Mommy Plannerista

Planning. Passions. Parenthood.

RECLAIM: One Word 2020

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If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you’d know that I’ve been doing One Word each year as a New Year’s resolution. This year is no different. What’s different is that I had trouble choosing a word this year. In fact, I ended up choosing my word only today.

I initially chose the word “Courage” because I thought that this year would be a good year to be braver in terms of going after my dreams. While that is still a goal of mine, there was still something about it that didn’t seem fit enough to describe what I really want to achieve this year.

I also thought of using the word “Hustle”. As I was reminiscing about everything that happened in my life for the past 10 years and the lessons I’ve learned along the way, I realized that there are still a lot of things that I want to achieve. I wanted to do all that I possibly can this year to achieve them and so “hustle” seemed like a good fit. However, it still didn’t seem to really capture what my heart is yearning for.

I finally came across the word “RECLAIM” today as I was getting inspiration from other people’s One Word. It immediately resonated with me. It made me remember a quote I saw a few weeks ago that goes:

Remember who you are and the game changes.

I saw that quote when I was trying to find inspirational dashboards for my planner. I loved it so much because I felt like I had forgotten or neglected some parts of myself these past few years and wanted to reclaim them. So, I was so happy to find that quote and to discover that there was a downloadable desktop and mobile phone wallpaper that had the quote on it. It’s been on my laptop and phone for more than a week now.

I just feel that in my desire to be the best mom and wife, so many other things in my life have had to take a back seat. Don’t get me wrong. This is not something I regret. Giving up some of the things in my life was just a temporary necessity given that season of my life. However, I feel that this year is finally the time to get more of ME back.

So, you see? The word RECLAIM is just perfect, don’t you think?

Now, exactly what do I plan on reclaiming in my life this year? I plan to RECLAIM my:

HEALTH – I’ve gained a lot of weight these past few years. I’ve also begun to experience some health concerns. Going back into a healthy weight would improve things a lot, which is especially important now that I’m turning 41 soon.

TIME – There’s so many things to do but so little time. Since there’s only 24 hours a day, I want to simplify a lot of the things I do so that I can spend more time on the things that matter most.

CAREER – I love working from home but I’ve had to scale back during the last few years so that I can focus on child-rearing and homeschooling. This year I think I’m ready to do more work-wise now that my youngest child is already 3 years old and we’re already on a steady groove in our homeschool.

FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE – A lot of my insecurities lately stem from the fact that I don’t earn as much as I used to anymore as a result of scaling back on work. It just makes me feel good to earn my own money.

CONFIDENCE – These past few years I’ve been second guessing myself a lot. I want to be able to remember what I’m made of and be more confident in my abilities and decisions.

PASSIONS – I’ve had to scale back on some of my hobbies too, such as reading. I really miss it, so I vow to read more this year. Similarly, I’ve scaled back on blogging as well, but this year I want to bring this blog back to a more active status again.

HEART – My heart has been bruised so many times this year by people who are closest to me. A lot of that comes from me caring so much. That’s just part of my personality. However, while I will still continue to care for the people I love, it’s also high time for me to start caring more about myself so that I can bring back the ME I used to love.

Some people would probably say that this is a bit selfish, thinking about myself. However, after years of giving so much of myself to the people I love, I think it’s more than okay for me to be a little selfish. I deserve this and will not apologize for it. I truly believe that it is in remembering and reclaiming the best parts of me that I will truly change the game this year.

Here’s to 2020!

Do you have a One Word for the year too? Please share it with me. I’d be happy to hear about it.

Highlights and Lessons: The Past 10 Years of My Life

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It’s the last day of 2019. Tomorrow will mark not just the start of a new year but also the end of a decade.

As I was thinking about what my One Word for 2020 will be, I found myself reflecting on my life not just this past year but for the past 10 years. I thought it would be nice to go down memory lane and list down the highlights I’ve had each year.

2009:
This was the year that Jon and I decided that we wanted to create a family, and so we decided to move in together with my daughthers.

I had been working part time during the last half of 2018. In the beginning of 2019, the job became a full time one. I was able to do a lot of local travel for work this year. This included my first trip to Davao and Bacolod.

This was also the year I made a major decision to let go of my legal responsibilities to my dad.

2010:
I became pregnant with Ziggy. It was a delicate pregnancy, with me having to go on bed rest twice. This prompted me to leave my job.

This was the year I started this blog, which I first named Roller Coaster Ride.

