We Aren't Even That Far Into August Yet
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We Aren't Even That Far Into August Yet
And I Have Begun To Hate My Planner For The Month
I am going back and forth on my main planner/journal this month.
I believe I mentioned somewhere along the line that after watching all the #OneBookJuly2022 videos and whatnot on YouTube all of last month, and not wanting to change what I was doing in my own planners for the month, for August I decided to combine at least my trackers and my daily memory keeper/daily planner/gratitude all in one notebook.
Yeah, by August 2, I was more than a little bit over it.
It was supposed to be a great thing. I bought a notebook, A5 size, by Emshoi (on Amazon) that has 250+ pages. I don’t number my Key or Index pages. Plus I glued the first and last pages to the page next to them as they were the ones that don’t open completely. They are the pages that only open part-way and this time I figured, let’s glue them together and see what happens.
The next thing I did differently was the daily spread. In my July planner, I had a three-page daily spread. When I set up the journal, I made sure that the daily to-do page and the daily memory-keeping page were facing one another. My five-point journaling page (also known as a gratitude page with some extra stuff thrown in—I have to go digging to find out who I got this idea from) fell wherever it fell. Some days the five-point journaling page came before the main two pages of the day. Sometimes it came after. There was no real plan when I set it up other than make sure it was there. That ended up bothering me to no end for some reason.
With my August set-up, I set aside a minimum of four pages per day. This way everything goes into the book in the same order. The daily to-dos page, the memory keeping page, the five-point journaling page, and then a page for collage/doodles/art/etc. So the plan, accidental though it was, was to set this notebook up more as a daily ritual journal (I learned about DRJs from Jennibellie). I still kept my pages for reflection, Moon cycle, Ethony’s Oracle Wednesday readings, and so forth throughout the book as well.
Well, by August 3, it had become clear that that extra fourth page to do a little bit of art upon had become more of a take notes here/braindump/plan projects sort of page. Honestly, I think I am going to outright ‘blame’ (this means to thank, honestly it does)DearJulieJulie as I stumbled over her Little Golden Book junk journal challenge (thanks to YouTube) and I have definitely been missing my LGB book-making and junk journals. So, that’s what I ended up scribbling notes on for August 2.
In case you are wondering, the August 1 page was dedicated to Lammas. For that page, I did do some random collage. It made me feel good. Even though I did it the day after Lammas. It still counts.
Something else I didn’t realize just how much I missed is the daily ritual journaling practice.
I had been going through my stack of journals and notebooks lately, wondering if I should or already have made videos of them to show everyone. I know I do initial before the pen flip-throughs of my journal set-ups—but I don’t think I do many after the pen/once the journal is completed flip-throughs. As I made my list of notebooks to take videos of, I started to miss the ones where I did more collage and had more arty tip-ins and whatnot.
I will admit I had to stop using dangling and cute paper clips because my cats will snatch them right out of my journals, even if I have the journal in my hand at the time, and will run off with them. They’ve never actually destroyed a paperclip that way; I am more worried they will swallow one or a part of one and hurt themselves than I am anything else. But it is the point of I can’t keep anything marked with a cute paperclip if the goobers keep swiping things and running off with them.
With this August book, I am adding in more art, mostly collage. I have discovered someone I know already but didn’t realize I knew: BrigidsGrove, with artist/poet/writer/and so much more Molly Remer.
I bought the Green Witch Story Goddess from this Etsy store. I went looking through the rest of the store and found the books, the poetry, the devotions. I found out, again, that this group/family is from Rolla, MO. That’s about two hours from where I live. Just as the little goddess figurine drew me in, I went through and found other pieces that I have missing for myself. A daily ritual practice.
So, I now have all sorts of printouts of little bits and bobs from BrigidsGrove’s Patreon that I can cut up and glue down to pages, or cards, or whatever. So I have these magical sayings scattering throughout my pages. I have Goddess figure drawings all over. I also have them only in black and white because our color printer is now a cat bed and a scanner, not a color printer. So, there’s that. All it took was that little nudge.
I will admit that once I started adding in more collage, the less I began to dread using this notebook for the entire month of August. Yes, for the first couple of days I nearly decided to pull out another book and start over. I am glad I didn’t.
Next month, I am going to go back to using more than one book. I am thinking of going back to my regular two-page spreads in one book (to-dos and memory keeping). The five-point journaling …and who knows what else, maybe just that, in a separate journal. I do like the current tracking set-up I am using. It’s more compact, more based on the Alastair method. It being in the back of my current book does mean it tends to get a bit lost, even though I have it marked with paper clips (undecorated ones), a bookmark, and washi taped edges.
I am also having wonky feelings about my A5 dairy journal. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a Disney writing journal (although I covered all of that up on the inside covers, as there is nothing really on the outside that says Disney or that bothers me). Maybe I need to turn that into my daily ritual journal and see if that helps. I think my issue, as I sit here writing this, is that I do not think the journal will hold up well to that.
So that you understand what a DRJ is, it is at its most basic is a journal where you write three pages of journaling (yes, like Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages), and on the fourth page, you create some art. It doesn’t have to be anything amazing or detailed. Some paint or stamps or collage, maybe doodles or whatever. Just something to add a bit of creativity, to fuse the logical and the creative sides of your brain together as you write. It is, for me, a very healing and meditative process. There is something about it that works very well for me.
Until next time…
I will try to get some videos pulled together and posted for everyone to see what I am talking about.
Interested in reading more?
Throughout the month of August, I will be posting five days a week on my personal blog here.
Throughout the month of August, I will also be posting five days a week on my Medium account as well.