My 6 goals for 2021: Week 3 of 52

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you are having a good weekend. We are in the middle of a 4 day weekend here (for the kids and I). The kids had Friday off of school and they will have tomorrow off. I am trying to get some stuff done this weekend, but also am trying to relax. It is hard though when things are constantly needing my attention. 

For example, Friday I ended up taking Jacob to Urgent Care after he came to me and showed me his finger. Infection near his the bottom side of his nail. He ended up with a 10 day antibiotic and an order to do Epsom salt soaks and Neosporin for 7 days. Later today we need to take Ben to get his staples out of his head. It is always something it seems. So before anything else needs my attention, I thought I would hop on here and do a quick update on how I am doing on my goals.  

So my 6 goals for 2021 were: 

Lose weight. 

I plan on achieving this by making a monthly goal to help. January's goals are to limit myself to one pop a day and to exercise/ walk 4 times a week. Ideally I would like to walk, however it is January in Ohio so weather will be a factor. 

I honestly fell off the exercise wagon this past week. But it was a very LONG week and the weather didn't cooperate. However, I am giving myself GRACE and not beating myself up about it. I tried to make sure that I wasn't stress eating. AND I did end up losing 2 pounds this past week so I will call that a win! And it wasn't a complete loss at exercise as I did half an hour on the Wii Fit and it about knocked me off my butt. LOL I am so out of shape.  

I also have another motivation for this. My parents want to go on a beach vacation with us, all their grandkids, my sister, her girlfriend and my brother and his girlfriend. There is no way at the weight that I am now that I will be seen on the beach in a swimsuit. I HAVE to lose weight. Now I have a concrete time goal to help.   

Declutter our house. 

It has become messy and full of stuff again. I am not sure how it got so full of stuff again. I am going to follow along with a 52 week decluttering challenge from "Snail Pace Transformations" blog. The author also has a Facebook page that is offering the challenge titled "Snail Pace Clutter Removers." 

I was able to clean the boys' room this week as they had lots of shirts in their dressers that were too small for them. I was able to take a whole basket of clothes out of their dressers and pass them on to my mom for my nephew. 

I also gave my mom the small blue table that was in our dining room for my nephew to use in his bedroom for his Lego creations. Stuff out of the house feels so good!  I also cleaned out the junk drawer in our kitchen and a container that is on the side of the refrigerator. I was able to throw old receipts, broken measuring cups, expired coupons, etc. away and put stuff where it belong (like nails go in the tool box, pens go on the desk, etc.). 

Menu Plan, follow it, and blog about it. 

This month I am doing a low spend challenge and am pledging to use up what we have in our big freezer so that I can defrost it. I also made up a monthly meal plan and will blog about it this week. I want to make this a weekly post.

I did okay with the goal this week. I continued with my food posting on Friday:  "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" where I post about what we have been eating. This past week was an okay week. I didn't follow everything exactly but it is all good. I also tried out our air fryer this week. 

Be more creative. 

I am wanting to do this for a stress relief more than anything. I got 2 sloth coloring books for Christmas and would like to get in the habit of coloring. I also would like to get back into painting a bit. This could also look like making new recipes in the kitchen, etc. 

I continued to try to be more intentional with taking time to relax most evenings. A few evenings I colored in my sloth coloring book. Other evenings, I watched an episode of The Mandalorian with Bill.

Be Grateful. 

I love Anne's postings of her daily joys that she was doing weekly on her blog "Cooking and All that Jazz." I have a dollar store planner that I plan on putting by my bed and each night recording at least 1 things each day that I am grateful for.

I have been pretty good about doing this. Some of the things I have been grateful for this week include preschool hugs from my babysitting kiddo, medicine, Urgent Care centers, etc. 

Show Grace. 

And finally, I have chosen a word for the year....GRACE.  I would like to offer grace to others and to myself. I find at times I have a temper and get annoyed at little things. I would like to take a step back, offer grace to others and move on. I have tried to put this into practice the last 2 weeks and I have noticed a difference in my mental state. 

This week took a lot of deep breaths and grace. 

So there you have it. This was a good week to see that life will be trying but I can still achieve my goals.  

I think I am doing pretty good so far.   

Did you make goals/resolutions/a list of to-dos for 2021? If so, how are you doing?   

 

Wordless Saturday: Ben's Whiteboard Artwork

 

Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?

