Preparing to Prepare: Catalog Christmas Books

Can I tell you how happy my children have been since I made my big push to take the slalom course of Advent and Christmas paraphernalia out of our hallway and to get it all sorted, organized, catalogued, and put away? 

I am not exaggerating.  When the children saw our hallway all cleared up, they began literally kissing the walls.  They were that happy with "all this space!"  And me?  I was, too, and, I've been feeling doubly glad to have my kitchen table back.

Finishing the Final Bits of Packing Up Christmas 

This early week, I worked for hours and hours purging, organizing, and cataloguing Christmas books as part of my efforts to prepare throughout the year for Advent and Christmas.  In fact, I was still working on the final parts of this mini-project as my kiddoes had their St. Brigid Day oatmeal the other day, which was a bit disconcerting, because I had hoped to be done long before then.

Luckily, the kids were champs that morning and, after breakfast,  they helped peel and dice apples for homemade applesauce while I made one last push to finish my second mini-project in preparing to prepare for Christmas.

Just in time, I finished cataloguing and storing all of our Advent and Christmas books away and set the table for our Luncheon Tea for St. Brigid, St. Verdiana, and Our Lady of Altagracia.

That delighted me.  For Christmas books all put away = clear table = table ready for company = one happy mama!  One happy mama who has celebrated twice since clearing the table.  Yep, it's been a double-hitter tea week here.

We celebrated a Candlemas Poet-tea with friends, too.

More on teas another time, though.  Right now, back to explaining about those books.

Just How Do We Own So Many Christmas Books?

For years now, we've spent most of Advent into Christmastide reading, reading, reading with our Alphabet of Advent, Literature-Rich Advent, Works of Mercy Wisemen, and more.  Thus, every year, I pull out whatever I can find from our personal book collection and also borrow baskets of books from our local library to enjoy during our S.K.I.L.L. T.I.M.E +, Together Time Bag and bedtime reading. 

Without question, Advent and Christmas have become synonymous with cuddling up with books in my house.  Unfortunately, that has often meant book explosions, too. 
Some years, our library books don't all get returned until nearly Lent, and, most years, our personal collection gets stashed away bit by bit, here and there, causing parts of it turn up missing the following Advent, lost somewhere in the abyss of mounting disorganization.

This year, then, I was quite proud of myself, for getting some of the many library books we had borrowed returned before Christmas, and more before Epiphany, with the last of our borrowed Advent and Christmastide books out of our home before the end of January.

Indeed, I was ever so pleased last week when I checked to see what was due on our library cards and didn't notice a single Christmas book still checked out.  (Little things give me great feelings of accomplishment and success these days!)

Unfortunately, my self-congratulations ended, when I began organizing our various book baskets, shelves, and stacks with February reading, whereupon I realized just how many of our personal Christmas books were still hanging around everywhere and, moreover, just how many Christmas-themed books we actually own.

By the time I had collected all of our Advent and Christmas books from sundry shelves, baskets, and drawers, I faced stacks and stacks of books on my kitchen table that were more than a foot high each.
How on earth did we collect so many Christmas books? I marveled.  For, before seeing our Christmas collection stacked all in one place, I had known that we owned a lot of Christmas-themed books.  However, I simply did not realize just how many we've been blessed with!  Between gifts, purchases, library discards, and pass alongs, it is amazing what piles and piles of Christmas books we had amassed and - lo! - there were even some repeat titles among them.

Thus, began a sort and purge.

First, I sorted all the Christmas books into categories:  

• books we use during each specific week of Advent or Christmas,
• books we enjoy in general throughout the season,
• books we definitely will enjoy for years to come,
• books we can part with now,
• and, books that I want to decide on after one more year in our possession.

That step done, there were still 70+ books on my table and - yikes - later, I found another small stash of them.

THAT WAS A LOT OF BOOKS!

Thus, I gave myself a limit for how many books to keep and catalog:  I would only keep as many books as would fit, sorted into drawstring bags by category, in a single 18-gallon plastic tote.

