Every week, just as the pre-Shabbat buzz begins in our kitchen, I pull out my trusty notebook. What started as a small act of self-preservation — part antidote to disorganization, part ADHD survival tool — has quietly become one of my favorite Shabbat traditions.
Over the years, I’ve tried all kinds of notebooks. Lately, I’ve fallen in love with bullet journals — all those little dots give me the flexibility (and the extra room!) to scribble, sketch, and plan our Shabbat tables.
On each fresh page, I jot down the date and the parsha at the top. Then come the details that shape our week:
- who’s joining us at the table,
- what I’m cooking,
- where each of my kids will be (because let’s be honest, that changes week to week),
- and any events happening over Shabbat.
By the time the candles are glowing, those pages are already holding little pieces of our lives. I leave the notebook open on the kitchen island — it’s how David knows what goes on the plata, and how the kids get their most important question answered: “What’s for dinner?”
What began as simple organization has become a living journal — the story of our family told through meals and moments. If you flip through it, you’ll find menus from birthdays and yahrzeits, sticky fingerprints from little hands, and a few wine stains or stray challah crumbs. It’s not polished — it’s real. And in its pages, you can see a life well-lived, gathered around a table.
I’ve always believed the best times happen around a table: family and friends squeezed together, good food steaming in the middle, laughter spilling into conversation. This notebook is my quiet treasure chest — where those moments are tucked away to be remembered long after the candles are blown out.
If you’ve ever wanted to hold on to your Shabbat memories just a little longer, this is the simplest and sweetest tradition to start. All you need is a notebook and a few good pens.
✨ Shop a few of my favorite notebooks here: hardcover bullet journal or softcover bullet journal
🖊️ And my favorite markers here: set of 10 Tombow markers or the full (108 markers!) set (this set goes on sale so keep checking back!).
This post contains affiliate links — which means if you purchase through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my work and helping me share more cozy Shabbat traditions like this one. 🤍
Here’s to good food, good people, and the pages that tell our stories. 🕯️✨