2011:
I gave birth to Ziggy in February. I attempted to go back to a full time job in November but was forced to leave it come January of the next year. It was a challenging year financially. Nevertheless, I enjoyed being a fully hands-on mom to my son, something I never got to do when my daughters were babies because I had to go back to work just a month after they were born.

2012:
I was a stay-at-home mom for the first half of the year. Thankfully, I was able to get hired for a writing gig and that kickstarted my career as a freelance writer. A few months after, I was also offered a gig as a virtual assistant working mainly on article writing and social media management.

2013:
2013 was the year that my blog really started doing well. I started being offered more campaigns and the income, although not huge, became more consistent.

This was also the year I accepted another virtual assistant job. This time, it also involved helping operate an online shop.

We took the kids to Canyon Cove during the summer. It was Ziggy’s first trip to the beach. Sadly, we haven’t been back to the beach as a family since then.

This was an especially emotionally year for our blended family. This was a year that our girls, Zoe and Ziya, decided to live with their dad for good.

2014:
This was the year my freelance writing gig was truly on a high. I had an opportunity to have two articles published on SmartParenting.com and I also worked for most of the year writing for The Asian Parent Philippines.

This was the year we also started homeschooling Ziggy independently at the age of 3.

2015:
2015 was filled with more new writing gigs. Most notable were my experiences writing for the now defunct Raket.ph and IndigoMemoirs.com. Writing for Indigo Memoirs was such a highlight because it was a London-based lifestyle online magazine.

One of the biggest highlights this year though was my discovery of the planner community worldwide. This prompted me to start a second Instagram account solely for this purpose, then called Planning for Pleasure. This eventually made its way into this blog too.

2016:
I got pregnant and gave birth to Zander. This was also the year I started working for Weddings at Work as a virtual assistant. WaW was my main client until 2017.

2016 was also the year we first enrolled Ziggy under a homeschool provider.

I started working for planner shops all over the world as part of their PR team, which helped me further my skills on content creation for Instagram.

2017:
This was the year I started becoming more active in posting videos on YouTube channel. However, it wasn’t as consistent as I wanted it to be.

My stint ended for WaW in May. I started working as a freelance writer again. I started working for a client whom I have worked for in the past. I still work for her as of this writing.

2018:
I changed this blog’s name and branding from Roller Coaster Ride to Mommy Plannerista.com. Admittedly though, this was also the year that I started becoming less active in blogging.

However, ironically, I also got my first offer to join a National Bookstore campaign that involved a video shoot. (You can see the video on the right sidebar!). I almost said no but ended up having a blast although I was SUPER anxious about it.

Zoe graduated from 10th grade this year and started Senior High!

2019:
It was our first time to use unit studies in our homeschool this year and we totally love it! We plan on doing more next school year.

I was also given more opportunities to work with some of my favorite planner shops as part of their PR Teams this year.

Ziya also graduated from 10th grade this year and started Senior High.

Needless to say, so much has happened in my life this past decade. There have been several major things that have given me a life I never expected I’d have, that of being a mom in a blended family, working from home, being a writer and content creator, homeschooling, and blogging. Those are the 5 main things that make up ME now.

These changes come with their share of lessons, of course. Here are the 10 main lessons I’ve learned:

1. I learned that I’ve amassed a lot of skills during my twenties that actually serve me well now that I’m freelancing. They are skills I acquired because of career decisions I’ve made in the past. They turned out to me smart ones. I’m learning I have good instincts and that I should trust myself more.

2. It’s a challenge parenting teenagers. Parenting from afar makes it even harder. It makes me worry all the time, but again I know I just have to have a lot of faith in HIM to be there for them when I can’t.

3. It’s a lot of work managing a blended family. However, having one now has helped me come to terms with my own experience growing up in a broken family. I now understand that everything that happened in my life had to happen to prepare me for this.

4. I’ve learned to love again and to recognize what true love is and what it is not.

5. I’ve learned that it’s okay to accept help from time to time. Not everyone who offers help has an agenda. Sometimes they just have a good heart and sometimes you need to throw pride out of the window. Kindness goes a long way.

6. I may suffer from anxiety and it may be crippling from time to time. I’ve learned though that I can power through them eventually.

7. I’ve learned who my real friends are. The past 10 years I’ve witnessed friends who have come and gone. Those who remained are the ones I know always have my back even if we rarely see each other.

8. I’ve learned that it’s easy for some people to paint a picture-perfect life. I’ve realized it’s what I hate the most. I’ve learned to stay away from people and situations that are not truly authentic.