Of Sorting, Storing, and a Ready Reference List

Once I had decided on the limit I would allow for our Christmas book collection, I sat down with my laptop and created a document that included the following columns for each book:

• Date to Be Read (if applicable)
• Tradition We Tie In with the Book (if applicable)
• Works of Mercy Wisemen for the Book (if applicable)
• Title
• Author
• Illustrator
• Type of Book (Boardbook, Hardcover, or Softcover)
• Notes
• Themes
• Whether the Book is Religious or Secular

Now, this might seem like overkill to some, but, for me, it is just the right amount of information to note. 

With such information, I can work out this year's Advent and Christmas reading plan easily throughout the year without having to drag out our bin. For the list will remind me which books we own, which we may wish to borrow, and which I might buy on sale.  I can also easily retrieve particular books that we may want to revisit on specific dates throughout the year - like Kristoph and the First Christmas Tree on June 5 for St. Boniface's feast day or picture books about Christmas around the world when we study specific locations in Geography Club.  Since I cataloged and, then, stored our Christmas collection by theme and typical date(s) of use, and since I know whether each book is a boardbook, softcover book, or hardcover book, I now know which book is where and what exactly I am looking for, so I can easily go to the bin and retrieve just what I am looking for within minutes without much rummaging, hefting, or hauling.

Likewise, with my newly catalog list, I can also be more prudent when it comes to which additional Christmas books that I may buy and borrow.  For, yes, (and here I hang my head in shame) in the past, I have been known to borrow - or even to purchase - books that we already own because I thought we did not since our copies of some book had been lost in the abyss of our home.  I have also - much to my children's disappointment - neglected to borrow family favorites from the library, thinking we owned them and that they'd turn up before the season ended, when, in reality, I was confused.  We'd borrowed certain books year after year, not bought them.

True fact is, that Mama's memory is not what it once was, but mama's newly catalogued list solves that problem.  I now have a ready reference of what we own, so I will better be able to determine what we may want to purchase on sale or borrow again.  Not rocket science, I know, but a tediously long step taken which will now make my path to a more prepared Advent and Christmas so much easier.

I don't know if I am more excited about having purged some Christmas books and catalogued the rest into a neat little file or having my kitchen table back.  Honestly, both delight me and have me revved up for the next step in my preparing to prepare efforts.

What steps are you making month-by-month to prepare for Advent and Christmas?  Are there favorite Advent and Christmas titles you'd recommend?  I'd love to hear about them.

Also, be sure to stop by each month this year on the 2nd to see what more I've done to prepare for Advent and Christmas - or to prompt me to do more.  Thanks!

Preparing to Prepare: A Commitment to Spend Time Each Month Preparing for Advent and Christmas

 

I know.  I know.  You have just read the title of this post and are thinking, "Christmas?  Why is she talking about Advent and Christmas?  That time of year is months away."

Well, let me assure you, I have a sound reason to be thinking about Advent and Christmas.  For, I admit it: I am not the most organized housekeeper and a mere day or two before turning the calendar page to February, Advent and Christmas items were still exploding throughout my home.

Now, I know some of you, like me, purposefully leave certain decorations out until Candlemas.  however, I am not talking about having an intentional Nativity set or two still out.  No, I am ashamed to admit that my family and I had been slaloming through Advent and Christmas bins in my hallway, wading through stacks of Advent and Christmas books, separating our homemade12 Days of Christmas ornaments from other ornaments that we took down after Epiphany and finally wrapping them up, and more until I made huge push this past weekend to get the Advent/Christmas chaos under control.

Yes, with humility, I admit I am not a gifted housekeeper, and, I often let tasks literally stack up.  Yet, with hope, I plan to change that.

One of my goals for this year is to finally break the cycle of disorganization that has plagued me (my children, my husband, and our home) for years.  And, one of the ways I have decided to work on that goal is to invest time up front to prevent seasonal explosions from derailing the rest of the year.

Thus it is that I have determined that I will NOT spend late November and early December of this year pushing to prepare for this year's Advent and Christmas seasons and, likewise, I will not still be tucking away the majority of our Advent and Christmas items away as February nears next year. Rather, - God-willing - this November will find my family and I peacefully prepared for Advent when it rolls around in early December this year, and, then, equally able to slide right into a joyous Christmas, before heading into an organized Ordinary Time with a smiles on our faces and but few intentional Christmastide about the house.

Great intentions, right?

