Homeschool Planner: I made my own

Huge confession here:

 

I have quite the obsession with planners. 

 

I love the possibilities a new planner posesses.  Ah.  I love the crispness.  All of the neat places and slots to fill in. 

 

Last school year I used an amazing Christian Mom planner that Nick's cousin had given me for a Mother's Day gift.  I love her.  Her name is Jodee and somehow she always knows how to make people's day.  I shouldn't say "somehow" because I know how...it's a God thing, totally. 

 

Anyway, I loved it but I was also using a lesson planner and between the two I felt like I was always flipping between the one and the other.  Carrying them around with nothing else felt like I was going to class.  Not to Panera to schedule over chai. 

 

So this year I made my own. 

 

Shocking, I know.  I gotta tell you, it was WAY more frustrating than I thought it would  be.  Figuring out which goes on the front of the page and what will be on the back when  you turn the page was just about enough to put me in a straitjacket.  Fo' real. 

 

Here's a little tour of my planner...come inside:

 

 Here's the front cover!  LOVE it!  I want to eventually put a picture of the kids below the letters, I just haven't found "the one" yet.  I will though.  The front has a clear sleeve on it, so it will just slide in there nicely.  I had it bound at Staples.  Cheap!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I think it cost me $3.00. 

 Here's a close-up of my cover.  Proverbs 31 is my mantra in life.  I want to show the kids how to be a mom and wife for Christ.  I read it often.  Very, very often.

 I went through figuring out how to print off labels for my tags and I am SOOOO glad I did.  Now I have cute font on there!

 LOVE these planner pages I found at Artsy, Fartsy Mama!  She even has different color schemes to use!  

 Up until now I have always printed off my chore charts on a weekly basis.  I use Motivated Mom's lists and I HIGHLY recommend them!  I am such a chart and checker girl.  I get joy from the satisfaction of checking off my to-do's and feeling like I am actually getting stuff done.  So I printed off my sheets so I no longer have to remember to print them off!

 I slipped this sheet of tabs onto one of the tabbed dividers.  Now I can slip them on to something I need to remember...so handy!

 A few months ago I sprained ankle and after weeks of not being able to find EXACTLY what I wanted for my lesson plans, I made it myself.  I was couch-ridden and used the old ruler and pencil method to hack out what I wanted.  Sometime I'll try to enhance it so you can see what all I included.  Above is my first week of school...look at how planned it is. 

 And then we skip to week 5...nary a lesson has been planned.  Eek.  I know it seems lame-o but I can't plan too far ahead lest Emma gets behind and then I am in hot water with the planning ahead. 

 This section makes me the most excited...eek!  It's all together in all of it's glory.  The days of planning on the back of a starbucks napkin are over. 

 Here's what I like to see the most...being organized, I have been recording what I have been buying and need to send, wrap, etc.  I like being able to write "done" next to what I have already accomplished this early in the year. 

 I know it's dumb but I like to make goofy names for my sheets and lists.  That way when I am on the phone, stressed out and trying to find where the dumb post office lost all of my gifts, I can smile when I am writing on my "odd-ball" Christmas list. 

It's the little things.  Am I wrong? 

I like planning for this event...gotta be prepared, right?  Do you have an Ugly Sweater Party too?

 

I absolutely could not have done this without this website.  She explained how to arrange your pages and had oodles and oodles of templates to use.  Love this lady and I don't even know her! 

Do you make your own planner too?  Do you have any other ideas? I'd love to hear them!

My Planner

Those who know me know that I am a very organized person...sometimes no where else but in my head, but nevertheless, I like to at least feel organized. 

I have always had a planner.  The school I went to believed in planners and supplied us with at the beginning of every school year.  I cannot tell you the joy I felt when I received that new planner every year.  It was such a thrill to have a new one to fill in with my orderly duties pertaining to homework. 

And as I have grown so has my love of all things planners.  When I was a business girl I had the ones that matched my outfits that I could put a notebook into...you know, the big honkin' ones. 

The past few years Nick has been getting these lovely leather bound planners with the beautiful gold trimmed pages and satin ribbon placeholder.  He always writes something wildly spectacular in them at the front and then I have that to look at all through the year. 

I still have that planner and love it with all of my heart.  But for Mother's Day, Nick's cousin Jodee got me the planner you are about to see below and I love it!  It was such a breath of fresh air...which incidentally describes Jodee as well.  I love her and love being around her...she's such a godly woman who I take such joy in being around...hi Jodee!  Hi! 

Anyway back to my planner explanation...

It isn't my poor old planner's fault but I was so used to the design and layout that my eyes were just running over it and not reading  anything.  Does that may sense at all?  I would write "Nick's Birthday"  and then realize as I was writing "Nick's Birthday" under it that I had already written it.  My eyes were just skipping over everything because it all looked the same to me.  (Reading this sounds like I am totally lame, but I just.can't.delete.)

Here are some things I like about my new planner:

The days are side by side and I can look at the whole week in one glance.  The top portion is for my schedule and then you can write in everyone else's schedules.  Since we don't have enough kiddos to take up all of the spaces I have a row for "Lucy/Roscoe" (flea treatment, heart worm pills, vet appointments), and "$" (bills coming due, when Nick's paid to remember to check the bank and make sure everything's correct). 

I am one of those people that if I don't write something down I perpetually think about it.  Over and over and over and over.  It's pretty maddening.  But if I write it down it just kind of, poof, goes out of my head and I know I don't need to try to remember it anymore. 

Here's the cover of my planner.  By default, it has to be pink...of course.  Boy howdy does Jodee know me :)

Jodee was sooo excted to show me the best part of the planner...stickers!!!  There are oodles for all of the fun activities the kids do.  I just love them! 

I stick my schedule in the front of the planner.  This is my daily cleaning schedule, just so ya know.  This is how I keep myself sane and tidy. 

This one's blurry but in the back there are 3 prooferated lists per sheet that are for shopping lists...I have a perpetual shopping list going at all times.  Again, so I can get it out of my mind, onto paper, and just forget about it. 

A card holer on the back.  I haven't put a card in there yet but when someone gives you one when you are out and about it's nice to have somewhere to put them. 

I swear I tried to flip this picture 18,000 times and it still looks like this!  But anyway, this is on the cover of the planner and it helps keep me grounded.  And whose time this really is.  I can try to plan as much as I want, but ultimately He's in charge of this life. 

If you like my planner you can click here to order your own.  No one's paying me to say this...I just like the dern thing. 

Whatever you use, just remember to get organized and stay organized.  An organized mom makes for an organized home and an organized home is a peaceful, happy home.