Happy Friday everyone! Hope your day is going okay so far. Here it is dark, cloudy, rainy, and we might get some snow showers later. I am going to be babysitting my niece and nephew in a bit as my mom has a doctor's appointment. I am thinking we may all watch the live-action "Mulan" movie while they are here. But first, I wanted to stick with my plan of my new foodie posting! 

As I mentioned in my New Year's Goal post, I want to menu plan, stick to it and blog about it each week. Well, I thought about what day of the week to post these menu highlights. A lot of people post on Sunday or Monday as that is the days that their menus start. However, that really doesn't work for me. So, I have decided to post on Fridays. I am doing this because Thursdays are days that I try to go to the grocery store for the following week and it is when I really finalize my menu plan for the next week. Therefore, "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" came to mind.

I am going to be doing 2 things with these posts. First I will highlight what we ate the previous week, whether we followed the plan, etc. Then I will post what the plan is for the next week. If you feel inclined to follow along, please do. I get inspiration from blogs and postings online for new recipes to try, things to add to my menus, etc. So without further ado, let's get this Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here? started. 

What did we eat this past week? 

Friday 1-8-21: Waffles, bacon and pears strawberries.  (Bill and the kids had this. I didn't eat anything as I had a huge late lunch with my friend at a sub shop and I was bloated and didn't want anything.)

Saturday 1-9-21: Dinner with friends. Pasta bake made with penne pasta, Italian sausage and alfredo and marinara sauces. Served with green beans and garlic bread. (Friends are bring dessert.)

 

Sunday 1-10-21: Turkey breast made in crockpot, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas With Ben's accident and the stress of dealing with that, dinner became McDonald's. (No picture as that was the last thing on my mind.) I put the cooked turkey in the fridge for Monday night. 

Monday 1-11-21: Crockpot chicken ranch tater tot casserole, broccoli Turkey breast made in crockpot, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas 

Tuesday 1-12-21: Chicken enchiladas and salad

Wednesday 1-13-21: Chili and grilled cheese crackers

Thursday 1-14-21: Fish sticks/filets, Cole slaw, French fries and corn

You know it wasn't the best of weeks following the plan exactly, but that is real life. Life happens. It has been a long week and I am okay with what we ate this week. Everyone was fed and there was little complaining. It's all good. 

In other news, I finally conquered my new air fryer. I bought one a couple of months ago when Walmart had them on super sale for the big one, however it has sat in it's box. Then I took it out of the box a few weeks ago and put it on top of my freezer. 

Well, last night I decided to take the first step to conquer it and I made the French fries in it. 

The verdict is that my kids and hubby loved them and says never make fries in the regular oven again! LOL I will definitely be using it again. 

What are we planning to eat this coming week?

Friday 1-25-21: Make your own mini-pizzas and fruit (moved from last week)

Saturday 1-16-21: Macaroni and cheese and peas for the kids. Date night for Bill and I-- salmon, rice and mixed veggies 

Sunday 1-17-21: Whole chicken in Crockpot, mashed potatoes, broccoli and pears

Monday 1-18-21: Potato soup and crusty bread

Tuesday 1-19-21: Chicken fajitas and corn casserole

Wednesday 1-20-21: hot dogs, baked beans, Cole slaw

Thursday 1-21-21: Baked omelets, bacon, toast and fruit

What have you been eating or cooking lately? Do you use an air fryer? Care to share any air fryer recipes? Share your menu ideas in the comments! 

Long Week

 Is it Friday yet? 

Seriously this has been a week. First with the mess with Ben's school on Monday. Then yesterday I get a notification that Jacob was in a fight at school but the principal was in a meeting so couldn't speak to the boys until today. Basically, he was getting picked on by the same kid that has been bullying him for the last 2 years. Jacob had enough and when the kid wouldn't shut up Jacob shoved him. The kid then slapped Jacob causing his glasses to cut his nose. Both boys were at fault. Then this morning, I get a notification that my child is not in school. Yes he is. I dropped the boys off to school this morning. I called the school and the secretary said that she had to call the room to see. I expected her to call me back. Well, after 5 minutes she didn't call me so I called the office again and had to leave a message. I try again 5 minutes later. No answer. I get in the car to go to the school and I am at the corner and they call me back. The secretary acted ticked off that she had to call me. I am furious. Long story short after 40 minutes I finally get a call back to say that he is there. It is insane. Needless to say it has not been a good week in regards to the boys' school. Bill apparently emailed the principal a long angry email detailing these issues and she called me this afternoon and we had an hour long conversation concerning these concerns. She addressed our concerns. We shall see. 

