August Planning

Can you believe it is almost August??  Where has 2017 gone??  In a few weeks we will start back to school, scouts starts back and I am turning 33!!  Wow, I can not believe it!!  In July I finished my first bullet journal.  I have several that I have started and not finished, but I completed the journal.  During July I started thinking about what I wanted my next bullet journal to look like and then I saw the Faith planner which changed everything.  I kinda fell in love with Happy Planners!!  I do have a rather large stack of planners that I am currently using, but each planner has a purpose and they are not all day planners.

Of course with school starting back I decided for this school year my planner would be a Happy Planner!!  I can not wait to show y’all more of this planner.

I mentioned that I saw the Faith planner and that changed everything.  Yes it did!!  I actually got this planner for my birthday.  My Mother gave me money for my birthday and I decided this was what I wanted to spend the money on.

I will share more of my Faith planner with you later, but right now I just want to share my month view for August.  I have the verse for each day written out on the day from my Verse-A-Day Challenge.  Then I just added a few quotes that I liked to fill in some of the space where there wasn’t a day.  Then at the top of the page instead of having my top 5, I decided to change it and note the Bible studies I am currently working on.  I have my Verse-A-Day Challenge, Seeking a Heart Like His (which is our Wednesday night study at church but it has daily homework in it) and Armor of God (which is a Bible study I am doing with some scout Moms).

Then I have my day planner.  I just love the front cover!!  This year has been a struggle for me.  With us moving I have not accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish and it has had me down.  So when I saw this cover I knew this cover was prefect for my day planner.

I have my month of August set up with all the events that I know of so far.  I also included my personal monthly goals and a quote at the bottom!!  I kinda love inspirational quotes right now.

Next I have my mini happy planner, I actually got this planner several months ago when we were at the beach.  I attempted to use it and it just didn’t work for me.  I took out the couple of months that I attempted to use it for and decided to make it a blog planner.  It is an undated calendar so that really helped with taking out the few months and picking up where I wanted to.

My month view is set up as my editorial calendar.  I am actually planning two different blogs in this planner so it is color coded, but more about that in a minute.

My weekly view is going to be my social media planning.  So I have already set it up for the whole month.  Then I can go through and plan what I want to share where.  For now I am planning to plan my social media for both this blog, my puppy blog and my two Etsy shops in this planner.

I didn’t need Friday through Sunday of the last week so I decided to cover it with cardstock and add cute stickers that matched my month planning.  I am going to use this page for taking notes and putting down reminders for the next month.

Lastly, I have my bullet journal.  I went back and forth about if I was going to use this bullet journal or not.  When I decided to use Happy Planner this bullet journal was still in the wrapping and I debated on sending it back to Amazon.  But its my favorite color and I have been waiting for so long to have this exact bullet journal and there are some things I still need a journal for so I decided to go ahead and use it.

I sent up my key and color coding in the front of my bullet journal.  I am actually planning on making the color coding a flip out on the bottom because I am color coding the bottom edge of each page to match what it goes along with.  I am also using this same color coding through out my social media planner so I will probably add this color coding chart in the front of my social media planner too.

I am using my Stampin’ Up Stamp Write for my color coding.  Here is a picture showing the names of each of the colors.  If you can’t read them let me know.

I did transfer over my mid-year goals from my previous bullet journal since goals, collections and list are my main purpose of this bullet journal.

My monthly set up is very basic.  I have my monthly goals and weekly task on a two page spread.  This really helped me a lot in my other bullet journal and I knew this was something I wanted to continue with.

Also I am still using my social media and abundance tracker.  I am tracking my social media growth and how much I have each day in sells.  I may move the social media tracker to my social media planner later, but for now I am going to leave it in my bullet journal.

So having multiple planners/journals isn’t as crazy as it looks now is it??  Do you use a certain planner??  I would love to hear about it, comment below and tell me about it and if you blog about it share a link so I can check it out.

