Passover Preparation with The Happy Planner

     Passover (Pesach) preparation can be somewhat daunting, but I’ve learned that if I start my planning 4-6 weeks out, I don’t have the anxiety that often comes with the last minute house cleaning de-leavening fiasco. 

     I started laying out my Passover preparation this week.  This is my Pre-Pre-Planning Week!!  Next week is my ACTUAL PRE-PLANNING WEEK!  Giving myself a planning week gives me a chance to get myself in gear and have a strategy all mapped out.  That includes updating my cleaning regimen and creating printable lists that can go in my Happy Planner…which, of course, I’m sharing.  J  This is the week that I assess our Holy Day outfits and plan for purchases I need to make to complete them.  This is when I get a tote out and start putting chametz into it as I come across it the next few weeks in the kitchen.  I also assess other supplies that might be needed (new church notebooks, special Passover week foods, etc.)

     I’ve learned to start planning my preparation by working backwards from the week of Passover to layout my cleaning schedule.   I like to leave the week before (or the week of, if starts late in the week) pretty open so that I can do last minute chores and not feel a hectic rush to get it all done!  Since Day 1 of Pesach is on Tuesday, April 11 this year (starting Monday night at sundown) I’m using the week of Apr 2-8 as my “1 Week Before”.  This is when the goal is to RELAX and finish last minute tasks like cleaning out the vehicles, last minute vacuuming (and cleaning out that vacuum!!), sweeping, mopping, and making the matzo!

     Depending on how large my home is I may need to start cleaning 5-6 weeks out (right now I have 2 bedrooms on an upper level that aren’t used, so I can shut the stairway door for the week of Pesach and not worry about it.)  This year, 4 weeks is plenty for me to get everything done and not be stressed about it!   However, since I was making new stickers anyway, I went ahead and added extra weeks of planning for when I might need it.

After printing them out, I put the applicable dates next to that row and Passover dates at the top!

     5 Weeks Before I have set aside for the extra rooms such as children’s bedrooms, guest bedrooms and extra bathrooms.

     4 Weeks Before I start into the part of the house where WE live, but where guests (and children) can be kept out of most of the time for the next couple weeks!  Yes, I know, this isn’t always possible, but  it’s a good time to implement the “nothing but water bottles” rule for the house!  I clean the master bedroom, the master closet (2 in our room!), the office, linen closet, coat closet, and the big open space of the basement—if you have such a space—I do and unfortunately, I can’t close it off for the week!

     3 Weeks Before I move into the workhorse of the house.  I attack the laundry room, main bathroom, family room, back porch (sun porch, etc), and the basement bathroom (if you have one).

     2 Weeks Before I’m still in full swing finishing the workhorse part of the house with the living room, dining room, and the kitchen—which I allotted a couple solid days for (maybe three!)

     To download my THP Passover Planning, click the link below and download it directly from dropbox.   😎  Remember to link back if you share and send me instagram pictures of how you use them!  #myharrydlife 

The Happy Planner Passover Planning Squares

     Keep in mind that my lists are NOT all-inclusive cleaning lists, they are reminders of key things for each room.  Of course, things like cleaning INSIDE the trash can and not just emptying the trash are not included, but these are more of a reminder list than anything since I’ve been doing Passover cleaning my whole life!  I’ve also learned that I come up with extra chores for myself as the weeks go on, so I’ve included extra lines and extra stickers.  I’ll probably be updating this printable next Pesach with my notes from this year!  Just in case someone needs anything extra, I included a yellow row of completely blank lists!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Pesach!

And So The Cycle Goes....

I recently saw a period tracker sticker that caught my eye.  It was a thermometer with boxes you can check for light, medium, or heavy days.  They were all the same sticker, which is great for some, but I wanted a different version.

Instead of having check boxes, mine are filled in with light pink, dark pink, and red with an appropriate number of stickers on each page for the average cycle--whatever that is--in 30+ years I don't think I've ever been average!  I designed these so they can be printed out on Avery8167 Return Address Labels.  They are 1/2" x 1 3/4" and come 80/sheet.  You can get them in either white or clear.  If you don't have them, you can still print them on plain paper and cut them out.  My page of stickers will give you 26 Light Day Thermometers, 39 Medium Day Thermometers, and 15 Heavy Day Thermometers.

I used them the past couple months in my own planner.  I have been tracking this in a digital app, however, one time of losing everything when I had to change phones was enough to change my mind about how I monitor THAT part of my life!  ...three years of tracking were gone in just a few minutes.  :-(  

Click the link that says Period Tracker Labels and it will take you to my Dropbox Planner Downloads.  If you feel that you need or want individual sheets of each one, just let me know and I'll gladly go ahead and put that together for you, just leave a note below!  :-)

Period Tracker Labels

As always, these are free for your personal use and are not for reselling or commercial distribution.  If you enjoy these and want to share, please link back to me and give me credit for them.

Happy Planner-ish Layout Fun

I love my planner.  I REALLY LOOOVVVVEEEEE my planner.  It’s fun.  It’s pretty. It lets me be creative.  It helps me stay organized.  It looks cute when I say “let me check my schedule for that” and open these adorable pages.  I’ve had the plain schedule planners in the past and they are quite a bore to use…you know the kind…  But….when I decorate THIS I have a desire to look at it daily and stay on top of what I need to do.  I also try to document what I did that day/week, so it’ll be something I can look back on. 

