Year Long Goals Progress- September (Part 2)

I love setting and working towards reaching goals. Short term goals tend to be better for me. As I have looked through what I had hoped to accomplish this year and compared it to where I am now, I still have a ways to go. I haven't even looked into what I need to do to return to college and finish my degree. I don't agree with the way things are being taught and don't really want to be "forced" to teach any specific way. So I'm trying to figure out if there is some other way for me to use a teacher degree that doesn't suffocate the my teaching style. Either way there is no way I'll be reaching this goal this year seems I'm not signed up for classes and technically it would be 2015 if I registered now.

As for losing weight, I have absolutely no clue if I have gained or lost anything. I haven't dug out my scale in well over 6 months. I have been eating at least 2 meals plus snacks most days and have really upped my water intake. I'm not the type to sit and veg for more than an hour tv show, so I'm staying active. I'm outside whenever the boys are, often playing games with them or trying not to break a bone while attempting skateboard tricks they are trying to teach me. We walk and bike often, if we have somewhere to go what is within 3 miles we'll walk/bike there.

I have learned that no matter what time I head to bed, I just can't fall asleep before 11:30/12:00. I have always been a night owl and no matter how much I try to train myself to fall asleep at a responsible time, it's probably just not going to happen. So instead of staring at the ceiling until I can finally sleep, I continue to use it as "Me Time". This past month that means crocheting. I have been busy creating things. I have discovered there are so many other things to make than blankets and have been hooked on making anything that is 3D. I have made some pumpkins, a hat for myself and one for a friend, a turkey, as well as some gifts I can't talk about until after Christmas. I'm going to have switch up what I do for my "Me Time" as my hands have been cramping from all the crochet work, I may have to start tackling the thousands of pictures that still need to put in the scrapbooks.

Mr. Gobble :)

The first hat I ever made.

Family goals- We are taking a break from doing Bucket Lists as they are becoming as just one more thing that needs to be done. We didn't even complete our whole summer list this year. If you missed what we had dome from our list you can find the links here and clicking on the activities that have dates following them. We are quickly coming to the end of our 1000 Hours Outside Challenge with only 2.5 days left. We will not reach the goal of 1000 hours, but we sure tried. Jacob being in soccer helped us get in some hours when I would have other-wised deemed it to chilly or wet to be outdoors. We managed only a total of  95.5 hours for the month. There hasn't been much reading going on around here as we were focused on logging outside hours. Jacob held the lead this month with 4 books read. We're hoping to quickly catch up on our books read total now that it's our only "challenge" going on. As of September 30th our combined total books read so far this year is 131. We are way behind where we would like to be. That leaves us with 269 books to read within just under 3 months. I have faith that we will all have our noses enough to reach our goal. Plus as it gets cooler out we prefer to curl up in a blanket (one of the many I had previously crochet, before learning about 3D projects) and a good book. Here is the very short list of books read this month.

Jacob- (4 books) Big Nate Goes for Broke by Lincoln Peirce, Field Trip to the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler, Starwars The Clone Wars by Grosset & Dunlap, and Big Nate From the Top by Lincoln Peirce.

Joey- (1 book) Chocolate Fever by Robert Smith

Jordan- (1 book) The Power of Six by Pittacur Lore

Me- (1 book) Rise by Ana Carey

What They Have School! How About We Have Another Snow Day (or 2)?

I know I said I would post about our last Christmas Around the World (Mexico) today, but I allowed myself to get very distracted today. I had set aside a time everyday for my to focus on things I enjoy doing and with the boys having an extra 3 days home from school, I let it slip that I needed to take that time for myself. Today I made sure to get in some time for myself and hauled out my scrapbook supplies. I started off doing very well and completed two pages and located 6-8 more pages I had finished before and just hadn't added to the book. I now have our family album for 2011 complete except for one side by side page. I dug out my 2012 pictures, not noticing how many there was until I had them all unboxed. I was literally surrounded by over 2000 photos, and they were not in order. I set about organizing them that's when I realized I was still missing prints for many outings. I spent three and a half hours re-downloading pictures so I could figure out dates and see what was missing. I ended up stacking them on a card table to rush to make it to Jordan's basketball game on time. I'm still in the process of figuring out what goes where, this may take me a couple days. The Christmas Around the World will be up soon though.

 As you probably already figured out the boys had to head back to school today. Nobody was looking forward to an early wake up after getting to sleep in for the past 20 days. Jacob asked for me to double check if it could be another cold/snow day. I know some parents were ready to drop their kiddos off after spending quality time cooped up in the house due to extreme temperatures, but I wouldn't have minded a couple more days hanging with my boys (you know just giving them the rest of this week off). Don't get me wrong I'm glad to have the house back to myself. There is a special kind of peace that comes from getting 3 boys out of the house after almost 3 weeks. Order has been restored, toys have been but back where they belong, there are no dishes piling up in the kitchen, and there is blissful silence (with the exception of the trickling water so we don't refreeze the pipes).

By the end of the day they were glad to be back and see friends and hear about how vacation time was. Today was planned as a jump back into routine with both feet day, but we were cut some slack by some other people who just weren't feeling like getting out of relaxing family mode yet.

Today was a home game for Jordan's basketball team and also a scout day for Jacob. I was prepared for it and prepped most of dinner ahead of time as time is usually tight on Thursdays. While at Jordan's game I get a email for the den leader that it is too cold and they were canceling the meeting for tonight. Which worked out because we go tout of Jordan's game later than normal and they had homework to complete. Having a more than planned relaxed evening worked out for the as they still had stiff muscles from the workout they had yesterday.

Yesterday we were able to spend some time outside it had actually been above 20 degrees. We were invited back to help out the family that allowed us to rake their leaves earlier in the fall, with moving some snow for them. We packed up 3 shovels (two of which were for the younger boys) and our broom. Jordan used a shovel they had there and we set to work. We worked for an hour and a half pushing snow this way and that. Jordan tried to pass on the wisdom he just learned about shoveling building muscle and character. The younger ones helped out a bit, but were more of characters themselves than building any character. At least they we were outside getting some exercise and fresh air. There was a lot of snow to clear, it took the four of use an hour and a half. While it wasn't as snow-free as I would have liked (I'm kind of OCD about shoveling, which is why I sweep the snow also) it was a lot better than it was before we got there Again when we were finished we were invited in for some hot cocoa. I love when I can teach my boys by example the importance of being there for others when they may need you.

When we got home after shoveling snow the boys stayed outside for an additional hour and a half playing in the mounds of snow stacked near our house. The mounds are taller than I am and about just as wide as they are tall!! They had hoped to go back to the snow hill, but your front yard was good enough as it was to get dark soon. We plan to hopefully get back out to the hill sometime this week. They received new sleds from Grandma over the weekend and can't wait to try them out.

With extended break now behind us, it is time to get back to routine. We can get back to out regularly scheduled program.