April Accomplishments and May Aspirations

Niki posted about how she was doing on her April goals so I figured I should share what I got accomplished in April. 
Time management and obligations:
 1. survive prom-- check. I only forgot to have the pastor say the prayer before I sent the first table, so only a minor glitch, but otherwise it went great and the food was Amazing!
2. Get bridesmaid dress altered- check. I am currently awaiting it's return. Wedding weekend is coming fast! 
3. register for summer classes- half check. I haven't registered yet because none of the classes I need are available until fall, but I am able to take them in the town I live in through a local university, so that's a bonus. And since I have to wait to take those, I'm looking in to a sped endorsement to start too. Might as well pile on the debt right? 

Home and Organizing.
1. get all labels printed, laminated, and put up. check.  
2. finish up spring cleaning. mostly check. I'm still coming up with a few more random things to purge, or reorganize, or sort through. But as far as my actual cleaning, I've made it through the whole apartment.
3. purge, declutter, and organize coat closet- well since we still had snow in May, I put a halt on this one. But I think we might finally be clear of the snow...so we'll put this back on the list for May.
4. store seasonal winter clothes- see above.
5. new desk area-  whomp, whomp. still failing at this one. I may have just started avoiding it. 

Blog and Etsy.
1. Update items in the shop-check. I've even finally listed our planners!
2. Get my posts written before the day they go live-  half check- this usually happens.
3. do some projects- mostly fail. moving this to May's list.

So I did eh, sort of okay in April. Not a complete success, but hey things come up and we have lives and {multiple} jobs, it happens.
So for May, when I in theory have a bit more free time. I'm hoping to kick some mega butt. And my biggest goal for May is...

1. Operation: Get It Together. This is kind of a big project that isn't really a project at all. I already started posting about it actually and then decided to keep it going until things truly become a habit for me and I really do feel like I have it together. This started with a simple cleaning plan from clean mama and I'm hoping that by the end of summer I will have the whole apartment de-cluttered and cleaned and rolling in my new habits and systems. This is going to be the biggest goal to complete for me.

2. Make a weekly meal and plan and stick to it. No pizza rolls and other kid foods because I didn't plan anything and have no brilliant ideas!! (also, excellent excuse to try pinterest recipes??)

3.  Make our little brother's planner. His runs out at the end of May.  He has ADHD and uses the same planner at I do and he says it really helps him to manage his time and schedule. (here's a peek at mine)

4. Finish April's not completed items---coat closet and packing winter clothes. I bought ziplock space bags to stash winter bedding and coats in. I"m thinking of just swapping around some hanging and tub things in the closet and only actually packing up the super warm things.

5. Go through closet. Find massive amounts of clothes to give to Niki??? Seriously that thing is so stuffed you can't even find anything.

6. Complete Jillian Michael's 30 day shred....I already started, just have to commit to finishing it! (even if she kicks my butt!!!)

What are you aspiring to do in May??

Getting April in order

The beginning of a new month means getting all of our lives in order. Shannon showed you how she gets a new month started in March, so now I am showing you our craziness. She has 3 jobs, I have 3 kids, so our planning looks a bit different.
I have my AMAZING life planner that Shannon designed for me. We took a ton of inspiration from the web and she made it fit my life! I love it and use it daily. I always say, steal my purse, leave my planner.

I start every day checking out my planner. I double triple check it on Sunday nights so I know what is going on for the week.

My planner has our meal planner built in. It is the boxes at the bottom of each of the days. I just could not maintain two different planner for meal planning, and I do ours by the week. So on Sunday night when we are planning for the week, Tim and I meal plan. Easy meals for days he works late, the kids have practice, that kind of thing, bigger meals on weekends so we can have leftovers for lunches. We also get input from the kids. What have they been craving? If they help create the meal plan and the meal, they are more likely to eat it!

I also make a monthly calendar for Tim. He has no need for daily plans. He does want to know what all we have planned, dance, ball practice, concerts, fun stuff like that. So I started making him a beautiful monthly calendar. He doesn't care that it is beautiful, but I sure do. :)

I also have a work-out calendar. This has not been working well. I am "training" for a 5K but I haven't ran in weeks. Boo. This month Shannon created a Bikini Body Challenge for us. So I printed that bad boy out. I am going to do my best, but I make no promises. I need to focus on my running, but I'm going to try to fit this guy in too! The best thing is it can all be done at home, with no equipment. She also snuck in a shower challenge, which I already forgot to do. So, I will get it in before bed.

Finally I have a blog planner. It really deserves a whole post, but for now you get a snap shot. I usually post Tuesday and Thursday, Shannon usually posts Monday and Wednesday and Friday is always High Five for Friday! I also have tons of fun planning pages. I use them to plan out things I want to blog about, then I decide when I can get them done, photographed and blogged about. Right now, I have little idea about when things are going, but lots of ideas.

Just for fun, I thought I would throw out the Bikini Body Challenge and an Awesome April Arms challenge as freebies. There is still plenty of time for you to catch up!

What does your beginning of the month or week planning look like? Are you more like Shannon balancing work schedules, or like me balancing kids schedules?

My new {mini} menu board

Before we moved to our apartment I had this {diy} menu board hanging in the kitchen:

I was so impressed with myself for making it {read about that here} and I was super disappointed when I didn't really have anywhere to hang it in the new apartment. whomp, whomp.

