The best part of New Year’s Day is that I get to start my new journals. I love the Happy Planner journals and most of what I have used for several years have been Happy Planner journals.
My personal planner/journal is a teacher’s planner. I like the layout of it. It’s the blue one shown above and it says “Be Kind to Your Mind”. The first page of every month is a two place spread and has large squares for every day. This is where I will write appointments, deadlines, etc. What I like about this one is that there are seven sets of these pages.
Since it’s a teacher’s planner, it only has Monday – Friday listed on each of the left pages. Basically, it’s for planning your class periods but why 7 pages per month?? What I will do is start out with Monday through Friday, then when I go to the next page, I will white out Monday, write in Saturday, white out Tuesday, write in Sunday and then I’ll have to keep doing that unless Monday aligns with Monday again that month. That will give me seven squares for writing for each day of every month and some extras. This is where I write in things that pop into my head. The plan is that no one will ever read this journal but me. There won’t be anything secretive in it but it’s basically my random thoughts (and you thought that was what the blog was for!)
It could have something to do with the news of the day or a memory of my grandparents or a funny thing Chad did as a child or even a regret I’ve had in my life or a memory that makes me smile or makes me cry . . just my random thoughts. Not every day will I fill in every square.
On the notes section on the left of each two page spread is where I will write down my prayer list for the week. Some people . . a friend who has cancer or a friend who has a lot of medical issues . . they will be repeated on every list. Just writing their names makes me feel like they’re closer to me and I remember to pray for them.
Then there’s the menu planner. It isn’t a Happy Planner (though it makes me happy). I chose it because it has pages for the menu plan and on the right side is a tear away section for the grocery list. Unless I’m making a weird recipe, I don’t usually need many groceries.
I’m only planning for six meals. There will be weeks when we are out and grab lunch somewhere and there will always be leftovers. Notice the menu for the second week of January! Hamburgers for dinner on 1/12. Yay! Freedom to eat what I want again. Beef, cheese, cream cheese, bacon!!
Notice the only groceries I need for week 2 are broccoli and salads.
The stitching planner is the one that will get used the most. This is the one I chose for 2024.
On the monthly pages, on the left side of the page, I will list all the projects that I have worked on. I’m not exactly sure what I will write on the daily blocks on the rest of those pages. I was anxious to get started writing so I wrote in some of my January projects and, as you can see, I wrote it in pencil! Things could still change!
On these pages, there are three divided sections for each page. I’m thinking on the top dotted block, I will write in general notes about my stitching for that day. In the middle section, I think that’s where I’ll write things I need to do (stitch related things). In the bottom section, I think I will write in floss tubes I watched, notes about things I saw in those floss tubes (charts I may want, finishing supplies, changes the stitcher made if it’s a chart I’m planning to stitch, etc.
At the back of every monthly section, I will add any starts (as shown above) from that month.
In the very back, I’ve added pages of lists.
There are pages for a master list of starts, finishes, charts ordered, floss ordered (because I have to write down which project it’s for or I won’t remember when it arrives), linen ordered, projects ready for frames to be ordered (size), framed ordered and which project they go with.
This probably sounds like torture to some but I love my lists and love journaling so having a plan for the journaling makes me happy and I can’t wait to get started on my 2024 journals.
Pat Anderson says
You are so correct…it would be pure torture for me! Glad it works for you though. I used to be able to keep everything in my head, now I have little things I do to remind me…we all need to do what works best for us. You obviously have a great system that works for you!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Yes, it seems to be one of those things people love or totally dislike.