For anyone who has ever wanted to do a written journal but doesn't have time...

I've tried over the years to start hand written journals many times and other than when I was a weepy junior high and high school girl I was wildly unsuccessful. I even started journals for Aaron and Rachel at one point for them to read later when they are adults or when I am worm food so they would know some of their milestones and how amazing and brave I think they are…also unsuccessful. For some reason I seem to look at it like exercise, it's intimidating to me in a time sense in that I feel that I have to do all or nothing. I feel like if I go in there and write 3 or 4 sentences every day it would be like I don’t care enough to write more, but I simply don't have the time or energy to write more even though writing is in my DNA. That's one of the main reasons I do this blog. My grandfather was one of JFK's speechwriters and almost every member of my family ended up being gifted writers. I am a writer and I have to do it, but on my timetable.

At the end of every day though, I just want to fall down and relax, recover and read or watch TV, not recap or rehash events or emotions that are sometimes overwhelming and exhausting. The end of the day when the kids are asleep is my time to recharge. With journaling I always felt like I had to get in to my head too much and if I wait too long to write in it I get so back logged that it is then a monumental task that I am unwilling to do and I forget 90% of the days that I meant to journal.

I have also been having trouble keeping track of Aaron and Rachel’s milestones which is heartbreaking for me because to be honest they are quite few and far between sometimes. To lose track of things I hold so dear when the answer is so simple makes me angry at myself. Plus, doctors ask me some of these things and my memory sucks!

It seems though that I have found the answer to my woes. It’s these little ‘One Line A Day’ journals. I'm a grammar nazi and the "A" instead of "Per" part kills me but whatever. They last 5 years! You have a very limited amount of space to write, enough for about 4-5 sentences if you write small. Each page is its own date so you can look back on that specific date each year and compare the days without having to flip back and forth.

Best of all it’s really easy to do every day. I got one for my personal experiences which of course includes my kids so sometimes I’m being redundant but I don't care, and I got one each for Aaron and Rachel so I can give them the journals later. I can get all 3 done for the day in one commercial break from a TV show I am watching! (If I don't fast forward)

If nothing of note went on that day for the kids I just write a big “I love you” or some other sentiment unique to us so there is always something in the space.

There hasn't been one time yet where I have been unwilling or too tired to write in them and I am writing in 3. It’s that easy. I sound like a salesperson.

I know how busy life can be, how quick it goes by and how easy it is to lose track of things. If you ever wanted to journal so you can look back later, but are busy like me and are a mom or dad or just a busy human being you should check these out!

Some people in their reviews on Amazon got all huffy because they said they expected them to be the size of a regular journal (the size of a hard back book basically) and these are "too small.” Well geniuses, that is the point. It's called "One Line A Day" how big do you write? The book is 4”x 6” but I can get in a basic summary of the happenings of each day without a problem, and if for some reason I can’t, it’s my damn journal and I can let it spill over in to the next year’s same day and just figure it out a year later or the next or the next. BFD.

If you need more room buy a bigger journal.

I got mine at Barnes and Noble but I found out later they sell them at Walmart, Amazon and a couple other places for a couple dollars less than what I paid.  Especially at Amazon. The ones that I have are the ones specifically called "One Line A Day." The daily journal is blue, the mom journal is pink and they have a wellness journal that is yellow. I like them because the other brands seem to have less space to write and with the space already so limited I don't want to give up more because the journal maker wanted to put doodles or something cute on the pages. If I want something cute there I'll buy some stickers. That's just me though. As far as I can tell the insides of the mom and daily journals are the same just the covers are different, (they are decent hardback covers) but I still like having the different ones. It's a mom thing I guess. I haven't seen the inside of the wellness one. I looked in a bunch of different ones while I was at B&N and these were just the best ones to me but there are a lot of them.

I think these would be really cute gifts too. Especially for a new mom.

If anyone wants to check them out or buy one, here's a link to Amazon through Autism Daddy. 

Once you're there search "One Line A Day Journal."

And now I have to go clean bananas off the carpet. Maybe I'll write that in my journal later.