magical thinking

Children say the funniest things, yet all too often, I seem to forget them after a day or two.  I'll start telling my husband.. "C said the funniest thing..." and then I can't quite remember. Or I get it a little mixed up and it's not nearly as funny as I remember.

So I started writing down the funnier moments of the day. I keep a jar on my desk, and when the kids say something particularly worthy of recording, I grab a scrap of paper (phone bill, envelope, chopstick holder.. whatever is lying around) and I quickly jot it down. I read about Joan Didion doing something similar when her daughter was a young girl in The Year of Magical Thinking.

The jar is filling up quickly, and when I'm having a below average day, I reach in and pull out a quote.. and suddenly I'm laughing and running to hug my little comedians.

Comments

[Dorothy Explor'r]

i just stumbled upon your delightful idea, and i love it! borrowing it :) read about it on my blog...
http://theymaysaythatimadreamer.blogspot.com/2011/11/diy-magical-thinking.html

[Julie Bagamary]

WONDERFUL idea!

[Diatomaceous Earth]

What a wonderful idea. I found your blog through pinterest and this is most definitely something I will be doing with my family. Thanks for the thoughts.

[nicole]

love this! I do the same thing only on my notes page in my phone. that way i can email them to me & then copy paste them into their private blogs. the jar idea is way fun.

[Amy]

I created a Kids' Quotes website for just this reason. I thiink you have such a sweet and memorable way of storing & remembering the sweet, beautitul and silly things the special little ones in our lives say!

I am going to share your blog on the Kids' Quotes facebook page! (http://www.facebook.com/KidsQuotes)

Thanks for sharing this great idea :)

[Kara]

i'm doing something similar as a shared valentine's day gift for me and my boyfriend. we are constantly laughing together and there are so many sweet moments we share. so for valentine's day, i have created a glass jar, lined the inside with a sheet of bright pink paper with some handwritten poetry from rumi. i've cut out two heart in the paper (nice decorative touch). i tied a black bow around the top of the jar. i bought some index cards, a black sharpie pen - the idea is that we both can write down special memories and add them to the jar. i also bought little red heart stickers to seal the folded notes and next valentine's day we can open them and read them together!! thanks for the inspiration!!

[Mayra]

Hi! I found you on Pinterest, I loved this idea that I had to completed my own jar. Shared it on my blog! Hope it's okay. I linked back to you! Check it out! ctbliss.blogspot.com

[Cindy]

I am going to do this project for either my husband's father's day, anniversary or I even thought about putting it on a table at his birthday and having people put in memories for him.

[Linda]

Hello, I loved this idea so shared it on our Facebook page with a link back to this blog. Thanks so much.
Cheers
Linda

[Allison]

Great idea for the kiddos but I was thinking about it... wouldn't it be nice to do for your husband...mine always complains i don't notice the nice/great things he does...I think i might try this for the rest of the year and present it to him on New Years. Thank you!

[Raji (rsk)]

What an awesome idea, Darcy, LOVE it!!

[Carol Shea]

Love the idea. I want to use it in my class for the kids to write positive things during the day to put in the jar. We will share these at Christmas time - the end of the semester or in May the end of the school year.

[chepay]

I found your blog via pinterest and I love your idea about magical thinking. My kid just turned 2 and his a talker.I used to jot it down in my journal and now this jar idea is brilliant! The whole family can participate too!

[Marcela]

Loved this post when I first read it, pre-children. Now I'm going to start using it with them. Just saw this referenced on Pinterest. Search for empty jar and January 1st. It would be great to link to your blog.

[Enric]

good image

[Ashlee]

This is awesome! I'm starting one today :-)

[Anna Station]

LOVE this idea. I am starting it today and keeping it in our livingroom so that the whole family can contribute and how amazing it will be to read all our memories on NYE together!