself to feel better.  We spent the day relaxing and getting some stuff done around the house.  We are really enjoying this break with very little commitments and hardly anything on our to do list, although I do wish the boys were all healthy because that has put a slight damper on the first week of break.

In the afternoon Adrian and I learned another new game, one he got me for Christmas called Takenoko.  It's a cute game about caring for a garden and a panda.  I won this first game so it's now one of my favorite games, ha!  After we played the game, we all had leftovers for dinner and then got ready to finally leave the house as a family.  We finally went out to do our annual Christmas light scavenger hunt.  Unfortunately lots of people already took their decorations down so we had a harder time finding the things on the list than we thought we would.  But we still had fun and hopefully created another memory for the boys.

When we got home, the boys went back to watching YouTube while Adrian and I watched the OSU college playoff game.  I'm not a huge Buckeye fan but this was a great game and I did watch most of it.  We're both bummed that the Buckeyes didn't pull out the win, but they played tough and hung with Clemson the whole game.  They made some dumb mistakes and there were some questionable calls which all contributed to the loss.  It sucks that their season ended on a miscommunication between the QB and a great WR.  I'm looking forward to cheering for them again next year!!

Sunday (12/29) We got up early with the intention of going to church, but it wasn't quite early enough to make it to the first service.  Then with the rain and the lazy feeling of the house, we never made it out to church this morning.  I know we should have gone but we are really enjoying this relaxing and reset this break and I'm not sorry for that.  We had a lazy morning of coffee, TV and getting a few things done around the house before settling in for an afternoon of football.  We watched the Jets game first and I was excited that they pulled out a win!  They have looked good the second half of the season and I'm hoping we can build on this in the offseason.

We enjoyed some of the other 1:00 games too, including watching the Patriots lose and the Chiefs win so the Patriots have to play next week.  I just want another team to win for a change!!  Then we watched the late games while making pizza and calzones for dinner.  We were happy the Cowboys won but bummed that their season ended too since they weren't consistent enough thru the season.  The late games weren't as exciting, but we still enjoyed just being able to sit around and watch football.  We enjoyed pizza, calzones in the air fryer and buffalo chicken dip for dinner and then cleaned up that giant mess while watching the night game.  It was another super relaxing day and we loved watching all of the end of season football games!!

Monday (12/30) We slept in again today after a bit of a rough night of sleep because our power went out around 5am.  All of us but AJ were woken up by that and the strong winds, but thankfully we were all able to go back to sleep for a while.  When we finally got up and moving, everyone finally seemed like they were feeling better (for the first time in like 3 weeks!)  We decided to still take it easy most of the day and ease into doing stuff, especially for Daniel.  We spent the afternoon watching TV, playing video games, eating leftovers and getting a few things done around the house.

We had planned to go across town to see some light displays tonight but the weather was questionable (high winds & snow/ice) so we decided not to do that.  However we needed to get out of the house so we decided to head to Menchie's for dessert tonight.  We had a gift card to use so we got a free dessert and everyone had a great time creating their ice creams.  Zak made the biggest one and was also the only one who couldn't finish it while we were there.  We came back home and Adrian and I decided to play a few games while the boys played with their new VR headset.  We played "Ticket to Ride" and "Takenoko" and he beat me at both games.  Then we watched a little TV, got everyone down to bed and headed to bed ourselves.

Tuesday (12/31) It's the last day of the year!!  We actually had to get up and moving today because we had tickets to Star Wars at 11:30.  We all got up and moving and were just about ready to leave when our power went out which slowed us down a bit.  But we made it work and still got out of the house on time.  We got our free popcorn at the theater and enjoyed watching the movie on the giant screen with the heated seats.  We all LOVED this newest Star Wars and Adrian and I especially really liked it as an ending to the series that we have grown up watching and loving.  We laughed, we cried, we cheered and we all enjoyed it!!!

After the movie we all felt really drained from all of the emotions, plus we were all really hungry from the timing of everything.  We had some appetizers, some relaxing time and Zak even took a nap.  Then we played "Just One" "DC Deck Building" and "Medium" to pass the time until midnight.  We all made it up until midnight, although it was a struggle for sure!  Soon after the ball drop, we put the boys to bed and we finished up an episode of "Superstore" and planned to go to bed.  Unfortunately since Zak had taken a big nap, he couldn't sleep so he came downstairs and slept on the couch with Dad while I headed upstairs to get a good night of sleep.

Wednesday (1/1) Happy New Year!!  We had a pretty good 2019, but it ended with a lot of challenges so we are looking forward to a new start this month, year and decade.  We all slept in this morning, including AJ and Daniel sleeping past noon today.  We had a lazy morning of coffee and TV and leftovers for breakfast and lunch.  Once we were all up and moving this afternoon, we started our "Machi Koro Legacy" game for the year and Daniel kicked all of our butts for month one.  Then the boys headed upstairs to play video games and Adrian and I played "Viticulture" with his new Tuscany expansion pack, and he kicked my butt again.  I am on a losing streak with these board games!!

After those games, we made ribs, saurkraut and pierogies for dinner tonight, as is our tradition each New Years Day.  Everything was delicious and we all ate too much!!  Then we got some stuff done around the house getting ready for Adrian to go back to work tomorrow.  We finished up the night with one more game, Adrian and I played Gizmos and I finally won another game!  After the game, we got the boys thru their night routine and down to bed for the night a little earlier than they have been going to bed to try to get back on our normal schedule.  Adrian also headed to bed since he needs to go back to work tomorrow.  I stayed up and did a few more little things and watched some "Married to Medicine" because I have had very little alone time the past 2 weeks to watch any of my bad reality shows.

Thursday (1/2) Today it was back to the normal routine for Adrian.  He got up and headed into work for the day while the rest of us slept in for a while.  AJ and I got up around 9am and had a relaxing morning together before the other boys woke up.  When everyone was up and had breakfast, I ran a quick errand to Aldi to grab a few essentials for us and then came back and got lunch for everyone.  Then we packed up and headed downtown to COSI for the afternoon.

We spent some time in the two traveling exhibits first, Unseen Oceans and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The boys didn't love either of those, probably too young for the Oceans and too old for TMNT but we still made the best of it and had fun.  Then we headed to the permanant Oceans exhibit and we had a blast!  Zak had never been in that one and he was in 7th heaven!  He loves water and getting wet so this was right up his alley.  We played there for a while and just as we were getting ready to leave, we bumped into some friends so we stayed a little longer.  We played with them in Oceans for a bit and then headed to Energy Explorers to finish our day.  It was a great day spending time together and visiting with friends!!

When we came home, the boys played video games for a bit while I played with Rocky and got a few things done.  Then we had dinner together and then made crumb cake together, which Daniel has been asking for since before Christmas.  We made two cakes, one for us and one that we will bring to my brother's house this weekend.  We had a great time making them together & they came out delicious.  When we were done baking, the boys had a little more video game time while Adrian and I cleaned up.  Then we got the boys thru their night routine and down for the night.  Adrian and I watched one episode of "Bless This Mess" and then he went to bed.  I stayed up a little and watched "The Real Housewives of Dallas" reunion before heading to bed for the night too.