Journaling! My New Hobby!

Good day, my friends!

I am so excited!  (Forgive me.....I am so easily pleased.) I think I am going to take up journaling as a new hobby. Not the blog-posting kind that I have done in the recent past (not too recent obviously) ......but real journaling with pen and notebooks.

Writing itself, is a longtime hobby.......but journaling, specifically, is my new concentration.

This is the inspiration for my new project:

Going through my mom's genealogy stuff, that she passed specifically to me before she passed away in December of 2014, gave me an inkling of what I am finding enjoyable to discover.....the handwritten letters from my grandparents, mother and great-aunt. All of those dates and names of people are only so interesting. The stories and handwritten accounts are much more meaningful.   It is one of my motivators for blogging......though it hasn't been enough of a motivator lately. Obviously. I think I am just not in the mood for sitting in front of a computer anymore......

I always feel like writing.....but now the desire is overwhelming. I don't mean to be full of myself, like what I have to say is important.....but I wish my relatives had left more writing behind for me. So I intend to leave some writing behind for my progeny. I am a storyteller. Not one of fiction, but of family stories and memories. With almost all of my kids grown-up (5 of 6 are 19 years and up!), I definitely should have more time to fit some writing in.....I think it will naturally improve my blogging as well......as is already evident in my two posts in one week. And as I reread this post for editing,  am reminded that my scrapbooking does the same......so I need to get all of this decluttering done at home so that I may get back to the scrapbooking. 

 

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I am all set to go!  I have purchased two books to use as a guide....and have picked up an old journal that I have used an average of once a year for about fourteen years. 

Last week, I got stuck with seven days off from work and nowhere to go. So, I took myself on an overnight solo shopping spree up to Medford, Oregon, a three-hour roundtrip. I made a list of stops and items needed;  I did so well!  I got almost everything I needed.....and most of it with good discounts. 

I spent my evening visiting Barnes & Nobles to see if they had any Five-Year Journals I could touch and possibly purchase. I liked the inside of a few, but not the outside. I had hoped to find the Book of Kells one offered on their webpage. But alas, no. 

There was one with awesome quotes inside.....but not a comforting cover. So I decided to just buy the one on Amazon that I had already picked as a back-up plan.   

And Hannah, my Maddelyn's college roommate, inspired me to put my own quotes in my Five Year Journal......

I think that is a great idea and I have already downloaded the Brainy Quote app to use. 

In the meantime, I was so awed with the amazing selection of journals in just one place!!  So many lovely choices!!  I wanted them all!  

I actually took photos to show my sister......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So beautiful, right??!!  And so many choices and styles to choose from!!! Extensive!

In the end, I resisted the temptation of purchasing a new journal......knowing that I had a few nice choices at home still. I soooo know where I am going to get the next journal that I need to purchase!!

I did allow myself to chose this specialized journal: LIST YOURSELF:  Listmaking as the Way to Self-discovery.....A Provocative, Probing, and Personal Expedition into Yoir Mind, Heart, and Soul by Iline Segalove and Paul Bob Velick

 

I don't feel I need much self-discovery through this book.... 

I just thought it would be a fun thing to leave behind so my grandkids and great-grandkids would know what I was thinking "back in the day". It would have been fun to have done this at age twenty and again now at age 52 (later this month). I think it will be good for those days when a prompt will be useful. Here are sample pages from this book, including the "how to use this book"............
 

  

      

 

 

  

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

     

 

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Now about this Five Year Journal.......

My daughter Maddelyn and her roommate Hannah were home for Spring break a few weeks ago. They are sophomores at the University of San Francisco. I saw them writing in their journals and was intrigued by the titles. Maddelyn let me read some of her entries..... She was 18 months into writing in hers. She started with her first week at college. This will be such a gift to herself and her progeny....to see what the young college student was thinking and doing. Even looking back just one year ago was fun.  It was sweet to see where I showed up in her story......  :)

I was about to say:  I wish that I had journaled more at that age......but I did!  Inadvertently!! Apparently I wrote a lot of handwritten letters to friends.....and one of them just sent me all of my letters. It is truly a treasure of my thoughts at that age.....and as a newly married girl. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
 

Anyway......as soon as I saw those books, I knew I wanted one of those journals!!  I could commit to a few lines a day. For five years. 😊

So, you write a few lines on each date of the year, for five years......so you will come back around to each page four more times after the first round through......clever.
 

Maddelyn received hers as a gift from her BFF from birth.....a beautiful Jane Austen book. I wanted it......but I will wait for next time. Here is the one that I picked up......a thought a day via Amazon

 

and the inside:

 

I have started on April 1st.......the month of my birth.......52 years on the 25th!
 

So I challenge all of you......encourage you..... to at least get one of those Five Year Journals. They look like fun!  And your kids will love them later. And maybe their kids' kids.

Let me know if you do!!

And finally, here is the regular journal, purchased and started when my 14 year old was an infant, 14 years ago......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring & journaling blessings to all!

 

 

 

 

God bless,

 

                Chari