Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 5/3 - 5/9)

This was another super busy but super fun week! Thankfully I didn't work very much this week which was OK with me. I had a ton to do around the house and a ton of holidays to celebrate. We once again had something every night this week including me getting out twice with my friends, once to walk and once for drinks and dinner. We also had the introduction meeting for marching band for AJ next year. We both left feeling excited, and a little overwhelmed! It's a big commitment and a lot of work but AJ is excited to do it so we will make it work.

We had two super fun holidays during the week this week that we celebrated pretty big. On Tuesday we celebrated Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) and on Wednesday we celebrated Cinco de Mayo. For Tuesday, I made (Bow) Tie Fighter Pasta for dinner and R2D2 cookies for dessert. Then we watched the pilot episode of Clone Wars, which no one really liked. For Wednesday, I made tacos for AJ & Zak, nachos for Daniel and fajitas for Adrian and I. The adults also enjoyed some adult beverages and found a new delicious margarita flavor, Pineapple Coconut. It was a lot of work to pull these two together, but we had so much fun so I'm really glad that I did.

Then this weekend was our annual "parents" weekend where we celebrate both of us. Since Adrian's birthday is always the same weekend as Mother's Day we always take the whole weekend "off" and celebrate both of us all weekend. This year we decided to have a relaxing weekend mostly at home. Saturday we started our day with Zak's final bowling session for his league. He has improved a ton and we are so glad he is having so much fun bowling! Then we came home and picked up the other boys and headed out for mini golf together which was a great time. Later Saturday evening, we dropped Daniel off at his friend's birthday party and went to pick up Schmidt's from their food truck that was in town. In between that and all day Sunday, we played board games, opened presents and got a few things done around the house. We enjoyed some yummy dinners and desserts and lots of time relaxing!

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 30 days in a row of 10,000 steps each day this week!! Unfortunately I also missed it for the first time this Sunday. Between the rain all day and relaxing since it was Mother's Day I only got about 5,000 steps in, which I am OK with for that one day! My eating was horrible this week and I gained almost 4 pounds, a total of 5.2 pounds so far this year, ugh! 
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I continued "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry" and read about 100 pages so I'm about 1/3 of the way done.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 129 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 got back in the swing of things this weekend and played 6 games this weekend for a total of 68 games so far this year. Adrian and I played The Godfather, Air, Land and Sea, Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Empires of the North. We liked most of them, except Air, Land and Sea, that one was just not for me. We also played Food Chain Magnate with AJ which is a long but fun game. And finally we played Ghost Blitz with the boys which is fun but loud and chaotic! 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.
  
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We have not incurred any new debt this week. If we can maintain that for the next 7 months we will be so happy!
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched "The  Mitchells versus the Machines" this week, which was Zak's pick. We all loved it, it was super cute and funny!! Our total for the year so far is 18 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 8 holidays, we doubled up on Sunday this week. We celebrated National Raspberry Popover Day, Star Wars Day, Cinco de Mayo, National Day of Prayer, International Space Day, National Mini Golf Day, Mother's Day and National Moscato Day. Below are a few more 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 4/26 - 5/2)

This past week went by in a blur! For the first time in a very long time, I subbed all five days this week. A few of the days were only half days, but it was still a long and exhausting week. It was spirit week at school for Zak and I was able to participate on some of the days which was fun. We both especially liked superhero day! We also had stuff going on just about every night this week including me walking with friends, AJ & Zak having Scouts, Daniel having art class and the boys playing Dungeons and Dragons with their friends. The weekend was also pretty full with a trip out to see my brother and his family on Saturday and catching up on a ton of work around the house on Sunday. We enjoyed a delicious meal with Carl on Saturday and all had a great time watching the Derby together!!

Another highlight for me this week was that I taught my first Zumba class in almost four months! I did a virtual class for my students on Thursday since it was International Dance Day. We had a blast dancing together, even if it was virtual. I made it about 45 minutes, but struggled to keep up my intensity towards the end of class. I will definitely need to work on building up my endurance when I come back to teaching full time this summer. I miss teaching Zumba and am excited to get back to it after my surgery!

