My Yearbook

{More binder talk!}

I don't have a thing for rainbows anymore, but when I was a kid? Oh boy, did I ever ... rainbow pins, barettes, ribbons, suspenders, pajamas ... you name it, I probably had it. I'm over that particular obsession these days, but I still think rainbows are very pretty, and I find I'm partial to rainbow-hued things ... yarn, especially. The funny thing is ... when I was young I had a binder just like this - used for pretty much the same thing - and the cover was a print of multi-colored yarn. How I loved that binder!

Anyhoo, I'm getting entirely away from the subject at hand so let me refocus ...

So, at the end of a school year, when I go through all those file folders, I'm left with a lot of papers that I want to keep for future reference. These are mostly seasonal ideas that I'd like to try - or try again as the case may be - so I need to "file them forward" in some way.

In the past, I've placed these papers in the file crate - if the idea is tied to a specific date (a feast day, for instance) I would place the sheet in that particular week's folder. If the idea is not tied to a specific date, but rather a season, I would place the sheet in the front section of the hanging file that holds that seasons' folders. (For example, the "Autumn" file holds folders for the weeks in September and October ... the "Holiday" file holds folders for November and December ... and so on.)

It's a good way to keep things on file, but not so great for keeping things in mind.

So now I've set up what I call my "Yearbook."  I started with a 3-inch, "view front" binder - lavender, mind you - and doctored it up with a bit of pretty paper ...

... and then I added some colorful monthly tabs.

Then it's as simple as this: when I find a seasonal idea - a print-out or a clipping - I just add it to the appropriate month. And now the binder is filled with many wonderful ideas (recipes, crafts, events, etc.) for celebrating the natural and liturgical year.

So for instance, yesterday, I came across a recipe for Apple-Cheddar-Rosemary Piejars and I thought it would be wonderful for October. So I printed the recipe out and used my handy-dandy 3-hole punch thingy to prepare the page ...

Voila:

I could (and probably should) use sheet protectors for the magazine clippings, but I'm not very fond of sheet protectors. They feel weird to me and overhang the other pages. (Yeah, I'm that picky.) But I generally find the clippings stay put well enough on their own.

The sum of it is - keeping all these ideas in a binder, rather than the folder crate, works better for me. It keeps everything at my fingertips and really appeals to my visual nature. I love flipping through the tabs and thinking about all the joy to come, because, truly, all the seasons are special to me ...

Sing a song of seasons! 
Something bright in all! 
Flowers in the summer, 
Fires in the fall! 

(Robert Louis Stevenson) 

I keep the binder on my desk, alongside the home management binder (middle) and storage binder (left).

And that's that. 

Just another piece of the whole big planning puzzle!

❤

So now I'll be off, because our Saturday's winding down and I guess something needs to be done about supper. Oh, these hot days make me so lazy! But the farmstand beckons ... as does the grill ... so goodbye for now, my friends. Thanks so much for stopping by ...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll see you again very soon!

♫ To everything ... turn, turn, turn ... there is a season ... turn, turn, turn ... ♫