To-Do's, Want-To's, Got-To's, Honey-Do's, & Love You's

It's no secret that things around here with The Bowden Brigade have been beyond nutty. I mean worse than a Snickers bar, y'all! :) Between my school, subbing, Neeley's schooling and homework, after school activities, Ronnie's crazy schedule, and just trying to maintain a household in another country, we do good to stay afloat some days.

I began seeking a way to control all of our craziness a while back. I needed something that was a 1 package deal, that held absolutely everything we ever needed in life, in order to help us to better muddle through this life of ours.

Welp, I think I've found our system.........................



Introducing The Bowden Brigade's "Our Life 2011"! LOL This binder truly is our life. This is our "home management binder" as some call it. Google it, look it up, there are several ways to make your very own should you so desire. I am in L-O-V-E already!! My OCD brain really needs everything all in one place, neatly organized, categorized, alphabetized, color coded, etc. And that I have. She's still a work in progress, but isn't everything?

I found the design templates for the documents from another blog, then I just plopped them in to a free PDF editing program I found by Googling something or other, and I was able to tweak them the way I want them.

Behind the front cover is a pocket with recipes I will use soon, a notepad, sticky notes, and some other lists I have yet to file.



I now also have a zipper pouch here in the front with a pair of scissors, pens, more of the colored tabs, a calculator, a highlighter, and a big marker. More on each of those here in a bit....... See that Our Life page? Isn't it cute? The bottom box has our names and my email address should I accidentally leave her somewhere.

Here is her Table Of Contents..................



Once again, she's a work in progress, but for now this is what she holds.

~ The Home Blessings section is simply my daily cleaning guide. Do I expect that I will ALWAYS follow this schedule? No! And do I myself do each of these? No, not if our chore chart works correctly. :) This is an example of a Wednesday cleaning schedule.........



~ The To-Do List is simply that. Yuck! Mine is currently a list of To-Do's that I need to get done, maybe not necessarily today, and maybe it is over time. And sometimes doing one depends on how quickly I finish another, so it is simply a working To-Do List.

~ The Daily Schedule is such a neat motivational document.



Now, I have personalized it a bit but that doesn't mean I am going to keep it this way. See the "Daily Home Blessings" box? Now, isn't that sweet? Simply copied, but I think I kind of like it. It makes my heart happy!

There is also inserts for medical information, pet care instructions, coupons, recipes, our address book, grocery lists, books we want to read and movies we want to see, business cards we collect, websites we hear about and want to visit, and the list goes on and on and on and on and .....well....you get where I'm going with this.

There's even a section for motivation and inspiration. LOVE it!!



I can already notice a lil extra pep in my step and happiness all around. I CRAVE organization and with our busy days, this is something I will carry around with me everywhere, and hopefully forever.

Oh back to those supplies.......... Notice how I said I will carry her around with me everywhere? Yep, she goes grocery shopping with us so the calculator is to help with the budgeting, the scissors are for the extra coupon ads we pick up at the Commissary entrance, and the other supplies are on an as needed basis. Yep, I think I've covered all my bases with this one.

Does your family have a system? Or do you live out of drawers and cupboards and containers and cars and this and that like we used to? We were so scattered here and there and so busy that there were some days we would have to go to the Commissary 3 or 4 times just to be able to fix 1 meal. Now, that's ridiculous!

So tell me....how do you stay sane in this busy world? Do you have a binder? What's the method to your madness? Please DO share!!