Bible Journaling Challenge – Spending More Time with God

One thing I really strive to do is spend quality time with God everyday.  Bible journaling is something that has helped me spend more quality time with God everyday.  I have decided I want to start journaling a verse a day, whether its in my Bible, planner, sketch pad or just a napkin that I have handy.  I would like to to challenge all of you to join in me in journaling everyday and spending that quality time with God.  Remember its not about what you journal on and what you journal in, its about spending time with God and growing in your relationship with God.

For the month of August I choose verses related to inspiration.  Each month I am going to select verses related to a different theme and I felt inspiration was not only something good to start with, but also good since most kids and teachers will be going back to school during the month of August (my children and I included).  We can all use a little inspiration!!

You can download this graphic I created with the verse for each day and save it on to your computer, smartphone or you can even print it and put it with your Bible.

I would like to encourage you to share your verse a day journaling.  I will be sharing mine everyday on Instagram with the hashtag #BibleJournalingwithSheena.  If you share yours in Instagram please be sure to use this hashtag so I can find you and we can connect!!  You can even share my graphic on Instagram with hashtag #BibleJournalingwithSheena and invite your friends to join us.

Are you looking for others who enjoy Bible Journaling??  Join us in our Facebook group at Beginner Bible Journaling.  I look forward to seeing everyones work and all of us growing closer to God!!

Thursday To Do #3

So if have seen my last two post in this series, #1 and #2, then you know I have ALOT of work to do to make this house our home, which I have done NONE of this past week.  BUT…I also still have my regular everyday stuff to do such as preparing for the next school year.

I spent about three days where all I did was plan for next school year.  Normally this is a process that I start in January and by the end of the school year I am basically ready for the next school year other than pulling out last years school work and setting up for the next year.  But with all of this moving, yep I started this process LAST WEEK!!!!  But surprisingly I have come along way in a week.

My newest love in the planner world is Happy Planners (more about that later) so of course I went out and picked up one of the Teacher Happy Planners for this next school year.  I absolutely love how cute it is and the stickers that go with it are even cuter!!  I have been working on creating some personalized stickers for my planner.  Be sure to keep an eye out for them.

I have planned out our whole school calendar.  I don’t like to have short weeks so this year I decided to plan a fall break during the week of Labor Day since we start back early August.  After that other than Thanksgiving break, Christmas break and spring break we are not planning for any other days off.  One nice thing about homeschooling is that even when you have something else going on (like bad weather) we can still do our school work.  I do actually have more days planned than our cover school requires.  But honestly we enjoy school and even during our breaks we still end up doing stuff related to school.

I have planned out which curriculum we are using for everything this year.  This year is Bradley’s first required year of school, so he will be joining us in some stuff this year and he will have some of his own stuff to do this year as well.  Our curriculum is based on a Charlotte Mason method.  Later on I’ll give you a break down of all the curriculum we are using this year.  One thing I have found that I really like to do is purchase e-books instead of physical books because I am generally using the same book for multiple children and it ends up being cheaper that way.

To Do List

• Make Subject Stickers
• Send Registration to Cover School
• Set Up Kindles
• Sell Old Curriculum
• Order New Curriculum
• Purchase Supplies
• Pull Old Curriculum Off Shelves
• Pull Need Curriculum from Totes
• Sign Up for Homeschool Minder
• Pack 2017-2018 School Work
• Label Memory Verse Box
• Research Kindergarten More
• Make Shape Lacing Cards
• Laminate Matching Cards
• Gather Counting Books

This was my to do list that I started in my planner as I was working and as you can see I have already marked off a good many things.  I seriously can not believe Bradley is already starting Kindergarten, it seems like we were just bringing him home from the NICU and running back and forth to the doctor everyday.

Be sure to check back next week and hopefully I will have a lot more knocked off this list and more off of my to do list from redecoration the school room.

Additional Bible Journaling Supplies

Last week I did an introduction to Bible Journaling talking about which Bibles I use and some of my supplies.  This week I want to talk about some additional supplies that are some of my top picks when it comes to Bible Journaling.  Please remember you do not need any of these supplies to get started with Bible journaling.  You can use anything you already have on hand.

