Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Wednesday Hodgepodge ~ Fun with Randomness


I love doing the Wednesday Hodgepodge. Hodgepodge... such a cool word... Dictionary.com says it means, "a heterogeneous mixture; jumble," cool! heterogeneous... another cool word. I love the mix of questions. Just right for a "thinking about what I think" kind of post. So... join us in answering this jumble of heterogeneous questions posted by Joyce and let us know what you think! Just click the button at the top...
after you read my fabulous answers of course. 

1. Do you think the world became a more dangerous place on September 11, 2001 or did we just become more aware of the danger? How has your own life changed as a result of that day? We became more aware. My life has not changed much. I still homeschool my children, go to church, pray for my country and it's leaders, pray for our servicemen, police, fire, etc.; and live my life as best I can for the glory of God. I don't think I personally knew anyone that died that day. I do think about it occasionally and I personally know men who are fighting for our country. I pray for them more, I guess, and for those who serve in our communities, whenever I am reminded of all they do for all of us.
 
2. Did you think your parents were too strict when you were growing up? How about in hindsight? No, I never felt my parents were to strict, but then I was a "good girl" and didn't cause much trouble. I was raised in a Christian home and went to church a couple times a week. I was saved at an early age and tried to please God and my parents. They say they spanked me but I don't remember ever being spanked. I feel Blessed to have been raised so well and by such faithful parents who loved me and cared for me.
3. Share one random but candid fact about yourself. I snore. I got teased about it terribly when I was younger and it kept me from going to sleepovers at friends houses. When I snored my so called friends treated me even more terribly. I also could not stay awake as long as they did. I was always the first one asleep. It was traumatizing. I had 2 friends who could sleep at my house and I at theirs, on occasion, I had a couple of sleepover birthday parties at my house as well, with just a few close friends that I knew would not tease me so badly.
4. Would your nearest and dearest describe you as simple or far too complicated? Far to complicated, I am sure. I am a crazy lady... LOL Happy, sad, clean, messy, silly, serious, homeschool mom, scrapbooker, likes to sing, likes to read, blogger, overweight, on and off my "diet" every other day depending on a number of factors, hot flashes then chills down my arm, breaking into tears for some reason... or no reason, and more I am sure. Living with me, especially lately, has been a roller coaster for my family.
5. What is your favorite stadium or carnival food? Funnel Cake!!!  Finally, an easy question. 
6. Tornado, hurricane, earthquake...how many of these natural disasters have you experienced? Which event do you think would be the scariest? Earthquake and Hurricane and both last week!!! YIKES! We had to evacuate our home on Saturday... that was scary. The Earthquake was scary but for a shorter amount of time and we were not really close to the epicenter. I am not sure which would be scarier... I guess earthquakes because you can't prepare for them really. With the hurricane we knew days ahead and could prepare and leave. With tornadoes there is usually a watch out and you can take some precausions.
7. Labor Day weekend is approaching so a work related question seems appropriate. Growing up, did your parents assign you regular chores? Were you paid for doing those chores? If you're a parent do you assign chores to your own children? Why or why not? I helped my mom and cleaned my room but I don't remember having assigned chores. I just pitched in and helped her. My siblings were much older than I was and were getting married and moving out while I was still very young. I don't remember being paid for doing chores but I think I got an allowance every week. Also, being the youngest with siblings 9, 12, and 15 years older than I was I got everything I needed and most of what I wanted. If my parents didn't buy it for me my sister did... she spoiled me. I do assign my children chores and have since they were young. I couldn't homeschool and keep house without them. I am planning a post on how we do our chores now. Maybe I can get it up this week.
That last question was inspired by a post Mindee wrote on Monday. Everyone go say hi to Mindee-she blogs at Our Front Door and she's funny. 
8. Insert your own random thought here. My family went on a field trip yesterday and ate out in honor of "You Don't Have to Get on the Big Yellow Bus" day. The first day of school for the public schools. We don't have to follow the public school's schedule and we celebrate that. I will do a post about it later or tomorrow... with pictures and a short video.


