My Spring Journal

My daily planning journal is looking decidedly springlike these days. My newest journal is wearing a spring cover and is sporting many beautiful spring magazine pictures on its inner pages.

I make my planning journals the same way I make my thankful journal - using a sketch book from Walmart and scrapbook paper. I cover the cover with scrapbook paper (directions here), usually based on the current season, or just whatever looks pretty to me at the moment. Then comes the really fun part. I cut lovely pictures out of magazines, again usually seasonal in nature, but really just anything that I love, and glue them in my journal to decorate the pages.

Next I label the pages. I put the day and date at the top, and then my planning categories scattered around the page with room to fill in a list under them. My personal categories are: Call, Do, Errands, Dinner, and Blog. These are just the categories that I have used for years to organize my To Do list for each day. They work best for me – you might have different categories that work best for you.

My Sunday pages differ from this by only including the date and a To Do This Week list. I usually write a little bit about how I spent the day at the top of the page and make my weekly planning list at the bottom.

I make about a week’s worth of pages at a time, usually on Sunday afternoons, and when I fill up one journal, I pick out a new paper for my next one, cover it and keep on going. I love making and using these journals. I don’t just use them for planning, although that is their main purpose, but I also use them to record thoughts, quotes, recipes, poetry, special memories, and really anything that I want to remember. I keep the old ones on a bookshelf to refer back to every now and then.

I really love using my magazines this way, rather than throwing them out with all of their pretty pictures. And I love having a beautiful personalized journal that works so well for me.

Blessings,
Nancy

Our Lovely Rose Garden

The roses are in full bloom right now in the rose garden. I am enjoying their beauty as well as their lovely aroma. As I sit on the porch, I can smell their sweet smell and it is truly a blessing. I think that there are more blooms this year than ever, but maybe I say that every year? No matter, I am, as usual, bowled over by the sheer blessing of this rose garden, planted by the previous owners of our house – and ultimately a gift from the Lord. Here are a few pictures that I took the other day as I wandered around in the roses.

My Mom brought us a beautiful Knock Out Rose bush on Easter this year, which we have planted in front of the front porch, where we can see it from the rockers. It should grow into a nice size bush and bring me joy for years to come – thank you Mom!

One of my favorite things about having a rose garden is when my children bring me roses like Anna did on this day ~

Have a lovely evening!

Blessings,
Nancy

My Spring Sonnet

I meant to do my work today ~
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
and a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand,
So what could I do but laugh and go?

~ Richard LeGallienne

In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. I hope you’ve been spending some time out in the blossoming world too!

Be back soon ~

Blessings,
Nancy