Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 5/10 - 5/16)

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

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

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

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

Working on Myself:

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

Working on Family:

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