Leap Year Day Hodgepodge ~ Vol 68

1. The Hodgepodge falls on the last day of February this year, a leap year. How will you spend that extra day? Doing the normal thing... school. Then I have to cook dinner for the family and make a dessert for Ladies Bible Study tomorrow. I also hoped to have time to scrapbook, but that does not look like it will happen today. Hey! After writing and posting this I realized it is only Wednesday. I cook on Thursday and Ladies Bible Study is not until Friday soo... this afternoon I hope to do the scrapbooking instead since I don't have to cook today!!! Yippee!

2. What has recently required a leap of faith on your part? No leaps, just daily walking with only the Lamp of God's Word showing my steps. Can't see into the future. Don't know what will happen. Hubby is still laid off. Unemployment ended a few weeks ago. Must trust God for my daily bread now. Don't know all his plans, but I know I am in his hand.

3. We're one week into the season of Lent...are you marking these 40 days in some way? No Giving something up or adding something extra to normal life? No How's it going so far? Since I am not really doing anything different, things are going fine.

4. When was the last time you sat beside a fire? Bonfire, last fall at church. Small fire for cooking hotdogs, large fire for keeping warm.

5. Surf and Turf is on the menu. Do you order as is or do you ask for just the surf (lobster), just the turf (steak), or a menu so you can select another option? Just the Turf... don't like surf. I am a steak lover though... so that would be fine.

6. If you could have any television program back, not in reruns but in new episodes, what program would you choose? Hmmmm... interesting question. I have a few that came to mind. The Cosby Show... good, clean, family fun. The Waltons... same answer. Little House on the Prairie... love this show, would especially love episodes that follow the books, and thus Laura's real life, better. Those are the first that came to mind... a few of my very favorite shows. I own all the Waltons and all the Little House t.v. episodes on dvd and watch them over and over, often. Oh, maybe add to that Happy Days... I used to love that show. I could go on... but I will stop.

7. They say an elephant never forgets. These days would you say your memory is more like an elephant or a gnat? More like an elephant. Not that I never forget, but I have a pretty good memory, I think. I try not to get into arguments about things though. When my hubby/children remember things differently I usually just give in... I hate arguing over things where there is no way to prove yourself correct.

8. Insert your own random thought here. Something from my reading of God's Priorities for Today's Woman really hit me yesterday afternoon while I was reading it for Ladies Bible Study. It is nothing new but it made a big impact on how I see my role and my importance in the home, especially with our homeschooling, in a new way. On page 181 it says, " 

A worker at home faithfully makes her husband a priority. She continually looks for ways to do him good. Whatever he entrusts to her - his heart, the running of the home, the raising of the children, the finances - she seeks to guard and care for to the best of her ability." 

I know this. It comes from the Proverbs 31 woman. I just saw things in a new light because of the wording. Last week we had a conflict at home. My husband said some things to me in anger that truly hurt my heart, but there was truth to some of his statements. I have not been as diligent with the boys as I need to be for school. I have not been strong. I have not set my foot down. I have tried to avoid conflict and have therefore appeared weak and have given in to them. It will stop today. They will obey me. We will get ALL of school done today or they will not get their computers. Absolutely no computers will be used until all of the rest of school is done and then any school that needs to be done on the computer will be done in my presence and logged in before the boys go off to do their own thing. Court has entrusted the education of our boys to me and even though he is home most of the time the responsibility is mine, supported by him. But I must stand firm in the face of arguments from my sons. They need firm boundaries. I will not give in today.

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Blast From The Past ~ Various pictures of Nathan February 1996

This week I am featuring Nathan as I said in the title.
These are some adorable photos, if I do say so myself.

Cutesy boy
 eatin' ice cream

 adoraboy

 eatin' a donut with sprinkles

actually eating only the icing and sprinkles
 and very little of the actual donut,
as usual

 yumm

 messy
 but adorable

 If only I could think of him as sleeping...

instead of recharging!
lol

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 56

 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 did pretty well this week. I have a few things I really wanted to get done that did not but I also had something get done that I did not put on my list. We FINALLY got the Christmas decorations taken down. We had not taken them down yet because my hubby did not want to put the boxes back in the attic until he fixed a problem with the boards in the attic laying on some wires. It was a hard job, and he was sore when he got done, but he and Christopher got it accomplished. The girls and I got the decorations put away and the boys put the tubs back in the attic. Yeah, we have our living room back.

My Goals from last week and how I did:

Spiritual Goals 

1. Read my Bible Daily. Done I am finishing up I Thessalonians. I did devotions every day and read and listened to music and wrote in my journal. 
   
2. Read a Godly book, daily, as part of my morning Devotions. I am currently reading Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear or the spiritual/fitness book from my fitness goals below - Reshaping It All.  Done I read ch. 8-11 of Fearless and ch. 8-10 of Reshaping. Great progress. 
3. Listen to Godly Music Daily, as part of my morning Devotions. Done and the music was a real pick me up this week.
4. Write in my Spiritual Journal Daily, as part of my morning Devotions. Done
5. 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
6. 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. Not Done

Homeschool Goals

1. Keep the boys doing all 12 workboxes. Done
   
2. Keep up with logging in the boys work and grading as we go through the week. Done
   
3. Make sure the boys do their essay this week... or no computer for them on Saturday. Done Essays done and Nathan is working on his back work also. Threatening the no computer for Saturday did the trick.

