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

Happy Father's Day!!  Hope all of you Dads are enjoying your day today!

Last week went mostly to plan, even though the plan was super easy.  We did order pizza one night because it was a fundraiser for our church's VBS program.  So I didn't make one dinner which will be pushed to this week.  Also as I'm typing this, I'm unsure if we will get to BBQ for Father's day tonight or not.  Daniel has a baseball tournament and depending on how his team does, we may end up at the field all night.

This week is another busy week for us with VBS for Zak, Minecraft camp for AJ and Daniel and lots of extra classes that I am subbing.  Plus Adrian will probably be working some overtime.  I'm trying to keep meals healthy, simple and also have leftovers for lunches for Adrian.  It was not easy to plan the menu this week.  There is a good chance I will either have to cook something else during the week for his lunches or he will have to eat out at least one day.  My lunches will all be on the run as well so I'm stocking up on stuff for salads and sandwiches.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Chicken Salad - I made this last week but we didn't eat it all and since I'll be out most of the night, it's a good time to finish it up
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday!
Wednesday - Skillet Beef and Celery - carry over from last week
Thursday - Thai Chicken Salad
Friday - Pakistani Kimi
Saturday - Summer Shrimp over Zoodles
Sunday - Grilled steaks with potatoes and veggies - I'm out all day at Zumba events so I'll arrive home hungry and tired.  Easy dinner for Adrian to make while here with the boys.

Water Flavor - Orange since I still have some leftover from the bag my mother in law gave me for free

Overnight oats - I have 2 days worth set up already that are leftover from last week.  They are Banana Chocolate Chip.  I need to restock all of my ingredients and will set more up either Mon or Tues night for the rest of the week.  I'll be setting up Original, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Apple Cinnamon.  Next weekend when I have a little more time to breathe and plan, I will be looking for at least one new flavor to try.

Clean it out challenge - This week I didn't focus a lot of this since again I didn't have a lot of time to breathe or plan the past few days.  I'm using up a bunch of celery that needs to be used on Weds and some frozen sugar snap peas on Friday.  I'm using up the open bottle of wheat germ in our overnight oats since I used up all of our flaxseed.  Next weekend I will take an inventory of our fridges and start there to use things up.

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

We had a pretty good week last week of sticking to our plan.  We did change our plans for Wednesday night so I didn't end up cooking that night.  Instead I made large salads for Adrian and I for dinner, mine was a Greek salad and his was Caesar.  They were delicious!  I also didn't cook on Friday night because we were invited to a pizza party for the end of sports and arts camp for AJ and Daniel.  And free Jets pizza trumps anything I would make any day!  I'll be bumping those meals to this week instead.

This week the boys and I are at Cub Scout day camp all day every day.  Thankfully we only have additional plans on Monday evening - a baseball game for Daniel.  I have a feeling I am going to be really tired after camp so I am making super easy meals all week.  I feel like we are going to be ready to crash when we get home - and also be super hungry.  I'm hoping having easy meals will help us avoid the drive thru on the way home.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Roast Chicken - I'm actually roasting this today and we will have it with veggies tomorrow
Tuesday - Ribs that will cook in the slow cooker all day
Wednesday - Pasta
Thursday - Chicken Salad with the leftover chicken from Monday
Friday - Skillet Beef and Celery - carry over from last week.  We will be home early so I'm hoping to get some energy to cook tonight.  If not, I'll flip this with Saturday's plan
Saturday - Leftovers since we will be out all day, Adrian, AJ & Daniel at the Origins conference and Zak and I at Storybook Village
Sunday - BBQ for Father's Day - burgers, dogs & brats on the grill!

I also bought 2 bags of Caesar salad so we can just throw that together and throw some chicken in it if I'm really feeling lazy.  Or have as a side with a sandwich or some leftovers.  The meals I'm making on Monday and Tuesday will yield a lot of food so we'll have plenty leftover for the week.

