Goal Planning Monday ~ No Complaining

I am reading What's It Like to Be Married to Me? as part of my morning devotions. I am on chapter 2 and it is about not complaining. It has been a challenging book right from the start. The author has challenged us wives to a 7 day "Gripes Be Gone" challenge. We wear a bracelet that is easily slipped off and on and we are to change it to the other wrist each time a complaint/gripe/murmur leaves our lips.

My bracelet
Isn't it pretty?
I made it from the beads of a necklace I never wore any more and some seed beads that I already had.
I want to make a few more of these in different colors because I like them and plan on continuing to wear them and do the challenge even after the week is up. I need to get some larger beads like the blue ones in a few different colors... brown, purple, maybe black/silver for a more neutral bracelet I could wear with anything.

 I have found that sometimes I don't even know I am uttering words of discontent. It has become such a habit, I don't even realize I am saying negative things so often. The bracelet certainly has made me more aware. It is not easy not to speak or write, on Facebook or in chats even, complaining/murmuring words. It is even harder to replace complaining thoughts with grateful ones. Doing the Joy Dare, reading my Bible Daily and listening to praise music and hymns certainly does help my attitude.

So, how about you?
Do you complain much?
That counts muttering in discontent, even if it is under your breath.
Make, or find a bracelet you already own and join me in striving to not complain. An elastic one is easiest to switch from wrist to wrist.
Journal each day how you do, and let me know next week in your comments when you link up.


My blogger friend Rosann, leader of our UnEmployed Faith group and writer of a book by that title, did a book club with extra insight and questions on this book.
You can find those posts at her blog here: http://christiansupermom.com/tag/encouragement-book-club

Participants... It is not a requirement to comment on each others blogs but it would be nice to encourage each other. Please try and come back and check who else links up and go comment on their blog post. And comment on mine as well, we ALL could use some building up and community. 

Now for my goals from last week, how I did, and new goals for this week.
My top priorities are marked with a *

If you need directions on how to join in... see my GPM page up above.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of What's It Like to Be Married to Me?: And Other Dangerous Questions. A hard study, already, and I am only in chapter 1. Really tough questions that take a LOT of thinking... about myself. I felt like God wanted me to do this study next. My UnEmployed Faith facebook group did this study. I was not able to purchase the book and participate at the time. Later I got the book free. God has something to teach me in this trial we are in. Maybe this book will help me with part of that. Anyway... I felt God prompting me to read and study it. It DOES have a study guide in the back... I already checked and am working on the questions. Done - hard but good study. Challenging things to think about and do.
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby.  Done - we only have the journal thoughts at the end of the book to do now.
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks. Catch up some... I probably won't completely catch up ALL the way ... but catching up some would be good. Done -  as I predicted I caught up some, but not all the way.
   

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher. Done
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY. Done
3. *Catch up more on Grading Chemistry. I got some done last week but need to do the rest. Not Done
4. Prep the next day's school, especially science and Windows to the World (IEW) for English! Need to order more History books too!! Done

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week...IF my knee stops hurting. I will be working out on the Wii.
   Not Done
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water. Done

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already. Done
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. Done - no one linked up again... that's ok.
3. Blog only what I want to blog about. Done
4. Done - forgot to put that I had a review and giveaway to post on my blog... I got that done and posted on Friday last week.

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read. Done - I finished 2 books this week.
2. Work on sorting files on the external drive. Done
3. Pack up the little kids games in the basement. Court spent a long time on Sunday getting the basement more organized. It was a disaster area after we pulled things out for the yard sales. Stuff was EVERYWHERE! I want to box up the little kids games that we don't use any more and protect them in plastic bags and put the bags in boxes, so they will stack and be protected for future generations. Not Done

 For this week that is 13 Done, 0 Partly Done, and 3 Not Done.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of What's It Like to Be Married to Me?: And Other Dangerous Questions.
2. Finish "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" reading it to my hubby. 
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks. Continue catching up.

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher.
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY.
3. *Catch up more on Grading Chemistry. I got some done last week but need to do the rest.
4. Prep the next day's school, especially science and Windows to the World (IEW) for English! Need to order more History books too!!

