One Journal to Rule Them All

On shedding stuff and starting a bullet journal

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If you missed last week’s pocket about my family’s New Year’s Eve tradition of throwing things out the window, you might want to check it out. It’s about letting go of old ghosts and welcoming in new life.

I have decided to explore the concept of shedding this month. Did you know that snakes shed their skins four to twelve times a year? Snakes shed because while they keep growing, their skin does not. They shed, so their skin doesn’t hold them back. They shed, so new growth can take place.

Sometimes it is easy to know when it is time to let go of something. For example, on New Year’s Day I made a cheesecake in an old springform pan. I’ve used the pan many times before, but this time, when I removed my pumpkin cheesecake from the oven, I noticed the red paint from the pan had chipped off and baked into the cake. I debated whether cutting around the paint was feasible. It was a cheesecake after all made with tiny pumpkins from our garden. It was a shame to let it go to waste, but it was a no brainer that both the cake and the pan needed to be tossed.

Other times, though, it isn’t as obvious that it is time to let go. This year, in addition to my pen, I threw some fabric off the balcony, not to signify my intention to sew more, but rather my intention to let go of projects I never seem to get around to doing. I have a dozen unfinished crafting projects around my home. I think I want to be a crafty kind of person, and so it is hard to let them go, but there is only so much time, and I still haven’t sewn the missing button on my favorite coat so I’m probably not going to start making pajama pants from random pieces of fabric. The same goes for books I think I should read. I let go of a Hamilton biography I’ve had in my house for the past five years recognizing if I haven’t read it already, I’m probably not going to start now. This is a shedding of sorts. I am letting go of who I am not and tending instead to who I am.

I decided I needed some help if I was going to take this act of shedding seriously. After reading Kristy Acevedo’s post on Sowing Words about how she gets stuff done while teaching full time, I decided to create a bullet journal. Kristy is super kind, and she even wrote a follow-up post on how to create a bullet journal which you can find here. I was certain that if I purchased a journal and followed Kristy’s careful instructions my life would never be the same. I went to Auntie’s, my local bookstore, on January 3^rd to find the perfect journal. I was already two days behind the rest of the world, so there was no time to waste. I love Aunties. It is one of my favorite places in Spokane, but they were fresh out of journals, and I found this unforgiveable. Other people had planned ahead, maybe even picked up their journal before the holidays. These are probably the same people who read Hamilton biographies and regularly replace buttons. They were two days ahead of me on their way to organizational bliss, and I hated them for it. One of the things I intended to write in my bullet journal was to not compare myself to others, and now what was I supposed to do? Things were getting dire, and I needed to act quickly.  I went to Atticus, our local coffee shop. Atticus has never failed me in my journal needs, so I was hoping I could count on them now. Kristy said I should get a hard cover journal with a ribbon. The only ribboned journal I could find had an image on the front cover which I think was supposed to be a mushroom but looked a lot like a penis. Even in my desperation, I recognized this would not be an ideal choice. I was about to leave when something caught my eye, a journal had been put back in the wrong place and thus had gone unnoticed. She was simple, bright and embroidered. She contained not a single penis drawing. We were meant to be.

I sat down and followed Kristy’s instructions carefully. I numbered all the pages. I created a table of contents. I wrote down the details I needed to change my life. I listed all the things I hoped to do today, this week, this year, and then I waited for the magic to happen.

I created a category in my journal for house projects. The first project I wrote down was to create a tile backsplash in the kitchen. Anna and I survived the Home Depot and chose tiles, and then Dan and I got to work. In prepping the space, Seabass asks Dan and I why everything is so dirty. It is a fair question. We cook more than the average family, and we clean less than the average family. We have managed for years without a proper vent fan, so when we finally got one, we were cleaning off lots of grease. The work is gross and difficult.  Seabass says there is no way we can get it clean. We tell him to be patient and to apply some elbow grease.

Here's a peak at our efforts.

I love how it came out. I also love that it was a collaborative creative effort between Dan and I. He and I both regularly create things alone, but it was fun to create something beautiful together. My favorite part about the title job though is not that it brought my husband and I closer together, it is that it allowed me to cross something off in my bullet journal.

You see, my bullet journal reminds me to keep my priorities in order.

Unfortunately, as I cross tile job off the list, I become aware of the remaining unfinished items. It occurs to me as it does every year about this time that saying what we want to do and who we want to be is a lot easier than doing and being those things. My journal is not a magic genie. She is a place where I can speak the dreams on my heart. This is a beautiful place to start, but it is just that, a start, a beginning. Being better versions of ourselves, living more enriching lives, achieving those spoken dreams, that takes patience and a lot of elbow grease.

I would love to continue this conversation in the comments. What resonates with you today? What projects are you working on? What made you laugh this week?

Here’s the heart to click if this post resonated with you.