Modern Laine

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2023 Word of the Year: Discovery

· Goals, Life With Laine

It’s that time of the year when many begin reflecting on the end of the year and thinking about what they want in the next year. Since my birthday is in the middle of November, I often start my new word of the year around then while still finishing out the current year’s word. I need 13 1/2 months to get it right!

It all started with a little POSITIVITY

I began choosing a word of the year in 2016 when I was struggling with life and college. The word that year was POSITIVITY. In 2017, I had FIVE words, one for the year (Peace) and a word for each quarter (Focus, Enjoy, Shine, Passion), that was an odd year but the words fit as I graduated from undergrad, was prepping for the GRE and began to work full time and had a 20th Anniversary Celebration to prepare. While I liked having multiple words, it was a lot to keep up with so in 2018, I went back

This is 29.

· Uncategorized

Thoughts and reflections on my 29th birthday

Today is my 29th birthday.

Somehow this year I am evaluating my life more than usual, probably because I assumed by 29 I would have more of my life settled or figured out. That is definitely not the case right now. I recently left my full-time job and I am working retail for the holidays. I am not sure where I am going to work or what my next role will be and that’s a very daunting thing, especially as a person who loves to plan and organize. As I get older, I find that planning is harder and harder.

Never-ending questions about the future.

As a child you are taught to think of the future with questions like “what do you want to be when you grow up?” from kindergarten to high school. Then it becomes “where do you want to go to college?” and “what do you want to study?” Once you graduate, if you go on to attend college, it becomes

Tech Talk: All About Facebook Pages

· Social Media, Tech Talk

Like My Facebook Page!

This phrase is a huge part of our current lexicon. From your dentist to local coffee shop, or your college’s alumni association to your grandma’s best friend’s niece who sells Tupperware, everyone has a Facebook page.

Facebook pages are meant to help business and brands reach their audience! When trying to decide if a Facebook page is beneficial for your organization, business, or hobby there are a few questions to ask yourself.

Why do I want a Facebook Page?

So you want to create a Facebook page, but do you know why? Is it to share your business, organization or hobby in a public space? If so, great! But remember that even those who like your page may not always see it in their feed. This is due to the FACEBOOK ALGORITHM. Don’t let the algorithm scare you, Facebook pages can be good for business.

They are the only place you should actively pushing your business for two reasons. One, Facebook TOS is

Dear Dad

· Life With Laine

I lost my dad on Monday, June 17, 2019.

Today is two months.

So I decided to write him a letter. The idea came to me when I was thinking about a popular recurring episode style on M*A*S*H.

BACKSTORY

One of my favorite TV shows is M*A*S*H. I caught an anniversary special on TV land one night and was hooked. But now that I think back, I realize I had watched the show before that. When I was a little girl visiting my dad in Florida, I vaguely recall seeing the opening credits on a tiny little square tv while we were supposed to be napping.

As a teenager I borrowed the dvds from the library and drove my mother nuts watching the show from start to finish (this was the early days of binge watching, and I don’t even think they called it that yet). My love for M*A*S*H was well known to my family and they bought me the complete series on DVD plus an amazing collectors edition book about the

Digital Organization Tools

· Organization, Tech Talk

Ivory Mix Stock Photo

My Favorite Organizational Tools

I love my physical day planner, but I still rely on digital tools to help keep my life organized. It’s easier to put an appointment with the dentist in my phone calendar than to pull my planner out at the checkout desk. I also handle so many files and photos for work that I rely on being able to access them even if I’m not near my computer or phone.

Dropbox

I have been using Dropbox since 2013 when my cousin introduced me to it. It’s crazy to think that back then you couldn’t easily access files unless you emailed them or carried them around on a flash drive. Cloud-based storage was pretty limited and wasn’t nearly as nice as now.

I enjoy using Dropbox because it’s so easy to access files on my phone, iPad or MacBook Pro. I can even access my files on any computer through a web browser. It’s just that easy. I also enjoy having a personal and work Dropbox

Organized Chaos: Using A Planner

· Organization, Planning

I have always enjoyed using a paper planner, but I didn’t commit to consistently using one until December of 2016. That’s when I purchased my first Happy Planner from Hobby Lobby. It was a horizontal layout with rose gold accents and discs, which was my obsession then (still is). I became hooked on The Happy Planner and introduced many other women to the planner brand.

