What the Junk?!

I've been loving the new iPad mini and the Apple pencil.  I've been going through the apps I have on it that you can digital bullet journal on and I am pretty sure I've settled on GoodNotes.  I have imported a ton of stuff in there and found that you can import stickers and pictures in. It's so cool! I may switch over to bullet journaling digitally. I'm enjoying playing with all the freebies I've found in the past few days.  It's fun!

I also have ZoomNotes, but it's complicated. I'd like to learn more about it and learn to use it as it has things that GoodNotes doesn't. GoodNotes is pretty nifty, though. I also have it on my Mac and I can sync everything from the iPad to the Mac and vice versa via iCloud. I am thinking of setting up my own digital journal for 2022.  I am working on one now with freebies I've found. I may stick with that for now. If I like it a lot, I may just buy a pre-made one later on down the line. AND I just bought one. Someone had a planner for $1 on Etsy so I thought I'd get it. It's from May of 2021 - April of 2022. I should know by January if this is something I'd stick to. I can't wait to play with my download. ^_^

It's pretty and I like it.  I was playing with it and realized that I didn't finish this post. Oops! :p  I got distracted with that and then I was watching a YouTube video with tips for Apple Pencil. I found some things I didn't know so that is cool. :) I'm pretty much obsessed with my Apple pencil. :p

So, I cannot upgrade to Big Sur on any of my Macbooks.  I'm sort of sad because I know in a few years, some apps won't work. I'm hoping that the ones I use the most will still be able to run on Catalina.  If I can continue to use Evernote, Scrivener, and Chrome, I'll be okay.  I would love to try out Big Sur though. I have heard that some people HAVE put it on a mid-2012 MBP so I know it can be done, but Apple is not giving me the option through the App store.  Oh well!

It's been a pretty boring day. I didn't even leave the house.  I did get my daily journal set up for 2021.  I used to buy a dated planner each year.  I got a couple of undated ones free a few years back.  I dated and have used one this year. I thought about buying a dated one for 2021 and saving the other un-dated one for 2022. I looked at planners and I couldn't find one I absolutely loved.  I found several I liked in some ways and didn't like in others.  I just said phooey on it and dated this one today!  It's ready to go.  I haven't even started setting up my bullet journal for 2021.  I really need to do that.  I have the new Leuchtturm for that already, I just need to start setting it up.

I have backups of my backups for my current NaNoWriMo project. I have backups in Scrivener, in Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, etc. LOL . I also had a backup for the word count in Bean.  Today though, I noticed that the Bean copy had only about 23000 words. It had ALL of them yesterday!  That would have been eight days work gone.  I'm glad it was just a back up of a backup! I got it all fixed.  I have been pasting every day's work in Bean so I can use it to validate my word count on NaNo at the end.  I remember in my second NaNo.. or my first, I can't remember, but I lost a whole day and had to re-write it as best as I could remember.  Back. Up. Your. Work. 

Okay, now that I've given you my good deed for the day, I wanted to mention good ole, Evernote.  I have a backup in Evernote too by the way! :P

I have my character profiles in both Evernote and Scrivener.  I knew how good the search feature was on Evernote, so when I needed to verify something about one of my characters, I searched a keyword in Evernote and the character I needed popped right up!  Evernote has a great search function.

My Midori inserts came today and they are pretty nice! The months of January through June are in one and July through December are in the other.  They came with two stickers and a little information booklet.  I like the layout. It has the seven days on one page and a block grid on the other page. It could make a good 'premade' bujo for my weeklies.  Everything else I could write or draw out.  I'm going to play with it a while and then decide.  For now, here are my inserts.

From left to right: Guide, stickers, insert one, insert two.  I love that they are blue and they match my blue Midori TN! :)  If you look to the right in this picture, you can see some of the charms on my TN.

So, I was doing my regular stuff today.  My friend texted me and said it was really nice outside and I should go out and enjoy it.  I had checked the weather on my phone when I woke up and it said it was 41˚.  I looked again and this time the better weather app and it was in the mid-sixties.  I needed to go vote, so I got dressed and headed out.  I did that and then went to pick up a few things I forgot to get yesterday and headed home.  It was so nice out there, that I carried my laptop and a blanket to the yard and did today's NaNoWriMo writing out there! It was a nice change and it was just lovely out there.

I got 1873 words done.  I'm a little under 800 words from 10,000!  I will hit and pass 10,000 tomorrow.  Whoo hoo! I usually buy myself a pizza for hitting 10,000 words, but I'm a bit more broke than usual this month.  I might have to treat myself to something cheaper.  I might go to the grocery store and get a cupcake. :P  My local store has these individual cupcakes that are about twice the size of a regular cupcake and they sell them like that.  That is something I love and it would be a good substitute.  I have frozen pizza, so I can still have pizza if I want it.  I might do that.  I'll update tomorrow and say what my 10,000 word treat was!