Water Flavor - Mango

Overnight Oats - We have Monday covered again with leftovers from last week so I don't need to do that many for this week.  I'll be making Chocolate Peanut Butter and Banana Chocolate Chip because I want the extra protein in the mornings before I hike 4-5 miles every day.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/2 - 6/8)

Friday (6/2) Happy 10th Birthday AJ!!  Our day started early since we had to drop the van off for some body work.  Then we headed to Krispy Kreme since it was also national donut day.  We enjoyed our free donuts and then headed off to Zoombezi Bay for the day.  We spent most of our time in the wave pool since it's AJ's favorite.  We also all from the new Sound Surfer slide that we never got to ride last season, played at Baboon Lagoon and rode the Lazy River.  It was a great day with more beautiful weather!!

We hit a traffic jam from an accident on the way home so by the time we got home we were all exhausted and hungry.  We grabbed quick snacks and everyone just sat down to relax, most of us with an electronic device.  After some downtime I cooked AJ's requested dinner - tacos and we finally opened up his presents.  He got a new 2DS from us and 2 new games from Zak and Daniel.  We also bought him a digital watch because he has been asking for one.  My brother sent him the new Star Wars movie and my parents got him an outfit and Dancing Groot - which we are all loving!  After presents, we had family movie night and watched AJ's pick of Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.  We paused about halfway thru for Oreo ice cream cake and then after the movie everyone went quickly to bed.  Adrian and I did a quick clean up and made the ice cream cakes for the upcoming parties this weekend before collapsing into bed ourselves!

Saturday (6/3) Birthday Party Day!!  We got moving pretty quickly this morning to get set up for two different birthday parties for AJ today.  Then Adrian took the boys to soccer this morning, Zak had his regular class and AJ and Daniel had a make up class.  I stayed home to finish party set up and get a few things done around the house.  They came home after soccer, we ate a quick lunch and then our party guests started arriving!

We had a great party for AJ with eight boys here to play.  They traded Pokemon cards, had a water gun fight, played in our pool and slip n' slide, had a water balloon fight, played chess, played video games, ate lots of snacks and cake and all gave AJ new Pokemon cards for his birthday.  We had a great group of boys here and I'm very thankful AJ has such great friends.  When the parents started arriving to pick them up, no one wanted to leave.  I believe that is a sign of a good party!

 

 

 

 After the kids were picked up, Carl, Sarah, Isabelle and Vinnie came over for party number two of the day.  We had Jets pizza and more ice cream cake.  The kids played in the yard with the water more and the adults had some down time to catch up.  Vinnie really enjoyed our new dancing Groot doll, he was dancing for all of us most of the night.  When they left, we were all exhausted so we had a little down time watching TV and then all headed to bed.  It was a great day celebrating AJ!

Sunday (6/4) started with all of us going to church together since we only have one car.  It was move up Sunday so Zak moved to the elementary school class.  So now all three boys are in large group together for the next year.  And they are in the class that I volunteer in so all four of us were together this morning.  It was a great start to our Sunday!!

After church, we came home to get a few things done around the house then moved on to party number 3 for AJ with Adrian's parents, sister and nephew.  We made homemade pizza and had more ice cream cake.  AJ got a Creeper hoodie and a new fishing pole, both of which he declared "no fun."  We finished up our time with them with a game of Bang! The Dice Game and some puzzles.  When they left we were all pretty tired so we finished up a few things, got the kids to bed and sat down with a glass of sangria and some DVR time to celebrate surviving another birthday weekend!

Monday (6/5) The boys and I were home all day without a car since the van was still in the shop.  We did a whole lot of nothing and it was fantastic!  We started with our summer schedule of doing a little bit of work each day (reading, creative, math, riding bikes, learning to tie shoes, etc).  I also got caught up on a bunch of stuff I didn't get done over the weekend.  The boys played a lot of video games and watched a lot of TV.  We won't have many days like this over the summer but when we have them, I'm going to enjoy them!  Daniel did have a baseball game tonight.  Thankfully Adrian got home in time to take him to the game.  His team lost for the first time all season.  It was a defensive battle, they lost 2-1.  Daniel didn't get a hit but made a few plays in the field.

