Showing posts with label weekly highlights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekly highlights. Show all posts

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Weekly Highlights Link Up


Join me each week for my Weekly Highlights Link-Up! You can link up any posts from the week, as many as you want! Please visit the other posts in link-up and leave them a comment! Thanks for participating! I'm just getting started, but I'm hoping that it will grow.

The link up will go live each Saturday and remain open until the following Friday. You can use my button above if you'd like.




I had terrible insomnia Sunday night, and Monday I felt it. I never get insomnia, so I’m not sure what that’s all about! I did school with Zeke and Zoey. Zeke is learning about goats this week, and he made these adorable puppets that we used to sing Old MacDonald with. 


Zoey loved an activity I set up for her. I clipped some green clothespins on a plastic bowl, and she had to pull them off. She did them over and over!


The weather was still a little chilly and windy, but we did get outside for a little while. I forgot to log it in the 1000 Hours Challenge app, but it’s okay. Titus had baseball practice after school until 5:00 so I made a pickup order for that time frame. I took Zeke and Zoey with me, hoping that Zoey would nap in the car - but she didn’t of course. 

I cooked meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a salad for dinner. It was delicious!


I had insomnia again Monday night! I really felt it today. I did decide today that I have to start eating better, exercising, drinking more water, and nourishing myself spiritually. I did a 15-minute walking workout outside while the kids played. It was fun, simple, and I really felt winded afterwards. It equaled walking a mile. 

We did school and played a matching game with mother and baby farm animals, which Zeke liked! 


Zoey played with green play dough - and tried eating some. 


Zeke learned to swing by pumping his legs today. Such a milestone! Then Zoey wanted to swing in the big swing. It was fun! We logged in over 2 hours outside today.



Silas grilled chicken for dinner, and I had mine in a nice big salad. I drank more water today, and I do feel better when I drink more water. 


The boys threw the football in the backyard for a long time!





I had trouble falling asleep again. I never have insomnia, and it's so frustrating! I normally fall asleep within minutes of laying down. It was hours and hours of feeling like I'm about to go to sleep - but then I don't. I just lay there, uncomfortable and full of anxiety about it. I finally fell asleep three or four hours later, but I was just dozing and kept waking up. Then I was up at 5:30 to wake the kids up for school. 

I started thinking - what am I doing differently since Sunday night? The only thing I could think was I started taking Vitamin C at night when I gave Zeke his vitamins. I was taking 500-1000 mg each night. I looked it up, and sure enough, vitamin C before bed can cause insomnia! I'm not going to take it tonight and see if makes a difference. I sure hope so - because I'm exhausted. 

Zoey did some color sorting with pom-poms today.

Zeke started learning his number words one - four.


I had ordered some nail wraps earlier this month, and I finally got them in the mail. I’ve never used these before, but I think they turned out nice! This is called Berry Glam, and I got them from Lily and Fox. They were much easier to apply than I anticipated! I ordered another set, and they sent me a free Valentine set as well. I'm anxious to see how long they last, especially since I have little kids and hand-wash all my dishes!


I did another aerobics video by the same lady, Leslie Sansone, and I really enjoy these! 15 minutes and you have walked a mile using multiple muscles. I want to do one a day for the rest of the week and then move up to two a day - one in the morning and one in the evening. I like these because they're similar yet they mix it up a little so it's not the exact same workout each time.

We had Team Kid at church, and I cooked tacos. We had a nice sized group even though a few were out with the flu or fever. They've been practicing for the Valentine Banquet where they'll be singing a few songs and reciting scripture about love. Zeke is reciting John 3:16 and doing a fabulous job.


I didn't sleep well - again. My sister gave me some melatonin that her husband takes, and I think it helped a little. It made me feel sleepier, but I still struggled to actually fall asleep, and I didn't stay asleep all night. I woke up many times and then struggled to fall back asleep. It is horrible.

I strapped Zoey into her seat again - she seems to actually enjoy this! I gave her some playdough, but she kept eating it. I wasn't able to watch her every second since I was doing Zeke's school simultaneously, so I took it away and gave her a pen and piece of paper. This satisfied her for way longer than I thought it would! 

Zeke and I played a matching game with his number words and digits one-four, and we played Bingo with an alphabet card and Cheerios. I called out a sound and he covered that letter. Then I called out a word and he covered the letter the word began with. Then he called the sounds out to me!

Zoey and I read a few board books about farm animals, and then we sang "Old MacDonald" with Little People farm animals. We talked about the noises they make and the names of each of them - a pig, goat, sheep, cow, and chicken.


Zeke watched Leap Frog Letter Factory, and I realized I need to get him the Word Factory DVD! He also watched an episode of Wild Kratts.

We dropped Zoey off at my mom's house and I took Zeke to speech therapy. It's an hour drive there and an hour drive back - all for a 45-minute therapy session. But is so worth it because Zeke has made such improvements since he started back in August! They decorated the office for Mardi Gras (remember we live in Louisiana!), and Zeke wanted pictures. 


After we got home, we did homework and cleaned up for Cowboy Church. Even though it's hard taking Zoey, I really enjoy going (and everyone really enjoys her). 


After another night of being unable to fall asleep, I stayed home most of the day. My sister even gave me some of her Beam Dream tea that she swears by, but it still didn’t put me to sleep.

 Zeke and I finished up his G is for Goat week.

Zoey finished up Week Six in ABC Jesus Loves Me by water painting.

We played outside and logged in several hours for the 1000 Hours Challenge. We're behind right now, but we'll catch up in spring and early summer! Zeke spent a lot of time swinging himself!

We picked up Titus from baseball practice at 5:00. I cooked some chicken in the skillet and we added that to big salads for dinner. It was a pretty boring day, but I'm not complaining!

How was your week? Feel free to link up!

