My Junior Year Journal + Found Friday

October 2, 2020

Written by Daisy Montgomery

My junior year of high school I really got into journaling. It became a constant habit of pouring my thoughts out. Don’t get me wrong, there were weeks that I journaled every single day, and there were weeks that I didn’t. Some days I wrote 6 pages, and other times I wrote a few sentences. It was never poetically written or polished, just a way to sort out my thoughts & remember certain moments.

I actually fell in love with journaling so much that I decided to keep two journals my senior year of high school: one journal that I could write everything in (the amazing/good, the bad/ugly) & another journal that I could only write the good in. In my “all good things” journal, I made myself write in it every single day.

Unlike most times where I put crazy expectations on myself, I actually followed through with the journal from the first day of my senior year through the last day. Most of the time I didn’t write with complete sentences, but with just enough words to remember certain moments by. There were a lot of days that I forgot to journal & had to play catch up, but I always jotted notes in my school planner and looked back at old text messages to go back & write the good things down from that day.

The journal is still upstairs in my room right now. Every. Single. Day. of my Senior year of high school is documented in that journal. What’s funny is, no matter how awful the day may have seemed, I began to live each day with the intention of making something good happen to write in the journal. Some days were easy, while others were a bit more challenging.

Sometimes I pull it out & it’s like a memory-jog trying to remember what story some of my short sentences are referring to.

It’s my habit in life to speed up and rush past the moments. Journaling is my way of pausing and slowing down.

I found that as I wrote down all of the good things my senior year, life began to sound like a fun novel playing out: filled with different chapters, characters, and quirky moments.

This past week, I wanted to do a mini “all good things journal”. I snapped a few pics to remember the week by.

Week of September 27, 2020

Sunday

Started the day with a Sunday morning run with Anne Belle, who was back in town for the weekend. All feels right with the 3 sisters back together. Snapped a shoe pic by our neighbor’s giant, untamed zinnia garden in his front yard.

Church with Elijah. The newfound, childlike freedom that comes from swinging in the yard. We’ve made it our tradition to stop by the house & swing for a bit before lunch with my family. The way our front yard is always the perfect combination of sun & shade.

Couch shopping in Nashville, & possibly finding “the one.” We’ve become couch lingo experts this past week. Dinner + ice cream at one of my favorite places, the Murfreesboro Square. Golden Milk ice cream at Hattie Janes…who knew there was such a thing? Showing his grandmother our house for the first time. The boys measuring out the living room for our giant sectional, which will basically fill up the majority of the room.

Monday

Receiving dove hunting updates from Elijah as I hastily worked on finishing up a school project. A side porch decorated for fall by my momma.

Tuesday

3 ball games in 1 night. First, Emmy’s (A.K.A. future sister-in-law’s) soccer game. Then, two baseball games back to back. One for my neighbor, & one for Elijah’s little cousin. There’s few things that make me smile more than little 7 year old boys dancing up to bat with their walk-up songs, feeling on top of the world. Elijah being a sucker for little kids & buying his cousin her first Kit-Kat bar at the concession stand.

Wednesday

Fall weather. All the windows in the house open. Minimalist house drawings. Dear friends giving us two chairs for the house & putting them in their new home. Elijah’s first meal at our new kitchen table, which was his go-to order, 2 Chick-fil-a spicy chicken sandwiches.

Thursday

Morning walks before school with Lila Mae. Since Anna Belle left for college, we needed to create some new rhythms to patch the empty spot of the first sister leaving the house. Blog post writing on our side porch with my companion, Zuzu. My family jokes about her liking me the least, but I’m beginning to wonder the truth in that.

Meeting Elijah at the house to spray some of the brush. Driving around town doing “fence research” to plan for ours. Seeing my grandparents for the first time since quarantine & getting to give them a house tour.

Drawing mini houses in the back yard. Side note, can anyone else smell fall? I promise it has a smell.

Dinner on the Square with my family at one of our new favorite spots, Dominicos Italian Deli + a view of the courthouse.

See, look at all the beauties of life when we look at them from an outside lense. While I don’t journal as consistently anymore, it’s a habit that I’m always wanting to lean back into. Do you enjoy journaling, or have you tried it?

Found Friday Week 6

Finally, as always, this week’s Found Friday collection is available in the Fernway Home Etsy shop! We lovingly refer to it as “Found items for an inspired home.”

In case you aren’t familiar with Found Fridays, every Friday we post a collection of found items to share with you. As we are on the hunt for pieces for our house at thrift shops, auctions, and yard sales, we always end up finding more treasures, so Found Fridays are our way of sharing those finds with you!