Indeed.  But, they are only as good as the effort behind them.

So it is that, as of today, I am committing to doing extra preparation and organization each month this year in an effort to make my family's next Advent and Christmas among our most organized and peaceful ever.

My first step has been an easy one:  Creating an Advent and Christmas Corner.  

Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind
 I re-delegated a portion of my attic to storing 18-gallon totes with our:

• Advent and Christmas Books
• Jesse Tree Ornaments and other Advent Decor
• Nativity Scene Figurines
• Christmas Ornaments and Lights
• Christmas Eve through the End-of-Christmastide Decorations
• Christmas Gift Storage
• Christmas Craft Items

Then, I began the process of sorting, purging, organizing, and cataloging items - as well as carefully labeling bins - so as to ensure that I know exactly what was in each bin stored in our attic and how those things may be used intentionally in the years to come.  (This is actually something I hope to do with ALL of the things in our  home - sort, purge, organize, catalog, and label. Wish my luck!)

I have finished that process with all of our items except our nativity sets (which I leave out until Candlemas) and our picture books, which are sorted, but not catalogued and tucked away yet. 

So it is, the process continues


Your Invited to Follow My Progress - and Prompt Me to Keep Going

Once I get our nativity sets and picture books tucked away until this year's Advent and Christmas seasons, I do not intend to stop the organization process.  Rather, I plan to do a little each month so that I am not scrambling to prepare on December 1st of this year. 

Yes, since Advent begins this year on December 3rd, I have decided to give myself interim deadlines of the 2nd of each month to make further progress on preparing to prepare, and I plan to share about my progress as I go.

So, please continue to pop on over on the 2nd of of each month to hear how I have been moving along with my next steps of preparations or to prompt me - please! - to progress if need be, and if find yourself scrambling to prepare lessons, heart, and home just before Advent each year, join me in parallel efforts at your own home.  Maybe what I share can inspire your efforts.

May we each be disciplined in getting through tedious tasks in order to better prepare our hearts and homes!

Get a Free Trial of THE Most Comprehensive Online Planner I Know {A Homeschool Planet Review}

I don't know how life is with you, but with me it is f-u-l-l, FULL!  Almost too full, at times, which reviewing Homeschool Planet by the Homeschool Buyers Co-op has made clear to me.  

For, you see, Homeschool Planet (which is offering a FREE 30-day trial!) is much more than a homeschool planner or a basic online calendar, it is an adaptable life planner - a central place to organize home, homeschool, work, volunteer and other pursuits.  For me, it is also a wake up call about how many things I have been failing to organize well.  

Indeed, I when I signed up to review Homeschool Planet, I thought it would take me no time at all to transfer our calender and other information over to it and to, once and for all, juggle the balls of life with success.  However, through no fault of Homeschool Planet, I that was not the case.  I simply have a lot to transfer and much of that is buried in physical and e-clutter.  For, as a single, I was a "paper person".  I had a small binder that I carried with me as well as a wall calendar that I wrote "big events" on.  I also had running to-do lists at home and one at work and, occasionally, made color-coded charts and project notebooks, too.  These tools, together, kept me fairly well-organized and successful at work and at home.

Enter marriage, then children.  My old tools no longer worked.  My husband's mental and physical organization styles differed from mine.  Our lives and schedules got more complicated. Our children, as many children do, worked to make the old adage, "life is what happens when you're making other plans" a minute-to-minute reality for us.  The organizational tools that I had come to trust could not keep up with the all the new and different balls that life tossed my way, and, consequently, disorganization became an unfortunate hallmark of this once organized gal.

To combat the developing chaos, I sought more tools - some made by others, some made by me, some online, some offline.  All helpful to a degree, but not to a large enough degree to keep all the balls of life in sync as they soared through the air, with none being dropped, or, worse, smacking me square in the face. 

For, okay, I admit it!  I tend to juggle a lot of balls at once.  I overplan.  I get lost in minutia instead of plowing through priorities.  I miss deadlines.  I smile, thinking carpe diem, (or cry, wondering, What have I done?!) as I toss another ball into the air or get distracted running after one that is rolling away.  Yes, I also tend to squeeze just one more activity in my family's lives even when my husband is reminding me there simply isn't room.  And, in doing all this, I negate many of the positive effects of most planners, schedules, calendars, checklists, etc. I have developed or tried. 

