Onward and Upward

I know I haven't posted in ages, but that's because between how boring my life feels to me and how busy I tend to be, I wasn't so sure what to post. However, my life got infinitely more interesting in the last couple of weeks, and I have come into quite a bit of free time - at least for the time being. In the past two weeks, I got engaged and was hired to finish the year out as a Resident Advisor.

Prior to these huge, life-changing decisions, I was just a college Senior trying to finish up my undergraduate degree and apply to Law School. I was working as an Office Assistant (OA) in one of the residence halls on my campus and I'd been dating my now-fiancé for five years. My life pretty much consisted of sitting at the Front Desk until I annoyed my friends, going to class (on occasion), and eating food with my friends.

My room is situated across the hall from  my younger sister, who is two years younger than me. We're best friends and we do pretty much everything together. I can always count on her to keep me company while eating a meal, spot me a twenty, or give me honest advice. She's the Elsa to my Anna and we like it that way. However, as I prepare to move across campus to mold and shape the future of this university, I find that leaving my sister is the hardest part. Of course leaving the OA staff and the community that became my family is difficult too; actually leaving this place might be harder than leaving home to come here in the first place.

I've been doing a lot of #adulting in the past few weeks and it is so much harder than we like to pretend it is. It's a lot of making hard decisions where both results would probably be good, but one is what you should do and the other is what you want to do. Sometimes they're the same thing, but a lot of times they aren't. Deep down, I wanted to stay right where I am. It's safe: I already have friends there, my co-workers are amazing, my sister lives here, my classes are close by, and I was President of the hall's governing body. But it would have been reckless to ignore the financial gains and the opportunity for new experiences to slip by me, especially since I'm planning a wedding for this summer and they are not cheap.

Either way, this blog is about to get popping as I try to navigate being a graduating senior, an RA, applying to law school, and planning a wedding!

So stay tuned!!

Before the Pen in my Erin Condren

Back in August, I bit the bullet and splurged on an Erin Condren Life Planner, thus a love affair was born. Since then, I have fallen full throttle into the black hole that is planner decorating. BUT, I value efficiency above most other things and tend to only use "decorations" that fill some purpose. With that being said, let's get started!

My monthly spread is a little bit messy. I've been trying some new things and in April, my planner will get a complete overhaul since I bought a new monthly kit, so stay tuned for that! I buy all of my stickers on Etsy since they're cute and there's a huge variety. The shops featured in this post include:

 Packaged to Plan monthly kit by CraftedbyCorley

Itty Bitty Kawaii Celebrate the Day and itty Bitty Kawaii Happy Mail by SweetKawaiiDesigns

The Functional College kit and Telephone Icons by RAKPaperStickers

Hydrate Side Bar by Libbieandco 

TV Show Reminders by ThisVeryCraftyMama

Every week in my planner starts out looking like this before I add in classes, homework, club meetings, and other happenings to the week. I have my "Resolutions" up in the top left-hand corner:

Migraine Diary

LSAT Prep

Eat Healthy

Keep Room Clean

Budget

Keep Kosher

My goal is to do each of these things every day of the week. So far, I'm doing pretty well at the healthy and Kosher ones, since they go hand-in-hand a little bit. I'm definitely failing at the rest. I take my LSATs in June and I've studied maybe 4 times (I'm never getting in!). But every week they stare at me from the pages of my planner and I feel a little bit more motivated. 

My side bar is my goals and to dos for the week and I've split up To Do, To Call, and To Email into their own little sections. The Packaged to Plan kit comes with this nifty little daily checklist that I use to remind myself that my sister and I have to move our car. (We're manipulating the parking situation at our school so that we don't have to pay $750 for the same parking that costs commuters $300, but it means we have to move our van, Bertha, twice a day.) Finally, my hydrate sticker is at the bottom. I have chronic migraines and I never drink enough water, so I bought a tracking water bottle to pair with my sticker, in hopes of it helping; so far, so good. 

This week is Spring Break, so I don't have much of anything going on until later in the week. The Packaged to Plan kit comes with cute boxes, flags, and a few icons that match the week's spread. I always use half boxes for things that take around 2-3 hours and full boxes for 3-6 hours. The little postage stamp looking squares I use to keep track of my work shifts. I LOVE to do lists, so naturally I have a ton of checklist flags, though I hardly ever use them in my current system (again, stay tuned for April!) Pretty much my whole week is just catching up on things and getting the ball rolling for Maximus in Minimus, so checklists were perfect for this week! 

As of now, here's the final product! Things will get added to the lists as I think of them, and who knows? Maybe something interesting will pop up!

How do you guys like to plan?

Make the day great!

Rachel

Back with a Vengeance

Before now, this blog was just an outlet for me to experiment with writing in a public forum. I honestly thought (or hoped) that followers would come overnight and motivate me to keep writing. Boy, was I wrong! After studying motivation in college (I'm a psychology major), I have learned all of the ways I have to motivate myself to post, then the followers will come. So, I have redesigned the blog, designed a logo, created social media pages, and started calendars, to do lists, and a notebook dedicated solely to my blog.

The redesign focuses on the title: Maximus in Minimus, which means "greatness in small things" in Latin. I took three semesters of Latin and absolutely fell in love with it! This phrase has become my motto in the past year or so because I struggle with mental illness that makes me feel small, but I remember that good things come in small packages and it helps me cope. The design focuses on a muted, peaceful color palette and a pretty, quirky feel. I aim to make this blog me on "paper," so bear with me as I make strides to figure out exactly what my M.O. is (there's that Latin again!)

My college roommate and sister (yes, my actual, by-blood, share-the-same-parents sister), Mara, wanted to start a blog too (check it out at http://blamelessbeauty.blogspot.com/) and we are holding each other accountable for posting and boosting each others' moral when the going gets rough.

I'm hoping to dedicate the time and effort that this endeavor deserves and post some great, helpful content for my followers! Please take a moment to answer the survey question in the bar on the right, I want to make sure I devote the time to the things my viewers want to see! If there's something you don't see that you'd like to hear about, post it in the comments section and I'll see what I can do!


Greatness is yet to come!

Rachel