Keeping Up With...2021 Goals (Weekly Recap 8/9 - 8/15)

This was our last full week of summer break and we really packed the fun in to the week!! I asked the boys what they wanted to do and then made a plan to do it all. We also left a lot of time for sleeping in, relaxing and playing video games since there won't be much time for those things when school starts either. We started the week with Daniel's friend Patrick coming over to hang for the day with the boys. Tuesday we dodged a few thunderstorms and spent the whole day at Zoombeezi Bay riding all of the slides, then went to see Space Jam: The New Legacy in the evening. We had an awesome day, probably could have stayed longer at the Bay but we all really wanted to see the movie too. I think next year we'll go back to having passes for Zoombeezi and make more frequent trips.

Wednesday and Thursday we had a few appointments including the dentist for AJ & Daniel, a Biology Zoom for AJ and schedule pick up for Daniel. Daniel also had a make up art camp class one day where he finally made his own t-shirt. Wednesday night the boys and their friends started up a new Dungeons and Dragons adventure together while Adrian served as their DM again. The parents wanted to wait until after fall sports since our days are so busy, but the kids really wanted to start now so we're doing the best we can to make it work. They had a great time playing, but especially seeing each other after a break over the summer. Thursday we went to Urban Air to jump for a few hours and Friday we finished up the week with a trip to COSI. We met up with some friends there which was awesome. We checked out energy, space, oceans and the traveling animation exhibit. We also watched a movie in the planetarium which was a really interesting look at the solar system.

The fun continued over the weekend, but Adrian was involved for all of that. Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Hocking Hills to canoe 5 miles down the river with AJ's Scout troop. Daniel sat this trip out since it's too hard to have 3 in a canoe and stayed home to take care of Rocky. AJ and I were in one canoe & Adrian and Zak in the other. We had a good time, although we also had a few struggles. The water was really low in some parts and we kept getting stuck on the bottom. But we made the best of it and made it to the end, fulfilling requirements for both of our Scouts. We were all exhausted after the trip so the rest of the day was a lot of TV and relaxing! Sunday we headed to church and then Daniel went over to another friend's house for the afternoon while Adrian and Zak went bowling and I worked for a few hours. Then we all came back home and got ready to head out to the drive in for the night. We saw Jungle Cruise & Free Guy which were both great!! It was a super late night and we didn't get home and in bed until 2am. It's going to be rough getting going tomorrow!

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 -  Once again, I did better with this goal this week but am still struggling to hit 10,000 steps. I averaged about 7,500 steps each day this week, and did hit 10,000 on Tuesday when we went to Zoombeezi Bay. I tracked my calories most of the week and then took Sunday off so I could eat what I wanted at the drive in. I was again rewarded on the scale with a loss of 4 pounds, for a total of 9 pounds for this year. 
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I read another 25% of "Babyville" this week and am really enjoying it so far! I only have about 20% left so I plan to finish it next week
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 227 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For August I just picked a generic plan and am excited to see where it leads me.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August September when I'm back to teaching. I will be taking this month to get my stamina back up and hopefully can do a virtual jam in early Sept.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We were exhausted after the busy week and canoe trip so we decided to just play a few favorites this weekend. We played Everdell and Castles of Burgundy and had a great time playing both! So far we have played 106 of our games so far and are still on a good path to finish them up this year!
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We are working on cleaning out our basement but we didn't do anything this weekend because again we were super busy and tired.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We didn't incur anything this week and are paying the minimums on everything until we get back from (and pay for) our vacation next month.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched 3 movies this week "Space Jam: New Legacy," "Jungle Cruise" and "Free Guy." We went to the theater to see Space Jam which we all enjoyed and laughed thru. Then we saw the other 2 at the drive in and enjoyed them both. Jungle Cruise was hard to see because of the dark scenes, but we made the best of it. Free Guy was by far our favorite movie of the week - it was great and the boys already want to see it again! We have watched 34 movies so far this year.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated National Book Lovers Day, National Smores Day, National Raspberry Tart Day, World Elephant Day, International Left Handers Day, National Creamsicle Day and National Relaxation 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 8/2 - 8/8)

It was another super busy week around here as we wrap up our summer! AJ had his second week of band camp and continues to really enjoy it. Daniel also had his final art camp of the summer so I spent the week feeling like a taxi driving everyone where they needed to be, which is just fine with me! While they were gone at their camps, Zak and I had some one on one time together. We went to the Scout shop and to Target to get what he needs for the new school year. We also had dentist appointments, which isn't super fun, but happy to get it out of the way and find out neither of us has cavities!

