Updated Bullet Journal with Exercise Journal & Student Planner Inserts

This is my second week with University of Phoenix. My first course towards my Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education is what is called GEN 200. Basically, it's a college skills course. Which I took in 2010 with MTC. So....it's quite boring. However, I know that I need to focus on getting used to the classroom setup and how UOP works. So, I'm trying to look at the information with fresh eyes and be open minded. One of the first things that we talked about in the course was goal setting and time management. I am still using my bullet journal from this post. However, I've discovered over the last week during this course, that I needed a few more "tabs" in my journal- an exercise journal (I call it Healthy Me) and a Student Planner to help keep my to do lists separate.

The original post was written back in April of this year, so needless to say, I've incorporated quite a few things. So, I'm going to give you a brief overview of the changes. If you want to see the meat of the journal and the idea that sparked it, go here. I hope this helps you, and I can't imagine using any other system to keep myself organized. The moleskin has stayed gorgeous even with toting it around in my purse everyday and using it everyday. I would literally be lost without it. I've found that since using this, I rarely forget to do anything and I seem to actually get things done. My house is running smoother, my life is less stressed, and I feel more in control. All important things! :)

One more quick thing- I had someone ask when I write my daily to do lists. I try to do it every night before I go to bed for the next day, because it gets everything out of my brain and helps me fall asleep. If I wait till the next morning, I tend to think about all the things I might forget and it keeps me from sleeping!

I used to have two tabs- one for the Current Month to go along with my calendar in the front, and one for my current lists, which I choose to put on my monthly to do list and use my bookmark string on the moleskin for my daily to do lists. What's the difference, you ask? Monthly to do list is things I want to accomplish during that month, but aren't necessarily priority. Things I don't want to forget are happening or need to be done. For instance, car taxes needing to get paid that month, or making an appointment to go over our life insurance. Daily to do lists are just that- simple things that need to get done that day. Things like, grocery shopping, mop the kitchen, emails that need to be sent, phone calls that need to be made...and so on. Now, the two I added- Healthy Me & Student Planner.

This used to be my class schedule when I was going to a local college. Since, I graduated with my Associate in Science and moved to finishing at an online college, I no longer needed that space for that. Instead, I came up with a general housework and weekly schedule that works for me. These things are pretty much a standard for my daily to do lists. It needs tweaking, but for right now, it's working. And the goal here is to be better at getting things done, not overloading myself and feeling overwhelmed.  

The new "tab"- Healthy Me! This is my exercise log. The first page, I made about goal setting. The second page, was a very quick "get started" and I wasn't happy with how it turned out. So, I thought about it and...(see below)

This will be what the pages look like from here out in the Healthy Me section. It gives me a place to be accountable for what I did that day- walked, swam, aerobics, etc. Also, I want to keep up with how much water I'm drinking, because drinking any water is a struggle for me. I'm trying to take in at least 4 bottles equaling about 68 ounces a day, but right now, I've found it hard to do half of that. So, keeping a journal of it, will help me understand where I'm at. Also, I am struggling with sleep. I always seem to be tired, so I'm worried that maybe I sleep too much (ha!) and maybe that is actually causing me to be tired. So, I'm trying to sleep only 7-9 hours a night and keep a schedule. Hopefully, this helps. And lastly- I have a goal for the week and a motivational quote.

And lastly, the tab for my Student Planner. This is really personal to just me, because most student's take more than one course at a time. At UOP, we take one course for 5 weeks. So, I only need to plan for one day at a time. But, this allows me to get more in detail with what needs to be done each day for the class without mixing it into my daily to do lists.

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Why Failing Was Good for Me

Failing is never something we want to admit. Failing hurts. It sucks the very life out of you and drains your soul and makes you want to stay in bed and never get up again. Especially when it is something you wanted. Something you were absorbed with.

And it's even worse when you took out loans for it.

I failed nursing school.

There. I said it. It's been almost 9 months now since I decided I couldn't do it. And it still gets to me. I am not someone that fails...I am not someone that gives up. I spent a good portion of 3 years to get a degree in nursing. And I truly wanted it. I almost finished it. And then, right there in the middle of clinicals....I discovered I couldn't do it. It wasn't the clinicals, or the patients, or the gross factor, or anything of the sort. I understood the concepts. I knew my medications. I knew my pathophysiology. I even could recite nursing diagnoses in my sleep. Well, maybe not sleep....because I didn't sleep in nursing school. I lived on caffeine. But, that's another story.