First I love to mark my pages so that I can easily find them later.  This can be done is several ways.  The way I have done this the most is with tabs that I have created from a tab punch I picked up at Hobby Lobby and some scrapbook paper I already had at home.

I also like to add stickers to the pages.  When I am not in the mood to hand letter or I just want to make it a little faster going on myself I will grab my stickers and add them to the page.  I like to mix up different color stickers with upper and lower case letters and different letter fonts.

Finally one of my other favorite ways to add something to my Bible is with a overlay.  Usually I will find a picture online that speaks to me with the story I am studying and then I will print that picture on velum.  Once I have printed the picture on velum, I will cut it down to the size I want it to be in my Bible.  Then I will use glue to attach it to the inside edge of my Bible.  Last I will use washi tape to place over where the glue is to make it look prettier.

Do you have any special supplies you like to use with your Bible Journaling??  I would love to hear about it.  You can leave a comment below and tell me about it.  Also you can share it on Instagram with me by using hashtag #BibleJournalingwithSheena.  Looking to connect with others who Bible Journal??  Join us in our group on Facebook, Beginner Bible Journaling.

Thursday To Do #2

This week on my Thursday To Do series I want to talk about my kitchen.  When I was working on my dining room/school room color I decided I wanted to paint my kitchen the same color and I really thought I would have enough paint left, but I don’t.  Also I am exhausted from painting the dining room/school room and in the need to not over do it I may wait a few more weeks to paint the kitchen.  But I do have plenty of other projects to work on in the kitchen.

1. Remove Keurig
2. Paint Walls
3. Paint Trim
4. Refinish Table
5. Refinish Small Appliance Shelf
6. Create Menu Board
7. Create Vinyl Wall Art

I am sure as I get in there and get to work I will find more stuff I want to do too!!  I do know down the road I want to tile the backsplash, replace the counter top and add lights under the counters.

Lets look to see how the dining room/school room is coming along.  Last week this was my list:

1. Paint Walls
2. Paint Trim
3. Purchase Three New Outlet Covers (Lowe’s was out of the ones to match most of the other ones in our house)
4. Repair Blinds (We do have nice blinds, but a few of them are slightly messed up)
5. Hang Dry Erase Boards
6. Hang Posters
7. Arrange Furniture
8. Set Up Bradley’s Area
9. Make a Valance
10. Purchase a Curtain Rod
11. Create Wall Art (I am going to put a quote or versus on the wall above the window)
12. Install a Hook for our Library Bag
13. Purchase Another Dry Erase Board

Since then we have repaired the blinds, hung the posters, set up Bradley’s area, purchased another dry erase board and created wall art.  So now my To Do List for the Dining Room/School Room is:

1. Purchase Three New Outlet Covers (Lowe’s was out of the ones to match most of the other ones in our house)
2. Purchase a Curtain Rod
3. Make a Valance
4. Install a Hook for our Library Bag

I am knocking things out!!  This room will probably go the fastest since its our school room and it won’t be long before we will be preparing to start back to school.  But that means it won’t be too long before a room tour!!  Woohoo!!!!!!

Oh yeah and in the process of working on it I have decided I want a rug to go in Bradley’s area.  So that just adds something to my list, but that should be pretty easy.

Welcome to Bible Journaling

A few years ago on my ride to (or maybe home from) the beach, I was catching up on reading some of my favorite bloggers recent post when I stumbled upon Bible journaling.  It immediately caught my interest and I began learning all I could about it and spending more time in my Bible after church illustrating the sermon.

I had to have just the right Bible and all the right supplies.  Well the supplies part was pretty easy for me since I have tons and tons of supplies from my days of scrapbooking.  But as time went by I learned something, Bible journaling is not about having the prefect Bible or all the right supplies.  Its about spending more time in God’s word.  Its about using your artistic talents to worship God.

Now I did purchase a journaling Bible.  Actually since that car ride I have purchased two journaling Bibles.  I have the black ESV single column journaling Bible and I have the KJV Creative Bible.  But before I purchased either one of these Bibles I would use you NIV that is my go to Bible (I kinda love the size of it).  I also would spend time in a sketch pad doing some Bible journaling.

