I've been wrestling with the urge to buy myself a new notebook. Surely this should be no big dilemma, you might think. A notebook is a small item. Even a relatively fancy one won't break the bank. I told myself when I finished the project I was working on, that would be my reward. And I hit my goal...

And then I found a brand new untouched notebook I'd forgotten I bought months ago, so I really can't justify the new one. Even though I really do want it and kind of promised myself.

While I do a lot of things digitally, I also generate a lot of paper. I journal longhand. I make notes. I play with fountain pens and dip pens and watercolor pens and all kinds of pencils.

This little printout is from a project I started last fall. My workout partner and I decided walking was nice but we wanted to run, even if that meant starting at only 30 seconds of running at a time. We worked conscientiously through a brutal 20-below winter, even though some weeks we had to start over two or three times because it was too icy to train. And we ran in some weird spots, keeping track of which businesses had the saltiest, most scraped-down parking lots--the courthouse, for one, though it also has a mean slope. And last week we finished our first 5k! (It was hot out, too.)

The program we used is called None to Run, though Couch to 5k is another popular option.

I think the chart and the owl stickers definitely helped in terms of motivation ;-)

Are you all caught up?

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And here's a gratuitous Snowshoe pic. He's such a goofball. The longer he lives with me the sassier he gets. I'm sure he's dreaming of swatting my feet.