Debbies Digest: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Yearly Goals 2012 ~ April's Progress

April was an ok month. I struggled with a sinus infection in the beginning of the month and finally got antibiotics. The infection had been causing sleepless nights and then the antibiotics made me tired. I did not get as many things done as I had hoped, but the last week of the month was really good. Things are on the move now.

Now on with the update...

The main goal is in bold and under that are the smaller steps to reaching those goals.

Main Goal

The updates will be here

or here.. in purple.

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

Have personal devotions daily. First thing in the morning. I will read a book of the Bible (more in depth), read a Godly Christian book, take notes in a journal, listen to Christian music daily, and pray.

I have been reading How People Change for my daily devotions and there is a study guide also.
I started April off well, then got sick and missed a whole week. I got back to it and then missed another week. since just after the middle of the month I have been more consistent, especially this past week. I had not been doing well on listening to music, and praying but this past week I have made my devotions my first priority and made sure to add in the music and prayer I want and need to do daily.

Read Godly books. Some will be for my devotions, some for Ladies Bible Study and some for Sunday School.

Read as much as possible of the books I got for our Sunday School study. How People Change and How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace. Our Sunday school is on to other topics. I never completed the book and am concentrating on this for devotions until I get it done.

I have read chapter 5-7 in the book, I completed lesson 3 and 4 in the study guide (this goes with chapters 5 and 6 of the book) and I am working on lesson 5 (which goes with ch. 7 of the book). I am doing well on this and making good progress. I don't want to rush it because I want to learn and reap the many benefits the Lord has for me as I work through this. But, I want to do it daily and not skip so many days like I did in April.

I read chapters 15 of God's Priorities for Today's Woman. This finished this book. For the summer the ladies are taking turns and we are studying the women of the Bible. There will not be a book to read along with, only the Bible passages on that person.

Read The Power of a Praying Wife and leave hubby a note for each chapter I read. He needs the extra prayers and encouragement. After I finish the book I will be reading it again. Not only does it encourage him but it encourages me and gives me hope when I know my God is working in our lives as I pray.

I read ch. 27, unfortunately that is all. I only did 1 week out of 4. Same as last month. I have only 2 chapters left to read. I plan to get them done early in May.

Health and Fitness

Exercise more, more often and consistently. I would like to be much more fit by the end of 2012

Start by using the Wii at least 3 days a week for 15 minutes and increase from there.

1/3rd of the year gone and not much progress here. I spent much of early April still battling sinus problems. I do want to do better, but with sickness, giving in to temptations and skipping my workouts I am not doing better. I want to be more fit. I need to make this a priority.

Eat better and drink water. I hope by doing this and the exercising above I will be able to loose weight in 2012 AND keep it off! I want to finish strong and not gain back the weight I loose at the beginning of the year like I did this year.

Drink 48-64 oz of water a day Doing ok on this.
Eat more fruit and veggies throughout the day. Doing ok on this.
Keep track of everything I eat in a food journal. Not doing well with this. Need to not buy or eat so many sweets. Need to make WW dessert, especially the 1 point kind, and stay away from the non WW stuff. Giving in to snacks is really easy right now with the stress of my husband's continued unemployment and our quickly dwindling $$ from our tax return. When my hubby pays our bills this month we will have a few hundred for food and then that will be it! We are praying for God's provision.

Educational

Read some books/magazines to expand my own education.

Some will be the spiritual books I already told you about. (See Spiritual)
Some will be about homeschooling. I started back to reading The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling. I started the month on page 228 and read up to 278. Progress! Yeah!
Some will be books I read to the boys for school... I learn a lot also... more than I ever learned when I was in school. Yup... Finished Reading:

I may read a history book or 2 just for my own educational interest as well. This will have to wait for summer. I have to many other things I am reading, and I am spending time reading it to him or I am trying to keep up with the reading if I assign Christopher to read it silently.
I also have a health and fitness book or 2 that I want to read.

I finished reading Reshaping It All by Candace Cameron Bure in March. I don't have another fitness book I want to read right now. I need to concentrate on actually exercising.

Personal/Leisure

Spend one afternoon at least every other week doing scrapbooking.

I scrapbooked with paper 0 days in April. May will be better, I hope.
I won a digital scrapbooking program in March and I have added free stuff to it but I haven't used it for a while. I hope to actually buy some kits I want early in May and I plan to use the program and watch some of the tutorials from their Facebook page and also

Read some books for pleasure.

Check out how I did on reading in April at my post about how I did on reading for April. It should be just under this post.

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 want to join back in on some meme's that are favorites... see my Memes tab at the top. Done.
I want to write some posts each month that are not linked to a meme. I want them to be interesting and informational for my readers. Not Done. I have something I want to buy to enhance my blog... Blog Write Party I need some new ideas and I hope this will help. It has been 2 months since I said I was going to buy this. I plan on putting some of my money from my 50th birthday last year on gift card type thing so it will be easier to spend the $$ online. I have a few things I want to do with the $$ now and this is one of them.

Get back to meal planning because meals are more varied and we will have the ingredients shopped for ahead of time. This is a personal goal. If the family joins me that is fine if not I will still do it.

