I do something similar with my wife; at the start of every year we take around 50 sheets of paper and bind them into a little notebook. The binding cloth we use is usually a combination of clothes that tore, fell into abject disrepair the previous year. She then finds little things (ex: matchbox from a restaurant we visited and loved) and decorates it.
Throughout the year we keep writing in it, things we learnt, discords we had and how we resolved them, recipes I experimented with and we loved, random thoughts; basically anything and everything. And that little diary becomes an embodiment of that year.
I would also like to point out the manual labor and writing into it and not using an obsidian++-AI-auto-categorizer-3000 is simply because it feels like it's worth something, it's a nice little routine we have at the start of every year, and it's really fun reading these from 2-3 years back. Also the kids will have some really interesting reading a few years down the line.
I imagine a future where this becomes a family tradition that transcends time, knowledge from different generations, living different lives all nicely recorded in these codices. Something about this whole thing feels really beautiful to me.
Great example of a commonplace book. Jillian Hess has written extensively about this -- her books are well-researched and organized.
Oh I had no idea it was formalised to such a degree, we just thought we were doing an extreme form of scrapbooking haha.
Thanks for the resource!
I do something similar with a journal. I bought a little Instax printer recently so I can still use my phone as a camera but print out the pictures and stick them in it.
I was thinking the other day I need to go back to a physical recipe book too. I don't cook that many different things that I need to reference it for, but there was a charm in my old one of remembering the best recipes were the ones covered in spilled ingredients and filled with marginalia.
The value isn't just in the recorded content, it's in the ritual
that is beautiful. and inspirational. although I know that I don't have anywhere near enough energy to carry through on this kind of thing!
It only takes a little bit of energy once a day (or per week if you haven't realized yet how eventful your life actually is). The highest energy first day making it is a fun date with your spouse, or parent child time if you are separated.
@parent don't get too worried about not writing in it religiously and having a schedule. That removes all the joy about doing it in the first place.
For example our 2026 notebook has only one page filled in yet where I wrote a recipe for a chocolate cake I made on the fly and was worried I'd forget the measurements.
There are some days when I am bored and I pick it up and backfill it as well.
This is an incredibly cool idea. I'm gonna talk to my wife about doing this with my girls. Thanks for sharing!
Great to hear :) I hope it brings y'all much joy through the years!