When I was nine, my mother gave me a diary.
It had a lock and key, and the pages were edged in “gold.”
Now the diary’s gilt edging has mostly worn off. And the lock is broken, which doesn’t really matter since the key has long since been lost. A bright pink hairband wrapped tightly around its middle is the only thing that keeps the pages from fluttering away into oblivion.
I was running out of interesting bedtime stories for the kids, so I’ve taken to reading to them from my diary instead.(Yes, it’s cheating. No, I don’t care.)
I read about a week’s worth of days each evening, maybe more. The kids get a kick out of all the things I did. For example, I:
a. made my own make-up
b. fought with my friends (all the time—I was quite the cantankerous little twit)
c. whined about the miseries of canning (still do)
d. reported on all the food I made and ate (I think there’s a theme here)
Other topics that get covered include: tin can stilts, Tom and Jerry (my children love them), my mom’s near (?) drowning and rescue, a surprise trip to the circus (though my dad spilled the beans by saying the word backwards and then I wrote it down and puzzled it out—pretty good for a pore speler sitch as me), a meteor shower, a holiday with the grandparents (the ones they never really knew), the demise (“smoshing”) of some garden-dwelling voles, Shakespearean ghost stories, etc.
I get a kick out of random lines, such as, “[My aunt] had a baby. It was born ten months young.”
This newest spin on our bedtime routine might go on for quite some time. I journaled daily for ten years, you know…
This same time, years previous: golden chicken curry, warm sourdough chocolate cakes
6 Comments
Shy Girl
The journal is absolutely magical! 10 years thats incredible! and it looks so good, like something out of a Tim burton movie 😀
A fellow diary blogger,
Shy Girl.
The Chronicles of a Shy Girl
katie
I now understand how you can stand blogging. It's pretty much the same idea, right, except for the lock and key part? I couldn't understand keeping the desire to keep posting day after day. But then my journals all quickly devolved into something very sporadic (and not very interesting) as well.
Margo
daily for 10 years?! That's impressive. ANd I think this is such a good thing to do with your children! It connects them to your childhood – not a cop-out at all, in my opinion.
Michelle @ Give a Girl a Fig
That is so special that you still have it! I had a little diary with a lock and key…I think it had Holly Hobbie on the front. Or a Betsy Clark character? Yes…that was it…Betsy Clark…to match my lunch box. 🙂
KTdid
Backward, turn backward, oh time in your flight!
I remember you as that little girl!
Q.
the domestic fringe
That's awesome! I wish I had journaled as a kid. You're giving your children a glimpse into you at their age and that's about the best gift I can think of.
~FringeGirl