I could spend hours upon hours upon more hours studying, reading, making charts, reviewing, and reciting. Yet, I couldn't pass the tests. I gained weight. My face broke out. I was beyond stressed. I was never happy. I was always on edge. Sleep was not something that I could even find when I had time for it. I became such a disaster at exam time, that I literally would have horrible stomach pains and shook like a leaf. I started to not care anymore. I just wanted my life back. I wanted to be happy again. I wanted to be able to spend time with my family and not feel like I was doing something bad. So, I failed. I actually failed TWICE.  I failed the one class, and tried again. And gave it even more of myself. And failed again. One could definitely say that after that second time I could have been diagnosed with Failure to Thrive. I became a recluse. I didn't want to talk to people. I didn't want to leave my bed. I didn't want to get dressed. It was pretty bad. And I'm still recovering- 9 months later.

So, I'm sure you are wondering right now, why the heck I say that it was good for me.

As someone that really had never really failed, I needed to realize what it was like. I needed to see that I had let something consume me in a way that was seriously unhealthy. I'm not saying nursing school is unhealthy (lol), but for me, it was. Failing made me reevaluate who I am and what I want out of life. I realized that while I loved doing my clinicals, and I would probably make a great nurse, I had always wanted something else...I wanted to teach. I realized that my Plan A, was not really my Plan afterall.

I'm now in school for my BS in Elementary Education. And I'm happy. :)

I've grown as a person from my experiences with nursing school. I've realized how lucky it is to be healthy, and to be proactive with that health. It's amazing how quickly something can happen inside of us. I've learned I have a strength inside of me that I didn't know existed. I pulled myself up and brushed myself off, and now, I'm a better person for that.

I now know things that the average person doesn't when it comes to health care. Which is beneficial for me and my family due to my husband's health condition. Heck, it's beneficial just going to the pediatrician's office. I know what it means when my kids' chart reads NKA or says they have rhinorrhea. (NKA- no known allergies & rhinorrhea simply means a runny nose!)

And I'm not afraid of failure anymore.

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Easy Weeknight Chicken Quesadillas

It's that time of year again...that time when the kids' go back to school, and we have soccer practice at least 4 nights out of the 5, and games almost all weekend. This means my family eats out way more often than we should. One major goal of mine this year is to end this cycle of spending money on and eating  junk. So, while I wouldn't call this a "healthy" meal, it is better than eating a frozen pizza or eating a cheeseburger from McCrappy's. I'm going to try to post a new "quick" weeknight meal that my family loves at least once every two weeks or so. So, here is the first installment-

Easy Weeknight Chicken Quesadillas

This is a really simple idea that can be expanded upon or just made as is. Even picky eaters will love!
3 cans of chunk chicken (12.5 oz each), drained
1 can of green chiles (7 oz each)
1/4 cup of taco sauce, or more/less to your taste
black pepper, onion powder, and chili powder to taste
2-3 cups of fiesta blend cheese, shredded
16 flour tortillas
1 tbsp of butter
sour cream, salsa, and guacamole for dipping

Mix chicken, chiles, sauce, and seasonings together in a bowl. Preheat a skillet on med-high heat. Add a small pat of butter. Place a tortilla shell flat in skillet. Add chicken mix and sprinkle cheese on top. Place another tortilla shell on top. Cook until browned. Flip and repeat on other side. You can even make a simple cheese quesadilla for your picky eaters! Repeat.  Serve warm with dipping sauces. Cut with pizza cutter. Makes 8 quesadillas- enough for my family of 5.

I have found this to take about 5 minutes to prep, if you make this according to my recipe, and another 10-15 to cook. Next time I make it, I'm going to prep the chicken mix and place in the fridge till we get home to save even more time. I really want to try sauteing some peppers and onions and using some grilled chicken breasts chopped, but the point of this meal was to be quick and easy, so maybe another time! Enjoy!
~Mom dribbling weeknight dinners and a soccer ball
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The Bullet Journal

My Bullet Journal

The other day, I was browsing Facebook and Pinterest (when I should have been doing calculus homework), and I came across someone that was absolutely gushing over something called "Bullet Journaling". Well, being as that I was bored, I couldn't help but check it out. And I feel in love. So, now I'm going to show you mine, why it works, and why I love it.

First, I googled "Bullet Journal". And I found the official site here. There's an awesome video and lots of good ideas to get started. But, right from the start, I saw so much more here. He's a simple guy- obviously isn't in school, doesn't have 3 kids, 4 soccer teams, and a mess of craziness going on in his life. This is what I have been looking for in an app and in my LIFE.

I'm a list maker. I'm a sticky note taker. I'm a to-do lister. I have a dollar store calendar in my purse, a calendar on my phone, and a million slips of colored sticky notes everywhere. For years, I've wanted something that could and would combine all of my lists, dates, and everything into one. I've come close to finding apps, but even though I love technology, sometimes, it's better to have it written down. Plus, I love handwritten stuff. I love the idea of checking something off. I love the idea of a "journal". This could be all of THAT.