Thankfully the kids have a 4 day weekend. Today was the end of the quarter and Monday they have off for MLK day. 

Today we had to get up and out of the house as Jacob had a physical at 8AM. His doctors office is only well child visits in the morning and sick kids in the afternoon. He got a clean bill of health and is good to go for another year. 

What else has been going on this week? I got ALL the laundry done on Tuesday and cleaned the boys' room. I got a whole basket of clothes that the boys had outgrown out of their room. Other than that just been busy with kids, tutoring and babysitting. 

Also had to go buy Bill some back pills as he has been having issues with his back while standing. He says he is getting old. LOL 

Speaking of Bill, if you are looking for another blog to read, Bill is writing about sports and other things on his new blog. He would love to have more followers. You can find him at Off the Bench.

Well, I need to go fix dinner. Tonight is an easy dinner of fish sticks, french fries and cole slaw. Trying to decide if I am brave enough to use my new air fryer that I have never used. We shall see....

How is your week going? Anything fun going on?  

 

Keyboard, Popcorn, Staples in the Head and Other Stuff

Happy Monday everyone! I hope today is being kind to everyone. After the chaos of this weekend, I finally am able to sit and blog for a moment. 

What's been going on? 

Well, we got a keyboard. My in-laws mailed the kids a Christmas present of a teaching keyboard, complete with a stool and books to learn. The kids have been having fun "playing" it. Rebecca has learned a few things about it, although she spends most of her time playing with her guitar. 

Speaking of Rebecca, I cut her hair last week. She wanted to get several inches cut off. I probably cut 6 inches or so off her hair. She likes it. We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night and her friend yelled at her because she got it cut. LOL 

I tried a new snack this weekend. Rebecca had gotten me some popcorn for Christmas. It was quite yummy. I look forward to trying other flavors. 

Sunday, we went on a family walk to enjoy the rare sunshine and saw some cute cows and a llama. 

*If you are squeamish, you can skip the next part* 

After walking the kids wanted to play on the playground. Well, Ben was running away from Rebecca and Jacob during a game of tag and he ducked under the equipment and didn't duck far enough and slammed his head under. By the time he came back to the other side, there was blood gushing down his face. We were able to get the bleeding stopped for the most part and Ben calmed down. When we got up to walk to the van, Ben wanted to know if we could see his brain? LOL After being home, there was one spot that kept re-bleeding. So Bill took him off to Urgent Care and Ben ended up with 7 staples in his head! Apparently it was a much bigger cut than we thought. Apparently from the pressure that we applied it made his hair and the dried blood clot most of the cut but when they cleaned the hair off it opened back up. 

Today, the kids were back to school. They have a 4 day week this week. Ben is at school with restrictions of no gym class or recess until Wednesday. I sent the note in this morning from the doctor with the official excuse. I get a phone call about an hour after school started saying that the note doesn't say anything about Ben not being allowed to participate in gym class? The substitute secretary NOR the principal could see it and so they said that Ben HAD to participate in gym. Um, no. The note was marked as excused from Physical Education until 1/13/21. I had to guide her over the phone to where it said on the note. That is literally all the note said. It was check-marked excused from PE. Oh my word. And besides that can't they see the staples in his head?? Seriously. When I picked Ben up from school, he said he spent gym and recess time in the office playing on his Chromebook. 

Also today, I have tutored my digital academy kiddo and a homeschool kiddo. I have also done a boat load of laundry after not getting ANY done this weekend. I literally folded 7 loads of laundry. Tomorrow I need to go through the boys' clothes and pull out all the shirts that are too small that they keep trying to wear. 

Last night I stayed up late with Bill to watch the Cleveland Browns win their first playoff game in forever. Tonight, I will probably stay up and watch the OSU/Alabama National Championship game, unless I fall asleep on the couch as I am really tired. 

What have you been up to? Do you have a rooting interest in the NFL playoffs, or in the National Championship game tonight? 