 

Tuesday (6/6) was the first day of sports and arts camp for AJ and Daniel.  Thankfully my friend was able to drop them off this morning because I had to work at the same time.  They had a great time at camp, AJ played baseball & soccer and Daniel played baseball and did art.  While they were there, Zak and I went to my Silver Sneakers class, then Giant Eagle to pick up a few things and then to the Y for some swimming.  We swam with friends for about an hour and a half and then he had swim lessons.  We had a fun afternoon!

After that full afternoon, we came home and I cooked a quick taco dinner for us.  Daniel and I ate and then ran out to baseball practice.  Adrian fed the other boys and did a few things around the house with them.  Then he and I headed out to use our free tickets to see the musical "Beautiful" about Carole King.  It was such a great show!!  We were really glad we had the opportunity to go and see it and get a night out in a pretty busy week for us.

Wednesday (6/7) AJ and Daniel had sports and arts camp again.  I dropped them and their friend Keaton off to play baseball and soccer while Zak and I headed to the Y so I could take an Aqua Zumba class.  Unfortunately I got there only to find out that the class was cancelled because the pool was closed.  I was frustrated that I went out there and couldn't work out but Zak and I did a few errands and then came home to get some stuff done around the house.  We went back to pick up the boys from camp and then headed back to the Y so I could teach my Zumba class.

After class, we ran home to have a quick dinner and then headed to soccer for AJ and Daniel's last class.  It was parent participation week which turned into family participation when we all played.  The five of us had a ton of fun playing battleship, 4 corners and of course scrimmage.  We were all sweaty messes when we left.  AJ and I made a quick stop at the library to pick up a few reserved items and then we all went home to head to bed as early as we could for another busy day tomorrow.

Thursday (6/8) started pretty much the same as yesterday - dropping off AJ, Daniel and Keaton at sports and arts camp and then heading to the Y.  It was slime day for the art group so we got there very early - and we still didn't make the cut for art class.  I promised the boys we would make slime one day this summer here at home.  I took two classes at the Y - Zumba and Boom Muscle and then found out that Zak's swimming lesson for the afternoon was cancelled because both pools were closed.  Again, I was very frustrated - especially since no one called me and I only knew because I was there.  Zak was also very upset because he really wanted to go swimming.  We took advantage of the extra time to come home and get a few things done around the house.

We went and picked the boys up from camp and rushed home because they had a playdate with their friends Brooks, Simon and Yared.  The six boys played video games for about two hours while I ran out to teach a Zumba class and Adrian worked from home.  It was a crazy few hours but everyone had a great time so that's what matters.  We had a quick dinner of gnocchi and tortellini before Adrian, AJ and Daniel headed out on a Pokemon Go adventure at Blacklick Woods.  Zak didn't want to go and I was honestly exhausted so I was pretty happy to stay home.  They had a fun time taking turns playing Pokemon Go and playing with our new fidget spinner.

Keeping Up With...Fitness Goals (May Recap & June Goals)

As I stated in my family goals recap, May was a great month for me personally.  Fitness wise, not so much.  We had a lot of celebrations and I just kept eating badly.  I also didn't get as much exercise as I wanted because as my free time ticked away as the end of school approached, I chose to get things done rather than exercise.  It is what it is, but I am still noticing the same pattern.  I'm hoping to see an increase in exercise now that it's summer and the boys and I tend to be very active.  The downside to that is that we have very little schedule so it can be hard to get to classes, other than the ones that I'm teaching.  I'll keep you posted!

