Polka Dots

Remember Retro Wednesday I had a few months back? My cute polka dot dress with the red ribbon, red shoes and my hair cute and retro? Well, I believe I've already told the story how the then 3 year old came into the office and commented on how we were not matching (in the blog titled Potluck Blog Post) because she has a red polka dot dress.

(Her face has been blurred to protect her identity)

The following Sunday we both wore our polka dot dresses to church and I've never seen a smile so big! The next Sunday she told her mom she had to wear her polka dot dress because I'd be wearing mine. Her mom had to explain Miss Alice won't want to wear her polka dot dress every Sunday, but maybe once a month we can match in our polka dot dresses. She was so patient in waiting a month until we could match again. Her mom and I got to talking and realized her birthday was coming up the following month and that would be a good day to match. 

I thought of getting her blue shoes for her birthday so she'd have a red polka dot dress and blue shoes and I'd have a blue dress and red shoes. While shopping for blue shoes for her (which I was having trouble finding the right pair) I found a blue polka dot dress. I knew I had to get it. I gave it to her at her party the Saturday before we were planning on matching on Sunday. The week before her party I reminded her we were going to match the upcoming Sunday. She had no idea I had gotten her a blue polka dot dress and to match her I found pink glitter shoes in my size (which I know doesn't make sense I couldn't find simple blue shoes in her size, but pink glitter shoes in mine, but it was what I could find!).

Again, this little girl was so happy. What I hadn't thought ahead on was I'd look like a 4 year old because I was wearing glitter pink shoes with a blue polka dot dress all day because I didn't bring another pair of shoes! At the same time it was worth it to make a little girl happy.

I have so many hats I wear (or as someone pointed out I wear many purses and bags because each purse/bag holds another thing I'm heading up) I needed something to keep me organized and the calendar on my phone wasn't cutting it because I needed extra note space. While I was shopping for a day planner at Franklin Covey (which if you've never heard of them you should check out what they have to offer... for those who are organized you need their products... for those who are not organized you NEED their products!), anyhow, while shopping I was trying to decide on which planner to choose. My sister has a plain black one that zips up and although that seems awesome because you can then have loose papers, pens, etc. I didn't want to have the same as her because that would be a horrible mess to try to figure out if we set them next to each other. I looked at the pink one (because I LOVE pink!), but it just didn't scream "Alice," not to mention it was made of a canvas material and I thought it might get dirty and would be hard to clean. Then I saw this:

What a perfect planner that screams Alice! This clearly says, "I belong to Alice and if you see me and Alice is not near by there is trouble!" Then because I respond to color better than just notes scribbled all over I use my pens I had in college to take notes with that are 9 different colors (well there are 10 colors, but the yellow doesn't show up very well so I use 9 of the 10) to represent each hat, or bag, I wear.

The colors and what they represent are as follows:
Office - electronic: ie. email, website, Facebook updates
Office - print: ie. bulletin, newsletter, calendar
Education Director - Nursery
Education Director - Children
Education Director - Youth
Education Director - VBS
Bible Studies/General Church
General Work: ie. babysitting, housesitting, wedding coordinator, etc
Personal/Family/Friends

In college I'd use each color in my calendar to represent each class/activity I was involved in, but then realized when I'd take notes having the different colors helped me to remember because I could imagine what was written easier if I could imagine where it was on the page and the color I used (I'm a VERY visual person). There wasn't a real rhyme or reason in colors I'd use in taking notes, except I'd use one color that class session for what was on the powerpoint, another color for what the teacher said, another color for charts/tables, and another color if there was something a student said. People laughed at my system... but it worked and I'm all for what works.

I'm excited about my new day planner and what it is going to do to keep me organized, not to mention it's polka dotted and who doesn't like polka dots?