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week. I will be working out on the Wii.
   
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water.

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already.
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. 
3. Blog only what I want to blog about. 
4. Post review and giveaway of Unlimited by Davis Bunn on Tuesday. 
5. Post Yearly Goal Update for September. Where has the month gone?

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read.
2. Work on sorting files on the external drive.
3. Pack up the little kids games in the basement. Court spent a long time on Sunday getting the basement more organized. It was a disaster area after we pulled things out for the yard sales. Stuff was EVERYWHERE! I want to box up the little kids games that we don't use any more and protect them in plastic bags and put the bags in boxes, so they will stack and be protected for future generations. 
4. Pack up some books from our bookshelves. They are getting to crowded and I can't find anything. I can pack up subjects Christopher and I will not be covering this year or next and I can pack up books that are too juvenile for him. Can't believe I only have 1 3/4 years of homeschooling left.

That's it for me.
Remember, No Griping

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Goal Planning Monday ~ Have Faith

How are you doing with your goals?

How far have you come? 

We do have far to go.

But we can do it.

With God's help.

With encouragement from each other.

God is not finished working on us, if we are His child. He will work on us until His work is complete... that is until he sees fit to take us home to be with Him forever, or until he returns for us ALL!

Until then we have much work to do. We will fail. We will fall. We will stumble.

But we can get back up.

We can ask for forgiveness from God and each other.

We can try again. Strive.

To be more like our Savior.

That is what I am doing.

Have Faith...

in how far you can go...

and in God getting you there. 

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)
"The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps." 

Participants... It is not a requirement to comment on each others blogs but it would be nice to encourage each other. Please try and come back and check who else links up and go comment on their blog post. And comment on mine as well, we ALL could use some building up and community. 

My top priorities are marked with a *

If you need directions on how to join in... see my GPM page up above.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. Done - I finished Facing Your Giants last week. I still need to do the review on Goodreads. See this coming week's goals for the book I am reading now. I did not read Proverbs, do Joy Dare or read the book with hubby, but I enjoyed and finished Facing Your Giants. When I finished I found study questions in the back of the Kindle book. I didn't know they were there so I will have to read this again some time and do the questions. I am now checking for questions in all my future/current Spiritual books I use from my Kindle.
   
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby. Not Done
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks. Not Done

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher. Done
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY. Done
3. *Catch up on Grading Chemistry. I am behind. Partly Done - I graded the most recent pages so I know how he is doing now... I still need to grade a bunch of the past work. I didn't have as much time this week because of #3 that I added in Personal/Other Goals.
   
4. Prep the next day's school, especially science! Need to order more History books too!! Done - I need to order more History books, again. He reads through them fairly quickly. I need to check and see what we have at home that I want him to read and what I want to order from the library.

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week. Working out on the Wii. Not Done
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water. Done

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already. Done
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. Done - no one linked up so that made this one easy.
3. Blog only what I want to blog about - this week I would like to join in one meme that I used to enjoy doing, no pressure, we'll see. Done - I blogged what I could... which was GPM and nothing else.

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read. Done - I finished 3 books this week... That keeps me 2 books AHEAD in my goal for the year!!!
2. Work on a craft for myself: doodle, cross stitch, scrapbook, digital scrapbook... something. Done - Doodled "Prepare Your Fields" from the movie Facing the Giants, one of our favorite family/Christian movies. I will be doing a post on 3 doodles that I recently did, two for friends of my daughters and this one for myself, this week... maybe even tomorrow.
   
3. ADDED - Done - this week I spent 2 whole days working on my computer files. Friday my desktop computer just would not turn on. Hubby tried all kinds of things. Finally he resorted to getting my drive out of the computer and put it in an older external drive case. He hooked that up to an old computer we have in the basement. I was able, then, to get all my files saved from my computer drive to an external drive, so I lost no files. My hubby is my personal computer tech/geek. I am SOOO thankful for all he has taught himself to do. I figured my desktop computer was gone for good. He says he may be able to save it. I don't think we have the money to do that right now, but at least I have my laptop, and all my files were saved, thanks to my wonderful hubby. I had to take 2 full days out of my schedule and work on saving the files and so I got behind in other things and I still have plenty of sorting to do. But I am at peace with how it went.

