Filofax Friday, and a look at the Month of May

Phew!  It's Friday.  I'm so glad it's Friday.  Here's the last week's pages:

Musical notes.  These are so cute.  I love that they have hair and some are wearing hats.

I had a lot to do at the beginning of the week... Lots on those To Do lists!

I got to go out with some of my best girls Wednesday night, so I decorated accordingly. :)

Today is one of my Sister-in-Law's birthdays.  She has a thing for whales.

PARIS!  Not that I'm going there anytime soon.  I can dream, though, right?

This month is only going to get busier.  It's already looking crazy, and it's only the 2nd!  I love the Paris theme, though.  It makes me smile.

Have a wonderful weekend!  Mine is filled with baseball and birthday parties!  

Filofax Friday~ More Paper Adventures.

So, I decided to try a Day per Page layout, with times listed on the sides, because I was finding that with my Week on Two Pages, things would get lost in all the other stuff I had written down.  Even with my color coding.
I found a layout that I really liked from the Philofaxy blog.  Here's the link: http://philofaxy.blogspot.com/p/diary-inserts.html
Even though I have A LOT of A5 paper cut, I wanted to see how it works printing on regular letter paper.  Let me tell you, it was an adventure.  One I lost sleep over.  One which my husband laughingly calls "pathetic."
There are some amazing tutorials on how to print double sided.  My printer has that function.  I can get things to print double sided without an issue.  But to print booklet style?  No go.  I literally spent hours trying to get it to work.  I read numerous tutorials.  But, I didn't see any that were for my particular issue.
I even called Staples to see how much it would cost to have them print it for me.  And it really wasn't that much, (Around $20.) But, seeing that I had the ink and the paper and the hole punch... I just couldn't justify spending the money when I had everything I needed to print them here.
I had downloaded them in Word, and had everything all laid out how I wanted, but it just wouldn't work.
I had my husband try for a while.  He couldn't get it.  Finally, I just decided to give it up for the night, but I couldn't get my brain to turn off.  I just knew there had to be a way to do it! Page ranges!
 So, as I was supposed to be sleeping, it finally came to me.  At 3:30 AM.  I really should've just gotten up and tried it right then and there, but I talked myself into waiting until morning.  Which, was probably a bad idea, because I STILL couldn't go to sleep.
Anyway, when I got up, I was still pretty fuzzy headed even after my second cup of coffee... I had to write down my page ranges.

And adjust my printer settings:

I DID IT!  And I like the page per day so far.  We'll see how it all works out!  I hope this helps someone else.

Tip Tuesday (A5 Paper)

I've written quite a bit about my filofax.  I love it.  I use it every day, all day long.  The one thing that is difficult about it is that the inserts are paper size A5.  It's not a huge deal, and I use the Filofax Week on Two Pages inserts for my everyday planning, but there are so many printables out there so you can customize your filofax to fit your specific needs.  I have printed several things, but was getting frustrated by the paper size.  I have a personal paper cutter, but it doesn't do more than two sheets at a time.
On the Philofaxy Facebook page, I asked if anyone knew where in the US to buy A5 paper.  I did get some suggestions, but the best one (in my opinion) was to go to an office supply store, buy a ream of paper, and have them cut it to the A5 size.  It was $5 more for them to cut it for me, but I was able to find the paper weight that I wanted, and now I have 1000 sheets of A5 paper.
My printer does have a setting for A5 paper, so I just popped it in, and printed this cute "Important Date" printable from Organise with Katie on Etsy.

I used my new hole punch from Rakuten to punch my holes.  I love this thing!  It's adjustable, so it'll punch just about any size of paper that I need.

And it's in my Filofax!  Now to fill it in!

I hope this tip helped!  Happy Tuesday!

Thankful Thursday, Week 10

I love this quote:

It's SO true!  And such a good thing to remember...

1. I'm thankful for my new embroidery machine.  I'm having so much fun with it and have so many ideas running through my head that it's kept me up at night!

2. Reimbursement checks.

3. Serenity.  This is an essential oil blend that I just ordered, and it's wonderful! It really helps me relax at night.

4. Homemade coffee creamer.  For the recipe, see this post.

5. Warmer weather

6.  For dr. appointments.

7. Big dreams and decisions to make.  I'm contemplating re-opening my Etsy shop.  I still haven't completely decided whether or not to do it yet, though.

8.  Dance competitions.

9.  Flowers and chocolate from my husband after a hard day.

10.  For my new hop punch for my Filofax.  It's awesome and it makes everything so much easier!  I got it here: Rakuten

11.  My new cleaning schedule.  I found this on Pinterest, and I love it so far!  (And so does my house)  Here's the link for the printable: Pinterest

12.  Glasses adjustments

13.  Sunshine!  FINALLY!

14.  That I don't have to wear my heavy winter coat to set foot outside!

15.  New shoes.  Both my boys got new shoes yesterday and they both think they're Olympic runners now.

16.  Haven's sleepy eyes first thing in the morning.

17.  Quick snacks

18.  The "Force."  I was sitting in the drive-thru at Starbucks yesterday, and Asher is convinced he used the force to make the car in front of us move. :)

19.  Flowers from my Jay-man.

20.  GREAT days at school!  Jay struggles with staying in his seat and keeping his mouth closed.  He had an AMAZING day yesterday!  I'm so proud of him!

Resolutions

Happy New Year!  

And of course, there's resolutions.  Although this year, I'm opting out of one of the most common: Weight loss.  Instead, I'm resolving to eat healthier and move more.  The number really isn't important if I'm healthy, right?  And I also know that my four-year-old daughter is watching me and seeing how I feel about myself.  I want to be a positive role model for her.  I don't want her to continually worry about what the scale says.  I want her to remember that true beauty is from the inside out.

So, here's my resolutions.  I've written them on a piece of paper in my Filofax, so every day when I look for what I need to be doing that day, I'll see them.

1. Less iPad time. (I really spend too much time on it.  Playing games. Wasting time.)
2. More play time with my kids.
3.Be thankful everyday
4. Devotions (The You Version Bible App has some great options!)
5. Keep up with the blogging.
6. Work out 3-5x a week.  (I have a treadmill.  I need to use it!)
7.  Make my bed everyday.  (I've been putting my bedding on the treadmill each night in the hopes that when I go to use the treadmill in the morning, I'll make my bed.  So far, it's working!)
8.  Live healthier.

Fairly easy, right?  And I know it's all about the baby steps.  And if I fall, it's okay.  Fall forward.  Just get up and try again.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, yesterday, (A Holy Experience)  and came across this printable: 

It's awesome.  Here's Ann's whole post: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/12/a-grace-plan-a-doable-life-change-plan-for-a-new-year-a-new-you-with-printable/

And PRINT the printable.  I printed a couple.  One to hang on the wall in my office,  and one to put in my filofax.  It's SO good!  And such a good reminder!

So Happy New Year! Let's make 2014 the best it can be!