How'd it become February 6th already? Sometimes I'm shocked to find out it's been a week since I last posted on my blog. I feel like I posted just before our little family took off for the weekend. Wrong.
Even worse, it's been almost a year since I wrote in Reid's journal. Yup, my last update was on his 4 month mark. How do I even make up for the lost time?
Which brings me to ask the question, how do you (whoever you might be) keep a journal for your small children, or even for yourself?
I know I need to record my family's life happenings, and I actually do enjoy journaling -- but somehow I still fail at it.
Even worse, it's been almost a year since I wrote in Reid's journal. Yup, my last update was on his 4 month mark. How do I even make up for the lost time?
Which brings me to ask the question, how do you (whoever you might be) keep a journal for your small children, or even for yourself?
I know I need to record my family's life happenings, and I actually do enjoy journaling -- but somehow I still fail at it.
6 comments:
I am a terrible journal writer but since I had my third baby I decided I really needed to be better at it. I bought each child a journal and I write in it at least once a month. I try to write down little moments that I want to remember that I know I won't later but I have done pretty good at writing once a month. I don't like the pressure of telling myself I will write every single day. good luck!
I also have a journal for each of my kids. I'm not too hard on myself about writing in them consistently. I find that if I set a time to write in them I never do or don't know what to write down. But I never pass up a moment when I feel like I really want to remember something or just to express my love for them in a way that they can appreciate in the future ;). I look at it as an 18 yr journal that they can have when I feel they are ready to take care of it and benefit from what I wrote down.
What I do is every conference (so every 6 months) and then any other times that it happens - I usually find time on birthdays. :) But I have come to understand that I just don't have the time so twice a year for a good, pretty long entry. For myself I use my blog and a scripture journal that doubles for thoughts and cute things that the girls are doing, problems with me and great things about my marriage (sometimes not so great). :) It works for me.
I occasionally write in my hard copy journal. I just write personal feelings, stuff I wouldn't post on the blog. That usually happens once every month or two. Whenever I feel like it. I don't stress about it since I blog pretty frequently.
For Quentin I have my Fun Photo Friday on the blog where I write something once a week with a picture and I also have a Shutterfly site where I post all the pictures of Quentin and write an entry in the journal section once a month. That one is just for family.
I find that by the time I sit down to journal, I've forgotten all those precious little moments that I swore I would never forget. It helps me to have a big calendar on my wall. When something happens, I write a little note on the date to remind me ("Michael lost first tooth," "Lauren's beautiful curly hair peaking out under her hat," etc.). I use an orange pen, because that color will stick out so I don't miss it later. Then, instead of throwing my calendar pages away at the end of the month, I keep them until I get those moments transferred into a journal. I'm terrible at journaling, but this way I at least get some of those sweet moments recorded.
I blog. Not on my public blog often, but I have a blog just for McKynlee that is private and only my husband and I can access. I'm faster at typing than writing and prefer it. Plus, since it's online, I can do it on a laptop from anywhere. When I don't have time, I just start posts on the correct dates something happened that I wanted to write about and I go back when I have time, like at night or on a Sunday. I was really good at keeping up her first year and posting milestones and pictures and now I just need to print it into a book. As for her last 6 months, I'm not as consistent, but it's still a place I'll go add new words she says or funny stories and I try to keep up on it. I even got my husband to type something....once
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