 For this week that is 11 Done, 1 Partly Done, and 3 Not Done.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of What's It Like to Be Married to Me?: And Other Dangerous Questions. A hard study, already, and I am only in chapter 1. Really tough questions that take a LOT of thinking... about myself. I felt like God wanted me to do this study next. My UnEmployed Faith facebook group did this study. I was not able to purchase the book and participate at the time. Later I got the book free. God has something to teach me in this trial we are in. Maybe this book will help me with part of that. Anyway... I felt God prompting me to read and study it. It DOES have a study guide in the back... I already checked and am working on the questions.
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby. 
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks. Catch up some... I probably won't completely catch up ALL the way ... but catching up some would be good.

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher.
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY.
3. *Catch up more on Grading Chemistry. I got some done last week but need to do the rest.
4. Prep the next day's school, especially science and Windows to the World (IEW) for English! Need to order more History books too!!

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week...IF my knee stops hurting. I will be working out on the Wii.
   
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water.

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already.
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. 
3. Blog only what I want to blog about.

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read.
2. Work on sorting files on the external drive.
3. Pack up the little kids games in the basement. Court spent a long time on Sunday getting the basement more organized. It was a disaster area after we pulled things out for the yard sales. Stuff was EVERYWHERE! I want to box up the little kids games that we don't use any more and protect them in plastic bags and put the bags in boxes, so they will stack and be protected for future generations. 

That's it for me.
Hopefully this coming week will NOT hold any surprises. But, no matter what, my family and I will face what comes... with the Lord on our side to tip the balance.

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Goal Planning Monday ~ Grade Chemistry

Don't give up... you never know when your breakthrough is just one more umph away

I gave up this weekend. I had a whole day where I did nothing much but cry. This trial is hard.These days the littlest thing can set me to crying and yesterday I just couldn't stop.

In spite of my terrible Sunday I had a pretty good week. The yard sale was really hard and I sat out there 4 hours on Friday and 8 hours on Saturday. Maybe that is why I was so wiped out on Sunday and cried most of the day. We had a lot of stuff left over, but after carting it in and out 5 times for the three days of yard sale we had, hubby said we were done and he carted the rest of it off to the thrift store. I was sad to see the thrift shop get the money. They will probably sell all the stuff we couldn't and they will make the money. However, I was glad to be done carrying the stuff in and out and setting it all up.

This week is named Grade Chemistry because I am behind on that... so that is my #1 goal this week. Can't know how Christopher is doing

Participants... It is not a requirement to comment on each others blogs but it would be nice to encourage each other. Please try and come back and check who else links up and go comment on their blog post. And comment on mine as well, we ALL could use some building up and community. 

My top priorities are marked with a *

If you need directions on how to join in... see my GPM page up above.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. Partly Done - I read Facing Your Giants but I don't remember if I read my Bible. I prayed a lot on Sunday while I was crying.
   
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby. Not Done -  we started to read a chapter one day but got distracted by something and only read a few paragraphs.
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks. Not Done -  now I am behind. I hope to catch up this week.

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher. Done
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY. Done
3. Prep the next day's school, especially science! Need to order more History books too!! Done

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week. Working out on the Wii. Not Done
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water. Done

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already. Done
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. Done
3. Post my digital scrapbook pages. Done
4. Blog only what I want to blog about - this week I would like to join in one meme that I used to enjoy doing, no pressure, we'll see. Done

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read. I really want to catch up on my reading goal for the year. Goodreads says I am only one book behind now. So if I can finish at least 5 books this month I will be on track! I would like to do more, but we will see. Done - as of today I am 2 books ahead!! Yippee!! And, I am really enjoying reading the Bobbsey Twins books. I read them first when I was a little girl.
2. Work on a craft for myself: doodle, cross stitch, scrapbook, digital scrapbook... something. Not Done
3. Get more stuff ready for the  2nd yard sale on Saturday, we are going to to sell stuff to make money to pay our bills. Done
4. Attend, help out at, sell stuff at yard sale on Friday afternoon/early evening and Saturday. Done

 For this week that is 11 Done, 1 Partly Done, and 4 Not Done.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. 
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby. 
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks.

