Last week’s story about calendars and prayers generated several conversations about how I keep myself organized.   More about that in a minute, but first things first.

Tanya Tucker Huevel, whom I quoted last week, sent me some additional information on the source of the prayer that she prayed and that I included in last week’s blog. In case you missed it, Tanya prayed a lovely prayer for “the least, the last, the lost and the lonely.”  Tanya first heard most of the prayer from Neil Francisco, a gentleman in her Sunday School Class, and says that God led her to add the “lonely” to her prayers.  I so love that!

As promised, here are some ways that I use to keep my days on track.

Every year, during the back-to-school sales, I get several of the marble-covered composition books.  I generally use about four during the course of a year.  These books are where I write down records of phone calls and emails that I need replies for or a notation of and other pertinent happenings in my life.   I can easily look the next day to see if I need to follow up with someone about something.  If someone were to look at most of the notes I’ve made to myself in these notebooks, it’s likely they would not be able to understand or make sense of my most of them.  And that’s OK, because they are just for my use. I often will add a phone number to the notation; to preserve Sharon’s privacy in the picture below, I intentionally made sure the picture didn’t include nearly all of hers. I usually use a lot of abbreviations, but here’s a sample of one from last August that didn’t and I hope illustrates my ways of working: 

And this is a look at my prayer journal;  because of the nature of many of my prayers, I don’t usually note a prayer on the line for the time.  However, if I know that someone has a doctor’s appointment at a certain time, I will usually write their name next to the time.  Often things I need to pray for on a certain day will travel well onto the middle of the page; I pay no attention to the time printed in the book. That’s OK.  God knows, and he’s the only One who counts.  As with the marble-covered composition book example shown, I’ve preserved the privacy of the person mentioned by intentionally not capturing all of my notes, nor the date. This is a Moleskine and is easy to fit in my purse.

The best for last.  Every year since at least the early 2000s, I’ve ordered a Spiegel Book, which is a journal or diary, from Pat Ogle at Ogle Publishing in Oregon.  It’s $40 very well spent.  Truly, the pictures do not do it justice.  I like several things about the Spiegel Book.  There are several monthly calendars at the bottom of each page,  each day has a quote, there are two ribbon markers, as well as a tiny tear-off perforated tab at the bottom of each page, therefore giving me three ways to mark a date or page for easy reference.  I use the Spiegel to note birthdays and additional information that won’t fit onto my main calendar, which I showed last week.

I waited to order my 2020 Spiegel book until nearly Christmas;  that was way too long, I admit.  When I didn’t get it by the first of the year, I was in touch with Pat.  She provided the carrier tracking numbers;  to make a long story short, I think my original Spiegel must have made three round trips from Oregon to Johnson City! While the original Spiegel was seeing the United States from inside a sturdy cardboard box, Pat graciously sent me another one, with both of us believing the original to have been lost somewhere within the tracking system.

However, the original Spiegel showed up on Friday!  Pat asked me to gift it to someone;  I’m happy to do that for the first person who comments on my blog in the comment portion of the blog and who lives in the United States.  So even though 2020 has started, it’s not too late for a great journal or diary!  It will be a lovely gift for you or someone you care about.

I expect that The Book Store, an early Johnson City establishment, would have carried diaries and journals similar to all three of the purchased calendars I use, as well as the marble-backed composition books. The Book Store was owned by John Edwin Crouch, who happened to be the only member of the Milligan College class of 1896.  Mr. Crouch was a busy man;  not only did he own The Book Store, but he also taught in the Johnson City schools, and was Superintendent of the school system in 1921.  He was an active member of First Christian Church, which will celebrate its Sesquicentennial on November of 2021.  I learned about Mr. Crouch from the 100^th Anniversary History and Directory 1871-1971, First Christian Church, Johnson City, Tennessee, which was compiled and written by Mary Hardin McCown and Josephine Carpenter Owen.

Until next time…….