I love notebooks. I love day planners. I can honestly say I love paper products.

Maybe that’s because one of my first jobs was at an office supply company, followed by a job at a paper manufacturer and then a job purchasing office supplies for a graduate college. I think having a mom who worked for Franklin Covey (day planner company)  helped with my love for everything paper and organizing. ** Thanks Mom! ** Another thing I love are TO DO LISTS! I always love having something to check off and I find that I work better when I write things down. That’s why I’m thrilled to be hosting a giveaway for ListPlanIt!

Over the next two weeks I will be putting together a Christmas Planning Notebook. During that time I will be reviewing ListPlanIt’s website and printable lists.

I’ve only had access to the website for a few hours and I’m already impressed with the large number (+400) of lists.ListPlanIt offers printable lists for nearly anything you could imagine:

• Business Planning
• Club Organization
• Contact Information
• Family Matters
• Financial Planning
• Holidays & Occasions
• Home Management
• Meal Planning
• Memory Journal
• Moving
• Personal Interests
• Time Management
• For Fun
• Student Planning
• Travel Planning

I have a feeling I’ll be spending lots of time on ListPlanIt today, looking through the entire website. I’m excited to see how using these lists helps me get even more organized. Now for the GREAT news!

YOU, my friends have a chance to win a 1 year membership to

How can you enter to win?

There are 9 different ways to enter which give you a total of 9 chances to win!

Please leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry.

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me what part of Christmas gets you stressed out?
2. Subscribe to my blog (or tell me that you already do)
3. “Like” Another New Season on Facebook
4. Visit ListPlanIt’s site, and let me know what you like about it and what you would find most useful.
5. Post about this giveaway on your own blog and leave the url of that post.
6. Post a link to this giveaway on Facebook.
7. Tweet this giveaway.
8. Follow me on Twitter (@DonnaShenk)
9. Follow Jennifer of ListPlanIt on Twitter (@ListPlanIt)

Because I want you to have access to your prize in time to prepare for Christmas this year. You have until September 30th and announcing our winner on October 1st! (winner will be chosen using Random.org)

Disclaimer: ListPlanIt has kindly given me a membership to review. I did not receive any compensation for doing this review and all opinions shared are my own.

This week my goal was to set up our Christmas budget. I was feeling overwhelmed and I didn’t want to forget an important category so I decided to do a mind-map. “What is a Mind Map?” you might be wondering.

From Wikipedia: “A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing.”

In my opinion that is a overly technical way to say that it’s a way of mapping out your thoughts or note taking system.

So I very started my Christmas Budgeting mind map. I’m still working on it but I really like this way of processing my thoughts.

While I was writing out the map I realized that there were many items listed that I would have never thought to include in our Christmas budget. I’d love to know what you think.

Christmas baking, Christmas dinner, postage, clothing for the holidays and giving holiday tips would not have even made it on the radar if I had not done this mind map. These are items that are directly connected to the way our family Celebrates Christmas, therefore they should be included in the budget, right? I’m just not sure! Help!

I’d love to know how you budget for Christmas. Do you add supplies for baking, Christmas dinner, new clothes for the holidays or tipping your paperboy, gardener, local coffee house barista (not that I’ve done this recently but it’s a really nice though and great way to bless those who serve us every day).

This song nearly brought me to tears when I was sitting in Starbucks this week. It is such a powerful song, full of truth and praise!

“Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen,

Show me how to love like you have loved me…

Break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I have for your kingdom’s cause,

As I walk from earth into eternity!”

Lyrics:

I see the king of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes
The whole earth shakes

Yeeeah

I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing

[Chorus]
Hosanna
Hosanna
Hosanna in the highest [x2]

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees
We’re on our knees

[Chorus]

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to
Eternity

[Chorus x2]

Hosanna in the highest

Have a restful Sunday,

Thanks to everyone who took the Christmas Budget Survey. I got lots of great feedback, Thanks!

55% of readers DO have a budget

44% of readers DO NOT budget for Christmas

75% of you said you were able to stick to your budget

The majority of those surveyed spent $300 – $500 for Christmas (gifts, entertaining, baking, etc)

Like I admitted in the previous post, I have never written or followed a Christmas Budget. After seeing the results from this survey I’ve realized that WE MUST have a budget this year!

Budget worksheets:

I thought about designing my own budget worksheet for Christmas but rather than recreating the wheel I found a few great spreadsheets that you can download for free!

Simple Mom has a simple Christmas Budget Worksheet on her site you can download it Download it HERE

About.com has a very simple worksheet for budgeting your Christmas gift shopping. Download it HERE

ThriftyFun.com has yet another nice worksheet for your Christmas gift shopping. Download HERE

General Budgeting Sites

There are also other online programs for budgeting in general that might be useful for you.

Mint.com – Probably the biggest online budgeting program out there.Tracks everything!

PearBudget – my favorite for tracking spending and budgeting. Simple and so easy to use! be sure to check it out!

Virtual Wallet – This is offered through my bank and I love it. It allows you to set up “reserve” items and save up for them. You can allocate money towards each reserve item and see the progress you are making each day!

Want to join me this year and plan an actual budget? Leave a comment and let me know!

Photo by : Ula Kapala:

Septembers “12 New Things” goal: Learn How to Knit.

I learned how to knit a few years ago while working a a summer camp. I haven’t picked up knitting needles since! I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sew a few simple winter scarfs to give as gifts this Christmas.

I found a great resource for knitting and wanted to share:

Penelope Loves Lists (one of my fav’s) wrote recently about knitting and she mentioned a great website, Monday Morning Knits.

Melissa from has a passion for knitting and she shares her talent at Monday Morning Knit. She has a great series on learning how to knit, that I plan on using to learn some basic knitting skills. In this series she covers some of the basics:

Step 1:  Slip Knot

Step 2: Casting On

Step 3: Basic Stitches – Knit, Purl, and Slip Stitch

Step 4: Increasing

Step 5: Decreasing

Step 5: Binding Off

She also has a Free Learn to Knit PDF that you can download.

** also my friend Rachel shared a great resource for knitting patterns:

“[Ravelry.com] has good amount of free patterns on here that I like to use. You just have to make an account. Not all the patterns are free though, but there are still some excellent free ones. https://www.ravelry.com

I’m also going to look into taking a class at a local knitting store. I can’t wait to show off my very first scarf!

Are you participating in 12 New Things? I’d love to hear how things are going.

I have a  confession

I’ve NEVER written a Christmas budget!

I always go overboard. I love every second of it until I realize that I spent more than I had… there goes the joy!

This year will be different, I’ll be continuing to work part-time at Williams Sonoma through the Christmas season and I hope to set aside some of that money for Christmas shopping. We are going to follow through, pray about, write and follow a budget.  I have a feeling it won’t be easy but it will be a great accomplishment!

I’m starting off our discussion about budgeting with a very short survey. It should only take less than 5 minutes and all responses are confidential.

Thanks so much for your time!

“It seems like all of the pressure of planning a great Christmas is on the moms”

-  quote from a friend

I couldn’t agree more.

Of course, not ALL of the pressure is on the mom’s but sometimes it feels that way. I feel the pressure. I want to make THIS Christmas special and meaningful for our family. I want our children to truly understand why we celebrate Christmas, I want them to learn generosity and love to give to others. I also love to decorate, plan parties and celebrate with family and friends. Balancing the these priorities can be so tough and every year I feel like I run out of time to do everything that I was hoping. I don’t feel like this “pressure” is a bad thing necessarily, but a great opportunity to bring the true meaning of Christmas into our home.

This year I’m creating a Family Christmas Vision Statement. You can call it whatever you’d like, but I really think that putting things down in writing really helps you to focus on what’s important.  This covers the Why, How, Who and What’s of Christmas for our family. (sorry, I couldn’t think of a “where” and “when” – I figured those are home and um, Dec 25th )

• Why – WHY do we celebrate Christmas? This is crucial, really understanding WHY we celebrate will help us to focus our time and energy on things that draw our families attention to JESUS. Take the time to think and pray about this with your spouse. Choose a special bible verse for your family to focus on at Christmas time.
  • Examples: We celebrate Christmas to honor God, to recognize Christ’s birth and to acknowledge the gift that was given to us.
    

• How – HOW do we plan to Celebrate? Do you go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning? Do you invite family over, do you go to a family members home to celebrate. How will we celebrate Christmas morning?How will we celebrate Christmas throughout the month of December?
  • Examples: We host Christmas at our home. Everyone (all 6 guests) stay at our home, in the guest room on the couches, on the floor – no one really cares about the accommodations, it’s about family time! We go to the Christmas Eve service at church, then drive through a neighborhood that is lit up with luminaries. Last year everyone opened 1 gift on Christmas eve – a new pair of Christmas PJ’s! Christmas morning, the coffee is on with cinnamon rolls (thanks Pioneer Woman). Once the kids are up we all gather around and open gifts.

• Who – WHO can we bless? This is a great question to involve the children. Think about those around you, family members, teachers, pastors, those in need, the elderly, widowed and alone. How can we bless others during the Christmas season. What would be a good way to bless those in need? How can you really bless others?
  • Examples: Bless a family in need, or a family going though a rough time, with a large gift or donation. Have the children send cards to our troops overseas? Donate your time to bless your child’s teacher? Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Adopt a needy family, provide gifts and Christmas dinner. Bake pies and deliver them to nursing home staff and residents. Bake cookies and donate to a non-profit (we did this last year as a part of Drop in and Decorate which I may do again this year. Give a financial gift to a family in need or a gift card for them to use for gifts this year.