9. I’ve learned that I’m strong enough to survive life’s challenges. I’ve learned that heartaches are painful but that I’m strong enough to be healed. I may have been broken, and will probably break again in the future, but I now know that I’m strong enough to pick up the pieces and move on.

10. I have learned that if I want to change things in my life that are no longer working out or no longer serving it’s purpose, I need to have courage to let it go. Life truly does shrink or expand in proportion to one’s courage.

On that note, I hope you’ve also learned a lot this past decade. Now that we’re about to start a new year, I leave you with this message:

You can make all the plans you want for your life but things will inevitably happen that you never planned for and that’s okay. God’s plans are always better than your plans for yourself. Prepare all you want but don’t forget to have a lot of faith in HIM. 

#OneWord2019: MINDFUL

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Happy New Year everyone!!! How were your Christmas and New Year celebrations? I hope you all had a wonderful time spent with family and friends. I know, I did!

Anyway, since it’s the beginning of a new year, it’s time for my usual One Word for the year post. I’ve been thinking of my One Word for 2019 since October. By November I chose one already but kept changing my mind. I was still confused until yesterday morning actually. That is, until I went back to reflect on what really is in my heart. In the end, I went back to the first word I chose – MINDFUL.

My desire for being more mindful stems from last year’s One Word, which was Declutter. We’ve been decluttering so much stuff from our house especially during the last quarter of 2018. As we went through that tiring process (which is still ongoing, by the way) I realized how much anxiety all that clutter was causing me. It was preventing me from relaxing and just enjoying our home. I realized that in order for me to prevent physical and mental clutter to invade my life again in the future, I needed to be more mindful about everything in my life.

For one, I want to be more mindful about the things that gets to occupy precious space in our house. I want to have less stuff so that I can focus on what’s most important. I want to not feel like I should be cleaning all the time because there’s so much clutter. Less stuff, less things to clean.

With less time doing chores, I can spend more time with my kids. This time though, I want to be more mindful about how I spend time with them. I have to admit that I’m a serial multitasker because there’s so much that need to get done. As a mom, sometimes we can’t help but be on autopilot all the time but this does more harm that good. I know that by not giving my kids 100% of my attention, I’m missing out on precious moments. I need to be more mindful about how to schedule my day so that I can carve out time when they can have my full attention. I want to be in the moment with my kids and enjoy it.

I also want to be mindful so I can be more aware of my surroundings, of others and of myself. I want to fully engage with the present, not worrying too much about the future. I suffer from an anxiety disorder and that is brought about by my worries. I tend to over analyze things, causing panic. I want to be more calm and have a clearer mind, to accept my present situation for what it is without judgement for whatever feelings I may have. This way, I will make better decisions based on what’s truly in my heart.

Mindfulness has a lot of benefits and I’m sure that being more mindful will bring about positive changes in me and in my family. So, wish me luck with this!

If you also have One Word for the year, do share what it is with me and why you chose it.

My One Word for 2018

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Happy New Year everyone!!!! Welcome to 2018!

How were your Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations? Ours were pretty chill compared to how we usually celebrate. The weeks leading to the holidays were so stressful and hectic for our family so we decided to celebrate without stress as much as possible.


Let me take this opportunity to thank all of you for continuing to support this humble blog all throughout 2017. Our entire family is grateful to you guys! I hope you’ll continue to follow us in our journey especially because I have BIG plans for this blog this year.

2017: A Recap

I’ve been doing One Word 365 for the last several years. It basically means that instead of making New Year’s resolutions, you choose one word that will encapsulate all that you plan to achieve during the year.

For 2017, I chose FOCUS. I chose that word because we had a new baby then and as we all know, babies tend to be a LOT of work. Since our baby, Zander, is going to be our last child, I really wanted to pour as much of myself into raising him, especially in his first year.

Our son, Ziggy, also started first grade. Since I’m the one homeschooling him, I also wanted to focus on that. Our girls were also starting their last couple of years in junior high school. Since they’re busier in school and don’t live with us full time, I had to make the most out of the time that we do get to spend with them.

Basically, in 2017 I chose to focus on FAMILY and that’s exactly what I did.

How? Well, I scaled back on attending blogging events. I scaled back on blogging, period. I also didn’t accept new clients although I continued working from home part time with my existing client. I also scaled back on time with friends and other extra curricular activities.

