Catching Up

According to the most popular blog tutorials, you're not supposed to apologize for a delay in posting on your blog.  But c'mon, it's been six months!  So, I do apologize.  I have no excuse other than blogging was just not my priority.  But I hope that will change for 2014, because one of my goals is to post here more regularly.  I'm not promising anything.  We're almost three months into the year -- and you guys obviously know my record.

So, I thought I would use this post to update you on where I am at this present moment in my life.  There's nothing spectacular, really, but one man's mundane life is another's life of excitement.  So here goes.

My work life is ever evolving.  One day I will be working on expense reports, and the next day I will be traveling by air to a northern state who has SNOW, and the next day I will be tasked with preparing training materials for five different training sessions that I will need to deliver over a five-week period.  But that's how I like to roll.  I get bored very easily, and the unpredictable nature of my job is what keeps me going.

My home life is ever evolving as well.  One of the affirmations I have in my planner is "I want my house to be full of order and happiness."  Do you know how hard that is with two girls who are preteen and teen?  And who are on a shared custody schedule (meaning we have them half of the week and their mother has them the other half)?  But I'm adapting.  The whole experience has been one massive growth experience for me, and I feel like at the end of each lesson I come out with an A.  Or maybe a B.  But that's still honor roll status, right?!

My personal life -- you know, where I'm supposed to focus on ME -- is pretty lacking.  And I'm starting to suffer the consequences.  Honestly, when I'm faced with a to-do list that includes work items, household items, and family items, the "Me" items just seem to fall to the bottom of the list.  And there are only so many hours in the day I have to spend before I conk out in a state of exhaustion at 9:30pm.  As a result, I'm falling behind in my writing, and everything else I want to accomplish.

I haven't even written out my goals for 2014.  Let me say that again.  I HAVE NOT WRITTEN OUT MY GOALS FOR 2014.  I'm sorry to yell, but you have to understand that this is very, very wrong.  And so out of character for me.  Usually that part of my planning for the coming year is complete by mid-December.  I just haven't been motivated this year.  Most of my goals for 2013 were unfinished for 2014, and that makes me feel sad, and is probably the reason for my stalling.  But never fear.  They are mulling around up there in my head, and I plan to get them down and into action before too long.

My perimenopausal self has been rearing its very, very ugly head lately.  My Facebook friends have endured that wrath a couple of times (I'm really, really sorry about that!).  I'm working hard to get that under control, for the benefit of myself, and my family and friends.  :)

So, I think that's it, really.  That's where I am in life as of this moment.  And I'm hoping that this post is a jumping off point to a long sprint of regular, entertaining content on this blog.  Let's all pray for the planets to align appropriately. 

Hope you all are well.  What's going on in your world?

A Review: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi-Pen

I have used the Bic ballpoint multi-pen for a while starting years ago, and now more recently it is almost the only pen I use.  I do a little bit of color coding in my Filofax, but it's not set in stone.  I mostly just like to have the option of using a different color ink if I want.  The Bic multi-pen comes with black, blue, red, and green inks.

I have been intrigued by all of the talk in the Filofax world about the Pilot Coleto multi-pen.  It's a customizable pen that allows you to buy the pen body and then choose the colors you want to use with it.  The best part about this pen for me is it holds gel ink cartridges.  I'm a big fan of gel inks over ballpoint.

So I decided to bite the bullet and invest in one. 

Choosing the pen body was a little bit overwhelming, because there are many styles and colors.  I opted for a less expensive gray body that holds five inks (you can also chose pen bodies that hold 3-inks or 4-inks). 

I chose a multitude of colors for the ink cartridges:  brown, orange, blue, green, pink, orange, black, red.  I also chose a pencil cartridge and an eraser cartridge.

My package of pens arrived in the mail today (I ordered them Thursday, so that's a 2-business-day turnaround, which is very reasonable.).

 



 

It didn't take long for me to load the cartridges into the body (I did watch a couple of YouTube videos -- without them I would have been a little lost).  For this first test I chose black, blue, green, red, and orange cartridges.

