Bullet Journal- Busy Mom Style.

So Bullet Journals are a thing now.  It's basically a planner that you create yourself.  I have never been able to make a planner work.  But with 6 schedules to manage a calendar didn't cut it either....Although I have an OUtlander one cause of the pictures  :)  Anyway....enter Bullet Journal.  

You can get a plethora of ideas on Pinterest or Instagram....but if you are like me you don't give 2 hoots if your "bujo" (that's what the cool kids call them) is pretty or has art.  I need to know where my people are,  where they are going, and make sure I can feed them.  I also LOVE making (and checking things off of) lists...to-do lists, goal lists,  packing lists, lists of daydreams,  Lists of blessings, lists of lists, and the list goes on.  (I'm so clever).  So if you don't care if April is decorated with an "april showers" theme so you can have "May flowers" in may I would recommend searching for "Men's bullet journal" or "minimalist bullet journal" on pinterest.  Otherwise the cute-ness may overwhelm and sicken you.  If you like art and drawing things....then by all means have at it.  That is not my style.  

These are my high tech tools.  This is my favorite ruler for my bujo because it is thin enough to be a bookmark  and it has centimeters.  The grid book I got has 1/2 cm boxes and it helps me to measure them with metric.  pencil, white out and whatever pens I have handy.  

BASIC PAGES

Page 1!  Year at a glance....just like you get in a checkbook register.
 Except I like my weeks to start on Monday....so they do!  :D 
Look at my pretty block letters at the start of the year.  Such a high achiever!  HA

Future Log-  this faces the year at a glance page....it is essentially a box for each month.  So when the dentist schedules appts 6 months in advance or we register for church camp or whatever, I just stick the date in the correct month box with a short description of that event.

This is the June box on that page...it was busy.  :)  

At the start of the year I set some goals....these are reading and crafty goals.  I didn't take a picture of the exercise and BIble Study goal page cause they are embarrassing.  :(    I need to fill in several books here and some knitting projects....

Each month I take time to make a monthly calendar.  Again my weeks run monday -sunday so my calendar reflects that.  I move things from the "Future Log" to this page.  I have space on one side each month so I try to list blessings.  I'm not as regular about that as I wish I was.  

This was my first weekly spread.  it lasted one week.  I did not like it much.  So I tried some others....

This is this weeks pages.  I've been using this weekly spread for a while.  At the top of each day in Orange I put the classes I teach for VIPkid  then I have space for appts or to-do lists on that day.  At the bottom is what  I plan to make for supper in its own box.  On the left/bottom I plan breakfast and lunches both for the kids and I and for shane to take to work.  The ideas are very flexible but its where I start my grocery list (the ONLY list I don't put in this notebook)  On the bottom, right I list weekly goals....or break down to-do lists from.  For example, today I needed to clean my kitchen.  Its on wednesday in red.  But in red on the bottom right are all the things that entailed for me today.  I got to check them all off as I went.  

EXTRA PAGES

So the deal is, I always have this notebook.  I know where it is as much as I know where anything is.  So if I want to keep track of something it goes IN THIS NOTEBOOK.  I don't use post-its or scratch bits of paper.  I know a lot of people use their phone.  tried that.  didn't like it.  

I've been in the middle of multiple book series this year.  Its part of a goal to read only books I've never read before this year.  I was losing track of which book I was ready for in each series....so I made myself a "library" page of all the series I was going on.  I highlight the book when I finish it. 

Im starting to brainstorm breakfast/lunch/snack ideas for as we roll into school time.  So I grabbed my notebook and the closest pen and started writing things down.  

So this is the "map" of my garden.  We tried some new varieties this year and I wanted to know where each was.  Also, in the upper corner is some sparkly tape that I got at dollar tree.  I wrap it around the corner of pages I want to find again easily, weeks or months after I made them-also found on the library page..  

My notebook went to homeschool convention with me (of course)....and I used it for notes in session.  If I took these elsewhere I'd never find them again.  :D  (If I were good at this blogging thing I would turn this picture right side up but I'm not and you likely couldn't read my handwriting anyway). 

The thing I like about a bullet journal is that it can be whatever I want it to be.  And that can change week to week or month to month. 

Two things I do not use my bullet journal for.  grocery lists.  And school planning (no lesson plans or record keeping in it)....just calendar planning of school activities and events like any other activities and events. 

Plain.  Simple.  Even a little ugly.  Or  Color coded (I tried that at first but I could never find the right pen).  Artsy.  And a beautiful keepsake.  It can easily go either way.  But that's the cool thing.....its all just how you want to make it!  :D