So, the next thing I did was pull out a cheap composition book. You know the kind that you get for your kids for school that costs like 25 cents in August. I figured, I would start in it and figure out all the quirks and changes I wanted before buying a Moleskine. So, I used it for about 5 days and did just that.

I found that while his original bullet journaling system worked quite well, it was lacking in what I would like to call future planning. Basically, it needed a calendar. So, that's the cool thing here- this is completly customizable to YOU. You decide what works for you and what doesn't. I've been using my Moleskine now for about two weeks and I'm extremely impressed with how productive this makes me. I don't forget things. I'm more on task. I'm just overall more organized. And with my crazy life, this is important.

So, here is a few pics of how mine works and is put together. I went in order of my book, so you can see how it progresses and flows together.

Front Inside Cover- I washi taped my college schedule to the front.

First Page- I washi taped my "key" to the cover page next to the first page. I wrote it on an index card so I can make changes later and not have to scratch things out. I don't like scratching things out, lol. Then, like the original, I created an index page to easily find what I'm looking for. Also, if you notice, I have post-it tabs for pages I frequently need.

Close up of my key. As you can see, I added and changed some of the ones he had. I also added color to my calendar (that you will see soon) because certain things in my life need to stand out- like bills, birthdays, and appointments.

The next page is for important dates and future planning. I only had my calendar go thru 2014, so anything that I schedule or plan for 2015 will go here- for instance, I know we make dental appointments 6 months ahead of time and well checkups are similar.

This is my calendar. I actually made a mistake when I was doing it- see if you can catch the differences between this first month and the next few- lol. I use the key to keep up with certain things going on, but in general, my calendar is in pencil. Because everything always changes in my life. Also, you can see that I have one of those post-it tabs here- it says current month.

Just another look at the next month. Notice the numbers at the bottom- page numbers :)

And another monthly look....

I skipped taking pics of July-November because it was monotonous and boring. So, here is the end of my monthly calendar on pages 20-21.

I like to read. So, whenever I hear of a new book (or an old one) that I want to read- it goes here. I labeled it 2014: Books to Read and used the task bullet, so I can look back and see which books I haven't read yet.

Same idea here except with Movies and TV Shows.

And here is the meat of the book- the lists! I included a monthly first page like his, except, I didn't need it to be a calendar like he did because I have my calendar already in the front. What I needed was a monthly to do list- things that need to be done, but not necessarily important to do immediately. Things to remind myself of that are going on that month. Then, the next page is where I started my daily lists.

And here is another place I'm using my sticky tab- although, I'm thinking about using the book mark string on the Moleskine for this and using the tab on the first page of the month- so in this case, it would be on the pages shown above instead of here. Still contemplating that.

Well, that's pretty much it. I know I'm a complete dork for being so excited about something like this, but being organized is important to me with so much going on. And, here is the links to Amazon for some of the products that I used:

Moleskine Classic Notebook, Large, Squared, Brilliant Violet, Hard Cover (5 x 8.25) (Classic Notebooks)

Stabilo 88 30-Color Wallet Set

Sharpie Pen Fine Point Pen, 4 Black Pens (1742661)

Zebra Cadoozles Mechanical Pencil, 0.7mm, Assorted, 10 Pack (51211)

Martha Stewart Crafts Paper Tape, Modern Festive

Post-it Tabs Durable File Tabs, 2 x 1 1/2, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, 24/PK

And lastly, here is a link to my Pinterest board about Bullet Journaling. Have fun with it and be creative. :)

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Quick Lemon-Berry Cake

I'm a lazy cook. Just putting it out there. Well, actually it might not be laziness as much as I simply don't have time to be the Martha Stewart bake everything from scratch type of mom. So, today I was craving something sweet, but I should have been studying for a nursing exam and trying to get over this lovely virus I picked up this weekend. The result- a boxed cake doctored up.
What you'll need:
Boxed white cake mix
Packet of lemonade Crystal Light (2qt)
Duncan Hines frosting creations starter and strawberry shortcake flavor mix
1 cup of sliced strawberries
few tablespoons of sugar

What you'll do:
Make cake as directed but stir in the lemonade into the batter. Bake as directed in two 8-inch cake pans. Meanwhile, mash strawberries with sugar. Let sit while cake is baking. Mix frosting with flavor add in. After cakes are baked and cooked, put strawberry fruit mix between layers and frost cake normally. Enjoy!

