The Daily System

If you would like to own this beautiful piece of organization perfection, just check out Pottery Barn's website - here. Look closely, and you will see why it is $600!! That's a LITTLE out of my price range. It sure is a beautiful sight though ;o) *sigh*

Google Calendars

I'm big on Calendars because I'm at home every day and I lose track of what day it is all the time. I'm also a big planner and its hard to plan if I don't have a calendar right in front of me. I'm a huge fan of daily agendas! I am a very forgetful person and having lists and plans is something I must have.

In addition to hanging 3 calendars in our home (one in our bedroom, one in our living room, and one in the kitchen), I use my Microsoft Outlook calendar as my main calendar because I see it when I open my e-mail and I can type everything in rather than having to hand write it all out, I can use different colors, repeat items automatically, etc.

Last week I discovered the Google Calendars. At first I was not sure of it because I'm so used to my Outlook calendar, but I've come to love these calendars for a few reasons. You can:

• View multiple calendars at one time (even calendars that belong to your friends & family!)
• Turn on and off specific calendars.
• Have your daily agenda e-mailed to you.
• Share your calendars with friends with friends and family! This way Gage and I always knows what the plan is for the day and we can access it from the internet, we don't need to be at home on our own computer to view it.
• Post your weekly menu plans for your family to see!
  

The image on the right is an example of the Dinner Calendar turned off. I currently have the following calendars (and Gage and I share all of them): Gage's Calendar, Shaina's Calendar, Special Days Calendar (for birthdays & anniversaries, holidays, etc) , Dinner calendar (since we have a 6 week menu plan it only took me about 5 minutes to put this together), and our Family Calendar that is specifically for everything our family does together (church, family get-togethers, vacations, etc). Each calendar has its own color so that when you see "Bible Study" on Thursday morning in purple, you can know it is my study and not Gage's.

There are also special calendars you can add to your google calendar such as: a to-do list, weather forecasts, national holidays, and more.

I am so grateful for this! Gage has two jobs and he goes to school full time so his schedule is all over the place, this has helped me keep track of what he is doing each day so I can plan my days around his schedule. It's wonderful!! If you are like me and need to plan everything to get anything done, this is definitely something to check out. :)

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I Love Evernote!

In our world today we are constantly bombarded with information. So much information that we often forget things we really didn't want to forget. Personally, I forget just about everything that I want to remember and this is why I need schedules, plans, notes, pictures, lists, agendas..etc.

Do you ever wish you could save just a quote from a website that you come across (and not have to go through the trouble of giving it it's own notepad or word document, taking up space on your computer)? Or maybe just part of an e-mail you received yesterday? How about a recipe, along with its pictures that you saw on this great recipe website? An item that you plan to buy on ebay in a week? Driving directions to an airport?

Check out Evernote.

Rather than having to bookmark every single site I come across, I can save just the parts that I want to save and place them in specific notebooks that coincide with their topics. It's like having virtual hands to pull out pages in a virtual magazine (that is the internet), or like having virtual scissors to cut out the parts of the pages that you want to keep for future reference.

I just discovered it a couple weeks ago and it is *awesome*. I don't have to deal with Microsoft Word's crazy formatting when I try to save a recipe (and its pictures) from a website because it saves everything as is. There is no copy, paste, fix, save, file... just highlight whatever it is you want to save, click the green elephant button that is in your browser and poof! It's saved.

With Evernote you can:

• Create, clip, and share notes on the web and see them everywhere.
• Search through all your notes, even find text within images, whether online or off (on your desktop)
• Also - depending on what kind of phone you have you can: Take snapshots, read to-do lists, record audio whenever and wherever you like. Evernote also has special software for your iPhone.
  

This program can save you a lot of time and a lot of hassle, it also helps you to stay organized. I absolutely recommend it!

Bloggin' Plans and 6 Week Menu Plan!

I have all these plans for my blog but I haven't been doing a good job of keeping up with them! I have many recipes that I'd like to share, thoughts on Biblical womanhood and marriage, organizing tips and other ideas to make the home a place that you want to be. I've decided I need a set plan. I work well with set plans and schedules. Without a schedule, I have such a hard time getting everything done. Monday came and went and I still haven't figured out our menu plan. How do you keep up with your daily tasks, and how do you keep up with your blogs?