Next lets talk about supplies.  This is something I get asked about quiet regularly, “what supplies do you use”, “what do you use to color in your Bible”?  The best answer is “what do you have on hand??”  One of mine and my children’s favorite supplies are crayon twistable color pencils.

A lot of people like to use pens in their Bible.  I have used Micropens, which are really nice because they do dry really quickly for when you are erasing pencil marks.  But I don’t like how easily the tips mess up.  One of my favorites when it comes to black pens is the Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen, but again the tip is not the best.

I have also used staedler pens, which are not my favorite.  To me they run out too quickly for the price.

I would rather use paper mate ink joy pens.  But honestly I don’t use pens very often in my Bible.

A lot of people like to use markers in their Bible.  I have some Stampin’ Up Write which is a dual tip marker and pen combo from many years ago.  I am honestly surprised they still work.  They are some of my favorite to use.  Now before you start trying to find out where you can buy them they are my favorite because I also have ink pads that match them for my stamps.  So I can use the same color in stamp, marker or pen tip.  Another favorite marker of mine is the Towbow dual marker brushes.  Neither tip is pen like, but I do use them quiet regularly between my Bible and my journals.

But when it comes to color my absolute all time favorite item to use is watercolors.  I like to cover over the whole page and by using watercolors the color is not so dark and it makes seeing the page much easier.  Again I have watercolor crayons from Stampin’ Up from many years ago and aqua painters that I use with them.  So you may not be able to find the exact watercolors that I use, but you can still find some watercolors.

I hope this gives you some information in getting started with some of your supplies.  Make sure to gather up your supplies, create some beautiful art work during your worship time and share it with me on Instagram using hashtag #biblejournalingwithsheena.  Also make sure to head on over to Facebook and join our Beginner Bible Journaling Group.  I will see you back next week for more Bible Journaling tips!!

Thursday To Do #1

I have decided I want to start doing weekly planning post. It will help me focus on making our house into our home.

The first room I want to focus on is our dining room/school room. I mean for obvious reasons, this is where I teach my children and I want this room to be everything we want and need it to be.

Of course the first thing on my list is PAINT!! These walls need a bright pretty coat of paint. But I really had no clue what color I want this room to be. Sooooo…..

I took the kids to Lowe’s and they picked out some color samples. Which of the colors do you like the best for our school room?? The walls in our previous school room were gray, but I am trying to do something more cheerful in this room.  Of course two of the kids picked out a gray color.  They told me the school rooms when they were in public school was gray so I guess that is really all they have ever known.

This room has a good bit of natural light coming in from the huge window and “if” we ever open the front door even more light is coming in.

Now you may have seen a sneak peek on Instagram stories that I have already chosen a color and painted the walls and trim.  Also you will know I actually went back to Lowe’s and got ANOTHER color sample before I decided on a color.  Adam’s selection for the win.

So what do I have left to do to get the dining room/school room how I want it??

1. Paint Walls
2. Paint Trim
3. Purchase Three New Outlet Covers (Lowe’s was out of the ones to match most of the other ones in our house)
4. Repair Blinds (We do have nice blinds, but a few of them are slightly messed up)
5. Hang Dry Erase Boards
6. Hang Posters
7. Arrange Furniture
8. Set Up Bradley’s Area
9. Make a Valance
10. Purchase a Curtain Rod
11. Create Wall Art (I am going to put a quote or versus on the wall above the window)
12. Install a Hook for our Library Bag
13. Purchase Another Dry Erase Board

I think after that we will be good to be with the dining room/school room!!  Make sure you watch Instagram for sneak peeks of when I have stuff done and once I am completely done I will do a room tour of our finished dining room/school room!!

What is your Why??

I read this book called “Start with Why“.  Its been on my list of books to read for a long time now.  I really can’t remember where I first heard about it, that caused me to be interested in reading.  But I am so glad I did finally read it.  I read this book for business purposes, but came away from it with so much more.

Everyone has a why.  Every company has a why.  But the question is are you living your why?  Is the companies why clear by the way the operate?

