tonight finds me looking back...

at my first blog and reading old posts that a girl just like me wrote on a night just like tonight.  It was a post I wrote as the summer was ending and the fall was beginning, and the days were getting shorter and I felt that I wasn't using my time wisely enough.  And the thing is, as I read that post I realized I am still that same girl.  I still feel like I am a slave to my tasks and I am not focusing on what is important.  I don't particularly enjoy laundry, vacuuming, or dishes, but they have to get done and my perfectionism forces me to get them crossed off my to-do list instead of just letting it go every once and a while.  I had written a prayer to Him at the end of that post and said it was my new purpose statement.  Well truth is, it has been three years and I still feel like I am back where I started.  So I am going to end this post once again with my prayer.  And I really want to make sure that three years from now I am not sitting here feeling like I am still in the same place I once was.  I want to change my life for the better, starting one day at a time.  And I know some will be good days, and some will be bad days, but I want them to be His days...

Jesus, this is still my purpose statement, one that I tell You from the very depths of my heart.  I want to be a wife first and a mother second, and a housekeeper very dead last or perhaps not even at all.  I want to treasure my children not a sparkling kitchen, I want to bake apple pies with them and go see the animals at the zoo.  I want to sit on the floor and read book after book and make a tower with blocks so high and knock it all down just to build it again.  I want to lay in my husbands arms at night and feel his heart beating and the rise and fall of his chest, and be content with who I am.  I don't want to feel lost anymore, I want to feel like I am truly myself for the first time.  Please help me to give it all to You each day.  To find rest in You alone.  To go from strength to strength, and every one of them Yours.  Please help me to feel content with the busyness of work and commuting and the chores that have to be done and keep me from focusing on them as if they are all that my life consists of.  Please help me not to be consumed with the day to day but to be consumed by You and the blessings that you have given me each day. Take my life and let it be consecrated it all to Thee... 

using my erin condren planner...

So I have had a few days to play around with my planner and I think I have figured out a system that will work well for me.  Like I said in my last post, everyone uses theirs a little differently, and I drew on a few different ideas and put it all together to make it something that I like.

The first thing I did was gather all my supplies together.  I got markers, stickers, washi tape, post-its, paper clips, pens, and sharpie markers all together in a cute little heart box I found at Target a while back.  Then I got out my planner and got ready to get to work.

 The first page is a place to put your contact info, but with the cover being plastic, it is not easy to write anything here.  I had read somewhere that someone used a sharpie, but I wasn't wild about that idea.  I decided on using one of the labels that came free with my planner.  I cut it out to fit in this section and wrote in my contact information.

Then I started working on the month view pages.  I wrote in important work and school schedules so that I could see it all at once, such as the Saturdays that I have to work (ugh) as well as the days that the girls are off from school.  Anything that happens on more than one day, I used washi tape so that I didnt have to write something over and over four or five times.  Below I used gray washi tape to show a week when school is closed, and I used pink washi tape to show that every Wednesday the girls go to church for Boulevards.  Then I used the stickers that come with the planner to highlight special things I have planned that month.

The weekly view is really my favorite.  I wrote in events, schedules, tasks and to-dos in their respective time-frames. I have decided to color-code each person by placing a dot next to the item.  For example, my husbands color is blue and I put a blue dot next to his "to-do".  I used square post-it notes in the night section to show my ideas for dinner.  Now if you are anything like me, you end up changing your mind on what you make which night about fourteen times before the week is out.  I liked the post-it note idea so that I don't have to cross out and write in, I can just switch the post-it notes around.  I am not sure if I saw this idea in someone else's blog or if I came up with it myself. I think I came up with it myself - a genius really.

Another thing I LOVE is using colored rectangle post-its to put my weekly household chores in.  This is for two reasons:  Just like with the meals, I can rearrange which day I do these, and I can also re-use them and put them back in my planner for another day next week after I complete that particular task.  (You know we end up doing these EVERY week - why waste paper?)  And I like that my planner doesn't look as cluttered when I move them to another day.  Do I really need to be reminded of the 736769056 times I have done laundry this year as I look back?

Also, I didn't end up taking a picture of this but I used the far left column to keep track of the chapters I need to read each week for my Bible study that I am a part of, as well as a way to tally how many times a week I work out.  Each time I complete one of these things I just check a box.  The bottom of each day has a place for notes as well, and I use this section to write in things like: "work on scrapbook", or "watch CSI", things that I plan on doing if I have any free time, not exactly a to-do.

So I hope that helps some of you if you are trying how to get the best use out of your planner.  I really love it and am enjoying that all our crazy schedules are all in one place - it makes me feel more in control, just being organized :)

introducing my erin condren life planner...

So a few weeks ago I was looking at other people's blogs and I came across one that mostly talks about organization (right up my alley) and one of the posts was about this planner.  It was an Erin Condren Life Planner (check her out here ) and I cannot believe I had not heard about her or these planners before.  Planners are like my life line.  It is such a relief to be able to walk around with my tasks/schedules/thoughts down on paper, not just always kept in my head.  These planners are so cute and seem to have everything I could want in a planner.  There was only one problem - they are $50!!!!  I think that is a LOT of money and I couldn't justify spending it on a planner even if it would be adorable, and personalized, and a life-saver, and sooo me.  Who am I kidding, I totally bought it after drooling thinking about it all afternoon.  So that was September 18.  And after that day I started checking my account every day until I saw this:

I was super excited because it was shipped a week earlier than the deadline they gave me.  So then I started stalking checking the FedEx website with the tracking # they gave me.  It took sooooooooo long (it felt like that, but really was only a week) before I checked and saw this:

 

That totally made my day!  It was a long day at work waiting to get home and open it!  When I got home I made dinner, gave the girls baths, picked out their clothes for tomorrow, tucked them into bed, and FINALLY it was time to open my long-awaited package.

 

 

The package was so beautifully wrapped and I was so excited to finally see my planner in person with all of my favorite things listed on the cover!

 

 

Here are a few pictures of the inside of the planner so you can see it for yourself:

 Each month on two pages:

 Every week is broken down into two pages as well, with a morning, day, and night section as well as a note-taking section on the bottom of each day - PLENTY of space!

There is a page of stickers in the back to help certain events stand out:

 

Two pages of blank stickers that you can customize yourself:

 

Two folders in the back for you to place things in:

 

A ziplock pouch in the back for you to keep pens, markers, or anything else in (shown is my $10 giftcard that came with my planner to go towards a new one next year!)

 

I know I didn't go into a lot of detail about the planner itself other than the pictures, but there are SO many posts online about the Erin Condren planners so I didn't feel the need to do yet another in-depth review.  I will just say I think it is awesome and I am so excited it is finally here.  I will write another post in a day or two about how I am going to use my planner - you will also find a lot of posts online about how people use their planners, and everyone does it a little differently.  Its fun to make it work for you!  Want one of your own? Sign up for her website here !