Random Journal Reunion

Can anyone tell me how we got to the last week of March so soon? Happy Spring everyone! And yet, it is still flurrying a little here this morning---which makes me perfectly happy, but I am well aware that I am in the .00001% of the world's population that actually appreciates the cold and snow...I know the rest of you are more than ready for some warmth, sunshine, and brighter, beautiful days. It's coming, it's coming--just hang in there!

So, this morning I am linking up with some great old friends from 'back in the day' for a Random Journal Day Reunion. My dear friend, Dawn Paoletta, from Enthusiastically, Dawn, has wrangled a bunch of us up once more to share some of our journal highlights and journeys like we used to do, and it's always joyful inspiration to see what these wonderful women have to share.

If you are not familiar with my journaling history--this was from a whole other blog I used to post on, I have been journaling for as long as I can remember. Journaling has transformed over the years, like everything else is wont to do with life. I've gone from basic diary writing, to art and prayer journaling, and for the past few years I've fallen head over heels for bullet journaling. I am a self-confessed journal/planner junkie and had been bouncing between three or four different books, calendars and planners to trying to keep track of my days when I discovered bullet journals and knew immediately this was something that would work for me. That was almost four years ago and I love how it's evolved and become my central focus point for organizing and staying on top of life. So, that's what I'd like to share here today, some pages from my current bullet journal and a little from another journal that stole my heart this year as well....Daphne's Diary (it's the cutest thing to happen to journaling EVER!!) But first, let's bullet:

I use a simple grid style journal--everyone has their own personal preference and the grids work great for me to block out my week, make check boxes for tasks, and I find the grids super helpful with lettering layouts which I love to play with. Below are a few recent weeks' pages--it's just super fun, extremely easy to personalize to what works for you, and open to all sorts of possibilities:

 

Finally, here is my most recent week's page with a sketched out layout for next week. I've penciled in a few notes and appointments. It's so much fun to watch the blank page come to life each week with color, lettering, doodles, stickers, washi--and it's an incredibly effective tool for tracking tasks, lists, goals and so much more--I love it!



THEN!! I discovered Daphne Diary's annual journal and had to have it! It is bright, colorful, fun--there's stickers, postcards, monthly mood trackers, coloring pages, and plenty of space to plan and play every day:



One of the monthly mood trackers--each month you designate a color to correspond
with a particular mood and color in each day accordingly--super cute and so much fun!

There's plenty of room for fun lettering and doodling.

A weekly layout--look at these beautiful pages!! So inspiring to work with every week!

Fun stickers from Create365 add easy beauty and great inspiration

February I created the theme No Fear February as an inspiration to push fear and self-doubt aside and to bring creative efforts to the front. March's theme is Make Magic March (I wish the glitter would show up better in the pics...so pretty) More motivation to be creative and play...

I love the bright colorful pages all through this book!

So these are my daily journals--I keep track of gratitude and health stuff mostly in Daphne's, then weekly appointments, homework, chores and such in the bullet journal. I do write daily morning pages in another journal, but that's more brain dumping rather than anything creative--just a way to vent, breathe and refocus. If you want more journal inspiration, click on over to Enthusiastically, Dawn for our reunion post and check out some other incredible journalers' blogs! And, by all means, if you're a journaler and feel inspired to link up and share, please do so!! We love finding new friends!

A New Post

Well, now that I have all this extra time on my hands as I find myself without gainful employment, I figured it would be wise to do something creative, and henceforth productive, with this new gift of structure-less, schedule-less time. Heaven help me, I've been CLEANING the house!! Someone needs to hire me, and quick!! So, in an effort to end THAT madness, I've decided to set aside time to write, draw, paint, play, what have you, every day until someone deems me employable again and the dust bunnies be free to run rampant and unhindered once more.

This morning I pulled out a few of my writing books--I have a multitude. I know, me, a multitude of books--you're shocked. Don't worry, it'll pass. The shock. The books will stay. And multiply. I dove into Judy Reeve's Writer's Book of Days which gives a daily writing prompt along with sage wisdom and advice, and putting pen to paper, this is what I wrote:

I close my eyes. I still see light. You would think it's just darkness blotted black, but there is a glimmering golden light, reflections of what I see when my eyes are open. Ghostly outlines, film negatives, light becoming dark, and dark, light.

I see red. The blood of my life pulsing through tiny veins in my eyes, crisscrossing mad maps over my lids. Red pulsing golden, glimpsing green, its negative as well, flashing verdant edges, grassy banks, mossy soft.

I see nothing. Life blurs, blocks, stops. I see memory images of faces I love smiling slyly at me, at life. I see silence. I see peace. I see rest, if just for the moment under closed lids, to sleep, to dream, to forget. Lost. Just for the moment in a dark reverie, sparked golden bright at fiery edges.

I see me.

As for reading challenges, it's all going very slowly. I still have school work to keep up with and I've been bingeing This is Us. It's great having winter break off with Michael. Although the only time I see him is when he skulks downstairs to rummage for something to eat, rumpled hair and pajamas go grunting by. Teenage-dom. My heart...

Double stacked overly full bookshelves...also my heart....

My one condolence from all of this is that I do have more than plenty on hand to read for a good long time, and after that, there is always the library and Overdrive to keep me reading for free--free is my favorite! I'm not gonna complain or whine or gripe and moan. It's life. There are never any promises or guarantees. You fall down, you get back up again. It's all good.  Read on, dear friend, read on.