She placed the book in my lap.  Pure joy!  I ran my fingers over the pages.  The paper was thick.  The colors were brilliantly chosen, all of them pleasing to the eye, but not boring or flat or tired looking.  This planner invited participation on its pages, and I was ready to participate.  It had everything I wanted…a monthly calendar for seeing the big picture, and weekly pages for keeping all the details.  There was a section for notes, a pocket for loose papers, and a zipper pouch for stamps and stickers and anything else that needed safe keeping.  There was a perpetual calendar for birthdays and anniversaries, and a year at a glance calendar with 18 months for the really big picture!  There were motivational quotes sprinkled throughout the pages, and each month boasted a new duo of color, creating a mood for the season.  There were customized birthday stickers, event stickers, and blank stickers designed to fit in the weekly boxes.  I took a deep look at those boxes.

This was the only part that I had to think about.  I had never seen a planner organized simply by “morning”, “day”, and “night”, each with a simple box of space to write in.  I was used to a daily schedule, with specific time slots down one side, requiring me to fit my day onto the lines, demanding my performance precisely at the scheduled time.  I stared at the more flexible option of simply morning, day, and night, and my brain fought against this freedom.  Yet, at the same time, I could feel my resistance melt as I considered how much sense this made for my day.  This would break my day into 3 parts, and allow me to set goals for each individual space of time.  I felt challenged and excited at the same time.  “I think this planner could really work for me”…the words were settling into my mind like cement drying in the sunshine.  This planner offered flexibility within the daily schedule, something incredibly valuable and appealing to a working mother with 3 children in school.

She told me I could customize my cover and choose from many designs.  I couldn’t wait to get home to check out the website.

It was August 11, 2013.  I had been sharing a couch with a gal at a meeting.  I don’t know how far we were into the meeting, but suddenly my eyes rested on the most colorful and wonderful book sitting in her lap!  I remember trying to keep my attention focused on the speaker, but I could not peel my eyes off of her book.  What was it for?  Why had I never seen one before?  Where did she get it from?  How is it organized?  I want a pretty book…right now…today….YESTERDAY!!!

It definitely looked like a planner of some sort as I could see numbers mixed with words written in the neat little boxes.  The colors were calling my name, the pastels on the inside and the vivid stripes on her cover.  Somehow I caught a glimpse of the cover.  “What??  It has their name on it?’  I had to know more.

When we were dismissed for supper, I spoke up immediately before she could slip into the food line…

“I need you to show me your planner, and I need you to tell me why I need one too.”  The words rolled off my tongue with conviction and anticipation.  I already knew I wanted what she had, but I had to get a conversation started.  She began to tell me what she loved about her planner, and a bit about Erin Condren and her company.  I didn’t really need to hear anything she had to say because I was frustrated with my tiny iPhone calendar, I wanted to see my whole month at once, and I was ready for a paper planning system again.  And this was the most fun, colorful, and cutest planner I had ever seen in my life!!  ~Kristy