When Laura introduced me to the brand she was using her Day Designer and hadn’t used The Happy Planner since 2015. About six months ago she decided to give The Happy Planner another try and she’s hooked on it like me! We even have weekly planner dates where we FaceTime and plan out the upcoming week. 

Trying to Find The RIGHT Planner

I tried many day planners over the year, mostly from Target during back to school. Before The Happy Planner, I tried using the Day Designer for Blue Sky. I used the daily planner for a few months and eventually switched to their Today and To

Why April 2nd Is Important To Me

· Life With Laine

Yesterday was April 2nd. To most people, April 2nd doesn’t have any real significance or importance. However, for me, it has a lot of meaning.

Reason Number One: World Autism Awareness Day

World Autism Awareness Day was established by the United Nations in 2007, and was first observed on April 2nd, 2008. It is also one of four health-specific UN Days.

My younger brother has autism and it has always been improtant to me that awareness is raised and understanding is created. The current statisics say 1 in 68 children will be diagnosed with autism. That’s a lot of people who need understanding, love, and acceptance.

My college project, Light It Up Blue CofC.

Reason Number Two: Luna’s Birthday

My first black cat, Luna, celebrates her birthday on April 2nd! This year she turned two and I can’t believe we have had her this long, she was just six months when we adopted her. We named her Luna after the black cat in Sailor Moon.

Luna

Be Bold 2017: Blogging Goals

· Blogging, Goals

It’s time for the second post of #BeBold2017 and we’re talking about blogging goals! (Yes, I’m a few days late, oops!). Goals are so hard to come up with because you want them to be reasonable and achievable, but not too easy that it doesn’t feel like you actually accomplished something.

 

Blogging Goals for 2016

  1. Write at least 5 posts a month. I think five posts is a reasonable goal for the month.
  2. Be more active on Twitter. Twitter is a great way to connect with people and build a community.
  3. Grow my readership. I plan to work on interacting on social media more with my current and potential readers.
  4. Write for other blogs. I currently write for my friend Laura’s blog Ginger & Co., but I want to try writing for other blogs as well.
  5. Create and maintain an email list. I know my way around MailChimp, I just need to create and then build my email list!

I’ll admit I really didn’t accomplish any of my goals. They are decent goals, but I just didn’t achieve them.

Be Bold in 2017: Word of the Year Reveal

· Goals

Hello everyone! Today is the start of the Be Bold in 2017 linkup hosted by Christina of The Social Butterfly Gal. I’m so excited to be a part of this linkup because Christina is amazing. The linkup has helped me to be accountable with figuring out my goals for 2017. To kick out this linkup I’ll be sharing my Word of the Year for 2017!

Choosing a Word of the Year

This was so DIFFICULT to do. I started by Googling positive words since my Word of the Year 2016 was Positivity. There were so many words, so I went through the alphabet and picked my favorites. I had twenty-eight words on my list at that point. Yes, you read that correctly. TWENTY-EIGHT.

Then began the difficult process of trying to shorten the list down to one word. Difficult really doesn’t describe how hard it was. I managed to get my list down to just thirteen words and I decided to define what each word meant to me or

Be Bold in 2017

· Blogging, Goals

What if I told you there’s a place for you to share your goals for 2017? What if I told you that we are at our best when we have accountability- someone cheering us on, giving words of encouragement? And what if I told you there is a space where we can all come together, grow our communities and discover other fabulous blogs and meet fantastic bloggers? Well there is! But the question for you is, are you wanting to be bold in the new year?

I’m excited to announce I will be part of an amazing project called, “Be Bold in 2017: a blogging community to make your 2017 brighter!”

 

 

What is Be Bold in 2017?

Be Bold in 2017 is a linkup for bloggers of all niches, genres and backgrounds to share their goals for the New Year and to connect with other bloggers. Through this, we can all grow our blogging communities and find cheerleaders and accountability partners to help us own our goals and make 2017