My time on the time line

Most of my time has been spent helping my 87 year old mother write her life history, based on her daily journal entries. Since 1973 or so, she has kept a journal. She writes what time she woke up each morning, whether she washed her hair or not, what she ate for breakfast (though not always listed), when she did laundry, cleaned the house, went to a doctor's appointment, or when she went visiting teaching with a report about each sister, what the Sacrament speakers talked about, and if she was lucky to get a nap, and what state she was in, exhausted, so tired, etc. when she went to bed. Not to mention the worries and hopes for her children and others in her life.

She remarried in 1980 after my father died at the young age of 50, and was married for 18 years before her second husband passed away. In those 18 years, they made many trips from their home in Weiser, Idaho in their motor home to Utah, California, Colorado, Washington and Oregon, as far south as Texas, and as far north as Canada, and east to Indiana to visit their children. After she buried her second husband in 1998, she remarried for the third time in 2000 and made more trips. When she buried her third husband she told me she wasn't doing that again. To date, she has 41 grandchildren, 77 great grandchildren and five more due this spring. We want them to have her history.

At first I tired of wading through the mundane to find the jewels, but I see that in the writing of her day, she has kept her mind alert and active in remembering. And isn't that what a journal should do - help us remember.

To document our time working, I had Steve take a picture of us at our work station. And since my blog helps me to remember things that have happened in my life, here is my entry.

Do you keep a daily journal, or a monthly accounting of your life, thoughts, special moments, or those funny things the kids say? You should.