Goal Planning Monday ~ Week 18

It is Goal Planning Monday.

Do you have goals?

How are you doing with them?? 

I have done pretty well this week. Here are my goals from last week and how I did with them.

1. Clean and organize my bedroom in preparation for Rachel and Jessica's friends, Sarah and Rose, visit from June 2nd to the 16th. I have to declutter, put a lot of things back where they belong in other parts of the house, dust, re-organize, vacuum, clean ceiling fans, clean windows, and get rid of a bunch of stuff. Mostly Done. I have a little more to do. We hope to have all the cleaning completely finished tomorrow and then rest up and spend some time together as a family before the company arrives on Thursday. Windows are getting skipped until Fall or after the girls leave if we get a cool enough day.
   
2. Clean and organize the basement in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit. This is a huge job and will probably take more than one day. Mostly Done. Same as #1
3. Wash windows in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit. Outside of windows is getting skipped until Fall or after the girls leave if we get a cool enough day, we will wash the inside sills.
   
4. Put more flowers in the front garden in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit. Not Done and I have no idea if it will get done.
5. clean the kitchen... many things to do in this room Mostly Done. Same as #1
6. clean the living room... not as much to do here Mostly Done. Same as #1
7. clean the bathrooms... need to do this just for us... but then again next week closer to Sarah and Rose's arrival. Not Done. This has a tendency to get dirty again fast and so we waited until closer to the girls arrival to clean the bathrooms.
8. clean out the upstairs hallway... many books to move. Mostly Done. Same as #1
9. clean, clean, clean... in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit. Hopefully in the evenings when I am tired from cleaning I will have time to things in #10-15 but 1-9 are the most important though we do have a week and a half to get it all done. Mostly Done. Same as #1
10. Get back to exercising. I got discouraged in the past 2 weeks and have been totally off my diet and have not been exercising. I am getting back to doing that today or tomorrow. I got stressed and discouraged and bought all kinds of junk food. So... time to pay the piper. I need to go weigh in to see how much damage I did to myself and then I need to get back to eating well and getting on the Wii. I got so discouraged I even took my weight ticker off my blog. I want to get that put back on also. Not Done. The basement was a mess all week and still is in the area where we do the Wii. That should be finished tomorrow and then I can get back to exercising.
11. Post my summer goal list. I have it written out I just need to get typed up on my blog and then posted. Done. Click HERE to read the list if you missed it when it posted.
12. Write my blog post about my favorite TOS product from this year  Done. Click HERE to read the list if you missed it when it posted.
13. Read. If you want to know what I am reading check my personal Shelfari in the left sidebar. I read some of My Father's World, the first book in the Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister, I am almost done reading it.
14. Blog about the books I have finished reading and get them logged into my reading challenge pages. Not Done. Maybe I will get some time in the next few weeks... hopefully. I should get some time on Wednesday to do at least one book review.
15. Get my pictures from Longwood Gardens posted on my blog. Not Done. I may work on that tonight and schedule them to post tomorrow and Wednesday, and maybe Thursday... I am not sure how many pictures there are and how many posts I will break it up into.

Here are my goals for this week:

1. Finish cleaning the whole house and get it in tip top condition for our visitors on Thursday.
2. Post pictures of my wonderfully clean home so everyone can see the differences all the work has made.
3. Blog about the books I have read.
4. Get my pictures from Longwood Gardens posted on my blog.
5. Read.
6. Get back to exercising.
7. Our guests from Texas arrive on Thursday. Pray for them while they are on the airplane. They have never been on a plane before and have to change planes in Houston all by themselves. We will be glad when they are safely on the ground and in my daughters arms in Philadelphia.
8. Last ladies Bible Study on Friday. Visit my mom Friday June 3rd to Monday June 6th. Take her to get her hair permed and I get mine cut. Take her to do a number of errands then maybe to church on Sunday depending on how she feels. She has not been to church since before she went to my brother's for Thanksgiving.

Goal Planning Monday is hosted by Katrina of Mama Manuscripts click this link or the button at the top. 



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Happy Memorial Day

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Spirit Filled Sunday ~ Patriotic Music for Memorial Day Weekend

I hope you enjoyed these and I hope you have a good Memorial Day Weekend.

Remember those who have served to keep our country free and those who are currently serving to do the same.