 

Oh, one other quick note:  I got the .4 size cartridges.  They also come in .5 size.  I have read a lot of comments about the .4 size being too scratchy, but I wanted to take the chance because I'm looking for a really fine point for the very narrow lined pages in my Filofax.

 

My first impressions were lukewarm.  Initially I had trouble figuring out how to get the pen to work -- once I chose a color to use and pushed the little lever down, I expected it to easily lock into place like the Big pen.  It has taken me many tries, but I think I have it working now.  It seems that I still have to retract an ink cartridge before I use another one, which is also unlike the Bic.  I may just not have figured out how to use it properly, so I am reserving too much judgment on that.

 

The ink colors seem to be fine.  And the .4 size tip doesn't bother me at all; in fact I think I may love it.  It doesn't seem to be too scratchy.  I did read a few reviews that complained that the ink had to be primed before each use.  I haven't experienced that yet, but again, I've only been using it for a very short time.



Overall, I think the Coleto pen is ok -- nothing to jump up and down about, which is what I expected (probably unfairly, I'll add).  Again, I think I will reserve judgment until I've used the pen more heavily.

I'll keep you posted on how the Coleto pen works out for me.

What is your favorite pen to use?

A Week in Review - Week #28

Happy Sunday!  We're enjoying a sunny day -- FINALLY.  We've had so much rain lately I was considering Googling plans for building an ark.  I'm glad the rain stopped.  I'm not very good with a nail gun.

This week has been another busy one filled with work and chores and errands and such.  Our oldest daughter had her on-the-road driver's training this week.  She put in six hours of driving with an instructor, and the rest of her training is up to us.  Not gonna lie -- that freaks me out more than just a little.

I also had more on-the-job training for my new position at work.  My feelings about the new position have not changed since last week, but I'm dealing with it.  I took the day off on Friday to take care of errands, including getting my car inspected.  That led to getting two new tires and making plans for a front-end alignment.  Lovely.

Saturday was also busy, but a fun kind of busy.  I used my time wisely during Kayla's gymnastics and worked on writing blog posts for the coming week.  After lunch, we headed to Henderson to visit with family, and then stayed to watch a play by the Henderson Rec Players, "The Sound of Music."  Our family had three generations in the play as nuns:  my Mom, my sister, my sister's Mother-in-Law, and my sister's two daughters.  The play was wonderful, as was spending time with family.

Oh!  My Aunt Judi has a new children's book published:  "Bubba the Beaver."  I'm so proud and excited for her!  You can find out more, and order your very own copy, here.  Please go give her a visit!

And here we are at Sunday.  It's been busy with chores and church and having Sarah's friend over for the afternoon.  I finally have some time for writing.  Thank goodness.

Here's what you may have missed this week on The Journal Keeper:

• The One With the Tattoo
• Using Time Wisely

What have you been up to this week?

I'd love it if you subscribe to this blog.  You can either subscribe to the RSS feed or via email (over on the right).  You can also join the conversation in the comments below.  I'd love to hear from you!

Using Time Wisely

Today is Gymnastics Saturday.  (Don't be silly -- I'M not taking it, the daughter is!)  

Kayla's class is an hour and a half long, and I've struggled with what to do with that time.  Do I read?  Spend time with social media?  Write?

I'm in an observation room with the other parents (side note--more Daddies and Mommies today) and there's lots of chatter and noise so it's a bit hard to concentrate.  I worry about being anti-social if I bury myself in a project and not talk to the others.  But today there are two Daddies and a Mommy who are busy with their laptops.  So I am going to follow their lead today and work on writing some blog posts.

This one is being written on my iPhone.  The rest I will draft in a notebook (I brought my laptop, but the battery is almost dead.  Doh!).

I hope you are having a great Saturday!

The One With the Tattoo

Isn't it funny how we go for so long thinking one thing, and then suddenly we change our minds?

That happened to me regarding tattoos.

I was never into the tattoo scene and never in a million years thought I would get one.  It's not that I was offended by them, or thought badly about those who had them.  I just always thought it was silly to mark your body permanently.  Forever.