Plan March meals. April was a mess as far as meals goes. My hubby changed his diet again and at the beginning of April things were just crazy. We are starting to settle in now and things are beginning to get better.

I have a few projects for our home that I want to accomplish. I would like to do a few of the projects for the home that I have saved on Pinterest. Nope... not yet. Maybe in May... summer vacation for sure.

Homeschool Goals:

Continue being consistent on recording daily in our school log. Done.
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. Done.
Check periodically on the boys hours for school. I must do this especially for Nathan to make sure he has the credit he needs in a couple of his extra subjects in order to graduate. Done. Nathan is working on the classes he has to finish for graduation. He has more to do but is making progress. I don't think he will be done his hours by the last day of school this year, but he will get done and graduate.
Complete Nathan's Sr. Year. Complete his transcript. Have his graduation ceremony. Next school year, which starts in July 2012 I will only have one student! That will be weird and I am sure we will have to make adjustments. Nope... a few more weeks to go.

Family/Relationship Goals:

Spend more time with my dear husband

Set up a date night/afternoon soon.

Hubby took me to Longwood again, just him and I. He wanted to go take some pictures of the tulips. We went on a Monday with the whole family but Wed. she decided just he and I would go. It started raining on our way there but we did the conservatory first and then it stopped raining. We went out and took some pictures of the tulips before heading home. It was a great day.
Last Friday, the 27th, we went to PA and took my mom to her hair appointment. Then she paid for us to all eat out. Then we went back to her place and hung out while I did a few things for her. After washing and drying some clothes for her Court helped me fold some of her laundry and I got in her drawers. Then for the evening we went to a marriage seminar. We weren't going to go because it was up in PA but it was on our way home, God worked that out, it cost us no more gas (and my mom had given us money for gas for coming up to take her to the hair appointment) so we got to go. It was a great night!

Set up a dinner in our bedroom just for us to spend the evening like I did a couple times before... in order to do this I must clean up my bedroom first. Nope... I want to do this soon. Hopefully I can, now that I am feeling better.

Spend time once a week with one of my kids, just mom and one of the kids doing whatever the child wants to do. Usually a combo of eating, talking and playing board games, computer games, or on the Wii.

Start with my youngest and schedule it on the calendar so I can keep track of who is next for their turn. Goal is one child a week and then a week off. Sometimes the kids don't have time or won't make time to spend with me. Sometimes I will skip that child and go on to the others. Sometimes I will just wait until the next week. Perfection in scheduling is not the goal. The goal is to spend time having fun with my kids. Yup! Finally spent some time with my kids. On Saturday evening Jessica cut the boys hair. While she was doing that Rachel and I played on the Wii. Then when Jessica was done cutting hair she came down and she and I played on the Wii. It was a fun night with my dd's.

18 Done

9 Not Done

If you made/make/want to set goals and link up, just choose the size you want and copy the code from the little box beneath it. Past the code in your blog post at the top then write your goals. Tell you friends to click the button at the top of your post so others know how to join us if they want to.

At the bottom of the post I will provide a linky so you can join up and I can see your goals and how you are doing. If no one joins me that is fine too. I am doing this mostly for myself.

Monthly Update List

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Reading Challenge ~ April Update

My goal for reading this year was to read 52 books or more in 2012. That is one book a week. I am proud that I am doing so well. I hope to continue to read more than I am supposed to. I don't want to just slump one month because I am already ahead in reading.

I am currently reading 11 books. Some for school, some for personal reading, some for devotions. I will be adding a new book for History tomorrow another Haydn book. Some will be finished in a few days, some will be finished in a few weeks, some will not be finished until the end of the year.

I love reading!

You can explore so much of our past and present and gain so much knowledge and encouragement! Also, reading is and can be Fun!

Read A Book Today!

Each month for the Reading Challenge we are supposed to do an update and link up. This month I read....

	The Story of Haydn A very good book about the whole life of Haydn. Well written and as good as a Landmark book, it is, however, a Signature book and not a Landmark.
	With Clive in India A pretty good Henty but not as good as some of my favorites. There is a lot of battle talk in this one. This part of the army moved here and fought these guys, over and over... sometimes I was confused. Other than that it was a good book. An interesting look at the power struggles between the English and French over the country of India.
	A Time for Peace The third book in this series. I enjoyed each one. This one covers trust, betrayal, infertility, and taking care of the elderly I am looking forward to reading more books by Cameron, Barbara
	A Morning Cup of Prayer for Friends: A Daily Guided Devotional for a Lifetime of Inspiration and Peace [With CD] I have not listened to the cd yet but the book was good. It gave me some of the inspiration I needed to make real the commitments to pray for my friends and their needs. I have been writing down the requests my friend make and when I say I will pray I mean it. I pray for them right then and I pray for them later as well because I have written it down and I will refer to the note at later times during my devotions.
	God's Priorities for Today's Woman: Discovering His Plan for You Our book for Ladies Bible Study. We have LBS every 1st and 3rd Friday so it took us a long while to read this book. 15 chapters about 8 months of reading. This will be one I read over again. A really good book with lots of good biblical wisdom about most of the major areas of a woman's life. Great for those who are married with children but also most of the book will apply to those not married or without children. We had all ages of women in our group some married, some not, some with young children, some with grown children and everything in between.
	Daughter of Joy (Brides of Culdee Creek #1) A great Christian Fiction. I hope to be able to read more from this series. I got this for free for my Nook/Kindle. I have checked the public library and they carry the rest of the series. I ordered the next one and I can't wait for it to come in... Not that I don't have plenty of reading material currently at home.
	Catherine the Great (World Landmark Books #29) A very good book. I never knew much about Catherine the Great from Russia. This book was just great. Very informative and well written.

