Planning to Plan

I've made one small step in getting organized this week. I used to do fairly well in the meal planning category, but since we moved away from the city and into a more rural area, I let that slide into a weekly meal plan consisting of very unhealthy fast food choices. As for keeping the house clean, it was a lot easier to do when we were in our starter home. Now we're in a very old, large home that needs a lot of love... and often.

There are four categories that I really want to hone in on when it comes to 'getting organized.'

• Home/ Household duties
  -Keeping it clean


• Meal Planning
  -Steering clear of the yuck and excessive spending


• Business
  -Photography goals/contacts/to-do's


• Blogging/crafting
  -Yeah... that. More on that another time.

I know a lot of this is going to change over the next few months after Colette arrives,  but I think it will be good for me to break out into a routine now. Then I can easily work my way back into it once I figure out how to work a baby and stay awake for long enough to think a coherent thought.

My first step was to invest in a day planner. This isn't new to me. I've had a day planner every year since I was a freshman in high school. I usually bounce around on brands but a few years ago I came across dot.mine Day Planners and loved them. However, as of this year, they are no longer making printed copies. *sobs* They're only doing digital versions. One of the things I liked the most were the covers; they always had a classy metallic version and were very consistent... (basically they look good on a bookshelf when they're full).

So now that I'm back to looking for a planner, I thought, "Hey, why not make my own!?" So what I'm doing now is taking pages and tips from others and crafting them into a super planner just for the Taylor household. I've started with information from Life as a Mom. It has a lot of what I want in it as far as meal planning and household duties. Not to mention they also have a blog section. I actually purchased the $12 package and I will be going through it, making notes and revising the information to fit my personal needs. Then once I put the red pen away, I'll put it all into inDesign and make it all purrty-like and send it away for printing. With any luck it will be something I can just tweak for future years and have reprinted. I'll keep you updated on how that turns out.

It will probably take me a couple of weeks to get that done so in the mean time I want to get back into meal planning. I'm trying out a salad plan this week for lunches and dinner sides that's going fairly well. I'll get more into the actual meals starting next week. I got the salad plan from *where else* Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/pin/67202219412710533/

I also made my own ranch dressing which is pretty tasty, maybe a little garlicky. But you can find the recipe for that below. You can use fat-free mayo/sour cream for a lighter version, but it was quick to make and much better than a store bought version.

http://pinterest.com/pin/67202219412710541/

With Pinterest these days, how can anyone every run out of ideas for pretty much anything. Thanks Pinterest.

Here's a peak at the salad bar I created for the week.

[caption id="attachment_456" align="aligncenter" width="560"] Mm. Salad.[/caption]

This is for cooking as well. Carrots, peppers, tomatoes will all be used for other dishes.

That's all for now folks!