How I'm Using My New Planner

I've mentioned my planner a few times before, but here's a peek at what goes on inside.  You know.  The good stuff.

Largely, my planner is where I keep my to do lists for each day.  It also includes appointments or specific events happening on those days that have them, and start dates for tv shows or specials I want to watch, because otherwise I won't remember that they're on.  I don't watch very many, but especially when it has been awhile since something has been on, I don't even think to look for it otherwise.

On the day shown above, I also made a project list because I felt like I had several things going on (I ended up not having as many as I thought, but it felt good to write them down!).  So sometimes I brainstorm in the extra space for projects or blog posts or what have you.

Once something is done, it gets an X.  If I don't get to it, I put a dash next to it and it gets moved to the next day, or just deleted.

I have also been trying something new.  I write down my ONE THING each day.  This is something that I want to do, something that will make me feel better once it's done.  Many days lately it's been to read a chapter in whatever book I'm working on.  A few days ago, it was EXTRA COFFEE!!! (all caps and exclamation points needed, because we were up for 3 hours in the middle of the night).

Most of the time it's something fun for me, because that fills my well.  Occasionally, it's a chore-type thing that has been bothering me, like "take all the cardboard and paper recycling out to the garage" shortly after Christmas, because it was taking over our entryway.  The house felt much cleaner after I did that, and that made me happy.

I've also written down cute things the kids say, so at the end of the year I can go back and read through those as well.  Maybe even someday start a kids' quote book.  Or maybe not...

Aside from my planner, I have a wall calendar that I copy events and appointments onto, and our town's recycling schedule, because I never remember that either.  And I use a notebook for meal planning.  But otherwise, everything is in here.  Now that I'm in the habit of using it during the day, and writing my list for the next day before I go to bed, I'm getting more things done, and I'm not forgetting things (most of the time - I actually did forget Elizabeth's shots appointment until we were done with school for the morning, but luckily they were still able to fit her in a couple hours later).

Cheesy Potato Corn Chowder

Here's another warm and filling soup for these cold winter days.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 russet potatoes, chopped
• 1 cup frozen corn (or one can of corn)
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 4 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup half and half
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large stockpot.  Add onions and celery and saute until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for one more minute, until fragrant.  Stir in potatoes, broth, and corn.  Heat to a boil, then lower to medium heat and simmer until potatoes are fork tender.  Add cheese and half and half.  Stir until cheese is melted in.

The second time I made this soup, I forgot the corn.  It's still good, but I was trying to figure out why it didn't make quite as much as the first time!

Weekly Goals: January 10-16

The creature power discs actually worked out how I wanted them to!  I used the pdf pictures found here, and resized them to 60%, which was the perfect size to fit on a poker chip.  I printed in black and white, then shaded them with blue and green colored pencils and punched them out with a circle punch.  A layer of mod podge later, and they were ready to play!

Last Week's Goals:

• Write thank you notes. Done!
• Make Wild Kratts power discs to go with the boys' new power suits. Done!
• Do yoga every day. Done!

This Week's Goals:

• List at least 5 things on eBay.
• Read Quiet by Susan Cain. I got this from the library and it's due a week from tomorrow!
• Do some essential oils research.  I bought several oils around Christmas time, but I guess I'm still intimidated by them because I haven't used them yet.  I also just got a diffuser, which I'm more comfortable with than topically applying them, but I'd like to learn more in general.  I have Essentials of Essential Oils by Rachel Ramey , DIY Natural Remedies by Nina Nelson, The Essential Oiler's Handbook, and Using Essential Oils Safely by Lea Harris from ebook bundles, so I think I'll start there.

Interesting Reads:

• The 100 Hour Rule (Modern Mrs. Darcy)
• I Might Have to Trash Some Essential Oil Bottles (Kitchen Stewardship)
• Community Repair: The Cure For Your Consumption Blues? (The Simple Dollar)
• I'm starting a commonplace book. (You can read more about what that is here).  

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links.  This means that if you purchase through these links, I receive a small commission at no additional charge to you.  Thanks for your support!

Books I've Read: 2015

This stack is my "to be read soon" pile from our bookshelf at home.  

In 2015, I set a goal on GoodReads of reading 30 books, which I thought was a pretty reasonable goal.  I ended up finishing 17, and I think a big part of that is that I let other forms of entertainment steal the little bits of quiet time that I had.  So this year, my goal is 25 books.  That's two books per month, plus one extra somewhere in there.  I think it's doable, as long as I consistently make an effort to read.

Before you think I'm forcing this upon myself, let me tell you that reading is my favorite hobby.  So why don't I make more time for it?

I'll be sharing more about the ways I'm using my new planner in the next week or two, but one of my tricks is to write down my ONE THING every day.  This is one thing that I want to do, that I want to make time for, and a lot of the time, it ends up being reading.  By writing it down, I'm more likely to make it happen.

But before we get too far into this year, here's what I read last year (the month name is a link to my reviews for that month):

January

• Confessions of a Raging Perfectionist: Learning to Be Free by Amanda Jenkins
• Brick by Brick: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David C. Robertson.

February

• The Loyalty of Pawns by Theron Couch

April

• This Is What You Just Put In Your Mouth? by Patrick Di Justo

June

• The Frugal Life: The Simple Path to Living a Good Life on a Budget by Michelle Stewart
• The Unexpected Joys of a Tight Grocery Budget by Carissa Casey
• A Faerie Fated Forever by Mary Anne Graham

July

• Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin (this one got its own post)
• A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

August

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• The History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

September

• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

October

• The Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig
• Money Making Mom by Crystal Paine

December

• Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin (I don't think I ever posted a review on this one, but I enjoyed it for the most part, and I think it's a really good guide to push women into studying their Bibles with practical steps on how to do so)

Some were really good! Some were okay.  Only one was really awful.  I enjoyed the non-fiction more than the fiction this year, but maybe that's because I had really high expectations for the books that I chose, and they just didn't quite live up to them.  