Here's how I did last month:
1.  Lose 8 lbs this month, which is 2 lbs per week - So I started eating really well about the middle of April and I lost 8 lbs in 10 days.  Unfortunately that is where I stayed the entire month of May.  I'm actually thrilled that I didn't go up at all because I ate a lot.  There was lots of ice cream, cake and chips this month!
2.  Do measurements at the end of the month & lose 1 inch total from my body (1 inch for 2 months) - I didn't do measurements again this month but I'm assuming I didn't lose anything.  I was really busy celebrating AJ around the beginning of the month and just never got around to measuring.  I will do it at the beginning of July for sure!
3.  Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes all 31 days this month (31 days for the month) - I ended up exercising 25 of the 31 days this month.  I'm pretty happy with this, I did a lot of moving this month and that is always a good thing!
4.  Go to one class that I'm not teaching each week (4 classes for the month) -Yet again, this didn't happen.  I did sub a few classes that I would have gone to someone else's class if I didn't sub.  But I always pick subbing (earning money) over exercising.
5.  Learn 2 new songs to add to my Zumba classes (2 songs for the month) - I only learned one this month "Boogie, Boogie."  That's pretty pathetic, I thought I learned more.  I did revive a few oldies that I needed to practice which took some of my time.  And I had to make sure I could teach a toning class for the first time in a few months.  So I guess that's where most of my practice time went.  But still, I feel bad for my students, I need to mix up the songs more!
6.  Switch up some of the weight exercises for my Silver Sneakers class - I did this with great results.  We are all feeling the new dumbbell exercises that we are doing every Tuesday and Thursday.  I'm very happy with these changes!

Since it's summer I have cut back to only teaching 5 classes each week and in early July that goes down to only 4 classes each week.  I wanted to have a little more freedom with the boys for these three months.  Of course I have already picked up some subbing in June and July so I'm still teaching a bunch of classes.  I'm hoping to do lots of swimming and walking with the boys this summer plus finally getting to some other classes!

Here are my goals for this month:
1.  Lose 4 lbs this month, which is 1 lb per week
2.  Do measurements at the end of the month & lose 1 inch total from my body (1 inch for 3 months) 3.  Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes all 30 days this month (30 days for the month)
4.  Go to one class that I'm not teaching each week (4 classes for the month)
5.  Learn 3 new songs to add to my Zumba classes (3 songs for the month)
6.  Go to two Aqua Zumba classes at the Y this month (2 classes for the month)

Keeping Up With...Family Goals (May Recap & June Goals)

May was a pretty great month around here!  We had a lot of fun, did a lot of celebrating and also got a lot accomplished.  We are trying really hard to not spend the whole weekend "working" around the house while the kids are pretty much on their own.  Our goal is to have one day where we work and the other day while we play.  We will try to do this at least thru the fall, hopefully even longer.

My goals were also pretty spot on for the month, some of them I actually exceeded.  I feel like these goals are really helping me focus my energy around the house and around the family.  A lot of the ongoing goals have become a habit for all of us including reading every day, watching movies every Fri and having a conversation starter every Sunday.  It's been a nice shift in our priorities - from all over the place to focusing on our family unit.