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Sunday, January 28, 2024

Weekly Highlights: Last Full Week of January

Somehow, I skipped my Weekly Highlights post last week! I think I've decided to post it on Sundays, after the week has been completed! I’m going to do it a little differently than usual -  I'm also just going to do what the title says - hit on the highlights of the week! Don’t forget to link up your posts from the week at the bottom!

I was so happy to see Silas helping Titus with his batting. Even though it was a cold and wet day, he still helped him out. They're 2 years and 1 month apart and have always been the best of friends - until lately. I'm sure it's just the 13-year-old and 11-year-old maturity differences, but it's been really making me sad to hear all of the arguing they've been doing. To see them outside, laughing and having a good time together with zero prompting from me, was a big highlight of my week!




The boys also got much needed haircuts today! Rod's aunt usually cuts their hair, but she couldn't do it until mid-February, and we couldn't wait that long. I woke them up this morning and drove them to town to the barber shop on Main Street. It was our first visit there, but the barber was really fast and efficient! I think we may be going back there next time, too. 

Zeke is always good for his haircuts.

We had Cowboy Church on Thursday. My dad has been preaching, and they have different people come and sing. This week it was a couple from our church, and I love to hear them sing together! We ate finger foods afterwards. I brought tuna fish sandwiches and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It was a really fun evening.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

My mom came over to visit on Friday and took Zeke and Zoey to her house for a little while. I got to clean up a bit, go to the church to get the fellowship hall tables decorated for February, and then I ran to town. I went to Wal Mart and picked up a few things I needed before picking up Titus from baseball practice. It was nice to have a few hours to myself without the two little ones!




We did I is for Insect this week for Zeke's kindergarten, and Week 5 in ABC Jesus Loves Me for Zoey's Tot School. You can read more about that by clicking the pictures below, if you're interested.


All in all, it was a quiet week, but I really enjoyed it. How was your week? Let me know in the comments. Link up any post from your week below!

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Friday, January 5, 2024

Weekly Highlights: First Week of 2024

Welcome to my new link-up party - Weekly Highlights! This link-up is for any posts from the past week, and you can link up as many as you'd like from that week. Please be sure to visit the other posts and leave some comments. If you would like, you could use the button below on your blog to help direct others to this link-up!


This is the last week Rod has off of work and the last week the kids have off from school. Monday starts our routine back, and I can't say I'm upset about it. I love having a routine! Zeke is also ready to start kindergarten again. I was planning to start him back this week, but with Rod and the kids home all day, it makes it difficult. I did manage to do Tot School with Zoey though!

MONDAY:

I stayed home and got some things done around the house that have been neglected - a bit of laundry, the floors, and the playroom. We ate leftover today, trying to clean out the refrigerator!

Silas cooked a big breakfast of pineapple pepper jack deer sausage, scrambled eggs, and some homemade bread.

- The Magnatiles are played with every single day -

TUESDAY:

Rod and I took Titus to get some baseball cleats, a new glove, and the pants he will need for this year's junior high baseball season. They start practicing next week. I also got a new phone (an iPhone 14 in lavender - it's beautiful). We ate Chick-Fil-A on the way home. 

Tuesday evening, we went to visit Mikaela and the babies. They had to leave Wednesday morning headed back to South Carolina for Ken's job. Mikaela made tacos for us to eat, and we all said good-bye for a few months. I hate missing so much of Mikenna's life - she just turned three months old and I know she's going to change so much while they're gone. And Daniel is starting to talk so much now! Thank goodness for FaceTime. Zeke and Daniel played together and I got a few good pictures.





WEDNESDAY:

I stayed home today except for a short trip to the Dollar General with Rod to pick up some more tea and diet cokes. It was cold outside, so we kept a fire going in the fireplace all day. I wasn't feeling great and got some body aches. I really worried I was getting the flu again, but I woke up Thursday feeling almost normal. We ate leftovers again, along with some Hawaiian bread that I made in the bread machine, and the fridge is almost cleaned out from the leftovers (thankfully).

- Zoey is a daddy's girl for sure -

THURSDAY:

Zeke has speech on Thursdays, and it's an hour drive there, 45-minute therapy session, and then an hour drive back home. Every week. My mom took Zeke for me this week since I wasn't feeling great. It was nice to have the afternoon at home again. Zeke and Silas went to her house to spend the night, and they went to Cowbody Church with my parents. My dad is the pastor and it just started back up tonight! I made tacos for lunch because they were so good Tuesday night that I wanted some more!

Rod and Titus threw the baseball outside, and Zoey got a few more hours for her 1000 hours challenge! It’s hard when it’s really chilly, but she got 1 hour and 15 minutes today.



FRIDAY:

Today we will finish Zoey's Tot School for the week. Silas and Titus have a 4H Cooking Event that is like the "Chopped" TV show so I will be dropping them off there for a few hours.

I am also trying to figure out which creative project I want to start next. I have a new Bucilla stocking kit to replace my stocking which is falling apart. I also have the Bucilla nativity wreath kit and an ornament kit to complete this year. I think I'm going to start the stocking first.

I need to start back menu planning each week. It's really helpful. Plus I want to save more money this year on groceries. I spent an average of $350 each week on groceries in 2023 (and sometimes closer to $500). Most of that is because I wasn't budgeting, money isn't tight, and I didn't have a game plan. Money isn't tight this year, either, but I still want to be as frugal as I can be with regards to groceries. 

I read my Bible each day this week, and I have been spending more time in prayer in the mornings. I also visited several new blogs this week! I mentioned that I would share one new blog a week - here is one that I'm following now:

Overflowing with Thankfulness

Go check out Jennifer and her blog - she has link-up parties and a new post every day! I added her to my sidebar. 

How was your first week of the New Year?

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