Gluttonous plans

I'm quite afraid that I've bitten off more than I might able to chew. I've been on a planning kick, obviously, and it's been going wonderfully well but I may have taken on a bit too much planning this time.

We decided to throw a Halloween party. Right after that is my Hubby's and mine's wedding anniversary. It's a bit more special than usual as it will be our 15th wedding anniversary. Of course, we then jump right into my daughter's birthday with Veteran's Day, which something must be done, as my hubby is a veteran. On a more low key note, my birthday is right after that. Adding another thing to my list is that I've decided it would be a good break for my mother-in-law for me to cook Thanksgiving dinner, which then leads us into the maddening chase of the Christmas season, which also happens to be the busiest time for my job. Major event after major event is happening with hardly a moment to take a breath in between them. I don't think I was quite right in my state of mind to think taking on all these things was the best idea but I am committed to these plans now and will be moving forward.

I have my planners and will keep using them to make sure I have as tight a reign on my time as much as possible so that I may utilize to the best of my ability but to also have time scheduled to simply relax. I am indeed doing a whole lot but it won't do anyone any good if I'm so stressed and tired that I can't get what need to be done. Planners gonna plan, but maybe next time, not so much.

Writers gonna write

To recap, I have my actual Recollections planner for household and work, a regular notebook that’s sort of like a bullet journal for personal habit tracking and a traveler’s notebook for when I’m running errands out of the house. It’s all been great for getting my life in somewhat of an order—remembering the past, organizing in the present and planning for the future.

I've even added 2 notebooks. I've started calligraphy so I have a notebook to practice the lettering. It's a bit trendy right now but I've always wanted to learn and while I've finally found a niche of time, I figured it was about time. I've also decided to start journaling again. I need to get back into writing, more than just the biweekly blog posts that I've been doing. Challenges are another trendy thing but I thought it might be interesting to try out. I don't normally do prompts but I've had such a difficult time trying to get my mind into the right place to start writing that I thought maybe having a starting point might give a good boost to jump off of. Since next month is November I thought I might go with a gratitude theme, what with Thanksgiving and all. I know that next month is NaNoWriMo and it would make more sense for me to start off with that but as I mentioned my mind isn't in the right frame to jump into writing a novel.

These are the plans so far. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep up with my journaling challenge and that it won't take me too long to learn calligraphy but I'll take my time and enjoy the process as that is why I do things.

Let it Be

For once the reason I haven't posted yet is because I have too many topics that I could write about and I just couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to discuss. There's so much going on in the world right now from Trump's tweets with North Korea, sports over respect controversy, the devastating hurricanes in the Atlantic, healthcare repeal and/or reforms to just the personal everyday aspects of life.

My most prevailing thoughts are my feelings towards politics. While in high school, I had an interest in politics. I suppose it was the naivety of youth in the hopes of being able to make a difference but then life shifted my point of view. I got married to a military man and I realize that there was no way I could have an objective opinion on anything political ever again and that there is the kicker.

Politics has everything to do with the running of people's everyday lives but because it's their lives, people cannot be objective and yet that is when it's most important to be as objective as possible. That is not to say you should completely take out emotions but I believe it's best to leave out personal feelings about such decisions that affect so many different people. After all, not everyone has the same train of thoughts or beliefs over the same subject and it isn't right to impost yours onto others.

Using the example of sports players bending down on one knee during the playing of the national anthem before games, some people believe it's disrespectful for them to do so. You do not need to agree with what those people are doing but they have the rights within the law to take a knee. The whole point of this country is freedom of speech, which means that those people are within their rights to not stand during the national anthem as long as they are following the laws of the country and not causing a disturbance of the peace. You do not have to agree with them. It's as simple as that.

My point is to live and let live.

GSD

I have read Death Comes to Pemberley. I have restarted reading Pioneer Girl. I beat Mass Effect and its sequel Mass Effect 2. I am contemplating whether I should continue right away into the third game or take a break from PC gaming and finish playing Fire Emblem Awakening. I have watched Porco Rosso and finally re-watched Tales from EarthSea with plans to finally watch the rest of what we have for Studio Ghibli. I have also done random sketches while staying on top of the usual house chores.

I'm honestly quite amazed at how I've stayed on task with almost everything and gotten so much more than I expected done. Using a planner to keep track of work and a personal goals tracker has made all the difference. It's so satisfying to look into my planner every morning, get the job done and be able to cross it off the list everyday. It's an ever better feeling to see that my work is done and that I have time to meet my personal goals and either make progress on them or just straight out finish them up.

It's such a great feeling of accomplishment.

Planning a Plan

When I like something, I usually become obsessed with it. It's an unfortunate/fortunate thing that happens when one is a Scorpio. It's usually a good thing as it actually helps me get things done. Once I start a project, I will baring unfortunate circumstances will finish it.

Of course, I'm obsessed with planning by using planners and notebooks. I adore my Recollections planner as I use it to keep track of work, specifically household related chores, appointments and dated activities. I enjoy using my personal goal tracker notebook as it helps me take better care of myself from making sure I'm drinking water everyday to reminding myself to take time for myself. My next plan is get to get a traveler's notebook. I need an expense tracker that I can carry with me at all times. I can only use it to put in lists of things that need to be done while I am out.

I do have Ipad mini 4, which I still use to carry it with me around everywhere but being able to write things down helps me remember more things that need to be done. Apps also have a way of no longer being available to continuous use, which is highly annoying and utterly inconvenient. Paper and pen does not ever get out of use. Also, I have hope that once my current personal goal tracker book no longer has any pages to use at the end of this year, I may be able to add it as an insert into my traveler's notebook to condense the actual amount of separate books to carry around.

It's all about progress and a living system that I can use and adapt for my ever changing pace of life.

Solar Eclipse!

In case, I haven't made it clear. I'm an astronomy enthusiast, so of course I am so super excited for the solar eclipse. I have been planning for it for the past 5 years. I'm going on a trip so that I can be in the umbra. See you on the other side!

Maybe a happy mail?

I miss the art of letter writing. I miss the anticipation of happy mail. I like social media, obviously as I'm posting my blog, and I use it everyday but I don't feel as if it's always so meaningful. There's just something more to putting pen to paper. Also, you can add so many little thoughtful things with the letter, such as photos and small arts and crafts. I'm not sure how often I might be able to keep up the practice but I'd love to start and do my best to keep going with it. So maybe I'll find someone, still not sure yet.