Dear Diary

One of the nicest Christmas presents I have ever recieved, I received for Christmas 2009. A beautifully patterned hard-back notebook.

I've been using it to keep a housekeeping journal. It's such a pleasure to be able to write all my shopping lists, recipe ideas and daily reminders in this pretty little book. I even like to look back at previous day's entries and tick off the jobs that I managed to accomplish. I know...I'm rather sad like that!

But I think the biggest benefit in keeping this little book will come years from now when I look back through my journal at this, my very first year at home. I wonder what I'll see? Will I laugh at badly drafted recipes and oh-so-simple knitting patterns? And what of the reminders to return my overdue library books written in HUGE CAPITAL LETTERS? That will serve as a reminder of my ever-present forgetfulness and occasional disorganisation I'm sure!

But more than any of that, I hope it will remind me that life is one long learning curve and that we never reach the summit of our capabilities. I hope it will inspire me to keep plodding along on my home-making journey. And I hope it will help me remember that my life at home, although small, is a life that has not been in vain. Every page is full of meals cooked for people I love, household chores that helped make my husbands day run just that little bit more smoothly and time spent planning gifts for birthdays. anniversaries, Christmas and Easter.

It is these things that I hope to see when I look back in 20, 30, 50 years time.

In total; a life spent at home with the people I love.