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I am so happy to announce that the 2019 calendar journal is available, because it combines four things that I like to keep near me during the year.
In some ways the year seems to fly by; but in other ways, there is a lot of time and life that passes between January and December. Sometimes I will read a fabulous book early in the year, but when November rolls around, I can’t recall the exact title or the author. Does that ever happen to you?
Or here is what happens more often: someone encourages me or exhorts me with an article or I read a great quote in Charlotte Mason’s writings, and I think, “This is so powerful! It made a deep impression on my heart and mind. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this idea.” But six months later I’m no longer thinking about it.
It’s not that we’re forgetful; it’s just that we live a lot of life during those weeks and months, and ideas can get crowded out of our thoughts. So I like to write things down. The process of handwriting something does a couple of things. It forces me to slow down and focus more intently on what I am writing. That practice alone can help the idea to stay in the forefront of my mind longer. It also creates a record that I can easily access when I need to remind myself of those ideas.
The 2019 calendar journal gives me that personal space. There is a place to record the books that I am reading—not for school, but for myself. And if I start to feel like a failure—that I’m not doing much to feed my own mind and develop myself as a person, as an example to my children—then I can grab my calendar journal and revisit the list of books that I have read during the year. Often my memory (and my emotions) have short-changed me, and there are more books listed than I thought. That personal record can help to pull me out of a tailspin.
Beside the Books I Am Reading space, there is also space for me to record prayer requests and personal reminders. Those spots work so well for jotting down any concerns I have about my children or close friends or any areas in which I am seeking to grow as a person, myself. Those types of prayer requests and reminders don’t get brought up in family prayer time or jotted on a shopping list. I want them to stay confidential, and yet be close at hand to remind my heart. The calendar journal provides that confidential place for me.
And there’s plenty more room to write other things! For instance, it has been a favorite practice of mine for years now to take a few minutes during the day and jot down what I am thankful for about that day. When I go back and reread some of those notes, it stirs my heart to more thanksgiving; and because I make the items specific to that day, it reads almost like a diary of the year. I’ve used the calendar journal for that practice for many years, and it’s a delight!
I’ve also kept a Christmas list in the back of my calendar journal, because nobody looks at those pages except me. It’s great to have a convenient, designated spot in which to capture all of those gift ideas that are mentioned casually or that come to mind all throughout the year.
So that’s the first thing I like to keep near me all year: a secure and handy place to record important personal pieces of my life: books I am reading, confidential prayer requests, my own growth reminders, things I am thankful for, gift lists, and more.
The second thing I like to keep nearby is a calendar. Does anybody else think that just keeping track of what day it is can sometimes be a monumental task? (When we do our Scripture Memory Box every morning, I am always asking my daughter what day it is!) But setting that aside. A calendar is so useful for keeping track of all of the doctor and dentist appointments and meetings and birthdays and rehearsals and activities at church, . . . you know how it goes. A calendar helps us keep our lives in order, preserve our sanity, and hopefully prevent us from double-booking two events at the same time on the same day.
A personal calendar is a great place to make a note on the date that the library books are due or to look ahead and add a reminder of when you should get out the kids’ off-season clothes and check to see what you can reuse and what needs to be bought before the weather changes dramatically.
I love to see the whole month at a glance so I can make sure we have “down” days in place. Sometimes you don’t realize how long you’ve been in “go-go-go” mode; but if you see it on a calendar, you can be intentional about inserting days with no outside commitments. Time to stay home and either rest or tend to the needs of your own household.
The third thing I like to keep near me all year is inspiring quotes. My two favorite sources are Bible verses and Charlotte Mason sayings. I love that the 2019 calendar journal gives an inspiring quote every week. Having a new one every day is almost overload, but having one each week seems to be a great pace. Weekly quotes give me time to ponder and mull them over for a few days before moving on to the next one.
I do keep my own record of favorite quotes as I read, transcribing them into my commonplace book or journal, and those collections are a dear treasure to me. But I also like to hear others’ favorite quotes, especially the favorites of people whom I know and look up to. That’s why I’m so excited that the 2019 calendar journal was written by Karen Andreola. Each week you will read one of her favorite Charlotte Mason quotes and have time to live with it and think about it.
And along with those quotes comes encouraging articles from Karen herself. That’s the fourth thing I like to keep nearby throughout the year: encouraging articles that help me to continue to grow as a homeschool teacher, a wife and mother, and as a person. Karen has written twelve articles—one for each month of the year—on the theme of “Hope for Tomorrow.” She shares her heart about being “more the mother, less the teacher,” about the well-fed mind and an educated and patriotic conscience, about a happy home life, the majesty of motherhood, the pace of parenting, and encouraging a scientific spirit in your children.
I’m so glad we can walk through 2019 with these encouraging articles to feed our hearts, with weekly inspiring quotes, with useable calendars, and with plenty of space to write our thoughts—all in one personal journal.
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