Among my many New Years Resolutions for 2007 (yes, the list is that long that i need to get started on December 13th.) will include my vow to actually use my agenda book. I am REALLY bad about using one. When i was in high school, i was obsessed with my Chandler’s. I kept everything in it, and was super organized. last year, i used my agenda book over again (yes, ma’am, i guess i was channeling my inner Lelaina Pierce). i’m not kidding. when it became 2006, i just reused my 2005 book. so, they dates were a little off, but i was still able to keep all my shit in one place.
recently, i’ve become very big on the list. I write everything down on lists. appointments. upcoming events. things i need to do. things i need to buy. it usually works pretty well. until i lose the list. or misplace it. or leave it in a different purse. a different jacket. a different car. then things start to fall through the cracks. this obvious character flaw, combined with the fact that there is so much jumping around in my head at one time, means that occasionally things get forgotten. things get overlooked. things don’t get done.
this came to a blow this morning when Emily informed up that a) we missed parent-teacher interviews last night and b) today is her school bake sale. and i had promised to bake cookies. i put my hands over my face and wanted to cry. it was bad enough that i forgot it was picture day last week, but parent-teacher interviews? this wasn’t like me!
turns out that it wasn’t even that i plumb forgot…i didn’t even know about it! i was supposed to sign up for times weeks ago, but i didn’t even know! not one of my friends even mentioned it to me, and clearly i’m not reading the notes that come home (this is NOT my fault. the contents of my kids’ backpacks get emptied by them before i even get a chance to look through them, so sometimes things get missed).
but the bake sale? i knew about the bake sale. and i was excited to bake some cookies with my bunnies and decorate them. we did this last year, and it was so nice. i even made sure that i had all the ingredients. that i had the littel plastic bags to individually wrap all the cookies for selling. I was all over it. and then? i forgot.
the point is that these things I shouldn’t forget. and things i should know about.
my office gave us brand-spanking new 2007 Brownline agenda books last week. big, giant ones! twice the size of my Chandler’s. so, internets, you heard it here first. i shall no longer forget appointments. or bake sales. or picture day. or parent-teacher conferences. I will put everything in one place.
i will get organized in 2007. (i guess i’ll go put that on my list)
song of the day: American Music by Violent Femmes
come on over and say hi at Cheaper Than Therapy today.
don’t forget to stop at Her Bad Auction this week. but i’m telling you right now…i want the ipod. it’s mine!!
All I need to organize myself is my Palm Treo! You can just get the organizer function in the Palm Z22…I think it is around $100 bucks. I am LOST without it.
oh, by the way. real simple is awesome.
i too lived by my agenda all through high school, college, and grad school. then came my first teaching gig. anything that i need to know pretty much revolved around school (and then dates with the future hubby. the planner pretty much vanished from my life. last year i nearly lost it. couldn’t keep track of a thing. the planbook for school wasn’t efficient for stuff outside of school. first, no space for the weekend, which means that i already need another book. can’t shove that thing in a purse and because i’m so anal about my planbook, scribbling notes wouldn’t work. the calendar on the bulletin board just wasn’t portable enough. with my own kids in school, my class, and life, things had gotten a bit out of control. i couldn’t remember a blasted thing. thank goodness for staples. i bought myself a planner and now live by it. school stuff, kid stuff, life stuff, all tucked into a little book that i can easily transfer from school bag to purse. it has a calendar, address book, spots for credit cards, ids and the like, a place for business cards/pictures/caa card, a notepad, and a cute little zipper thing that i can throw change into. I LOVE IT! though if i knew that i was going to use it as much as i do, i probably would have sprung for one of a better quality. oh, well!
yeah…i need a wife…
Hmm .. Ali.. you’re not pregnant are you?!?!
Just kidding!
Well, I have to say that at least your kids DO empty their napsacks .. I do that, and of course it means I can find his agenda from school, but still, I’d love if he’d clear out the old food etc…
Maybe get the kids to put all sheets in a specific place on a desk when they empty out, that way they are all together. Agenda, or not, if they lose them, you’d never know about it to write it in your agenda!
We’ve all been there. All of it is just too much to manage for one mommy.
Ali, I am so with you on the losing/forgetting things – I generally unpack the kids’ backpacks, oh, once every couple of weeks….:((( I have misplaced reminder notes, book lists, school newsletters, birthday party invites…so I got inspired by an article in Real Simple where I organised my office with loads of cork/whiteboards and I diarise everything in my Outlook diar which I access at home.
Always something to do!! Did you get your cookies baked?