The Heart Book

When we bought this house nearly 6 1/2 years ago, I wanted to keep some sort of home/hearth record.  I figured having a record of home repairs, garden news and the like would be a handy and fun thing to have around.  I thought that and then did nothing about it for several years.

This blank journal was on our shelf for a lot of years.  When Abby was 2 months old when I finally pulled it down and wrote this:
“Feb. 13th 2005:  Abby’s born– Clear blue skies.”

It is a *very* sporadic journal that seems full of entries in spring and stands completely empty through winter.  I *have* noted what flowers have comprised every Mother’s Day bouquet Tom and Abby have picked for me from our yard.  That first year, it was lilacs, chive flowers, yellow tulips, a red rose, purplish-pink azaleas, calendula, a pink rose and rosemary.

I’ve noted how many quarts of applesauce I’ve canned or frozen each year, what method I used to do the strawberry jam and when I noticed the first snow in the mountains.

In the back of the book, I started writing down poems or songs that would work as grace for before mealtimes.  Sometimes we remember to say it or sing it, but mostly we don’t.  Abby will get on a bender about “The Heart Book” and we’ll sing every night for a week.  Then it will go back up on the shelf until I’m inspired by a bird stopping in our yard or when I’m trying to remember how what bulbs are planted in that west bed.  Someday, I’ll have Abby start writing in it and eventually, I’ll pass it to her when she starts her own household and is looking for some heart.