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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Blast From The Past ~ September 1999 Featuring Christopher




This week I am featuring my son Christopher
Most of these photos are of him.
All these photos are from September 1999
Christopher was almost 3 years old.


Cutie Pie!!



The next 4 are from a park on the Delaware River

 The thorns on this tree remind me of the Crown of Thorns our Lord wore on the day he was Crucified for me.

My hubby

 Christopher on a small bridge overlooking a little stream that feeds into the river.

Rachel
(age 13)
I could not get her face lighter without loosing background details




Christopher taking a nap...
cutie!

 Whenever I see pictures of my kids sleeping I always think of the saying
"If only I could see them as just sleeping instead of re-charging."
 LOL



Off to the barber
Hair cuttin' time.
(the barber is the dad of one of our church members,
we used to go to him before Jessica started cutting the boys and my hubbies hair)

I hope you enjoyed this look back.

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 31


 
It is Goal Planning Monday!!
How are you doing with your goals??

Click on the button above to view all the Goal Planning Monday links and find out how to join up with us.

What a week last week was. First an earthquake that literally shook us up and we never did finish school. Then a hurricane that had us evacuating our home. Praise the Lord nothing in our home was damaged. This week will hopefully be more normal. The earthquake and hurricane are the reasons I did not get anything done last week. I spent Friday preparing for us to evacuate and Sat. and Sunday at a hotel.

Well now on to the goals...

My Goals from last week and how I did:
Spiritual Goals 
  1. Catch up with Reading the Bible in a Year... I am behind by about a week now. Not Done Behind by more than a week now.
  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
Homeschool Goals
  1. Work on Portfolios. I want them done by this coming Monday if possible. Not Done
  2. Help the boys do a good job on their Movies As Literature from Bright Ideas Press. This week the boys have to do an essay on the second movie of the year... Friendly Persuasion. Not Done
  3. If I have time I also want to work on planning History. We will be done with Mystery of History 3 this week and I need to keep ahead on the planning before I don't have any idea what to do next. We were supposed to be done last week but didn't because of sickness. We will definitely be done it on Wed. Not Done
Health and Fitness Goals  
  1. Get back to exercising, 3 times this week hopefully. Back to it today. Not Done
  2. Drink water 3-4 of my white and pink 16oz. cups full. Not Done
  3. Finish off the treats we bought last week and then get back to eating more healthy. Not Done

Blog Goals
  1. Post my Day-in-a-life post for the Not Back-To-School Blog Hop. Not Done
  2. Pick a new day to post my Blast From The Past. Friday's are too busy. There are too many other meme's I want to do on Friday. I am thinking of Tuesday. Maybe I will get it done and post it a little later today. Done.  I choose Tuesday the post is up... so link up to BFTP.
TOS Homeschool Crew Goals (I am not on the crew any more but have to finish up my responsibilities... 4 review)
  1. Start writing my post for Having a H.E.A.R.T for your Child, due next week. Not Done Have not even started. This is #1 on my list this week.
  2. Play Flea Circus with my family again. Try and get my hubby and daughter Jessica to join us. Not Done Maybe today for fun for our Not Getting On the Big Yellow Bus Celebration. The public schools are back to school today so we are spending the day together as a family.
  3. Play Civilize This... our other review item... also a game... it looks fun. Not Done
  4. Keep doing  Rooted and Grounded for Bible. Done
Personal/Other Goals 
  1. Read, Read, Read! I have only read 30 books out of the 100 I wanted to read this year. I need to really get reading. I have done well the past week though so that is encouraging. Done I had time to read while we were driving on Saturday to get to the hotel we were evacuating to.
  2. One on One time with Christopher. Not Done
  3. Back-up my files to my external drive. I have some new/important things I don't want to loose so it is imperative that I get this done ASAP. Done. I spent most of Friday getting this done so I would have a complete backup of my files from my desktop computer to take with me when we were evacuating.
Well that is  for Not Done 13,  Done 4, and  Partly Done 0.  That is terrible. I hope to accomplish more this week but I don't know if I will. My mom is coming to stay with us for 2 weeks. She arrives tomorrow. So we will see.

