Today, I finally got around to filling in my new monthly planner.

I had one ~ don’t be mistaken! ~ but I was frustrated with the multi-colored pages and my inability to use white-out when I made a mistake or our schedules changed.  So I got a small planner with white pages that runs from last month all.the.way through Dec 2014.  I felt very satisfied when I found it, as though befallen with a great stroke of luck.

I love being organized (and I love my multi-pack of colored pens!) but the planner used to only really be used for work meetings and football.  Now, it’s become a lot more.  Organizing the man and my crazy weekends, tracking the progress of my broken foot, keeping all my (absurd) amounts of doctor appointments straight.  Figuring out weddings, and parties and dinner dates and music festivals … Oy vey, I’m getting a little tired just thinking about it!

It’s a lot!

For joint trips, I use black pen, for stuff for me I use green (I am not sure there was ever a time that green wasn’t my favorite color) and for the man dark blue.  That works out, because Giants games are also in dark blue.  Steelers games are black and I use light blue for PSU (marriage is about compromise, right?).  I usually put birthdays in purple, important dates in pink (aka, don’t forget to send your lease renewal in!) and that leaves me with red, which I use for bills.  Urgh!

For some reason, I find writing everything relaxing rather than tedious, and its a huge tool for crazy work and personal scheduling weeks.  It also, on a lighter note, helps to predict when we can comfortably watch football at home, and when we need to journey to a sports bar (ahem, the Eagles schedule has a lot to do with which games are televised and which ones are blacked out).

Writing it out on paper gives me comfort in a way that I never get from online calendars (although I know they are very useful).  Things feel in line, settled and easy to remember and it is very satisfactory to look at a full month with all things filled in, and have a sense of what is to come.

I know there are things I can’t control (oh boy, do I know!) but I think in some weird, just-beneath-the-surface way, my calendar sets my mind at peace that I have controlled all that I can to the best of my ability.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy a good surprise every once in a while… but good surprises haven’t been very abundant of late! And while I love the philosophy of taking each day and each moment as it comes, I don’t really function like that, and I end up a pile of stressed out knots.  Best to just let me enjoy my calendar (… or seven?…).  🙂