Calendars and Journals

    My daughter, Amanda, was born in the month of December in 1986. After the turn of the new year that next month, I found myself with an extra 1987 calendar, and I was not sure where to hang it or what to do with it. Then it occurred to me that Amanda would have a lot of “firsts” in her first year of life – like first trip to the grocery store, first trip to the public library, first meeting with extended family members who might come to visit us in Oklahoma, and of course first sleep through the night, first tooth, first step. Who knows? I might be able to put something cute on the calendar, and not just firsts, for every day of 1987? I did not really have enough faith in myself to believe I would actually keep up with the calendar – but I decided to give it a try.

1987 Amanda's Life

     Well, I surprised myself! Not only did I have every day of 1987 filled in with something about Amanda, but in 1988, I bought two extra calendars so that I could put something down each day about Amanda on one calendar, and something each day for my daughter, Sarah, on another. Sarah is two and a half years older than Amanda, and she was doing lots of cool stuff like attending pre-school. That year's efforts turned out successfully too. And so the tradition continued well into the 90's – the calendars were by then replaced with journals for longer entries for the luxury of better describing some days.

    From the beginning I had decided to limit the entries to only positive statements – and oh my gosh what a wonderful exercise it was for me to come up with something positive to write about each daughter each day; and if I could not think of anything at all because a particular day had been especially difficult, then I would allow myself to write about what had gone wrong that day.  

     The collection of the calendars and journals on the shelf are are so very dear to me now!

The shelf of journals and calendars

     In January 2010, one month after my grand-daughter, Virginia was born, I did an entry a day for her, and continued it for the next 18 months – her Mom was wonderful in keeping me informed of lots of cute stuff I could write down.

    When my girls were little, I so wanted to chronicle every moment with words and pictures – and then I realized that parenting means living in the present and allowing the sands of time to run through our fingers – and because that time is then gone – it is so important to enjoy – cherish – every single one of those moments while they are happening. I am so glad I have the journals and the photos and the stories – but a deeper contentment flows through me for the blessings/presence/sharing of my daughters and grandchildren in my life!

33 201502021987 calendar entries