Other than camp, we did a few fun things this week. AJ and Zak went swimming Monday night for a Scout event. They learned some rescue techniques and then had fun splashing around with the other kids. While they were there, Daniel had a friend over to hang out and then had their weekly art class together. On Thursday Daniel's art camp was cancelled so he joined Zak and I and some friends for some swimming at another Columbus City pool. They had a great time at this pool, especially on the water slides they have there. We finished out the week with signing Zak up for the bowling league again and he bowled a few games with Adrian to get ready for the season.

The two highlights of this week were going to our first movie in the theater as a family since COVID and AJ's band preview night. Since we all wanted to see "Black Widow," we took advantage of the cheap ticket prices on Tuesday nights and went to see it in the theater. It was a good movie and the action was so much better on the big screen! I've seen just about every Avengers movie in the theaters so it was nice not to miss this one. Then on Friday night we all headed to the high school to watch part of the halftime show that AJ is learning this year. They are performing songs from current female pop stars and the show is called "Queen Bee." We really enjoyed seeing all of their hard work come together and AJ looked so happy and confident after the performance! Can't wait to see how the rest of the year goes and then see the final show in a few weeks!!

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 did better with this goal this week but am still struggling to hit 10,000 steps. I averaged about 8,000 steps each day this week, with Monday being the lowest day with only around 6,000 but also getting over 9,000 steps on Monday & Thursday. I tracked my calories all week and felt great! I was also rewarded on the scale with a loss of 4 pounds, for a total of 5 pounds for this year. 
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I read another 25% of "Babyville" this week and am really enjoying it so far!
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 220 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For August I just picked a generic plan and am excited to see where it leads me.
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August September when I'm back to teaching. I will be taking this month to get my stamina back up and hopefully can do a virtual jam in early Sept.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We played 5 games this weekend, Medium as a family and Monopoly Gamer, the Minecraft card game, Mansions of Madness and New York Slice as a couple. We enjoyed most of them, except New York Slice which we will be looking to trade. I also don't really like Mansions of Madness, but Adrian and AJ do so they'll play it together. So far we have played 106 of our games so far and are really on a good path to finish them up this year!
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We are working on cleaning out our basement and spent 20 minutes down there this weekend. We already got rid of a lot of stuff in that short time!!
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We didn't incur anything this week and are paying the minimums on everything until we get back from (and pay for) our vacation next month.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched "Black Widow" this week as a family and everyone loved it! It was our first movie back in a theater and I think we all forgot how much we love going to the theater. We'll be back very soon!! We have watched 31 movies so far this year.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated 8 holidays because we doubled up on Thursday. We celebrated National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, National Watermelon Day, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, National Green Pepper Day, National Underwear Day, National Fresh Breath Day, National Raspberries and Cream Day and National Zucchini 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 7/26 - 8/1)

This was our first week back to real life after vacation and is the (very early) start to a new school year as well. AJ started marching band camp this week, going to school every day from 8am until 4pm. He said it is hard, but he is loving it. He's super excited about their halftime show and got a lot of nice compliments from the band director and also from a few other kids in the band. It was a lot of early mornings this week but I'm excited to see how this year goes for him doing something new!

While he was there, Adrian headed back to work and the other boys and I tried to squeeze a little bit more fun out of our summer. We went swimming with friends one day and jumped on trampolines at Get Air. Zak went bowling one night and fishing Saturday morning with Adrian. Daniel had a sleepover with one of his friends on Saturday and had another friend over on Sunday to hang. I went out for a wine tasting with some of my girlfriends and managed to get everything unpacked and put away after vacation. AJ managed to sneak in some time to got a friend's birthday party one night in addition to band camp. It was a very fun filled week for all of us!

But the most exciting news of this week was that I had my second follow up with my doctor after surgery and he said everything looks "perfect." He said I am cleared to resume all activities as I feel able. I am so thankful for all who prayed and helped me during these past few weeks! I know that recovery could have been so much harder and taken a lot more time, so I am thankful to be back to my old self so quickly. I will begin planning my Zumba classes and return to teaching in September after taking August to increase my endurance and fitness.

