Daily Journal

Continuing on last weeks theme of hearth and home, my favourite blogger (Dawn from By Sun and Candlelight) recently shared her daily journal pages, I happen to do the exact same thing – have done for years, I have a pile of them stored in that Welsh Dresser I showed you last week – and I was interested to see that another mum/wife/keeper-of-the-home who lives on the other side of the ocean keeps a record of the same things. I’m sure lots of us do, it seems to be a woman thing, but it was just really interesting to read her post and peek into her journal. 

I thought you might like a peek into my journal…

This picture above is from last year February 2014. I’m sure that you can read what I wrote but if you can’t I have noted which book I was reading, a prayer list of intercession and of thanks, a few thoughts on curriculum, garden notes and some ‘to-do’s’ concerning my cats. 

I use a bound A5 journal, choosing a new one is always an exciting thing for me – I loooooove stationary 🙂 As it so happens when 2015 rolled on, I found that I still have plenty of space in this particular journal, so I have just added a tab labelled 2015 and continued to add to it. I had started in an A4 spiral bound, but it just did not feel ‘right’. So back to my trusty A5 format 🙂

This page was from March 2014, I have a little Easter craft found in Country Life magazine that I wanted to do, or should I say WANT to do – I did not get round to it last year. My notes for that day are on some baking that I wanted to do (and did), a book I was reading, and my prayers for that day.

My journals are a place where I keep magazine clippings that generally reflect the season or are bits that I want to remember to use later on in the year, or pictures that appeal to the home-keeper in my. For example, recently I found some lovely pancake ideas for Shrove Tuesday which is in February in a little free mag that most of the major supermarkets give out. I don’t want to keep the magazine but I do want those few pages, so I cut them out and pasted them into my journal with a little note to myself.

Here’s an example of those recipes that I want to try out. I think this spread was from end of Feb beginning of March. Again I have notes on what the weather was like and the fact that I spotted the first butterfly of the season.

I also note down feast days or days that are relevant to British culture that  I want to mark in some small way whether it is a craft or baking or a special meal. I often will start off a new week in my journal with thoughts on various topics, so I might write a heading called ‘Create’ and I will jot down things that I want to make that week, I might have a heading called ‘This Week’ and note down some notable things that are occurring (those feast days etc). I’ll often have a paragraph or two of my thoughts at the time, what I’m feeling, what I hope for in the coming days, reflections etc.

Basically, this daily journal is my ‘brain-dump’ and record keeping area. It’s not about anything in particular but rather about everything. All the things that make up my life and my thoughts. It’s me on pages 🙂 A complete reflection on my life, hopes, dreams and happenings. Does that make sense? Perhaps not, but it works for me and I cannot imagine not having this therapeutic tool in my life. I love how I can go back and read through my journal’s pages and see exactly what was going on in all areas of our life at the time, see my thoughts, see what the girls were doing, read something funny they said that I didn’t want to forget or even just be reminded of what was going on in nature that day. It’s amazing how reading all those various little snippets can bring back and recall exact memories of that specific time and place.

Another page from March 2014: I have a note on the weather, some notes on what was happening in nature at that time and some tasks I wanted to do in the garden.

I like to add seasonal quotes or poems that I find to my journal, it just creates a sense of how I was feeling at the time and reflects the season and time. It’s usually a quote or poem that captured the essence of the day, time or season for me.

Here is 2015’s opening page. I have my ‘word’ for the year and then written out my goals and reflections. 

I usually keep my journal in the draw in my bedside table, but I have to say that after having read Dawn’s way of using her journal, I love the idea of it being close at hand so that you can actually capture those thoughts as they happen rather than trying to remember them later on. So I think that is the change I am going to make with regards to my daily journal this year 🙂

Well I for one have thoroughly enjoyed following Dawns Q & A posts of late regarding her journals. I recommend popping over to By Sun and Candlelight and having a read through if it is something that appeals to you, and I hope that you have enjoyed having a peek into my own personal journal 🙂

Until later…