Happy Monday, fellow notebook fiends. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was cloudy and cool – a wonderful preview of fall! On Monday mornings I like to take a few minutes to reflect back on the week that just ended. I use my Hobonichi Weeks to track my daily/weekly tasks, the habits I’m working to implement, and my writing time. I also spend a couple of minutes each day writing down a few things that I want to remember. Please read more for a peek into my notebook!
Very quickly: my journaling and step streaks continue, which feels like a miracle to me. Today is 134 days journaling and yesterday was 130 days with 10k steps or more.
The biggest goal I’m working towards is preparing my own meals and I wasn’t very successful with that this week. We haven’t done a proper shopping trip in a couple of weeks and it’s getting harder to rustle things up out of thin air! I don’t feel too guilty about it – I’m chalking it up to the laziness of the last few weeks of summer and am reminding myself how successful I had been recently. This week I really hope to sit down and follow Gretchen’s advice: come up with a few weeks worth of meals and rotate them. I hope that will get us through the first few months of school! But meal planning is my nemesis, so wish me luck.
Other than preparing my own meals, I did pretty well with the rest of my tasks and habits. It was really hot earlier in the week so I didn’t get as much done around the house, but I was able to catch back up as the week cooled down. Have I mentioned that I’m super thankful for the cool weekend?
We’ve reached the point in the year when my morning pages are full of angst about what notebooks to order for the next year. The Hobonichi books are available to order on 9/1 and I agonize over what to order every year. Last year I ordered two Weeks notebooks and only really used one. I’d like to write my morning pages on the luscious tamoe river paper, but can’t decide which notebook would be best.
I want to order a Cousin (the a5), but am not sure what I’d do with the weekly pages. I have a couple of old Cousin notebooks, so I’ve played with the weekly pages to see if I can’t make them work for me – but I can’t think of a way to make them useful!
I don’t know if the pages of the Original Techo are actually large enough for my purposes (A6 – 4 1/8 x 5 7/8), so I draw out the dimensions on a piece of paper and fold back the edges to see what a single sheet would look like. No, no. That won’t do. A5 is really best for my morning pages.
I don’t think I’m going to order a Weeks next year because I want to start using my 5 year book again. I love that I’ve gotten in the habit of writing just a few lines each day and would love it even more if I could compare it to previous years. I started using my 5 year book in 2019, but only wrote through March, so I think I’m going to cut up and tape index cards over the entries I’ve already made so that I don’t lose those 2019 entries and can still start fresh in 2021. Instead of a Hobonich Weeks for habit tracking and memory keeping, I’m going to order a few standard grid dot inserts for my Travelers Notebook and track habits and tasks there.
I think I’ll continue using Minimalism Art notebooks for morning pages. They’re not luxurious tamoe river paper with the dates stamped on each page, but they’re affordable and I’ve been loving them. 2021 might be the first year in a long time that I haven’t ordered anything from Hobonichi! (My husband and our bank account will be relieved.)
This is my decision this morning, but check with me again this afternoon. I’ll change my mind, I’m sure!
Does this happen to you with notebooks? Are you always on the lookout for the perfect new system and to find ways to use luxurious notebooks?? Please tell me I’m not the only one!
I’d like to invite you to share a peek into some of your own notebooks. All notebook love is welcome in this link up – bullet journals, diary style, nature journals, art journals, habit trackers, budget planners, meal planners, academic planners, Bible journaling, meditation tracking — if you’re writing in a notebook, then we want to hear about it! Even if you don’t share pictures, we still love hearing about how people’s notebooks help them through their daily life. Please leave a link to a recent blog post in the linkup to share your post. This linkup will stay open until next Monday, which is when we’ll start anew!
The Cozy Burrow 
I’d say you’re much more organized than I am with your notebooks, but I do have a habit of acquiring blank notebooks and not using them because they’re “too nice.” I think I finally got over that due to the pandemic. When everything is so uncertain, it’s felt absolutely right to use the good stuff, whatever it is. I already filled one of those nice notebooks that I’d been saving for someday, and the new one is a Moleskine that I stole from my husband.
I hope you have luck with the meal planning! It’s something I really struggle with, too, mainly because I live with a very picky eater. Generally I stick with some tried-and-true things that I know she’ll eat, but lately she’s been complaining that she’s really bored of those things — but she doesn’t have any ideas for other things to make. So frustrating!
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Yay for using the good stuff! I totally believe in doing that and am glad more people are getting on board.
Bug is also a really picky eater and loves quesadillas from Taco Bell and nuggets from McDonalds, which makes those VERY tempting options on really hard days. And it IS frustrating when people get bored with the meals but provide no input for new ideas!!
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Soon it will be cooler, soups are great crockpot items. Make a HUGE amount and stick extra in the freezer for quick meals. Delicious with some fresh sourdough bread. The children would have a blast kneading it. You can call it home ec or domestic art or whatever it’s called these days. Have a great week!
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I think baking counts as math!! 🙂
In March I made a big batch of taco pasta and froze half of it. I completely forgot about it but saw it in the freezer yesterday and it’s what we had for dinner! I always try to batch cook casseroles and soups and am learning how to remember them and work them into the rotation!
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Meal planning is one of my favorite things! I will write about that next Monday. I went through a similar thing about Hobonichi a few years ago but in the end, I didn’t really use the planners I purchased. I have a TN insert that is the same format at your weeks and I like the size. It has the days printed but you write in the date which I like. I think one insert covers 6 months. It is kind of fun to consider all the options.
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Oh, yay! I would love to see how you meal plan!!
The Hobonichi line is so gorgeous. I can’t believe that I won’t be ordering anything from them this year, but I think it’s the right decision. I think the TN insert will serve me fine. I’m glad that it’s working for you!
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I do like meal planning… it saves the most dreaded conversation in our house… what’s for dinner, lol.
Oh my. That link to Hobonichi…. what a lovely little rabbit hole!
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I like the idea of meal planning, but can’t seem to figure out how to ACTUALLY do it!!
Enjoy the world of Hobonichi! Let me know if you decide to order anything!
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What a fun link-up idea. While I love planning SOME things (like trips), I LOATHE planning meals for the week. But when I do–what a difference it makes! Part of the reason I never felt pressed was because stopping at the store throughout the week was so EASY…on the way home from office or school. But with that over, and not wanting to shop anymore than necessary, and my husband the designated shopper during COVID, we’ve shifted. We’re not religious about it, but when we realize we’re asking that dreaded question Kat mentioned, we stop and make a list. TOGETHER. And that makes all the difference! Together, we make a list of what we have and what we can make with it. I don’t plan by the day, but in my planner I list what meals we have available to us that week, and we go through them in any order that sounds good that day. It’s working for us.
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My husband and I also try to meal plan together, but it’s hard to get us both thinking about it at the same time. We’ll get it figured out, I’m sure.
And that’s basically how we try do it too — come up with 5-6 meals (hoping for leftovers throughout the week), buy what we need, and then pick whatever sounds good or is convenient each day.
Thank you for all of the encouragement!
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I am really enjoying all the conversation and peeks into the notebooks that your posts have inspired! I am into year three of a 3-insert Travelers Notebook setup and it works really well. That said, I want to get more serious about Morning Pages and might be looking for a bigger format. Marc picked up a pack of Moleskine journals for me at Costco and the paper is nice with my fountain pens. We’ll see!
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Good luck with the Moleskines! The bigger notebooks have worked really well for my morning pages. I like the TN notebooks for some things, but I like a more substantial notebook when I’m writing early in the morning!
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