Happy New Year!

Hope it’s off to a good start for you.

If not, don’t fret, there’s still hope…

One of the things I look forward to every year is buying a new calendar notebook.

I do my best to buy it in December because the dork in me loves the thought of starting January 1st with a clean slate.

I will admit that this year I was late buying one. I didn’t have it in my hands until January 3rd.

I usually buy my calendar notebooks from Target. I love their Sugar Paper line.

I get the largest size. It comes with a pocket folder and stickers.

On the inside of their calendars before you get to the carnita, in gold it says, “Start Each Day With A Grateful Heart”.

Always a good reminder.

Due to the fact that this year I was late buying one, and I happened to be at a HomeGoods store and didn’t want to go to another store, I put a stake in the ground right there in their office supply area.

They had a few to choose from.

(Can I squeeze in here that it’s going to be a sad day when the powers that be get rid of calendar notebooks you can hold in your hands, and checks too?)

I decided on a simple one. It didn’t have pocket folders; it didn’t come with stickers.

But its cover is a lovely shade of champagne with gold specks.

In no-nonsense script in black you read, 2024.

On the inside, pale pink stares back at you and a ribbon to mark your place, beckons you to put it with the right month.

Nothing like opening up a new calendar notebook for the first time.

I slide out the attached ribbon marker and place it between January’s pages.

The first thing I write under notes, is the date of my last period.

Then I write my bank balance in the box reserved for January 1st.

Off to the side, I put down what I owe in tithes from my first paycheck of the year.

I look at these three notes.

They’re written so clearly, so precise, on clean paper with nary a smudge.

But I’m not fooled.

I know by the end of this year, this calendar will be bent and torn.

My handwriting will have gotten sloppy, I will have notes crossed out and numbers scribbled over.

And because I love to eat while balancing my checkbook, my calendar notebook will be dirty.

Such will be another year of life.

But with the Lord on my side, I’m ready for it.

~missy salcido wead