Sandy J. Hartwick's Blog, page 7

Gratitude is the heart’s memory – French proverbSeveral...

Gratitude is the heart’s memory – French proverb

Several of the journals that I pictured in my previous post are gratitude journals. Books filled with days of “thank you God” lists. It sounds simplistic, but there are studies that show gratitude is helpful with depression, reducing stress, and staying healthy. Here is an informative article about gratitude:https://positivepsychology.com/neuroscience-of-gratitude/

 

I also like looking back in these journals, because often there are memories tied to all of those grateful days. Here is a post from March 13, 1997:

Thank you Lord for: the bees buzzing around the pink sweetness of apricot blossoms in the warm sun; my husband with his handsome, stubbled face, golden hair, and green eyes; the sun on my back and the lovely earthy smell of spring; the wild giggles and shouts of my healthy children playing; and thank you Lord for my new found ability to look on the bright side.

If keeping a journal seems to be too much to take on now, try thinking of five things to be grateful for in the morning or the evening. I can remember many nights when I was simply thankful for my bed as I fell into it.

 

 

Keeping a Journal: Memories and Raw Emotion

Journaling

 

 

The photo shows some of my journals. The oldest entry is December 20, 1990. I meant to share one of the entries in this post, but happened on some entries that made me weep, one was about the day my kids were born and the other was about the day my dog Teddy Bear was run over and killed. Both of these events occurred nearly thirty years ago, but the raw emotion was still there. So change of plans for today, I need a bit more time to find a more appropriate, lighter journal entry to share.

Most of my journals have gaps in them, when life happened and I just didn’t have the time to write. Even after lengthy pauses I have come back to my journals and continued on. I encourage you to keep a journal to remember and even to help you vent about life. I treasure mine and there is a lot of great material here for future blog posts and story ideas. I often wish that one of my ancestors had kept a journal so that I would know about them and their life.

 

New Roomba and the Secret Under the Bed

 

 

 

Crazy Eightball

I highly recommend keeping a journal. Even if you can’t write in it everyday, it makes for some fun reminiscing. The following is from a journal entry dated October 16, 2019.

Old Roomba gave up the ghost and I tried to get along without him. But having a large house and me being not really into housework found me missing my little Buddy. Enter new Roomba, unnamed as yet. Quieter and it seems to pick up a lot more dirt. Got hung up on the treadmill downstairs a couple of times, but so far, so good. I decided that I needed to run some errands in town and locked new Roomba in the master bedroom/bath while I was away.

I came home and opened the master and everything is normal, except new Roomba is stopped by the side of the bed with a long, black petrified-looking thing beside it. OMG. No. IT. CAN’T. BE. It surely looks like an ancient, petrified cat turd. Ugh. It is! HOW? WHY?!

I look under the bed to see if there is more or if I can spot the scene of the crime. No. Now my Howard Hughes germ PHOBIA kicks in, as I imagine the robot whacking the old, shriveled turd this way and that across the rug and everywhere. I can visualize its little brushes flicking bits of cat crap everywhere. Retch!

It took me awhile to figure out what to do. At first I thought maybe I should burn everything and then I thought disinfect everything. I finally vacuumed the rug (with a real vacuum) and mopped the hard surfaces and will disinfect new Roomba (perhaps its name should be Turd Herder). My husband laughed and said he would have thrown the turd away and restarted new Roomba. This brings me to the point that mankind would be better off if we had kept dirt floors…

 

Hello and welcome to my website!

 This is my first blog post and you may notice my website is NOT perfect. Well, that is because all of this is new to me. Since I published The Sacrifice it has been a stream of learning new, new, new and my brain is full! Please hang on, because it will get better–it has to–right?

In the meantime, please visit one of my social media pages and please connect. I have so much that I want to share with you and it is going to be a fun adventure. Feel free to email me anytime sandy@sandyjhartwick.com