Personal organization calendars. You name it I've tried it. Small ones, large ones, electronic ones. I have not been completely satisfied with any I have bought until...I was able to review a Busy Body Book Organizer.

I am so happy with my spiral bound organizing calendar I received to review from Busy Body Book. Each two page spread has on the left; space for To Do's and on the right; a five column grid calendar of the week to organize how you please. Five family members? One column for each. Using it to plan homeschool days? Five subjects. Myself, personally... I'm using it for both of the above and more!


* Column 1 - Homeschool planning - since I only have Amber's homeschool planning to do, one grid is enough space (provided I can read my own shorthand lol!)

* Column 2 - Appointments

* Column 3 - Meal Planning - What's for dinner that night. It's easily visible to see the night before what I need to take out of the freezer if anything.

* Column 4 - Blog Planning - I can note in this square future reviews that need to be posted.

* Column 5 - Housekeeping - In this column I am writing in the things I sometimes forget to do like change the baking soda in the fridge, flush the drains etc.

As you can see the possibilities of how you can use this organizational calendar are as endless as they are versatile.

I'm not done yet though! There are pockets in the front and back to store things. A year at a glance in front as well as the current year's holiday dates all in one list. At the back there are tear out note and to do lists along with places you can put important contact information so it is always at the tip of your fingers.

All of that with a very sturdy front and back cover that will stand up to kitchen counters, purses, car seats and gymnasium floors!

I will be looking no more for an organizing calendar, The Busy Body Book Family Organizer is the official organizer for me from this point on.

Please read **About Reviews at the bottom of this page.

I reviewed the January - December format, but if you're looking for a school year format head on over to busybodybook.com to order your August 2009 - August 2010 version now to get your Back To School started out right.

Joan at Busy Body Book is graciously sponsoring a giveaway for a Busy Body Book for one of my readers to win! (Calendar Year or School Year)

To enter (required): Visit Busy Body Book and leave a comment telling me which Busy Body Book Family Organizer format and cover you would choose.

Extra Entries (leave an additional comment for each you are eligible for):

1. Blog about this giveaway linking back to my blog and Busy Body Book.
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet this giveaway (this can be done daily).
3. Follow my blog publicly.
4. Subscribe to my feed by e-mail or reader.
5. Put my button on your blog.

Giveaway is open to US Residents ages 18+ and ends on July 24, 2009 at 11:59 pm cst.
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At first glance, you may wonder why you would need a membership to a site that would provide you with something you could essentially do yourself.

But ListPlanit.com is the type of service that one can really find a lot of use for. In the life of a busy mom, where running around to different activities is the norm rather than the exception, a list for just about everything imaginable is available.

It seemed fitting for me to hit the meal planning section first, as that is an area of my home that I have wanted to improve upon, but have struggled with in the past. Previously, I had a small notebook, where I would write down my ideas for meals, then a separate paper with my grocery list. Then I would either leave the book at home when shopping or use the paper in it for notes of some other kind, then get frustrated and ...well you get the idea. ListPlanit offers a variety of lists to help you with your meal planning, but I especially fell in love with their new Weekly Meal Planner. It combines everything I need all on one page, with options with how I can use it, to fit my needs best.

The other section I became enamored with was the Travel Planning. Seeing as we travel quite a bit, I was excited to check these lists out. With many choices, you will find common lists to help you pack for a destination or camping, to much more unique ones that help you plan a visit when someone comes to stay with you (I plan on using that one for the next time my sister comes to visit).

There is a good balance of lists here; home planning, business planning, and time management are just a few categories. All of the lists open as a .pdf document. Certainly you won't have use for all of them, but the great thing is Jennifer is adding new ones all the time.

Using the lists from this site, you could perhaps tackle many things that you haven't done yet, that you have been meaning to do. You haven't accomplished them, simply because you don't know where to start. A list could help with that! The purpose of ListPlanit is to enable you to move through your life in an orderly and systematic way if when overwhelmed you need some help. Some people (like me!) don't even recognize the need to have a list for something until they see it.

$9.95 will get you a 3 month membership or you can save a bit and get a 12 month membership for $29.95. You have 24 hour 7 day a week unlimited access to 350+ printable lists with the membership. You can view some samples of the lists here.

WIN IT!! Jennifer founder & creator of ListPlanit.com is giving one of my readers a three month membership to ListPlanit.com, so you can get organized!

This is the first year in our homeschooling adventure, and not wanting Genius's brain to resemble oatmeal mush by the time the end of August rolled around, we let her have one month of vacation before we started schooling. Having never done this before, I had high expectations of both myself and her. I was so organized, figuring out how many pages a day we would need to cover to finish the text book within the allotted time.

Ha ha only three weeks into this, and I'm laughing at myself. In not one of our books have we reached the pages "we should have been" at, and some of the curriculum I purchased that I had to have in my daily schedule have not even been opened.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not upset or disappointed by this apparent revelation, however, SCHEDULING did not work for me. We simply take the time to do what comes next in the book, and if we cover less than I anticipated that's okay. If we cover more (not likely hee hee), that's okay too! My main goal was to make sure Genius understood the concepts being taught, and some are taking a little longer than others.

So I applaud you homeschoolers that can make a schedule and stick to it, because in reality that is how I have accomplished most tasks that I have needed to get done. Alas, I need to learn to be more flexible. It's an ingrain thought pattern, from years of a traditional school setting, that I'm sure will slowly become a distant memory (at least I hope so!).

If you would like to read more revelations of what did not work for homeshooling families around the globe check out The Heart of the Matter for their Friday Meme.
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