Spring in Montana is like a wizard it “is never late. Nor is it early; it arrives precisely when it means to.”
If you had asked me yesterday, I would have said Spring had come to Montana. It was a beautiful, sunny 50-degree day. Perfect for a long, long walk.
But when I woke up this morning, it was once again sunny and for a third time this week, we had inches of new snow.
New fluffy snow and bright sun. This is winter in Montana, at least on the east side of the Rocky Mountians.
The first day of Spring brought snow and cold. And the second brought sun and warmth. The third seems to be some combination: it is sunny, snowy, but not warm. I am grateful that spring seems to be making at least brief appearances. But winter has yet to release us from its icy grasp.
Creek is flowing and the ducks are quacking. It sure feels like spring!
My doctor prescribed exercise on Monday as part of the plan to deal with my weeks-long headache. (Her orders also included reducing stress, so that should be easy considering the current state of affairs.)
As directed, I have started walking every day, couple-three times a day if I am honest. We are trying to stay home, away from everyone else, like most people are during the pandemic. But walking and running are both socially distant activities so that I still do those at least!
And one of the things I am trying to do as I walk is to find something interesting, or at least pretty, and capture it to share.
Social distancing approved interaction. Meet Horse, I am sure he has a name but I don’t know it, I say hello to him every morning all the same.
Fortunately for me, I have a few companions during my wondering. Steve and I go out after lunch and in the evening I take the pups out for a nice long “smell tour of the neighborhood”. Mostly our short-legged pups like to play in the snow. No roadside snowbank is safe from the corgi snow seal and the basset super sniffer.
Lassie and Apollo are loving the snow!
I love it. Walking and being out in the fresh air has been wonderful. I am glad of the break during the days working from home. And I am feeling remarkable better.
There are a few things in this world that I truly enjoy and some have honestly improved my life. I imagine I will look back at these things years from now and wonder why but for now, here is a one of the things on the list of “Things I Love” (and more then some are not things at all).
Brand new Bullet Journal waiting to be set up.
Anyone who has interacted with me in person over the last few years has certainly noticed two things: I love technology and I hate paper! But I am always carrying a notebook with me. It seems contradictory and I suppose it is. In my perfect world, I would have to keep track of zero bits of paper. But since I don’t currently rule the world, my life is filled with paper. In my quest to minimize the pieces of paper I am responsible, for I have built myself a system to capture all of it in one place.
I have a notebook that I take with me everywhere, and in it, I write down all the notes I take ever. Meaning if I write it down it is in that notebook. No post-it notes or napkins for me. Nope, if it got written down it was in that notebook. It’s great because nothing gets lost it’s all in there.
This was my September 2019 Bullet Journal Page. I use colors to keep track of what an event is for (or whose event it is). The right side is a habit tracker and I am still not great at that.
The other benefit is that it helps me plan my life on paper and on purpose every month. When I am using it well, I lay out the month ahead of time, including all my scheduled events, meetings, and deadlines, then I record events and details as the month proceeds. It works well even if I get started a little late in the month. I keep a Google Calander that I love but there is something about taking the time to record what is happening during each week and seeing it all written out that I have found helpful and it gives me more than a little peace of mind. I think it helps because it ensures I have not overlooked anything vital because I wrote it all down.
It is more than just planning my life but documenting too. I try to write down things I was proud of each day and I keep track of what I am most grateful for, which is mostly one handsome fella and two ridiculous dogs.
This is my last BUJO, retired in January 2020. I kept it in that bag on the right, mostly to keep it clean and undamaged by its rough life in my bag. Steve made me that basset sticker for the back and corgi for the front.
I am not particularly crafty and I get very little enjoyment from drawing. (Sorry, Coach it still just feels like work to me.) But this notebook has also a way to capture my life. I stick little in bits of paper ticket stubs, stickers, brochures and event flyers inside sometimes. I kept the name card from our Christmas party because I had never seen my name look prettier than it did written out in perfect silver script on a tiny piece of folded paper. I use pens of different colors to keep me organized and just for fun. And recently, I have started writing a quote as a theme of sorts for each month. Hamilton is my inspiration for this year.
One of the surprising things I have used this notebook for over the past year is for taking notes in small meetings. I type significantly faster than I write and for all of my adult life I have taken my notes digitally. I always use a tablet and keyboard for note-taking but I have found that in a small meeting, say less than 5 people, that using a keyboard isn’t particularly comfortable. I can talk and type or listen and type without any trouble. But I have found that people wait for me to finish clicking away before they continue their thought. And I hate that. So I decided to put away my keyboard and drag out my notebook and a pen. And now, no one stops talking when I jot something down.
This was my first Bullet Journal and I found this pen case that attached to the outside. I loved this set up!
I have no real proof, but I think that subtracting the screen between us has improved my relationships with people as well. They just talk to me with more ease when I have my notebook instead of my tablet and keyboard. And for me, it is worth it to take a little extra time to digitize my notes and tasks after the meeting if not having a screen makes our meetings better.
So if you are intrigued by my love of a notebook and bullet journaling system I encourage you to look into it, YouTube is great for tutorials and Instagram is good for the pretty examples (as it usually is for most things). I would suggest starting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm15cmYU0IM and also here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkZEEQG6IVE.