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 changed this goal a little bit because the miles were getting super high since I have the Fitbit now. My goal is to walk 10,000 just about every day for the rest of this year. I was able to do that all 7 days this week. I lost 3.2 pounds this week for a total of 9.2 pounds so far this year. I am so excited to see the scale moving in the right direction! I know I just need to keep moving and watching my calories.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I had to return "Gideon" so I started a new book "Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry." I didn't read much this week, it fell by the wayside in favor of other things, but I read the first 50 pages or so.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 122 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 only played 1 games this weekend for a total of 62 games so far this year. We played Great Western Trail for the first time and we really enjoyed it. We can't wait to play it again! We also played Century Spice Road again before we return it to CABS. It is just OK for us, we probably won't be investing in it. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We took the weekend off from these since we have finished 4 projects already this year.
  
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our final credit card this month!! So far this goal is met, we just need to get thru the next 8 months without incurring any new debt. We're saving for our vacation now and then will take the large payment we were paying on our credit card and put it towards our car payments to get them paid off early too (our goal for next year!)
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched "The Frighteners" this week, which was Adrian's pick. The boys really liked it, it was a little scary and a little funny. Our total for the year so far is 17 movies. We also watched the finale of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and kept up with the new Wipeout and Mighty Ducks Game Changers. 
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 8 holidays, we doubled up on Thursday. We celebrated National Pretzel Day, Babe Ruth Day, National Superhero Day, National Shrimp Scampi Day, International Dance Day, Bugs Bunny Day, Derby Day and National Lemonade 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...Food (Meal Plan 5/2 - 5/8)

I accidentally skipped another week of blogging our meal plan for the week, but we did have one. We actually had a pretty easy week of food last week because it was the end of the month and I was getting ready to restock our groceries for the week. The big highlights of the past two weeks were finally making the TikTok pasta and this shrimp scampi recipe. The zucchini I had were too small to make zoodles, so we had it over spaghetti, but I did saute the zucchini in with the shrimp and the sauce. Here are a few picture highlights of our meals last week.

We have been super busy these past few weeks and while it's stressful, I am loving being back in the swing of things. I need to find the balance between doing everything and still keeping up on stuff around the house. We had two very busy weeks and weekends and now I feel very far behind on everything, hence skipping the blog last week and being super late this week. I feel like I need to just figure out how to survive the last month of school and then reset again this summer and make a plan for the fall. For this week, and actually most of this month, I'm making meals that are either centered around the holidays we are celebrating or making everyone's favorite meals. I will be cooking most days until the end of May and then I will not really be cooking in June or July. After my surgery I have a bunch of friends and family bringing us meals. Then we'll just be eating whatever we have so empty the fridge and freezers before we hit the road for two weeks. I will also be pausing these blog posts after the last week in May.

Anyway, here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday - Air Fryer Rotisserie Chicken and Garlic Cauliflower

Monday - Sausage & Peppers Omelette and English Muffins

Tuesday - (Bow) Tie Fighter Pasta for Star Wars Day

Wednesday - Tacos and Fajitas for Cinco de Mayo

Thursday - Leftovers for the boys, I'm going out to dinner with friends

Friday - Thai Chicken Salad and English Muffin Garlic Bread

Saturday - Schmidt's Food Truck to celebrate Mother's Day & Adrian's birthday

Water Flavor - Orange Mint - I finally remembered to buy some mint so it's spicing up my orange water. We are just about done with meals from the school, so once those oranges are gone, I'll be back to doing other flavors of water (although that probably won't happen before I stop these posts, ha!)

Baking - This week I'm making R2D2 sugar cookies from a package for Star Wars day. I'm also hoping to make these granola bars to have for breakfasts this week. I have lots of baking to do in the upcoming weeks so I didn't plan a lot this week. Plus we have Mother's Day and Adrian's birthday this weekend so we'll have lots of sweets from those.

Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 4/19 - 4/25)

This week was super busy!! I worked a lot and we had a ton of stuff going on every night. Adrian also worked a lot, he had 40 hours halfway thru Thursday this week. We also had to deal with snow on Wednesday morning which made us all late on our busiest day of the week! But we managed to survive it all and had some fun in between the chaos. The week ended with Adrian and I heading out to our monthly wine tasting at Coopers Hawk and then using our birthday rewards to go out to dinner. It was a nice way to end a busy week and get ready for another one on tap!

This weekend was different than most have been over the past year. First, I got my second COVID vaccine on Friday morning. I spent the day moving my arm, taking aspirin and drinking water and Gatorade. That evening, Adrian packed up himself, AJ and Zak and headed out for a Scout camping weekend. We were a little nervous about me being on my own after the second dose, but thankfully I didn't have any side effects other than being super tired. Daniel was a great helper all weekend and I was able to rest most of the time to make sure I was feeling OK. The other boys had a great time camping, they especially enjoyed learning how to split wood with an axe. They came home smelly and tired on Sunday, always a sign of a good time.

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 -  I walked about 35 miles this week for a total of 229 miles so far this year. I have continued to get at least 10,000 steps each day according to my FitBit. I've taken Rocky on lots of extra walks this week and subbing also helps boost my weekly miles. I only lost 1.5 pounds this week for a total of 6.2 pounds so far this year. I am so excited to see the scale moving in the right direction! I know I just need to keep moving and watching my calories.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I read another 25% of "Gilead" this week, so I'm about halfway thru it. It is really good, but it has to go back early this week so I probably won't get it finished until I get it again. The wait list is super long for it which stinks, but hopefully I can finish it this summer.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 115 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For April I picked a plan focused on patience which is always something I struggle with.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - In the chaos of this week, I didn't realize I didn't get the info for this Saturday's jam session until Saturday morning. Thankfully I was able to get everything I needed that morning & still do the jam. I didn't dance the whole time, I didn't want to exhaust myself since I was home alone and fighting off the vaccine, but I danced way more than I thought I could. I loved the songs and choreo and was so excited to jam with Lynn again!! This was my second jam of the year and while I want to attend more, I will be pausing until August so I can focus on my surgery and our summer vacation. But I hope to be back to in person jams this fall!!
  

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 this weekend since we were so busy with other things. We knew this was going to happen as things started to get busier for the boys, so we're glad we played so many this winter. We still hope to finish this year, but it's looking like more of a challenge now for sure. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We took the weekend off from these since we have finished 4 projects already this year.
  
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our final credit card this month!! So far this goal is met, we just need to get thru the next 8 months without incurring any new debt. We're saving for our vacation now and then will take the large payment we were paying on our credit card and put it towards our car payments to get them paid off early too (our goal for next year!)
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We didn't watch a movie this week since half of us were gone over the weekend. Our total for the year so far is still 16 movies. We also kept up with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the new Wipeout and watched the Mighty Ducks Game Changers. We all love the Mighty Ducks show so we're excited to watch it as the episodes are released!
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 9 holidays, we doubled up on both Monday and Saturday this week. We celebrated National Bicycle Day, National Garlic Day, National Cheese Fries Day, National Banana Day, Earth Day, World Book Day, Eeyore's Birthday, New Kids on the Block Day, and National Penguin 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 4/12 - 4/18)

We had another super busy week around here, and I loved every minute of it! The boys had school all week which included their first round of AIR testing. While I don't think the tests are necessary, I'm thankful my boys are all good test takers and don't freak out about the tests. We tried to keep bedtime as early as possible all week so everyone was well rested. AJ and Zak also had Scouts this week and both had a lot of fun at their meetings. AJ did some compass and navigation work and Zak worked on his forensics belt loop which included identifying different kitchen staples. Both boys had a great time and are looking forward to their upcoming camping trip together!

