Let's get to know each other.

In the spring of 2014, 6 months pregnant with our third child under 3, my husband and I made the decision that was best for our family on all fronts – for me to finish off the school year as a middle school teacher, enjoy my summer with the girls, and in August when our son was born, I would begin a new adventure as a stay at home mom.  I was excited about this.  While I love teaching, and was at a great point in my career, I am someone who likes to do things all the way.  I like to feel like when I start something I’m giving it 100%.  Once I became a mom, that was my new thing. I wanted to give that 100%. But I wanted to give teaching 100% too. It’s hard math. Classic #momproblem. (I should point out, I know a lot of moms who manage and thrive at carrying both roles at once.  You are what I like to call The Rockstar Mamas and I raise my cold coffee mug to you.) In the end, for me, staying home was a possible opportunity and I wanted the gig and so I was excited to start.  Now, I could give the mom thing my 100% all the time and wanted to make the most of it. Another truth though, once a teacher, always a teacher… there were still lesson plans to create.  

Enter Mama's Blue Binder.

On a trip to Target (that was likely just for diapers and dryer sheets…which reminds me, I need some of those…) I wandered into the office supply aisle (#teachersparadise) and began to peruse.  I wanted a lesson planner for my new career.  Target doesn’t carry those, but they do carry really cute binders.  I bought a fabric covered binder with a blue floral print, a monthly calendar planner, dividers, and obviously, some awesome pens.  When I got home, I created our weekly meal and activity planner template and printed off about 20 copies (teachers brains live in weekly planning and in my mind I knew that many weeks would get me to Christmas break).

Ta-Dah!  Mama's Blue Binder was born. 

I love lists. And pretty pens. 

What’s in that Blue Binder, Mama?

Lists. Lots of lists.  I’m in the variation of our species that gets so much gratification out of making and checking-off lists.  (yes, there’s a name for that. Genus Type A.)  Grocery lists. Chore lists. Activity lists. Event lists. Things I’d liketodobutnevergetaroundto lists (that I just draw lines through arbitrarily to feel better sometimes). So.many.lists. And calendars. School calendars. Playdate calendars. Meal calendars. And more recently, mommy’s fitness calendars. So.many.calendars. They’re definitely not all necessary.  Some are created, just to be checked off.  It’s just a thing I do.  But it all helps me to feel like I’m staying ahead of things.  Not everything in our lives goes on a list or a calendar.  Spontaneity is fun! Live a little! But lists are cool too.

Mama, what are you working on with your ‘puter?

At the time, my two year old would see me with the computer and say, in her then broken phraseology, “Mama working. Mama ‘puter.” It was usually followed by, “Bean watch Tiger, mama ‘puter?”  She either wanted the computer to herself, or she wanted Daniel Tiger on the TV as payment for allowing me a few moments to work.  Either way, my now three-year-old is already working master negotiation skills. #mombrag

What I’ll share with you, while Bean is catching up on the latest Daniel Tiger (or realistically, watching the “Baby Duckie” episode for the 1,978th time), is what we do every day.  Well, not every day, some days are really boring. But we do some fun crafts, we eat some great meals, we do some yoga, we live our days as best and as full as we can. And that is what I’d like to share with you.