A Simple Notebook
Where an ordinary object meets an extraordinary truth about life.
Life.
We think we know what it is. We are born into it. Immersed in it. We live it. But do we really?
I am 61 years old. I enjoyed my entire childhood and youth without the interference of the internet and social media. We didn’t know what everyone else was doing around the world except for the daily news - which I was fairly oblivious to. 🙃
We filled our days with simple things. Playing “house” in the most creative spaces, building snow forts in the deep snow, riding our bikes everywhere, playing capture the flag with the neighbors until dark, reading books, attending school and church, taking road trips with the family, eating meals together, listening to music on headphones, camping, playing in the autumn leaves, visiting grandparents, playing dolls with friends, snuggling with pets…
As I got older, time was filled with more school activities, reading books, driving around in our cars, writing and drawing, youth group, swimming, waterskiing, horseback riding, beaches, tobogganing, going to camp…
This was life from my perspective. Simple. It was about friends and family, about relationships. The only striving was in school, everything else seemed to just flow.
I began drawing and writing poems in junior high. It felt so good to put pen or pencil to paper. In high school I took drawing lessons and read a book that inspired me to start using a notebook. It was a medium-sized 3-ring binder with dividers. I think it was a mauve color. That notebook was instrumental in many changes in my mind. It started me on a journey of putting daily thoughts and prayers down in a book. It was the beginning of what has now become decades of using planners and journals.
(Hang in there with me, I will be bringing these two topics of life and notebooks together, I promise!)
The next decade was much more filled with LIFE: college, lots of travel, marriage. I partially kept a journal, but mostly just lived. I began writing songs and looking at life a little deeper. I already knew I didn’t want a career, so I worked mostly at temp agencies to pay the bills. Time freedom was much more important to me than making a lot of money. I wish I would have written more of my thinking down so I could go back and watch that girl become a young woman, but I’m thankful I have the memories.
There were periods of my life after that where I journaled or wrote down thoughts for books, but mostly I took photos and videos, and made scrapbooks documenting our life. These books were filled with celebrations, family, homeschooling and cozy moments. I began joining email lists and sharing thoughts there, but still no internet interrupting our lives!
About 20 years after our marriage began, now with 5 beautiful souls we had brought into the world, my writing began again in earnest. This time it was in a blog. I poured my heart out in this blog ~ sharing beliefs and feelings and daily happenings. We were now living on 10 acres with goats and chickens and a garden and I had so much to write about. I found my tribe through my blog and it was a wonderful experience.
That brings us to the most recent years. A lot of changes took place in our lives - moving from 10 acres, the children all growing up, our parents aging… not to mention the insanity in the world. And even though I had my own business working from home during the past two decades, I lived a dichotomy of striving to earn enough to bring my husband home and at the same time wanting to enjoy that home. It doesn’t work. Striving doesn’t work. I gave up parts of myself and time with my precious family. Time that I will never get back. And now I come to the main purpose of this post. 😬 For me, time is one of the most important things we are given. Either we squander it or we invest it. I want to invest my time in the things that matter. The Most High God and people are definitely at the top of that list. But lately I have also been really thinking about writing ~ there it is ~ the moment you have been waiting for! 🤣
I don’t know how long I have been using a planner. Of course it started with the notebook in high school, but then I discovered the Franklin planner, and in my late thirties, I discovered The Busy Woman planner. (I may have the order backwards for these two planners). Both were amazing, incorporating schedule with purpose. For the past 10 years I have been using the Plum Paper planner. Also amazing and very customizable. I have been journaling sporadically - sketching here and there - writing on my laptop - some blogging (but most of my online writing is moving here to Substack).
For the past few years I have been researching bullet journals and travelers notebooks. My friends, this is an entire world of its own and this is what has ultimately brought me to the point of thinking about writing. (I know I’m rambling a lot in this post. There IS a culmination. Keep reading 🙃).
Funny how life takes you on little journeys. The kind where you keep bumping into the same things ~ until you realize why. This was one of those times. I was drawn to my first notebook in order to put thoughts on paper. I was drawn to my planners for organization and thought processing. I was drawn to the bullet journal for its versatility, simplicity and adaptability. I was drawn to the travelers notebooks in a similar way, but the more I learned about them, the more I realized how very powerful the concept is. So powerful, in fact, that in 2026 I am going to begin teaching (free) monthly online workshops around this.
Now maybe other planners can be used in the same way, but in my experience, Franklin is more about purpose and planning. Powerful, yes, but not the same. Plum Paper is about organization, planning and creativity. All good things, but still not the same.
What makes traveler notebooks different?
I’m so glad you asked!
Not only do travelers notebooks encompass everything that is part of the Franklin planner, the Busy Woman planner and the Plum Paper planner, but they include so much more.
And even more, it’s the deeper purpose behind them. A traveler’s notebook isn’t just a planner. It’s a container for a life that’s unfolding in real time. It’s adaptable, honest, human, unpolished, sacred.
Here are Six Reasons to Use a Travelers Notebook.
Writing is how we slow down enough to actually see our life.
Speaking is quick. Videos can be performative. Writing forces presence. It becomes a conversation with yourself: the one voice we ignore the most. 🤗
Traveler’s notebooks match how life really works.
Life isn’t linear. It’s seasonal, shifting, expanding, contracting. TN’s give you freedom: add an insert, remove one, change directions, start fresh without “ruining” anything. It mirrors the ebb and flow of a real human life.🌼
They hold every version of you without judgment.
Notes, prayers, sketches, lists, dreams… all in their own little booklets. No pressure to be perfect. No wasted pages. Just space for the truth of who you are right now. 🤩
They’re deeply personal and deeply practical.
It’s a tool, but also a companion. Something you carry, not just something you use. It can be a creative outlet too. A traveler’s notebook becomes a witness to your days. 😅
They reconnect you to yourself in a world that keeps pulling you away.
This is the big one. Screens scatter us. Writing gathers us back together. A TN becomes a small rebellion against noise. A way of choosing intention, simplicity, and presence again. 🙏
It ties together purpose, creativity, hygge, alignment, and legacy.
It doesn’t just organize your life. It expresses it. It holds it. It supports who you’re becoming, not who the world tells you to be. 💖
A traveler’s notebook isn’t just for planning. It’s a way of living with more intention, more presence, and more honesty, creating a life that feels aligned instead of rushed.
In a later post I will share more about writing: what to write, why to write, how to write ~ but this is the philosophy and the container I have been waiting for and it has ignited a passion in me. I hope it will do the same for you.