The Notebook 📓

Welcome back to another episode of A'lil Hoohaa's monthly photo blog challenge. 

Our host PJ gave us the following prompt for June: the Notebook.

I know there is a movie called "the Notebook", I haven't seen it. 

I do own several notebooks though, analog and digital ones, let's start with those.

One of my favorite "note keeping apps" is REMINDERS, it comes with the iPhone, and what I like about it is you can link your notes with dates, times or places. So if there is a certain item that can only be purchased at a specific store, I'll assign the item to that location. As I approach the perimeter of that business, a reminder will pop up on my phone (and my Apple Watch). This has been proved to be super helpful on multiple occasions.

Why is this important? 

See in quaint little Switzerland we don't have Walmarts. I tried to think of a store that covers all my shopping needs under one roof. I does not exist. I need to get my stuff from different stores at different locations. 

What has recently been in my reminders?

Get baby gift - yay! A customer of ours just had a baby girl, and I got her some Winnie the Pooh onesies. Shopping for a newborn is hands down one of my favorite errands!

Unfortunately people don't only come into this world, some are also leaving. 

One was a young man from our village. He chose to end his life, twice, for that matter, and he got what the wished for a few weeks ago. So with the "congrats - it's a girl" card I also got a condolence card. I still haven't written it. I have no words. I know his Mom, she is an awesome lady, and I want to let her and the family know that they are in my thoughts and prayers. I don't know how. 

I'm a freaking blogger, consider myself a writer, even, and I don't know what to tell a Mom whose son left this world, because it sucks so much. I'm sure she asks herself what she should have done differently, and there is probably nothing anybody could have done for that boy who had no hope, no joy, no energy...

Edit: I did write and mail the card. Actually two cards. in the meantime my childhood friend's 80 year old Mom passed away, too. I took this picture honoring both people whom we lost because it was such a serene spot:

On a happier note another to do item for me was to prepare for my 8 years' blogversary. I know, we just recently celebrated my 900th post, but hey, if life is teaching us anything it's that we should enjoy the moment and do things we love. Right? So I love baking, writing and celebrating. Boom.

In order to share the joy I committed to doing random acts of kindness for every comment or like on the blog post, or over on my social media:

Part-time working Hockey Mom's Facebook page
My personal Instagram

Keep the love coming, I'll pay it forward - and blog about it.

The other app I like to use that comes the term notebook closer is EVERNOTE. I think the basic app is free. I pay for the feature that allows me to use my notes on several devices, be it my work computer, my phone or my laptop. I use it mostly to save recipes, keep lists (think travel bucket lists) and to jot down ideas for blog posts.

The one below refers to the ten album covers challenge I did, check it out if you like music. Since this is a screen shot, this does not count as one of the five pictures.

Now on to the good old paper notebook. The last time I intensely used one was during my trip to the West coast in 2016. As a non-American I don't have a local phone (even though I ended up purchasing one with a month's worth of prepaid value later into my stay), meaning I can't be online all the time. I was preparing for the A-Z blogging challenge, and I had a lot of ideas and thoughts to keep track of. I did so in an actual booklet.

Later, I bought another paper notebook. It came with a name: "Get Sh** done" - right up my alley. Of course writing stuff into a booklet won't get them done, but it's a start. Right? 

Like "I put have coffee on my to do list. That way I feel like I have accomplished something."

Of course my son loved the name. Sometimes when he wanted something - like a gift for Christmas - he would say "I have a contribution to your Sh** Book ;-) 

Once my notebook is full, and I got all the sh** done, there are two new paper notebooks waiting for me, one with books and one with travel destinations on the cover.

At work I keep a ring binder book where I mainly jot down phone notes and collect screen shots to remember stuff relating to our payroll and / or accounting software. Sometimes I will stick in a meme or a picture.

In Switzerland hair salons have been back open for two months, and my lovely hairdresser has been super busy catching up on dyeing, cutting, washing and blow-drying her customers' hair. This is her reception counter, and you can see her gigantic notebook / calendar. I think they used a laptop for a while but it looks like they went back to old school. Less updates, back up duties and crashes, and no dependency on wifi I guess?

I hope you had fun with my pictures. Will you please visit my fellow bloggers' posts.