Blog Goals    

1. Post Blast From The Past on Tuesday. Done
2. Join in some favorite memes that I like to do. 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.  Not Done
   
2. Log books into Book Collector software. I am working on my personal fiction books. Done
3. Read, Read, Read! I will be linking up my reading this year to I am currently reading a number of things... for personal, fun, fiction reading I am reading The Hidden Flame (Acts of Faith, Book 2)), and I will be starting A Time to Love (Quilts of Lancaster County, Book 1) I got this from the library because I got book 3 from some books our church library was giving away. I have some books to read for History and I may also read parts of Emma by Jane Austen. Done I am on chapter 11 of A Time to Love and read a little more of The Hidden Flame. I am reading With Clive in India by G.A. Henty to the boys for Historical Fiction and we are reading about Daniel Boone this week for History.
4. We are back to sharing the meals and chores. Make sure the kids keep up with chores and cooking. I have my meals planned ahead and Rachel planned hers, I have encouraged the other 3 to plan also but they have not so far. As long as they cook on their day I don't really care if they plan ahead... it makes things easier, but it is up to them. Done
   
5. Scrapbook. My yearly goal is to do this twice a month... so I want to get one day done this week. Not Done This will be a big priority this coming week.
   

For this week that is 12 Done, 0 Partly Done, and 4 Not Done. 


My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals 

1. Read my Bible Daily.
2. Read a Godly book, daily, as part of my morning Devotions. I am currently reading Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear or the spiritual/fitness book from my fitness goals below - Reshaping It All.
3. Listen to Godly Music Daily, as part of my morning Devotions.
4. Write in my Spiritual Journal Daily, as part of my morning Devotions.
5. Read Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement.
6. 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

1. Keep Christopher doing all 12 workboxes and Nathan doing all his school. We discovered, after a family conflict on Monday, that Nathan is finished a couple of subjects as far as his required hours. So he is concentrating on the subjects he has left.
2. Keep up with logging in the boys work and grading as we go through the week.

Blog Goals    

1. Post Blast From The Past on Tuesday.
2. Join in some favorite memes that I like to do.

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. Log books into Book Collector software. I am working on my personal fiction books.
3. Read, Read, Read! I will be linking up my reading this year to I am currently reading a number of things... for personal, fun, fiction reading I am reading The Hidden Flame (Acts of Faith, Book 2)), and I will be starting A Time to Love (Quilts of Lancaster County, Book 1) by Barbara Cameron. I got this from the library because I got book 3 from some books our church library was giving away. I have some books to read for History and I may also read parts of Emma by Jane Austen. 
4. We are back to sharing the meals and chores. Make sure the kids keep up with chores and cooking. I have my meals planned ahead and Rachel planned hers, I have encouraged the other 3 to plan also but they have not so far. As long as they cook on their day I don't really care if they plan ahead... it makes things easier, but it is up to them.
5. Scrapbook. My yearly goal is to do this twice a month... so I want to get one day done this week , before the end of Feb... only leaves me 2 days. I have not gotten it done in February at all but I don't think I will get 2 days of scrapbooking done in the next 2 days. Oh well, I will do better in March!

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. I have been doing this for a whole year now and making weekly goals is really helping me keep focus and achieve more. Have a great week.


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First Trip to Winterthur 2012

Yesterday we took our first trip to Winterthur for the 2012 year. There were lots of flowers all over the gardens and lots of shoots coming up. It was a great day to walk... especially since it was warm and today is so dreary and raining. I hope you enjoy the photos.

Crocuses

Jessica and the first of the Giant Snowdrops

Aconite

some kind of shoots... 

don't know what

but love the purple color

Daffodil leaves

 Day Lily leaves

Love the view

Chipmunks

there were 2 of them

 Adorable

lovely crocus just budding

Aconites and a Crocus

 a whole field of Adonis

 a close up of some moss

photo came out really cool

 no idea what these are

they were lovely though

they were on top of the wall behind the patio by the mansion

 this is the patio

the purple flowers were to the left of this photo

 my family

not sure what this is

maybe the entrance to the old ice house

this cool beetle landed on Christopher's shirt

he blew him off and he landed on the road

I chased him down to take a picture

and just as I was ready to snap the photo

he stopped crawling and "posed"

 These dried flowers from last year looked so cool

and lacy

especially in the close up further down

 "On a clear day,

stop and look around you..."

 The geese are just covering the pond

the sound of their honking was cool too.

 Love this gnarly tree

 

 The tree is full of woodpecker holes.

 heading out

 The light on the azaleas was so cool,

it made them look like they were covered with dew.

Can't wait to see the blooms.

Time to go home!

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