My Journal

When I graduated from high school, a friend gave me a simple journal made of a three ring binder covered with nice fabric and filled with line paper.  Because of that, when I was in college, I wrote in my journal just about everyday.  Since then, I have always kept a journal but haven't been as consistent about writing in it regularly.  Several years ago, I started writing my journal on the computer because it could be saved forever and took up less space.  The only drawback was that we kept our computers in the basement and I couldn't always get on the computer.  So a year ago,  I signed up for an account on LDSJournal.com which allows you journal from anywhere you can access the internet.  I didn't start really taking advantage of the website until last month when I really started feeling like I wanted to write more about my life and the things happening in our family.  Just in the past two months, I have written a lot more often than I had been writing in any two month period over the past year.

LDSJournal.com is a great website for journaling!  It's not just a place for writing journal entries, there's also a section where you can fill in information about yourself like your birth date, life events, your education, your family, etc.  Every time you start a new entry, there's a prompt/question in case you need help thinking of something to write about.  I feel it's important to write in a journal for many reasons.  A few of the reasons are to remember important events and experiences, to process and deal with hardships, and to see patterns in your life.

One, a journal is a good way to remember your experiences.  While we may think we will always remember the significant events in our lives, we often don't.  For example, when our older son was a baby, I thought I'd never forget every cute little thing he did or milestones he reached but now that we're on our third child, I find myself wondering "when did Charlie start rolling over?"  I am realizing that the older I get, the worse my memory is!

Two, a journal helps you think about your experiences and what they mean to you.  When I have a problem or struggle, I write about it in my journal and just writing it down helps me feel better.  It's like talking to a friend.  I have gone back and read about those hard times and realized that I have grown and learned from those experiences.  Being able to look back through my entries and knowing that I go through the hard times helps me have the strength and confidence to face my current challenges.  Of course, I don't just write about the bad or hard things I have dealt with, I write about the good and happy things too.  One of the main reasons why I started writing more in my journal is to document all the cute things my kids do or say.

Three, a journal helps you to see patterns in your life.  This in a way is related to reason number two - when you write down your experiences, you are able to see a pattern in how you deal with situations.  You can see your strengths and weaknesses.  For me, I can also see how God's hand is evident in the things that have happened to me: How he has helped me during the hard times and how he has led me to where I am today.

This blog is also a journal of sorts but because anyone can see it, I obviously don't write about everything I would write about in my journal.  I would be interested in hearing about your journals and other reasons why people write in journals.

Three

Ellie is three-years-old!  Her birthday was a couple weeks ago.  We celebrated as a family with dinner, cake, and presents.  She has definitely grown up in the past year!  She likes to put her own clothes on and even sometimes insists on wearing big girl underwear.  We haven't been pushing her too hard to be potty-trained, thinking that it would be easier when she decides she wants to do it.  Lately, she has been showing more interest: asking to watch the Elmo's Potty Time DVD, telling us she wants to use the potty, and actually peeing in the potty a few times.

We love this girl!  Ellie is delightful to be around.  She loves to take care of her stuffed animals and makes sure to wrap each of them up in its own blanket before placing them in her bed so they can take a nap.  Ellie has a passion for blowing bubbles.  She has a great sense of humor and loves to say to Charlie: "Tickle me and run!"  She's developed a love for reading books and playing the Thomas matching game.  And, she's picked up a knack for using the computer (thanks to Dan and Charlie).  Last but not least, she has a big sweet tooth!


Happy birthday to my sweet little dumpling!

Christmas

(This was written in the middle of January.  I'm way behind on the blog!!)

We went to visit Dan's family in Michigan for Christmas this year.  Traveling is just rough for us since it's a two-hour drive to the airport and our trips this year have been marked by sick kids throwing up multiple times in the car and airplane.  But, crossing our fingers that lightning wouldn't strike thrice, we prepared for our trip.


Fortunately, this time we were as prepared as can be with IDs, plenty of diapers, and changes of clothing in our carry-on bags.  We left with plenty of time for the drive down to the airport, parking, riding the bus from parking to the airport, going through security, grabbing a bite, and boarding the plane.  Everything went pretty smoothly except the two-hour delay in Chicago.  But, that wasn't too bad because there was a play area for the kids and we had time to get dinner.

The only other snag was getting the cold so we were not as energetic and didn't get to do as much as we wanted.  Oh well, it was winter and staying nice and warm inside was nice.  We had a lot of fun seeing family and running into friends.  Charlie and Ellie sure enjoyed playing with their cousins!!

Here are some of the fun things we did:

Celebrating Christmas

Charlie getting ready to sled.  Sorry this was the only pic I got of sledding!

Tobogganing!  Charlie and his cousins loved it so much they went down at least 5 times with Uncle Dale.

Whee!  These hills were seriously steep - Charlie, Brenden, & Josiah were so brave!

I love how Charlie's hair is flying here.

Decorating a gingerbread train.

Celebrating birthdays for Kyler, Brenden, & Dan.