I sent my Grandmother “Oma” a set of boxed birthday cards to keep on hand after the holidays had ended. She had mentioned how difficult it was for her to get out of the house lately. The usually temperate small town she lives in had been hit hard very early this winter. Knowing my Oma would travel through snow, sleet, and flooded roads to get a birthday card for one of the dozens of people she acknowledges on their “special day,” I thought it best to send her assorted birthday cards so she wouldn’t have to travel outside her cozy home to show someone she was thinking of them.

I arrived home after work to a stack of mail as usual: a few circulars, advertisements for that week’s one day sale, and a couple of my monthly bills. Amongst the plain envelopes and colorful coupons was an envelope for a Gallery Collection greeting card. I can spot that envelope from a mile away! Not only does the unique deckled edge make the envelope pop, but the birthday cards are just the right size to make them stand out in a crowd.

I was running late for a night out so I hadn’t planned on opening my mail right away. The bills could wait, but this was a greeting card! I had to open it and see who had sent it to me. In the envelope was a birthday card with a blue balloon and soaring stars, one of my personal favorites. Inside was a sweet message from my Oma, in the most perfect handwriting you’ve ever seen, wishing me a happy birthday almost a week before the actual day. I can always count on my Oma to remember a special occasion, and now she can always count on those boxed birthday cards to have just the right greeting cards she needs to show her family and friends how much she cares!

I start out each year with the same thought: “I am going to get organized! This is the year that I will be the person I want to be.” Who is that, you might ask? I want to be the person who has a place for everything, and everything in its place. Not the person who has small piles of papers, laundry, magazines, bills etc. all over the house. I want to be the person who quickly and efficiently accomplishes all of those items on her to-do list. Not the person who loses her to-do list! I want to be the person who remembers all of her family and friends’ birthdays and sends them birthday cards that arrive either on or before the actual day. Not the person who remembers the day before, the day of, or let’s face it, more often than not the day after (okay, I’ll admit it, sometimes it’s been the week after).

This year I’m going to be armed with assorted greeting cards so that I am never caught off guard. Whenever I realize that I need to send birthday cards or thank you cards, I can go and find the perfect greeting card from my boxed birthday cards. My aunt recently came to a family get-together and went around asking everyone their birthdays and writing it in a book she had received as a gift called “The Book of Birthdays.” I thought it was the coolest thing. I thought I had found just what I needed to get organized and be on top of sending greeting cards, which obviously is no small feat. It’s basically just a book like a journal with all of the days of the year so you can write everyone’s birthday, anniversary, etc. in it and be ready to mail out assorted greeting cards. No more transferring birthdays and anniversaries to the new calendar year after year. Especially since last year I threw away the old calendar and didn’t realize until a week later that I hadn’t copied over all those very important dates! Of course, then I realized that I would actually need to remember to go pull out the book each week to see if there were any special occasions coming up that I needed to send greeting cards for, and I lost my enthusiasm.

Now I’ve signed up at one of those websites that will remind you via email or text message when you have an important occasion coming up and need to send greeting cards. You can determine when you want the reminder sent and if you need a second reminder, they even do that too. So I’m all set. Now, I just need to find my to-do list!