Terre Pruitt's Blog

We are doing our Goodie Jar again this year.  Right now it is a divided bowl.  On one side there is paper which we can write the good things on and pens.  On the other side is where we are putting our notes.  It is getting full.  At the end of last year it seemed like we were not adding many good things.  It probably didn’t help that my dad died and we were shocked and thrust into having to do a lot of things we had never thought of and things that took up a lot of time and energy.  But also it could be that the goodie jar got overlooked.  Like many of us, my husband is a creature of habit and he claims his habit, regarding the good things jar, consists of it looking like it did when we very FIRST did it and having it be in the same exact spot.  And for ME, that is an overlooking type of habit.  With the pitcher in the same spot all year long – for me, it tends to blend into the surroundings and I don’t see it.  Ya know, like that item that you have to take to your friend the next time you meet, so you put it near the door.  But after a week you begin to ignore it.  You don’t really see it there any longer, it blends into the surroundings.  So when you finally leave the house to meet your friend you totally forget the item.  Having it there was supposed to remind you, but it became so normal for it to be there, it did nothing to help you remember.  So I like to switch it up.  I like to change the vessel that holds the good things.  I thought keeping it on the peninsula in the kitchen was good because we would see it.  And with it being different it would attract our attention.  Well, at the end of the year it got kinda over shone by other Christmas decorations.  So this year we started out with it on the coffee table in the living room.  It is pretty in our faces.  But as I said, it is getting full.

I am trying to decide what to do.  I am trying to decide on something else to keep the notes in.  Or I might just move some of the notes into another vessel and keep using the bowl for now.  I have so many pretty dishes that are seldom used so having them out with good things in them makes me happy.  I might move it off the coffee table for now.  If so, I do plan on moving it back during the year so that it is in our faces and we remember.  Sometimes it is easier to remember to make a note of a good thing.  Sometime it is helpful if there is a reminder or a prompt.

Either way, I am happy to continue this little project that we started years ago.  This will be our fifth year.  For us we put anything any it that makes us smile.  I think I saw my hubby put a receipt from dinner in there.  I don’t know what he wrote, but I am guessing it had to do with the nice dinner we had.  I was going to put a Dove chocolate wrapper in there.  They have sayings on them, so I saved it and I was going to write on it, but it got mistaken for trash and thrown away.  But the idea is that you can put whatever you want in your jar.

When I was commenting about it on a friend’s post someone asked if I date my notes.  Sometimes I do.  Like the other day when I was excited we had 18 people in Nia and 16 people in stretch class.  I put the date on that note.  But when I was looking at my cats and happy that they are so sweet and I feel lucky to have them, I wrote a note about it, but I didn’t date it.  A receipt or a ticket stub is going to have a date, but a candy wrapper would not.  It is whatever you want.  However you want to document the things that make you smile now and that will make you smile when you read them at the end of the year.

I am thankful to my friend Uptown Girl Denver for posting the practice on her Facebook page back in 2013.  I don’t think she is doing it any longer, but we are still enjoying the practice.

Are you doing a Goodie Jar this year?  What do you use for your “jar”?  What do you use for your notes?