Kristie's Craziness

Create Your Own Planner: Notes Edition

January 22, 2025

I’m going to say something that most people rarely hear, “My husband might have a point.” 😂🤷‍♀️🤣 He keeps telling me that I have an obsession with notebooks and pens. I usually roll my eyes, but looking at my desk…

I have my teal bullet journal for personal growth and things I do just for me. The navy moon journal is filled with lists of ideas for blog posts in 2025. The sun binder is my newest acquisition and what I am most excited about today.

I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who uses a planner and stays organized, but I have never found one that fits me. This year, I decided to make my own planner for work. At the moment I don’t feel like I need a calendar, because Outlook manages that easily enough. I need a way to organize and prioritize my tasks.

I found To Do List notebooks on Amazon. I can keep track of what I need to do to prep for each weekly meeting and organize my audit files. I’m sure this makes my job sound super exciting 🙄 but I assure you I love what I do. In the notes section I can add reminders or motivational quotes to get through the day.

I hope this gives you ideas for getting organized in 2025.

Kristie
Beauty Trends: Blue Eyeshadow

January 17, 2025

One good thing about working outside of the house is that I now have an excuse to get dressed and put on makeup. I haven’t bought anything other than nail polish in 2 years, so I feel a little like a kid playing dress up right now.

I ordered this Earth and Ocean Eyeshadow Palette because I read somewhere that blue eyeshadow was in fashion again. I’m not sure that I’m ready to rock an entirely blue lid, but blue eyeliner is pretty.

I was super impressed by how smoothly this eyeshadow went on and how well it stayed in place all day. It didn’t irritate my eyes either, which is rare because my skin is so sensitive.

Well I have smoky eyes down, even if the blue doesn’t pop. 😂

What other beauty trend do you recommend that I can do incorrectly?

Let me know in the comments.

Kristie
Cold Weather Camping Is Not My Thing

January 10, 2025

It’s been a week since we closed on our house. We are still moving in and getting settled. It’s a lot of work, but I’m so thankful to be out of the camper before the worst of our winter weather arrives.

I’m not saying it’s impossible to camp in the winter in Michigan, but I am more of a summer glamper than a winter camper.

It’s rare to find a campground in Michigan that’s open during the winter. The owners of Apple Creek Campground were amazing for accommodating us in their group camping area. We were the only trailer on this side, but there were 4 others grouped together near the entrance.

In order to stay warm, we had to get a 100 pound propane tank. The night our 30 pound one went out at 3 am made for a very cold morning.

Getting water was an experience. My husband’s cousin lives a couple blocks away and was kind enough to let us fill a water bladder. Unfortunately we didn’t know we needed a pump to get the water into our tanks, and by the time we found one the first bladder froze. So for a week, we were dry camping.

Once we got water in we thought we were good. Our trailer has a yeti pack, which is supposed to heat your storage tanks and water lines. It worked ok, but we still had a couple instances where the kitchen lines froze and even the water pump froze once.

I didn’t do much cooking in the camper because we were trying to conserve water which meant minimal washing dishes. I’m so tired of eating out right now. I have minimal kitchen supplies at the house but at least we are cooking.

Rob wants to bring the camper to the house those weekend, once the movers have brought our stuff from storage. Hopefully then we can clean it out and start feeling organized and at home here.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Kristie
January 2025 Bullet Journal: This Month We’re Gonna Move Mountains

January 8, 2025

I haven’t done a bullet journal since 2020 when I needed a positive outlet for all the COVID chaos. Now I just need an outlet for the chaos in my mind.

The theme I’ve chosen for January is Mountains. I am projecting the uphill trajectory of this year into this month. My goal is to move mountains, or at least into our new house.

Tutorial

Mind you, I’m not great at drawing. I tried to copy a tutorial for drawing mountains on Instagram, and spent more time laughing at my art than feeling proud of my mountain. Oh well! Laughter is far better than tears.

Just play with some triangle shapes and add some shading until you find a style that works for you.

Cover Page

For my cover page, I created a small mountain range. At the base of the mountains I added some pine trees just for the pop of color. I created a night sky using stencils for the stars. To finish it off I wrote January in an icy blue. Sorry. My phone was making obnoxious shadows on this page.

Blog Calendar

Next is my monthly Blog calendar. It has very little on it right now, but I have an entire notebook of ideas to work through. I chose my favorite John Muir quote to help inspire me and continue my mountain theme.

Habit Tracker

Bullet Journals are a great place to hold yourself accountable to your goals. This month, I really want to focus on finding inner peace so I can project it into my environment. That’s why I set up this habit tracker page. Each day I find time to meditate, I will add a little meditating 🧘‍♀️ person and write the date on it. Hopefully I will have 31 at the end of the month.

Mood Tracker

Obviously, I have prepared this post before January 1st since nothing is actually filled out. I don’t usually do this, but we are expected to close on our house the 10th, so I expect to be crazy most of the month. On the bright side, my mood tracker should be colorful, or at least very pink and green.

Quotes

I decided to end this month with some inspiration. These are my favorite quotes that mention mountains.

So be honest and let me know what you think. Are you interested in seeing the themes I choose for the next 11 months in my journal? I had a lot of fun sketching and organizing my goals for this month, and would love to share whatever comes next.

Climb your mountain and I’ll see you on the other side.

Kristie
Virtual Tours of the National Parks

January 3, 2025

We are closing on our house later today. I’m ridiculously excited and impatient to start getting settled, but I’m also a little sad because it means we definitely aren’t traveling the US for the next 5 years. I really wanted to see all the National Parks.

Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park

Our first stop was going to be Texas and while we were there, I was planning to explore Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. I was excited to learn that you can take a Virtual Tour of the main floor of the Texas White House, which is closed for renovations. You can also tour Junction School , his Childhood Home and watch Videos from tour guides telling you about the park.

Homeschool Tie-In

The LBJ Library has a plethora information that is perfect for Homeschooling. My favorite are A Vote Is a Powerful Thing for early elementary students, Jim Crow to Johnson which is a history of Civil right in the south aimed at middle school students and I Shall not Seek where high school students can compare Johnson’s choices with Biden’s.

Shenandoah National Park

Located in Virginia, this is on my bucket list of places to visit. The virtual tour doesn’t offer the trails or waterfalls but it does have some of the buildings. There is the Massanutten Lodge, Dickey Ridge which offers a glimpse of the mountains, a descriptive tour of The river cabin and Pocosin Cabin. Now I just need a bear encounter to make it feel real.

Homeschool Tie-In

The National Parks Service has Virtual Field trips to do with your kids. There is a Virtual habitats trip for your 2nd grader. The Virtual Ecosystems trip compares human and animal communities with your 4th grader. My final favorite is 5th grade Virtual Geology but that might be because my kid is super into rocks.

I hope you enjoyed taking a mini trip with me. Thank you for distracting me from my impatience.

Have a great day!

Kristie