Before and after of DIYFish LMI V2.0, week 6

Hey, planning friends!

Today I have photos for you of my use of DIYFish's LifeMapping Inserts, version 2.0. Fish has version 2.1 available now, so mine are slightly different than what you can get on her Etsy store here.

So on to the pictures and some explanations.

This is the current set-up. I'm in a trial period of having my work and home/personal information and schedules all consolidated into this A5 Malden. Using Fish's inserts is working brilliantly. The only items I can't fit into this Malden are my movie and book review notes. I keep those in a separate binder. I do have everything else including pertinent paperwork for the sprogs' school, passwords, meal planning, etc in this one. My husband has been converted (mwahahhahahaa.... come to the dark side....) and he's using Fish's personal size LMI v2.1. He's tracking work and home in his planner. I *may* be able to convince him to let us take a tour. We'll see. It will require bribery.

I'm using an Orla Kiely make-up bag from Target to carry my essentials around the house and sometimes in the car. I don't need to take my A5 with me very often, so this is mostly so I can indulge my laziness and track the weather with my little stickers and do my color-coding whilst on the couch under a pile of corgis. Yeah, I'm that girl. The things you see in this bag are really the only things necessary for me to use my planner. The decorations are fun, but definitely not the real purpose of the planner. Some folks love lots of decorations... I prefer to keep it more functional. The things you see on my pages are stickers, sticky notes (big fan), and a little washi.

I'm using LePens. I switched to them after my Stabilos (or just the purple one) ran out. I actually tried to move to InkJoy ballpoints, but because some of the lighter colors were difficult to see on the page, specifically orange and light green. I like the feel of the InkJoy pens... they write smoothly and really beautifully, but the LePens offer deeper colors, and I prefer that. It's actually the third or fourth time I've gone back to LePens. Someday I'll learn.

I also use Zebra Mildliners on my monthly pages. More about that later. I keep my weather stickers and some hole reinforcement stickers in the left pocket. My meal planning flags are loose in the bag. On the right are scissors, a white-out pen, a few sticky notes, and an empty little Post-It pocket.

Okay, so the before and afters...

This is the weekly view for Week 6. I have our meal plan and weather forecast in the boxes next to the task chart. The task chart is color coded. I've hidden some medical information. I normally take the meal planning flag off and write in what we actually had after we eat. Sometimes meals move around or change, so I use the flags until it's official. I left the one flag at the top because my younger son chose that meal and wrote it on the flag. It's a nice little reminder of his participation in our family organization. I will glue it down and leave it.

As you can see, there are days that are crazy and days that aren't. I also like to keep little mementos or photos on some days, like the card I received with a RAK and a photo of the snow from our front door on Sunday.

So, should I continue with the before and after shots? Would you like to see the before picture at the beginning of the week, or keep them more like this, a comparison kind of post?

Thanks to those who have left comments recently! It means a lot. If there's something you want to see or share or have advice for me about pens or printing or decorating, fire away!