Whether a tool for just me, one for the family, one for each person in the family, one that is online, one that is offline, one that is you-name-it, prior to Homeschool Planet, no tool could even come close to helping me keep all the balls I sought to juggle in the air with a smile.  But Homeschool Planet, as I am coming to know it offers something different: hope!  As a flexible, all-in-one planner that is made by homeschoolers and continually updated with user suggestions in mind, Homeschool Planet has the potential to be THE tool to finally get me as organized - or,  God-willing, even more organized - than I have been in ten years!  Better still, is has both online features (which provide ease for input, rescheduling, communicating with others in the family, etc.) and printable options (which appeases my paper-loving inner-luddite) that are all connected and centralized!

To date, I have slowly been wading through physical and e-clutter in my home to centralize information with Homeschool Planet
while also adding new meetings, to do's, events, tasks, appointments, etc.  Doing the latter is easy-easy!  Homeschool Planet is rather intuitive to use and also has a collection of how-to videos and speedy, helpful customer service should you need it.

And- wow!- does Homeschool Planet offer a lot of helpful features!  I have not used them all, but I have used enough to offer you a top ten of sorts of reasons this tool offers me hope and might be just what you are looking for to get organized, too:

10 Reasons to Cheer About Homeschool Planet



1.  There are different views! 

So long as you have an internet connection and a web browser, you can get started with ease and, when you do, you can choose to view (or input) things in Calendar view, Planner view or Resource view.  In these views, you can also select to look at a single day, a week or the month.  So, whether you want to get an overview of all the balls you have to juggle or focus in on a certain one, you can easily do so! 


 
2.  It can work for you, your spouse and your children -- individually or together.You can create profiles for yourself, your spouse, each individual child, even the roles you each play (such as Mom-home, Mom-work, Mom-co-op, etc.)  Then, you can view appointments, information, classes, etc. for one, some or all at once.  That means you can focus in on just one person, or even one role of a person, or can see how everyone's wants, needs and commitments are working together. 

 3.  Scheduling is simple.

When you want to schedule something, you choose if it;s a class, an event (birthday, etc.), or "everything else".  Then, you choose the day and time (or recurring).  You can also choose who the class, event, or comittment is for and add notes, specific assignments, etc.



4.  Rescheduling is but a click away.Life happens and one of the joys of homeschooling is the flexibility to go with it.  In one click, you can reschedule assignments and take a day off.

5.  Communication is key!You can input an email (or a phone number for text if you are not part-luddite like me and lacking a "fancy phone") for each person in order to be send a digest of upcoming commitments and tasks - or even to text grocery lists.  This makes for an easy way to communicate with spouses (and children who are old enough to have emails or text messaging) even when everyone is going in different directions.

6.  There are individual log-ins.

Your spouse or children can access their own lists, assignments, etc. through individual log-ins you create.


7.  You can color code!If you (or your husband or kids) are visual, color coding can be key.  Easy options to do so are included.  (Better still, if you choose to print, you can print in black-and-white or color, so you do not have to use color ink if you do not want to, but can if any individual prefers it.)



8.  Tracking is easy.

If you need to track attendance, time, or grades for reports or transcripts, it can be done with ease!

9.  Widgets add loads of extra appeal!

Meal planning, shopping lists, Bible verses, inspirational quotes, weather and more are all available on handy sidebar widgets that you can add or delete.

10.  You can go mobile.

If you have multiple mobile devices, you can use a tutorial to create an easy-access icon to access Homeschool Planet from anywhere. 



My Bottom Line 

Even if you're busy, you need not be bowled over by all the balls you are juggling.   Homeschool Planet, offers features and flexibility that make it a comprehensive, one-stop planning tool that can help keep you and yours on track.  If, like me, you desire to appreciate the abundance of life, but also seek to clearly discern which parts of the plethora each day unfolds with should get priority, give this planner a whirl.  It not only has traditional and convenient calendar features, but it also provides:

• inspiration through verse and quote widgets,
• ease through an intuitive interface, help videos and excellent customer service
• features designed by homeschoolers for homeschoolers
• a way to organize your home, homeschool, work, volunteer and other pursuits in one place -- and to do so for your family members, too!