My goals for this coming week:
Spiritual Goals 
  1. Catch up with Reading the Bible in a Year... I am behind by more than a week now.
  2. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement. 
Homeschool Goals
  1. Keep homeschooling and do better even with my mom here, we have been struggling.
  2. Work on Portfolios. 
  3. If I have time I also want to work on planning History. We will be done with Mystery of History 3 this week and I need to keep ahead on the planning before I don't have any idea what to do next. 
Health and Fitness Goals  
  1. Get back to exercising, 3 times this week hopefully. Back to it today. 
  2. Drink water 3-4 of my white and pink 16oz. cups full. 
  3. Get back to eating more healthy. 

Blog Goals
  1. Get my Having a H.E.A.R.T for your Child post written and posted.
TOS Homeschool Crew Goals (I am not on the crew any more but have to finish up my responsibilities... 4 review)
  1. Get my Having a H.E.A.R.T for your Child post written and posted.
  2. Play Flea Circus with my family again. Try and get my hubby and daughter Jessica to join us. 
  3. Play Civilize This... our other review item... also a game... it looks fun. 
  4. Keep doing  Rooted and Grounded for Bible. 
Personal/Other Goals 
  1. Clean the house and get it ready for my mom to come. Pathways especially need to be clear so my mom does not trip. We have stuff everywhere because of us evacuating last weekend. 
  2. Time with my mom.
  3. Read, Read, Read! I am up to 32 books out of the 100 I wanted to read this year. I am making progress but I still need to get reading. I am currently reading Recipes & Wooden Spoons (Tales from Grace Chapel Inn, Book 2)Recipes & Wooden Spoons (Tales from Grace Chapel Inn, Book 2) I did not read them in order. I got confused. I now have the Grace Chapel Inn series printed out so I read them in order from now on.
  4. One on One time with Christopher. 
Well that is this week's Goals. I really hope to do better this week. Set some goals and link up!


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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Read-Aloud Thursday ~ Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Writers


Mr Pipes And The British Hymn MakersWe are loving our reading of Mr Pipes And The British Hymn Makers. One of the reasons is it's author, Douglas Bond. We have enjoyed a number of books by Douglas Bond and the Mr. Pipes books are no different. We now own all three of the Mr. Pipes books. Douglas Bond is such a talented writer. Mr Pipes And The British Hymn Makers is the first book in the series. I wish we had had Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation last year when we covered that time period, but we didn't. The boys and I like Douglas Bond books so much that I am sure we will be able to read the Reformation book also, just for fun, as personal reading. We will cover the hymns of the British Hymn writers and the book Mr. Pipes comes to America as we get to them in our study of History.

In Mr Pipes And The British Hymn Makers we meet Annie and Drew. Their mother is working and has brought them to a little town in England for the summer. Drew is especially bummed to be in this little old town, where everything felt and looked old, and thinks it will be a long and boring summer. While out exploring on one of their first days in town they hear music in the old church and meet... who do you think... Mr. Pipes of course. Mr. Pipes real name is David McCallum, but the day we meet him is the only time his given name is used (at least so far... but we are only in chapter 3). Everyone calls him Mr. Pipes. Why is that?? It is because he plays the big pipe organ in the little church in town... and he knows a lot about music, especially church music, Godly music, Hymns. Mr. Pipes, a man of God, knows about hymns and their writers and takes the children under his wing and shares the Gospel with them through music. The children have gone to church, but only once in a while. They are not saved, not children of God. But hopefully they will be by the end of the book. They are already questioning and thinking about the things Mr. Pipes is sharing with them.