Here's how I did with my May goals:
 1.  Finish "Hungry Heart" and "We're All Damaged" (2 of my 14 books for the year) - I finished "We're All Damaged" and about 60% of "Hungry Heart" before I had to return it to the library.  So I took out "Shopaholic to the Rescue" and finished that in about a week.  It was a super fun and light read and I couldn't put it down!  I can't believe I finished two books this month.  I'm well on my way to crushing my goal of 14 books this year.
2.  Have family dinner every Sunday night and use AJ's conversation starters during in (4 dinners for the month) - We did this every weekend in May, we moved a few to other nights because of commitments on Sundays.  We talked about one thing we would change about the day, what we liked about the weekend (celebrating Mother's Day & Adrian's birthday), headline news about our week and best part about the previous school year & what we're looking forward to this summer.
3.  Continue doing my week in review blog (4 posts for the month) - I actually published 7 for the month of May because I was behind a week in April that I split into two weeks.  And I also split the last week of May because there was so much going on!
4.  Continue taking one picture each day and posting on Facebook (31 pictures for the month) - 31 for the month, on track for the year.
5.  Watch a movie every Friday night (4 movies for the month) - We saw Guardians of the Galaxy, Piglet's Big Movie, and American Hustle for our at home movie nights.  We missed a Friday because Adrian & I went to the NKOTB concert.  But we did see Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 in the theater so I'm still counting this as a completed goal.
6.  Have one family board game night (1 special night for the month) - We did this a few times this month.  We played a ton of board games both Mother's Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend.  And threw a few in on other nights this month.  It was a board game extravaganza over here!!
7.  Have fun during our family camping trip in Hocking Hills - We ended up cancelling this due to cold weather and sickness.  We decided not to camp only to hike early in the week when we saw how cold it would be.  Then that morning we got up and Daniel had a stomach bug so he stayed home with Zak and I while Adrian and AJ went hiking.  They had a great time and took a ton of pictures.  I'm a little bummed I still haven't been to Hocking Hills.

I pretty much crushed every goal this month and I'm proud of myself!!  Now that it's summer I've been debating if my goals should increase or decrease.  The thing about these goals is that they are fun so I think I'll add a few more for the summer months.  I'm so excited to have nearly 3 months off with the boys!!

Here are my goals for June:
1.  Finish "Hungry Heart" and "The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland" (2 of my 14 books for the year)
2.  Have family dinner every Sunday night and use AJ's conversation starters during it (4 dinners for the month)
3.  Continue doing my week in review blog (5 posts for the month)
4.  Continue taking one picture each day and posting on Facebook (30 pictures for the month)
5.  Watch a movie every Friday night (5 movies for the month)
6.  Have one family board game night (1 special night for the month)
7.  Do one activity each week that AJ picks (4 special activities)
8.  Do one activity each week that Daniel picks (4 special activities)
9.  Do one activity each week that Zak picks (4 special activities)
10.  See Captain Underpants as a family in the theater

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

Last week was all over the place!!  I forgot how to function with all three kids home all the time.  Between trying to keep them busy, keep my normal teaching schedule and get ready for AJ's birthday parties, I had a horrible time figuring out how to manage it all.  We mostly just grabbed what we could for dinners, including frozen appetizers and pasta.  I am hoping to find a better balance this week.  I'm hoping with the boys at camps for the next three weeks I will have more time to shop and prep on my own.

This week we are super busy the beginning of the week so I'm trying to keep it somewhat simple.  I also am taking tomorrow off from running around since we don't have a car for most of the day.  I'll be home with the boys all day and will be hopefully doing some meal prepping.  I made an eggplant salad over the weekend and also cooked the Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai that I had planned to make for dinner last week but never got time to make.  These will be our lunches for the week, and dinners if I fall behind.

After almost two weeks of eating mostly junk, we're back to healthy eating this week as well.  I know it will be rough, especially tomorrow when I'm home all day.  I tend to want to snack more when I'm just sitting around the house.  But I have a lot of fruit prepped and ready to eat so I'm hoping that will keep the chips in the garage!

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Unstuffed Cabbage and Green Bean & Asparagus Salad
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday
Wednesday - Pakistani Kimi and Green Bean & Asparagus Salad
Thursday - Pasta
Friday - Skillet Beef and Celery
Saturday - London Broil and Corn on the Cob on the grill
Sunday - Meatball Subs for the boys and Meatballs over Zoodles for the adults

Water Flavor - Apple.  I didn't really think about this in advance so since we have a bunch of apples I set this up for the week.

Overnight Oats - We have Monday all covered with leftovers from last week so I don't need to do that many for this week.  However we haven't been eating them over the weekend and I think I need to start adding them to my weekends.  So I'll be making Original, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Banana Chocolate Chip.

