Journal | November 2019

Welcome to my November 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 and keeping a note of what we did during the month. 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 as photographic memories, there are no rules to journaling and memory keeping. I use this as a way to create space to remember our days.

Here is my November journal…

…After a few months of preparation we celebrated Chloe with her own Naming Day. Most of our family and friends were able to join us for the celebrations which we held with a celebrant at a country pub close to Tyntesfield that had wonderful views of the countryside. We were blown away by the words shared for Chloe by our guide parents and the promises they made to her. We asked everyone attending to write a piece of life advice on tags to hang on our wishing tree, the words, quotes and poems were so meaningful and we collected them in a memory box for Chloe, along with cards and a few special gifts. For me it was so special to welcome Chloe to the world and celebrate her just after her first birthday.

…We spent most of the month following Chloe’s naming day feeling unwell with nasty runny noses and colds, dreadful sleep and feeling pretty run down. It certainly made me slow down and rest. With all of the rest I started to watch a Christmas film each afternoon, whilst Chloe napped so that I could switch off for a few hours.

…On a Sunday in the month we decided to take an autumnal trip to Westonbirt Arboretum, about 40 minutes drive from our home. It had been on my seasonal wish list to do during Autumn for a few years and we hadn’t made space to go until this year. Visiting an arboretum in the autumn felt like the best time to see the trees, there were so many different colours of autumn and I took a lot of photos. We spent most of the day there walking in amongst a lot of trees, in the misty rain and cool weather. After our walk we had some lunch and popped into the gift shop to look at the books and gifts. Going to Westonbirt felt like something I’d like us to do as a family each autumn and perhaps visit in the summer too.

…I started an ecourse this month called The Book Proposal Masterclass, run by Beth Kempton. For me this was the starting point towards taking my book proposal seriously. It has been a slow start to the course and slow progress as I’ve spent most of the month feeling unwell but I have made a start and have a good understanding of what I need to do to create the proposal.

…Chloe started at our childminder this month. It has felt really emotional to start with and Chloe seems to have become a little fussy with her eating. I’m glad I have started her at the childminder early and ahead of returning to work as hopefully she will be more settled and happy by the new year.

…With a few hours of time to myself whilst Chloe settles at the childminder I have started to return to myself again, I’ve sat and written in my journal, felt the difference a little bit of headspace has on me and have managed to rest a little and prepare for returning to work.