Final Yearly Goals Update for 2011 ~ Dec. 31st

Wow, the year went fast. Can't believe the year is over already.  I wanted to stay accountable for achieving my 2011 goals. I wanted to do better than last year. I wanted to remind myself what my goals are and keep working toward them. So I did updates. I did much better than last year. My most discouraging aspect is my weight. I struggle so with it. When I am sad or stressed I eat more chocolate.

The positive steps I have made with my goals this month have a smiling smiley face in front, the goals that I still have to work on have a sad face in front. Some are not really sad but that is the best contrast I could make between completed and not completed. The color thing was getting to complicated and I love smileys so I am sticking with them.

Personal Goals:

Spiritual 

• Be more consistent with my personal devotions. 
• Our church started a year long challenge to read through the Bible. We were using Daily Walk from Walk Thru the Bible. I read the whole Bible. I did it. I am so happy to have done this. I enjoyed it. I was pretty consistent with reading and never got more than a week behind without catching up. Most of the time I stayed caught up.

Health and Fitness

• Exercise more, more often and consistently. I would like to be much more fit by the end of 2011. 
• I was very inconsistent with this this year. I have not been exercising regularly. When I got on the Wii today it said it had been almost a month. I do not feel more fit. I let this slip at the end of the year. I was doing much better from February to April getting to my lowest weight 237.9. Unfortunately I am right back at the same weight I was Jan. 2011. Oh, well. I will not give up. I will continue on in Jan. and get back to exercising.

• Eat better and loose weight. Drink more water. 
• I was very inconsistent with this this year. I have been eating way to many things I shouldn't lately. I have been still drinking my water. Next year I want to end the year as well as I start and not gain back all the weight in Nov. and Dec.

Educational

• Read some books on homeschooling and other educational topics. 
• I have not really been reading any books on homeschooling. I have been doing personal for fun reading and lots of reading of spiritual books too for Sunday School and Ladies Bible Study. The spiritual books are definitely educational so I am counting those.

• Work on my own writing projects. 
• I have other things that have taken priority. I don't have any plans to work on these in 2012. They will be taken off my goal list.

Personal/Leisure

• Spend one afternoon at least every other week doing scrapbooking. 
• I have not done this as I had hoped to during my 2 weeks off at Christmas. I still have not scrapbooked. I have been working on updating my photo files and that has taken a lot more time than I thought it would. I want to get back to scrapbooking in 2012. I enjoy it so much.

• Read some books for pleasure. 
• I have finished a lot of books since the last check in. I have read 51 books in 2012. I will be doing this reading challenge again in 2012 and hope to read even more books. I already have some I want to start on in 2012 and now I have my Nook that my Mom, Sister and Brother-in-law bought me for Christmas so I can read with that too.

• Continue blogging and remember it is supposed to be for fun and for the records for my family.Write more consistently on my blog at least 3 posts a week.
• I have done pretty well. I posted 38 posts in Nov. and 10 in Dec. Dec. has been very busy.
• I did one Blast From The Past post in Dec. I have to keep remembering that I started doing this to record our family history, not so that I could become a mega blogger with tons of people following me and joining my meme. I did one meme this week that I enjoy and I did the weekly goals meme. I have also been working on the posts about board games for school. I plan to have more of them up in Jan.

Homeschool Goals:

• Be more consistent on recording daily in our school log.
• I have been keeping up with this and doing well. We did not do much school in Dec. because of sickness and then Christmas. But what we did do I recorded. Next week... back to it!
•  Be consistent with reviewing the boys daily assigned work and making sure they complete everything assigned to them and then put the stuff away in the folders/notebooks where it belongs.
•   I was being consistent with reviewing the workboxes but the boys have not finished all 12 boxes most days. We had much sickness in Dec. Hopefully we can get back to it and really get on the ball for the rest of the school year.
• Complete the TOS Homeschool Crew Review Year.
• I withdrew from the crew.

Family/Relationship Goals:

• Healthier Eating for the family
• I was very inconsistent with this this year. Of course I cannot control what others eat but I can make sure we have healthy choices in the house and limit unhealthy choices by not buying them myself. I can't keep my husband from buying them, nor my daughter from cooking yummy treats, however. I did well with this at the beginning of the month and then things sagged as the kids made more and more cookies and then we got Christmas candy, and then celebrated 2 birthdays. I will be concentrating on this in the new year and will be buying more fruit and veggies instead of junk food.
• Exercise at home - keep the boys working our on the Wii at least 30 min. a day Mon. - Fri.
• The boys were starting to do well with this before everybody got sick at the beginning of Dec. Hopefully they will get back to it.
  
