Fall is here!

Finally!
The air is cooling, the leaves slowly turning and falling in fluttering waves, and the days are getting shorter. All this means some of my favorite Holidays to look forward to. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas are all around the corner.
But in the meantime, I'm trying something different, and I'll let you know about my adventure. This coming weekend, the 8th and 9th of October, I'm going to the Nashville Exotic Pet Expo in Tennessee. I've never been to one of these, and I can't wait! I love all kinds of animals, and I'm fascinated by some, even if I wouldn't want to meet them face to face (ie snakes and biting/stinging insects). My daughter insists that there is charm in the odd serpent, there is personality in the amphibian. So for this adventure, I'm going to take her word for it!
So if you plan on attending, stop by and visit me! I'll be the one with the books!

Planners Gotta Plan

This summer, my sister introduced me to something new (at least new to me). My first venture into the planner phrase was The Happy Planner by MAMBI (Me and My Big Ideas). I had decided that I wanted something that I could use daily to keep up with my schedule, both at school where I work as a Speech Language Pathologist, and at home. I also needed somewhere to keep up with my side career as an author, to help track deadlines, signings, and events.
At first sight, I loved the planner. The pages were sturdy and could take pens, pencils, and markers. They had nice rich colors, attractive designs and patterns, and sayings. There was a summary page at the beginning of each month that outlined things like birthdays, special events, and goals for the month. Each month was laid out on the next two pages before the weekly pages started. And best of all, it was designed on the disk system. This system, like other ARC planners, is comprised of removable pages that hang on disks, sandwiched between interchangeable covers.
You could also buy others packs to go in the planner which included a household piece for daily cleaning chores, a meal planner, and a budget planner. Extended pages, spare pockets, additional tabbed dividers, post it notes, and stickers were all available. I quickly snatched up most of the extra items as well. And the planner is simply awesome for the day to day planning and, better yet, memory book. I was able to add tickets and bookmarks, business cards and receipts. The system allows for popping holes in almost anything and adding it to the planner. Eventually, I had to give up and buy the hole punch as well from the ARC system. (They have since released a hole punch for the Happy Planner specifically, which is cuter and less expensive than the ARC one!)
And when the planner got too thick, I simply used some of the additional covers that I had purchased, bought another set of rings for a couple bucks, and separated out the parts of the planner that I had completed. July through September went in their own book, where I would eventually add more months as my main book filled out. (The planner came with 18 months, so plenty of time to spread out between the two books.)
After some amount of time, with the addition of cute washi tape, stickers, some scrapbook paper, I was thrilled with the look of my planner. My only problem with this particular planner is that I didn't have enough space for work information.
So that began my search for a daily planner for more practical day to day life.
My Happy Planner continues to grow. It holds all the pictures, spare papers, newsletters, cards, and other memorabilia that I love so well.
So how do you plan, and how do you remember? Do you use different books for different things? The planner plot continues!

My favorite Mondays, and I start with my favorite mystery character

Several years ago I stumbled upon a novel by Preston and Child, Relic. I had actually read the book once before, but I had noticed at the bookstore that there were several in the series. I decided that I was going to reread the first book so that I could go on to read others of the series. And I was very glad that I did. Relic is followed by Reliquary, and next is The Cabinet of Curiosities, which is my current favorite from these talented authors.. At the moment, I am reading Blue Labyrinth, the 14th in the series.
But here is the truth. The reason that I really love this series is the characters, a mixture of very different personalities centered around the genius, sophisticated, and mysterious Pendergast. Pendergast is an agent with the FBI, but is only loosely affiliated with the government in most stories. He seems to successfully work alone, skirting the law, but always successfully getting his man, er, monster.
I love the cool Pendergast. He has the ageless feeling of  Sherlock Holmes, with the quick and accurate observations and thought processes that seem to race far ahead of everyone else that he encounters.
The rest of the characters are delightfully well rounded. We see a little of their inner thoughts, and their motivations make sense with the context of the story. They also bring in a nice range of backgrounds, personalities, and viewpoints. It has made me realize that the reason that I enjoy these books, while I like the spooky topics, complicated plots, and action scenes, is really because I like the people in the novels. I care about them. I want to find out what happens to them. And most of all, I will continue to read these intricate mysteries to see what happens next.
So I eagerly await the next few novels to see what adventures Pendergast will take me to, and how he will eventually save the day!

Organizing? An attempt at blog organization

Better late than never, I figure, so I'm trying out a New Year's Resolution, um, a month late. I am not terribly organized. I work at it, enjoy planners, calendars, organization apps, and making lists. But I still struggle to get everything done in a timely manner.
So my blog reflects that. I post sporadically and my ideas are all over the place, skimming over my interests in no particular order.
No More!
My plan looks a little like this:
My Favs Monday: a chance to discuss my favorite books, movies, etc with hopes that I get a few suggestions from readers as well!
We Plan Wednesday: a quick review of what I am trying to use, what I'd like to try, what I've researched and find interesting, and hopefully some opinions from other planners!
Tech Thursdays: a discussion of some of my tech, some things that are cool, up and coming, and may just be a must buy for you all!

So my newest post will come out tomorrow, hopefully with a little more organization, and perhaps some new information and suggestions for you all!

