# 40 Finish My Current Journal

Even though it is #40 it isn't the last one I need to do, but I am getting really close to finishing.  I started this journal January of 2002, so had I finished it on my birthday last year it would be exactly 10 years old.  Honestly I am not a big journal writing person.  I used to be but I don't feel like there is much variation in my daily life so it isn't that interesting to write or read.   When I got this one for Christmas I wanted one without lines so I could be more creative with it.  So I would tape ticket stubs in and the odd drawing or whatever.  It makes it a thousand times more interesting for me to look at and remember than just writing.  Here are some examples of pages.  The first is when I got behind on ticket stubs so I stuck them in and tried to explain what they were and with who.  The second is some of the pictures I did when I dabbled in watercolors.  I got really good at pine trees.  I didn't have anywhere to put them so I just stuck them in the journal.  It is fun to go back and look at these kind of things because it brings back more memories than words. 

#16

This one I have needed to do for 5 years.  My brother Fletcher fell from a constructions site almost 6 years ago.  He is fine and recovered however it was a really hard thing to go through as a family.  It is impossible to describe seeing your baby brother laying there not knowing if he will make it or not.  As a big sister I was supposed to protect him and wasn't able to or even help once it happened.  So #16 is that I wrote up that incident and what my perceptions of it were.  It was hard to write and relive.  It ended up being 6 pages long single spaced.  I will file it away for maybe his kids to read when I am gone.  During Fletcher's accident I came to really know that I love my family.  I came to know our capacity to work together for a common goal and support one another.  I came to know the deep love my parents have for Fletcher and then all of us.  The hardest was to see them go through those events.  In the very beginning when Fletcher fell, I prayed in the back room of my classroom and was let know that he would be alright so during the experience I could focus on caring for my parents as they cared for him.  It is an experience that I base my faith on.  It happens to be Fletcher's birthday today too so even though I didn't plan it, it is a good day to post it.  

#17 Grow a Garden

 Since I have lived in this house 4+ years I have grown tomatoes in a little patch under the kitchen window.  One year I grew peppers that were so hot you couldn't even eat them.  However I have always wanted to grow a garden.  Two years ago I cleared a little patch of land and plant various seeds and nothing grew.  Could be I didn't really water it and I didn't read the directions on the package and put tons of seeds in.  So this summer I was determined to grow something besides tomatoes.  So instead of just throwing seeds into the earth and expected them to grow early in the Spring I planned my garden and read each package of seeds carefully and took notes in a little notebook.  Then tilled the ground and planted.  It worked.  I have squash, onions, radishes, and cucumbers.  The peas didn't really grow or the beets but next year I will try to figure those out.  Not to be cheesy but it really a miracle.  You put a little seed into the ground and cultivate (care for) it and then you have food.  It is amazing.  The first meal I really used stuff was really like a wonder.  We had gone fishing so we ate the fish we caught and the vegetables from the garden.  The only thing we didn't provide for ourselves was the rice.  Included in this years harvest was my lavender.  As with the garden I have planted lavender I bet 4 times, one each year and nothing happens.  Last year I planted two bushes and really cultivated them with water and shade when needed and then year they blossomed.  I clipped the buds and dried them and then removed the flower from the stalk and put the flowers in a little satchel.  From two pants I got 2.5 satchel which I gave to my mom.  So #17 very fulfilling in growing a garden.