 
I am excited to see how much more organized my family and I become as I use the remainder of the one-year subscription to Homeschool Planet that we currently have.  I have a feeling we'll be pleased enough to want a subsequent subscription.

Learn More

• Try Homeschool Planet out for free for 30 days or purchase a one-year subscription for $6.95 per month of $65.00 per year.

• Find Homeschool Planet on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

 

• See how 90 Schoolhouse Review Crew families have been organizing homes and homeschooling with Homeschool Planet.

Might Homeschool Planet help you to better organize and integrate the details of your home, homeschool, volunteer, business and other pursuits?  Try it and see!

Can You Really Find Balance and Calm in 7 Minutes a Day?

Order, balance and calm play peek-a-boo in my life.  So, when I was given a chance to try out the The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner by the The 7 Minute Life in exchange for an honest review, I said, "Sign me up!" 

What Is The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner?

Part agenda, part life coach in spiral bound book, the The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner is a 90-day time management tool that aims to help users unlock their purpose, potential and passion through clarifying priorities and goals, establishing and committing to realistic written action steps and implementing techniques to reclaim productivity aligned to priorities on a daily basis.  True to its name, the planner aims to do all this in just seven minutes a day once a habit of use is set.

What Is Included?
 

In the 7.3″ x 8.5″ spiral bound, plastic covered book that is The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner  you will find:

• 15 pages of preface and introductory materials that are not to be missed
• a worksheet for helping you define life priorities
• a worksheet to guide you in delineating your purpose
• a worksheet to help you discern the best use of your time right now, at this 90-day period in your life
• a page declutter your brain by listing home and work tasks  
• 2 pages to note 90-day personal and work goals on
• a page for financial goals
• a page for life goals
• 6 pages to list unfinished home and work teaks
• a page to list home repair contact information
• a grocery list
• 2 pages to list contact information and comments
• an annual calendar at a glance
• a page to list annual projects and tasks
• 4 90-day-at-a-glance pages
• 12 monthly-calendar-at-a-glance pages
• 5 pages for meeting planning
• 90 days worth of daily progress reports
• 3 monthly progress reports
• 6 pages or notes
• a year-at-a-glance exercise progress report
• 2 heavy cardstock folder pieces at the front and back in order to tuck loose notes into       

These all add up to a system that can help you prioritize, organize and simplify your life if you use them with care and consistency.

How I Succeeded (and Failed)

When I received the planner in the mail, I got right to reading the introductory pages in it, which not only tell you how to use the planner, but why you might want to. 

In doing so, I found myself highlighting passages right away:

"Life is about choices.  If you want to be different tomorrow than you are today, you must choose to be different."

"Part of what draws people to the 7-minute system is celebrating tiny 'wins' of actually reaching their daily goals.  Daily, small achievements are good for you."

"If (all your goals, tasks, accomplishments are written down in different places), you run the risk of feeling scattered and becoming disorganized -- chief ingredients to chaos."

"...you may want to schedule your 'Focus Time' to be held in a different location from your daily environment." 

"You may be surprised to learn that you are squeezing out those things most important to you, while lavishing huge amounts of attention on unimportant things in your life."

"There are four primary causes of mental clutter.  They are avoidance, procrastination, distraction and indecision."

  
These passages and others struck chords with me because some convicted me while others affirmed directions my thoughts had already been heading in.  Together with instructions on how to use the following pages and segments of the planner, the passages I highlighted set me in motion to start prioritizing, organizing and simplifying my days by completing the priorities and purpose worksheets and beginning to delineate goals and tasks.

Then, it came time for me to use the daily progress reports, which, for me, did not end up being daily.

I truly struggled to get into the habit of pulling out the planner each morning and night and found myself occasionally marking more than one day, using the blank line section on the second page of each 2-page daily progress report spread to make notes on the "missed days", but then forgiving myself for "failing" and moving forward with planning and assessing the day at hand.

Regardless of whether I used the daily progress reports for a single day or multiple ones at a time, I wrote a lot of personal information on them, thus, I am not going to share snapshots of my "used" pages.  Rather, I will share generic blank photos and explain a bit how I used each section of the daily pages.