The Cockatoo Called has finally landed!

Check out this item in my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/266790502/the-cockatoo-called-author-signed-and

Grandma's Technology

My mother is the grandmother of teenagers. Makes sense. I have teenagers, as do my brother and sister. And my mother is an awesome grandma! The other great thing about my mom, besides her infinite patience, is her enjoyment of technology. With a little help, she has adopted an iPad, a Kindle, an android cell phone, and most recently, a smart watch.
Let me explain. My mother has a mild hearing impairment which causes her to occasionally miss phone calls unless she is carrying her cell phone in her pocket. Like a lot of ladies, she does not always choose to do this. She would rather have it tucked in her purse, or on a desk charging when need be.
As you can tell from my past posts, not only am I a planner addict, I love technology. I have adopted smart watches since the first Galaxy Gear which came with my Samsung Note. I then upgraded to the Gear Live from Samsung, an Android Wear device, a Gear S, and have since upgraded again to a Gear S2.
My other watches were sold to help finance my new purchases, but the Gear Live was still in my possession when I had an idea. I asked my mother if she would like to use the watch.
Granted, it is large and a little clumsy, a few generations from the sleek Apple Watch or the lovely Moto 360 2nd generation. But it's a great watch for an initial trial at the smartwatch world. It works well, has decent battery life, a nice bright display, and works with any Android phone.
And she likes it! When she gets a call or text, the vibration on her wrist alerts her. It also has some useful notifications for traffic and weather as well, making it a handy device to help keep her informed.
The beauty of the device is the fact that the vibration helps those who can't hear their phone. And the notification is nice and clear, even for those of us, myself included, who need glasses.
I write this as a recommendation. It doesn't matter your age. It doesn't matter that you might not be the most technologically adept person. This is a little tool that can help you stay informed and stay connected. And a second hand, early generation of these gadgets are fairly cheap and getting cheaper.
Let me know what you think!!

Planner doodles!

So I've decided that organization is my new passion. I need to figure out how to efficiently handle my life, my job, writing, family, and blog. As a delightful side benefit, I now have a real reason to doodle, to play with markers, stickers, fancy tape, and glittery things!!

It is important to divide out my days into manageable bits so that I don't get overwhelmed, and I don't forget anything. I have sectioned things out into work information, writing for novels and blog, and for normal home and family. These snow days at home have given me a little more time to refine my ideas.

So I'm still using the KITlife planner, a daily program with nice big pages and lots of room. I have added some cute little drawings to my planner as well.

See my pictures added here!

Planner Peace

As a writer, some of my favorite things are electronic. I like the lit screens, the buttons, the sounds, the click of keys, and the neatly typed words. In my computer, tablet, and phone I have a collection of documents and outlines, reams of lists and addresses. But there is something that I miss about the feel of paper against a pencil tip (yes, I like the scratch of the pencil oftentimes better than the slip of a pen).

              So my new thing has been planners. Sure, I’ve used planners for years, in high school it was a spiral bound one with Ziggy on the cover, in college it was one from the University of Kentucky, but they have always been a purely functional thing. Now I have to admit it, I’ve kept them from year to year. Why? I loved looking back to see what I did in my daily life, back then when I was in school, or staying home with three small children, or just married with only my hubby at home.

              And then a whole new world opened up. In the summer, my sister introduced me to the new planner fad. Oh, they’ve been around forever, probably since the first cave man carved a jagged line in a cave wall to indicate the passage of time, but for the first time, planners have become a creative thing. So I looked up a few infamous reviews of Erin Condren planners, and from there I was hooked.

              I chose the cheap way. I went with the Happy Planner by MAMBI. It had the same set up as the most popular Erin Condren, but was on an arc system, which means that pages can be removed, replaced, and reordered. And then I had to buy a few cute tabs, some new covers, a few extra pages and folders, and I had dropped into planner mania. Next came the stickers, the colored pens, and then the plotting as to how I was going to make this system work with my life.

              The Happy Planner is great for the day at a time, three box system. To Do lists, meal planners, events; all fit neatly in the cool little boxes. They have a home planner addition that I snapped up as well. But after using the planner for July, August, September, I realized that I was having to add a lot to make it work for my job. As a speech therapist in the schools, my day changes over the week, seemingly never the same schedule twice! The planning space just wasn’t enough for work, for my fiction writing, my social media, and my family events.

              Oh, but it was so cute. So I’ll admit, with the stickers, the washi tape, and some cut scrap paper supplies, I’ve decided that this planner is going to be a more personal record. I have even gotten my hands on a Polaroid Zinc printer and added pictures. This is my scrapbook planner, the one I’ll look back on in the future to enjoy the memories. I love it, and I can add any little paper mementoes that I want, tickets, business cards, postcards, anything that can be punched and added. Yeah, arc system.

              For serious stuff, I’m trying something new. I have the KITlife Planner, which has a page per day with space for my writing job, my therapy job, my notes, and a neat area to list call backs (and I’m adding social media). It also has a business add on in the back to keep track of expenses, mileage, and several other pages. So that’s my new thing. New year, new organization.

              How’s it going, well, I’ll let you now after a few weeks of trial and error!

              So my other planner folks out there, what are you planning, and how are you doing it?