I love hymns. I like a lot of more popular praise and worship music that we sing at our church each week. I do not like them as much as the old hymns I grew up with. Most of the praise and worship music of today does not have the substance that the hymns have. Thankfully we also sing them each week at church.

We read the introductory chapter where we meet all the characters. We read the second chapter about Thomas Ken. Today we read the third chapter about Isaac Watts. Some of Isaac Watts hymns are my favorite hymns. I love how Mr. Pipes weaves the story of Isaac Watts background, his upbringing, and how he came to write hymns. We get not only the words of the hymns but a biography of the hymn writer. This book, this series, will be a great addition to our homeschool. I can't wait to read more and I highly recommend these books to anyone. I love adding music and music history to our studies.

Update: Amy, the hostess of Read-Aloud Thursday asked what age I think these books are most appropriate for. I chatted with my children and we decided ages 8 and up.. though I think you may be able to go younger than that if you are reading to all you children with younger children listening in. Good readers from grades 3 or 4 up could read the book by themselves just fine.

To combine our studies the boys have also been copying the stanza's of Isaac Watts hymns during the first weeks of school. We do hymn study one day each week. I had them do a hymn that we didn't know before this study and they will do a couple of well known ones as well.

I was excited to find books by Isaac Watts available at Amazon.com (there are a lot more, I linked to the cheapest/Free ones which I downloaded to my free Kindle for the PC from Amazon). I am looking forward to checking out each of these books and reading them, singing the songs and learning more about Isaac Watts.
I am including this post in two reading challenges. First is Read-Aloud Thursday... click the button at the top of the post. Second is the challenge at Footprints in the Butter - Reading Aloud Challenge.

We are also reading aloud A Jacobite Exile by G.A. Henty. Tomorrow we will finish reading that. It is a really good Henty... but then again I have not met a Henty I didn't like... yet anyway. A Jacobite Exile is about the Great Northern War, a battle between Russia and Sweden with a few of their neighbors thrown in. The main character is a young man from England. How he gets involved in the war and the escapades he encounters are worth your reading of this book. Time period is the last decade of the 17th century up to 1703.The Russians wanted a seaport and boy did they fight to get one. Here is the link to the free Kindle edition - A Jacobite Exile Being the Adventures of a Young Englishman in the Service of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden and here is the search results for all the copies for A Jacobite Exile at Amazon.com.

We also finished reading Mystery of History yesterday, so I added that book to my Reading 2011 - 100+ Books Challenge. For the 100+ book challenge I am up to 31/100. I should also finish reading some personal reading books in the next day or two to add to that.


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Note: book links are affiliate links... if you click on the link and make a purchase I get a small portion of the sale. I use this credit to buy homeschool books for us.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Hodgepodgin'


1. What is something that bothers you if it's not done perfectly? The only thing I can think of right now is that I hate it when my son wads up the towel instead of spreading it out and hanging it up correctly. When he wads it up it doesn't dry and stays damp... and I hate it.

2. Do you think a 6th sense exists? Explain. Nope... God only gave us 5.

3. Do you say your goodbyes slowly, quickly, or not at all? Depends who it is??? mostly though, it is slowly. It is never not at all.

4. On a scale of 1-10, with ten being hot hot hot, what level of spice do you like in your food? What's your favorite 'spicy' dish? This is an easy one... that would be 1... or maybe even 0. One of the salsa makers used to have an extra mild salsa... that is the only one I ever liked except for a fresh salsa made by Shady Maple

5. What is one of your all time favorite commercial jingles?   So Sorry everyone... I am just really indecisive these days... watch your favorite... or what them all. They all bring back memories and were favorites of mine.













6. Plane, train, boat or auto...your preferred method of travel? Plane, then auto, then train, then boat. I have not been on a big boat though... only speed boats, fishing boats and pontoon boats. I would love to go on a cruise with my hubby one day... around the Hawaiian Islands please!

