30 by 30, #7: Keep a journal for at least 30 days in a row.

In case you aren't familiar with the 30 by 30 Project, here is the original post, with the big fat list.

I have never been good at writing in my journal. Seriously, never. A few years ago I found an old journal from when I was like 7, and just about every entry starts, "Sorry I haven't written in a long time." In fact, I think one time that was the whole entry. "Sorry I haven't written in a long time." I obviously had an awesome life. I'll often think that I'm going to change that and start writing more regularly, only to quit after about 2 days. Or, I'll think that I need to write in my journal, and then realize that it's been months, and I've got so much catching up to do that it will take forever, and so I don't even bother.

But 30 by 30 waits for no man, and so the time had come to buckle down and be a journaler. Journalist? Oh, that made me sound a lot cooler than I am. Journaler.

I decided to just start from now and not worry about catching up. That's why I have an entry from a month ago saying, "We live in Michigan now. I don't want to spend the time catching up. Just know that we moved. That is all." And we moved on from there. It actually made it a lot easier to write short entries, which made me more likely to write every day.

I figured that if I wrote for 30 days in a row, that would establish the habit, and I'd be good for. . .well, for the rest of my life, why not! So that was the goal: write in my journal every day for 30 days in a row. That in a row part is very important. If I missed a day, I'd have to start over. I won't lie, there were some days that I really didn't want to write in my journal; I was already in bed, and I had nothing of note to say anyway. But no, I had made this goal, and I was going to see it through to the end.

On day 31, I didn't write in my journal. So much for that!

But on day 32, I wrote in it again. And I'll write again tonight. I think it's kind of fun. And it's a good way to look back at the day and see what happened, what went well, and what I want to improve on. And it's a great way to write down the funny things that the kids say and do. I also thought it would be a good way to notice the hand of God in my life every day, like President Eyring suggested we do a couple of years ago. Which was a great idea, but I found the actual task to be challenging. Perhaps God is more involved in President Eyring's life than mine (maybe), because there were some days where I couldn't see much. And most of the experiences involved me once again praying for patience with my children, and finding some inner strength to keep myself from flopping down on the floor and giving up. My life is less than glamorous, didn't you know? But even when nothing of note happened that day, I still wrote something down, maybe something I'd been thinking about lately. And I think that is perhaps more important than the details of day to day life.

10 down, 20 to go. 20 to go?! This thing might come down to the wire.