My 6 goals for 2021: Week 2 of 52

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope your day is going well. Ours has been somewhat eventful. The sun is actually out and we wanted to take advantage of that so we decided to go take a walk on the bike path. I chose to go to the portion that also has an attached playground so that the boys could play. Well, we walked our 2 miles and the kids were playing, when Ben went to go under a part of the playground equipment to get away from being tagged and he slammed his head on the bar. By the time he came around the other side of the slide there was blood gushing down his face. Thankfully it looks to only be a small cut but man head wounds bleed a ton. We were able to get the bleeding stopped and are keeping an eye on him. He was so scared. It was not a sight I want to see again any time soon. 

*Updated around 5PM: Bill took Ben to Urgent Care as there was still one spot that was still bleeding a little. 7 staples later... it was a much larger gash than we thought. The blood in his hair had hidden the true length of the gash. :(   

We are keeping the rest of today low key. I thought I would hope on here and do a quick update on how I am doing on my goals.  

So my 6 goals for 2021 were: 

Lose weight. 

I plan on achieving this by making a monthly goal to help. January's goals are to limit myself to one pop a day and to exercise/ walk 4 times a week. Ideally I would like to walk, however it is January in Ohio so weather will be a factor. 

I did well with the walking this week. I ended up walking on Saturday the 2nd, walked the boys to school each day and walked them home from school on Friday. I ended up walking a total of 12.43 miles. I have also been doing well with limiting the pop. I have been drinking one Dr. Pepper with lunch and then drinking water the rest of the time. Yesterday I did have more than one Dr. Pepper as for some reason my stress level yesterday and today have been high for whatever reason. I did forget to weigh myself this morning so that will be put off until tomorrow. 

Declutter our house. 

It has become messy and full of stuff again. I am not sure how it got so full of stuff again. I am going to follow along with a 52 week decluttering challenge from "Snail Pace Transformations" blog. The author also has a Facebook page that is offering the challenge titled "Snail Pace Clutter Removers." 

I haven't really been able to do much of anything with this goal. I did clean Rebecca's room and got rid of a huge bag of trash out of her room. I also repurposed a cubby shelf (that had originally been in her room but then had been put in the basement that I brought back up to her room) to house all of her art supplies as that is her passion. It also gave a place to put her record player that she received for Christmas and her cd player. 

Menu Plan, follow it, and blog about it. 

This month I am doing a low spend challenge and am pledging to use up what we have in our big freezer so that I can defrost it. I also made up a monthly meal plan and will blog about it this week. I want to make this a weekly post.

I did well with the goal this week. I started a new blog post called "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" which I will be posting on Fridays.     

Be more creative. 

I am wanting to do this for a stress relief more than anything. I got 2 sloth coloring books for Christmas and would like to get in the habit of coloring. I also would like to get back into painting a bit. This could also look like making new recipes in the kitchen, etc. 

I tried to be more intentional with taking time to relax most evenings. A few evenings I colored in my sloth coloring book. Other evenings, I watched an episode of The Mandalorian with Bill. 

Be Grateful. 

I love Anne's postings of her daily joys that she was doing weekly on her blog "Cooking and All that Jazz." I have a dollar store planner that I plan on putting by my bed and each night recording at least 1 things each day that I am grateful for.

I have been pretty good about doing this. Some of the things I have been grateful for this week include foot rubs, being able to help friends, and having a good dinner with family friends. 

Show Grace. 

And finally, I have chosen a word for the year....GRACE.  I would like to offer grace to others and to myself. I find at times I have a temper and get annoyed at little things. I would like to take a step back, offer grace to others and move on. I have tried to put this into practice the last 2 weeks and I have noticed a difference in my mental state. 

Still working on this one. There were a few times that I had to take a few extra deep breaths and I chose not to be negative or nagging in certain situations. I am trying. 

So there you have it. My first goals update for 2021. 

I think I am doing pretty good so far.   

Did you make goals/resolutions/a list of to-dos for 2021? If so, how are you doing?   

 

Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?

Happy Friday!

I started this post a few days ago and I had a different opening in mind. However, I have to say that the events that happened Wednesday warranted a more serious opening. I typically do not discuss politics on this blog. However, I will say that on Wednesday I felt disgust, anger, sadness, and so many other negative emotions as I watched the events unfold at our country's capital. I really couldn't put into words what I was feeling, until a friend compared her feelings to how she felt right after 9/11. It is the same type of fear. However this time it is caused by homegrown "terrorists" not some unknown foreign terror group. She hit the nail on the head with that one. I just feel like all I can do is pray. 

