My Obsession with Erin Condren

Disclaimer: I am not being paid to write this, I really just love Erin Condren that much

My obsession with EC started 3 years ago when my husband was scrambling to get me the perfect gift and his sister suggested that he get me a customized life planner from Erin Condren. He handpicked the pictures to place on the cover and won my heart with his thoughtfulness. Since that first year, a life planner has become my regular Christmas gift and I look forward to picking out my new planner each year.  When we got married in December 2012 he ordered me a planner with my new name and deskpad for the school year that he had customized to change to my new name in January after the wedding.

This past year I was able to order double because I combined my Christmas and Anniversary presents. I got the Life Planner and the Teacher Planner. Honestly, it was a bit of overkill for me, I think I will stick with just one for now, but I have friends who use both religiously. I think I'm just not organized enough to keep up with two organizers.

Some of the things I love about EC are the bright colors and functionality of the planners. I also love how customizable they are - you can have multiple covers and interchange them throughout the year. In fact every product is customizable and can be used for whatever purpose you choose.

There are also tons of facebook groups you can join to help you personalize your planner further and find inspiration for how to make it functional. Here are a few videos that also walk you through some of my favorite products and what comes with them.

Intro to the Teacher Planner - New designs coming in July (and 25% off sale)

Intro to the NEW 2015-2016 Life Planner - LAUNCHES TODAY!!!

Tour of the New Horizontal Layout planner by JenPlans

How to repurpose Teacher Planner for High/Middle School

I found that the teacher planner really was more geared toward elementary but this video is super helpful for secondary teachers

Some of the other products I have tried/want to try are:

The Desk Pad sat on my school desk for 3 years and I used it daily - I still have some of the pages left from my most recent one and it now sits on my desk at home.

I plan on getting this Fun-ctional Family pad to track the twins schedule in the beginning and eventually for assigning chores to the little munchkins - I'm all about that free labor.

Loving the lined note pads to stick in the back of my planner, although I'm pretty obsessed with the lined post-it note pads I currently used for this purpose.

Call me cards - serve a bunch of different purposes - a friend of ours hosted an informal brunch for our out of town family and friends after our wedding and she handed these out at the wedding with the details - I thought it was such a neat way to invite people discreetly without having to mail formal invitations.

If you are interested in getting your own planner or anything from erincondren.com use this link to create an account and we will both receive a $10 credit! If the link above doesn't work you can copy and paste this into your browser: https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/ellenburnett0807 once you sign up for your account you will get your own referral link and can start sharing it with friends to get your $10 reward! I almost never pay full price for EC because there are always referrals to be had. What is your ideal planner? How would you customize it?

Waiting to Pop

When people ask me how I'm feeling the only thing that comes to mind is "...like a ticking time bomb." I'm a very visual person, I need to have a mental image for things and so lately when I look at my belly I mostly see this...

I feel like I am just walking around waiting to pop - (I hear your water breaking makes a pop noise, how fitting right?) But in all seriousness - this last month of pregnancy is a little scary for people who worry as much as I do. As labor nears and the thought of bringing home the boys becomes less of a distant future and more of an "any day now..." my anxiety level is skyrocketing. All those labor fears and questions are starting to surface again and I'm praying like crazy to keep them at bay. Trying to just trust that what will be will be.

I guess in a way it's kind of cool... you know, that they could surprise us at anytime, that I could wake up in the middle of the night and be hospital ready.  It's one of those good surprises in life and I don't want to ruin it, I just can't help but feel a little anxious. Ben on the other hand is ecstatic and asks every day if it's time to go to the hospital yet. 

Top Ten Tuesday

Because I missed last week - you will get two top ten lists this week! One today and one on Thursday.

Today the top ten reasons exam week is the best...

1. There is always food everywhere, literally kids always have extra food I can't explain it, I just reap the rewards.

2. Double conference period - I should use it to be productive but instead I use it as the one time a year I don't have to scarf lunch down over my computer or hurried conversation, and actually enjoy a long lunch with colleagues at a nice restaurant.

3. Saying goodbye to 1-2 classes each day, it spreads it out and somehow the last class is always one of my favorites.

4. Everyone is so relaxed, except the borderline failure kids and the frazzled teachers who haven't quite realized the end is in sight... I could do without both of these...

5. The hilarious lack of filter my Seniors develop (not that they had much of one before)

6. All of the "last" - last final graded, last class uploaded, last signature on the checkout list - so many mini celebrations.  (I have to admit this year is a little bittersweet)

7. The great purge! How liberating it is to clean out a classroom and discard mounds of paperwork that you never used but had to keep "just in case..." to "CYA"

8. All the fun stuff you find during the great purge, like a brand new unopened box of expo markers or a team of computer paper - it's like winning the school supply lottery.

9. The amount of online shopping, Pinterest posting, buzzfeed reading, Facebook checking etc. that gets to happen during the study/exam time. Normally this would be used for planning/grading but there is none of that to be done. Especially if you already graded projects during presentations or are smart and give scantrom exams. (I did both this year)

10. Teacher work day the last day of that week, when everyone shows up breathing sighs of relief because we did it - we made it through another year in the trenches and we can all rest for a couple months before doing it all over again.

Any teachers able to add to this list? What are your favorite things about exam week?