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Blast From The Past Photos of My Dad in WWII days and a VJ Day video

Sorry this is late... with all the cleaning I just forgot. I need to get next weeks and the week after scheduled so I don't forget them while our company from Texas is visiting.

In honor of Memorial Day

and in honor of my Father who died on Memorial Day 1976...

I am featuring my Dad.

Love you Dad.

Miss you.

Yours is the second face I want to see when I get to heaven and I want a big hug.

First are pictures of my dad at Indiantown Gap in 1941

He was stationed here before he went overseas to fight in the pacific.

Handsome Man

This photo was marked - Barracks Goro Kotton 1942

I am not sure where that is... I looked it up on Google and I did not get any more information.

I also embeded a video. My brother sent me the link to this... I just had to share it. This video does not have my dad in it as far as I know. I am not even sure where my dad was on VJ day. I do know he was in Hawaii at some point during the war, maybe before shipping out. He always wanted to take my mom back there. I got to go in 1981 with a college group but my mom never has gotten to go. I always wanted to take her and my hubby and go back. I love Hawaii.


VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo.

I am also posting a picture of my mom at my dad's grave

Memorial Day 2010

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 work 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. 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.

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Roberts Crafts: Freebie Friday!

Great Giveaway at Robers Crafts... Summer scrapbook stuff!!! Here is the link: Freebie Friday!  

 I love scrapbooking and don't have a to go pack at all. Maybe if I win this I could go to the craft night at our church!



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Pray for Your Husband During the Month of June

I saw THIS on my friend Penney's blog @ Changed By Love

I already have the book needed so I decided to join them.

Amy Verlennich has challenged all Christian wives to pray for their husbands throughout the month of June. This is Amy's 3rd time doing this challenge... it is my first
.
She is asking us to get/use The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian and pray through it a chapter a day, using the chapter topics to help us stay focused on what to pray. We kick off on June 1st and pray through the whole month.

The Power of a Praying Wife By Stormie Omartian / Harvest House Publishers Bestselling author Stormie Omartian inspires women to develop a deeper relationship with their husbands by praying for them. The Power of a Praying Wife—now with a fresh new cover design— is packed with practical advice on praying for specific areas of a husband’s life including his decision-making, fears, spiritual strength, role as father and leader, and his faith and future. Every woman who desires a closer relationship with her husband will appreciate the life illustrations, select Scripture verses, and the assurances of God’s promises and power for their marriage.

Amy has a special place on her blog called SHMILY Time. You can go HERE to find out what SHMILY means and visit the rest of SHMILY Time for even more encouragement.

If you’re on Facebook, you can join the group HERE and keep in touch with others as we pray for our husbands every day in June.

I hope you’ll join us, and cover your husband in prayer whether you feel close and loving toward him right now or you feel angry, frustrated, upset, separated, or any number of other feelings we sometimes experience in marriage. No matter what, prayer will do me good and you too, and it will definitely do our husbands more good than ignoring them or yelling at them would ever do, or hitting them over the head with a frying pan like my friend Penny said on her blog. Anyway, I hope you will join us.

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Progress in the Basement

We have been cleaning the basement in preparation for the arrival of my daughters' friends.

Here I have some before shots from yesterday morning...

 quite a lot of stuff that we need to sift through and figure out what to keep...

what to throw out...

and what is good enough to give to the thrift shop.

 Part way through the day yesterday...

I always make more mess in the midst of cleaning up

so the piles are growing...

Pictures from near the end of our cleaning time today...

new shelves and Rubbermaid tubs

 a bunch of the mess is now gone

This is the pile of trash at the curb waiting for the trash men tomorrow

We also took 2 car loads of stuff to the thrift shop

I don't know if we will get all done tomorrow but we are working our way through the basement.

Now that I posted my pictures I am going to get a snack and chill out for a while.

I will post more pictures tomorrow...

and whenever we are done I will post the photos of the finished basement.

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Summer Goals List

This is the stuff I hope to accomplish during our summer break from school. Our last day of school was May 6th. We will start school back up the last week of July, most likely. About once a week I will update the list. I will change the date so it posts back at the top. I will strikethrough the items that I finish and put a date on them so I can track how I am doing.

