Journals!

  

  I have a journal problem.  I have a difficult time resisting the purchase of a new journal.  I can

  rationalize the purchase by coming up with a new reason as to why I need a separate journal.

 

  "I know I have a creative idea journal but I think I would be more effective if I also had a 

  separate journal for photography!"

 

  "I bet I'd do better with losing weight if I had bright and colorful new journal to track food!"

 

  "Oooh pretty..."

 

  "This one is on sale.  It's a sign!" 

  

 My nook.  During my free time, I sit in a recliner in my husband's office and do whatever it is I want to do

 - write, crochet, play on the Internet, read, jot down ideas, edit photos, etc.  This is what it may look like at any given moment.  Notice 3 journals in this one shot.

A stack of colorful journals - all with a different purpose.  And yet, I dream of additional journals.  Maybe a moleskine, maybe something in a fabric, maybe a plain green journal...

One of my more lasting journal ideas.  A Gratitude or Thankful Journal.  I have actually stuck with this idea which is amazing considering my lifelong stack of journals that are maybe a quarter of the way full of something or other.

 

Almost every morning, I sip my coffee and I open up my Thankful Journal to jot down things I am thankful for at that moment.  I try to do 10 per day but sometimes it's less.  There are definitely recurring entries on any given day.  Some days there are a mix of silly with more sincere.  Every day that I do it though, I feel good starting my day.  It centers me and helps me to focus on the good.

  

Inside yet another journal...this one is more of a Misc.  I jot down quotes from different books I'm reading, jot down things I want to read, or ideas I want to remember.  Sometimes I write a more traditional journal entry in it but I'm bad about doing that consistently.  It's a catch all of journals.

 

My more "in use" journals currently.  I keep a small journal to jot down ideas for blogging or a craft show I plan to do.  My Gratitude/Thankful Journal, Misc, and the Buddy Book.  The Buddy Book is something my best friend and I have had going since 2004.  It deserves its own blog post so stay tuned for more on that.  It's a really fun way to stay connected and document our friendship.

I've always wanted to be the kind of person who journals my life and have volumes of journals documenting my entire existence.  Over the years, I've made the decision that I will journal every day NO MATTER WHAT.  I think the longest I've gone with that is maybe a week or two.  I realize that my daily thoughts and events are quite boring to read.  Now I try to document my life more with photos and I figure historians one day can piece together hundreds of journals with quotes, weird things, ideas that didn't pan out, and will come to this conclusion..."Who is this girl and why the heck are we wasting our time reading this stuff?"

So that's my journal addiction.  I may have more floating around here and now I have an urge to go shopping to find more.  Fortunately today I am without a car so I guess the journals I already own will have to do.