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Planning Must-Haves

It’s the beginning of the year and so many people are cracking open fresh planners, myself included.

Everyone who plans has their own list of their favorite things to use. I love to see what is important to others. It’s so inspiring to see how others use their planners!

Here is my list of planning must-haves:

2023 Planner – I love this planner because there’s enough structure to keep me on track and enough space to be creative and exactly what I need week to week.

Favorite pen for writing – My absolute favorite pen for writing is the Zebra F-402. It’s a 0.7 mm tip, which is thin and crisp. It’s so smooth and a great black color!

Favorite pen for headings – I use a hard tip Tombow Fudenosuke for headings and titles. It’s fun to practice handlettering with it and it makes the headings stand out against the paper.

Markers for color coding and highlighting – I love using Tombows for the color. This is kind of new for me. For the past few years, I’ve been using Zebra Mildliners for my color coding (and I still LOVE them) but I wanted a few new colors for color coding so I grabbed a few Tombows.

Washi tape – I’ve been using washi tape for a long time for planner decoration but also for marking pages and taping in important scraps of paper that I accumulate, like business cards, appointment cards, etc.

6 inch ruler – I like having this short ruler handy for quick lines and boxes. I don’t use it a ton now in my new planner, but I use it all the time in my other dotted journals.

What are your must-haves for planning and journaling? Are you more minimalistic with just a pen and notebook? Or do you go all out and end up with a photo-filled scrapbook of sorts?

2022 Books

I’ve read some great books this year so I’ve been looking forward to this post for a while!

Click here to check out the books I read last year!

My standard statement about my book “reviews:” I’m not overly critical about the books I’ve read because I really just love to read, so these aren’t really “reviews” as much as just some thoughts after reading each book.

Talking As Fast As I Can – Lauren Graham

I wanted to start the year off with a book I knew would be an easy read and I could finish quickly. Well, I finished it in a day. Lol. This was so fun to read and I could hear Lauren Graham’s voice as I read.

Inferno – Dan Brown

I read Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons a couple of years ago so I knew I liked Dan Brown stories. This was a great, entertaining read! I enjoy the fast-paced nature of his writing.

Origin – Dan Brown

Another great Dan Brown winner. This was a really unique story line but was very entertaining. I like the real-life elements that are often incorporated into these stories.

Not Like the Movies – Kerry Winfrey

This was a sequel to the Winfrey book I read last year and honestly, I almost never say this, but I liked this one better! The main character (a supporting character from the first book) was really likable and I really wanted to see things shake out well for her. Fun rom-com read!

In Conclustion, Don’t Worry About It – Lauren Graham

Another Lauren Graham! This was originally a commencement speach that she gave but she expanded it and turned it into a short book. Super fast read, but also, really funny!

Keep Moving – Dick Van Dyke

Ahhh, Dick Van Dyke. I read and loved his first autobiography years ago so I knew I’d love this one as well. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by him, and it was so entertaining to hear him tell his stories. Really great life lessons in this one!

The Last Thing He Told Me – Laura Dave

I LOVED this book. It was an edge-of-my-seat kind of mystery. I loved the way it unfolded and ended up finishing this one in a couple of days. So excited to see this one on the small screen!

I Must Say – Martin Short

Okay, so I have thing about listening to autobiographies narrated by the actual authors. This was hands-down, one of my favorites. I loved hearing Martin Short sing the songs and do the impressions throughout the book. He’s one of the best entertainers and his book was so delightful.

You Can’t Be Serious – Kal Pen

Another audiobook, but listen – Kal Penn is a FANTASTIC story teller. He’s entertaining and compelling, and I was both shocked and saddened by his stories about the racism he’s encountered in his career. I think it’s important for us to hear these inside stories first-hand!!

The Martian – Andy Weir

I Loved Andy Weir’s books last year so I knew I needed to read this one, even though I’ve seen the movie. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book that more closely resembled the movie in my life. Impressive! This is a fantastic story.

Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn

Whoa. This book is dark and painful to read. It’s a good story and I definitely wanted to know how it ended, but wow. W-O-W.

The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles

Okay, this book was a beautiful story, but it was a little looooong. I really can’t say that it left much of an impression on me.

Death on the Nile – Agathie Christie

Classic. I grabbed this one from a used book store because the movie was coming out. I read it before watching the movie and obviously, the book was better. I enjoyed this classic murder mystery!

Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders

I’ll be honest with you – I don’t get this book. I was intrigued by the premise and the cast of readers. I even bought this using an audible credit because it was so highly recommended. Boy that was a mistake. It was very confusing to follow. Maybe it would be better to read this one? IDK, y’all.