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 didn't get as many steps in this week as I would have liked, but I was really tired most of the week between recovering from vacation and getting back in the groove of getting up early. I averaged around 6,000 steps per day this week with a few really high days and a few really low days. I also weighed in this weekend to get a baseline for the last 5 months of this year. I wasn't surprised to see a gain but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was only up about 2 pounds and I'm still down 1 pound for the year. Ready to refocus for August!
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I read about 20% of "Babyville" this week and am really enjoying it so far!
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I have done this all 213 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For July I picked a plan focused on peace since we have 2 weeks in the car together and I feel like I might need some peace, ha!
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We played 4 games this weekend, Mechs vs Minions, Monopoly Empire, The Mind and Minecraft: Builders and Biomes. They were all pretty good, with Mechs vs Minions being the favorite of the weekend. We also really want to play the Minecraft game with Zak, we both think he'll really enjoy it. So far we have played 101 of our games so far and are really on a good path to finish them up this year!
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We didn't do anything this week on this goal, other than recover from vacation and get everything unpacked, washed and put away. We did decide that our next project will be cleaning out our basement, which honestly may take us the rest of this year. But we really want it cleared out before we move on to any other projects.
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We didn't incur anything this week and are paying the minimums on everything until we get back from (and pay for) our vacation next month.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We watched "Clue" this week as a family and everyone loved it! The boys thought it was hilarious, especially the ending which is my favorite part as well. We have watched 30 movies so far this year.
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - This week we celebrated National Bagelfest Day, Gary Gygax Day, National Waterpark Day, World Tiger Day, National Cheesecake Day, National Jump for Jellybeans Day and Spider-Man 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 7/12 - 7/25)

I decided to put these two weeks together since they were the two weeks of our family vacation this year. I was going to do a few blog posts about our road trip out west, but as time is going by I honestly don't know that I will do that. I wrote recaps of each day and shared pictures on Facebook so I think for my own memories that will be enough, at least for now. Here is just a brief list of what we did each of the 14 days we were on the road:

- Day 1 - left OH and drove to St. Louis. Did the City Museum and the Gateway Arch

- Day 2 - Drove across Missouri and most of Kansas (most boring day - NO stops!!)

- Day 3 - Drove across Kansas and Colorado. Detoured to an awesome waterfall that we hiked to

- Day 4 - Toured Mesa Verde National Park, went to Four Corners & drove to Williams Arizona (thru a wind storm!) 

- Day 5 - Grand Canyon!!

- Day 6 - Grand Canyon!!

- Day 7 - Winslow Arizona, Toured Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

- Day 8 - Hiked Petroglyph Park, visited with my Aunt and drove thru Santa Fe

- Day 9 - Toured Roswell then drove across Texas

- Day 10 - Arrived at cabin in Broken Bow, OK to visit my brother

- Day 11 - Broken Bow, OK - boating, mini golf, wine tasting

- Day 12 - Broken Bow, OK - giant maze, beer tasting, relaxing!

- Day 13 - Drove to Memphis, toured Hot Springs Arkansas

- Day 14 - Toured Metropolis Illinois and drove HOME!

If you more information on anything we did, feel free to reach out. We had a great time, but it was also an exhausting trip. There was a lot we didn't get to see and are considering doing another trip like this again next summer. We learned some good lessons and will do the next one differently for sure (no more than 6 hours of driving each day!) We created a ton of memories and saw amazing sights. I'm thankful we were able to do this trip and pray the boys will remember it as one of their favorites.

Now with all of that fun, there was very little focus on my goals for these 2 weeks, and I am 100% fine with that. Here's how I did:

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 was all over the place with steps these two weeks! Most days averaged 8,000 steps, with some higher ones (Grand Canyon Day 1 I hit almost 18,000!) and some lower ones (the big driving days were low steps). I'm happy to report I felt good most of the time and was able to do more than I thought I would be able to do. I'm ready to refocus on this goal in August for sure!
• Read 15 20 books for fun - I finished "The Outsiders" over vacation for my 13th book of the year. It was as good as I remember the movie being! We'll be watching the movie soon since we were waiting for me to finish the book. I started my next book too "Babyville" but only read about 5% since I was too busy looking at the beautiful scenery and helping to drive.
• Write Scripture(s) every day this year - I missed a few days over vacation but caught up when we got home and have done this all 206 days so far this year. I'm really enjoying this practice so far this year. For July I picked a plan focused on peace since we have 2 weeks in the car together and I feel like I might need some peace, ha!
• Attend 12 6 Zumba jam sessions to improve my teaching skills - I'm pausing this goal at 2 for the year until August when I'm back to teaching.

