10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 12

I'm always a little behind on my journaling. I type everything out along with a list of things I want to include in the entry (photos, napkins, stickers etc.) and keep a folder of those items when I'm ready to journal. I'm hoping to get caught up in the next couple months. Last spring I was only a couple months behind but between my back problem and getting Izzy acclimated to Kansas City and us and well, a whole new lifestyle, put me about six months behind. It was a big accomplishment when I finally journaled our Europe trip. I'm slowly getting caught up, but have been printing off my entries to help speed up the process. I'm hoping by the next journal I'll be back to hand writing my journal entries. This is my current journal, which is just your everyday Canson mixed media sketchbook. I have discovered I really like spiral journals, and this Canson has been pretty great. I just need to figure out how to make the cover pretty.

This final entry is a day from our Paris trip. I saved one of the bags we got while we were there and I threw some washi tape on it (because, washi tape). Pockets and bags have been a new addition with this Canson journal and are a great way to hold extra things that I don't want to tape down.

I hope to celebrate many more years of gratitude journaling and hope others are inspired to as well. 

Happy New Year!

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 11

A few special days from my last journal, which is currently just a plain gray moleskin, but I'm hoping to doodle something on the cover.

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 10

This may look like a pretty bland journal entry, but it's actually one of the more special ones to me.

This isn't the best picture, but well life.  I'm still scanning the old fashioned way with a scanner that's hooked up to the computer, which is a pain to use. I haven't figured out a way to do fancy scanning on my phone yet. Sigh. I'm so behind the times.

I don't have a great memory like my brother, Scott who can remember all kinds of stories from our childhood. That's one of the reasons I started journaling. It's nice to keep the good memories alive.

I do remember Thanksgiving in 2017 just like it was yesterday. My dad, who travelled most of his life, hasn't been too big on leaving his current town for the last 30 years. I was totally shocked when he said that they were coming up for Thanksgiving. I got to show him all the things I love, including my home and favorite libraries. Looking back at this post I'm not sure what I meant by 'impressed.' I think just like anyone else I want my dad to be proud of me. I think he always wanted one of his kids to become a musician, and being a children's librarian isn't quite the same thing (although I did sort of write that storytime song). I think he's thrilled I love my job though.

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 9

This journal entry came from my bug journal (my third gratitude journal), which Rachel gave me for my 2016 birthday. I loved the brown pages and spiral-bound hardcover of this journal. This journal entry is a favorite for two reasons - first, it's one of the prettier layouts I've had. Second, the hiking experience was one of the best I've ever had. I still have dreams about it. It's such a magical place.

10 years of gratitude journaling part 8

When I began adding extra things to my journal, I would often have what I call 'dump days,' which are days when I have more physical material than words. I have these days a few times a month. I'm simply out of words. 

Yesterday was such an emotional day. I'll be able to explain more later, but one of the big things we did yesterday was take Rachel to her university for her move-in day.  It was much more emotionally taxing than I expected it to be.  Foolishly, I had carved out time to write this morning, but when I closed my office door and sat down to write, I ended up dissolving into a puddle tears and snot. I really love that kid.

On days when I'm out of words it's nice to grab my stack of journals and flip through them. Past dump days often get me out of a slump. It helps me realize that, as important as it is to create my own words, the words of others are what keep me going.

This is one of my favorite dump days for a few reasons. In 2013, while I was a clerk at a different library, we had a new manager. One of the first things she did was ask everyone to describe their coworkers. After she collected everyone's answers she created a wordle. Everyone's wordle was different and incredibly positive. We already knew we were a good team, but the wordles brought it to life. Also on this page is a note from one of my favorite patrons, a patron I am still friends with, even though I've changed branches and positions. She showed up on my first Saturday as a youth services specialist and completely surprised me. "I knew you'd be here on a Saturday," was what she said, and I couldn't have been more surprised and delighted to see her.

Today I am thankful for lots of things. I am thankful Rachel chose a university that's so close. I'm so darn grateful I had the day off yesterday to be a part of the moving-her-into-a-dorm experience (which was a little louder than any of us expected). I'm also thankful for my stack of old journals.  A few years from now I'll look back on this dump day filled with Rachel pictures and drawings I've been compiling all morning and remember that was this was the month she spread her wings and took off. 

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 7

Better late than never!

My gratitude post for July is all about my brother, Scott and a trip he made to Kansas City in 2016.

I still think about that 2016 visit all the time!

The Richard Scarry sticker was something I found in an old Richard Scarry activity book during Scott's visit. Richard Scarry was a favorite author of ours when we were little. 

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 6

This next post is a from another fun trip to Arizona - definitely one of the best family trips I've taken. Scott and I had afternoon tea together, everyone threw me a surprise birthday party, and there was lots of time to kick it and enjoy each other (and play quiddler, a game nearly everyone loves). 

I had just read Elisabeth Tova Bailey's The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, and was talking about it to everyone who would let me - it's still one of my top twenty favorite books - and my mom surprised me with a giant glass snail she found at the thrift store she volunteered at.