Now that I have addressed that, let's get back to my Foodie Friday post. As I mentioned in my New Year's Goal post, I want to menu plan, stick to it and blog about it each week. Well, I thought about what day of the week to post these menu highlights. A lot of people post on Sunday or Monday as that is the days that their menus start. However, that really doesn't work for me. So, I have decided to post on Fridays. I am doing this because Thursdays are days that I try to go to the grocery store for the following week and it is when I really finalize my menu plan for the next week. Therefore, "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" came to mind.

I am going to be doing 2 things with these posts. First I will highlight what we ate the previous week, whether we followed the plan, etc. Then I will post what the plan is for the next week. If you feel inclined to follow along, please do. I get inspiration from blogs and postings online for new recipes to try, things to add to my menus, etc. So without further ado, let's get this Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here? started. 

What did we eat this past week? 

Friday 1-1-21: Pork loin, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, applesauce (I tried a new recipe for the pork and it was super yummy! Will definitely be making it again.)

Saturday 1-2-21: Pizza rolls and peaches for kids. Steak, baked potato and corn for date night. (I was going to make asparagus but after steaming it, it was mushy and gross. So I punted and heated up a can of white corn.) 

Sunday 1-3-21: meatloaf, julienne potatoes, peas, crescent rolls

Monday 1-4-21: hot ham and cheese sandwiches, corn leftover corn and peas, coleslaw, oranges

Tuesday 1-5-21: cream of chicken and wild rice soup, rolls

Wednesday 1-6-21: sloppy joes, green beans, corn, and peaches

Thursday 1-7-21: waffles, bacon, and pears. Honestly I wasn't feeling it. We had to take Bill's van to the brake shop and I had to pick him up and I took the easy route and threw a couple frozen pizzas in the oven for Bill and the kids. I heated up the last of a bag of french toast sticks and some sausage. 

What are we planning to eat this coming week?

Friday 1-8-21: Waffles, bacon and pears (moved from yesterday)

Saturday 1-9-21: Dinner with friends. Pasta bake made with penne pasta, Italian sausage and alfredo and marinara sauces. Served with green beans and garlic bread. (Friends are bring dessert.) 

Sunday 1-10-21: Turkey breast made in crockpot, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas

Monday 1-11-21: Crockpot chicken ranch tater tot casserole, broccoli

Tuesday 1-12-21: Chicken enchiladas and salad

Wednesday 1-13-21: Chili and grilled cheese

Thursday 1-14-21: Fish sticks/filets, cole slaw, french fries

What have you been eating or cooking lately? Share your menu ideas in the comments! 

Life so far in the New Year

Happy Tuesday everyone! How's life treating you so far in the new year? 

Here we have been settling back into the routine of school and work after the last weekend of break.

On Saturday we took a family walk over at Ariel-Foundation Park. We checked out the new walking path that goes under state route 13 so that walkers and bicyclists don't have to cross the busy street and can go under the street instead. It was really neat. The Kokosing River is high as we had a lot of rain on New Year's Day. 

Sunday we puttered around the house. Bill and the boys watched football most of the day. Rebecca was thrilled Sunday night when she got a delivery. Bill's parents sent her a gift card for her birthday back in November. She decided that she wanted to buy herself a guitar. After self teaching herself to play both a ukulele and a kalimba she really wanted a guitar. I ordered it online for her and it wasn't supposed to be delivered until January 13. Well Sunday night I was checking my email and got a notification that we had a delivery. I checked our porch and her guitar was delivered late Sunday. She was THRILLED!

  

Yesterday, the kids went back to school. The school is starting back with everyone coming back full time. I walked for 2 miles. Did some cleaning around the house (mainly putting away laundry and straightening up the living room.) I tutored last night as well. I must have been exhausted last night as I slept pretty well only waking up 2 times. 

Today I have several things to do on a to do list. I am going to try to use Tuesday mornings for decluttering, cleaning, etc. I want to straighten up my upright freezer and the freezer above the refrigerator. I also want to mop my kitchen and mud room. I also need to come up with a decluttering plan for the house. 

What are you up today? Back to work after the New Year?