Working on Family:

• Play all 152 of our board games together (either just Adrian and I or as a family) - We didn't play any games while on vacation but when we got home, we played 2, Loot and Monopoly Deal. Neither one was a favorite for us, we're hoping for better luck next week! We have played 97 games so far this year and are hoping to pick up the pace this fall. You can follow along on my thoughts on each game on this webpage.
• Do 10 home improvement/reorganization projects - We didn't do anything on this goal these two weeks, too busy having fun!
• Pay off all of our outstanding credit card debit and don't incur any additional debt - We didn't incur anything over this vacation since we've been saving for it for almost 2 years. We will pay off our credit cards when they come in and then reevaluate where we are financially and pay off my surgery next.
• Watch 50 movies together and continue watching TV series together - We didn't watch any movies or TV shows over vacation. It was nice to have a break from TV for most of the time!
• Celebrate a holiday every day this year - We still celebrated every day while on vacation, although for a lot of them I picked very easy holidays! Over the two weeks we celebrated: New Conversations Day, Go West Day, National French Fry Day, National Mac & Cheese Day, National Gummy Worm Day, National Fresh Spinach Day, World Emoji Day, National Ice Cream Day, National Daquiri Day, Stick out your Tongue Day, National Chess Day, National Lollipop Day, National Hot Dog Day, National Junk Food Day, Summer Leisure Day, National Peanut Butter & Chocolate Day, National Tequila Day, National Drive Thru Day, and National Wine & Cheese 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 8/1 - 8/7)

After an almost 3 month break, I am back to meal planning. This summer has flown by and I am very thankful that I haven't had to cook much at all. In May, I pretty much used up what we had to try to keep our grocery bill down and my cooking quick and easy since we were very busy. Then in June we had friends bring meals for over 3 weeks after my surgery. Between the meals, the leftovers and Adrian grilling a few times, we had all of our meals covered for that month. In July I had a few dinners I had to cook to once again empty our fridges, then we went on a two week vacation and ate on the road for that whole time. We've been back for just over a week and last week was a lot of fly by the seat cooking. This week we are finally refocusing on eating healthy and I'll be back in the kitchen most days.

We are so thankful that we had meals for all of those weeks covered, however since everyone was also trying to cook for the boys, we got a lot of pasta based dishes, and a lot of desserts. While they were all delicious, they have really added inches to all of our waist lines. And since I wasn't exercising at all for the month of June, I am really feeling it right now! I am looking forward to lots of fresh fruit and veggies over the next few months. We are still members with our CSA, but I got very small deliveries for most of the first half of the season. We were able to freeze some of the stuff we got so that will be available for months still. And now we'll have larger deliveries over the second half of the season so I'll be cooking around their produce for the next few months.

Our schedule is also starting to pick up with the boys' activities starting up this month. We will have a busy fall with AJ doing marching band and AJ and Zak doing Scouts. Plus Daniel will have a longer art class this fall and he would like to add a digital art class if I can figure one out. Plus they are all going back to school full time this year (yay!) and I'll be heading back to work this month too. Adrian is back in the office a few days each week and Rocky still goes to day care once per week. Our schedule will be crazy so as always I will make sure I have supplies for easy dinners like breakfasts, salads, sandwiches and leftovers. While the busy schedule is tough, I'm so thankful we're able to get back to (mostly) normal life after a year and a half of lots of adjustments and changes.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Sunday - Leftover Pizza and Air Fryer Chicken Wings
Monday - Breaded Pork Chops and String Bean Salad
Tuesday - Burrito Bowls for the adults & Tacos for the kids
Wednesday - Rueben Sandwiches & Corn on the Cob
Thursday - Vegetable Lo Mein
Friday - Air Fryer Salmon with Roasted Potatoes and Zucchini
Saturday - Grilled Steak and Corn on the Cob

Water Flavor - I don't have any extra fruit right now so I threw in some frozen berries to flavor my water this week. I did this last week as well and it was delicious!

Baking - Zak and I are making chocolate chip cookies for Wednesday since that is the holiday. Other than that, I haven't thought about any baking this week. I'd like to get back to making muffins or breads for breakfast, I think I'll start that next week. One step at a time for now!!