Friday's Fave Five - 6/18

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1. The ADA's Tour de Cure. I have been doing this fundraising bike ride for the past six years. Well, we actually didn't do it last year due to schedules. The ADA (American Diabetes Association) hosts this bike ride each June and our state's is on the coast. Lovely place to ride. My MIL rides with me each year and is a huge encourager to me. The first year I rode I did the 25K(14 miles +/-). I was horribly, horribly out of shape and was so very glad to FINISH it. The last four times we've ridden we've done the 50K (30 miles +/-). Some years I've struggled (like the first year when I only managed 16 miles before having to call in a SAG vehicle so I could bail) and some I've prepared well for. This year I was not well prepared but instead of torturing myself with trying to finish the 50K, we did the 25K. We had a great time - my MIL and I. We finished the 14ish miles in about 1-1/2 hours. It was a drizzling rain the whole way so it wasn't hot - just wet! The organizers get better every single year and lunch was fantastic (pulled pork sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, pizza, and burgers). This is my way of helping to find a cure for diabetes - hopefully in my lifetime.

2. Our "Academic Fair" for our homeschool group. This was a fun evening on Monday. Any homeschooler could come and show off some of the things they had worked on this year. I had the boys bring some lapbooks, notebooks, and random papers of things they had done.

N9 showing off his tinpunching project, weather lapbook, 

Winter Olympic lapbook, geography notebook and other miscellaneous things.

J6 showing off his geography  notebook and the three Five in a Row books 

we have done. We used Homeschool Share and turned them into notebooks.

3. Mini-golf with the boys. Our local (that's a relative term btw - it takes us 30 mins to get there) ice-cream store also has a mini-golf course as well. Tuesdays you can do a "buy 1 ticket - get one free" deal. Obviously that works for me. I had told the boys last week we would go and they were happy to remind me. We headed out after lunch and enjoyed a rousing game. It has been years since we've gone - so long that J6 has never played. We finished off the afternoon with ice-cream.  It was a lot of fun and we'll definitely go again. Oh and B13 won by a couple of points.

4. Spending a morning planning a homeschooling day with a friend. We headed over there after doing some photos for another friend - a busy morning but fun. For the last few years I have hosted and put on a one-day homeschooling workshop in June. Last year this friend, A, stepped in to help and she's doing even more this year. I love helping people either get started in homeschooling or support them in their continued journey. I think we got the details hammered out and even started talking about the homeschooling co-op and what that will look like next year. 

5. Starting my weigh loss journey - again. I heard through a mutual friend about a weigh loss group that was starting up in the area. They are using the First Place 4 Health materials. This fits with a lot of things I was looking for namely accountability and affordability. We will be using the Bible study materials and journals and I was able to use my Swagbuck Amazon gift cards to buy the member guide for free. I opted out of buying the full member kit. I'm looking forward to meeting my goal of being "Fit by 40."