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher.
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY.
3. *Catch up on Grading Chemistry. I am behind.
4. Prep the next day's school, especially science! Need to order more History books too!!

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week. Working out on the Wii.
   
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water.

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already.
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. 
3. Post my digital scrapbook pages.
4. Blog only what I want to blog about - this week I would like to join in one meme that I used to enjoy doing, no pressure, we'll see.

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read.
2. Work on a craft for myself: doodle, cross stitch, scrapbook, digital scrapbook... something.

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Goal Planning Monday ~ Yard Sale...again

I had a good week. Tiring, but good. We make goals and some weeks we don't accomplish all we had planned. Sometimes it is our laziness, but sometimes it is because God had other plans for our weeks than we did. The verse I am memorizing now is Proverbs 16:9 (ESV) " The heart of man plans his ways, but the LORD establishes his steps." Take heart. Try again. If you were lazy next week then purpose to do better in those areas this week. If God through a monkey wrench in your plans then know that it was His will and that you may understand why, or you may not, but God knows what is coming for us this week, nothing will surprise Him, and He will lead us if we lean on him.

I did not exercise. I did not comment on Cristi's GPM post, I meant to, but forgot. I did not craft just for myself. So, I will try again on those things this week.

Our plans for the flea market changed to a yard sale, and getting the stuff ready took a LOT longer than I thought it would. We have a LOT left over and are going to put them out again on Friday and Sat. this week. We made some money and bought some food with it. Pray we do even better this week. We also did not go through everything in the basement so we have some more sorting and pricing to do.

Chick-fil-A, where my son works, was having free breakfasts this week. Since ds had to be AT WORK at 6am we, his crazy family, decided to get up and go with him then sit in the car for 1/2 an hour til they opened so we could get the free breakfast. The free breakfast was a chicken biscuit,  I also got a free waffle with a free gift card they gave out a couple months ago, and a free orange juice with the calendar card. Fun was had by all.

Dd Rachel is STILL struggling with the poison sumac on her foot, it looks much better but she still can't wear shoes. So continue to keep her in your prayers.

Have Courage my friends. Try again. Post goals and work toward them. Here are mine....

Participants... It is not a requirement to comment on each others blogs but it would be nice to encourage each other. Please try and come back and check who else links up and go comment on their blog post. And comment on mine as well, we ALL could use some building up and community. 

My top priorities are marked with a *

If you need directions on how to join in... see my GPM page up above.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. Done
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby. Done
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks. Done

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher. Done
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY. Done
3. Prep the next day's school, especially science! Done

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week. Working out on the Wii. Not Done
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water. Done

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already. Done
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. Not Done -sorry Cristi
3. Blog only what I want to blog about Done

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read. Done,
2. Work on a craft for myself: doodle, cross stitch, scrapbook, digital scrapbook... something. Not Done
3. Get stuff ready for the flea market on Saturday, we are going to to sell stuff to make money to pay our bills. Done - but as I said we changed to a yard sale. We forgot all about my son's Sat. work schedule. It would have been annoying to work out. Hubby would have had to drive 45 min. to the flea market, we would have had to take ds with us, we would have had to leave home at 6:15 or so. We would have had to leave the middle bench in the van so ds could ride with us, so we would not have fit as much stuff in. We would have had to unload and then dh would have had to drive ds to work about 30 min from the flea market, then come back, finish the flea market, drive the leftovers and I home then later go back out and get our son and bring him home from work. Tooooooo much trouble. So we set up in the yard. We may have made more money at the flea market, or we may have not, only God knows. At home we could take turns also, especially in the hot part of the day. We had the yard sale from about 8am til 3pm. We were all exhausted afterwards.
4. Attend, help out at, sell stuff at flea market on Saturday. Done

 For this week that is 12 Done, 0 Partly Done, and 3 Not Done.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. 
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby. 
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks.

