Planners Anonymous

I have a serious planning problem - I just can't stop planning. And my Erin Condren Life Planner isn't helping me rein in my obsessive planning either, in fact I think it might actually be a catalyst for my overbearing need to plan...it is bubbling through my veins and I just can't stop it.  I am already thinking about the menu for Olivia's first week of school - what I am going to put into her lunches, what my grocery list will have to look like - if only I could put some planning energy into losing weight - man oh man would I be a force to reckon with.

The things I tend to plan, in random order:

- Meals - but I happen to be a horrible meal planner - I need to take some notes from my bestie Molly who is a champ at meal planning, not to air her pantry laundry, but I have some serious pantry envy of my girl Mols - you only see food in her house if she is planning to use it in the next few weeks - she doesn't shop for the future, she shops for the now and she plans well - I need to take a page from her book - STAT. I threw out an entire garbage bag of produce this weekend - and by throw out - I mean that I took it to our neighbors compost.

-Vacation - this one also gets me in trouble - I love to plan too far in advance and then the calendar ends up filling up, which makes the stress level inch up toward "freak out", and right now I am already thinking about Olivia's Spring Break (in April) and what we are going to do - does she go to daycare? Do we take a family vacation? Will Brad make his incentive trip and we will have to leave the girls with the grandparents and head to Mexico for the week (wouldn't that be just dreadful?)

- Vacation Time - this one is a subset of the Vacation one above - I am nutty about planning what days I will have to take off and for what, and documenting them not only in my planner but in Outlook and sending them to everyone that will need to know.

-Present Buying - I start my holiday shopping lists about now - I am already writing them out in my planner, marking down the ideas I have, things I've already purchased, whether I have wrapped them or now, and whether any presents require significant lead time - such as DIY craft ideas.

-Parties - holy mackerel - I am a party planner that is just waiting for her next party to plan. I love gearing up for the girls birthdays. I love planning the themes, writing down the invite lists, keeping track of all the vendors I will need to use and all my correspondence with them - I just can't get enough. I was in heaven planning my Parents Anniversary Party - I love that stuff - and I love seeing people's reactions when the Party happens.

-Home Projects - As you can tell from the list above, I have list after list of things I want to do around our house - ideas, some big and some small of things I would love to change or fancy up a bit.  Of course this list is always changing, things are being added, I am crossing things off - like last years list had "Screen in the Deck - Outdoor Area" that didn't make the new planner's list considering our quote was almost $40K - yes, you read that right - good golly Miss Molly - that price tag almost sent me over the edge.

There you have it - a good idea of what I spend my time planning. Anything else I should be planning?