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DIY: Magnetic Makeup Board

Pinterest is the devil. Seriously. You get on with the intention of just browsing or possibly pinning something you found interesting and the next thing you know, you've pinned 300 new pins and it's 3 hours later. And you have no idea what just happened. It's worse than alcohol. There is a dark spot where Pinterest took over! Now, with all that being said, I love Pinterest! Hehehe! So, since I only have 8 more days till the semester from hell starts back (Nursing 265/263- my third clinical semester), I thought, hmmmm....what if I get some things actually done around here that I've been pinning about for the last few months...ahem. Okay, years. :D

So, I'm sure by now you are saying, GET ON WITH IT ALREADY. So here it is, the simple tutorial about making your own magnetic board.

Materials:
Sheet Metal 12x18 inches (Lowe's $4.77)
Fabric (Hobby Lobby with coupon $5.39)
Magnet 0.5x25" Roll (Michaels with coupon $3.59)
Mirror Corner Brackets (Walmart $1.47)
Salt & Pepper Clear Shakers (Walmart $0.97 for a pack of two)
Hot Glue Gun & Sticks (on hand)

First, I cut the fabric to have a lip around the entire board. Then, I simply hot glued all the edges down tightly to the back side of the board. I've read of others Mod Podge'n the entire thing, but I'm all about the instant gratification and that means I was going to need for it to dry....Lol. Next, I attached magnet strips to all of my eye colors and blushes. And, then, I used the brackets to attach it to the wall. I also used the salt & pepper shakers without their caps to form small baskets to hold some of my brushes and such by attaching magnet strips to them.

All in all, it turned out pretty well. I have to say that the board is not quite as magnetic as some of my dry erase boards and it seems to be a slight problem, as it is very easy to knock into the colors and have them all fall down. I may decide to cover a dry erase board when I make one for my daughter instead of this sheet metal. Or, Home Depot has a "galvanized" one for a few dollars more that may work better. But, as of right now, it works and it does what I wanted it to. However, I can say that the more magnet you get on the lid, the better it sticks. For instance, I cut most of my eye colors to be 1" strips, but a few of them I cut to be 1 1/4" strips. Amazing how that extra quarter makes them stick so much better! So, all in all I'm happy so, I say SUCCESS!

As for the cost of this- the yard of fabric would make at least 6 of these. The magnet strips would probably fill up about 6 of these as well. The corner brackets would attach two to the wall. And I used one and half packs of the salt and pepper shakers. So, the total for this altogether broken down, is  $8.47!

UPDATE: After using this for a few days, those strip magnets were absolutely not working on the sheet metal. I talked to hubby about it and he said my problem was not the metal, it was the strength of the magnets (oh! LOL). So, being in a hurry and not having any craft stores in my area to make a quick run to, I ran into Walmart and grabbed some round magnets in the craft section. They were about 6.00 for a pack of 52. That's a little high in my opinion, but I'm thinking you could probably find these at the craft stores that offer coupons and get them much cheaper! Anyway. I also took a picture of them with the salt and pepper shakers that I used as the clear containers to hold my brushes and eye liner pencils. I also included the mirror brackets so you could see what they looked like. :) Hope this helps!
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Apps that Give Back!

As a fairly new smartphone user, I'm not always the first one to have the newest app nor do I understand everything that my phone will do now. But, the one thing that I've been really excited about as of late is finding apps that give back. Some earn you points that you can redeem for other things and gift cards, but others will deposit right into your Paypal account! There are quite a few to be honest, but I have recently only tried about 5 out myself. I like these five because they seem very simple to use and don't seem to be time killers! And if you find this helpful at all, could you please use my links to sign up? I would love some referral credits! :) Here they are:

Endorse

This is an app that works for both Android and Apple users. This is actually my favorite one and I've used it the most. I currently have over $22 that I have earned right now. The best part- I only bought things I was going to buy anyway! Here's how it works: Download the app. Sign in using Facebook. Every Thursday new deals pop up. You will get offers like 10% back on any gas purchase, 10% back on any fast food purchase, 50% back on diapers, 100% on coffee, and so on. You make a purchase during the week that qualifies for this and click the offer. It will say Upload Receipt at the bottom. Take a picture of the receipt using the app and within a few hours to a day you will have the percentage back in your account, ready to be redeemed at any time. A few things to note- everyone gets different offers. Some weeks I have free coffee and my husband will get the fast food. As long as you are NOT double scanning your receipts, Endorse says it is fine to have multiple accounts in the same household. Double scanning means both of you using the same receipt for the same offer. Another thing to note is that you can request a check, but you must meet a certain minimum before requesting the money back. I prefer PayPal because it is instantly in your account within minutes and there is no minimum to earn first. Last thing to note is that the Endorse facebook page actually will sometimes have offers that you can "claim" and use. Sometimes these offers will also go to your email. Be sure to claim them and they will be under "Shared With You" instead of "This Week's Offers". Another thing to note is that if you use coupons, you will notice that the amount you get back will be reduced. This doesn't really bother me, because most of the time I was buying the item regardless, so anything back is just extra icing to the cake. And lastly, some offers require you to "upgrade" them by sharing them to Facebook. This may seem annoying to some, but I don't mind. I like saving money! Plus- every referral you get gives you a dollar as well!
https://www.endorse.com/referral/Lisa/YZYhJ2oNETLwOP8jzhhE-CvQ==AB