• More singing as a family
• We sang for special music in Dec. and we sang for the Christmas play. It was very stressful practicing.... their is always a struggle practicing and then the performances are so blessed by God. It is hard.
• Family evening read-aloud time consistently. 
• This has been out of my control. I want to do this but will not be making it a goal next year since it depends more on my husband wanting to do family time in the evening.
• Get back to evening read aloud time with the boys. 
• I have still not been doing it. We are still on Little House in the Big Woods. I need to make it a priority at least 3 nights a week. I have not read to the boys since March. I need to talk to the boys about this. We have just not made it a priority.

• Get back to meal planning because meals are more varied and we will have the ingredients shopped for ahead of time.
• We have just been so busy. Everyone has been cooking but we have not planned ahead... we just cook whatever fits that day's schedule and what we have in the house. I will be putting meal planning on my goal list but only counting if I meal plan... not everyone else.

• Spend more time with my dear husband 
• Time alone with hubby has been on the way to, between, or on the way home from Dr. appointments and medical tests or at breakfast or lunch out after or between those appointments. I am glad I have been able to be there for him. He is getting serious about his health. The E.R. scare he had last month really woke him up. Some time ago he promised to play games with me and we still have not done that.

• Spend time once a week with one of my kids, just mom and one of the kids having lunch in my bedroom alone and then doing whatever the child wants to do. Usually a combo of eating, talking and playing board games and/or computer games. Goal is one child a week, so they all get one afternoon with mom a month.Start with my youngest and schedule it on the calendar so I can keep track of who is next for their turn. We can add time on the Wii together now
• I think it is Christopher's turn again. We will start this up in the new year again. It was to crazy in Dec. to do this, besides the sickness we had. I did play games and on the Wii with the kids but in groups not really individually.

So, that is my yearly goal update. I have 10 things with smiling smiley faces and 9 with sad smiley faces so more things are done then undone. I am proud that I did not quit. I am glad that I set, posted and tried to meet some goals. I will not be setting any goals for the family next year that depend on others... it just is not fair to me to have to feel like I must put a sad face on but it is not in my control. If I take off the things that were out of my control then I have only 5 sad faces. I also accomplished a lot of things from weekly goals that are not here on my yearly goal list. It was a good year all in all, considering my husband started and ended the year unemployed. God is Good All the Time, All the Time, God is Good.

• Original post for my Goals 2011
• Goals Update Feb. 1
• Yearly Goals Update - March
• Yearly Goals Update - April
• Yearly Goal Update - May
• I apparently missed a June update oops...
• Summer Goal list 
• Yearly Goal Update - July 
• Yearly Goal Update - August
• Yearly Goal Update - September
• I apparently missed an October update oops...  
  
• I apparently missed a November update also
• Yearly Goal Update December

Did you make goals for this year? How did you do on your goals?
Now that I am done this post I can work on my post for my goals for next year.

Keep track of your goals and how you are doing will help you achieve much next year.


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Wednesday Hodgepodge ~ Volume 59

1. Share something you loved about your Christmas Day. Playing new games on the Wii with my kids, eating Christmas brunch all together, and eating our dinner spread of crackers, cheese, veggie tray, dip, and cookies while watching a Christmas movie together.

2. You get to put five items in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years, what items would you choose and why?  

1. A Bible in case they need one to read... the most important thing to me is that future generations would know, love, and serve the Lord. 
2. A CD of all the family photos and a digital journal so they would have so they would have a remembrance of us, how we lived, and know what things I wanted to pass on to them. 
3. A book to remind them of the importance of knowledge. 
4. A homeschool book to remind them of the importance I place on homeschooling. 
5. A handwritten journal or letter so they have a copy of my handwriting and can read the important things I want them to know in my own writing.

3. What do you like on a cracker? Cheese... especially the squirty kind. I wanted some for Christmas but my hubby forgot.

4. Do you make resolutions at the start of a new year? How'd that work out for you this past year? I do not do resolutions... I never keep them. Instead I set goals, print them out, laminate the page, and keep it right on my desk so I can see it every day. I also post my yearly goals on my blog. Then I participate in Goal Planning Monday and do weekly goals, some of which reflect my yearly goals. I also do a monthly (though I did miss a couple months) update on my blog, on how I am doing on my yearly goals. Here is the beginning of Dec. post from my blog...  Yearly Goals Update ~ December. I will be doing an update on the 31st of how I did this year and then posting my new goals for 2012 on Jan. 1st. I am working on that this week... it is one of my weekly goals... Goal Planning Monday ~ Week 48 I think I did really well this past year... much better than other years thanks to keep up with weekly goals, posting a monthly update and keeping my written goals where I can see them daily. 

