Control

This past weekend was our first volleyball tournament with the oldest daughter.  Aside from having to be up way too early on a Saturday,  having to be coherent enough to follow the directions of my navigation system while simultaneously looking for the closest Starbucks and trying NOT to embarrass my daughter, the day was pretty fun!  I have no pictures to show...I was busy trying to learn to score for the volleyball games.   I can tell you that scoring volleyball involves a lot more than just flipping over a number when a point is earned.

Anyway, the games were fun--our girls had 4 games and won 3 of them.  Pretty good for a team that only had four practices under their belts before the tournament!  And this was just the first tournament of many this season.  My need for organization has reached the critical point.  If you have a child, or children who are in after school activities, you understand where I'm coming from.

This is my calendar for the remainder of the month of August.  The week hasn't started yet and already it is full.  (Actually it is full online...I haven't put the online stuff from school on my MOM'S MAKE IT OR BREAK IT - IT HAS TO BE WRITTEN HERE OR IT DOESN'T EXIST CALENDAR.)

I haven't put in this week's stuff in...I'm behind already!

In an effort to make my life easier, I am trying to become more organized and reduce the number of random paper piles around my house.  (Darling husband...are you listening?)

Here are my ideas.  They aren't original, by any means, but they are useful for me.  Take them, change them, or just read about them.  They are already helping me get a handle on the activities in our lives.

First up is my school notebook.

This notebook is for all the forms, lists, random notes that need to be kept but not on the refrigerator.

I've labeled the sections with the grades for my kids.

Then I put the papers I want/need to keep in page protectors.  This way I know where they are at all times.

My daughter's third grade teacher is doing something on a larger scale for each student this year.  Each child has a 2-inch binder.  A parent has volunteered to keep the class binders at their house.  Then, when the teacher has a paper or art work or whatever that is keepsake-worthy, she simply sends it to the notebook keeper's house and they file it in page protectors in each child's folder.  By the end of the year all the special papers will already be filed in a neat and organized fashion in their notebook.  Cool, huh?

The other file helper is my folder file.

My husband is a piler.  All over my kitchen are "organized" piles of stuff.  Drives me batty.

So to keep the peace and my sanity, I've gotten the cute folder file.  I've organized the bills to pay, bills that we need to keep and other papers he needs in spots in the folder.

Yea!  Counters are cleaned off and mom is a happier camper.  Well, they aren't cleaned off yet.  I have to actually put my file folder to use for that to happen.  But I'm on my way to clean counters and THAT, my friends, is what matters.

Look, the files are there...waiting to be used!

It has taken me 14 years of marriage and 12 years of parenthood to come up with these ideas.

I'm a slow learner.

Happy Monday, Ya'll!