Planner Peek!!

Y'all know I'm a planner junkie, right? Like BIG TIME. And I'm all about cuteness. So if you mix functional and cute, I'm sold. Just take my money.

I've struggled to find "planner peace" for a couple of years now and I think I've found it. For now, at least. "Planner peace" is the unicorn of the planner world. All the planner peeps know the hunt for it and sometimes we're lucky enough to find it, even though life's seasons change and you may have to tweak it down the road. But hold on to that peace and joy when you've got it.

I've been LOVING the bullet journal method for the past year now. I create my own layouts. No more trying to shove my life into a tiny box or an awkward horizontal layout. I make the rules now, Mister.

I've been using a large Moleskine notebook as my bullet journal (or BuJo) for a while, but when Michael's released their Recollections Creative Year line a few weeks ago, I had to check it out. I was hesitant because I prefer an A5 size and these are personal sized, but I was very surprised to find I actually like this personal size! It's slightly larger than your typical personal inserts, so I was thrilled to have more room and not have to write with a mouse-hair fine tipped pen and microscope.

They have the 6 rings like a Filofax, so that's nice if you already have the 6-hole punch.

The quality is fantastic for an inexpensive planner.

And I am IN LOVE with all the cutesy little insert booklets you can get for *wait for it* $5 or so.

WHAAAAAT?!?!?!

Yep. $5 for inserts.

And... you may want to sit down for this bit of info... The paper quality is GREAT! I've had a Plum Paper Planner before and the paper was freaking fantastic. I may have fondled the paper before writing in it on a weekly basis. Yes, I'm a self-proclaimed paper fondler. You probably know some more paper fondlers too. Hide yo journals! Hide yo notepads! They be fondlin' all the paper 'round here!

There are a LOT of insert booklets available too, so customizing your planner is super easy and fun. I'm going to get the grid paper insert soon so I can keep my BuJo going in the ringed binder and give ye olde Moleskine a little break. These are just a few that I have at the moment.



Recollections also has some super cute sticky notes and page flags, so you can cute it up like a boss.

On the cuteness side, I have found the mecca of cute. Happie Scrappie. Holy buckets of awesome!! THE CUTE! IT HURTS!! I got my first monthly subscription kit back in May and I've had a BLAST playing with it in my BuJo as well as my Recollections planner. Here are a few of the ways I've used it so far. Who would have thought to pair cacti and hedgehogs? Sam at Happie Scrappie, of course!

SERIOUSLY!! LOOK AT THE CUTENESS!!! That cactus pen kills me every time! I love it!

And that little notepad is double sided!

The papers are going to become some sweet little dividers and that big cactus will be laminated into a dashboard. EEEEEE!!! ALL THE FUN THINGS!!

I can't help but smile when I see all the stuff in the Happie Scrappie store. I can't wait to see what she has coming out next. So go check it out! NOW! And if you find some cute things that HAVE to go in your planner, use this code for 15% off: ALISHA15. This is good for everything EXCEPT the monthly subscriptions. Go see Sam, tell her I sent you, and tell me what your favorite things are!!!

That Time Life Got in the Way - AKA: Adulting is Hard.

Me: "Hey, I'm going to blog more! It's going to be great!"

Life: "Oh yeah, watch this!"  *Drops a crapstorm of chaos right in the middle of the sunshiny Lishy Land* 

Me: Oh... maybe not. *sigh*

Yep. Just when I think I have everything going smoothly, Life blows up. Murphy, you can take your law and shove it. And this is how I feel about it. There are slightly more middle fingers happening on the inside. 

So what's been happening during my hiatus? 

Well, a "gustnado" (according to the meteorologists) dipped down and blew my well house and all the connections completely away. We were without water for a few days and I had to haul water to flush toilets and wash hands and faces. Good times! 

Hauling water like a modern Laura Ingalls.

Well house damage

But the nice thing about being married to a guy who's a badass carpenter is that he can build you a new well house that's amazeballs. We still need to finish the underside of the roof and insulate it, but BOOM! It's fantastic. And green. 

New well house!!

Then, the devil crawled in my van. I am not one to freak the heck out over a bug, but these are not bugs. These are demon bug-snakes. This one apparently had an agenda because it rode 20 miles to town with us to the grocery store, hung out silently while I took the kids for a treat at town, and then rode 20 miles BACK home with us where it made its presence known when we got out of the car. Seriously. Check the inside of your car doors because it's a nice place to hitch a ride. I may or may not have screamed, did a little stompy dance, and had to change my pants. The worst part? When we tried to dislodge him, he darted into that little triangular hole between the interior and exterior of the van and I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE HE WENT. *panicky sweats* I was totally not having him fall out under the steering wheel while I was driving. I had nightmares about it. 

But they were short-lived thankfully. Because a few days later, THIS happened. These things may or may not have been connected. J said, "We needed a new vehicle." I said, "Well, we do NOW for sure! That's Satan's ride!" 

BOOM! New truck! Centipede-free. For now.

The truck has been fantastic since we've had to haul lumber, shingles, and all other well house building paraphernalia. It's taken some time for me to get used to driving it, but really, I love it. It's the newest vehicle we've had. All the doors work (TOTAL PLUS!), it has hands-free calling (which is fantastic for taking work calls when I'm running around), and the radio works. Dude, I haven't had a working radio in at least 5 years. I kind of feel like I've crawled out of a bunker somewhere. From Lawrence Welk to Kanye all in one fell swoop. I don't even know what to do with myself! 

Picture from Google Search, Meme made by Yours Truly.

Sprinkled in amongst the afore-mentioned fun, we've had one kid have 2 horribly infected, ingrown toenails that had to be partially removed (Side note: Did you know podiatrists can double as torturers? Thank goodness for anesthetic!!), and just 2-3 weeks later, another kid decided to have his 2 lower wisdom teeth come in (WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!! He is not allowed to be this old!!) and one of them is giving him fits. Thankfully it's not going to be a major surgery, just antibiotics for a few days and then they'll cut the excess tissue off that's causing the trouble. I feel like we dodged a major bullet with that one. Psh. Why couldn't my kids inherit the "no wisdom teeth" gene from me? Nope. All 3 of them have them. 

So, after 2-3 months of back to back adulting, I am done adulting. I need some adult-free time. So, to help with the non-adulting, I decided to create some anti-adulting memes. That's what the non-adults do, right? These are for the rest of you non-adulters. Enjoy. Maybe while I'm busy not adulting, I can have the kids become adults and make me some food!!