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher.
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY.
3. Prep the next day's school, especially science! Need to order more History books too!!

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week. Working out on the Wii.
   
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water.

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already.
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. 
3. Post my digital scrapbook pages.
4. Blog only what I want to blog about - this week I would like to join in one meme that I used to enjoy doing, no pressure, we'll see.

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read. I really want to catch up on my reading goal for the year. Goodreads says I am only one book behind now. So if I can finish at least 5 books this month I will be on track! I would like to do more, but we will see.
2. Work on a craft for myself: doodle, cross stitch, scrapbook, digital scrapbook... something.
3. Get more stuff ready for the  2nd yard sale on Saturday, we are going to to sell stuff to make money to pay our bills.
4. Attend, help out at, sell stuff at yard sale on Friday afternoon/early evening and Saturday.

That's It... Your turn...

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Goal Planning Monday ~ Flea Market

Focus on giants - you stumble.

Focus on God - your giants stumble.
     (from Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado, pg 21)

I had a GREAT week. I really enjoyed my time with God, almost every morning. It is a lot easier to focus on God and not on my giants when I spend quality/quantity time with God each day.

I got a lot of reading done and enjoyed every minute of it. That puts me only one book behind in my reading for the year and I know I can catch up this month, and maybe even get ahead.

I got my cake done!! and instead of eating a few pieces and putting the rest in the freezer like I usually do, so I can eat it little by little, I shared it with the family. They love sweet things and we don't get many treats these days.

By the way...

Happy Labor Day

We are not taking off today, we are doing school. My older son has to work, and we have NO plans, so I figured we might as well.

My dd Rachel is struggling with poison sumac. It is all over her left foot. Pain and itching, sleepless nights, swollen lower leg, foot, and toes. She has been unable to do anything but sit all week. So I had to do more than usual. I was able to keep up with the pots and dishes and cooked a few extra meals. Boy do I miss her helping out. She is doing a little better but still off her feet. So this coming week will be just as busy.

No, I take it back, it will be more busy, because we are going to sell some things in a Flea Market on Saturday and we have a lot to do to be ready. It costs $15 for 3 parking spaces, one space for the car and 2 for our stuff. If hubby can figure a way to keep the lights from being on with the hatch open, we can sell some stuff from the back of the van. I hope we sell a lot, enough to pay for our space and a bunch extra would be great. I am selling some of my Star Wars collectables and some Beanie Buddies and regular size beanies. We will be selling some books the girls don't want to keep.

Participants... It is not a requirement to comment on each others blogs but it would be nice to encourage each other. Please try and come back and check who else links up and go comment on their blog post. And comment on mine as well, we ALL could use some building up and community. 

My top priorities are marked with a *

If you need directions on how to join in... see my GPM page up above.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. I will be starting a new book just for me to read. For now I am also reading "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby.  Done - I started reading Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. I was only going to read one chapter a day but it was so good I read 3 chapters. The quote I used today was from this book also. This is going to be another good one.
2. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks. Done

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher. Done
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY. Done
3. Prep the next day's school, especially science! Done

Fitness Goals

1. I must get back to exercising this week. Working out on the Wii. Not Done
2. *Get my Weight Watchers dessert made TOMORROW! Done! YIPPEE!! and it was delicious.
3. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water. Done

Blog Goals 

1. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. Done
2. Blog only what I want to blog about except for... Done
3. *A review and giveaway I had due last week and MUST get up. Not Done - I got an extension till the end of Sept./beginning of Oct. 
4. Done - I am adding... post my August Yearly Goal Update because I got it done and posted it last night. 

Personal/Other Goals

1. Read. Done - I finished 3 books this week making a total of 8 for August! that's GREAT
2. Work on a craft for myself: doodle, cross stitch, scrapbook, digital scrapbook... something. Done - did digital scrapbooking
3. Hang the crochet heart Rachel made me and the wooden box I decorated a while back. I need Jessica's help. Done - see below

 For this week that is 13 Done, 0 Partly Done, and 2 Not Done.

