(the pictures are of my wedding flowers after saving them for over 11 years)
I was transported back in time.
Today I opened my hope chest, which I haven’t looked through in years. The scent of cedar greeted me as I shook out some of my little girl clothes. . handmade blouses that my mom made. . .a few things handmade by my great grandma. . .dresses that were mine that I also dressed my daughter in (she’s outgrown them!). . .I found my baby book which is full of cards, pictures, and information about me, lovingly written by mom.
There were a few of my old dolls and my first set of Little House books.
There were old school programs . .report cards. . old schedules, reports, tests. I have my first New Testament, my Bible with pictures, and my last Bible before I was married, with my maiden name on the front cover.
My graduation things; cap, diploma. There were things from my year at college.
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.
~William Wordsworth
I read through my old diaries. Parts of them made me blush, parts made me smile, and parts made me laugh out loud.
“We opened our Christmas gifts at 6am, although Nathan did try getting up at 4 again.”
“Amanda woke up while I was on the phone and she told on me. Now I can’t talk on the phone past 11 or I’m grounded”
“Grandpa ran over my kitten today. I feel sick.”
“I went with Roger to go pick up Colleen from college for the weekend”
“Elisha and Erika spent the night last night”
“I can do a round-off-back-hand-spring!”
I wrote this after a day of babysitting my siblings: “The kids drove me up the wall all day. David kept jumping around everytime a basketball commercial came on and was showing everyone the crackers he was chewing. Nathan was being stubborn. Everytime I told him to do something, it took forever. Isaac kept running around and making shooting noises with the tinker toy gun he made. Amanda was also a pain. She kept pretending the back of the couch was a balance beam. I had no patience and was grumpy.”
I was SO DRAMATIC back then! (certain people would say I still am!)
I wrote about boys, growing up, family, things that made me happy or mad, school, etc.
I wrote about meeting Rich, falling in love, our engagement, getting married, having babies. After the first couple children came along I stopped writing on a regular basis.
These days I mostly write my thoughts during devotional times; the scripture passages I’ve read, quotes and verses, my feelings and spiritual growth. Every once in a while these “deep thoughts” are interrupted with my hasty scribbling of something funny one of the kids just said.
Journals(from a magazine clipping)
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” Oscar Wilde
Travel journals
Garden journals
Nature journals
Family Chronicles
Dream journals
Crisis journals
Marking Life’s Milestones
Journals of Wisdom
Gratitude journals
(They were yellow roses and white daisies)
Anyway, I sat for a long time on the floor looking through my old things and reading. When I was done, I got up and stretched my legs that were stiff from sitting so long. I felt like I had just come back from a trip. . .it was fun. . .a delicious feeling of meeting myself again, a self that I hadn’t remembered in a long time.
Good to be Home 
I loved this. I felt like I was transported back to your past. I had to throw my wedding flowers away shortly after we moved here. They did not make the trip well. 😦 I love looking back at my old things and seeing how much I’ve changed… how God has changed me. It’s remarkable.
The comment you made after babysitting all day made me smile. I’m sure you still have days like that. 🙂
Interesting. I too have stacks of journals (in a box in the closet). I am trying to decide how I feel about them. Do I want my kids to be reading? Would I mind if they read them as adults? Etc. It really is a puzzle for me. Yet, could I bring myself to destroy them? I know someone who did that, burned them all.
The picture of the stack of them made me think of a picture I would see in Country Living Magazine; it’s colorful and artsy. Pretty.
I agree with the first comment… I felt like I was transported back to your past!!!! Thank you for sharing all of that!!!
Hope you have a most wonderful weekend!!! ***hugs*** ❤ Jami
my wedding flowers were yellow roses and white daisies as well…with the daisies being the main flower
wonderful post! Grandpa running over your kitten and the babysitting one brought tears to my eyes-you know the good tears where your also laughing! Not sure why but it did. =)
Have a blessed weekend!
awwww…..the trips down memory lane….
Sounds like it was a special time. I kept diaries of when my girls were little, and I love reading them again.
Very sweet post! Thank you for sharing a glimpse into your past.
