My Journals for Journaling

I’ve been spending a lot of time in two different journals for my journaling. There is a bit of overlap between both, and I’m not too anal about what goes in one or the other, but for the most part, my TN is for general journaling along with life organization, and my A5 Noble Note is for memory keeping.

I’ve been using a Traveler’s Notebook regular size (sometimes I swap between covers, and this one is the Diner’s Set) for morning pages, brain dumping, random thoughts, things that I am just spilling out onto the page, processing or trying to think through things. This isn’t a highly organized notebook, but I do have a few tabbed pages that I refer back to, since this is the one I carry around with me, lists, things to look into, notes from the kids’ teachers. I do also occasionally put a sticker or some washi tape in when I’m at home at my desk, but this one is mostly writing. This is the notebook I bring out with me, and scribble in if I have a few minutes to spare.

Inside my TN, I’ve been using a Kunisawa Find Flex, which has reinspired my love for my TN. It is thick and chunky and hefty and full.

Along with my Find Flex, I’m also using the dated TN vertical weekly planner. This one I keep up with and I don’t keep up with, and I use my favourite precious supplies and it’s a pleasure when I have time for it. There’s sometimes pressure to keep up with dated planners, but I’m trying to think of this one like a treat when I get to spend time with it.

And my other journal is my Noble Note (I’ve also used a few other A5-sized notebooks, like the MD, another favourite), which is for memory-keeping and exploration and the good stuff of life.

I have pages where I’m using washi tape or gluing in things from life, collaging, things that I’ve clipped out of magazines or newspapers. I use stationery and stamps, have swabs of inks, mementos from big and small adventures. I catalogue new things we get into the shop, or test out new stationery that we’re thinking of bringing in.

This one is a delight! I’m usually writing in this one late at night, but occasionally during the day, a baby asleep some feet away from me, or else eating the paper directly from the recycling bin, or with Caleb and Naomi also doing their own creative things in the mess around me. I write stories about my days, both involving the kids and not, what is happening with the shop, what is happening with life, thoughts and feelings, yes, but mostly writing down things I want to remember.

I try not to censor myself or to write for posterity, but this one is a real

memory-keeping kind of notebook. The older I’ve gotten, the more existential I’ve become, and the more I realize that Caleb, Naomi and baby Junia might be interested in their childhoods, the shop’s early days, life when they were young. I think my TN is destined for some ritual bonfire, but the Noble Notes might be one day for them to rifle through, to see photos of them, to read about their lives and all the tiny things that make up our days right now.

That being said, it’s not really for them—it’s to make sense of life and to hold onto what dredges I can as it swooshes right past me. My own adventures.