7. What is something you take for granted? Time... it slips away and the kids grow faster than I want them to. But, in the day to day struggles I sometimes waste to much time doing things that won't matter in 5 or 10 years in order to "escape the insanity" around here.

8. Insert your own random thought here. I want a vacation... a real vacation with my family, away from home, where we can relax and enjoy a week away... with out having to cook or clean up... I would like it to be in some Historical spot like Boston or Williamsburg, though Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon would be nice also. We have been to Williamsburg but my 14yo son does not remember it, we have not been to any of the others as a family. Also, we just finished the Pilgrim time period and are heading into the 1700's so Boston or Williamsburg would be a great family field trip. I have been to Niagara but it was a long, long time ago. I don't even know when our last family vacation was. I know it was to the site of the Battle of Antietam, Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Harper's Ferry, Gettysburg and finishing with a Sight and Sound play in Lancaster, PA. I know it was at least 5 years ago. Since then only local day trips because we never have the money. A vacation would also help with #7. Maybe we will just have to take a week off this fall and do some fun things as a family, local, and not get on our computers at all for a whole week and just do a Staycation. Oh, and plan and prepare meals ahead so we can have a break from that too. Oh, well. Sob story done for the day... on to happier thoughts.


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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Blast From The Past ~ Longwood Gardens June 13, 2011 Part 4




First you may have noticed that I moved Blast From The Past to Tuesday. I usually don't have anything else to post on Tuesday. I have 2 other meme's I like to do on Friday. So I decided to move BFTP. I hope some more of my friends out there can start participating. Please know that you can link up any day of the week that you want. You don't have to do it on Tuesday just because I do. Of course more people will see your link if you post on Tuesday or Wednesday because the post will get buried as I post more things throughout the week. But it is up to you. You are free to join in on whatever day you can.

I know I said last week that I had completed all the photos from this date of going to Longwood but I forgot I saved a couple of my favorites of the girls to post separately. So, this should be the last Longwood post from June 13th... for sure... I think! LOL

I love these photos


First the Gazebo



Then add girls
Rose, Jessica, Sarah, Rachel
(left to right)



Then they go skipping down the "lane"






You can barely see it here but Jessica threw back her head and looked up at the sky...
so much like her! So cute!

I love that my girls will hold hands with each other, their brothers, their parents and here with their friends and will skip... all done in public and they don't care what others think. I love the innocence and seeing them have such fun!

So ends the photos of this trip to Longwood.

I still have video to load of the fountains from 2 evening trips we took and I will get that done tonight or tomorrow. I may just post them to YouTube and then to Facebook. Maybe I will do that and then Friday I will do a link to the video on one of my Friday meme's I like to do.

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.


all content on my blog is ©

Goal Planning Monday ~ Week 30

 
It is Goal Planning Monday!!
How are you doing with your goals??

Click on the button above to view all the Goal Planning Monday links and find out how to join up with us.

My son Christopher was sick last week. We did school Monday and part of school on Tuesday and that was it. Then we had a sick kid with a sore, sore throat, sleepless nights, and snoring so loud some people had to sleep downstairs. Half of us even missed church Sunday. We are so glad he seems to really be on the mend. Maybe we can get one week of regular school done and good nights of sleep before my mom arrives for a 2 week visit next Wed.

Well now on to the goals...