• Finish Need/Want List for School May 7
• Talk to Court about Need/Want List May 11
• Order the stuff I need for school for 2011-2012
• Do Portfolios
• Log Books into Book Collector
• Work on Nathan's Transcript
• Set up Christopher's High School Notebook to get ready for entering credits for H.S.
• Plan School for next year as a whole
• Plan History for next year
• Plan Science for next year
• Clean and Organize the whole house for Sarah and Rose's visit
• Read, Read, Read
• One on One time with each of the kids
• Exercise
• Keep on my diet as much as possible to keep loosing weight
• Journal, Pray, Read my Bible, keep up with reading through the Bible in a year, listen to music daily
• Scrapbook
• Update Resource page on my blog to the resources we will use next year

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Sound of Music | Central Station Antwerp (Belgium)

A friend shared this on Facebook. I just love this!
I had to share so that I made sure all my friends saw this. This will brighten your day and make you smile.



  I give it ...

2 thumbs up LOL



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Top 10 TOS Products of 2010-2011 School Year

Below you will find our Top 10 lists. I asked each of the boys for their Top 10 and did my Top 10 also. We only had 17 products this year but we liked a lot of what we got so we still did the top 10. It is interesting that the boys and I only had one item different... Actually each of us had one product that the others did not put on their list... interesting. My favorite product was not on their list because it is a Mom product and not something they used. The rest we had the same, though in completely different orders.

I did an alphabetical list of the links to my reviews at the bottom of this post in case you missed any of the reviews and want to read them now.

You do not see a link for IEW because I have not done my review yet. Actually we did not get IEW as a TOS product. I purchased it before the crew year started. But, since we purchased the same product that the crew got, I allowed us to count it toward our Top 10. Nathan and I especially liked IEW. It was one of the best things we did this year and the best resource I have purchased for our school for years!!! I wish we had used it sooner and we will be buying more IEW in the future. I will be doing a review of IEW this summer. I just need to find the time.

Christopher's Top 10

1. Zeezok - ZGuides to the Movies --We did
2. Zoe and Sozo - The Foundlings - Peleg Chronicles 
3. Salem Ridge Press - Out of the Mouth of the Lion,The Martyr's Victory, and Yussuf the Guide
4. Bright Ideas Press - WonderMaps
5. Yesterday's Classics
6. Dig It - Roman Town
7. Apologia - Who Is God?
8. Lanschool
9. North Star Games - Wits and Wagers Family
10. IEW

Nathan's Top 10

1. North Star Games - Wits and Wagers Family
2. Dig It - Roman Town
3. Salem Ridge Press - Out of the Mouth of the Lion,The Martyr's Victory, and Yussuf the Guide
4. Bright Ideas Press - WonderMaps
5. IEW
6. Yesterday's Classics
7. Zoe and Sozo - The Foundlings - Peleg Cronicles
8. Zeezok -ZGuides to the Movies
9. Apologia - Who Is God?
10. Buckets of Fun - Yuck!

My Top 10

1. Collectorz
2. IEW
3. Bright Ideas Press - WonderMaps
4. Yesterday's Classics
5. Salem Ridge Press
6. North Star Games - Wits and Wagers Family
7. Zeezok - zGuides to the Movies
8. Apologia - Who Is God?
9. Dig It - Roman Town
10. Zoe and Sozo - The Foundlings - Peleg Chronicles

Just to let you know I did not have a hard time picking 10 products... my problem was what order to put them in. I went back and forth about whether to put Collectorz or IEW first. You can count them both as equal in my eyes... both #1 products. The next 3, #'s 3-5 are really close too and could all flip flop places. #7 and #8 are about equal and #9 and #10 are about equal. We had some great products this year. I am looking forward to my summer off from TOS but I am very, very happy to say I signed up for and was granted another year on the crew. Yippee!!! So watch for new TOS stuff coming in July or August.

List of links to my reviews

• Apologia - Who Is God?
• Bright Ideas Press - WonderMaps
• Buckets of Fun - Yuck!
• Collectorz 
• Dig It - Roman Town
• Lanschool
• North Star Games - Wits and Wagers
  
• Salem Ridge Press - Out of the Mouth of the Lion,The Martyr's Victory, and Yussuf the Guide
• Yesterday's Classics
• Zeezok - ZGuides to the Movies
• Zoe and Sozo - The Foundlings - Peleg Chronicles

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Goal Planning Monday ~ Week 17

It is Goal Planning Monday.

Do you have goals?

How are you doing with them?? 

I have done pretty well this week considering that my Mom was visiting and a lot of my time was spent taking care of and being with her, but that does mean that I accomplished at least one of my goals since I put that on my list from last week.

