Well Planned Life

Welcome back!   Welcome to 2014!   Are you excited to start a new year?   Are you aching to start something new?   Are you looking for a fresh beginning? Yeah, me too.   The end of the holidays is always a little bit of a let down for me.   The Christmas decorations are put back into storage, the excitement and work is done, there’s nothing left but cold, dark days ahead until the promise of spring comes around. But it seems like each year it takes longer and longer for that promise to roll around.   My accountant husband is gearing up for longer work days and longer work weeks, and I become a tax widow.   In the beginning I enjoy the time to myself to “get stuff done.”   But by March I’m lonely and miss him.   We usually go away for a long weekend when he’s finished tax season, and by then the weather starts to get warmer.   So I’ll just have to look forward to that. In the meantime, I’m focusing on new organizing proj...

This is my last post for 2013.   I am taking a two-week hiatus, seeing as we have so much going on.   In addition to general last-minute craziness, we have family visiting from out of state, are hosting Christmas Eve dinner, will be going to a handful of gatherings at others’ homes, and will be going out of state to visit family ourselves. But I will return the first weekend of 2014.   I have some great posts coming up in the New Year and maybe—just maybe—some new projects to plan for.   I may (or may not, depending on how it goes) have a slightly new planner set up to discuss.   I’m contemplating some changes but I want to think about it some more.   Also, if it doesn’t work out, there won’t be much to discuss.   So we shall see! My first post of 2014 will map out my goals for the year (as of right now—things change!).   Additionally, I still need to post some of my 2013 organizing projects.   I was able to get quite a few thi...

The Philofaxy community often talks about starting fresh—for some, that happens when January and the New Year roll around.   For others, it starts in September when children return to school.   Either way, it’s the beginning of something new that people seem to be attached to.   It’s a chance for us to begin anew, to start again, to do everything “right.” I, myself, am no stranger to this phenomenon.   I love the planning sweet spot , not only because it gives me a chance to start my planning fresh, but also to start my life again, though perhaps in a new(ish) way.   It’s the possibility that I’m drawn to, the chance to do everything right, the hope that something great is just around the corner. With January hurdling towards us at a great speed, I can’t help but think of things in this way yet again.   As December melts/freezes/turns into January, I often think of Alison Krauss ’s song Get Me Through December .   At its most basic level, the...

I’ve managed to complete my second month of daily photo challenges .   (You can see a summary of October here .)   I never thought I’d make it this far, let alone want to keep going.   I’ve become a bit addicted.   While I have not seen any official planner daily photo challenges posted anywhere, I have found two, thanks to some recommendations on Facebook.   First, there’s a Christmas photo challenge from White Peach Blog .   Then there’s the December photo challenge from Fatmumslim .   Both sound great, I have to say.   But I wonder how much of these I can do since (from what I can tell) they aren’t geared specifically towards planners. But why can’t I make them specifically for planners?   There’s no rule (as far as I know) as to how you complete your photo challenges.   I have to say that White Peach’s Christmas challenge is just that—a challenge.   I’m not sure how many of these I can complete where my planner is conc...

There’s only a little over a month remaining until we hit another new year.   I am hopeful that 2014 will be better than 2013 was .   I am looking forward.   So is my planner.   I am all set for 2014, with inserts updated and ready to go. Back in August I bought the 2014 Day Per Page calendar inserts .   Soon after I received them, I added all pertinent information such as birthdays and anniversaries, paydays, holidays, and anything else that I might have noted for 2014. Also back in August, I bought a Thirty-one Gifts Keep-It Caddy specifically to keep and carry all of my Filofax gear.   This made it much easier for me to gather my supplies when preparing for 2014 (more on my entire Thirty-one collection forthcoming). I gathered my archive binder , my insert binder (more on this to come), my compact binder (I was using the Calipso at the time), my label maker, my 2014 inserts, and my bag of pens. Usually I keep other plannin...