Oh, by the way, I found this cute little flag clips at Dollar General for $1.  They are cute, functional, and cheap!

Sorry about last night.  I was doing things and had totally planned to make a blog post and then I realized how late it was.  I just decided to show the completed puzzle and call it good. :p   I didn't sleep well again last night.  I've been so tired all day, but I would not let myself take a nap.  I'm hoping it will help me sleep tonight.  We'll see!

I had to run to Dollar General to pick up a few things I needed, so I went to the one where I knew they had the puzzle I wanted.  I bought it.  I also bought some cute Halloween goodies.  Two pair of socks and a little jack o' lantern container.  They don't have a lot of their Halloween stuff out yet, but they do have some.  I'm hoping to get some jack o' lantern mugs! 

I saw something in Dollar General that I'd heard of but hadn't seen yet.  They have really cute planner supplies now!  It's a little display that has undated weekly pages and undated monthly pages. They also had dividers, clips, sticker strips, magnetic bookmarks and more. Everything was $1 each! So cool! It's for a small ring binder planner.  I have one of those that I bought many years ago. It's still in excellent condition. Now I can fill it cheaply.  The inserts are cheap, but they aren't cheap.  Does that even make sense? LOL . In other words, they are nice inserts, they are just inexpensive.  You can't beat $1 for supplies.  I purchased three packs of the weeklies, two packs of the monthlies, a pack of the clips, and a pack of the magnetic bookmarks.  I meant to get a divider and forgot.  

Oh, I have a story to share.  I have been playing a game on my iPod touch for many, many years. It's called Virtual Families and I love it.  When I got my iPad mini, I backed up the game on my iPod touch and transferred it over. I never deleted the game on my iPod, but I haven't played it on there.

So, last night, I go to open Virtual Families on my iPad and it has reset to the beginning. OH NO! This happened once many years ago and I just had to start over and I was not happy.  I contacted their support last night hoping they can get the game back.  I figured they probably could not.  Then, I remembered that the game was on my iPod touch. I went through a ton of programs before I could find one that would back up the game on the iPod and then transfer it to the iPad. It worked!  Of course it's not the same family I was on in the iPad version, but I had gotten most of the extras in the game already so I won't have to start over and start collecting all that again.  Thank goodness. I am never going to delete the copy of the file I put on my computer in case this happens again.

The game has trophies you earn throughout play. I have almost every one.  I also need to collect two more things and get their trophies and that will give me the rest and I'll have them all.  When my game reset the last time, I had everything but ONE thing to finish.  Ahhh!

Okay, before I go, here are the cute Halloween goodies I got!

I was considering skipping my blog post today because I didn't feel like getting up and getting the laptop or the keyboard.  Then, I realized I had already gotten both and they were right at the end of the bed. lol  I'm a silly!  So, here I am posting.  I walked today and it was nicer than yesterday weather wise. Hopefully it will be as nice or nicer tomorrow.  At least I hope so!

I didn't do much today after my walk.  I did wash a load of clothes that I need to put away, but other than that, I mainly just sat around and watched The Simpsons all day.  I had leftover pizza for lunch and dinner and I still have some left for tomorrow.  Tomorrow I plan to go grocery shopping after my walk.  I also might go to Starbucks.  They might be slow because of the Superbowl but then again, people like me that go to Starbucks don't watch football, so they might be as busy as usual. lol . It depends on when I get my groceries.  I might just wait and go in the evening.  I worked grocery years ago and the stores are DEAD on the evening of the game.  That is a great time to shop!

I have gotten some gift cards for Amazon from some of my survey sites.  I'm now closed to having enough for the smart stylus I want.  I might just get it!  Who knows?  The disk one I bought came and I like it okay.  It works well, but I really wanted a smart stylus with palm rejection so I can rest my hand on the iPad mini when I'm writing.  It's awkward for me to hold my hand up in the air to write!  I downloaded Keynote to my iPad and my Mac. I'm going to work on creating myself a planner.  If I get proficient in it, I might do some sales on Etsy.  I think I could do a basic planner from tutorials I've watched online.  It doesn't look too hard, but it looks like a lot of time and effort. I want to try in any case.

It's the last day of February and that means that tomorrow is March.  Spring is definitely coming soon!  It's been really nice here lately.  Today it was quite warm and nice.  It's been in the 60's and 70's here lately.  Very unseasonable, but I'm not complaining!  I am so ready for the warm weather.  I am not a fan of winter!

I see when checking my stats, that only this blog gets visitors.  My bullet journal blog and my pen pal blog haven't been visited.  I am thinking of consolidating those blogs into this one and just have it all in one place.  At least here, someone might see those posts! :)  I wonder if there is a simple way to do that?  I'd like to just have them all move over for me.  That would make life easier!

Tomorrow, I start a new stretch project with Blogilates!  Cassey has a #stretchrevolution event for March. I've been working on my stretching on my own for the past several weeks.  I'd like to be able to get into splits.  I'm very happy to begin this program tomorrow.  I'll keep on working on my flexibility until I can do the splits!  I still have quite a bit of space between myself and the floor when trying, but I can see improvement.  I am definitely getting more flexible!

