The Family Almanac

I've always been a fan of written calendars, agendas and planners.

Documenting any aspect of your life in the written word is pretty

satisfying! However, I don't want to have a trunk load of previous

calendars collecting dust somewhere and have to rifle through multiple

copies to try to dig up a memory of "that one time."

Many years ago I came up with the idea of a Family Almanac. A single

reference book to document momentous occasions, dates, or just a "day in the life" sentiment to record for your future self reference.

I found a nice beautifully bound blank lined journal and started off by assigning every day of the year one page - in order - from January 1st to December 31st. Each date is written at the top of the page and abbreviated at the top-right corner of the page (for quick flip reference).

My journal had more than 365 pages so I even added a buffer page at the month breaks and decorated each appropriately for the applicable season. (Snow in January, Flowers in April, etc)

Once my Almanac was dated and prepared, I started filling in those obvious dates - Birthdays, Anniversaries, any significant milestones each one of us likely has noted somewhere, in chronological order. (Oldest year reference at the top of the page)

I chose to limit each entry to one line of the page and modeled each in the following format: Year - Note. For example: On the page for April 19th I have an entry written as "2012 - Josie's Birthday 8pm, 8lbs". After a few years you get a really nice listing of significant life memories collected on a single page!

Other tips:

- I tend to write in pencil, which makes mistakes less devastating to correct.

- Make a unique page for those holidays that don't have a set date, like Easter or Thanksgiving.

- Buy a journal that includes an attached bookmark. Use this to mark the page/date where you made your last entry.

- Use your phone's photo album to help you record applicable milestones. I always take pictures when these events occur (a natural reaction, I guess) so I just have to use the dates in my photo album to know which entries needed to be written down after my last entry. (Where my bookmark was found!)