I love NEW planners….but I also love the consistency of same size, easy to add to, etc….which is why I keep going back to my 8.5x11 3-ring binder.  <sigh>  It just does the trick.  However, after attempting to use [my homemade version of] the MAMBI Happy Planner for a few weeks (I considered it too much of a $$ investment I questioned some of the formatting anyway) I realized that what I liked was the size of the squares, the size of the sidebar, the overall layout and the decorating options the layout provided…who doesn’t like alllllll the coordinated planner stickers and washi that are out there….you can decorate to your heart’s content!  What I didn’t like was the oddball size of the planner, there was wayyyyyy more real estate than I needed every day/week, I could not deal with starting my week on Monday instead of Sunday (and there isn’t an option offered by MAMBI or anyone else that I could find with a Su-Sa week instead of Mo-Su week, and finally, to add my own pages I needed to cut EVERY . SINGLE  . PAGE to fit properly and [eventually] purchase a special hole punch.  None of these were things that I was willing to overcome to continue using the planner…  L  Honestly, the Mo-Su order was the clincher for me and sealed its FILE 13 fate.

Alas, I also like to DESIGN things, so why not take the features I LIKE and create a planner that works for me?  DUH!  <facepalm>  I JUST wanted a bare-bones version that did what I wanted it to do and fit in MY binder…and this one does. 

1.       It has the same size boxes as the Happy Planner (good for all those oh-so-wonderful planner sticker sets!)

2.       It has an ENTIRE week on ONE PAGE (so each 2-pg layout is actually 2 weeks instead of one.)

3.       The sidebar is the same dimension as the Happy Planner one, though mine is found under Sunday/Wednesday instead of covering the entire side of the page.  I designed it so that the sidebars are on the outside of the 2 page layout, not in the same place on both the left and right pages.

4.       Instead of “MORNING”, “AFTERNOON”, and “EVENING” I used that space for the day of the week….not all of us need 3 boxes a day to keep track of it all, so there are 10 boxes/week.

5.       3 extra boxes at the bottom…We have bills due every week and birthday/anniversary cards to send weekly, so I use a couple boxes to preplan sending those and I have a spare box to use for any special events coming up, preplanning, etc.  If you need that tiny calendar then you can print some readymade ones out on sticker paper and use the 3^rd box for it!

I have a couple versions…the Roman Calendar Sunday-Saturday one and the Jewish Girl Sunday-Shabbat version.  Click the link to which one you want to download it from dropbox.   I don’t mind if you share it as long as you link back to me for it!  J

Some quick hints for printing & using these pages:

1. It's designed to be printed double sided but can always be used as single pages also.
2. Grampa W. always said KISS-Keep It Simple not Stupid...streamlined undated, no-frills design makes this page useable year after year.  It's created to accomodate the sticker numbers out there or to fill in your own.
3. Planner layouts designed to fit the MAMBI Happy Planner will fit this perfectly so decorate away!

In a few day's I'll try to post a few pictures of my personal planner in action and a few tricks I use to keep it easy and fun(ctional)! 

Blessings and Happy Planning!  :)

Nebraska Cornhusker Planner Stickers

I've been addicted to documenting things in writing lately....my garden, my schedule, my goals, my achievements...you get the drift.  In the process, I've also gotten addicted to the MAMBI Happy Planner layout (though I do not have the original Happy Planner, I have my own version with the same size squares and sections.)  In finding all the awesome pages out there to decorate with, there is NOTHING for us Husker fans...SERIOUSLY!!  So I put one together.  I'll probably make a more detailed one as time goes on, but for now, I can say I have what I need to do some Husker pages if the need strikes!  These will fit the standard Happy Planner and since I only make things like this for my own use, unfortunately I won't be making the ECLP size.  Feel free to use this in your personal planners and scrapbooking, but remember that these images aren't for sale!  :)

The THP Husker Planner Printable can be downloaded from dropbox by clicking the link.

Blessings!

Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail

Last frost date will be here before we know it so Harry and I need to get the seeds germinated and ready for the greenhouse so they can be strong plants when they go into the garden.  Most have germinated and are nearly ready for the greenhouse planting.   This is the first year I'm keeping a detailed journal of everything from day one.

I've altered a standard composition book using Proverbs 31:16.  I also studied all kinds of growth charts and made one that suited what I wanted to track then fit it to my pages.  I left 3 lines of space so I have plenty of seed-specific note room. 

Harry and the Hubby can already taste that fresh sweet corn that we'll be picking in just a few short months and I'm already eager to be back in the kitchen canning away!

Geocaching Today

Here I am with m’lady’s geocaching haul today! Check us out on www.geocaching.com - HuskerGurl

SHOW ME THE WAY!

M’lady stopped in Aberdeen last night at this Super8 and found this relic! She hasn’t seen one in years! 

If you’ve never seen one, the map shows where you are with a green pin and hen you push the button of the place you want to go and it lights a mini light where it’s located on the map. Before the days of smartphones these were quite handy for travelers that wanted a bite to eat and some local sightseeing!