5. What's a song or song lyric you'll associate with 2011?

He lowers us to raise us
So we can sing His praises
Whatever is His way all is well

He makes us rich and poor
That we might trust Him more
Whatever is His way all is well

All my changes come from Him He who never changes
I'm held firm in the grasp of the Rock of all the ages

All is well with my soul
He is God in control
I know not all His plans
But I know I'm in His hands

He clothes us now then strips us
Yet with His Word equips us
Whatever is His way all is well
And though our seasons change
We still exalt His name
Whatever is His way all is well

[Robin Mark Lyrics are found on www.dapslyrics.com] 

With the hard year we have had this has been my anthem. I bawl every time we sing it at church. I usually cry so hard I can't speak and just mouth the words! Whatever is His way all is well!!

6. How will you ring in the new year?  We play board games as a family, drink hot chocolate and or sparkling apple juice, and eat cookies.

7. What is something you look forward to in 2012? My son Nathan's graduation from High School... 13 years of homeschooling for us both. I hope it will be a great celebration.

8. Insert your own random thought here. I love my new Nook Color that I got for Christmas from my mom, sister and brother-in-law.

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Goal Planning Monday ~ Week 48

 Time to write some goals and strive to accomplish them this coming week??

Join us by clicking on the button above...
after you read my goals.

This is the last GPM for the 2011 year. The next update will be in 2012. This week was family first so my goals reflected that and because of that I did not accomplish a few of the other goals.

My Goals from last week and how I did:

Spiritual Goals 

1. Keep up with reading the Bible in a Year. Partly Done I am now behind on my Bible Reading by a day or 2 but will be caught up and finished reading the whole Bible by Sunday! I must make this a first thing in the morning priority or I get too busy and don't get it done. It must be God and my Bible reading first... then other things.
2. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement.   Not Done
3. Read as much as possible of the new books I got for our Sunday School study. How People Change and How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace I am behind because I got my book late. I want to keep up with the current chapters and catch up as much as possible when I am able to do extra work. Done I didn't read much but I did read some.... I'm counting it.

Homeschool Goals

No Goals. No Homeschooling until January 4th.

Blog Goals  

1. Get back to doing the regular memes that I participate in. Not Done
2. Post Blast from the Past on Tuesday. Done

Personal/Other Goals

1. Comment on all the other GPM ladies posts. Keep track of their names with links here so I know whose I have done. Done I commented at our hostesses blog @ Mama Manuscripts, and at Shannon's Blog @ Mom Loves Books
2. Clean the house in preparation for my Mom coming and Christmas. Done I had a lot of help
3. Read, Read, Read! I am making progress on my read 100 books in a year goal but I still need to read a bunch more. I am now reading Spring's Gentle Promise (Seasons of the Heart Series book 4), the last book in the series. I should have time to read during #4. I want to order some more Tales from Grace Chapel Inn books today. I really love that series and as so glad the Holman's introduced me to it and that my library has had them all so far. Done
4. Drive to PA, pick up my Mom, take her to get her B12 shot then to the Eye Dr.  Then she is coming back to stay at our house through Jan. 4th. Done
5. Shop for stocking stuffers for my hubby. I also need some little Christmas gift bags for the gifts I made for the family. Done
6. Play games with the family. Done
7. Wrap Christmas Presents. Done
8. Go to Christmas Eve party at my sister's house. We may leave early and go to our church's Christmas Eve Service or we may stay late at my sister's. We will decide that night.
9. Watch Christmas movies as a family. Done
10. Help make Christmas cookies... and then eat a bunch. Partly Done, I did eat a bunch but I never had time to help make them. Other things took more time than I thought they would. I was also fighting a sore throat and cold the 2 days Rachel was baking. 
    

For this week that is 9 Done, 2 Partly Done, and 2 Not Done. I count that as a successful week.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals 

1. Catch up with reading the Bible in a Year.
2. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement.
3. Read as much as possible of the new books I got for our Sunday School study. How People Change and How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace I am behind because I got my book late. I want to keep up with the current chapters and catch up as much as possible when I am able to do extra work. 