Rocky and I also had a very busy week. Since Adrian got his second COVID vaccine on Tuesday, he asked me to take off Tues & Weds from subbing in case he wasn't feeling well. Thankfully, he was fine and was able to work both days. But since I was already off, I got together with a few friends this week. On Tuesday, Rocky and I went to my friend's house to have a play date with their silver lab, Zoey. They had a blast running around the yard and playing in the water. On Wednesday, I met a friend from the Y and we walked at Pine Quarry Park, it was so good to catch up and get some fresh air! Also on Wednesday, Rocky went to daycare and enjoyed playing at Dogwarts all day. She was sorted into Ravenclaw for her house and enjoyed some yummy Harry Potter themed treats. Finally, on Friday I met another friend for lunch at Easton where we enjoyed yummy food and great conversation.

This weekend was super busy as well and unfortunately didn't feel like much of a weekend, at least for me. Friday night we had the boys' friends over for their Dungeons & Dragons game. They were all a little off, but they made it work and had fun. They finished a little before the parents came to pick them up, so they burned off some energy out back in the trampoline. Saturday Zak had one of his last weeks of bowling and after a rough start beat his average for the second two games. I worked all afternoon at the church and was able to drop off the rest of our donations towards the annual rummage sale. We finished the weekend with our normal work day on Sunday, which included Adrian using his brad new lawn mower to mow the backyard (we're still paying our neighbor to do our front yard). Adrian is going to teach the boys how to mow this summer in the back yard and then hopefully they can take over the front yard next summer. We also got lots of sleep Saturday and Sunday morning which we all needed after a busy week!

Here's how I did on my goals this week, once again, they were all pretty good.

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 20 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year -  I walked about 33 miles this week for a total of 194 miles so far this year. I have continued to get at least 10,000 steps each day according to my FitBit. I've taken Rocky on lots of extra walks this week and subbing also helps boost my weekly miles. I only lost 0.2 pounds this week for a total of 4.7 pounds so far this year. I was disappointed to not see a bigger number, but I'll keep focused this week and hopefully see some movement on Saturday.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I read about 25% of "Gilead" this week. It is really good, but I probably won't get to finish it before it's due back. I'll take a break for a bit and bounce back to it in a few weeks.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 108 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For April I picked a plan focused on patience which is always something I struggle with.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I am registered for my second jam  of the year next weekend!

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We only played 2 games this weekend for a total of 61 games so far this year. We played Flip Ships with Daniel and Zak, and played Forgotten Waters as a couple. I don't really like either game, but Flip Ships is always funny with the boys. It was a slower weekend of games since we were really busy, and this may be the norm for the next few weeks. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We took the weekend off from these since we have finished 4 projects already this year.
  
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our final credit card this month!! So far this goal is met, we just need to get thru the next 8 months without incurring any new debt. We're saving for our vacation now and then will take the large payment we were paying on our credit card and put it towards our car payments to get them paid off early too (our goal for next year!)
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched one movie this week "Might Ducks 3." It was cute, better than the second one. I'm hoping we'll be able to watch the TV series soon now. This brings our total for the year so far to 16 movies. We also kept up with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, started the new Wipeout and made some progress on Green Eggs and Ham and The Hollow. 
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated National Grilled Cheese Day, Thomas Jefferson Day, National Dolphin Day, McDonald's Day, National Mushroom Day, National Cheese Ball Day and National Animal Cracker 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...Food (Meal Plan 4/18 - 4/24)

We had another great week of following our meal plan, even if we did juggle a few days last week. We made all of the meals, and most of them were really good. The Italian Nachos were a swing and a miss, but at least we used up some of our banana peppers, ha! I was hoping we liked them so we could have it a few times and finish the peppers, but I guess it's back to salads and sandwiches with them. I continue to be in love with my new air fryer, especially since it cooks so well. This week I used it to cook both salmon and potatoes at the same time, one thing on each level. It was a big expense, but I'm so glad we did it! Here are some of the picture highlights of the past week:

Last week was super busy and thankfully this week is a little lighter. We also have a Scout camping trip this weekend so on Friday, Adrian, AJ and Zak will leave for most of the weekend. Not sure if Daniel and I will go out for dinner on Saturday, or just eat what we have here. I'm making fairly simple meals again this week since I'm exhausted most nights after the long school days. We are making a good dent in our frozen breakfasts and lunches as well, we got rid of two bags this week which is awesome. I'll continue to focus on planning meals around those items until they are gone. I'm still trying to not grocery shop either, this week there is nothing on my list so we'll just eat what we have. It should be a pretty great week food wise!

