I should have seen it coming. LOL! After that last post,
draped with pretty notebooks, many, MANY of you wrote and wanted to know about my desk! What are those organizers I have up there next to my laptop? Were those blue boxes from the Martha Stewart line? How did I organize my desk? What is all that stuff up there? Can we get a closer look?
Well my friends, at the risk of boring you to tears, I shall show you. If you have no interest whatsoever in my desk, now would be the time to click away and read something useful! :)
Here, on my desk, are those things I enjoy having about me. Some are terribly useful. And some are really just pretty.
Yes, friends, you are right - the organizers you see and the (Robin's Egg) blue boxes....are from the
Martha Stewart line at Staples. They are pretty and the style and colors are among my favorites! Now, if you promise not to laugh at how many Martha Stewart office supplies I have....{do you promise????}....alright then, I shall show you some of my favorite things.
Pull up a comfy chair and sit with me at my desk....
Above you see:
I keep a few stationery supplies in this organizer {from a favorite store -
Paper-Source.com}, as well as my Charlotte Mason commonplace book {more on that below}, my new planner calendar for next year {a favorite of mine I have been using for years - more below}, calculator, pointers and folding tools for creasing. Don't you appreciate a fine crease? LOL!
And a ball of red and white
bakers twine...because one never knows when one will need a ball of red and white twine, and because IT'S PRETTY!!!
Alright....see....it's not too late to click away. I don't take myself too seriously gals, and I CAN wax poetically about red and white twine sitting in the sunshine and laugh at myself in the next breath!! LOL!! You're either gonna have to lighten up a bit to hang with me....or here's your second opportunity to click away to a slightly more serious spot on this big ol' world-wide-web. Now, shall we away to the serious business of desk organizers again? Yes....
On the left side of my desk is another stackable inbox, but this time it's just one. It has another stack + fit tray on top and the organizer box that fits the lid that you saw on the other organizer on the right side of my desk. All the pieces fit together nicely and snugly. Pretty and practical!
Here is my Charlotte Mason commonplace book. I have a couple of commonplace books I keep, but I do so enjoy Charlotte Mason inspiration, and so a couple of years ago, I decided I needed one devoted to Miss Mason.
"Never waste time on a valueless book."
"We begin with a day of small things."
Now, doesn't that thought seem inspiring? A day of
small things is an idea that seems refreshing
, and it seems approachable to busy homeschooling moms with extraordinarily full lives, doesn't it? It reminds me that good almost always begins in the small. Think of that moment, THE moment, in the fullness of time, when the Word was made flesh, and came to us in His smallness. Extraordinary thought. A day of small things. If you're feeling overwhelmed from your past year, perhaps a day of small things is just the refreshment needed?
I could not resist these
bird sticky notes from Paper-Source and they work very well with my love of birds and my {possibly overstated} love for all things Robins Egg Blue. Positively cheery!
Merciful heavens it makes me happy to scratch a bit of a list on one of these pretty little birdie note papers. The three little notes in the center are sticky notes, and the two longer note papers on either side are simply standard note papers.
Back to Martha Stewart....
I have found that these two
document boxes in blue have been fantastic for collecting my notes and articles on Charlotte Mason and Classical Education.
I'm again surprised at how many of you asked about my little laptop. I have a MacBook; and I should tell you, I'm devoted to the mac product and have been for years. {I don't think they make MacBooks like mine anymore.} I bought my little mac laptop used several years ago. If you're interested in a mac, check your local mac store and ask them to let you know if they offer any used laptops. Our mac store often leases laptops to small businesses in the area, and after two years the business will turn in the laptops. The mac store cleans them up, checks them out, and resells them (at a much discounted rate) with a year warranty. This is how I found my little laptop.
Here is a sneak peek at the four booklists' I built for this year. I build everything in
Pages for mac. It is essentially just a simple word processing program - basically just the mac version of Microsoft Word. Though I have both Word and Pages, I prefer Pages because I find it more intuitive-to-me. And I love it because I can {with the click of a button} export anything I build into a pdf file or a Microsoft Word file....which lets me share things with all of you, my friends! Hooray for mac-niftiness!
And now, my planner. I could not live without my planner. I really couldn't. I have used the Catholic Daily Planner published by
Family Centered Press for....years. Maybe since we started homeschooling? I don't remember. But, I've long been devoted, and though I do adore planners and calendars of so many kinds, I faithfully return to this one planner every year. Though there are many options in cover choices, sizes, binding, adding additional menu planning pages, lesson planning pages, over the years, I have learned that my clear preference has been the
full size coil bound planner that goes from August to July. Do consider treating yourself to one this year!
It comes with monthly tabs, but what can I say? I prefer the pretty Martha Stewart tabs. It's a little hard to see in this photo {at the very top}, I keep a large blue tab to mark 'this week', and I just move that tab each week to mark the new week. I can easily flip to the week at hand and I like that very much.
I jot down to-do's, appointments, noteworthy items, the things I want to accomplish that day...that week. I review each week and simply bring forward tasks that weren't accomplished to the next week. To the outside edge of each day {when you're looking at the week-at-a-glance view of the calendar} is a small square of white space. This space has been my favorite place to jot down my menus. I consider the week at hand, can see at a glance the feast for the day to consider as I plan menus, and keep my menus right there on my planner.
If the {big} kids have a dance or a get-together they know that if it isn't on my calendar, it doesn't get planned for....so it all goes here! It's all together, simple, and pretty! It has been a system that has worked for me because it is simple and always at hand on my desk. I love that the calendar integrates my Catholic faith, incorporating both the feasts of the old and new calendars. And I certainly appreciate that the calendar is practically laid out and offers the most lovely subtle touches of pretty!
And finally....something that isn't on my desk at all, but I decided to include it because guess what? More Martha Stewart!
They live on the sunny shelf next to my
Morning Basket, and each month as I revamp our
Feast Table, I pull out the appropriate monthly file to see what I have collected for the month. There is almost always a piece of sacred art for the month tucked in the folder, some holy cards, etc.
I wanted you to see how these file folders open - it's a little different from a standard file folder. And I like that they can stand up inside the magazine file holder.
Well? How was that for a nice, long tour of my desk....complete with pretty picture of red and white baker's twine? You might not naturally think, "Bakers twine....of course....that should live in the learning room right out in plain view on my desk!" But if it makes you happy, why not?
Hope you have something happy on your desk! Maybe it's a glass bottle or a smooth rock or a delicate-little-something you found at the flea market? Or maybe...it's red and white baker's twine! :)
I'll try to answer more of your questions in another post soon!
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