***When you purchase through links on my webpage, I do earn advertising fees.***

12 Days of Jumping Into Fall & Recovering From Summer

Day 3: Shopping, Creating, & Learning Online

(In case you missed the first 2 days, here are the links: Day 1 House Cleaning Playlist and Day 2 Tackling Low Self Esteem.)

Do you know what else you tend to do when you get your days back to yourself? Well, personally, I pop open my laptop and go gallivanting about the world-wide web.

I’ve been shopping for deals, building photo albums, and freshening up my blogging skills. What all do you like to do online? Well, I found some exciting things I wanted to share with y’all.

The funny thing is that I’ve never been that great about buying things online. My husband is actually our Amazon addict. (Don’t even protest, Alan. You know it’s true.)

But I found such AWESOME deals that I indulged, and in the spirit of passing along good news, here are the 4 things I *bought* (okay, one is free) this week online. Some are even from other bloggers, and it makes me EXTRA happy to know I’m supporting a fellow blogger.

This is one of the 30 or so Snapfish photo albums I’ve made over the years. I’m such a fan!

Deal #4 Snapfish Photo Album

Now here’s a secret you may not realize. Snapfish photo albums are ALWAYS on sale. The sale changes regularly, but it’s usually pretty close to 50% off, but you have to go to the Snapfish.com home page and locate the COUPON CODE. Coupon codes are everything on Snapfish.

I love to make these. Actually, I’m sort of obsessed with ordering all our photo products from Snapfish because they cut them specifically for digital photos, so it isn’t like when you drop your photos off at the local drugstore and then get them back with 1/3 of your photo chopped off.

And it’s not just photo albums that are always on sale. Most of their coupon codes are usually “site wide”, so they can be applied to any purchase.

Through September 11th, photo books are up to 72%off. Just use the code 60SEP18!

Deal #3 Boys Jeans from Kohl’s

I got them on sale, and combining it with my $10 Kohl’s cash, they were only $4.95 plus tax. However, that was a “flash sale”, so by the time you read this that one will probably be over.

Kohl’s ALWAYS has deals going on, and I love that their deals also apply to the online store though, so it’s definitely worth checking out. I buy most of my older boys’ pants and nicer clothing from Kohl’s.

Deal #2  FREE Blogging Course with Crystal Paine this Wednesday night!

You know I’m a big fan of Crystal Paine. I’ve talked about that here and here. I know her blogging course will be useful because I’ve already taken a pilot one that she did a couple of years ago as well as the Blog 101 Course

If you are interested in starting or growing a new blog, perhaps even making some money on the side, you can sign up for Crystal’s free blogging class here.

I actually took her course Blog Start Up 101, even though I’m not a beginner, and it was AWESOME. What she brings to the table is 12 years of successful experience as well as excellent motivational skills. Plus, everything in her course is an extremely organized format. Each day had a video, actionable plans, and detailed explanations.

I could’ve saved myself 2 years of “figuring it out” if I had had these courses back in 2014! Click here to check it out for yourself.

Deal #1 Brilliant Life Planner 2019 at the LOWEST Price Ever

Now this is the one I’m the most excited about. That’s why it’s #1.

This was my first year to use this particular planner, and it was a game changer. I’m not even exaggerating. With all the extra notes pages, graph pages, planning pages, and project planner pages, this planner, along with Beth Ann’s free planner school, which comes with your planner, challenged me to plan more thoroughly than I ever have before.

Remember my Facebook Live video about this planner? Yes, I get this excited about it.

Of course, it’s always so funny, me and planners. I start out the beginning of the year like, “Oh yeah!! I’m so excited about this new start. I’m writing down ALL the things!”

Ever so dedicated to writing everything down at the beginning of the year

…and by September my weekly pages look more like this:

not so dedicated to writing allll the things now..

hehehe Look, I’m just not the kind of person who can live up to an hour-by-hour kind of plan. I like a list better. A short list!

However, I will say that I have used almost ALLL the Notes pages in the front and back of this thing at this point in the year, and there were a ton. Not to worry though, because each month has its own Notes pages, and I haven’t touched those. Plus, I’ve managed to save a few blank pages for whatever these last few months of the year throw at us, to include Christmas.

I LOVE these Project Planner pages. I just started this blog daily checklist a week ago. The boys are back in school now, so I have no excuse.

I have 2 solid Project Planner pages left to handle Christmas. Don’t get me wrong though. I haven’t actually started planning Christmas yet.

Oh wait. It’s September. I bet many of you are already all over the Christmas thing…

The Brilliant Life planner is normally $58 and worth every penny and then some, but for only a couple more days it’s down to $42 for pre-order, so I’ve already bought mine! That price is good September 6-13! Click here to learn more or snag one for yourself.

I love filling out these pages!

Are you doing any online shopping? What deals have you found?

If you have any questions about the planner or blogging courses or Snapfish, ask me below, and I’ll find you some answers!

