I recently found these life calendars for sale. I have to say that I just think they are the coolest thing ever. They’re basically just a huge poster-sized grid of squares with numbers across the top for the week of the year and numbers down the side for the year of your life. There is just enough space in each square to write a word or two.
I bought one for B and one for me. (Actually I bought a 3-pack to get free shipping so I still have an extra.) I also put grommets in the top corners so that it would be easy to hang them.
I think that this is the gift that I would pick to give at a baby shower from now on. (Actually, I’ve never been invited to a baby shower other than my own, but if I was, this is at least one of the gifts I would pick.) It’s so perfect to be able to just record a few words per week as baby gets bigger.
I love the idea of writing in a word or two for B each week. I’ve kept a baby book for him which has been really cool, but I know that I’m unlikely to stay up on documenting his whole childhood in the same detail. A couple of words a week is perfect.
I figure I can make short notes on when his ‘firsts’ happen, the toys he likes, the words he’s saying, the cool things we do, trips we take, etc. It’s a super quick thing to do each week, but over time will grow to be a cool record of his childhood and perhaps even his adulthood.
I flipped back through B’s baby book to help me fill in his calendar until present day. This is one of those things that I wish I had sooner.
I love my life calendar too, although it is not nearly as filled out as B’s (yet). It makes me think about how I spend my time, the life ahead of me, and what I want to accomplish. It makes me think back on my accomplishments and appreciate all of the things that I have done.
It’s interesting to notice the dates that I actually remember by heart from my life. It’s surprisingly hard to fill in things from my life. What year was it that I graduated from high school? When did I start my job? Some day soon, I am going to sit down and spend some more time filling my calendar in a bit. I guess I want something to show for my life.
A few years ago, I went through and shredded all of my old journals. Mostly, they weren’t full of all that much great stuff, but I do sort of wish now that I had saved them to help me fill in my life calendar first. I’ll have to see how much of my past I can really piece together based on old pics, etc.
I do want to use my life calendar as a tool to appreciate and remember my past, but mostly, I want to use it as motivation to live this week to the fullest so I have a cool word or two to put in the current box. I want to fill B’s life calendar (really his life) with cool stuff too!
Check out the Wait But Why store if you’d like to get a life calendar for yourself or someone you know. (Not an affiliate link, just something I think is cool.)