I did not blog about my favorite TOS products yet. I may get that done this morning... or at least get it started. Later we have to take my mom home... that will take most of my afternoon if not longer.

I need to vote for our favorite TOS products on the forum this morning. That I will be doing for sure after I am done this post and my devotions.

I did read this week. I read more of Instructing a Child's Heart (we have 1 chapter left for our June 3rd ladies Bible study). I also started reading the Love Comes Softly series. We have all but 1 of the movies now and we watched them with my mom this week. Then I decided it has been a looong time since I read the books and they are very different from the movies. So I started reading Love Comes Softly, the first book, and I am on ch 23 of 32, I will probably finish it today while we are driving mom home. I have also been reading My Father's World, the first book in the Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister. I have never read these before. I am slowly reading the rest of Prodigal God by Timothy Keller, now that I found my copy that was lost for months. I am also trying to finish some books that the boys read for school that I wanted to finish... most importantly Orange and Green by G.A. Henty.... I love his books.

I did not have time to blog about the books I have read. I am reading faster than I blog about them. I am making that a priority this week. I will do short posts about a number of books to get caught up, hopefully this week.

I got a lot of picture of Winterthur posted. I have more ready to post today. Then I will work on the ones from Longwood Gardens. We wanted to take my mom to Longwood this week but she was just not up to it. Please keep her in your prayers. It is hard seeing parents growing older and unable to do things they used to do. I know many are dealing with this and it is not just me, but she is my only living parent and my children's only living grandparent... so she is especially special to us.


Now here are my goals for the coming week:

1. Clean and organize my bedroom in preparation for Rachel and Jessica's friends, Sarah and Rose, visit from June 2nd to the 16th. I have to declutter, put a lot of things back where they belong in other parts of the house, dust, re-organize, vacuum, clean ceiling fans, clean windows, and get rid of a bunch of stuff.
2. Clean and organize the basement in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit. This is a huge job and will probably take more than one day.
3. Wash windows in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit.
4. Put more flowers in the front garden in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit.
5. clean the kitchen... many things to do in this room
6. clean the living room... not as much to do here
7. clean the bathrooms... need to do this just for us... but then again next week closer to Sarah and Rose's arrival.
8. clean out the upstairs hallway... many books to move.
9. clean, clean, clean... in preparation for Sarah and Rose's visit. Hopefully in the evenings when I am tired from cleaning I will have time to things in #10-15 but 1-9 are the most important though we do have a week and a half to get it all done. 
10. Get back to exercising. I got discouraged in the past 2 weeks and have been totally off my diet and have not been exercising. I am getting back to doing that today or tomorrow. I got stressed and discouraged and bought all kinds of junk food. So... time to pay the piper. I need to go weigh in to see how much damage I did to myself and then I need to get back to eating well and getting on the Wii. I got so discouraged I even took my weight ticker off my blog. I want to get that put back on also.
11. Post my summer goal list. I have it written out I just need to get typed up on my blog and then posted.
12. Write my blog post about my favorite TOS product from this year 
13. Read. If you want to know what I am reading check my personal Shelfari in the left sidebar. 
14. Blog about the books I have finished reading and get them logged into my reading challenge pages. 
15. Get my pictures from Longwood Gardens posted on my blog.

I have a lot to do... I better get to it!

Goal Planning Monday is hosted by Katrina of Mama Manuscripts click this link or the button at the top. 


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Winterthur 05-05-11 With My Hubby Part 2

These are the flowers from the Quarry Garden...

one of my favorite spots at Winterthur.

I love all the different shades of these flowers.

white but still with some pink 

lovely

I just love all the pinks and purples and a little white mixed in too.

I love the little creek running through

you can sorta see the rocks in the background

the Quarry Garden from above

Now moving on to the sundial garden

lilacs

I love how this shot turned out.

Hubby and the bush that looks like a giant powder puff.

the petals have all fallen off and it looks like snow...

lovely

One of our favorites...

Snowball Viburnum

Love this shot

Love the orange

Interesting Trunk

Love the variates of color

gorgeeous

love the snowball shape these azalea blooms created

interesting tree trunk pictures

back to the lovely variates of color

My hubby sitting in his favorite spot at Winterthur

Beautiful

Azaleas

Rhododendrons

Azaleas

love the pink stripes

love the delicate, pale pink in these

another rhododendron on the way out of the park... almost back to the car now

 

All done.

I hope you enjoyed them.

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