I know you can have them removed.  I knew a girl once who was having one removed from her ankle.  And it looked painful!  All red and oozy and bandages had to be changed... Not something I fancied ever putting myself through, considering I am a big baby when it comes to pain.

I guess I looked at the permanent aspect of tattoos from the point of view of someone who constantly changes her mind about things, and can rarely do anything consistently (7-day whitening strips are still a struggle for me).  I couldn't imaging marking my body forever with something.  It's inevitable that I would change my mind, and then regret the tattoo.

Anyway, I don't remember exactly when my thoughts shifted from anti-tattoo to thinking-about-a-tattoo, and I don't remember why they changed.  I do think it was shortly after my 40th birthday.  I was going through a life shift.  My dad had recently passed away unexpectedly, my marriage was ending, I was dealing with the thought of aging... I was looking for change, I guess -- something to shock my system and to remind me that my life was not yet over.

Fast forward five years, to my 45th birthday.  At that point I KNEW that I wanted a tattoo.  I had been casually thinking about what design I wanted, and once in a while would look at pictures on the internet.

And then it came to me.

I had been struggling with my writing, and was really frustrated about it.  I knew I was letting a lot of head games get in the way:  my internal editor (brutal SOB that he is), my insecurities about what I was writing, my feelings of failure at taking so long with my novel (10 years now, SMH), my inability to even journal, which had been my happy place for years.  I knew that the head games were holding me back, and I had to JUST WRITE.

And I decided that was it.  Just Write.  I needed to see that reminder every day.  Why not as a tattoo?!

I found a place on the internet.  (I'm sorry, I've looked for it, but can't remember where it was.)  I entered the text I wanted, played around with the fonts a little bit, and quickly had exactly what I wanted.

I finally got around to making the "go" decision three months after my 45th birthday.  I told my husband I was ready, and we decided on a Saturday to do the deed.

We chose a reputable tattoo parlor in our area (my brother had been several times and highly recommended them).  I emailed them a photo of what I wanted, they printed it and made a template.  And before I knew it, I was sitting in a chair, the tattoo needle was marking the inside of my right wrist with black ink, and right before my eyes I had the most beautiful and meaningful tattoo I could have imagined.

The process took 30 minutes or less, the tattoo portion was probably less than 10 minutes, and the pain was minimal.  People compare it to a bee sting, but I've never been stung by a bee so I can't confirm that.

I've had the tattoo for almost a year now, and I still love it.  I see it every time I write.  I'm so proud of it I could burst.

As far as it helping my writing, well, that's still a work in progress.  But I definitely know that it is influencing my writing, as well as other aspects of my life, and because of it, things are getting better and better.

August will be one year since my first tattoo, and I have plans to get another one.  Snowflakes on my left ankle.  I'll be sure to share it when it happens!

My Filofax - Week #27

I got nothin'.

I have had planner fail, big time.  I completely shut down, and wasn't using my Filofax at all.  And my life was suffering because of it.

For the past several weeks, I have been using Google Calendar for my appointments and reminders, but my task management went out the window.  I wasn't writing them down, I wasn't keeping them electronically, and for the most part, they weren't getting done.

I've been in Overwhelm for the past few weeks.  I started a new position at The Bank; something completely different and unknown to me.  I looked forward to the learning experience, but quite frankly, it turned out to be nothing like I was expecting.  That experience has kept my brain on overload and I've been fighting back the fear and the disappointment every single day.  But that's a story for another day.

I did try to get back in the swing of things with my trusty Personal Chameleon.  (Yes, I've set my A5 Malden aside for now.  More about that later.)

And today I'm regrouping by working on my planning for the coming week.

I'm hoping that returning to my planner will help me feel more in control of the things going on around me.  In fact, I know it will.  That's what has helped me to stay focused so many times in the past.

Sometimes I guess we just have to falter a bit to be reminded of what works.

Here's to a great week ahead!

Day 11 - April Filofax Photo a Day Challenge

Spring in NC means pollen is everywhere. :( (your day)