As far as our menu planning goes - I came across a woman who plans her menus in 12 week time periods and I love the idea! So, to start, I've decided to do a 6 week plan and only go shopping every 3 weeks, and maybe I can even stretch it out to a month. This will help with grocery shopping planning and will be less stressful because I won't be trying to figure out our menu on a weekly basis and examining what we have and what we don't have and what meals I can make with what we do have. Of course we'll have to go one other time in there for fruits, veggies, bread, and milk but that's it. The goal is $250 a month on all groceries and $50 a month on non-food items. I'm finding that by going grocery shopping every 2 weeks I end up spending more than I want to because I forget what I have at home and I re-buy items. I think if I change it to 3 or 4 weeks then we'll literally be out of food and then I won't end up buying items that I have at home because there will be no food left at home ;o)

I'm way too easily amused. Just the thought of stretching our food until we have no more is exciting to me! hehehe

Tackling Procrastination

Lately I've noticed that a lot of things get put off for "later" that really don't need to be. It's not just ordinary things like dishes and laundry, it's stuff like framing & hanging pictures, buying things that you need but don't want to spend the money on, and little things like cleaning out the crazy junk drawer.

This week I accomplished four big things that I had been putting off.

1) I bought plane tickets for our trip to CA next month. Usually I buy them 3 months in advance but I put it off because I hated the idea of spending that much money... even though my friends said they'd help us pay for it! It's my best friend's Wedding and I'm IN it so it's not really much of an option. Just the thought of paying $400-600 on plane tickets was not something I wanted to deal with. Thankfully, the Lord provided (as always) and we bought 2 round trip plane tickets for a total of $402.00 :oD

2) We finally bought a kennel for our dog Penny. We managed to avoid this for a year and a half! It's a good thing though because during the winter, we won't have to worry about her peeing all over the carpet again.

3) I cleaned the downstairs couch (in the basement) that was covered in photos and photo boxes for MONTHS. We never go down there (except to do laundry) so for months I've put off cleaning off that couch. What an enormous relief it is to have it done!

4) I finally got caught up on my Photography homework!! I have been in this home study program for over a year and if I really sat down and did it on a regular basis, I would have finished it a year ago hah.

I'm trying to come up with a list of things that I have been putting off and plan time to tackle them in the coming weeks. So far this is what I have, and what I hope to accomplish within the next month:

1. Clean out the cupboard in the bathroom. It is a disaster.
   
2. Clean out our junk drawer (which has an organizer tray in it, btw hahaha)
   
3. Buy a toy box for Zoe's room and a toy box for the livingroom. (Our dog has managed to destroy tons of Zoe's toys because they are out on the floor all the time and we have nowhere to put them.)
4. Complete first graded project for the Photography Diploma Program.
5. Create a Recipe binder. I am up to my ears in new recipes to try but can never find the ones I wanted when the time comes... they are scattered all over and they must be put into one location.
6. Write to Babicka (my great-grandmother). I always say I'm going to write and I never do.
7. Write to our sponsor child, Fabiola.
8. Figure out our Budget. Since Zoe has been born I have done a terrible job at keeping up with our budget.
   
9. Get rid of all our junk. Find a plastic tub, label it "Stuff To Donate" and throw stuff in there.
10. Tackle all of our 100,000 photos. Print, frame & put up photos, organize them, find proper storage (whether it be photo albums or a new hard drive for digital photos), and mail photos out to people who have asked.
11. Find a cute costume for Zoe's first Halloween. Even though we don't really do much to celebrate Halloween... I still want to let her dress up each year and I'm very big on "firsts" and since it is her first Halloween, I'd love for her to have a costume :)

I plan to print out this list and post it on my fridge (something I look at every day). My goal is to have accomplished all of these things by November 18th. One month from today!

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Only 99 days left...

...until CHRISTMAS!

Yes. Just 99 days left. ;o)

For the past few years I have started my Christmas plans in October, start buying and packaging things in November, and then I try to leave the month of December for enjoying the season stress-free (at least that is the goal haha). In December I love to decorate the house, put up and decorate the tree, attend special church services and those adorable children's Nativity plays (I very vividly remember being a sheep for two years and an angel for one year when I was a kid). I love to at least make an attempt to bake something, I love to watch Christmas movies, drink hot chocolate, spend quality time with family. Beginning my plans 3 months in advance has been a good system for me.

However this year I came across a couple of websites that have got me super excited for the Christmas season! I think I just may begin my planning a little early this year, hehe.

Organized Christmas

Christmas Organizing

Buy Nothing Christmas

My goals for this year's Christmas are:

1) Create a Budget and stick to it. Spend as little money as possible.
2) Buy a Nativity Set (I've wanted one for a long time but always end up not having the money.)
3) Have a Christmas Party, a small one with friends and family, in our home.
4) Find ways to keep the focus on the birth of Jesus rather than Santa Claus.
5) Create a "My First Christmas" ornament for Zoe with her hand print on it.

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