I love drying bouquets that my husband gives me and using them as part of my decor. I have one bouquet of dried roses that was given me from my oldest son that I treasure. Enjoyed your post.
Beautiful thoughts and oh how I can relate…My wedding bouquet was made of white gardenias. Sometimes I can’t handle going through old things, I’m way to sensitive and it tends to tear me in little pieces for some reason. But you have some nice things there, and some nice memories as well… Beautiful.
I’ll have to see your entry below, I missed that one, perhaps it was that bad benadryl! lol
Hugs! Love, Amelia
Loved reading that! Makes me want to go through my closet and “take a little trip” back in time! Thanks for sharing…
God bless~ Laurel
Precious memories…. thanks for sharing!!!Blessings
Everytime I come across my dried wedding bouquet I think, “Why bother, really. I just can’t seem to throw them away though.” And so they stay for another day to remember the day a dream came true.
thank you for sharing yourself with us/me…what a delicious time you had…did any of your children come look at your treasures?
Shanda,
What a lovely journal entry! I too love to “go back” in time and look at old pictures and read old thoughts and words. We can remember how precious time is then and now.
Blessings to you and yours.
I love this post Shan. I get a similar feeling when I read old leters friends and family wrote to me, or seeing photo’s of “old times”. It is like you said–meeting yourself again. Time and events do change you but I think you’ve become a beautiful, loving, God honoring woman, wife, and mother. Love, Elisha
BEAUTIFUL post, I too had yellow roses, white daisys and purple Iris’s for my wedding flowers
What a lovely post, Shanda!
I can soooo relate to it. I have passed my hope chest on to my daughter. I gave it to her for her 18th birthday because she was a married woman by then. I have since then, placed all of my precious memorabilia into a very special chest that belonged to my late MIL. Much of my memories are very similar to the ones you describe; old diaries, clothing I wore as a little girl, a wool dress coat made by my Mom, old report cards, pictures, letters, my scrap book Mom made when I had open heart surgery at six years old and many more precious things. I have to have hours and hours of time to spend, if I decide to “take that walk down memory lane.”
It was such fun to read about yours!
Thanks for sharing the picures, excerpts (spelling?) and precious memories!
Blessings,
Jana
Shanda, what a wonderful and emotional trip back to your past. It’s so special to have your life experiences, treasures, and momentos, kept in a safe place so that you can dust them off and flip through them again. I am sure you felt as though you were living those sacred moments for the second time. It’s also neat to see how you have changed as you have grown into a woman. I loved the pictures and I am happy that you were blessed with a wonderful mom who made sure you had some preciouse momentos from when you were a baby. Too sweet. My hope chest is at my Mom’s house, I had planned on getting it this Summer. Have a great day.
What a wonderful post! I enjoyed it so much. What a treasure memories are!! Thank you for sharing your little trip back in time with us! I cannot believe your flowers have made it that long! I have mine from 8 years ago but they are looking rough! I love the comments about watching your siblings! How many of you were there? There were 6 of us and I was number 3…how fun!
My hope chest is full of that kind of stuff too. I never did write in a diary though. Rog and I did save all of our letters that we wrote each other while we were both going to college. He says we should burn them…I keep them though and just figure if our kids read them when they are older – oh, well. At least they’ll know their parents love each other and we once young and in love like them…
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I always remember how you used to ask your mom to have more babies. I know that old friend of mine that wrote down those things.
The last paragraph was quoteable, read it twice, and will probably copy it.
I have done just what you described and it felt just like that.
The pictures of the old flowers had such a calm tone to it.
It is pretty funny the part about the tattle tale sister, I imagine you laughed about it with her after you read it.
I just read a book I think you would love!! It is the journal of a young girl and it is called “Stepping Heavenward” by Elizabeth Prentice. Love your thoughts above! And of course the pictures!! I too have kept journals, though I am not good at writing in them now, I start and then forget, but you inspired me, plus I have a new blank journal sitting on my dresser!
Awesome post and lovely pictures. Now I’m wishing my memorabilia were in a hope chest and not scattered all about or in cardboard boxes. Sweet.
How many JOURNALS do you have? I have five! lol