Document: Forget the List

You're busy.  I'm busy.  We're all busy, and doesn't it sometimes seem like more often than not a little too busy for the things we really love?  Every once in a while, don't you just want to say "forget the list!" and go do something you have absolutely no time scheduled for, just because you really want to? 

That's what this little bit of journaling was for me.  It's a couple years old, and I don't know if I'll ever journal like this again.  Or maybe I will.  While it took me some time I "should have" been spending on other things, it was fun to make, and fun to write in.  But the thing I love most about flipping to these pages now, is to remember not just what was going on that February, but that sometimes the thing you don't think you have time for ... is just exactly what your life needs.

Document: Favorite Things

If anyone ever wanted to put the story of my life together chronologically, they'd have to pull pieces from this journal here, and that journal over there, then back to this one, then another one entirely, etc. etc.  Sometimes I keep a continuous journal, but I really like to journal by category.  At any one time, I'll have a number of different journals in progress: one for each of my kids, a gratitude journal, a scripture journal, a bullet journal (more on that in another post), a journal dedicated to hand-lettering.  You'll probably see snatches of each of them in the coming days, but today I want to show you one of the simplest, most straight-forward category journals - a "favorite things" journal.  

For this journal, I took a small, simple, wire-bound scrapbook and gave it a title and a start-date.  When I finish, I'll add the end date.

Next, I decorated the pages (they were plain white) with paper and ephemera I had on hand.

I keep it on my nightstand, so that when I feel inspired I can just pick it up and fill a page.  I don't want just a list, so each thing I write about gets a whole page.  The best part is that I don't have to think of all my favorite things at once, I just write whenever the fancy strikes.  There is no "I haven't written in my journal for a month!" anxiety.  

It's easy, simple, and meaningful: Three more of my favorite things.

Document

I'm a little bit journal-obsessed.  I love how they come in so many sizes and shapes, colors and finishes, with paper fine and smooth, and paper you can glue and tape all over.  I was an avid journal keeper when I was younger, but then in my late teens/early twenties, I just lost interest.  It was hard.  It takes time.  Sometimes my handwriting stinks, and I refuse to type it.  These days, though, there are journals in just about every room in our house: you'll find them on shelves, gracing the tops of tables and rabbit hutches (as in the photo on the bottom); complete and in progress.  My husband keeps a journal the old-fashioned way, in books on which he handwrites, with a fountain pen, his thoughts and days.  I used to do that, too, but I get fidgety and need a change once in a while.  Or all the time.  

Luckily, there are so many ways to journal besides just writing paragraph after paragraph of the proceedings of each day (the way my grandmother has been keeping her journals for as long as I can remember - probably longer).  I want to show you some of my favorites!  So this post will begin a series I'll call "Document" where I will share what I've discovered - that journaling can be archival and creative - and you can share your thoughts and discoveries as well.

Oh, this is going to be fun!