I stumbled upon these gems at Target in the stationary section and had to get three – one for each of my children (blue for the boys and pink for the baby, who for awhile I swore was going to be a girl).
The journals allow you to write a sentence or two to mark every day for five years. It was a little pricey – each book cost $16.95, but for the quality of the cover and pages, as well as the structure it offers, I succumbed to the splurge. Plus, it will account for 1,826 days of my children’s lives.
Each page of the journal contains the date with five sections below. The year is written in a box in each section, along with a brief memory of the day.
It could be a fun expedition, such as our trip to the Mason-Dixon fair on Wednesday.
It could be an interesting or funny quote. Frank keeps saying “done” and “ah, ah, ah,” while Collin told me, “I’m leaving you and going back to where I belong” after I asked him to put his books away yesterday.
It could also be an observation, like how Frank’s eyes keep getting bigger and bluer and that Collin is the tallest one in his playgroup at the gym.
For the baby’s book, I document pregnancy woes and joys along with the dreams I have for him or her. I know that soon enough, the pages will be full of coos and gurgles, turning over, crawling, and a lifetime of firsts.
What you write is up to you, the trick is to do it every day. It only takes me five minutes to record a few lines in each journal before I fall asleep. If you happen to be a morning person, you could do it when you wake up.
I’ve found that if I forget to write for a day or two, it’s harder to remember the details that make each day special and end up writing something generic. Therefore, the books will be accompanying us on vacation where extraordinary memories are sure to occur.
My Aunt Anne told me to write down the things that the boys say and do or else I might forget. I’m hoping this project will help me to remember little snapshots of them as they grow. It will warm my heart to go back and read what they did one, two, three, four, and five years ago as I complete their daily entries in the not-so-distant future.
One-Line-a-Day Five-Year Memory Books are available at Target, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.com.