Getting organized with a family binder!

Lately I have been struggling with keeping up, in case the lack of blogging hasn't been enough of an indication. The good news is it's getting better, but it took a lot of work, and a lot of prayer. 

One big tool for me starting to get organized was my family binder. I finally sat down and made one that is functional for me. I'm going to talk a little about my family binder, but I'm not going to provide printables. Instead, I'm going to show you how I made mine work, and help give you the tools to make one that will work for you. 

I struggled a lot with using others peoples pages. I got bogged down in the sheer amount of pages out there, and it caused my to struggle to put one together.

A couple days ago, I got tired of it, scrapped all the pages I had printed off elsewhere, and set out to make my own. They weren't going to be super pretty, but they would be what I needed. I made a list of the things I would practically use. I wanted this to be a book I could love on, this is the list I came up with. 

- Address Book/Phone Numbers 

Because I don't have a cell phone anymore, and I'm getting tired of getting numbers from my hubby. 

- Budget

Caleb wants me to take over the budget, and this was a necessary page for me. 

- Spending Tracking

I actually ended up making this a cheque book kept in the book in a pocket after some thought. 

- List of Meals

I don't know about you, but when I get to sit down and actually plan my menu... I blank. This is a list of all the meals I can make. Sides, entrees, lunches... the whole bit. Makes menu planning so much easier. Makes it so I don't have to rely on my faulty memory as much. 

- Appointments

This page is a simple list with who/why/where/time. The next page is a card holder with any appointment cards that were given. I'm famous for forgetting appointments, but regular things I don't need reminding of, so I found a full calendar or day planner tedious. This lets me see all my appointments at one glance. 

- Dreamlist

This is the list of the things I want to do in each room. My 'dream list' for each one. Split up into "Now - Cheap", "Later - Cheap", and "Later - Expensive". This is also my brain storm for home decorating and things. It's nice to have some solid ideas. 

- Menu Notebook

This is a normal Hilroy notebook. I put it in there, and I use it to plan my menus in. I hate menu planning sheets, cause I shuffle things so much. I don't mind marking up a notebook. This is also where my grocery lists are. 

That's all folks! It's not very thick, but it's the most functional binder in my house! It doesn't have anything I don't need in it, and it works great for us! 

Here's a sample of what one of my pages looks like! 

See? Super simple and functional! 

Now for choosing your own notebook pages! First off, I recommend, make your own! It's not that hard, use word if you don't mind it not being pretty, and if you want it pretty, use a simple drawing program like GIMP. This allows you to make them how you want them, in a way that makes sense to you. 

Second off, choose what pages will actually work for you. Don't get pressured into putting something into your binder you're not gonna use! Sit down and think about things you struggle with. For me it was scheduling and budgeting. So that's what my binder focuses around. Yours might be around homeschooling, or include things for planning your family! You never know. 

Third off, put them in a place you will use them. This means for me it stays right near my computer, where I can write things down when I think of them, since when I'm at my computer is the only time I'm not chasing Wiggles around, thus the only time I really think. Find the place you think, and keep it near. It'll help you actually use it. 

That's all I have! I'd LOVE to hear your suggestions for family binders! 

- Adele

Back from the dead! Lots going on! Painting!

Hi everyone, so obviously I've been missing for awhile! 

So I feel the need to give explainations, so here it is! 

We bought a house! 

4 bedrooms, semi-detached, but attached to someone from our church, so we couldn't be happier. It's in a great neighborhood, near a lot of our church friends, and still really close to Flash's home with his mom. 

Found out we're expecting baby #3, on Dec 9! 

No news yet on whether it's a boy or girl. July 16. I'll be sure to blog and fill you all in. 

School is finally done! 

Flash is so excited. He was so ready for summer to happen. He has spent every minute he can outside playing on the trampoline that came with the house we bought. 

My church bought a new building and Caleb is doing all the rewiring.... 

it's a lot, trust me. But the building is beautiful, and has a parish on the back for my pastor and his family to stay. Which is lovely. 

See? Busy. Very busy. To top it all off,  on the 18th of this month, I go back to SK for two weeks, and Caleb joins me for the second week. I'm of course taking Wiggles with me... which means I'm flying with a six month old... alone. It's gonna be an adventure. 

So! Now you know why things have been so nuts! Onto more cool things! 

Paint colors! 

I just bought a house, and it needs paint, thought it'll probably be a couple months before we can really paint anything. So I've been on Behr's website... did you know they have this neato thing where you take the paint color you chose and can put it in your room or a sample room? Well, I don't have decent pictures of my new house, so sample rooms it was, but here's what I'm thinkin' so far! 

We have three bedrooms upstairs, a small one that Flash will get to himself, a big one that is currently this horrible shade of bubblegum pink, which will be the girls room, and one that is relatively large and painted brown right now, that will eventually be the boys room. For now Caleb and I are in there until the little ones are old enough to go down stairs on their own. 

Then there's a finished basement (Semi-finished) that Caleb and I will be turning into our bedroom later. :) 

Well here is Flash's Room! All credit for the pictures goes to Behr! 

Flash picked the blue all himself. I picked the beige, and most rooms of the house use it. :) I thought the blue would be super dark, but I actually really like it. 

This is the living room, please note: Caleb actually chose this color! 

The black is our furniture. :) We have black leather couches, and all our accessories and things are black. I LOVE the purple, and I'm really surprised, but Caleb loves it too. 

Originally I was really leaning towards #1, but I love the grey in #2, and I ended up finding an area rug I really like in the white and grey palette, as well as cost efficient curtains, so it looks like that one might win out. It also tones down the purple a lot. 

Now, the kitchen and the living room share a wall, along with the staircase, so we needed a color that matched it... and we chose this one: 

I really like it. :) That same beige is in most of the other rooms, because I decided that I really like it. Our cabinets are all custom make oak, with this really unique finish, and I think it will go very nicely. I'll show pictures of those later. 

The girls room is going this color, again Caleb's choice. 

Originally he was advocating for purple, in fact, the lighter purple in the living room... but when I pulled up this as a possible for our room, he really liked it for the girls room. Ah well, at least my favourite palette got used somewhere in the house... Though I'm not sure what my girls will think of this color once they outgrow princess's. Ah well, that's awhile away. 

As for the other boys room, and my room... we have no idea. -_- We can't agree on a color for our room. We might go the dark blue that Flash has in his room, just because it's the only one we kinda agree on. but who knows. And the other boys room we're gonna leave until other kids eventually move into it. 

The bathroom is this lovely shade of lime green that I adore. I'm not changing it for anything. 

Opinions? 

- Adele