Weekly Wrap-up: Busy!

You may remember from last week’s wrap-up that I had quite a few goals for this week. I was pretty determined even though I knew it would mean I’d be really busy. I know if I say I wasn’t feeling good this week I’ll sound like a broken record, but unfortunately, it is true. It has to do with my female health and endometriosis pain, so I will spare the details, but I did have to fight to get through a couple of the days this week. A couple of the other days I chose not to fight and took a much needed nap instead. I’m still fighting insomnia as well, but I’ll save that for another post because it is actually a rather interesting story! Overall, though, it WAS a busy week, and I did get a lot accomplished – at least as far as blog stuff and homeschool. Housework kind of fell by the wayside due to my energy drain, so I didn’t tackle the laundry problem, but I’m trying to devise a solution. I really am one of those people that needs to come up with a plan first or I just feel overwhelmed and end up not getting much of anything done. So, I’m reading some of the ebooks I had gotten in the homemaker ebook bundle special and adding notes to Evernote with ideas I want to put into practice! Did I ever mention how awesome Simplified Pantry and Paperless Organization are? I felt like I needed to share them again this week because without them, I’d be all out of sorts! That is where my Evernote organization comes from, and it has been an awesome! It also helps some of my sleep issues in that I often have a lot of ideas running through my head when I’m trying to fall asleep, and Evernote gives me an outlet for all those ideas. Then I can organize the ideas the next day! Love it!
So, I am SUPER excited to announce that next week our family will be taking a MUCH NEEDED mini vacation! I will be joining a few other Go Houston! Travel Bloggers for the 4th of July Weekend! We’ll be staying in the beautiful Hotel Sorella in CityCentre (Houston) where they host their own fireworks show! That’s just one of the awesome features! We’ll get to go to other attractions using CityPass like the NASA Space Center, The Children’s Museum, maybe the zoo. We haven’t decided what we’ll choose yet! Plus we’ll get to go to Studio Movie Grill and enjoy lots of other dining opportunities! You can see all of the details on Money Saving Parent. I’ll be sharing our trip along the way through my social media – so be sure you’re following! 😉 I’ll share all about it once we are home as well! Wow, we’re so excited!
Speaking of social media, you can now find my buttons in my header! Pea of Sweetness got a makeover this week as well! What do you think? Monique at Fantastique Designs will still be working on some final touches this coming week, but stay tuned! I’ll be posting a full review AND giveaway on July 6th!
Time to wrap up the wrap-up! 🙂 But first, last week I promised pictures from the Drive-Thru Safari if we went, so here you go!

Highlights in our Life

• Chaz is doing much better this week. He hasn’t been very agreeable, but at least he’s feeling better!
• Joey’s work has been a complete mess. We had to have another house inspection because of said mess, and he’s been pulling duty a lot. He even has overnight duty tomorrow, which his medical profile says he’s not supposed to do due to his medical condition and the medications he’s on. *Sigh* Please say a prayer for his health.
• On another note, it has been brought to their attention that his medical retirement paperwork has been in the system too long and now people who have a higher chance of getting answer are working on the case. So maybe we’ll actually be able to move on and get settled soon.
• I made my first loaf of gluten-free bread in the bread maker this week. Nobody really liked it. I liked the taste but not the texture. Not to fret, though, I have other recipes to try!
• It’s been really hot here this week, so we’ve mostly been staying inside!
• I received two non-review packages – the Twin Sisters Bible set I ordered on Educents and a pack of Sensory Tubes I won in a giveaway! So fun!

Homeschool Highlights

• It was definitely a busy week as we shifted things around! We are now implementing “Circle Time” to have more family time in our homeschool (review to come). It hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped because as I mentioned, Chaz hasn’t been really agreeable. By not being agreeable I mean he yells when I ask him to join us. By the end of the week I discovered if I don’t ask him to join us, though, he will. haha
• We started a new Bible Study this week (another review that is coming up – I’ve decided to leak some details so I can actually share what we’re doing!), and again it is supposed to be for all three children but Chaz just wasn’t wanting to participate in anything this week. Although he is doing better he did still talk about things like “having water in his nose” and “something in his throat,” so although I offered gentle guidance to encourage him to participate I felt it would be best to let him set his own pace this week.
• We also shifted reading curriculum this week because I was trying to keep up with our current curriculum while reviewing another. Since I just added a computer one to the list as well I decided it would be best to drop one of them. So we’ll continue with the reviews, and if we choose to go back to our regular curriculum after we will simply see where they need to start at that point from the placement tests! I don’t really get worried about not using something from curricula I own since I know I have another child that will most likely use it as well!

Blog Highlights

• Although I did accomplish a lot of my goals I started falling behind on some of the posts I planned on posting this week. It makes me a little nervous since I’ll be out of town for a few days next week because I know I’ll have to have anything I need posted during that time scheduled by the time we leave plus everything I had wanted to post. So I’m really hoping I’m feeling well enough to at least fight through any naps this coming week so I can get that done!
• I did set dates for upcoming posts, which was an accomplishment.
• I revamped the Small Business Directory, which was one of my goals. There are a couple of great advantages. There is a search feature, so you can search by category, which is good for those looking for a listing. Plus, it’s self-sustaining. It does the work for me, which is going to save me a lot of time, and because of that I’m able to keep it as a free service as well, which is great for the small businesses!
• I added an Awards page.
• I got my ticket to BloggyCon 2013 up at Cedar Point in Ohio in September. Plus, I did follow through with my goal of posting my Sponsorship Opportunities Page to share information on the upcoming conferences I’ll be attending and options to partner with Pea of Sweetness through sponsorship for these conferences.
• I received the Sunkissed VoxBox from influenster as well as natural litter box trainer and deodorizer to review, sandals to review, and the BottleHood necklace I will be reviewing and doing a giveaway for on July 8th (this one in my Blogger Opp)! So stay tuned!

Goals This Week

• Get everything scheduled on the blog before I leave for our awesome trip. I think that is more of a necessity than a goal, but it seems fitting! Plus, I suspect that will keep me busy enough to take care of my main blog goals for the week!
• Send emails to potential sponsors for the upcoming conferences. And pray about it.
• Make a decision on this current health issue I’m having. (It’s a long story that I might explain in detail – well, not too many details – in a later post.)
• At the very least make a plan for the laundry issue.
• Come up with ideas on how to get Chaz more engaged during Circle Time without overwhelming him or pushing him beyond his sensory boundaries (which is a fine line I have yet to successfully discover), but I know when I cross it I’ve lost all chance of his participation and even risk a good portion of our homeschool day if he goes into full meltdown mode (which can then trigger Brayden and Aurora).

So, tell me about your week! Was it ridiculously hot where you live, too? (Seriously it was over 100 degrees by noon today!) What are some goals you have for next week? For my American readers, what are your plans for the 4th of July?