As a member of the LDS church, journal keeping is a topic regularly brought up when discussing family history. It always makes me think of my Grandma Jean who has kept a daily journal ever since she got married over 60 years ago. Crazy!! It motivates me to find ways to journal-keep myself.

I’ve always been a pretty good journal keeper. Or at least a new book journaler. I loved starting a brand new book, but I almost never actually finished it (I’ve got piles of journals with the first 10-20 pages filled out sitting under my bed at home). In high school I would write about church or school dances, silly things happening at school. My freshman year of college I kept up with an online journal and I’m so glad I did because the boy I had a crush on and my first kiss was the man I married. I love going back and reading about the first few months we dated. I also kept a consistent journal during my 4 months in Jerusalem which I absolutely love reading through. I also have a spiritual journal where I write down special moments and answers to prayers. Like I said, I’m pretty weird but none of them really stuck.

Then in 2012, my sister showed me a journal she was keeping and I decided to start one too. It was a 10-year journal by simply using notecards and a date stamp I had seen online. Five years later and I have a consistent journal of the simple things I did each day!

Don’t get me wrong, I would accidentally forget for 4 months straight and it made it difficult to remember the details of specific days so there are some days that just say ‘class, chill’ or ‘work’ when I’m sure I did more. What helped was looking at my phone’s photos, Instagram, calendar events, and texts for days I couldn’t remember what I did.

I love looking at what I had done the same day for multiple years, especially on days like our anniversary or a day that meant something special to me and seeing what happened years before that moment.

All you need is 4×6″ notecards and a cute box to put them in. I received this adorable recipe Rifle Paper Co. box as a birthday gift and it’s seriously perfect.  The notecards fit really well and I ended up using the recipe category tabs to separate the months. So January is Breakfast and December is dessert (it works ha). I love that my bad handwriting can be hidden and sit neatly in a cute box that I put on our living room mantle! Hopefully no one goes prying around our stuff while I’m grabbing our guests some water or else they would get to know a lot more about me. 😉

It’s more surface level journaling but most likely if it’s a really special day you will journal more of your thoughts elsewhere. If you’re looking for an easy and fun way to journal the 10-Year Journal is a great way to go!