I did not need 25 lines for "Daily Contacts", so I sometimes used the first few lines of this section to list the blogs I commented on (which is something I am trying to remember to do - comment on posts I read instead of just hitting and running with them!).  At other times, I listed people I wanted to call, email or get together with for personal, professional and homeshooling purposes and then checked of when I did.  And, at still other times, I simply left a lot of lines blank.

In the "What I will do... 5 before 11 section", I listed tasks and chores I needed to get done before 11, or before leaving the house on any given day.  I kept these small and manageable and found that listing them, and checking them off really did help start my day off well!

In the "7 Minute Life" Connections section, I sometimes listed people I wanted to see face-to-face, sometimes listed people I needed to connect with by phone or email and sometimes listed a reminder to myself to spend 1:1 time with my children.

I used the "Unfinished Tasks" section both to list truly unfinished tasks as well as ones I had already accomplished during the day beyond my 5 before 11.

I rarely logged "What I Spent" because, well, some habits are harder than others for me to get into.  I am working on this one.

Another thing I am working on is building better personal time habits and, related, building the habit of evaluating how I am doing on these habits.  It became obvious to me that I need to do this when I found myself rarely remembering to check off each time I drank water; found marking how many hours I slept discouraging, so stopped; did not even begin to mark exercise, because my life at this point does not allow much consistent personal exercise time; only sometimes checked "reflection" upon completion of my morning prayer time  and only sometimes logged my reading.  

Further, though I did begin to use the meals and snack boxes first for planning meals and later for marking down what I actually ate, I found the boxes for doing so frustratingly small, so stopped.

Thus, it was hard for me to check many "yes" boxes with the question "Did I do what I said I would today?"  Not a good thing!

On the second page of each 2-page daily progress report, I used the "Appointments" section as intended, listing my appointments.  I also went back and filled in other tid bits of what I actually did during the day at the end of the day on some days, and often found myself wishing the times started at 5 or 6, not 7.

Since I don't get a ton of Voice Mails each day, I sometimes left that portion blank and sometimes used it to write blog or homeschool notes.

Under "Thank You Notes" I wrote the names of people I remembered to reach out to with gratitude via phone, email, Facebook or pen and paper.  At other times, I listed personal gratitude notes for myself.  At all times, I was happy for the reminder to be thankful!

Finally, on the blank lines I listed homeschool notes, personal thoughts and sundry other details and truly appreciated having such an amount of blank space to write daily thoughts, ideas and notes on bound to my planner and goals instead of doing it on scraps of paper that get lost!

Likewise, I found myself filling the blank note pages at the end of the planner quite quickly with notes from books I am reading.  (I am a blank note page sort of girl, I guess!) 

Final Thoughts


"Did I do what I said I would do today?"

No.

I did not do it for the entire period I was reviewing The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner, for, although I wanted to use the planner with full consistency to its utmost potential, I failed to build the habits I needed to do so. 

But, was it a complete failure? 

Not at all.

I made inroads with habits, clarified some areas I need to work on, affirmed some things I am doing well and, thus, appreciated the opportunity to test the The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner as a tool for proactively deciding where my focus will be and how I will live the days of my life.

Although the pages of the planner were not a perfect fit for me, they proved a worthwhile tool to help me determine where my strengths lay, where I need additional work and how I turn ideas into action and plans into purposeful reality.  If you're looking for a resource to help you kick start a more prioritized, organized and simplified approach to time management, The 7 Minute Life could help.

Find Out More 

• You can currently purchase The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner for only $24.95, or sample the system with free printable time management strategy tools and get started on better time management by visiting the 7 Minute Life website.

• Contact The 7 Minute Life at:

• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/The7MinuteLife 
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/allyson7minutes 
• Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/the7minutelife/ 
• Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+AllysonLewis7/posts 
• You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/user/AllysonLewis 

• Watch many SHORT videos about The 7 Minute Life and The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner which can help you prioritize, organize and simplify your life.

• See what other homeschool parents thought about the The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner by reading the many reviews linked at the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

What tools and tips help you find calm and balance in your days?  Might The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner help you, too?