Do you set a reading goal for yourself each year?  Or are you on GoodReads?  Come be my friend and I'll stalk your book list for good ones check out what you're reading...

Why I Don't Make New Year's Resolutions

You can find the blank printable for the word of the year (or just for a thought bubble chart in general) here, under "Getting Organized for the New Year".

I don't make New Year's resolutions for one very specific reason.  A year is too long.  I do really well for the first couple days, maybe even a few weeks, but then life pushes those ideas and thoughts to the back of my mind and I forget.  I forget that I wanted to write so much or do these projects or lose this weight.  Because life is full of other little things.

I moved on to monthly goals for awhile.  Those kind of worked, except it usually went something like this:

• Write the monthly goals post at the beginning of the month.
• Immediately do the easy thing (I always included one easy thing).
• Forget about the list for 3 weeks.
• Go to write the monthly goals post for the next month and quickly try to do the rest of the things on it.

So that didn't work too well either.  I moved to weekly goals, and I think I've finally found my sweet spot.  A week is short enough.  I can remember things for that amount of time, or they can live in my new planner, or on my marker board, a reminder to get crossed off, but not there for so long that I don't even see them anymore.

So you might wonder why someone who forgets things after a week would choose a word for the year.  For the entire year.  That's like asking for failure, right?  And perhaps it is, although I hope it isn't.  I tried this once before, and it kind of fizzled out.  

The difference is that this time I actually took the time to break it down.  

I chose the word Relationships this year.  I feel like I've let a lot of my relationships take a back burner, and I'd like to fix that.  I went with specific categories of people, and then wrote down some specific ways I could improve my relationship with each one.

• God
• Jesse
• My kids, both generally as a parent, and each child specifically
• My extended family - parents, grandma, siblings and their families
• My friends
• My church family
• My kids' relationships with important people in their lives

Once I separated those categories out, I thought of specific ways to work on building and improving each of those relationships.  Things like writing to my grandma once a month, or having the kids send pictures and notes to their godparents.  Things like actually calling people (I'm an introvert who hates phone calls, so I put them off, but I do actually love talking to family and friends).  

I gave myself time frames and lists of things to do, and while putting aspects of my relationships on checklists might seem really weird to some of you, I think it will help me to make sure I don't put off the important people in my life.  

Do you pick a word for the year?  Set any resolutions or goals?  Make checklists of people to call?  Tell me about it...

Weekly Goals: January 3-9

Jonah drew this family picture for me this week.  We all had a good laugh at his depiction of me holding Elizabeth, because that's not what we saw at first!  I love little kid drawings!

Last Week's Goals:

• Do a bit of toy clearing out and decluttering. Work in progress, but we've done some.  The influx of new things is over now, so we'll continue to work on this.
• See how many thank you notes I have and maybe make some more.  I got them all in one place, but didn't make any more yet.  If we need them, I'll quick make some simple ones this week.
• Write thank you notes. Not done.  

This Week's Goals:

• Actually write thank you notes!  I always seem to put off this task, when really it doesn't take very long.
• Make Wild Kratts power discs to go with the boys' new suits.  They got these Wild Kratts power suits for a present, and I'm going to mod podge these pictures onto poker chips to make more animal powers for them.  At least that's the plan in my head.
• Do yoga every day.  I've been easing my way into yoga for the past month or so, doing a workout about 3-4 times a week after the kids go to bed.  So now I'm upping that.  I have big goals here.

My parents came to have Christmas with the kids on New Year's Day.  It was such a fun time!  

Stuff I Like:

• In Defense of Food: A Documentary by Michael Pollan, based on the books he's written about the subjects.  You can watch it here.  I actually made Jesse watch this with me when it aired on tv.  Eat food. Not too much.  Mostly plants.
• My planner.  I've been using it since December 28th, when it started, and I love it.  Plenty of space for me to write my daily to do list, plus a few other things I'm keeping track of.
• Mosaic Coffee.  I got a free sample of this for entering a blog giveaway over at The Humbled Homemaker, and it's really good!  Okay, coffee in general.  That could make my list of stuff I like probably every single time.

Disclosure: A few of the links in this post are affiliate links.  If you make a purchase through these links, I receive a bit of pocket change, at no additional charge to you.  Thanks for your support!

Handmade Christmas: The Rest

Now that you've seen the two big projects we worked on - the handprint calendars and the felt animal book - here's everything else!

One of my cousins and his family lost their Christmas tree and all of their ornaments because their basement flooded last year.  So another cousin sent out a request to send them ornaments, which I was glad to do!  I made some fake wedding invitation ornaments like I usually do for wedding gifts, using their names and anniversary info.

I also "minion-ized" their family, and I think that turned out pretty well for freehand drawing.

For several relatives we made these colorful bauble ornaments, using pipe cleaners, ribbons, and sequin mix.

There were a couple Packer ones, a Mickey Mouse one, and one that was simply purple-themed.

I also made coordinating dish cloths to go with most of those.

We made treat plates for the neighbors, and the kids had fun helping deliver those.  (We may have used some of our leftover treats from church, along with our homemade goodies, because we got so many treats!)

And everybody always loves the Ritz sandwiches, so I made two batches of those to include with gifts as well.

And then I got to wrap everything up and mail it away.  

Helpful Links:

• Wedding Invitation Ornaments
• Knitted Dishcloths
• Ritz Cookies

Whew!  That was all a lot of work!  This year I'm hoping to start working on projects sooner.  Then again, I always say that...