Clean it out Challenge - I have a lot of fruit and vegetables that I bought and we didn't use that I need to use up before they go bad including cabbage, green beans, asparagus, celery and corn on the cob.  I think that is pretty obvious in my meal planning for this week.  My goal is to clean out all of the fruits and veggies we have right now and then restock up next week.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 5/26 - 6/1) - Part 2

Sunday (5/28) We all slept in a little today and got a late start.  I headed to church to work in child care and Adrian stayed home with the boys since no one was ready to go.  When I got back home, we had a quick lunch then headed out to see "Guardians of the Galaxy 2."  Since Zak did not want to see it with us, we dropped him off at my brother's house to hang out with Isabelle while we went to the movie.  The movie was great, very funny and a good story.  These may be my favorite Marvel movies so far.  After the movie we picked up Zak, picked up dinner and headed home.  The day seemed to fly by with not a lot going on.  And we were all exhausted at the end so we had a fairly early bedtime.  Nice way to spend a Sunday!

Monday (5/29)  Happy Memorial Day!  After three days of fun, today was a "work" day for us.  Adrian and I worked around the house to get a bunch of stuff done while the boys played video games and played in our back yard.  We finished up everything on our to do lists and were still able to have a little downtime.  Adrian also snuck out to Lowe's to buy us a new table and chairs for our deck.  We finished up the night with Daniel having a baseball game, which they won.  He didn't get a hit but he had fun!

Tuesday (5/30) Today felt like the first official day of summer break for us since the weekend was over and it was back to work for Adrian and I.  I had a rough time getting everyone up and out in time for my Silver Sneakers class this morning.  I forget how long it takes to get all three of them out the door with "no" schedule!  After my class, we ran into Target and Aldi "real quick" to pick up a few things.  Again, I forgot how long it takes to do things with all three of them!  I need to have a better plan for grocery shopping, preferably one that doesn't include the boys.

 We ran home for a quick lunch and costume change before heading to the Y for Zak's swim lessons and some family swim time.  It was a beautiful day and we swam both inside and outside.  We swam for about two hours then headed home to get changed and ready for Daniel's baseball game.  We all went to watch the game although AJ and Zak were very bored so I left early with them.  We were all exhausted when we got home so it was early bedtime for all.  Summer is exhausting!! 

 

Wednesday (5/31) started pretty lazy since we didn't have anywhere to go in the morning.  We hung around here and watched some TV and played a bit.  Then I had a meeting at Brain Balance to get AJ's results from his assessment two weeks ago.  He improved so much in the year that we were there!!  We are very proud of him for his hard work.  They suggested another three months so we will discuss that and see if that's something we want to do or not.

The meeting went a lot longer than I thought it would and since I had to teach in the afternoon, I decided to head us back to Gahanna and do a few things over there.  We stopped at the bank and then the library to stock up on books and movies for the first few days of summer.  I have a feeling we'll be heading back to the library just about every week.  After the library, we headed to the Y for my Zumba class and then ran home for a quick dinner.  After everyone ate, we headed out to soccer for AJ and Daniel.  We found out that our favorite soccer place is closing after this session.  We are all very upset as we had planned to do another session this summer there.  I need to figure out somewhere else for them to keep playing soccer.

Thursday (6/1) we got up and moving a little quicker than yesterday since I had to teach a Silver Sneakers class.  After class we headed to Hannah Park for a picnic and some play time.  It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time playing at the park.  It was pretty crowded but not as bad as we've seen it some other days.  After some time there, we headed to the Y for Zak's swimming lesson and some free swim time for AJ and Daniel.  Then we headed home so I could get ready to teach my Zumba class.  After class I went grocery shopping since I'm having a hard time doing it during the week with the boys right now.  I came home exhausted so we had another early night.  Summer is exhausting me!