My goals for this coming week:

Spiritual Goals   

1. *Morning Devotions - including Bible reading (Proverbs), prayer, listening to music and reading a spiritual book. Prayer is my focus this year as that is my word for 2013. Read more of Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. 
2. Read more of "When God Breaks Your Heart: Choosing Hope in the Midst of Faith-Shattering Circumstances" to my hubby. 
3. Participate in the Joy Dare in 2013. Writing down 3 things each day that are gifts from God, things to be thankful for totaling more than 1000 gifts in 2013.Write in my other 1,000 gifts notebooks.

Homeschool Goals

1. Do school with Christopher.
2. Grade and Record work done, DAILY.
3. Prep the next day's school, especially science!

Fitness Goals

1. I hope to get back to exercising this week. Working out on the Wii.
   
2. Eat fruit and veggies and drink water.

Blog Goals  

1. Post Goal Planning Monday on time... since this is already up I have one thing for the week done already.
2. Comment on everyone's blog that links up to the Goal Planning Monday linky. 
3. Blog only what I want to blog about

Personal/Other Goals 

1. Read. 
2. Work on a craft for myself: doodle, cross stitch, scrapbook, digital scrapbook... something.
3. Get stuff ready for the flea market on Saturday, we are going to to sell stuff to make money to pay our bills.
4. Attend, help out at, sell stuff at flea market on Saturday.

That's It... Your turn...

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August Audit ~ Yearly Goal Update

“Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends, and co-workers, and even strangers you meet along the way.” ~ Barbara Bush

I believe that is true, which is why when I had things to do today and my dear daughter Rachel (age 27), who is laid up on the couch with a bad case of poison sumac, and bored out of her mind, asked me to watch an episode of I Love Lucy with her and play a short game I could not say no. So we played three games of Rack-O. She won 2 out of 3. 

Family is more important than goals and other things we feel we need to do. I did well Sunday anyway and got a bunch of stuff done.  It is also why when my hubby says, "Do you want to go pick up Nathan/go to the store/ go for a walk/etc. with me?" and I have stuff to do I say yes anyway. And, when hubby says, "Do you want to read our book together or watch a movie together?" I say yes if I possibly can and only say no if I really must get something done. Same with my other 3 kids. Family comes first for me. Actually second.. God comes first. I really mean that. Family second. Other people third. Homeschooling comes fourth. Things I need to do fifth.

I had a great month.

I did well on my reading. I am not going to be doing a monthly reading update separate from this. I will let you know what books I read and how I am doing on my yearly reading goal. If you want to read my book reviews see my Goodreads account. I am writing them all there as soon after I finish reading the book as I can, while things are fresh in my mind.  

I did well with almost all my other goals too, check it out!!!

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  

• Read Proverbs through each month. A chapter a day + a couple on short months. Recommended by the book my hubby and I are reading together... The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness.
• I did pretty well the beginning of the month and really good at the end of the month.

• Read Godly/Spiritual books.
• Finished reading Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do about It,
• Read Overwhelmed: Hope and Help for the Financially Weary,
• Read Confessions of a Prayer Slacker
• Read Fully Persuaded: 30 Days of Encouragement in Times of Trouble 
• Started reading Facing Your Giants: The God Who Made a Miracle Out of David Stands Ready to Make One Out of You

• Work on my prayer life. Pray is my word for 2013.
• Start reading a book on prayer. My hubby bought me a new book off my Amazon list. 
• Books read/reading see above.
• I started a private blog for just God and I to see. I made it so it can't be searched by the search engines and you have to be invited to read. I needed another way to focus. I focus well while writing so I decided to try and blog my prayers to God. I am keeping up with this and enjoying writing on my prayer blog more and more often.

• Be Grateful. I will be joining the Joy Dare @ Ann Voscamp's blog. Click the link to check it out. You can print her prompts for each month or do your own thing. Just be grateful... 3 a day for 365 days gives you more than 1000 things to look back at on Dec. 31, 2013. Let's record 1000 things to be grateful to the Lord for.
• Doing well. Writing in all the 1,000 gifts notebooks I have: The one for Joy Dare, one in my purse, a composition book for things to be thankful for of my own... not using the prompts she gives in Joy Dare, and one for things to be thankful for about my husband. 

