IWSG: My Journal

 It's October 1st already!! 

Which means it's officially Spooky Season! I actually don't like really spooky things, but I love all the cartoonish ghosts and cute pumpkins! 

This year I've promised my kids who are all adults that I would actually decorate our house for all the seasons. Every year our house has all the most lame decorations, even for Christmas. I always put up a tree, and I string some lights down our stair railing but that's about it. So we will see if I can impress my kids this year. 😂

Anyway it is also the first Wednesday of the month and I'm just barely getting my IWSG post up in time! I will go to check out everyone else's posts tomorrow.

Go visit all our awesome co-hosts for the October 1 posting of the IWSG: Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine!

Here is the optional question for this month.

October 1 question - What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

I have written poetry, children's stories, fantasy, and a memoir (the only published work), but I think my most favorite thing I've ever written is my journal. Sometimes my journal is my best friend, my therapist, and simply my place to store my memories and gratitude. It also acts as a sort of first draft to all my ideas. A place where I can simply write, unscripted and just let all of my thoughts pour out onto the paper. I do actually mean paper. I have written digital journals too but there is something about the act of creating letters with a pen on paper, it connects me with the past. 

What a magical thing to be able to leave thoughts and ideas for anyone else to read throughout time like the Epic of Gilgamesh which was written over 4,000 years ago according to the Yale University Press website. 

What is your most favorite thing you've written? Do you like Spooky Season? 

Have a wonderful October!!

Love,

 Kathy💕💕

Family Journal

Count-down:  36 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure

I’ve never been great at journal writing, but for this trip to Alaska, I have an ambitious plan.  I’m going to buy each of us our own special notebook and have everyone write at least a few words every day.  For Jessica, Alyssa, and me this will be relatively easy.  It’s the two boys I worry about.  Can I get them to put their thoughts down on paper?  I think I can get my husband to do it, but Ryan’s not too much into writing.  He loves reading. Persuading him to write though, is as difficult as pulling a bear away from a salmon stream.  I have to coax him the entire way.

For some reason, I have the desire to see this trip through everyone’s eyes.  We will all see places differently, notice little things the rest of us miss.  A smell, a color, the way the wind moves through the trees. Ryan might see things closer to the ground. What will Alyssa see in a glacier that I miss? How will Jessica describe the blue of glacier fed lakes?

I want to capture these thoughts and experiences.  

I don’t want the writing to become a chore though.  So I’ve decided, in addition to the notebooks (or maybe in Ryan's and my husband’s case, in place of), every day we will do a quick two minute video log, describing what meant the most to each of us that day.  

When we return home I want to put together all our journaling, videos and pictures into a media project that tells our tale of adventure.

Maybe it's because Jessica and Alyssa will be heading off to college in a year or two and Ryan is almost ten, that I have the need to preserve these precious last moments our five member family has together. I want to capture this beautiful moment in time and hold it forever.

Kathy :)