STORY OF A NOTEBOOK: we just finished our latest "early morning notes on the counter" notebook, and so in the box of loose notes and other little juicy scraps it goes, and we started a new notebook ... and i highly recommend a notebook, a wipe-off board, a chalkboard, or scrawling your feelings into the woodwork with your fingernails in whatever main area you have in your house, whether it's the two of you, the four of you, the nine of you, and even if there's just one of you--"notes to self" can't be all bad, right? this particular nondescript and campy dime store notebook that we just completed was started earlier this year, and this has been quite the year. we loved and lost a lot this year, and this notebook helped us to remember what we still held since we also capped off our 9th year together, and started the 10th. the last time we had a "loved and lost" year like this (2011), i couldn't handle all of the love and loss (in front of anyone--not even Mark) and i went to the "the little yellow house" by the shoreline for 9 months ... so i've grown; we've all grown. and so i give you some of the humorous notes from this year wherein Mark thought i loved my Kindle Fire more than i loved him (never ever have seen him jealous before-OMG!) and wherein i wrote notes like a five-year-old/learning penmanship for six weeks, using my left hand, and other funny stuff ... now, go get your notebook, your wipe-off board, your chalkboard, or scratch something meaningful into your kitchen wall using a penknife! i.dare.you! love lasts, but life doesn't go on forever, so make sure those you love are hearing your words ...

*above a Facebook post which is now a blog entry ...

and ... in other notebook-ish news ... i'm having a try at "bullet journaling" and so i bought a few supplies yesterday to add to a leather padfolio that i already had (two smaller notebooks and a grid pad, along with some tabs and labels).  so my daily routine now includes "mourning pages," my client binder and the bullet journal, of which it remains to be seen if the bullet journal will soothe (my unable to write long and free for too many minutes a day) healing hand problem, or whether it will die on the roadside.  they say it takes "30 days to make or break a habit," and so my first notation in my bullet journal is, "if you do not make an every day, a very concerted use of this bullet journal for the next 30-day trial period, you must POKE YOUR EYES OUT WITH A STICK .... for not trying hard enough ...

... so we shall see what develops ...

***

"Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened." 

-THOMAS HARDY