My Goals from last week and how I did:
Spiritual Goals 
  1. Catch up with Reading the Bible in a Year... I am behind by a couple days. Not Done. I hate to say I am further behind. Here's hoping I can catch up this week or at least not be further behind. I have no excuses. We didn't do school Wed - Fri. so I had plenty of time... other things just took precedence and I used tiredness as an excuse. It was not a good excuse and I feel bad about it.
  2. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. Done. I read one chapter and left hubby a note. I think he appreciates the prayers and the notes letting him know I am lifting him in prayer. I just need to do more of it.
Homeschool Goals
  1. Work on Portfolios. I want them done this week or next at the last. Not Done. I worked on other things. I am not really sure what! But I did not do portfolios at all.
  2. Help the boys do a good job on their Movies As Literature from Bright Ideas Press. This week the boys have to do an essay on the second movie of the year... Friendly PersuasionFriendly Persuasion. Partly Done. I helped Nathan work on his outline. Christopher was to sick to work on his. We have another week to work on it now because of him being sick last week. I was out on Monday afternoon so I will help him work on his today and make sure Nathan is working on his paragraphs. Essay due Friday.
  3. If I have time I also want to work on planning History. We will be done with Mystery of History 3 this week and I need to keep ahead on the planning before I don't have any idea what to do next. Not Done. I need to get on this some more this week because Wednesday we will be done with MOH.
Health and Fitness Goals  
  1. Get back to exercising, 3 times this week hopefully. Not Done. I was way to tired from sleepless and sleep interrupted nights. More excuses.. I know. I hope to get back to exercising today.
  2. Drink water 3-4 of my white and pink 16oz. cups full. Partly Done. I did accomplish this most days.
  3. Finish off the treats we bought last week and then get back to eating more healthy. Not Done. I ate the rest of the chocolate cake and then other snacks were purchased and need to be consumed... I have a few more "treats" to eat. If I don't buy anything else I shouldn't have, I should be good after that.

Blog Goals
  1. Post Schoolroom photos or maybe do a video of our home and the boys and combine last week's Not Back-To-School Blog Hop Schoolroom with this weeks photos of students. Done. I posted one post for this HERE.
TOS Homeschool Crew Goals (I am not on the crew any more but have to finish up my responsibilities... 4 review)
  1. Read Having a H.E.A.R.T for your Child and take some notes on paper or in a draft post for the review due in Sept. Partly Done. I finished reading the book yesterday. Now I just have to do my post for this.
  2. Play Flea Circus with my family again. Try and get my hubby and daughter Jessica to join us. Not Done. Sick kid... tired people everywhere. No one wanted to play.
  3. Play Civilize This... our other review item... also a game... it looks fun. Not Done. Same as Flea Circus.
  4. Keep doing  Rooted and Grounded for Bible. Done. We have not done much of this because of my personal emotional problems 2 weeks ago and then sickness last week...we did do it yesterday and we are liking it so far. We are still on lesson 2.
Personal/Other Goals 
  1. Read, Read, Read! I only have read 28 books out of the 100 I wanted to read this year. I need to really get reading. Done. We finished Life in Colonial America, a read aloud from school. I finished Having a H.E.A.R.T for your Child yesterday. I should finish The Prodigal God today and I am also reading Love's Long Journey.
  2. One on One time with Christopher. Not Done. Nope... sick boy... we will do this this week.
  3. Lunch with my friend Michele on Wednesday. (not a hard goal to accomplish) Done. Hey, I had to have one easy one that I was sure to complete. I had a great time. I only wish we had more time and could see each other more often. Hugs Michele, I know you will probably read this.
Well that is 8 for Not Done, 5 Done, and 3 Partly Done.  That is not to bad... but not really good either. I hope to accomplish more this week.
    My goals for this coming week:
    Spiritual Goals 
    1. Catch up with Reading the Bible in a Year... I am behind by about a week now.
    2. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement.
    Homeschool Goals
    1. Work on Portfolios. I want them done by this coming Monday if possible.
    2. Help the boys do a good job on their Movies As Literature from Bright Ideas Press. This week the boys have to do an essay on the second movie of the year... Friendly Persuasion.
    3. If I have time I also want to work on planning History. We will be done with Mystery of History 3 this week and I need to keep ahead on the planning before I don't have any idea what to do next. We were supposed to be done last week but didn't because of sickness. We will definitely be done it on Wed.
    Health and Fitness Goals  
    1. Get back to exercising, 3 times this week hopefully. Back to it today.
    2. Drink water 3-4 of my white and pink 16oz. cups full.
    3. Finish off the treats we bought last week and then get back to eating more healthy.

