My Happy Planner.....

I'm a planner nerd, you know the type... they get all googly eyed as they walk down the office supply aisle. 

Can't help looking at color coded.... well everything. 

And planners, well they own too many, and never stop looking at them!

NERD!!

Yep that's me!

Enter, 

the Happy Planner, the Create 365, the Me and My Big Ideas Planner. 

(yeah it's known by all those names!)

Do you see this beauty.... I am in love with it!!! 

This is the Big Happy Planner, the Big size, not classic or mini. 

I purchased the horizontal, Big sized regular planner. 

Let me just explain the layout. 

I use the top section for our family life planning. Things like outings, classes, lessons, parties with groups, and the likes. The first hand drawn line, at the bottom of the top section is where I write down who's sheets are being, or should be, washed every day. My goal is once a week, but well life happens. It's there to just remind me, what I need to do. I will probably even draw one more above that for the "extra" cleaning jobs I want to do each day. I just haven't got there yet. This would be the "extra" "deep" cleaning things I try to accomplish. I usually figure out what I need to do through out the month, usually there are a few weekly things, and then the rest is filled with monthly tasks. 

(I can write a post on that, later if there's interest)

The second section. The first hand drawn row is for our due dates and notes section. In this section I write down dates I give to my older kids. How many times have I said, I want you to finish this assignment by the end of the week or by next Tuesday, and then completely forgot!! Especially as I am teaching High School, and Middle School- I'm finding my memory isn't as great as it use to be... and a gentle reminder is amazing. 

After that area, I have space to write our Science Lessons for the Grammar Kids, in our case the younger boys. This is where I note the lesson, experiments, videos and such. I teach the younger kids from the same subject as the older kids are using. Last year we used Elemental Science, we are leaning towards this again, for the upcoming year. 

My last section is used for our family daily lessons. We typically do History 2 days a week. Last year we also did Art one day, and Nature Study the other. I typically leave Fridays unplanned, and if we don't have out of the house activities, we will play a game. 

The "weekend" sections of this third section I use for other things, too. I use one for Science Notes for my older kids. Usually just noting the lesson, and if there's something I thought of to add to it... maybe a video or something. They do these independently throughout the week, or work on it together. The last part of this section is for next weeks notes. This is where I write things I need to copy for next week, supplies I need to get or books I need to gather. 

I also continue the columns to the bottom of the page, making one more small section at the bottom. (not pictured) This is where I plan our meals for the week. I only "plan" our dinner meals each week. We eat the same things every day for both breakfast and lunch. I write them in the daily columns, but I don't always make that meal on that day of the week. I just check off what I make each day, and try to plan to our weekly schedule. 

I use the top section weekend boxes to write out our weekend plans. We don't typically have planned, activities for the weekends, it's more of a go with the flow idea!  :) 

On the Left side of the planner is a Notes section, that's where I scribble things that I need to do, or remember. I use to use that for a grocery list, but found it didn't function well for us. 

That's it!!!

Why do I love this planner? 

*The layout! I love the 3 horizontal boxes! 

*The size! I love that it's the size of a regular sheet of paper. Also I can hole punch paper or printed lists and place them directly into the planner

My friend gifted me the punch!

* Removable pages! You can easily remove pages and replace them, or put them into a new planner the next year. I always have lists, and notes and things I want to use every year. I don't want to write those out every year to put them in my new planner. 

*Thick pages! The pages in the planner are thick! They hold up to my chaos, in more ways then one! I also love the lined pages and the graph pages- the graph pages have been so useful. 

*I can flip the planner open and fold it all the way over, flat. So it is only 1 sheet wide. This is so nice when walking, or writing at a meeting or a parkday.

*It fits in my purse!! Just barely, but it does!!!