The Family Binder.

Set Yourself Up for 2025!! ✿

If you read my wrap-up post, you might have seen some new things in there you’ve never tried before. Now is a great time to set up some systems/rhythms for your year that will make looking back more effective.

To set myself up for 2025, I first updated my “Christmas Note” on my phone with thoughts from this past Christmas. This will help me to better prepare for the 2025 Christmas season. I don’t think I’ve ever done it so quickly, but while it was so fresh (what I wanted to do/didn’t want to do/could do better), I just started it. I even bought wrapping paper and gift tags while they were on sale! I share that to say, we are always evolving and getting better at evaluating.

Here's a peek at my Christmas Note of some of my thoughts after this past year’s Christmas:

This is an ongoing note I’ve had the past 4-5 seasons. It helps my brain keep track of what needs to be done during a very full season! I evaluate and adjust year after year.

✿Taking the time to ask yourself these questions after an event, a trip, a birthday, etc. will give you such great insight. If you aren’t in the habit of doing that, make it a goal this year to start!✿

Before we go on, I need to tell you that I am obsessed with an app that comes on every iPhone: Notes. I talk more about it in this article, so go ahead and open it up on your phone. I’ll wait.

Listen, I love journaling (I do it almost daily) and making lists (same), BUT my phone is almost always with me, making it the perfect place to store everything that runs through my head.

If you’ve never used Notes before, this is a crash course. You can do it! You are smart and resourceful, and you can figure out new things!

a peak into *some* of my Notes folders on my iPhone!

In Notes, you can make folders and then folders within folders. You can “pin” your most important notes. You can even use emojis for little visuals (or to organize by category). It really is the most amazing thing.

You can share Notes with friends or your spouse; you can “collaborate” on Notes; you can see Notes on your phone and your laptop/iMac. Maybe I need to do another article about all the iPhone Note ideas? I digress.

This time of year, we are all full of vision and ideas for the year ahead. We make a “word” for the year; we set goals, and dream about summer trips and all the things we want to accomplish. Then February comes…or August hits, and by then we forgot what we deemed important.

I’ve found that keeping all these Notes in ONE PLACE (a Note folder titled “2025”) helps keep me on track.

✿The first step is to create a “2025” folder. Within that folder, you can create new Notes. Here’s a few of mine to get you thinking:

• Books I Want to Read

• Travel/Trips by Month

• Word of the Year

• “Talk to Stephen About” List (Stephen is my husband.)

• Monthly Goals

• New People I Meet

• Log In’s

• Kids Birthday Plans

I loved going back and looking in my 2024 folder as I reflected on the year. It helped jog my memory so much.

Then throughout the year, I’ll add Notes of important happenings. For example, my 2024 Note included Asher’s baptism testimony, our photos from our 17th anniversary photo shoot, our fall family weekend schedule, house needs, summer evaluation, quarterly getaway details, and new people I met.

Get creative! If you are tired of writing things down in different places and then never having the idea in front of you when you need it – give this a try.

A new year means a fresh start and a new vision, and unless you take the time to write that vision down, it will be easily forgotten.

While it’s fresh, I want to help you set yourself up with the tools you need!

✿I introduce to you: The Family Binder.

I talk so much about creating habits and rhythms in this post. We talk about planning your month: family calendar, meal plan, seasonal rhythms, digital organization and more.

So many of these tools are housed in what I call The Family Binder. I put this together in January each year (ideally, but it’s never too late!). I’ve learned a lot in the past few years of doing this and have found that a ½-inch binder works great. I go to my local Office Depot and pick out pocket dividers, sheet protectors, and these colorful “jackets”.

Depending on your values, goals, and family, this could look a thousand different ways. That’s the beauty of it! This is meant to be a tool to assist your family in doing the things you want.

✿To give you an idea, this is how my binder is divided.

1. Vision for 2025 – I keep one section for any goals, plans, vision for the new year.

2. Meal Ideas – A few years ago, I started a Word doc of our favorite meals with the ingredients listed, which helps plan our meals by the month. You could also keep your printed recipes. Looking for ideas? This doc is full of them.

2. Meal Plan Templates – I like to print 12 of these out beforehand so I don’t have to do it every month. One and done!

3. I also keep all my previous month's meal plans to go back and see what we liked, new things we tried, etc.

4. Seasonal Rhythms – I discuss this in my family planning post, but the new year is a perfect time to create this document. Print it out and make notes on it as the months go by. The beginning of each month, I write all the tasks on our family calendar and then check them off on the paper. The first year, you might not know 100% what is needed, but as you go, it will get easier and you can work ahead. For example, start getting Valentines cards/outfits/etc. in January instead of rushing the week of Valentines.

5. Cleaning / Decluttering schedule – This is another helpful tool to keep with your seasonal rhythms. Mine is from my MotherBoard digital planner, but there are so many free resources online.

6. Habit Trackers – If you like an old-school habit tracker (like me), you can print off a bunch to have for each week/month. I use this one, but if you get on Canva, you can create just about anything.

6. Rhythms Sheets – The start of the new year (and new school year) is a great time to re-evaluate what needs to happen daily/weekly/monthly for your family. Printing out a new rhythms sheet helps keep us on track.

7. Reflection - Why not start a reflection section for the end of the year? I have used this Canva template the past few years to jot important events or moments. I might do it month by month this year.

When I finish one year, I start a brand new binder for the next. Before I close up the previous year’s binder, I put a pocket-protected reflection of that year that includes my yearly highlight (above). I also go back into that year’s phone Note and print out anything I want to remember like our words for the year, goals we set, people we met, books I read, etc. Just keeping it in one place is fun, and because I kept Notes throughout the year, it’s a quick process to print them straight from the app.

There aren’t any rules on how this binder is set up. The beautiful thing is that as you go, you will find what works for you and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to evaluate year by year. This is my fourth year to create this type of binder, and it’s shifted and changed a little each time. The point is not for it to look just like mine but to benefit your family's needs.

✿Here are a few more Canva templates I used this year to get you started!

Front Cover

Back Cover Year at a Glance

✿Favorite organizational tools

Handheld Label Maker

Color Printer

Happy binder making!