Naturally, the snail went into my backpack for the plane ride home because it was so fragile. I nearly died laughing when the TSA agent asked if it had a name.  Sigh, good memories.

Included in this entry is my first Mikellar beer label. I loved it so much I came home and went on the prowl for more. I've tried four and have all the labels. The hello kitty candy wrapper came from a piñata.  Yup, I think there was a piñata at my surprise birthday party. I also saved part of a coffee sleeve from one of Tucson's many amazing coffee places (I'm not sure they have bad coffee there).  And on the right are various notes that Robert and the dogs put in my luggage to find throughout the trip (Ella and the late Rosie apparently knew how to write at some point in their doggy lives).

Every time I flip to this page in my journal it makes me incredibly happy, but also a little sad and nostalgic too. Nothing stays the same, but that's just a nice reminder to enjoy the crap out of all the amazing moments life has to give and also record them so they can be enjoyed forever. Such sentimentality yipes!

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 5

I remember this day clearly and I look at the hiking pictures almost once a month (I currently have one up at work). Something I didn't mention in my journal, but I still remember clearly, were the bees.  First, it's important to let you know we were hiking in Arizona, which means Africanized bees. Scott and I were climbing up a rocky ledge covered in prickly undergrowth and a few small trees.  Quite suddenly there was a ferocious buzzing sound and Scott and I took off back down the hill like our pants were on fire. Both of us had heard stories of Africanized bees plus Scott had some in his bathroom at one point (I'm not sure if it was before or after this journal entry). Anyways, we may never again move as fast as we did that day.  When we were a good distance away we could still hear a faint humming. It's strange we hadn't noticed it before. I think it's possible we riled them up by getting so close. The fact I didn't record it in my journal means I was either in a big hurry when writing the entry or I was still terrified out of my mind.  

I haven't had my grandmother's cornbread and molasses since 2014, though I've really wanted to make it. It takes a cast iron skillet to make it, which we have, but we've had poor luck seasoning the skillet.     

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 4

This next gratitude journaling post is also from my second gratitude journal and looks boring at first glance (and the handwriting is borderline atrocious), but when you read it, you'll understand why it made my top 12 gratitude journaling moments.  

12/27/12

Yep, this was the moment when Robert gave me my very own Little Free Library, which I still have and is almost always packed with my favorite children's books.

GA and LE were work places.  R stands for Robert.  Even after Rachel came to live with us, I still write his name as 'R' and spell out her name.  BF is breakfast.  When I look back on journal entries, one of the easiest ways to tell life is particularly good (almost too good to even take notes), is by my hurried handwriting and a buttload of abbreviations. 

And yes, I sing in the bath, as I'm sure most people do, whether they admit it or not.  And Sam Hell is one of my family's favorite card games. 

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 3

This gratitude journaling post is from my second gratitude journal, which is small, rather ordinary red leather journal I found on clearance at Anthropologie (well-made and a pretty ruby shade of red, but definitely not picture-worthy).  In my second gratitude journal, I begin adding ephemera - tickets, pictures, a feather from a boa I wore on a birthday, that sort of thing.  

Most of my gratitude journal entries are very ordinary.  The small things like tuna mac, a good yoga workout (my current obsession is Yoga with Adrienne because her dog reminds me of Walter the Farting Dog), and cuddling my goldens, are the big things in my life.  

I chose this page because it has a lot of that everyday charm.  I also have not ironed anything in many years. Robert and I simply don't have clothing that needs ironing anymore. I wonder what other unnecessary tasks we are doing that can be replaced with more cuddle time with the dogs?

This is also most likely the beginning of my Julia Child obsession, which is ongoing.  

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 2

I always thought journaling or writing a diary needed to be a long, narrative piece about your day.  Gratitude journaling helped me realize it was about jotting down the most important, positive moments of the day.  Two or three things is better than nothing.  This particular entry is one of the most wordiest I've written, but there was so much I wanted to remember about this day.

This next entry, 7/2/11, comes from my first journal:

10 Years of Gratitude Journaling Part 1

In 2009 I found a special journal at one of my favorite bookstores, Antigone, which is in Tucson, AZ.  

At the time, I had no idea the impact the small, orange gratitude journal would have on my life.  Since May 19, 2009, I have not only journaled nearly every day's positive moments, I also started reading the previous year's highlights once I had a year completed.  Both writing the day's positive moments and reliving highlights from previous years has been an extraordinary, uplifting experience.  Gratitude journaling also awakened my love of journaling.  Since 2012 I started journals about bicycling, work, daily haikus, zen doodling, and a handful of others.  Each of these journals has a zero negativity policy unless it's hilarious.  I also find snippets of poetry here and there in these journals and have even published a few things that began as journaling!   

To celebrate my tenth year of gratitude journaling, I will post a favorite journal entry each month.

It was incredibly tough to choose just 12 moments.  These past ten years have been amazing. 

Here is the journal that started it all:

The first entry I'm going to share with you happened less than a month after I began journaling, 6/27/09, and is drawn by my oldest niece, Izzy, who is now in high school!  I gave her my journal to color in, and this is the artwork she created: