Organization love and a freebie

I don't really have the Sunday Blues; it will probably be more like a case of the Mondays when my alarm goes off. Once I get up and get going it won:t be bad. I just am dreading having to get up to an alarm in the morning. I don't think I've set an alarm once this break and it has been so nice. My husband's alarm has still been going off but I can just ignore it. Tomorrow won't be a bad day. It's a workday so hopefully I can work and actually get some things done. My friend that just got married isn't going to be there so that should cut down on some of the chatting. I also have a follow up appointment for my knee. I'm off the crutches but having some awful swelling my leg and foot. Currently my foot looks like Fred Flintstone's foot. So I refer affectionately to the foot as Fred. I have a few random things for you tonight.
Since it's the new year, I'm trying to get better organized. It's a constant struggle for me. I do pretty well at school but at home it's a different story. Being married and having to share my space helps some. I also now finally have internet at my house so I'm really going to be serious about blogging and creating. To do all these things, I of course had to go shopping for some things to keep me organized. Yesterday we went to TJ Maxx which is always fun and not Chris's favorite place to go. (He hates it) I had seen these organizing things for desks there a few days before. We got one for our mail and then I of course found lots of other things I wanted. It's much more fun to get organized with pretty things. I got a divided organizer for my bathroom ane then these gorgeous black and gold notebooks. They came in a pack of 3 and were only $4. Here's one:

I'm using one to write down Bible verses as I read this new Beth Moore study I started last night. We also went to Books A Million after the TJ Maxx stop. I had 2 gift cards and it didn't take me long to spend that and more. I love to look at their sale items. I found 2 valentine's books on sale: Curious George and Tucker's Valentine. I was originally going to take them to school but I think my niece Sophie will like them more. I might have to go back and get a couple more copies; for my other niece and my class. They were that cheap. I also got another really cool notebook for only $2. It had a B on it and I just couldn't pass it up. I had seen someone's organization new years resolution post about a notebook they used and I was inspired. (I can't remember who it was. If this looks familiar, let me know.)
I split the notebook into several sections and it's going to be my go to book for keeping notes about future posts I want to write, my to dos, math ideas, reading ideas, and unit ideas. I just used small post its to make the tabs.

Hopefully it will keep me organized and focused. The last thing I needed to help me stay organized and together was a pouch for my portable hard drive. I usually kept it at school Monday-Friday and then brought it home on the weekends. But now that I have internet at home, I want to bring it back and forth. I wanted to keep it protected and it needed to be cute. My sister in law sells 31 so I asked her if she had any small zipper pouches she wanted to get rid of. I'd buy it. She wouldn't let me pay her. She's a good one.

I love 31! It's kind of a problem
So I have all my stuff to keep me organized and I've done a fair amount of organizing and cleaning at home. Tomorrow I'll tackle school. Or at least some. I need to get my lesson plans done first. As part of my OWL, I am really trying to be more intentional with my planning. So tomorrow I'm going to do some small group planning. I've got 2 books I'm working on reading about differentiated Math instruction and small group reading.

This is the book I'm working through now. I'm not that far into but I'm jumping into the planning aspect with 2 feet. I created a couple of pages to see if they will work. I haven't tried them and will probably change them as I get into it. But I thought I would share them with you.

Click here to check it out. Let me know what you think. I would love to hear how you keep yourself organized and how you keep track of planning for groups.
I'm linking up with Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies. Be sure to check out all the other freebies there.