Blue Planners

Look at how Daniel went down for his nap yesterday ~

I love it. I've never seen him sleep like this, he's usually so curled up in child's pose with his ankles crossed. So I thought that was super cute.

Owen napped in a little nest (big Joe "chair" that over the past year has deteriorated into more of a bean bag thing than a chair)

So. Yesterday I did a little lesson for Family Home Evening. I got my inspiration from Corey when he wrote to Joseph and send him several pictures, one of which was a pic of one of his missionary planners:

Now I know that that looks like an ancient text, but it's not a dead sea scroll. This is just an example of how papers in Corey's pockets ended up looking when he was a missionary. Many of the photographs I sent Corey have similar wear and tear. Now this is how my mission planners looked: 

Of course I was in the States, not in the rough streets of south America.

As sister missionaries, we loved to plan out our week! It was one of the funnest parts of p-day - getting out our hole puncher and trimming these to fit perfectly in our Day planners. We'd fold them up so nicely so they could expand and retract to fit back in our planner. Planning went up a notch when I was with Hermana Spencer (aka bff Nicole)

She's still a planning inspiration to me. So, I printed up a blue planner yesterday and ran to Kinko's and made 100 copies of it double sided on actual pastel blue paper! So now it look official and I am going to try once again to help the kids plan and use their time wisely. I turned it into a FHE lesson by telling them that Joseph plans his time, missionaries plan how they will use each hour of each day. So learning how to do this will help them be ready to serve a mission. Natalie is game.

So I just introduced it yesterday. The kids did like the planners with Nicole as my companion that used highlighter colors. I had pens and makers, but no highlighters. I went and picked those up today, so now we're set to go. Next Sunday I'm doing to do a real planning session with the kids, just like the in glorious p-days in years gone by (missionary "preparation day") I think they'll get excited when I bring out the high lighters and stickers!

I want the kids, Corey, and myself to simplify and do less. Less distractions and more focused on what is important. Not sure what this picture from tonight would qualify for/as - they were watching silly videos on Ethan's phone.

Makes for a cute picture, and that definitely looks like family bonding... cause they are all bonded together in one big magnetic ball together (not sure if the magnet is the phone or Corey?)

Phones and silly videos are a distraction. But atleast there is no physical clutter from the things you collect and save on a phone. I've gotta get rid of stuff inside this home, cause no matter how much I aspire to organize, you can't organize clutter. So I'm putting on my planner time to reduce and simplify life, as these 12 "Zen things" on my bathroom wall have been reminding me to do for years.  

I'm kinda focusing on #6 and 7, I want to develop rituals and routines and designate time for certain things. Night time before scriptures is probably an okay time to watch silly videos (we usually use it as bait to get the kids to all gather). We can do this, we can live better and more simply. Maybe the kids will feel I'm complicating things by using blue planners, but they worked for me as a missionary, and missionaries live pretty simplified lives (see Joseph's bedroom and desk! - pics 7&8) The thing is that they have one purpose, to teach and testify, and so they are able to stay focused on that. It gets more complicated with family life and 11 kids, but we can do this, we're gonna learn to live simply! I need to simplify before baby comes, I have 17 weeks to try and get this going.