I went to the post office yesterday and I had two letters.  One from a brand new pen pal and one from one that I sent out a new pal letter to recently.  It's always great to get new pals.  I'm going to write letters either tonight or tomorrow.  I am not sure which, yet.  

I guess that is all for now.  I hope to continue to post here more often.  If I can get my other blogs merged into this one, you'll see that soon! 

It's Wednesday, so that means I went to Starbucks to write my pen pal letters!  I only had four to write.  Mail has been really slow lately.  I enjoyed my time at Starbucks.  I got all my letters done and then relaxed for a bit.  I also had one of my favorite treats from there.  A Michigan Cherry oat bar.  So good!  I got my favorite seat immediately, too!  I took some pictures and made a little collage to share:

All I have to do now is get all the letters in envelopes, get those addressed, and put them in my bag for tomorrow's walk!  Hopefully I'll actually have mail in my box tomorrow.

I use a downloadable version of #PassionPlanner for my pen pal planner.  I put it in my A5 purple planner.  That is it in the first picture on the right of this blog.  I carry it when I do my weekly letters.  I keep track of everything.  I have it color coded.  Example:

Pink: Received letter

Blue: Wrote letter

Purple: Mailed letter

Other colors for other stuff.  I also keep track of how many letters I get a day.  Since it was  slow week, I took a picture of a week when there was actually some activity:

I also have my pen roll that I carry all my highlighters in and many different pens to choose from when writing:

So, I got in my walk today.  I stopped by the post office and had a letter from a pal.  I didn't have anything to mail off today.  I stopped by another store on my way home, but they were out of what I needed, so I just headed home.

I did the stretches on today's workout calendar and then ate lunch.  A little after that, a friend called and wanted me to come to their house for a bit.  I did and stayed up there for a while.  I'm back home now.  I have a few things to write in my pen pal planner and the I think I'm either going to take a bath and crash, or just crash and read until bed time!

I decided it would be cool to have a planner just for mail and especially pen pal related things.  I looked up free printable journals and came across Passion Planner.  I downloaded the A5 version for a old planner binder I had.  I LOVE it.  If they offer free downloads every year, I'll probably have one for pen palling and one for regular planning.  You can download it in several different sizes.  If you want to learn more, check them out:

Passion Planner

They also have pre-made ones you can purchase.  I am in love with the blue undated one that they have.  It's SO pretty!  Check out their site.  I love the layout of the planner.  It's perfect for anything you need a planner for. :)

Yes, I'm posting again today.  I almost didn't and then remembered that I was trying to stay on track.  I got in a good walk today.  It was a little cooler than it's been being, but it was still a lot better than it was!  I stopped at the post office and mailed off two letters and got 0 in my box.  Phooey!  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

I came home and did four of the workouts, ate lunch, and did one more.  I didn't get to drive my car today.  My front tire was totally flat.  The friend that helped me with the other stuff is going to come over and check that out for me.  I'll probably just replace it next month.  It's annoying to only be able to use my car for two days before more issues arise! ~_~;  Oh well, hopefully I can get a tire in March and I'll be back in business.  

I have to pick up my prescription tomorrow.  I guess I'll be walking my longer walk. There are a few places that I really wanted to go too.  I haven't been able to go hang out in Starbucks for ages.  I thought it would be cool to go in there and write pen pal letters and just relax with a latte. As soon as my tire is fixed, I'm going to get out and do some things!

Today, I went to a friend's house to pick up some things they had for me.  I ended up staying for dinner. ^^; Oops.  They had tortellini.  They KNOW I cannot say no to that. :P  I swear they did it on purpose!  Oh well, I will get to my goal weight, and I'm not going to stress over a cheat meal every time I have one!  I eat well 80% of the time, so a few little 'slips' don't hurt!

Did I mention that I joined the Letters Writers Alliance?  I joined last week.  I should be getting my membership information in the mail soon.  I'll let you know about that.  I think it's cool that they send your information snail mail.  They also have a service for matching up pen pals.  Maybe I'll get some more great pals.  I also want to join the League of Extraordinary pen pals.  I'll probably do that next month. Okay, talk to you tomorrow. :)

I did a little Flipagram of these and put them on Insta.

I got in my walk today and then came home and did my workouts.  It was ab day. OUCH!  I did every one of them though.  Ialso ordered this beauty:

It's the new #Blogilatesfitplanner2016  It's even prettier than last years fit planner and that is saying something! I can't wait to get it.  It's my one indulgence for the year.  I will use this beauty every single day.  I want to see it in person. The 2015 one was great and It helped a lot.  Yes, I use apps too, but with a paper planner, you can go back to any day or date quickly.  I love being able to go back and see how far I've come. If you want to order your own, go here: Shop Blogilates