Ibotta

 This is another grocery store type app similar to Endorse. Right now it is only for Apple users. ***UPDATE*** This is now available to ANDROID users too! :)  This app is slightly more complex in that it only works with certain retailers and you have to be careful to buy EXACTLY what the app is requesting. For example, my first purchase was for a 24 pack of Coke Zero. I didn't realize that the app only wanted the fridge packs until after I got home. *sigh* Anyway. I haven't used this one a lot because of the particulars, but the idea is basically the same. Buy items. Sign into the app. Complete little tasks that are assigned like watching videos, quick one question surveys, and posting to Facebook. Scan your receipt using the app. Scan the item's barcode. And then, you will get the $$ back in your account that you can choose to redeem at any time by sending it to your PayPal account. The offers seem to change randomly- but I did notice that you can click an offer and then click the picture of the item and give it a thumbs up or down. If you thumbs down something, it will come off your offers a little while later and be replaced with something else. I find that useful because there was dog food on there the first time I went to use it. I don't own a dog. That is not something that I will ever use. So, that's a plus that I can tell them not to give me offers that pertain to dogs, lol. This is also an app that pays you for referrals so, make sure to share your link! And another plus to this app is that I haven't noticed that combining it with coupons makes a difference! Yay!

http://ibotta.com/r/4nH3vg

Viggle

This is actually a very new to me app. It works with both Android and Apple users. I'm not entirely confident in this app, but the premise seems cool. Basically, you earn points for "checking in" while watching tv shows. The points can be used for things like CVS eGiftCard that can be used in-store. Or a Kindle Fire. Or a Best Buy gift card. You get the idea. So, basically, just for watching your regular tv shows, you can earn things. *shrugs* Seems easy enough. To be honest about it, I haven't had a chance to watch much tv because it is finals week right now for me and that obviously has taken precedence over television watching, lol. Also, if you are a DirecTv user, supposedly it gives you better rewards or something. I am, but like I said, I haven't even had a good chance to see how it works yet. But, I wanted to include it here because it seemed easy enough to set up the account and it seems pretty easy to use.
http://join.viggle.com/lisalangley

Jingit

I actually signed up for this over a year ago, before being a smartphone user. But, because it had so many smartphone qualities to it like "checking in", I quickly forgot about it and actually just remembered it last night. So, I'm writing this review about it with basic knowledge. But, again, I did not want to dis-include it because it seems like a good idea and easy to do.  It also works with both Android and Apple users. From what I can tell, you watch videos and such to earn money back. At the end of the videos you will have a few questions to answer about your shopping habits and such. Then, you can also check in with some brands and earn money back that way too. The only thing that I was not over joyed about is that it does not connect with a PayPal account. You have to get a Jingit Visa Debit Card. Okay, I'm good with that. But, first you have to pay them an activation fee from your Jingit hard earned money to get it. Not so cool. It is only 3.00 right now, but that kinda turned me off a little. However, I believe you can do something with musicme.com as well, though I have not tried this out yet.
https://www.jingit.com/?ref_id=53144&s=f

Shopkick

This is a points system app that you use will you shop as well. It works with both Android and Apple users. You can redeem it for things like a Target Gift Card, Starbucks Card, Best Buy Gift Card, iTunes Gift Card, Old Navy Gift Card, Coach Hand Bag, or Fandango Gift Card. I've actually had this one downloaded on my phone now for about a  month and seriously forgot about it. I've never opened it or done anything with it. Soooo....after checking it out tonight for the first time, I'm pretty excited about it. It seems like all you have to do is visit the stores on the list (CVS, Target, Best Buy and TONS TONS TONS more!) and you will earn "Kicks" which can be redeemed for the things I mentioned above. And on top of that, you actually can link your purchases to it and earn more kicks PLUS you can get special deals at these stores from using the app as well! It's most definitely a WIN WIN situation.
http://get.shopkick.com/fresno8830

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