My husband received an email yesterday morning from our former neighbour. The other day, he and his wife saw the comic below and they said it reminded them of me:
However could this remind them of me!?!
Could they be referring to my last post about itemizing our Family Summer Fun?
Or to this downloadable Road Trip Itinerary spreadsheet that I’ve used to block out timing for many trips?
Or to this Baby Packing List that includes everything I needed to pack for the Kid when he was younger?
And is it a sign that this comic was published on my birthday? Or just a coincidence?
OK… so maybe there is a bit… well, a lot of a resemblance to me ;-)
But I embrace my desire/compulsion to plan things out. “Can I hear myself?” Yup. Loud and clear.
The irony of getting worked up to be relaxed is not lost on me.
But I know that all of my planning makes our vacations go off without a hitch and then I actually can relax and have fun because of it.
Viva the Control Freak!
Yesterday was a lovely, sunny day in Toronto. We had set the whole day aside for delicious Dim Sum brunch and chilling out at home for a bit, but we found ourselves looking for something fun to do with the kids for an hour or two.
What to do? Around here we turn to our Summer Fun List.
Every year we take a bit of time before the summer starts to put together a list of all of the fun things we’d like to do on our weekends or “stay”cation days. These are things beyond hanging out in our backyard or hitting the neighbourhood parks and splash pads. The list includes day trips, local festivals and events, along with activities that could be fit in on any afternoon when we find ourselves with nothing to do.
From the list we plan get togethers with friends and schedule outings for our crew, or we spontaneously head off on an adventure on a lazy day. We never end up getting to everything in the list in a summer but we have lots of fun trying to make our way through!
Here’s what we have so far:
Take a look at what’s going on in your neck of the woods and put together a list of your own to make your way through this summer. And what did we end up doing yesterday? We went mini-putting and had a blast!
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Since we moved in to our new home in January, our books have been sitting in boxes. Not the kid’s books, but all of our adult books. Wait! Not “adult” adult books! Just the books owned by grown-ups. Ack! You know what I mean!!
Anyways, one day the other weekend I unpacked all of our books, purged a couple more boxes beyond what we got rid of before we moved, and spent a day organizing the bookshelf in our home office.
The result…
To me, a perfectly organized bookshelf is one that groups like things together and is visually pleasingly arranged. It makes it easy to find what I am looking for and is nice to look at while I work at my desk.
So here’s how it all breaks down:
1. Both top shelves house my Real Simple magazine collection. I have saved them since 2003 and I like keeping them all. Then each month, I pull the back issues from that month and put them out in my home for perusing. This way I have lots of seasonal simplifying ideas around at all times.
2. All of my “business-y” type books on one shelf. Books on marketing, advertising, website content planning and management, online copywriting, graphic design, typography, etc.
3. My fiction shelf.
4. A little pile of gardening books.
5. More magazines. Two stacks of home décor magazines: House and Home and Style at Home.
6. These sliding doors hide books that aren’t so pretty look at. In here…all my yearbooks. Nobody needs to see those!
7. All of my art and art history books. Just my faves saved from my school days.
8. We you wouldn’t know it from this list yet, but this is a book shelf for me AND my husband. So he has a few shelves just for him. (Well they have his things on them, but I get organizing rights!) These two shelves feature all of his artsy shmartsy books and journals: his McSweeney’s collection and all of his graphic novels.
9. His fiction and other misc small books shelf. Including quite a few baseball and other sporty books.
And interspersed are some family keepsakes, photos and interesting objects gathered over the years. The end result is a shelf that makes me happy – well organized and easy on the eyes!
Do you have some books that are packed away and are begging to be displayed? Or a mega cluttered bookshelf that is crying out for some order? Take a half-hour or so and organize a shelf or two. You might get addicted like me and end up with a newly reorganized library!
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