Well Planned Life

I have been an admirer of Quo Vadis planners for a while now.  While I had not purchased any planners or notebooks from them, I perused the options often.  I love the way a bound planner looks and how it works for so many people.  For me, for my planner, only rings will do .  I love the versatility and flexibility rings provide when it comes to planning my days.  However, I do love the look of the Quo Vadis Journal 21 .  I love the large open space of each day.  I love the timed slots.  I love the potential that comes with this book. Some time in late summer, I bought a 2017 Journal 21 to try out, thinking I might like to use it as a planner for 2018, just to try something different.  Upon arrival, I promptly moved in, copying all of my appointments and tasks over.  And before I was finished, I knew it wasn’t going to work for me.  Sadly, I left the 2017 Journal 21 mostly unused. That didn’t stop me from entering the Jour...

A new year always brings about a sense of fresh beginnings, a new start, a revamp of dreams and goals and plans.  A new year = a new you! I’m going to get very personal here, which I rarely do, so please read this with kindness in mind. I don’t feel new. I have mixed feelings about moving into this new year.  I had high hopes for 2017.  I wouldn’t say I had overly high hopes, just your normal run-of-the-mill hopes, but high in terms of what it would bring me on a personal, internal level. It turned out nothing like I had planned. It was both the best year and the worst year I’ve had.  Well, in truth, the worst year was the year my dad died.  But it’s the juxtaposition between good and bad that made it the second-worst year, I think.  I had some great and exciting things happen (some of which will be revealed in future posts), and yet, it’s been emotionally hard, too.   Without getting into details, 2017 finished in the opposite direction ...

Hello!  Welcome to 2018!   It’s been almost a year since my last post--I hope I still have some readers out there!  The blog was put on hold in order to put my attention elsewhere but I have missed writing, so one of my goals is to start again.  I can’t say how often I’ll write or what the content will be exactly.  I hope to continue with some planner/organizing posts, but also broaden my topics as well, to include...well, anything and everything!  I revamped the look of the blog, so if you’re reading through a reader of some kind, hop on over and take a look.  I have had thoughts of moving the blog over to a new platform or starting from scratch.  But I think I’ll wait and see how much I actually write this year before going through all of that work. I have some topics in mind for the upcoming year, as well as some changes to my planning and organization systems.  There will be new purchases--whoa!--and trying out some new produ...

Hello!   It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, and I have to say, it feels good to be at it again, even if this is just a post to update you on my whereabouts. Things have been busy around here.   As mentioned in my last post , we have our condo on the market.   It’s not been as busy in this area as I would like, but still, it’s going.   We’ve hosted several open houses, and we’ve had people make appointments to see it.   No one has yet to make an offer we can accept, but people are looking, and that’s something.   But it’s not just us; other condos aren’t selling either.   It’s simply the market and/or the time of year.   I am confident that it will sell; it’s only a matter of when. In the meantime, we’ve been spending our weekends going to every open house we’re slightly interested in.   We’ve seen some that have potential and many that do not.   Either way, we’re learning what we want, what we don’t want, and what is...

Hello! Happy fall!   Happy holidays!   Happy New Year! It has been over three months (!) since my last post , unless you count my Philofaxy guest post , in which case it’s been over two months.   Either way, this is the longest I have ever gone without blogging.   I have both missed it and…not. I have missed the physical and creative aspects of writing, and I’ve missed the interaction with my readers and their comments.   However, I did not miss the stress I often put on myself to get a post published.   Typically, I average a post a week, and since the summer, I have not been able to do even that much.   I decided back then that I wasn’t going to stress over getting a post out just for the sake of doing it.   My mind was tired of forcing a post on a topic that I didn’t have much heart for just to publish something.   See, since I moved into a compact binder (specifically my two VDS binders, one and two ), and having other supp...

[Yes, I realize that “awesomer” is not a word, but it works here.] Back in the spring, I read a book for a book discussion that has become my (latest) go-to recommendation for just about everyone.   It is rare that I enjoy a book thoroughly (and by that I mean every aspect of the book—its story, its characters, and its writing) that I recommend it to practically everyone who asks me for a reading suggestion.   This time is was The Secret Keeper by Australian author Kate Morton (no relation to the great Steve Morton that I am aware of). I don’t want to talk about the book too much because I don’t want to give anything away, and there is a lot to give away.   But here are the basics: it’s a historical fiction book/mystery that goes back and forth in time, between the present day, the 1960s, and the 1930s.   (Fear not, however; you will not be lost as to which decade you’re in while reading.)   The story unfolds from Laurel’s perception, and the reade...