Happy New Year to everyone!  It's the time of year when resolutions are fresh on the minds of people all over world, and it's also my favorite time to remind people to WRITE IT DOWN!

No, not the shopping list or to-do list (although those are helpful, too) - I mean the good stuff!  Well, good, bad, or indifferent...it really doesn't matter as long as you just write it down.

What you write in doesn't really matter.  I've kept some type of journal or note-taking method going on ever since my oldest son was born, and let me tell you what -- those little notes and scraps are absloutely priceless!  When it was just my oldest son, I kept a detailed journal which I updated every week with all the new things that he was learning, trying, and doing.  When my next two came around, keeping up with the details became much more difficult due to the simple crunch of time.  But instead of abandoning it altogether, I switched to a calendar instead.  I'd jot down things as they happened on the dates in the calendar.  Some weeks I filled in a lot, some busier weeks were left untouched.  The point is, I was writing it down, even if my time limited me to write sporadically at times. 

A few years ago I went back to more formal journaling, with this great little journal I found on amazon:

Mom's five year one line a day journal.  It has a teeny space to fill in each day, and at the end of the year you start all over again at the beginning. Today I begin my fourth time through it, and I can't even begin to describe the joy in looking back at what was going on in my family's life one, two, or three years ago on that exact date. 

If you're not a mom, there's another version of the same journal, the five year one line a day journal.

I also really like scripted journals, and I have one like this that I'm also planning on starting this year:

I really like scripted journals.  The hardest part of writing is often just getting started, so starting with a prompt is a really great concept. There's also plenty of blank space once you get rolling, but I always appreciate that little kick-start.

And while we're on the subject, let me tell you a little secret about journaling...sometimes it's boring.  Yep, that's right. ESPECIALLY with the one line a day ones like the ones above... you know, some days are just blah days.  Nothing bad happens, but nothing particularly good happens either.  Please don't think your journal has to be earth-shattering reading.  It doesn't.  Some days my lines are filled with deep thoughts about life, love, children, etc...and some days they're just plain blah.  As in, "Well, today it rained again. This makes four straight days of rain. We're all pretty much tired of rain."  See?  Blah.  But the magical power of the journal is that when you re-read that again, years from now, you'll remember those rainy days. You'll begin to piece together the memories of the day-to-day-ness of your life back then, and you'll smile.  That's the beauty of the journal.  It makes even the mundane and boring magical and meaningful.

So, from me to you - Happy New Year!  Make this year the one that you WRITE IT DOWN!

~Reese