Busy Days and Two Free Printables

Good morning everyone, happy last weekend before Christmas.  Are you all set for the big day?  We are going to be brave souls and venture out for one more shopping forray today .... hopefully I retain my sanity throughout.  I'm sorry yesterday's post didn't go up as planned.  I was at the school with Liam for his Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun, the kids spent the morning doing crafts, having some fabulous snacks and then the kids performed some Christmas carols.  We missed the carols, as Liam was nibbling on the goodies for snack time he told me he was feeling kind of tired, and asked to go home.  Poor guy!  He made the right call though, because we got home and he spent most of the afternoon laying down.  At least he was able to see his friends and his teacher and wish them a Merry Christmas, and he was able to take part in some of the holiday fun.   This cold is not a nice one, I'm hoping it goes away soon.

So, between craft morning and still sick Liam (and a still kind of sick me) I just didn't make it onto the computer yesterday, and I'm very sorry about that.  Busy days tend to make my head spin.  I find that on those days I need to pay extra attention to how I'm using my time.  Most often, those days find me reaching for a blank sheet of paper, where I proceed to fill it with lists, sectioned off by category, and a plan for the day.  Last week, as I was doing my usual scribble, it dawned on me that maybe having a daily planner page in my personal planner would be a good thing.  I know I won't use the daily one every day, but having it for those days I do need it would be a huge help.  And so, my daily planner page was born.

Daily To Do

This is sort of a window into my brain.  I use this one two different ways.  On days when I'm feeling particularly scattered; when I know I'm going to have to dig deep to find any kind of productivity, I use the category boxes to list the items that MUST be done that day.  Then I schedule them into the day planner on the left side.  I use the to do list for any items that I feel need to be done, but don't quite meet the MUST stage qualifications.

On days when I'm not feeling quite so scattered, I use the boxes to keep track of things that I want to do over and above the normal.  Perhaps it's something like "plan a family game night for later in the week" or maybe it's something I noticed around the house like "clean vent in half bath".  I guess you could say that on these days, I use the boxes as a sort of secondary planner.

Now, I know that not everyone wants so much on a daily planner page, so I thought I would make a simpler one for those of you who just want a simple day planner. 

Daily 

This one is kind of a two in one.  You would use it as it is, two days on one page, or you can use for a half sized planner for in a mini binder.  With the half page planner in mind, I took care to possition the two days so that you had two ways of putting it together.  You can print doubled sided and using a paper cutter, cut the pages down the middle.  (straight down the middle) Or, if printing double sided isn't an option, you can simply fold the page in half.  Hole punch and you're ready to go.

As always, to grab your copy click the captions.  And that pretty much concludes the planner part of the personal planner.  I have a few more printables to share next week.  Because of all the holidays this coming week, and the switch over to Wordpress (I'll announce the exact date on Monday) I'll be sharing the rest of the planner printables later in the week next week, and I'll share the post of how I put it all together first thing in the new year.  

Can you believe how fast the month is going by?  Are you all ready for Christmas?  Are you ready to say good bye to 2012?

Progress in the Entry Dilemma

Hello everyone, how is your week going?  Our week has been a really weird one, my days are all mixed up. Liam was home on Monday recuperating from a tummy bug.  On Tuesday he had not one but two Christmas concerts, and it was so wonderful to watch him perform in his first concerts.  The children did such a lovely job, it was so sweet to see all the kindergarten and grade one children dressed up like little bears.  Yesterday was the only some what normal day this week, and today I have Liam home with me again.  Whatever caused his upset tummy on the weekend seems to have worked its way lower, so I opted to keep him home, just in case.  And tomorrow we have Liam's field trip.  He going skating for the first time, and I can't miss that one!  Yes, all in all, it's been a busy, crazy week.

Despite the craziness and the full schedule, or perhaps because of it, I've been noticing little areas around the house that need some serious attention.  Not being one to shy away from a challenge, I decided to tackle the worst one yesterday.  Our old house had a whole room for an entry/mudroom.  In our new home we're not so lucky.  Our entryway by the front door is a good size.  The coat closet in the entry is a good size.  You would think good sizes would make it easy to organize a landing zone for all of our outdoor needs.  Not so much.  You see, while the size is great, the flooring is not.  The front hall is done in laminate flooring, and we all know that laminate does not like to have moisture sit on it.  This has proved to be quite a challenge, especially since we live in a very rainy environment.

Thankfully, there is an alternative that doesn't involve me having to mop up the floor every time we come in.  We can come in through the garage, into the laundry room (which had lino floors!).  I didn't give a whole lot of thought to how I set it up when we first moved in, I was more or less just looking to get it set up.  No good systems in place mean things get messy pretty quick.  Here's what it looked like yesterday before I got my hands on it.

It wasn't an easy room to photograph.  This shot was taken standing in the door from the hallway.  As you can see it was getting pretty messy.

This one was taken a little further into the room.  The umbrella was hung there on purpose, so it could dry.  Just one of the many reasons why this room makes sense to use as the family entry.  (and yeah, the rental came with a top loading washing machine :-(  )

And this is looking into the room from the door to the garage.  Not a pretty sight at all!  But I have plans... oh do I have plans. I really only have two walls to work with in here, when it comes to using vertical space.

Because opposite the washer and dryer is this closet.  Which would be an incredible blessing if it wasn't already full.  Behind those doors are our furnace and hot water tank.  As those are kind of important things, I won't complain too much.

First step was to clear out the room.

If I could have, I would have left it empty!  It looked all pretty and open.

Next step was a good cleaning.  With the room as empty as I could make it, I took advantage and gave everything I could reach a good scrubbing.  Then I worked on my plans.

 I pulled out my handy dandy room organizer and started making plans.  It's always good to have a plan when you tackle a space.  In this case, my plan will need to be implemented over time, but that's ok, we have a direction for this space.

Next up I started to put things back in. I had a few things I wanted to include in the space, like something to make use of the back of the door to the hall.

I wanted to find a way to include storage space for winter gear like mittens, hats and scarves, and I wanted to make space to store my mop and broom in here, since there really isn't a good place to keep them in the kitchen.

Here's what I started with.

In theory I thought this would work.  In practice, it doesn't.  I didn't want to put the taller shelf back beside the dryer because I wanted to be able to put the broom and mop in that corner.  Having the shelf here severily impeded access to that corner.  And from the hall it looked awful!

See what I mean?  Since my long term plan calls for installing four wall shelves, I decided to ditch the wire cubes and get a little more creative in short term solutions, and have patience while waiting for the long terms ones to be implemented.

Since all my laundry supplies were in a small tub, I simply set them on top of the dryer.  This effectively killed  two birds with one stone.  I was able to remove the ugly shelf, and since there is something already on the dryer, I'll think twice before putting other items on it.  No more drop zone (I hope)  The mop and broom are super easy to access now.

And the view from the garage door is better too.  I laid down a couple throw rugs, that I will eventually replace with a proper runner, but for now they are doing the trick nicely.

And the back of the door?  Ah, this is the part that, for me, brings it all together to function as our entry way.

(sorry for the crappy photo, it was the only one I got of the back of the door, and my batteries died before I could take another one)  A simple over the door hanger and there's a place for our coats and some of the winter gear.

To make it workable for Liam I simply added some 3M hanging strips to the back of his wall hook plaque and attached it to the door at a good height for him.  Now he has a place for his backpack and coat.

All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out.  My plans for the future will make it even more organized and multifuntional.  They include:

• hanging four shelves on the window wall.  2 per side
• towel hook for by the sink
• small shelf for beside the dryer
• wall hanger for the broom and mop
• cubbies for shoes and baskets for hats and mittens
• drying rack or line of some sort

Pretty basic I know, but in making my plans I'm trying to be mindful of the fact that we are renters.  Our landlord doesn't mind if we put up shelves, as long as we patch the holes and repaint if/when we move.  But still, I don't want to be putting holes willy nilly into the walls.  

So, what didn't go back into the room?  My cleaning supplies and rags.  They are going to find a new home.... somewhere... not sure where yet.  Yes, that is a HORRIBLE organizing plan I know, but I'm toying with a few ideas.  For the moment they are stashed under the kitchen sink.  Which is another area that has really been bugging me lately, so maybe that will be the next zone I tackle.

Do you find that life's busy times highlight organizational problems in your home?  Do you ever add more to your already full to do list because you just can't stand to let one more day go by before getting to a project?  Would you rather tackle a project in stages, or wait until you have everything and do it all at once?

Got a Busy Week? There's a Printable for That!

Hi everyone, how are you doing?  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  My parents popped down for a quick visit this weekend, and it was such a lovely way to spend the weekend!  I was able to get in some time to work on the printables for this week, and get the finishing touches put on the Reader Request for this month.  Liam ended up with a tummy bug of some sort on Sunday, and lucky me, I seemed to have caught it yesterday.  Thankfully, it only seems to last for a day or two.  Liam was really happy about that, because today is his first ever Christmas concert, and he really didn't want to miss it.  He's excited to be able to be on a stage with lights and everything.  It's also his special week at school , where he gets to bring in some of his favourite pictures, his favourite story and a favourite toy to share with the class.  He got to fill out a question sheet that will get hung up with the pictures.  He was a little sad that he had to miss yesterday, but he was super excited to be going today.

Ontop of Christmas concerts, we've got a field trip coming up at the end of the week, a library trip to make, more Christmas baking to do, I've got bloggy stuff that needs to be finished up, our Teen has clubs and stuff most of the week, and Travis is off for the next three days, which means errands need to get run and so on.  It's is shaping up to be a busy busy week, and next week it only seems to get more so.   Why is it the last few weeks before Christmas are always so busy?

Last week I shared with you the Weekly Overview printable I made.  It's still working great, but for these busy weeks, it really has become nothing but an overview.  There is so much going on that there just wasn't room to put it all on the planner page, at least not in detail.  I knew this was going to happen.  There are going to be weeks where there is lots happening and more room for planning is going to be needed.  For those weeks, the Overview on its own just won't cut it, but I think one of these might!

 Weekly Planner

Weekly Planner

I know that with the addition of these ones, there are now a whopping five weekly planner printables on this little blog.  The two I shared earlier this year just aren't working for me anymore.  While they still function and work great, I wanted something that would allow me to structure my days.  With more and more being added to our weekly routines, I felt it was really important to start scheduling our days.  With the half hour increments I can easily block out times for each activity and that will give me a visual reference for how much time in the day I have for the things I need to do.  

Currently, I'm using the second one in conjunction with the Weekly Overview.  I used the Overview to keep track of what was happening this week, my to do list and so on, and I used the Weekly Planner to schedule it all in.  The week is still young, but so far this combo is really working out well.

As always to snag a copy for yourself, click the captions under the pictures!  And of course, all printables found here are for personal use only, if you would like to use them for something other than personal use, drop me a line and we'll work something out.

Just one more thing before I hop off, we will soon be making the move to Wordpress.  I've been busy trying to get it all set up.  To my friends who follow along on Google Friend Connect, please choose one of the other ways of following along.  If there was a way to get Google Friend Connect to work on Wordpress I would totally do that, but everything I've read says that it is no longer supported on other platforms :-(  If you have any questions please feel free to drop me a line.  

So, what do you think of the planners?  Will the work for you?  Do you find that the weeks get more and more busy the closer it gets to Christmas?

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New Nostalgia

A Bowl Full of Lemons

Holiday Planner and Link Party

Hi everyone!  Happy last day of November.  I can't believe that the year has gone by so fast.  The final countdown to Christmas starts tomorrow, and I got my planner put together just in time!

I want my Holidays planner to be something that I can use year after year, and I tried to keep that in mind when I created the printables for it.  I want it to act as a family reference book, as much as I want it to act as a planner.  Like all good reference books, I needed to keep the ability to customize and add to it.  Keeping all of that in mind, I gathered up my supplies.

My Supply List:

• Binder
• Page Protectors
• Divider Page
• Printables
• Large Repossitionable  Post-It tabs
• Medium Repossitionable Avery tabs (not shown in picture)
• Sharpie for labeling tabs
• Pen for filling out printables

I made the divider page by trimming scrapbook paper to fit the page protector, and added the "Christmas" label with double sided tape.  I just quickly made up the label on the computer and cut it out.

I added a Post-It tab onto the divider because I plan on adding other holidays into this planner.  I used subsection tabs across the top to make it quick and easy to find the info I need.

Because a few of the subsections were a little larger than others I added the Avery tabs to the side, again, to help make it quick and easy to get to the info I need.

Here's how I grouped everything together.

On the other side of the divider page, I tucked in the Getting Ready checklist.  I figured this one need to be right at the front.

Across from the Getting Ready checklist are my Decorations Master List.  So when I open my Christmas section, this is what I see:

I decided to follow up these with the Greeting Card Tracker.

On the other side of this printable is the Address Book printable.  (not shown) And then the next starts with the Gift Giving Tracker.

Followed by multiple pages of the Gift Buying Guide and Wishlist.

Then comes Family Favourites.  I put the Favourite Goodies and Favourite Dishes printables back to back for this one.  I think this section might grow to include more items, but I'm not sure yet. And just after those is the Food and Entertaining section.

This section started with the Holiday Menu planner followed by the Cooking Plan and Baking List...

...then the Baking Plan and Hostess Cheat Sheet.

And in the back pocket of the binder I tucked in a few copies of the Decorations Box Labels.

That's all there was to it.  It took more time to photograph than it did to put it together. 

Every time I open my planner, it makes me smile.  I feel like I'm approaching this holiday season with more of a plan, and in a strange way, having that plan, makes me feel as though I can handle the spontaneity that inevitably crops up, without fear, worry or regret, and there's nothing better than being able to drop everything for some spur of the moment seasonal fun!  

So, who's up for a link party?  I can't wait to see what holiday stuff you've been up too, and if you haven't been up to anything holiday related, that's ok too, link up another post of your choice!  There are two rules, please don't link up any give-aways, and please try to check out one or two of the other links.  That's it.  This party is open until the end of the year (December 31st, 11:59 pm PST)  Link up as many times as you would like!  It you want to link back to this post, that would totally awesome, but it's not necessary!

Linking up at

A Couple of Holiday Checklists

Hi everyone, how is your week going?  Can you believe how fast November is coming to a close?  I can't!  But at the same time, I also can't wait for Saturday.  I'm so eager to get going on the holiday decorating, but I'm being really good, letting the anticipation build.  I've almost finished putting together my Holiday Planner.  I only need a couple more printables to complete it.  These printables were a PAIN to make.  Actually, the making of them was pretty easy, PRINTING them was the pain.  For whatever reason, one of the fonts I chose decided that it would let me print every letter but the letter "I" unless the "I" was immediately to the right of an "F".  Very weird.  I tried everything I could think of, and finally decided to give up the fight and change the font.  It was one of the strangest things I've come across yet with the printables.

Anyway, after all that fiddling around, I'm here to share with you the final two printables for the holiday planner.  The first one, I have to admit, probably should have been one of the first ones I made.  I just didn't think about it until the other day when I was going through list after list of stuff to do.  I had one of those "Duuuh!" moments, and decided to compile all my little lists into one big list.  What were the lists for, you ask?  Ummm.... everything I need to do to get ready for the holidays.  (I am hanging my head right now.)  I couldn't believe I didn't think to make this before.  Every year I do the same things to get ready for the holidays, and every year I write out a dozen new lists so I don't forget.  No more!

Here is my Getting Ready checklist!

Getting Ready

It's pretty straight forward, just a list of things I need to remember to do to get ready for the holidays.  Because this is a "help me be prepared" list, I also included my checklist for our Gift Unwrapping Kit.  I know that sounds weird, but every year we seem to need the same things, and every year I forget about them until they are needed and them I'm scrambling on Christmas morning.  A couple of years ago we started corralling all the most needed things together and it made for such a calmer morning that I don't think I could ever go back.  As the years go by, I add to the list of things we need on hand, like bandaids and polysporin.  I don't know about in your home, but in ours, someone usually ends up cutting fingers on cardboard boxes (that would mainly be me!) getting paper cuts from the wrapping paper (...again, that's mainly me) or slicing open a finger because she's rushing through cutting up potatoes or something else ... ok, so it's me!  I'm a clutz, bandaids and polysporin are a must to have on hand! 

And if you're wondering about some of those items on the end of the list, like checking flashlight batteries and filling the propane tank, let me explain.  We used to live far up in northern BC.  Power outages were not uncommon, especially in the winter.  You just never know when you might need to fire up the grill and move the bird outdoors to finish cooking.  Just because we're now in southern BC doesn't mean I need to be any less prepared.  

The last printable was actually inspired by a conversation I had a while ago with my best friend.  We were talking about all the things you need to remember when hosting a party, and how if you don't do it often, or haven't done it in a while, it's easy to forget some of that stuff, even the simplest things can get overlooked.  While we're not planning any parties, as yet, I don't want to find myself unprepared, so I whipped up a Hostess Cheat Sheet, to remind me of all the little things I might forget about.

Hostess Cheat Sheet

This one is pretty simple.  I usually start a week out from the party date, so I wrote down everything I would need to do and sort of broke up into increments that I felt were manageable.  Hopefully this will help keep holiday get togethers and parties more stress free!

And there you have it, the last of the printables for the Holiday Planner (I think... you'll be the first to know if there's more!)  I will be back on Friday with pictures of the finished product, and I'm inviting everyone to link up their own holiday posts, anything holiday related is welcome!  Can't wait to see you there!

Are you ready for the holidays?  Have you started decorating all ready?  What are you most looking forward to this holiday season?

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