day thirteen: written word

When I was a little girl I always wanted to be a diary girl.  It would always start off something like this:
"Dear Diary, today I went to school...."
They would always be like that.  Super boring with not much context.  I would maybe write three entries and then never see that one again. I start another a few months later, and again nothing.  As I got older, I would sometimes write about boys and other normal seventh grade girl stuff.  But I never really was the journal writing type.  I have actually never written more than the obligatory papers in school until this blog.  It was been a great way for me to expand my writing a bit.  A few weeks ago, a new co-worker and friend, started a meeting talking about how she had read about doing away with to-do lists.  Those list are often a constant reminder of what you didn't get done, the list gets longer and while it is very satisfying to mark things off, there is still something left "to-do."  So she started a little daily book of things that you actually did in a day.  What an interesting concept, instead of wondering every day about what I didn't get done and where my day went, I can feel good about the things that I did do.  I was in, picked myself up this great little daily calendar book and started writing.  The list often looks like this "got dinner started, dressed fussy/happy kids, met with a ton of staff, answered the crisis line, ran a grant report, scheduled a meeting, called people back, fed the family, played with the babes, updated the blog..."  I have skipped a few days, but I have also been able to record events that I never would have otherwise, like, "Ella lost second tooth."  It's a nice daily reflection.  Thanks for the idea Phoebe!