making do

I have declared 2014 the year of "making do" in our house (nobody else got a say).  For the last 2 years I have made resolutions to become more organized in ALL aspects of my life. I have bought agendas and calendars and boxes and bins but each year with the arrival of December  I was still disorganized and not any further ahead.  I WASTED A LOT OF TIME!!!  After reading the Minimalists' Memoir, Everything that Remains (amazing btw), I realized that the kind of organizing I was doing was like a form of hoarding.  I was just putting all my "stuff" in pretty boxes and forgetting about it.  So I say "enough of that" and will move onto to getting rid of what we don't need and start making do with what we DO have.  

The first project on my list was a calendar.  Each year I choose a calendar for the fridge that I think will suit everyone's needs.  Last year I chose one that while big enough to fit everyone's activities and the kids huge handwriting it was UGLY++ and kept falling off the fridge.  

I'm irritated looking at this!!!!

I knew we had paper, a ruler, a clip board and some markers.  We were going to make our 2014 calendar.  

Anthony's

Ava's 

Mine

I LOVE this calendar, much more than any other one we have had in that spot.  A+ for our first "make do" of 2014!  

The kids quickly abandoned the project to re-enact West Side Story with their Beanie Boos... and yes, they have way too many!!!  

keeping track for the keeping track challenged

I am always writing down the cute things that my kids say and the always take note of milestones met on the calendar.  I can never find the tiny scraps of paper I have written these cute words on nor can I ever find the milestones written somewhere on some calendar that I shoved who knows where.  I think I may have found a solution to this problem that will literally allow me to document milestones and cute events for the next 14 years!

Okay, I know this looks and sounds a bit crazy but I think it is really going to work.  

For each child I found an inexpensive recipe box and filled each one with 365 index cards, each card having 14 lines.  

I dated each card with month and day but NOT the  year .The years are going to be represented on each line on the card.   

My intention is to write a one-liner capturing an important event, milestone or cute saying for each day of the year on it’s corresponding card.   Since there are 14 lines on each card you will be able to use each card for 14 years.  

Are you confused?  Here is a sample.

At the end of 14 years I will have hopefully filled each card in the box.  I think it is going to be so much fun to go back through the box and remember all of the little details we had forgotten.    I only wish I had started this when they were babies, then I wouldn’t have to pretend I remember exactly when they took their first step or said their first word...oops!