So I have been living without a menu planning board for the last six months. I have a calendar that I roughly planning my meals out with. But I like the weekly format displayed nicely in the kitchen.

So I was home (to my parents') and remembered that I had this baby from when I lived there. Clearly my momma was not doing any meal planning so I snatched it.

It's nothing fancy. Just a fun piece of scrapbook paper and the word "dinner" cut out with my cricut. and then covered with contact paper (since it didn't fit through my laminator). ps. I chose dinner over supper, because dinner fits nicely without those below the line letters :)

I then made these quick meal cards in Excel.

I went with a simple tone on tone chevron to keep the background simple since my "menu board" was a bold print.

I just printed, cut, laminated, and cut again. Easy peasy. I left a few blank ones for me to try new things and for the old favorites that I have surely forgotten.

I just used these cute magnet tacks that I already had to stick them on to the fridge. I thought about labeling clothes pins with days of the week to clip them to, but decided against it for now. I might decide to do that later? We'll see how this works out.

And then in a burst of genius, I realized that I could stash all the meal cards into the clear plastic case that the magnet tacks came in and stick them on top of the fridge- along with the bf's giant tubs of protein powder. I love useful trash!

Such a simple project and yet it makes me smile every time I go in the kitchen. It solves my menu board dilemma without taking up any space. love that! 

What genius ideas have you come up with lately? Any projects that you've had to "re-do"? Share with us, we love the inspiration!

My Calendar Craziness!

Shannon posted about her beginning of the month rituals, so I thought I would fill you all in on mine too, in case you care.

Shannon created me a fantastic customized planner. I <3 it. In the past I used this planner. It is $50. and fantastic! However, this year I decided to go with something else. I will let you know if I love this one Shannon made as much as my Erin Condren planner. So far, I am loving it! I am planning a planner post soon. (See what I did there?) I will show you the ins and outs of my planner/home management binder situation.

I do a monthly calendar for my husband. I used to use the super cute free calendars from Hello Cuteness (formerly Anything But Perfect). Now I use the calendar that matches my home management binder. I will probably go back and forth between the 2 throughout the year. I put these on my fridge so my Hubby can know what is going on. Clearly we are swamped this month with dance, wrestling, school activities and such. But this keeps us all in the know. Very important.

Weekly, I do menu planning. This is still in the baby step stages, and consists of me forcing my husband to plan ahead on Sunday. We don't always follow it to a T, but it is so nice to have a plan for the week and know we have all the groceries to eat for the whole week. I plan for easy meals on practice nights and at least one night of left overs. I use the weekly menu plan and grocery list that Shannon made to go with my home management binder. I also love that in my weekly planner I can jot down what we are having at the bottom.

This is Carter's reading calendar. Requires no planning ahead, but it is a calendar I deal with every day, so I thought I would share. It also lives on the fridge, with Faith's spelling words and lunch menu.

I also have a blog planner, which I have yet to utilize. This is part of my "Get Organized" plan of attack. I will keep you posted. I don't even have a picture of it because I haven't printed it.

Finally, things I need to remember, but will probably forget go on my iPhone calendar. It will remind me the day before and 2 hours before, which are both necessary. Does anyone know of a better calendar app for my phone? Let me know in the comments.

So, think I have enough calendars? How do you keep track of your life? Tell us about it or send us to your blog. Shannon and I love a great blog to stalk.

Organize Your New Year

The new year is a wonderful time of the year....It's a time of resolutions and reorganizations!! Hooray! I love a chance to start fresh and reorganize and re-evaluate my planning, cleaning, arranging.....

crisp new calendars

brand new planners

clean cupboards and closets

rearranged rooms

a new cleaning schedule 

all the wonderfulness of planning out a new year

any other weirdos out there who feel the same way?

or maybe you are a non organizing freak but would like to make your new year a little more streamlined and organized? 

We can help!

From now through January 31, 2013 we are offering our monthly calendars for half price!

$1.50 for all 12 calendars!

   I heart them :)

They are coordinated to match the new theme of our home management binder documents, but they are still a wonderful pop of color even if you don't have our new home management binder documents.

What new home management binder documents?
Well these babies were specially made to force my sister to make her own home management binder. Yep, force. She has no choice. If I have to drive to her house and tape her to the chair until she finishes it.

  They are a totally new bright colored theme and absolutely adoarble!!
Check them out...

cover page

section divider

daily agenda

monthly calendars

household information

important dates

kids' schedule

meal ideas

monthly meal planner

automobile log

bill payment log

contacts

monthly budget

password log

petsitter notes

shopping list

to do list

week at a glance

weekly cleaning checklist

 They make me smile.

We also added a few other new items to our etsy shop...

 I made these routines for my sister's kids....so I figured if they worked for her, there might be others out there who would benefit from a bedtime routine.
It doesn't have to be a bedtime routine...I could be a morning or after school routine too.
  
 We are also in the process of updating the rest of our packages and sets....
The layout and designs of my documents have definitely changed over the past year and I feel like all of my original documents are boring and out of date, so they must be corrected!

 

 

  

   

The first things to be updated are the budget packages....
Check back with our etsy store for more updates. 

We have also seen a few challenges and link parties planned for the new year, so we hope to participate in those as well. Yay!

click the image to visit our etsy shop

  

We hope that you will join us in organizing our new year!!