Skip to main content

how hard is it to find a calendar!?

very hard i guess. and i knew this. it's the same with purses and diaper bags. for some reason, i can never find exactly the right one. maybe it's because i don't exactly know what is exactly right. i spent at least 30 minutes today in borders, looking at calendars, and came home empty handed - finally giving up when my kids got bored with the extra huge selection of books on motorcycles, classic airplanes and muscle cars they had parked themselves in front of. (although layla had managed to keep herself fairly well entertained by the pocket guide to the kelley blue book... so if you want advice on buying or selling a used car, just ask her.)

so what is it i want? well, in all honesty, i want something that will instantly fix all the disorganized facets of my life. or basically, i want a miracle divided into months and weeks and days.

well, since it doesn't seem that God sells a calendar, my options seem to be limited to that which i have to implement myself. so do i want a wall calendar? a desk calendar? an engagement calendar? i can't seem to sort this out. i've been using google calendar on the computer and i like it all right, but i want something that i can put out for everyone to see. one of those family organizer calendars, but there are a lot of them, and while i've like aspects of all of them, none of them seems to have all of the things i want.

i like the wall calendars for the bigger writing space and the visibility of it. i like ones that have lines on the days (i hate writing on stuff without lines because it's always just a mess and that's what i'm trying to fix by having a calendar in the first place). i also like that you have a big picture of the whole month in front of you, rather than just the current week and it's easy to look ahead to the next month. a lot of the family calendars have places you can put in each family member. while this is nice, it presents two problems for me. first, what do you do when a family member has more than one engagement on a given day? or when there's an engagement that involves multiple family members? secondly, lots of those calendars run vertically from top to bottom, rather than laid out in horizontal weeks. i've tried that before and it screws me up. my brain is so trained to think of time in a horizontal fashion that i can never seem to figure out where i am in the week or month looking at one of those. so that's a no go.

i like engagement calendars for the convenience of being able to take it with you, so you always have your schedule when someone says, "can you do such and such on such and such date?" i also like that a lot of the family planners i was looking at today had perforated grocery lists and menu planners running down the sides of the pages. i'm a total menu planner (if for no other reason than i then know if the leftovers in the fridge are ok to eat or if they should be feared), and it would be awesome to have this right there with my schedule. and the tear out feature is great. however, in order for most of these planners to be functional for their intended use, they're kind of small to be a visible, central calendar for everyone to use as a reference. also, the ones i liked the best for other reasons, didn't have lines to write on on the days.

there were some bigger (letter size) planner types that were spiral bound and showed 2 weeks at a time, lines on the days, and a tear off portion on the sides, but it was kind of generic and i didn't like how they were laid out exactly. i did like that they were bigger and showed more than one week at a time...

i also want stickers. most of the ones that have the stickers i want are not with a calendar i want. but i figure i can always just get the flylady stickers and that should cover just about everything.

grrr... why is this so hard for me?

and where is the calendar that sends you an electric shock if you don't clean the bathroom because you just don't feel like it?

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 3, 2008 at 1:58 PM

    would a blackberry solve part of your problem and then we can have our calendars synced together?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

all comments are moderated. unkind comments will be deleted.

you may like...

beef stew recipe

another taken from the betty crocker cookbook, but i mess with this one so refer to the disclaimer … 1 tbsp olive oil 1 clove of garlic, pressed (or some good shakes of garlic powder) 1 lb. stew beef 3 cups of hot water (I probably use closer to 3.5 or 4) 1/2 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 3 medium carrots, cut in thick coins 2 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces 1-2 medium potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 tsp salt 1 bay leaf *optional: 1/2 bell pepper of your choice; 1 turnip; 1/2 tsp browning sauce (whatever that is) 1/2 cup cold water 2 tbsp all-purpose flour heat oil in large pot. cook beef and garlic in oil about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown. add hot water, 1/2 tsp salt and the pepper. heat to boiling; reduce heat to low. cover and simmer 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until beef is almost tender. stir in remaining ingredients except cold water and flour. cover and simmer
Post a Comment
read more »

tater tot casserole recipe

i realized i forgot to post this last week when we had it.  i actually like it a little better than the hash brown one, but both are good.  it’s VERY similar. once again, this is something i’ve made so many times that i just kind of wing it now, although i do have the recipe that kate sent to me after she made it for my family when micah was born. i like to keep the recipe because it has some little ‘britishisms’ throughout, just like kate! ;-) who, by the way, rocks, having called to check up on me the other evening when she saw that the power in our area was out AGAIN!  thanks kate, smooch smooch! but now i’m getting distracted… big surprise. here goes. you will need: 1 lb or so ground beef (or ground turkey) 1 chopped onion a bunch of veggies (kate’s recipe calls for a ‘tin’ of mixed veggies, but i use fresh carrots & celery if i’ve got’em, frozen beans, peas, corn, whatever).  maybe 2-3 cups. 1 can (or tin) of cream of something soup (i use celery usually
2 comments
read more »

it just keeps getting better...

so obviously, from my earlier post, the dinner-making portion of my day was a little less than spectacular.  oh, that was just the beginning. dave worked late today. after dinner, i ran a bath for the younger 2 and in the process of getting them from the dining room to the bathroom, micah knocked the container of cheerios off the table and they dumped ALL OVER the floor.  i scooped up what i could and threw it back in the container, then, mindful that the water was still running in the tub and i didn't want to flood the bathroom, i herded the kids into the bathroom and dumped them into the tub. i went back into the dining room and proceeded to sweep up the mound of cheerios that was left on the floor, all the while keeping an ear open for both voices and giggles in the bathroom (as long as you can hear them, their heads are above water, right?).  that took all of about 2 minutes. i looked in on them (both happy as could be) and discovered that both of my younger, happy ch
4 comments
read more »

does home ec even exist anymore?

my last post got me thinking about how i somehow missed 'learning' all of those things which are essential in running a successful home. i'm wondering who dropped the ball on this (because, i can't possibly take responsibility for my own shortcomings here). i guess traditionally, one learns these things from their parents. i suppose i did learn a lot of my domestic skills at home. for example, the husband is supposed to eat the leftovers in the fridge. when making a bed, the 'top' of the top sheet goes down so that when you fold the edge over the blanket, the 'top' side is then up. why this matters when you are just going to cover the whole thing with a pillow and comforter is totally beyond me. but that's how you do it. so yes, my mother taught me how to iron, do laundry, clean a toilet, etc. my dad taught me how to plant a garden, mow a lawn, appreciate baseball, etc. and then there's home ec. do people still take home ec? i took it
4 comments
read more »

for my not-so-american friends

i didn't have an actual roll w/ the green plaid on it, but i found a refill and an empty roll in my junk drawer (yeah, i know, that should tell me something).  but even the empty one says 'scotch' on it.  there you go!  SCOTCH TAPE!
8 comments
read more »