My Team

First and foremost: Oh. My. Goodness. It is absolutely ridiculous how long it has been since I wrote a blog post! I truly apologize for that. Good news is: we have plenty to cover! Bad News Is: I have missed you all! Moving On...

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a team to make a celebrity red-carpet-ready. Well, it takes
multiple planners to keep me on track! I am not kidding! Jump on instagram and search some tags like "plannernerd" or "plannerjunkie." You will see that I am not alone! I have three planners. Yes, three. However, they all serve a slightly different purpose. If you think that's a lot, (again) hop on instagram and see just how many women join me in utilizing more than 1 planner! So what all do I use these for? I am so glad you asked!

1. My FoxyDori, made by Kelly - one of the sweetest Etsy sellers you will ever meet. It's fuschia (she calls it DragonFruit. Who cares?! It's gorgeous!), with my initials in the bottom right corner....Perfection.
So, What's In It? My MayDesigns notebooks, all of which serve their own individual purpose. This planner is all about me: my schedule, personal goals, personal to-do list, etc.. And it goes everywhere with me.

• An Agenda: This helps me keep track of the most important parts of my day (to do lists, errands, things to remember, etc.)
  
• An Address Book: Sometimes, I have a card in my purse to mail, but I have forgotten to write (or finish writing) the address. This is where my on-the-go address book comes in handy!
• A Meal Planner: This includes a weekly space to write out the meals for each day, and another space to write out my grocery list! So handy.
  
• A Budget Book: I'm terrible about writing out expenses AFTER I get home. I usually end up shredding the receipts before I remember to write them down in my check register or my budget tracker. This allows me to keep up with expenses WHEN they happen!
  
• A Notebook: This is just plain lined notebook paper. I use this to write down to-do lists, doodle, or even write important info given to me while I'm on the go.
  

2. My Erin Condren Life Planner. This planner is a little more broad in terms of what I write in it/plan in it. This is more of a "family" planner, but still is mostly focused on my personal daily to-do lists. I plan out any important events for J (my hubby) or T (my stepson) in here as well. Family member's birthdays, as well as their important events are noted in here as well. This planner frequently makes an appearance out in public with me, but doesn't necessarily travel everywhere I go.

• Weekly Spreads Include: Birthdays, daily to-do lists, errands to run, doctors' appointments, work check lists, my daily work schedule, reminders, etc.
  
• Monthly Spreads Include: Birthdays, Big events (i.e., anniversaries, graduations), vacations/trips, when my stepson visits, my husband's retreats. I also use my notes section on each month to track my PTO so that I make sure I don't go over!

3. My Inkwell Press Planner. This is truly a family planner. It lives on my bartop in my kitchen. This has everything going on in our family in one place: J's work schedule, my work schedule, T's visits, J's Honey-Do list, my goals for around the house each week, meal plans, work out goals, etc.. What I really love about this planner is the extra notes pages after each month and the goals page included each month. It's great for a business-minded woman (OR a woman on a mission to get out of debt!). While mine is not personalized on the cover, it does generally come with personalization. I ordered mine on sale when personalization was no longer offered.

• Weekly Spreads Include: Both of our work schedules broken down by time each day, dinner plan, work out plan, pay days, honey-do list, errands to run, and weekly goals for around the house.
  
• Monthly Spreads Include: Pay Days (we get paid on different days of the month), T's visits, big events, J's retreats, our vacations, my call weekends, etc. 

See?! It really does take a village to keep me on track!  Hopefully, this helps provide you with some inspiration on how to utilize multiple planners. My recommendation is to make your smallest planner your go-to on-the-go planner with your larger planners being more flexible to stay at home. If you like my magnetic clips, check out OliClip on etsy. Like the stickers you see?! Check out my instagram (@mrshenleyplans) for vendors or stay tuned for a new weekly blog feature (Coming Soon!): My Favorite Etsy Vendors.

Thanks for stopping by!

My New Favorite iPad App

I love to cook - when I have time. While most of you know from previous blog posts that J does the majority of the cooking, that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy scavenging for some amazing-sounding recipes! We really do enjoy cooking together (remember our second date?). Recently, my mom introduced me to this amazing iPad app for the kitchen: RecipeBook. When she initially purchased it, the app cost $2.99. Now it's $3.99. I don't generally make a habit of buying iPad apps. I personally think that it is a waste of money, but I did purchase this app. I am so happy that I did! Whenever I find a recipe that sounds great, I transfer it into this app. From there, I can email it to J (who has the same app). He can then transfer it into the app on his iPad and use it to make dinner! Super simple!

So, to demonstrate, I've included a little mini tutorial to show you a little bit of what this app is all about! I found this amazing-sounding recipe on Pinterest: Roasted Cauliflower & Gruyere Soup. I opened up the actual webpage that this recipe was found on and copied the link.

I then opened up my RecipeBook app and selected "Import Recipe from Online" under the menu options.

From there, you can import the recipe in a snap! The directions on the app are actually really well-written and easy to understand. The best part is, the app will create a grocery list on demand! Pretty awesome, huh?!

I hope you enjoy this app! Let me know if you want to swap some recipes! :)

Putting Your Erin Condren Life Planner to Work: Meal Planning

We have this issue in our house - a lot. It's 6 pm, J and I are both starving, and yet we have no food thawed out, the left overs are bad, and no plan for dinner. So we make it work by going out to eat - a huge killer for our already tight budget. We have implemented a system at our house to make grocery shopping easier, decrease the meals we eat out, and make the most out of the food we do buy. If you take your lunch to work, you can even take this a step further by figuring out how you are going to dole your leftovers out over the week for lunch.

1. I have taken this idea from a sweet girl I know from a Facebook group for Erin Condren fanatics. I created a page of quick meal ideas (my "meal reference") that I refer to when I get stuck.  I have organized these by categories: main dishes, crockpot recipes, sides, and recipes to try (for when I stumble across that amazing-sounding recipe on Pinterest and want to actually remember which dish I pinned).  If you have a picky kid, make a list separate for them and add to it when you find a new food he or she likes. The possibilities of your menu reference are endless! I even created on specifically for parties, dividing it up into the following categories: appetizers, sides, salads, finger foods, dips, and main dishes.

2. Using my cravings (no I'm not pregnant), J's requests, and my Pinterest inspirations, I create a list of meals - one for each day. I run this list by J to make sure that he is ok with everything (after all, he is the cook!). I write this down on a sticky note (and try to assign one meal to each day of the week, mixing up the protein of the main dish so we don't have chicken 3 nights in a row, etc.).

3. Once I get to the point where I am ready to decorate my week (see how I do that here!), I write down each meal on a sticker and stick it at the bottom of the page on the lined notes section.

4. I then transfer the meal plan to our menu board on the fridge. I ordered this off of a discount website (jane.com).  The original company was Lovey Dovey Creations. This way, if I am at work with my planner, J knows what to thaw out, cook, prepare, etc.. We often use the left overs for lunch the next day if we can. Sometimes, we simply plan to make less of a meal if we are trying to cut down on the amount of leftovers we have (like if we are leaving for a trip later that week).

I hope this has inspired you to get to meal-planning! I plan weekly so we make weekly trips to the grocery store. However, I have made monthly meal plans before (it just got a bit tedious for me). The great thing about this system is you can use all (or none, or some) of what I do. Let me know how it works for you!