Finding the Perfect Agenda

Finding the Perfect Agenda September 5, 2014

I love shopping for school supplies.  I do.  I love new paper, new folders, cute binder clips, gel pens, colored pencils and the perfect #2 pencil.  I love new lunch boxes and new locker locks.  I love it all, just as long as I can shop when no one is in the store, and by myself.  This year school shopping was a GIANT headache.  I took the children to the store without Khaled this time because I knew it was going to take several days to get everything.  We had 3 different schools, 2 different school lists and a guesstimation of what the third list might contain…but if you want the supplies when they are available and at a good price, you guess and buy a bunch of stuff and then return what you don’t need.

I need to figure out a different way to do this.  Kate has a specific way of shopping, Pea wants her own choices and Mr. Fox could care less.  The problem is that they love to choose without paying attention to what things cost.  They took their lists and started chucking stuff into the cart without any consultation.  Mr. Fox was enjoying the free WiFi.  I had to rein them in and make sure we weren’t paying full price for anything while getting all the stuff on their long lists.

Next year, I think I will take them out individually.  Kate gets her day for shopping and Pea gets her day.

Last year, we came across a Groupon for custom Agendas from May Designs.  I love Custom.  I loved that we could choose the color and pattern of the cover, I loved that we could decide to put our name on the front or something else.  I loved that we could make the inside with a Student Agenda, A yearly Calender or a Notebook.  Each one of us chose the perfect design for us.  I especially loved the part where we could put our names on them.

MIL Agenda Collage Blog

 

This is what my design looked like.  I loved that there was a design that incorporated the Islamic Star and a Cross motif. So Interfaith. Plus, I could choose color that compliment my logo.  The one thing I did not love about the May Designs agenda was that I couldn’t specify what holidays I wanted to appear inside.  The only holidays that were included were US Customary holidays, Christian and Jewish holidays.  I contacted customer service and requested that they offer the option to include holidays of other religions.  I thought that since the outside cover was customizable, the inside should be also.  Not so much.  I placed my order anyway because it was much more custom than anything I could find at an office supply store and it was so cute.

I used the agenda to track my work orders for VianneFere and MyIslamicLife.  It worked very well, for a year.  When I went shopping for school supplies this year, I knew it was time to replace my agenda.

I immediately went to the May Designs website and searched the new patterns and colors.  I got all the way through the design process to choosing what the inside of my agenda would include.  There wasn’t any place for holiday options.  I searched the website and could not find any answers.  So, I went to twitter and found @MayDesigns there.  I asked them about including Islamic Holidays.

IMG_5507

 

 

I was so disappointed that they did not include the Islamic holidays again this year that I decided not to purchase.

I went online and started to search around.  Every option I found didn’t include Islamic holidays.  Even on Etsy.

I went to my online community and asked them if they knew of a place where I could find a fully custom agenda.

They had many suggestions, but what it all came down to was that to get the type of agenda I was looking for, I’d have to design one myself.

So, I searched for some templates for the software I already own and couldn’t find what I wanted.

Then I looked for other programs.

And then I decided that creating my own agenda did not solve the immediate problem of needing a way to track my orders and my work schedule.  I needed to figure out something now.

Then I came across the Vera Bradley Agenda.  It is pretty. It is colorful. It is not customizable, but it does recognize the beginning of Ramadan.

New Agenda Blog

That’s a start. Right?  Its pretty.  Its Colorful. It includes Christian, Jewish, African, US Customary, Silly, AND Islamic Holidays.  This is as close to perfect as I could find.  Until I create the PERFECT Calender, this will do.

 


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