That is 7 books in April!! I am now 8 book ahead!

Here are the previous updates if you are interested:

Reading Challenge ~ January Update
Reading Challenge ~ February Update
Reading Challenge ~ March Update

Goal Planning Monday ~ Week 66

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.

Goal Planning Monday has a new home - the banner above will take you to the new home for Goal Planning Monday @ Real Life Unscripted even though it says it is @ mamamanuscripts. I changed the link to send you to the new place.

This was a productive week. I am finally feeling better and think I may have beaten the sinus infection I had. I have not had a relapse and though I have had some sinus problems, a little bit of headache some days, it is bearable and to the point that a couple ibuprofen and I am able to carry on with my work.

I made it a point to do my devotions first thing, before Facebook or other concerns press in on my time and attention. I also made sure to listen to music each day. Music is really a powerful force in my life... really lifts me up when I am down and also really convicting sometimes.

I got all but one thing done this week and that is wonderful. Still gotta figure out what to do about Saturday chores.... the general dirt and grime is piling up.

My Goals from last week and how I did:

Spiritual Goals

Devotions daily - for the next few weeks, or however long it takes, I will be doing How People Change and How People Change Study Guide: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace. I have wanted to work on this and have not had the extra time. It has a lot of scripture, especially in the homework of the Study Guide. I will not be writing in my journal. I will be writing in the study guide. Done
Listen to Godly Music Daily, as part of my morning Devotions. Done
Pray daily. Get the requests from my internet friends, Growth Group and Ladies Bible Study put onto notes and into my prayer book. Done
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 some of My Utmost for His Highest - supposed to be doing before bed each night... I am way behind. Done

Homeschool Goals

Keep Christopher doing all 12 workboxes. Done
Get Nathan to do all his school. We discovered, after a family conflict, that Nathan is finished a couple of subjects as far as his required hours. So he is concentrating on the subjects he has left. Even though he has less subjects to complete he is not getting them done daily which means he is further behind. If he wants to graduate in May he will have to get a move on!! Done
Keep up with logging in the boys work and grading as we go through the week. Done
Spend time on our Astronomy Unit. Done
Read more library books on Haydn. Done
Get the essay done for A Man for All Seasons. Not Done - so we have 2 essays to get done this week. We will get A Man for All Seasons done on Monday and then work on the last essay of the year the rest of the week.
Read a book about Homeschooling. I am working on The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell. This is a yearly goal and I want to do better on those goals this month. Done - I am now on page 278.

Blog Goals

Post Blast From The Past on Tuesday. Done
Join in some favorite memes that I like to do and try and leave comments on a few blogs of those who link up. I will not be tracking my linking up but want to do it to encourage others to comment on my blog as well. Done
Start working on Monthly Goals post for April. Done
Start working on reading update for April. Done

Personal/Other Goals

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 hostess blog @ Real Life Unscripted, on Kym Thorp's blog @ Kympossible ,and Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm
Log books into Book Collector software... at least finish the box of school books I had been working on... it is in my way. Done
Read, Read, Read! I am currently reading A Time for Peace (Quilts of Lancaster County, Book 3) I have books to read aloud for History and Science, for homeschooling; and I need to keep working on Emma by Jane Austen. I have a few books that the boys finished reading on their own for History, they are historical fiction, that I want to finish, so I need to work on them as well. The books are With Clive in India Or, The Beginnings of an Empire by G.A. Henty and With Wolfe in Canada by G.A. Henty. I will work on the Clive in India one first. I am currently reading them as Kindle book on my Kindle App on the android add on my hubby put on my Nook. Done - I finished A Time for Peace, With Clive in India and The Story of Haydn this week and started reading Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life and False Pretenses: A Novel (Secrets of Roux River Bayou) {FREE Kindle version as of this posting} or False Pretenses: A Novel (Secrets of Roux River Bayou) {print version}
Make sure the kids keep up with chores and cooking. My hubby has changed his diet again. This makes things especially hard on the boys. They have mostly given up trying to keep up with diet changes and cooking. I need to spend time helping them meal plan so they know what to do. Done
Figure out what to do about the Saturday chores and get at least some of them done. Not Done
Scrapbook - either digital or paper. I will not be setting a goal to do both, though if I can fit both in that would be fun. Done
Work on saving my computer files to our backup drives. I started this last week, but it is taking considerably more time than I thought it would. I need to do this more often so it doesn't take so long. Done
Do more Spring cleaning. Currently working on my bedroom. Done

For this week that is 22 Done, 0 Partly Done, and 2 Not Done.

My goals for this coming week: