I often find myself making plans for things I will do in my free time. Organize my closet. Sort through my back issues of Real Simple. Decide if there’s any shoes I could get rid of. (Doubtful.)

The problem is that free time? Doesn’t really exist anymore. Yes, I have time to myself when Owen is napping. But while you can get some stuff done in an hour and change, you can’t get a ton of stuff done. And I usually like to take that time to do something a little more relaxing. Like eat Nutella out of the jar.

So, the To Do list just gets longer, and nothing really gets checked off.

Case in point: recipe cards.

I’m a recipe collector. I really like to cook and spend a fair amount of that alleged “free time” drooling over food blogs and recipe sites. I have cookbooks, but rarely open them. Instead, when I get the inkling to make something new, I usually jot down the recipe on a piece of paper, refer to it while cooking, and then tuck it away.

My kitchen has this handy little cookbook platform that folds down from underneath the cabinet. But instead of using it to place a book on, I use it to hide store my ever-growing, completely unorganized recipe collection. I can’t even tell you how many folded up pieces of paper there are buried on that shelf.

When I got married, my mom sent all my shower guests a specially designed recipe card and asked them each to bring a recipe. She made a really lovely recipe box for them, and it’s truthfully one of my most treasured possessions. She included in the box some blank recipe cards, and while I always had the BEST intentions of writing on them, I never did. Three years later.

Then my sister, who used to work for Giant Corporate Craft Store, bought me some fancy dancy recipe cards because she thought I would like them. I do! They’re pretty! Her gift lead to the addition of Write Recipes On Recipes Cards to the To Do list, but of course I never did.

Fast forward to today. The ever-growing Owen is already trying to eat me out of house and home. I cannot keep milk or bananas in the house to save my life. (I can’t even begin to imagine what he will do to my grocery supply when he’s a teenager…) He loves to eat, and eats basically whatever I give him. While I loved making his early food especially for him, I’m really enjoying this new stage where all I need is the cutting board and my chef’s knife to make whatever we eat Owen-friendly.

In an effort to broaden his horizons even more, I bought some veggie burgers. He LOVES them. Of course he does. The only problem is they only come four in a box (lame) and while most of the ingredients are healthy, there’s still some filler in there and if I can’t pronounce it, I don’t know if I really want him to eat it.

I figured, how hard could veggie burgers be? I bet I could make them no problem, and I bet they would be delicious. I found this recipe, and I’m excited to try them out this week.

After I found it, I went into the kitchen, grabbed my Sharpie and notepad, and was almost back at the computer when I realized, wait a minute! I HAVE RECIPE CARDS!

I cannot tell you how good it feels to have used one. Crazy, right? Like, is this really a big deal? Yes. Yes it is.

Now, if only I could find some time to transfer the rest of the recipes over to the cards, I’d be smooth sailing.

Yeah right.

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