    Blog Goals
    1. Post my Day-in-a-life post for the Not Back-To-School Blog Hop. 
    2. Pick a new day to post my Blast From The Past. Friday's are too busy. There are too many other meme's I want to do on Friday. I am thinking of Tuesday. Maybe I will get it done and post it a little later today.
    TOS Homeschool Crew Goals (I am not on the crew any more but have to finish up my responsibilities... 4 review)
    1. Start writing my post for Having a H.E.A.R.T for your Child, due next week.
    2. Play Flea Circus with my family again. Try and get my hubby and daughter Jessica to join us.
    3. Play Civilize This... our other review item... also a game... it looks fun.
    4. Keep doing  Rooted and Grounded for Bible. 
    Personal/Other Goals 
    1. Read, Read, Read! I have only read 30 books out of the 100 I wanted to read this year. I need to really get reading. I have done well the past week though so that is encouraging.
    2. One on One time with Christopher. 
    3. Back-up my files to my external drive. I have some new/important things I don't want to loose so it is imperative that I get this done ASAP.
    Well that is this week's Goals. Now to get off of the computer, finish my Bible reading, and get to teaching those boys. Have a great week. Set some goals and link up!

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      Sunday, August 21, 2011

      Spirit Filled Sunday ~ Find Your Wings


      This song is for my daughter Rachel, age 25- waiting and trusting God for her future and striving to serve Him today... while she waits

      This song is for my daughter Jessica, age 22 - writing what is on her heart to share with others through her fiction books and sharing her artistic skill through her photography

      This is for my son Nathan, age 17 - in his last year of High School, wondering what the future will bring and a little insecure about what life will hold, I know God has great things for you to do

      This is for my baby boy Christopher, age 14 - who will soon be grown into a man, he has such a tender heart for God and others, I can't wait to see what God will do in and through him

      I pray this for you each of you!
      I love you!
      God loves you!


      thanks to Mocha with Linda TSMSS - For My Boy

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      Saturday, August 20, 2011

      First Post Ever Link Up

      Tonight I joined a cool linky party where we posted the link the the first post we put on our blog. I linked up to the First Post Ever Link Up at Training Children up for Christ. I linked up my post from Monday, April 21, 2008, more than 3 years ago, called Henty. My first post was a future site of... post. The second post was an affiliate post so I don't count that either. The Henty post was my first official, written totally by me post.

      So go check out my first post Henty
      Then check out the other links and link up your first post to the First Post Ever Link Up



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      Rainbows

      Yesterday at the end of a thunderstorm we saw a wonderful full rainbow
      with a double rainbow on both ends

      I love the song God Put A Rainbow in the Cloud.
      I thought of this song as soon as I saw the rainbow
      Click the link below to listen to the song while you look at my photo.
      It will automatically open in a new tab so you won't loose you place here.

      God Put A Rainbow in the Cloud
      by the Gaither Homecoming Crowd


      You must click on this photo also and see it larger.
      It will also open in a new tab.

      My camera has a setting that helps you take a panoramic photo
      unfortunately because of the angles the brightness does not exactly match.
      My hubby said he may be able to help me get each photo balanced so they look more similar.
      For now I posted the photo with the corrections I made... it's the best I could do.

      I also wish the power lines were not in the photos.
      But, it was still thundering and lightning and so I just really quick ran outside, took a few photos and ran back in. If it had only been raining I would have tried to get to a spot where the power lines were not in my photos.
      Oh well, they are beautiful anyway!

      Now for the rest of the lovely photos
      many of which show the double rainbow on the ends




















      Reminds me of a section of the book I am reading right now.
      How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids
      by Rachael Carman

      "God wants us to experience creation as a profoundly personal expression of His love, of His desire to have a personal relationship with each of us." 

      I love that.
      Thanks God.
      Message Received!

      I am getting a lot out of this book. I will be reviewing it for the TOS Crew and the review will be posted the last week of August.

      and here is the link to the combo pack

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