• What – WHAT traditions are important to us? This is probably one of my favorite part of Christmas. I don’t remember having any specific traditions at Christmas time growing up but I know that my husband has a few, and I’ve heard of some really special traditions that I would love to incorporate for our family.
  • Examples: New PJ’s on Christmas eve. Opening one gift on Christmas Eve. Going to a candle lit service on Christmas eve. We have friends who sleep around the Christmas tree on Christmas eve! (love this idea!) Doing an advent calendar or Jesse Tree. Have a basket of Christmas books to read to your children each night leading up to Christmas (Add a new book each year for each child and if you keep all of these books for them you can pass them down to them! Write the year and their name on the inside cover)

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you have special traditions you do as a family? How do you keep the focus on Jesus at Christmas time? How have you blessed others? I’m excited to work on our Vision Statement and think of ways we can make Christmas even more meaningful!

I wanted to write up a quick post before heading to bed tonight.

I haven’t blogged yet about this but I’m joining along with another blogger, Michelle @ So, I Married a Mennonite (did I mention that I married a Mennonite too, Michelle? ). Michelle is hosting Hello Mornings, a challenge to make the most of your mornings and your day. We are working through the Maximize Your Mornings E-book by Kat  from InspiredtoAction.com.

I came across Kat’s book last year printed it out and worked through it for 2 days, then life got in the way and I didn’t complete it. So when I saw Michelle’s post a few days ago, although a few weeks late, I decided to jump in and get my act together! So I’ve been reading through Maximize Your Mornings and tonight I’m officially going to bed pretty close to my new bed time (10:30pm). I’m looking forward to having a great morning quite time, bible study and to begin again to give God my mornings. It’s amazing the difference in our home when I start my days right!.

It’s never too late to join in, I’m sure Michelle would love you to tag along for the ride, so pop over to So, I Married a Mennonite and check it out.

Ok, off to bed. 10 minutes late, better than last night’s 2 am bedtime!

See you all in the morning!

I know …. I know … it’s August! It’s 90 degrees! School isn’t even in session for most children and I’m about to talk to you about Christmas!

Just trust me… and read on…

It seems like every year I’m surprised when Christmas rolls around. I feel unprepared, rushed and overwhelmed. The funny thing is that Christmas is on the 25th of December every.single.year! Why am I so caught off guard?

This year I’ve decided that this Christmas I’m going to be prepared. I’m going to be proactive and do a few simple things each month so that we can enjoy the Christmas season even more and focus on what’s important to us. I’m hoping that by being better organized and prepared this year our family can truly have a JOY-filled Christmas.

Starting next week I will be writing posts on preparing for Christmas,  I’ll share some ideas and tasks each week. The goal is to truly enjoy Christmas this year while remembering the JOY that we are celebrating! Jesus!

Join us as we Plan to enJOY Christmas this year!

Here’s a look at just a few topics we’ll cover:

• Planning your family Christmas Vision Statement
• Bringing Jesus back into Christmas
• Setting a Christmas budget
• Starting new traditions
• Creating great gifts
• Holiday entertaining

If you’d like to come along for the ride, come back each week for new topics and tasks, feel free to grab a button (found in the left sidebar) to display on your blog!

What great timing.

I was catching up with my favorite blogs via Google Reader when I came across Sarah Mae’s post 12 NEW THINGS… learning a new skill each month.

First let me take a minute to rave about Sarah Mae and her blog, Like A Warm Cup of Coffee… first of all, with a blog name like that why would you think I wouldn’t LOVE this blog, and I do. I love Sarah Mae and her blog for many reasons; #1 she is bold, #2 she is honest, #3 she’s humble. I’ve even had lunch with her at a park once, not that she would remember, but I do. I think she’s just GREAT! and she is one of the girls behind The Relevant Conference. If you haven’t already pop over and say hello to her at Like A Warm Cup of Coffee.

Ok.. where was I.

Finding this post was perfect timing because last week I started a list of things that I wanted to learn this year, books to read, etc. Joining a “blog carnival“  like this is a great way to stay focused, motivated and actually accomplish your goals! I’m adding each month or two a book that I hope to read/listen to.

I’m excited to share with you my

12 New Things:

August: Learn how to make homemade Spaghetti Sauce (completed TODAY!) (finish listening to 4 Hour Work Week)

September: Re-learn how to knit and knit a scarf! (read Better Off : Flipping The Switch On Technology / Eric Brende.

October: Learn to quilt / sew a doll quilt for my daughter for Christmas (Read the Gospels)

November: Learn how to make a homemade Christmas wreath

December: Make and use a homemade advent calender. (Read 1 Christmas book w/ kids nightly)

January:Learn 2 new songs on the guitar (I’ve played for over 12 years but haven’t picked up my guitar in over a year!)

February: Learn how to make homemade french bread (read another great book; any suggestions?)

March: Learn how to cut my children’s hair

April: Plan and launch an Etsy store! (read another great book; any suggestions?)

May: Learn how to make homemade cheese

June: Sign up for an online course (read another great book; any suggestions?)

July: Run my first 5K (there… I’ve set a deadline… let’s see if this happens)

I’ll post an update by the last Friday of each month. Let me know if you’re going to join in!