• Memorize 2 verses or portions of scripture a month with my new group on Facebook. We post one verse/portion on the 1st and one on the 15th. With this I will memorize 24+ verses a year... more than in 2012 since I didn't memorize any. I started using Scripture Typer to help me memorize and review the verses.
• Doing much better. Learned this month's 2 verses and a passage from previous months. I am still behind but I am catching up.. working hard at it. I want to succeed with this. Not just so I can say I did it but so I have God's word, which I need, hidden in my heart.

Health and Fitness 

• Exercise more, more often and consistently. I would like to be much more fit by the end of 2013. As far as healthy eating goes I will be doing the best I can. (With my husband being unemployed for 33 months now things are tough and we can't always afford fruits and vegetables. If I exercise I will feel better... that is better than nothing.)
  
• Start by using the Wii daily for at least 15 minutes2-3 times a week and increase from there. My goal for Exercise is to not quit.... this, I hope, will inspire me... 
• Did better than some months but not great.

Educational

• Read some books/magazines to expand my own education. (The spiritual book are very educational but I have other books I would like to read as well... non-fiction and historical fiction.) 
• Besides the spiritual books above, I read Path of the Pale Horse to Christopher for school, as I am now reading Historical Fiction aloud to him.
• I also read The Wise Woman: A Parable to Christopher for Building Life Relationships.

Personal/Leisure

• Read some fiction books for pleasure. 
• I read Grow Old With Me
• and I read The Bobbsey Twins of Lakeport (Bobbsey Twins, #1) 

That makes 8 books total for August. I did well catching up since my goal is 4 books for the month. I am now only one book behind.

• Continue blogging and remember it is supposed to be for fun and for the records for my family. Use the blogging ideas pdf I bought in 2012.
•   I had a really bad week/day and quit blogging. That night and the next day I thought about things and decided it was Think Back Thursday I was hating. So I am still doing Goal Planning Monday and this update. I also need my blog to post my digital scrapbook pages for my Creative Team 'job'.

• Work on some crafts just for me. Things I have wanted to do, work on, make. Some from Pinterest, some will be things I have been working on already or wanting to do for a while.
• I doodled. I can't post my doodles because they were for friends of my daughters'. I counted them her as 'just for me' because I love to doodle so it was not work it was a joy to do and great practice.

• Spend at least one day a month scrapbooking, digital or paper.
• I did digital scrapbooking this past month.

• Play at least one board game a month with someone in the family. 
• I could cheat and say that I did because I played a game with my daughter today, but it is September so it counts for this month, not last month. At least I know I have this covered for September though :-) I don't think I played any other games last month. I HAVE to do better at keeping track.

Homeschool Goals:

• Keep up with planning and ordering any materials Christopher needs for school.
• Doing well. I just ordered more History. I found some things for Christopher to read that we own until they come in. I was a little late ordering, but I am making it work.

• Be consistent with reviewing Christopher's daily assigned work and making sure he completes everything assigned to him, log it into my school log, and then put the stuff away in the folders/notebooks where it belongs. 
• Five weeks of school done. things are going well.

• Check periodically on Christopher's hours for school. I don't want to have to do his transcript all in his Sr. year.
• Don't need to do this for a few more weeks. Don't want to wait to long though, I want to keep up so I don't have to much to do all at one time.

How I did in August...  

  21 Done
1 Not Done

Previous Month's Updates
January Jots ~ Yearly Goal Update
February Fun ~ Yearly Goal Update
Merry March - Yearly Goals Update
Accomplished April - Yearly Goals Update
May Memorandum ~ Yearly Goals Update
June Jumble ~ Yearly Goal Update
July Journal ~ Yearly Goal Update

If you made goals for your year, make goals, or want to set goals; post them on your blog and link up. Just choose the size you want and copy the code from the little box beneath it. Paste 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.


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