Stay safe in this hurricane! Be sure to check the blog tomorrow (September 11th) evening. We will have a first hand account of that day from my friend Amy who was working on Capitol Hill. I cannot wait to read it!!

The post Day 3 of Jumping Into Fall: Shopping Deals We’re Loving This Week appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Was I always a little flaky? I don’t know. For years, I could get away with being very loosy-goosy with my planning because I was a stay-at-home mom of preschoolers. We moved all the time too, so by the time people developed expectations of me, we were off and away to the next town.

Over the years, I have slipped into a routine of planning as little as I can get away with planning. I’ll procrastinate decisions until they are made for me. Yep. Guilty of that. Sometimes I get this fear of commitment. If I sign up for things, I’m going to have to figure out how to actually accomplish those things with toddlers in tow.

And I never knew when my husband would be here or not be here, so making plans felt like shooting darts– real darts–in a room full of people, blindfolded.

No thanks.

So friends, that is how I became the version of April you have today.

April, are you going to the yada yada yada meeting?

**Total deer in the headlights**

Ummmm. Uhhhhhh.  Umm, yeah, you know, I might…

(Inside my head I’m thinking……IF all 4 kids are well, IF Alan is in town, IF I have energy left that day…..IF I am not supposed to actually be at Dan’s tee-ball game or some Army function that I can’t remember the exact dates for…..If, If, If…..)

I love to rock me some babies. Go away, world, until I finish this.

Actually, for the past 11 years those were all perfectly good reasons to be flaky, indecisive, unprepared, uncommitted, and unsure. Did I shut the world out a little bit? Yes, yes, I definitely did.

In fact, I had to google the word “twerking” not too long ago. I’m so out of touch with pop culture, and I kept hearing that word. All I can say to that one is ew, girl! Ew. Somebody get that poor girl a sweater and some capri pants.

But things keep popping up on our calendars, and I’ve re-entered the world of work with my blog. I actually HAVE to FORCE myself to plan and be less free-spirited, more grown-up like.

You people who have a plan amaze me, and I mean that in a good way. You totally have my respect.

You know when you are going on vacation. You’ve actually committed to specific dates, and you probably even know how you are gong to pay for that.

You have a budget.

You know when people’s birthdays are, and you plan for that accordingly.

You keep some sort of planner or calendar.

 
About that….Y’all! I have purchased TWO different “planners” this year. They are both mostly blank. I have a calendar hanging in my kitchen too, which makes 3 planners, really. All I’ve written on that one is what the kids are doing for lunch and when their dentist appointments are.

I even downloaded an editorial calendar plug-in to try and start planning my blog posts. (It’s actually extremely helpful, fellow bloggers, check it out. It’s called “editorial calendar.”)

Only I’m so anti-structured in my thinking, I can rarely bring myself to write about what I’m ‘scheduled’ to write about.

I also have 2 different e-books I’ve written half of, and now they are just sitting on my hard-drive taking up space. My hard drive is so full, my computer has actually stopped letting me download or upload new things.

And suddenly I find myself wanting to change.

See, I bought all those planners. That’s the first step. I WANT to do the right thing and be all responsible again. I always was one-half responsible and one-half not at all, even back in high school and college. I used to make myself plans and stick to them, sort of. Well, I used to make plans. Maybe I never did really stick to them. I almost always turn in everything on time, actually, but I live in fear of signing up for extra things.

So I decided to pray about this today.

And this was my answer:  If you can plan out each day by making a list and crossing things off, then you can apply that same strategy to weeks. Then apply it to months. Then do that for years. Do it at the start of each week, each month, and each year, just like you are doing now for days.

Huh. Brilliant. Maybe even doable?

My planning tends to never go past the day that I’m on. This is the typical extent of my planning.

What I do now for each day is this. After I have safely delivered all of my children to school, I come home and have a little time for Bible study and prayer. You have to pour inspiration in to yourself if you expect to pour any out, right?

I close with prayer, and I ask God to help me make my to-do list for that day. I write the list out on the wipe-off board in the kitchen. Then I mentally prioritize the things that HAVE to get done.

That’s why I usually cook supper in the morning, by 12:00, because I know everyone HAS to eat, and I don’t want that task hanging over my head. Also, I have no energy left at 5:00pm.

I see no reason why this method for planning each day could not be applied to my weeks, months, and years, with one of the 3 planners I’ve purchased laying open on my lap.

And don’t even say that I should use my phone as my planner. I can’t do it. This falls under scatter-brained people problems. The minute I open my phone to use the calendar or some other useful, productive app, I immediately forget what I was doing and end up reading Instagram or my email or something.

So watch out, world! I now have a plan for how to plan!!!! Who knows? Maybe next week I will make a budget, a meal plan, or catch up on my 2,809 emails…….nahhhhh…

Please share your best planning tips in the comment section! We would love to hear more ideas! Thanks, y’all!

The post My Brilliant Plan for How to Plan appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.