Blowing the Bloody Doors Off – Michael Caine

Charming. That’s the only word to describe Michael Caine. Absolutely charming. If you like him, you’ll love listening to him narrate this autobiography. He has an incredible life story and an acute awareness of his privilege. Loved this one.

Yonder – Jaban Asim

Wow. This book was heartbreaking and an absolute page turner. I think I read it in two days. It tells the story of enslaved people living on a farm. It gives such a unique perspective to something I could never experience. This is a must-read.

Upgrade – Blake Crouch

I grabbed this book from the library the week it came out because Andy Weir recommended it. Sold. It was amazing. A fast read, very science-y, but very understandable. Loved this one!

The Office BFFs – Jenna Fischer/Angela Kinsey

This was another audiobook for me and I’m so glad. It was so pleasant to listen to Jenna and Angela tell the stories of The Office. If you’re a fan of The Office, you’d love this.

Commonwealth – Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is such an incredible writer. She’s lyrical and can tell an ordinary story in an extraordinary way. I’m still thinking about this book weeks after fininshing it. (Remember The Guest House from last year? So so good.)

Dark Matter – Black Crouch

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing – Hank Green

Okay, this was a heady book. Some complicated science-y type things that I didn’t understand in the slightest, but still such a great story.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor – Hank Green

Obviously, I had to read the sequel. A great second act to the story, and again, super science-y, but such a good story about not losing our humanity in our search for meaning.

The Winners – Fredrik Backman

This book was the third installment of the Bear Town series and it was so so so great. Fredrik Backman might be my favorite author? Certainly in the top three. This was a beautiful way to close out this story.

The Last House Guest – Megan Miranda

I’ll admit, the writing in this book was a little complicated and the timeline jumped back and forth, but it was a really interesting story and was set on the coast of Maine, which might be the best setting for a book.

Verity – Colleen Hoover

This was my first CH book and it will certainly be my last. I read this one in just a few hours and I was hooked until the very end. And then I was LET DOWN. And looking back, it was just lazy. This was the last book I read in 2022 and it was definitely a disappointment.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

I didn’t grow up reading Harry Potter or watching the movies, but from what I’ve gathered, I knew the stories would be interesting for Ezra, so we started reading this series as a family. We were able to get through the first one and we enjoyed it!

I read 27 books this year, which beat last year’s record by 8!! Woohoo!! So next year’s goal is 28.

And for this year’s favorite book of this year:

Drop some book suggestions in the comments and follow along on IG as I share what I’m reading!

Daily Trivia Games

Remember when Wordle took over early this year? Everyone was playing it and sharing their results daily! If people are still playing it, they’ve toned down the sharing, so it doesn’t seem as popular as it was at first.

Confession: Cody and I still play. Every day. Not only that, we have a list of about a dozen games we play daily. Once we lay down in bed, we snuggle and play our trivia games.

Not only is it a fun way to spend some nerdy time together, it’s a great way to flex some problem-solving brain muscles – especially the geography games. I feel much more confident in my knowledge of world geography!

Here’s the games we play daily – do you play any of these?

Heardle – try to guess the song of the day in as little time as possible.

Wordle – Y’all know. Six tries to guess the five letter word of the day.

Globle – Using a map, play the hot/cold game to guess the country of the day.

Worldle – Guess the country by it’s shape. The bonus rounds include guessing the neighboring countries, flag, population, etc.

Statele – Same as Worldle but for the US States.

Framed – Guess the movie using still images. (The first time we played this, Cody took a WILD guess on the first image and got it right. It was the still image of a plate of food from an obscure scene from The Imitation Game.)

Episode – Same thing as Framed, but with television shows. This one is only a once weekly game, not daily.

Plotwords – This one is most challenging for us. It gives a clues about a movie plot line and you have the guess the movie. Some of the words can be pretty obsure!

Cine N erdle – This is a grid of nine blocks and you can tap each block to uncover an image. The image is a still frame from a movie. These can be tricky!

CineNerdle 2 – A grid of 16 blocks with words or phrases on them. Arrange them in rows of 4 according to the movie. This one is a hard one to explain but it might be our most fun right now!

Emovi – Guess the movie using an arrangement of emojis. This one is either super obvious or super tough!

Moviedle – It will play 1 second of a movie (a group of frames super duper fast) and with each incorrect guess, it will play for more time. This one can be really hard!

Phrazle – Like Wordle, but for common phrases or idioms. I love this one!

This seems like a lot, but it really only takes us about 15-20 minutes to play through all of them. It’s a great way to wind down from the day and spend some time together. Try some of these games if you haven’t already!