Planner Failures!

I have to say, when a long term problem / illness / struggle / challenge ... arrives "center stage" in my life, it expresses itself in unexpected ways.  My center stage issue since 2023 has been my health.  The unexpected expression was Planner Failure!

How can you make a simple planner fail?  It all started with a cough.  

It started with the diagnosis of silent reflux, the cough origin, and the accidental discovery of a kidney tumor on a test  (lead actor - Gastroenterology), then surgery to remove the tumor and the kidney (Stage Left - Urology), which led to stopping anti-inflammatory meds because my lone kidney couldn’t handle that (welcome - Nephrology), resulting in exponentially increased knee pain (Stage Right - Orthopedics.). There were a few side acts in this journey - like a fast heart rate (off to a Cardiology,) and a second opinion on the cough (off to ENT,) and anemia (off to Hematology). 

There were just too many ‘ologies in my life. Too many appointments in too short a time.  And that became evident in one confusing telephone call where I started taking about Cardiology things with the Hematology staff.  Opps! Wrong body system.  That was embarrassing.

Sincerely, that is how avalanches start - a single snow flake (a cough) rolls down a snow covered hill and it becomes a force of nature that can’t be stopped (ending in 7 new doctors added to my current 5 doctors - 12 in all - before the end of 2023). 

No wonder my poor little planner couldn’t keep up - and I wasn’t doing that well either.

And all that began before my husband’s cough found by ENT and then the cancer found by Gastroenterology.  His appointments on top of mine.  Stunning.  But I am jumping ahead of myself.

The search for a better planner began.

 May 2023 to December 2023

After retiring and shedding a professional life, I used a simple monthly calendar.  It was a refillable red leather binder. No daily or weekly pages. Just monthly sheets filled with small little blocks for each day.  The size was about 5x8 inches.  To Dos were kept on a 3x5 note card. Simple life. Simple tools. It worked for years. (Until I got that cough, of course.)

My old red leather friend. You can tell it is loved.  

Then in May 2023 my calendar began to fill with medical tests, new doctors, old doctors, lots of appointments.   The picture below used to also have multiple yellow sticky notes all over it as well as folder paper inserts because there was no room for details in this system.  For 7 months I held on to this long held friend, because it had worked for years, but it was failing me now, just like my health.

I had to find a better way. 

January to August 2024

Enter the Laurel Denise planner. A full month display with small weekly pages that could be flipped during the current month - without covering the full month display. Genius. Lots and lots of unassigned space for your use.  YouTube videos offered creative suggestions. Lists, upon lists.  Decorations.  Time management. It was grand.  It was expensive, but I needed a way to keep 2 lives in order. I needed peace of mind.

They had pretty covers and a green fake leather zipper cover I just loved.

Opened - it is really very wide.

But after using it for a few months I discovered its short comings based on my personal needs.

• It was too big. Carrying this planner with me was a no-go.
• The day spaces in the month calendar were small - too small for my handwriting.   
• The planner boasted of mucho space to write other info - like menus, books lists, future shopping trips, habit tracking, planning ideas, cleaning cycles, on and on and on. This was much more than I needed. But you can see I did give it a good try.
• It took up too much time to write everything and decorate each month.

If you look at this planner as a hobby or maybe a type of diary, then it is for you.  I needed a tool - not hobby. 

Time to look again.

August 2024 to December 2024

I did an Amazon and Google search in mid 2024.  I found the 2024-2025 17 month planner by Rifle Paper Company.

I loved the cover

It was more minimalist. It did have weekly pages and goal setting pages that were totally worthless to me.  I bought this when I shouldn’t have done so.  The logic was wrong for me.  All the monthly pages were in the front and all the weekly pages were in the back.  I did, however, love the pretty face/cover it had.

This is a sample of the weekly pages located at the back of the planner.  
I got tired of flipping from the front to the back - and the back to the
front.  

If I was going to use the weekly spaces (which I wasn’t) they should follow its month calendar, not stacked at the back of the planner.  It was a crazy organization. I was shopping once again.

January 2025 to June 2025 

At the end of 2024, Laural Denise came out with a new smaller version - the weekly Portrait Edition. It was a simplified version of the larger planner I abandoned.  I really did like the Laural Denise line so in desperation I order this new portrait version.  It was slimmed down. No flood of extra stuff I didn’t want. It still made the effort to show a full month at a time, with weekly flip pages along the bottom for whatever lists you wanted.  This was the one.  I was sure of it.

Laural Denise had some very pretty covers.

I really thought this design was the one!  It wasn’t.

I used the weekly flip pages at the bottom for my “To Do” lists.  I assigned to dos to each day. But by the time I started using this planner, my knee pain was interfering with much of my life.  Getting things done on specific days didn’t happen.  I was always moving to-dos.  I lost patience once again with the Laurel Denise design.