After reading this book I got to really thinking about my “why” in life.  You see for some time now I have been less than lovin’ life.  So many times I have said I like the song “That Don’t Song Like You” by Lee Brice because I relate to that song so much.  But after reading this book I realized I can relate to it because I forgot my “why”.  Life get so complicated and so busy that we seem to forget about what is important.

After reading “Start with Why” and thinking about my life, I realize what makes me happy in life are the simpler things.  If you have ever asked me what my favorite gift is that my husband gave me it would be the CD of songs he gave me our first Valentine’s together that are how he feels about me.  Its probably one of the simplest gifts he could ever give me, but it has so much mean.  What are some of my favorite memories in life??  Saturday breakfast at my Mamaw and Papaw’s house with all my family, going on walks at 2 a.m. and just enjoying nature, going mud riding and getting stuck, waiting forever on the fishing line to sink so I could catch that huge fish with my grandfather, playing Mexican Train after dinner, hanging out at the play ground or the pool and watching the children play, listening to my Dad talk about his childhood, watching my Dad build a chicken coop, trying to drive the gator, waking up to the sunrise over looking the water.  Not all of those things are from my childhood, a lot of them are from adulthood.  But so many times we forget to slow down and enjoy those things.

My new why is “a simpler life”.  Less stuff, a smaller house and more experiences.  What makes life simple??  Over the next months and years you are going to see a lot more of making my life simpler.  You are going to see my sharing a simpler life with everyone and enjoying more of lives little moments with my husband, kids, parents, parents in love, dogs and siblings.

I didn’t expect to get so much out of this book that would relate to my blog, but what I was really looking to learn more about was how to grow Anderson Puppy Palace.  I may share my why for my business over there too.  =)

House Tour BEFORE

Welcome to our new house!!  We have LOTS to do everywhere, but I wanted to go ahead and share the whole house with you and then as I get each room done I will share each room with you finish and with much more detail.  Now remember these are real life pictures.  We have not cleaned up and prepped our house for photos.  So don’t be surprised when some rooms are a mess and there is still stuff to put unpack in room.

This is our living room. See I told you, dark chocolate walls. Yuck!! We still have a bookcase to build, Adam’s desk to finish putting together and boxes to unpack.

But looking down the hall you can see our house is much larger than our previous house.

This is our master bedroom. Again painting! We want a new bed but that has to wait right now because of our being homeless for a week situation. Our loving dog ripped our bedspread one of the first weeks in our new house so we need a new bedspread too. I hung pictures up, but not totally sure where I want them I put LOTS of nail holes in the walls.

This is our master bath. It really is lovely. I just need to paint ((and we can’t agree on a color)) and do some decorating.

This is our laundry room, and it needs some major shelving and organizing.

And our pantry, at our old house we had a huge walk in pantry and at this house we had to make the closet across the hall from our laundry room our pantry.  Adam actually added this shelving since we moved in.  I still need to do some organizing and painting.

This is Noah’s room. This paint drives me more crazy than any room in the house. It’s like they did touch up painting with another color and there are a MILLION nail holes in his walls from them.

This is our dining room/school room. This color isn’t completely killing me, but the so many different colors all coming together in the foyer are and its a little too dark for my taste.

This is my office. I do love that I am right by the school room and basically in the middle of the house when I am working.

This is our kitchen. I have no clue what they were thinking with the two different colors. It reminds me of Christmas. The refrigerator won’t come out. We tried to pull it out the first week we were here and it’s stuck so…

This is Taylor’s room. Her room probably has the least issues.

This is the girls’ bathroom. We are going to get rid of the jetted tub and replace it with a tub shower combo because they need a shower and that won’t be as wide so it will give more room in the bathroom.

This is Bradley’s room. Yes he got the biggest room. He has the most stuff and the biggest bed.

This is the boys’ bathroom. It’s going to be completely gutted and redone.

This is Alyssa’s room. She has the room with the biggest set of blinds and they are broken.

That’s our new house!! Make sure to check back as I work on making each room into ours and share it with you here!!