What did I gain out of it? A closer relationship with my girls, despite our distance and limited time together. I was able to continue exclusively breastfeeding Zander (still on it now at almost 16 months!). I was able to support and accompany Ziggy in his new experience of joining weekly MAPEH classes. Lastly, stepping back career-wise allowed my hubby to step up on his (he was promoted twice in 2017!).

So, I can proudly say that 2017 was a good year for us despite some major challenges. I’m really excited now thinking of what 2018 has in store for us.

One Word 2018

I had a difficult time choosing my One Word for this year. I only finally decided on it last week, actually. It all boils down to my wanting to focus more on what matters most and to me that means getting rid of the things that matter least.

That said, my One Word for the year is ….. DECLUTTER.

Being a certified OC, I like things all organized. These past several years though, we’ve accumulated so much stuff that we’ve already run out of space to store all of them. This means that there are several areas of our house that are just too cluttered already. I want to clear our house of the stuff we don’t use or no longer need by the end of the year. (Will blog more about this in another post soon!)

A quick look in my closet and of my work station at home also makes me stressed lately. I no longer wear half of the items in my closet. My table is filled with lots of papers, planning and crafting stuff (happy kalats!), boxes from PR companies, etc etc etc. They’re all giving me a headache already so it’s time to finally purge.

I’ve also accummulated so many work files in my computer. A lot of them are from years ago. I need to get rid of a lot of them already. I’ve also taken lots of photos and videos of my family throughout the years. They’re all either in my phone, in my external hard drive or in several desktop folders. I want to organize them already for fear they might end up getting lost if I don’t.

I also want to declutter my personal relationships. There are just some people I don’t really connect with anymore. I want to reevaluate frienships. I think there may be some I just need to let go already.

Basically, I need to weed out the unnecessary, the things that no longer make me happy. At the end of the year, I just want to be left with a cleaner and more organized home and more importantly, a clearer head and peaceful heart.

So, wish me luck!

Do you also do One Word every year? Share me what your word is for 2018.

ONE WORD 2017: Focus

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It has been my practice for several years now to forego making new year’s resolutions and instead to try and live by one major word for the entire year. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to choose as my One Word for 2017 and I finally decided on one last month. My One Word 2017 is….. FOCUS.

Now how did I come up with my word?

Well, it really boiled down to my feeling overwhelmed and tired these past few months. My pregnancy last year wasn’t exactly easy. Then, when I gave birth last September, I had to juggle taking care of a new baby and learning how to breastfeed exclusively while taking care of the other kids and doing chores. Oh, and I had my part-time job and this blog to think about too.

Needless to say, I had a lot on my plate and yet I still felt I wasn’t doing enough. I felt bad whenever I couldn’t do everything I set out to do all in one day. I felt bad whenever I couldn’t say “yes” to an event or to a new job opportunity. It was frustrating!

In the end though, I was reminded of the fact that I wasn’t Superwoman. All I really wanted to do was relish my baby’s first year because he’s going to be our last child. I will never experience these precious moments again. I also have to spend more time homeschooling my five-year-old son because, honestly, I haven’t been as focused on that during the past three months.

Then, when my hubby told me that he was offered this wonderful opportunity at work that would be too hard to pass up, everything clicked for me. I wanted 2017 to be my hubby’s time to shine work-wise because he has been stepping aside in favor of my freelance and blogging gigs these past few years. It’s my turn to step aside and the only way I can do that is to FOCUS my time, attention and energy only on three key things: my family, my blog and my creative pursuits. It reminded me of this quote that I love, which I found in another mommy blog that I read:

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.

I even came up with a simple vision board for it through an app on my phone.

This vision board will go on my planner so that I will be reminded of my One Word 2017 every day.

Yes, I will still keep my part-time job but focus on my blog more because I want to increase its income-earning potential. And no matter how nice the offer is, I will not be accepting other job offers this year. Yes, I will still make time for friends and events but I will not allow these things to cloud my focus. Yes, I will still continue with my creative planning but will do so by focusing on showing more of my personality in it and not buy planner stuff just because they’re cute. That’s because I also plan to actually save money this year. In fact, I’ve already joined a group engaged in the 52-Week Money Saving Challenge.

I’m hoping and praying that with more FOCUS, I can actually do more by doing less. I’ve been pretty successful with last year’s One Word, which was “Create”. So, I’m sure I can be successful this year too.

What about you? Do you make New Year’s resolutions or did you join the One Word 2017 challenge too?

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