The search began again.  I was pretty tired of it all.

July 2025 to present

By now I wasn’t going to be sucked in by a pretty face cover. What I needed was:

• Monthly pages only with large day blocks.  Lines in the blocks would be nice. 
• A small space for habit tracking.
• A blank page or two between months.
• An 18 month calendar so I could start in July 2025
• Hard cover and sewn in spine that lies flat when open would be a plus

Back to Amazon I went. *sigh*

Here is what found. The brand is Poprun on Amazon.  They have a many choices in calendar design and colors.  I had never heard of them before, but they had what I wanted.  They were the most inexpensive choice of all the choices above.

This is the cover.  Despite the 2026 label - it is an 18 month calendar. I
 chose the color.

A monthly page.  Good size blocks with interior lines. On the left a “notes” column that I made into a check list for me habits.

It had these 2 blank pages between the months.  Perfect for me.  I found some “To Do”
lists on Amazon that I might use, but I am guessing I will default to 3x5 cards at some
point.

Looking at this latest choice, it occurs to me that this planner is just a larger size of the first red covered planner that worked for me for years.  *sigh*. 

All the doctors' visits and testing has settled down from every 3 months to once a year in most cases. I have completed all the tests from all the ‘ologies, and I am coming in mostly normal or cured - except for this stupid right knee.

And now I can’t help wondering if my old red leather friend who I loved and kept, ... (wait for it) ... might be able to keep up with my current life once again!  

😍😍

By the way, I still have reflux!!  

😆

A blog born out of struggle and love!

Have you ever looked back at your first posts in your blog? 

Maybe discover why you started a blog?  

Possibility remembered things you forgot? 

I did.  It was interesting.

Start Date: July 20, 2010 - 15 years ago. 

 
Blog Title:  How did I come up with a 20 year title?  I suspect in my brain I thought 20 years was a time far, far in the future! hmm ... In 5 years I will have reached that mysterious 20 years.  Not so far in the future at all!!  Then what!

Retired in 2007:  Wow, in 2027 I will be retired 20 years! I need to send that financial guy a thank you note.  He made it possible to have such a long retirement.

My writing style hasn’t changed in 15 years.   Is that good or bad?

My focus: 20 goals - 20 of them!  Good Grief! Who has time for 20!!  Youth and energy were still mine in my late 50s. I also didn’t finish that list.  Ran out of steam I think.   Now I have 1 goal.  Take a 30 minute walk outside safely without a walker or cane (notice I didn’t say things like ... without pain, or without getting winded, or without having a heart attack). 

 I was not truthful back then why I started a blog and I remember very clearly why I started it.  And it wasn’t for goal tracking or a diary or to run off at the mouth (which I do a lot 😀 in case you haven’t noticed ) ...  No - it took me 1 year of writing about every little unimportant  thing until I cracked.  You see, unconsciously, I created the blog as a secret pressure valve to release relieve the stress that was building in my pressure cooker life. 

My mom and her dementia! 

On August 15, 2011 - it all began to spill out of me!  My first blog post on her called Through My Care Giver Eyes appeared. You can find that post here.   I continued to create a series of these posts from 2011 until her death in December 2014.  

At the start I turned off the comments on these specific posts.  I needed to document this experience somewhere and I wasn’t looking for feedback.  My readers, however, weren’t deterred.  They by passed the blog and sent comments to my email address.  And they were so supportive and caring.  They encouraged me to allow comments.  So I did! It was the best advice I ever received. 

The pressure valve was working. 

Now as an elder person myself, it is not the struggles and pain I see in these posts (although it is definitely there), but the golden opportunity I had to spend quality time with my mom at the end of her life.  I don’t regret one single second of it.  I shed some tears reading some of these posts.  It is true what they say - grief doesn’t leave us after the death of a loved one - no matter how many years pass.  We just learn to live with it.

Mom in Assisted Living with the Easter Bunny!!

I am glad to have the opportunity to remember her through my writings and pictures. Now as I walk (slowly, very slowly walk) in her shoes, I wish I could have just 15 minutes with her now - to apologize for my mistakes during our time together (and believe me, there were quite a few), and to thank her for all the years of my growing up when she juggled life with her alcoholic husband and raising 2 daughters.  She knew I loved her, but I am not sure she knew how grateful I was in making sure my sister and I turned out as normal productive adults.  My dad with his addiction really did not have a hand in that - it was all mom!

The pictures below are from a very happy time.  The wedding of my son.  I am so so happy mom was alive and mobile enough to participate.  

Mom arriving for her grandson’s wedding.

My son, Matt, my mother and daughter-in-law, Maureen.

Mom with all 4 of her grandchildren - Robin, Jessica (my sister’s daughters) and Kristin, Matthew (my kids)

My sister and I with mom.

Mom at my son’s wedding.

My mom - happier times.