Bullet Journal Update

Wow, my journal has changed so much.  I started out all "I'm gonna conquer the world and this kind of organization is the way that I'm going to do it!!!!"

My first pages were all colorful.  I drew my own calendar at the beginning of the month.  I even got so detailed that I would take the dimensions of the page and calculate how much space I needed for the calendar, or the doodle with me challenge that I was doing that month.  I had a page of tracking my habits, a page for memories, and daily pages outlining what I needed to do everyday.

I hoped that all of this would help me stay focused and reach my goals for doing all the things that I wanted to do or accomplish. Despite all the changing my journal has done, using my bullet journal daily has helped me achieve my goals... one day at a time.

I found that by writing out to-do's and goals the day before, or the morning of, that I would have a clear outline for what I wanted to accomplish.  I expected that I would feel guilty if I didn't finish what I had set out to do, but I really didn't.  I found that it was nice to put a little arrow in the box and move it to the next day or the next week.  It was good to see that I hadn't forgotten about it, but realized that it wasn't as important as I initially thought.

My journal changed gradually.  Honestly, I just didn't have the time to spend setting it up the way that I had been doing.  It took a lot of time to do all that drawing.  I am creative, but I really have to work at it.  My months went from 2 pages to 1.  My daily pages went from several pages to 1.  My trackers were condensed and I tried to keep doing the doodle challenges, but I ended up not even finishing them.  I decided that I wanted to start using my journal as a journal as well and not just the mother of all calendars.  Plus, I started thinking of my journal as a bit of a keepsake.  One day when I am dead and gone, my kids might find my journals and relive their life through my eyes?  Maybe they will know me in a way that they never did before.

By the beginning of 2017, I decided to do all my calendar stuff... in my calendar (novel I know).  I had a dayspring pocket calendar that I used for everything and I found it was easier just to keep up with all my schedules in that instead of duplicating it every day into my journal.  My calendar already had pages for daily entries, I just modified the space a little bit.  I used colored pencils (cause it still has to be pretty) to fill in the sections that I completed.  I was even able to fit in my daily goals.

Now I mostly use my journal as a journal, I sometimes add brain storming, goal setting, random doodles, notes when I'm out, and the occasional handwriting practice.  As I have gone back and looked at the previous pages of my journal, I remembered how much I enjoyed making each page.  Honestly, my bullet journal will always be evolving.  My goal is to do something creative every day, that might come in the form of doing another doodle challenge.  Who knows.

This whole bullet journey has been good, and a great way for me to be organized and productive.  Not only that, it has also given me a way to practice being creative daily.  So, overall.... I would call this venture a success!


“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”
― Dr. Seuss

Rosy Encouragement

The other day my mom sent me this encouraging text.  I didn't really need it at the time but I have been thinking about it quite a lot lately.

She said, "The rose is beautiful on the outside but it is from the inner heart that the fragrance comes from.  You hold the perfume of God within you"  My name of course is Kaloni Rose meaning "heavenly rose"  so this means a lot to me.  It's also motivation to let the fragrance of the Lord radiate out from my life.  It is a reminder that my life affects those around me.  It reminds me that not only my actions but my thoughts can have to power to change a situation.  

"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."- Luke 6:45

"Kind hearts are the garden, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the blossoms, kind deeds are the fruits" - John Ruskin (saying on my recipe box)

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more." - Dr. Seuss (Ok, so this is a bit of a stretch for a fitting quote, but this is when the Grinch discovers that its all about the heart)

Perseverance

God says this, but I experienced that... Now what? Wrestle with God, I'm not going to change my theology... I insist that you help me change my experience. -paraphrased from Kris Volloton.

I scrolled across Kris Vollotton's blog this morning on Facebook, and I thought... wow, how timely is that.  I was just saying to Steve yesterday, how do I believe in faith and protect my heart at the same time?  Why is it that I feel with all my being that this land is supposed to be ours and yet we are having such a hard time achieving that goal?

I know that it doesn't address my faith question directly, but it did address something that I struggle with.  So often, I just let things go.  I know that what I am praying for is in the Father's will, yet when it doesn't happen.... I just let it go.  Maybe it wasn't time, maybe God wanted to take that person home to heaven, maybe they weren't ready to receive a healing, maybe I did something wrong?  I do this all the time and second guess what I know to be true about God's character.

Wrestling with God means that you fight for what is promised.  It means that you fight for what is right.  Abraham wrestled with God before his grandson did.  Remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah?  Abraham continued to ask God to spare the righteous in those towns and to not burn them along with the wicked.  That is wrestling with God, too.

So, to me this was encouragement to keep praying and seeking.  I continue to see myself on that property with my farm and goats and making soap and spinning yarn.  I continue to pray that God will give us creative ideas and I keep taking the steps forward in faith getting ready for what I know will come.