Homeschool Goals

No Goals. No Homeschooling until January 4th.

Blog Goals    

1. Get my yearly goals post updated with how I did on my goals from 2011. I want it posted Sat. for New Year's Eve.
2. Get my yearly goals post ready to post on Jan. 1st for my 2012 goals. I really need to take time to work on this and pray over what things God would like me to accomplish next year.

Personal/Other Goals

1. Comment on all the other GPM ladies posts. Keep track of their names with links here so I know whose I have done. 
2. Clean my bedroom. My bedroom is a mess from storing and wrapping gifts in there. I also have clothes to put away.
3. Read, Read, Read! I am making progress on my read 100 books in a year goal but I still need to read a bunch more. I am now reading Julia's Last Hope It is one of the individual books Janette Oke wrote and not part of a series. I want to order some more Tales from Grace Chapel Inn books today. I really love that series and as so glad the Holman's introduced me to it and that my library has had them all so far.
4. Play games with the family.
5. Watch movies as a family. I don't know if we have any more Christmas movies to watch, but I am sure we will watch something. It is one of the few things we can do with my mom.
6. Play on the Wii with the kids.
7. Work on getting files backed up to the external drives.

The goals this week are family oriented. The next week is just for family, entertaining my mom, and relaxing.


How about you? Do you have any goals for the week? Post your goals and link up. The button at the top will take you to the meme and you can join up with us.


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Blast From The Past ~ Christmas 2000

This week for Blast From The Past I am featuring Christmas 2000. These were the first pictures I could find where we started back the tradition I had when growing up of sitting on the stairs Christmas morning. The kids sit on the stairs and wait while hubby and I go down, turn on some Christmas music, turn on the Christmas tree lights, and make sure the camera is ready to go. This tradition was started when I was a young girl. I remember sitting on the steps of my parents home. We never did the tradition before in our family mostly because we did not have steps in our trailers or the apartments that we lived in while the kids were growing up. We moved into our Habitat home in the summer of 1998. According to the photos we did not think of the tradition until 2000. Now, our tradition is that the first photos to be taken on Christmas are of the kids on the steps.

I hope you enjoy these Christmas photos from 2000.

My how the kids have grown.

Besides the photos on the stairs I choose only one photo of each child from Christmas Day 2000.

Rachel age 14

Jessica age 11

Nathan age 6

Christopher age (almost) 4

Here are the Rules for participating:
The purpose of Blast From The Past is to link up a post about something from the past. You can reach back all the way to your childhood and bravely post pictures of you in your wild clothes and hair styles or post something from last year and tell us about it. I'm not picky. Hey, even yesterday was the past... LOL My posts will mostly be about events that happened prior to blogging, as a way to share those things with the world.

• It can be about you, about your kids, about your parents, about whatever. For ideas check out the other posts in my label Blast From the Past. 
• Please use a permalink that sends readers directly to the correct post. If you are not sure what that is click the word permalink for an explanation. 
• Mention my blog and offer a link back to the main page of my blog. http://debbiesdigest.blogspot.com/ This is a requirement to take part and a kind gesture to me your hostess as well as your readers--they will know where to join in the fun, too. You can put the Blast From The Past button on your site and in your post. You will find it on my right sidebar. Please use it to link to my site, to spread the word about my meme. Using the button will help others know how to find me and how to join. Tell others to click on the button in your post to find us here.
• Leave me a comment. First so that you can let me know what you think of my pictures and secondly so that I will know a new post has been linked up and I can come visit your blog and comment on your photos. 

Join me!


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Goal Planning Monday ~ Week 47

 Time to write some goals and strive to accomplish them this coming week??

Join us by clicking on the button above...
after you read my goals.

I struggled really hard this week to get a Done on every goal for this week but did not quite make it... maybe next week.

My Goals from last week and how I did:

Spiritual Goals 

1. Keep up with reading the Bible in a Year. Done
2. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement. Done Read ch. 23, His Walk. It was a good chapter and one I hope encourages him to keep on following God's path for his as he walks the narrow way.
3. Read as much as possible of the new books I got for our Sunday School study. How People Change and How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace I am behind because I got my book late. I want to keep up with the current chapters and catch up as much as possible when I am able to do extra work.  Done 

Homeschool Goals

1. I have no idea how much or if any homeschooling will get done. It depends on how the boys are doing with their colds. The boys were sick until Friday and did not get any school done. I said it was no use to do school Friday and Monday with all the sickness we had had and the busyness of the play over the weekend and from Tues. til after New Years we had already planned to take off. We will just have to make up the days at the end of the year.
   
