Journal | December 2019

Welcome to my December journal. Each month I gather my musings and the stories from the month to document our life. For me this journal forms a way of creating my own regular gratitude practice. Journaling can be achievable in small snippets, you don’t need to write long prose to remember your time. I choose to document our memories by taking photos that capture the moments during the month and writing short notes about the time we’ve had. Some months I capture more as thoughts, and other months more photos than notes, there are no rules to journaling. I use it as a way to create space to remember some of the moments of the month.

Here is my December journal…

…We made the decision to shop small and local for Christmas this year. We are lucky to have a wonderful high street of independent shops and a local market every Sunday with lots of wonderful stalls and makers. One of my favourite things this month was ordering Chloe’s Christmas books from our local bookshop, rather then using Amazon. We have less packaging coming into our home and spent our money locally at small business owners.

…I’ve been sinking into a new feeling of connection whilst writing parts of my book and my book proposal. I’ve worked through quite a few feelings and beliefs that I have about the writing process and what my book means to me. I’ve been collecting stories that illustrate a few of my chapters and organising the words I’ve already written into a programme called Scrivener. I really hope that this will help me create a writing habit and enable me to work gradually on my book.

…At moments during the week I had feelings of comparison, I’m not to sure where it came from and why, however though the process I was able to notice and believe more in the differences and uniqueness of what I do

…Chloe started to walk this month and is enjoying being able to move from room to room and explore a whole new world! She is moving quite quickly and seems very pleased with herself and her new ability. Chloe decided to climb the stairs as well this month. With walking and stairs in one month our little one has certainly grown up quickly.

…I decided to start a few new seasonal rituals and decided the focus was on creating a book advent calendar for Chloe with seasonal books for her to enjoy. I ordered the books from our local bookshop, mixing together winter books and books with a Christmas theme that she’ll be able to enjoy for years to come. We read a new book every few days and switched the books in her book basket for her to select from for the month.

…During the month I learnt more about the Yule celebration as part of the Folk and Field community. For sometime I’ve been wanting to understand more about traditional seasonal celebrations to enable us as a family to connect more to the season and create a rhythm for the year.

…We spent the Christmas weeks seeing family and friends and having a really different Christmas season. It was amazing seeing Chloe learning to open gifts and trying new things and made this time of year regain its magic once more.

…I’ve spent most of the month mentally preparing to return to work after my maternity leave and holiday. When I return I’ll be doing a new job in the same team. There will be quite a few new things to learn and adjustments to make but I think that I am now ready to return to work and am looking forward to having a different routine to get used to.

During 2019 I have documented life in short snippets of memories each month. Looking back at these I can see how the year has been shaped, the changes I’ve made and how life has shifted. It’s a practice that I hope to continue for the coming year ahead.