adios 2012!

remember me?

yep, i'm still here!

the last two months have been so amazing.

most importantly, i graduated from college!

go knights!

the holidays came and went. i did a bunch of photo shoots that i love. got a new camera. traveled up the east coast a couple times. babysat reagan a bunch...which by the way, she's growing like a weed yo. if you follow me on instagram, she's the cutie i post pictures of every other day. sonny and i enjoyed our first real christmas tree (a post on christmas coming soon). and began this organizing journey!

i've decided that 2013 is going to be the year i really get organized. i've always been the kind of girl who goes crazy in the office section of any store, and can't have enough pens or sticky notes to write things down. 

this past fall i joined a women's group at my church, and the main focus (or what the main point i got out of it) was how incredibly helpful it is to be organized. in life. every part of your life. the woman who lead the group is our pastors wife (also a good friends mamma), and she's pretty much the role model i'm using right now. 

she taught us how easy it is to keep up with things. 

i'm also the kind of girl that shoves things under the bed so they aren't seen.

or heard from. 

i needed this direction i was being given. 

she's a binder lady. and can i just tell you that if Jesus wouldn't totally frown upon it, i would sneak into her house one night and steal all her binders. 

she's got them for dinners, date nights, life, kids, school, work. her binder collection is the mecca of all binder collections. check out organized home for more info on the binder.

this whole idea that my whole life needed some order. because whether i like to admit it or not, i'm adult now. {insert five year old pouting face here} and i need to get some things in my life together. 

i started small, with one binder that i call my "life binder", which holds everything 

there are tabs for: me, date nights, food, house, and megan elizabeth photography. 

simple enough right?

i started a little bit of planning last night because that's what you've got to do. plan. 

plan for dates, plan for food, plan the month. 

and even plan for God. 

these last two months have been so busy that i've spent very little time with my Savior. times when i should have most. 

i realized last night that it's because i haven't been putting things in the right priority in my life.

of course family is important during the holiday, but if it wasn't for a certain Someone, there would be no holiday.

do you get where i'm going with this?

our lives are constantly being pulled in a million directions. 

but there's one thing that won't pull us away. 

since i'm out of school, i can pretty much look at my week ahead of time, knowing when i work and don't work, and plan out the best times to spend with God. 

for me, it's in the morning. i don't work till 1130 usually, plus coffee is always a good thing to have when you're hanging out with Jesus...can i get an amen?

i'm learning that i can indeed have a full schedule and take care of my family and home all at the same time. 

as long as i write it down. 

i'm planning on doing some blogs on each of those tabs, as i figure them out. so stay tuned for that!

yesterday i posted this picture on instagram:

and had a couple people ask me where i got all those cute print outs! 

that's my cute binder behind it ($5 at walmart). and i have tab dividers i use to separate the different parts of my life. 

my first print out is the goals for 2013 sheet, you can find that here.

goals are so important! if you don't set any, what are you working towards? 

i've come up with a solid list of 7. uneven number, so my ocd is making me find one more. 

the second print out is a weekly cleaning schedule, you can find that here.

it's not that i don't like cleaning...because i do. it soothes me. i just don't do it unless i notice how bad it is. this, prayerfully, will help me. 

the third is a weekly schedule, you can find that here.

i love planners. love them. but i've noticed i don't use them as much as i should. here's my second option. i forgot to print out a planner of the whole month, so i'll do that tonight, but doing things week by week keeps me calm. sure i'll plan ahead, but knowing on monday what i need to do for the week will help. plus, there are all sorts of fun boxes like "menu, focus, & shopping list" so i can have everything in one place. 

the last one is a monthly meal planner, you can find that here.

if i don't plan it, we will eat out. which is so terrible. 

it really doesn't take that much time, i do it weekly...so i planned last night for this whole week. 

so there it is! 

the start of my organizing journey!

i'm hoping as i learn more of this, i'll share it! 

2012 has been so incredible. really it has. and i am so thankful for all that God has blessed me with...but i just have this feeling that 2013 is going to be even better. 

happy new year! 

all my love, 

meg