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Grilled Steak and Butternut Squash Risotto
Monday - Tik Tok Pasta with shrimp added for the adults
Tuesday - Burgers and/or hot dogs with cheese fries (for the holiday)
Wednesday - Leftovers or freezer meals
Thursday - Tacos for the boys and frozen burrito casserole for the adults
Friday - Quinoa Chicken Chili
Saturday - Camping for some, leftovers or out for the others

Water Flavor - Orange again. I forgot to add mint to my list last week like I said I would so it's straight orange again. I just added it to the list for next time (probably next week) so hopefully I'll spice it up a bit then. We haven't been getting oranges, only apples, so I'm hoping once this group is gone, I'll be able to pick different things again.

Baking - Once again, I'm going to take this week off from baking. We finished a whole bag of breakfasts last week by doing this and I'm hoping to get thru another one this week. We also have a ton of cereal in the garage so I had that one day this past week and may try to do that from time to time as well. It is banana day on Wednesday and I considered making banana bread, but the kids don't like that so I decided to make it easy on myself and just have bananas with dinner that night.

Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 4/5 - 4/11)

This week was fairly calm which was exactly what we needed after the past two weeks of excitement. We got back on our regular schedule with everyone in school and working. It was an exhausting week as well, these days are very long! I'm thankful we only have to do this for seven more weeks, although I'm not sure next year will be any better. We were supposed to go to my brother's house this weekend but a few of us are coughing and sneezing so we cancelled. It's probably just allergies, but we figured better safe than sorry. We spent most of the weekend relaxing, catching up on stuff around the house and playing board games. I am thankful for a week to catch my breath!

Here's how I did on my goals this week, they were all pretty good.

Working on Myself:

• Lose 50 20 pounds by exercising 5 days each week and walking at least 400 miles this year -  I walked about 25 miles this week for a total of 161 miles so far this year. I decided to get a Fitbit to track my steps and see if that helps keep me moving and losing weight. I started wearing it on Wednesday and so far I've gotten at least 10,000 steps each day. I've taken Rocky on extra walks this week and subbing also helps boost my weekly miles. I also lost 1.5 pounds this week for a total of 4.5 pounds so far this year.
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I finished "The Lies that Bind" by Emily Giffin this week and it was great! I really enjoyed it, she's one of my favorite authors. I've read 8 books so far this year, and have my ninth one "Gilead" ready to go.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 101 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For April I picked a plan focused on patience which is always something I struggle with.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I am registered for my second jam  of the year later this month.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We played 3 games this weekend for a total of 59 games so far this year. We played Fury of Dracula with AJ, and played Funkoverses: Golden Girls and Gizmos as a couple. We also played a game we borrowed from CABS, Century Spice Road which we really liked. It was a slower weekend of games since Fury of Dracula took us over 3 hours to play. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We made more progress here this week!! We finished organizing our garage and have completed 4 projects for this year. We got rid of a ton more stuff and really like how the garage looks now. We can fit a car in there easily, but probably won't until the weather gets colder again. Here are the before and after pictures:
  
  
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We paid off our final credit card this month!! So far this goal is met, we just need to get thru the next 8 months without incurring any new debt. We're saving for our vacation now and then will take the large payment we were paying on our credit card and put it towards our car payments to get them paid off early too (our goal for next year!)
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched one movie this week "Might Ducks 2." It was cute and we're excited for the third one now. Glad the boys enjoyed this series! This brings our total for the year so far to 15 movies. We also kept up with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, started the new Wipeout and finished this season of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 8 holidays again since we celebrated two on Saturday. We celebrated National Sweet Potato Day, National Twinkie Day, National Beer Day, National Empanada Day, National Unicorn Day, National Siblings Day, National Hug Your Dog Day and National Cheese Fondue 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