New Planner - My birthday present to me!

I'm linking up with Barb for show-and-tell to show off my new planner, a birthday present to myself that actually arrived on my birthday (last Friday). You can't beat that timing!

It is the Family Planner from Plum Paper Designs on Etsy.

I'm so stinkin' excited about this thing! I'll give you a peek inside down below, but let me show you first why I wanted this planner.

Take a peek at the binder/planner I used last year:

I added these weekly planner pages to my binder because I wanted it all in one place. I didn't want a planner for home and one for school. The problem was that the binder was too big and bulky to take to and from school, so I left it at school every day.

I also had a blog planner. Take a look:

You can see that the blog planner slowly became a lot of wasted paper. The last picture is fuzzy because the only thing I write in there now is our income and expenses for our TPT and TN store.

Don't get me wrong. I think some people need a blog planner...like serious bloggers. Not someone like me.

Okay, now for the inside of my planner and why I am loving it!

First, it is small enough to fit in my purse so I will be able to take it back and forth to school in my school bag with no problems.

Second, it has stickers. ;-)

(I'm easy to please, ha!)

The Mondays are covered up because that is my bills and I'm sure that is boring to you.

I made a key of my color-coding stickers until I can remember what color is for each of us.

Okay, now for my favorite thing about this planner!

Custom sections on my weekly view! Hooray! You can customize seven sections. 

Notice I left the first one blank. I really wanted it to be free for my memory verses--the next few months, I'm working on Psalm 19.

My next sections are fitness, morning, afternoon, evening, blog, and meals.

I love being able to keep track of my workouts (especially now that I'm mixing it up on the BeFit channel with hubby's smart TV).

The morning, afternoon, evening, and meals sections are the easiest way for me to schedule my days.

Did you see the heart by the blog section? That's because I love just having a few lines to jot notes--instead of a whole separate planner. PERFECT!

Thanks for letting me show-and-tell! Check out Barb's linky party for more (hers is hilarious--so much like me I had to laugh and grab the poster).

Many Monday Made-Its = Freebies!

Let me apologize in advance...this post is kind of all over the place, but it does have lots of pictures! You will want to stick with me - our 400+ Giveaway is at the bottom. :-)

 

First my daughter's "made-it"...she's been busy! Check out how she dressed up some of her school supplies from last year in preparation for back-to-school:

 

Made-It #1 - Flower Bed

This summer I finally put in a flower bed...we moved to the country in 2007 and there was so much dirt work to be done around the house, I kind of gave up the idea of having flowers like at my house in town. I had hubby move a giant rock out by our driveway and created the flower bed around it. Here's my first Dahlia bloom. Beautiful!

Made-It #2 - S'mores Pie

 

Birthday picture - not a great one! But hey, I told you I would let you know about the S'mores Pie (pinterest inspired). I think it should be called S'mores Candy, but it was pretty tasty. :-)

 

 

Made-It #3 - Rules Posters (Freebie)

 

Click the picture to grab it!

 Here they are up in my room!

 

 

These posters were inspired by Stephanie at 3rd Grade Thoughts. I loved hers, which are also free, but I didn't want...

"Raise your hand for permission to stand."

(which was part of her rule #3)

 

My posters say:

1. Listen when your teacher is talking.

2. Follow directions quickly.

3. Raise your hand for permission to speak.

4. Respect others. Respect yourself. Respect our school.

5. Be safe. Be kind. Be honest.

 

 

Just had to add this picture too...it is my Reading Focus Wall coming together (below the rules). Hooray!

Please note - if you downloaded my free Focus Wall Headers, I changed the yellow to orange so they would be easier to read (same with my thought bubbles - see below). You may want to redownload.

 

Aren't they cute??? Love how they turned out.

 Made-It #4 - Binder

 

This binder part goes along with a great linky going on over at:

 

 

 

I blogged about the binder pack I purchased here. It comes from Bridget at Little Lovely Learners. The made-it part comes as I have put it together and added to it... I was going to wait to post this because I'm not all the way done, but I know some of you are already back at it and thought you might benefit from seeing how I'm putting mine together, so... 

First thing you see when you open it up is my daily check-list. I know my check-list will change this year, but I went ahead and put it in to remind me to include it. This truly saved me so much time last year!

 



 

Monthly Calendar - The binder pack comes with a good 1-page calendar...it took me awhile to choose, but eventually I went with this FREE 2-page spread from Marshall in the Middle.

Weekly Calendar - I wanted to combine my binder...personal and school...so I wanted a weekly spread to keep me organized with all our activities through the week. Grab them here free if you want.

 

A place to write dinner plans at the bottom = one less page in my home management binder.

 

Okay, back to more school sections:

 

I made this yearly planning calendar.

I got the idea from someone else - it was chevron backgrounds. If it is you, let me know and I will point people in the right direction. I also don't want to give this away in case that person had it for sale. Sorry... :-(

 

The binder pack comes with MANY more covers and pages for inside your binders. I plan to make at least three more binders: Student Information/Data, MTSS (Bridget made by special request), and a Sub binder.

***I also absolutely LOVE a work skills/behavior checklist that Bridget includes in the pack.

 

Okay, if you've stuck with me this long, you deserve a giveaway! Kristi and I are so excited that we reached 400 followers on Bloglovin' that we wanted to celebrate. We figured anyone can enjoy a $25 gift card to Target! Use the Rafflecopter below to enter and good luck!

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to link up your Monday Made-It with Tara!

Awesome Teacher Binder!

Toward the end of this school year, I began seeing all these "teacher binders" all over Pinterest and blogland. I decided to try it for next year. I love my home management binder and use it to stay organized here at home, so I knew I just had to have a teacher binder too.

The search began...

I found some really cute ones right away--but with a hefty price tag!

I decided I could make my own.

Then I decided my time was worth something and decided to look again.

Yesterday, I stumbled on this and couldn't have been more excited.

 

I can't even explain all the goodies included in this set! I will tell you that it has pretty much any page you might want to include in your own binder. She has a less color option available and an editable one (different background), too! I chose the one above because I liked the chevron and figured I could work with the pages it came with (A LOT -- 103 pages). Oh, and, she will update the file each year and you can download it again! All for only $5.50! Hooray!!! I can't wait to put this thing together!

 

It comes from Bridget at Little Lovely Leaders, who happens to have some freebies related to the 7 Habits of Happy Kids (another thing I'm looking into for next year). If you haven't checked out her blog, hop on over to:

I told myself I would not go to the school this week, but I know I have some empty binders over there...

Hmmm...

Maybe I could just go, grab a binder, and come right back... That is the benefit of living so close. :-)

Crystal

P.S. I got a juror questionnaire thingy in the mail again. Really??? I have been summoned 3-4 times in my adult life, and my husband has never even had to fill out the questionnaire!