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How to keep a journal without writing in one

I have thought writing a post about this for so long and so it is kind of funny on the day I only have 5 minutes to post, I am writing about this, when I had planned to take more time.
I have a few things on a list that I feel guilty about that I could do better. Journal writing used to be one of them and now thanks to blogging it is not on that list. Not because I feel like my life's journal is on my blog but I have started writing more personal things down to keep and have kept track of little mementos better.
Here are a few things I have done or thought of doing to keep a journal without actually writing in one.

• saving Sunday church programs, three hole punching them and putting them in a binder. write a little something about each talk on the program next to the person who gave it
• if you use Netflix did you know you can print out every DVD you have ever rented. It is always fun to go back and see what we have watched this past year and the months we were in our Civil War phase or now that we are in a Anne of Green Gables phase.

• I buy this toy catalog every year since Annie Kate was little. I keep them in my Christmas boxes. It is so fun to pull out and see what toys were around 8 years ago. Can you imagine how fun it would be to have a Sears or JC Penny catalog from you were a kid to see what toys came out the year you were 3. (that is so dating me with the Sears catalog comment)
• keep a small wooden box to hold all your movie tickets that you have been to. They are awesome because they are dated and have the movie on it. How fun would it be to have your movie ticket from Star Wars. (this makes a great cheap gift for Christmas)
  
• write in your recipe books. write the date you made the recipe, any special quests for dinner, comments your kids made when they ate it.
• when we play board games who ever wins the game gets to date and sign the box. For our game Acquire - this is quite an honor to sign and date the box.
  
• If you use a study manual for a church lesson on Sundays. Write on the top of the chapter, who taught the lesson, the date and a few things you enjoyed about the lesson. Years later it is so fun to go back and read what stuck out in your mind. Draw things they had on the table. I did this my whole mission with my R.S. manual.
• Save your tithing envelopes from every ward you have been in, they have your bishops name and address on them. This way years later you have their address available to write them a thank you note for all the service they gave.
• For a wedding gift Jeff and I were given a journal to write all of our service callings we have had in our church, with the date, who we served with and what we learned. This makes a GREAT wedding or Christmas gift. It is never too late to start this.
• My girls each have a small box that say Washington D.C. on it. it holds any tickets and small things we pick up from monuments or events we do while living here.
• keep your good mail. Find a spot for cards and letters. You don't have to keep everything but find a spot to put them. Even if you never read them again - what a joy for your grandchildren to find them and read them someday. I found out after Jeff's Grandpa's funeral that he had a "received" stamp that he would stamp the date on the mail when he got it. So I then went out and bought one. Cool huh!
• start a blog - it free and you can make it private for only you to look at. You can get them printed.
  
• I got this idea from Amy W.'s mother in law. We buy a Christmas ornament each year for our kids and then write a story to them of how this ornament applies to what they were doing that year. It is fun each year for us to pull out the letters and read them when we decorate the tree. In 2001 I bought Annie Kate an American Flag. We wrote about September 11th. We wrote about that Christmas when we got on a airplane she asked if it was going to crash. Something I would have forgotten if I had not written it down. {Hallmark is a great place to buy an ornament that fits any theme, and I buy them after Christmas}

I will say that nothing beats your thoughts in your own handwriting. So find a spot to do it. If it is your testimony in the back of your scriptures, memories in the front of your cookbook, or feelings on the back of a program, don't let your life pass without having your thoughts in your handwriting.

I had found this in Jeff's Great Grandfather's journal a few years ago and now have it framed in our home.

If there is any particular advice or admonition I wish to leave it is that I hope my posterity will cleave to the church and its auxiliary organizations and love the value and happiness that comes from service to God and one's fellow men.
January 15, 1931

This advice has helped Jeff and I this year with our church service. I look forward to each of my daughters having a copy of this and when they share it with their children they will say these are the words or your Great, Great, Great Grandfather!

Don't wait to keep a journal in some way or form

Do you have something you do that is keeping a journal without writing in one, I would love to know!