2. Keep up with grading and recording whatever homeschooling we get done. There was nothing to record. I am not counting these as done since I did not do anything, but I am not counting it as not done because I had a feeling we would not do school since everyone was so sick and then we had the play's dress rehearsal and production Thurs. - Sat. and then the cast party on Sunday. I really just wanted everyone to rest and be healthy enough to sing at the play.

Blog Goals  

1. Get back to doing the regular memes that I participate in. Not Done
2. Post Blast from the Past later today and prep next week's Blast From The Past. Not Done
3. Work on, and get posted, a post that is not a meme. I am especially trying to work on posts about games we use(d) for school. I wanted to get them up in time for my readers to use them for ideas for Christmas gifts. I hope to work on this this afternoon and evening. Done I posted about the History Games we like to use for school. Scan down after you are done reading this, if you want to read it, it is right below this post.
   

Personal/Other Goals

1. Comment on all the other GPM ladies posts. Keep track of their names with links here so I know whose I have done. Done I commented at our hostesses blog @ Mama Manuscripts, and at Shannon's Blog @ Mom Loves Books
   
2. Read, Read, Read! I am making progress on my read 100 books in a year goal but I still need to read a bunch more. I am now reading Once Upon a Summer/The Winds of Autumn/Winter is Not Forever/Spring's Gentle Promise (Seasons of the Heart Series books 1-4) I am currently reading Winds of Autumn. Done I finished Winds of Autumn and also finished reading Winter is Not Forever, next up is Spring's Gentle Promise.
   
3. Take Hubby to Dr. tomorrow to check out his gall stones problem. Hopefully if he needs surgery it can wait until after Christmas. Done No surgery is necessarily at this time. If he has trouble later he may have to have it out but as long as there is no pain or other complications he gets to keep his gall bladder.
   
4. Get to the end of the week and all make it for the Christmas Program at church that we are supposed to participate in. Right now we have 4 sick people... my dd Rachel being the sickest. Rachel and Jessica are in the play and the whole family is singing at the end of the play. Rachel is going to the Dr., hopefully today, and hopefully will get some antibiotics or something, so she can get better before the dress rehearsal on Thursday. Done It was a great success. The play went really well. The audience loved it. We sang well, hit most of our notes, got lots of complements, give all the glory to God. He healed our voices enough to make it through the song without anyone coughing, sneezing or messing up noticeably.  
   

For this week that is 8 Done, 0 Partly Done, and 2 Not Done. I count that as a successful week.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals 

1. Keep up with reading the Bible in a Year.
2. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement.
3. Read as much as possible of the new books I got for our Sunday School study. How People Change and How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace I am behind because I got my book late. I want to keep up with the current chapters and catch up as much as possible when I am able to do extra work. 

Homeschool Goals

No Goals. No Homeschooling until January 4th.

Blog Goals  

1. Get back to doing the regular memes that I participate in.
2. Post Blast from the Past on Tuesday.

Personal/Other Goals

1. Comment on all the other GPM ladies posts. Keep track of their names with links here so I know whose I have done. 
2. Clean the house in preparation for my Mom coming and Christmas. 
3. Read, Read, Read! I am making progress on my read 100 books in a year goal but I still need to read a bunch more. I am now reading Spring's Gentle Promise (Seasons of the Heart Series book 4), the last book in the series. I should have time to read during #4. I want to order some more Tales from Grace Chapel Inn books today. I really love that series and as so glad the Holman's introduced me to it and that my library has had them all so far.
4. Drive to PA, pick up my Mom, take her to get her B12 shot then to the Eye Dr.  Then she is coming back to stay at our house through Jan. 4th.
5. Shop for stocking stuffers for my hubby. I also need some little Christmas gift bags for the gifts I made for the family.
6. Play games with the family.
7. Wrap Christmas Presents.
8. Go to Christmas Eve party at my sister's house. We may leave early and go to our church's Christmas Eve Service or we may stay late at my sister's. We will decide that night.
9. Watch Christmas movies as a family.
10. Help make Christmas cookies... and then eat a bunch.

The goals this week are family oriented. These next 2 weeks are family, entertaining my mom, and relaxing.


How about you? Do you have any goals for the week? Post your goals and link up. The button at the top will take you to the meme and you can join up with us.


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