Great mail day!

    I was excited to see my mailbox full of personal mail today. (Plus one of my favorite magazines) No bill either. Score.

      I got 4 Postcrossing cards:

    This is a picture from the historic village of Shirakawa-go in Japan. It is located in a mounrainous region of Japan and was said to be cut off from the rest of the world for a long time. These villages subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. Check out the thatched roofs. I think this is located in the Chubu region of Japan. The village is a UNESCO world heritage site- and I collect UNESCO cards. :) Thanks Yuki! As a huge bonus, her stamp was the Kanazawa-jo Castle, which is also a UNESCO site. Awesome. 

    Yuki also wrote about the Yoshida brothers, who are shamisen players. Here is a video of them from YouTube. I love all the music samples that Postcrossers send me. The Yoshida brothers are Yuki's favorite musicians. I have heard lots of shamisen music, but have never heard the shamisen play music that is not traditional music. Very cool.

Speaking of Japan:

    Welcome to the Tanabata Festival, which will take place in Miyagi August 6-8. It looks so colorful! Check this page out. Akko, if you're reading, have you ever been to this festival? Apparently it is tradition to write wished on paper strips and hang them from the bamboo. Maybe I'm nosy, but I would love to wander around and read the wishes. :) Thank you for the beautiful card Mimiko!

Off to the Philippines!

  In addition to the cool panda card (I've never seen a panda that was not black and white), Mao told me about El Gamma Penumbra. They performed on Asia's Got Talent and Mao says that they show a lot about Philippine culture. Watch this performance. It is beautiful!

     The last card I got was from the UK:

    One more musician for you to check out! Will Pound. He's on the harmonica. I loved this band and this set. Timmy has done some folk dancing in music this year and he loves it. He was excited to hear this too. 

   Another Goodreads win:

    Another nerd alert. This book is called "Thinking About Video Games" by David S. Heineman. This book includes interviews with people across the gaming industry about various topics. It includes information on game development, game studies, and the past, present and future of video games. I'm often the mom that doesn't let my kids play games that other kids their age are playing. I've read some fascinating/horrifying neuroscience about how the brain (especially in young men) processes certain types of games so I'm curious to read the perspectives of and studies done by more people. Gaming is not a topic I usually read about so I suspect I will learn a lot.

Postcards/366 update

    It has been a while since I've updated on my mail- mostly because I've been horrible about it. Now that it's summer vacation for me, I will be a lot better about it. So, here's today's mail as well as an updated on the 366 Project.

Outgoing- Postcrossing cards to the Czech Republic and The Netherlands

 Incoming: This card is from Tatiana in Russia but it is a card of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. It is a UNESCO site.

The 366 Project:

Sent: 191
Received: 82

  Honestly, I was a little that I would be really behind my "sent" goal since I wasn't writing a lot when my schedule was insane.Today is day 178 of the year, so I'm still on track (ahead a little even!). I'm sadly behind on the incoming mail. I will be happy this year if I can keep the challenge of sending out some postal kindness since I have full control over that. With that being said, feel free to send me some good stuff through the mail too if you haven't. (If you're waiting for a letter from me, wait until I respond. I'm attacking my pile starting today and plan to write at least 1 a day so it should be soon.)

Today's mail

366 Project

Sent: 14
Received:14

     Today I received 2 postcards which bring my sent/received today to equal. I'm way behind with what I wanted to mail so maybe I'll take tonight to send a bunch of postcards out and finish the letter I'm working on. I'm also taking part in the Month of Letters Challenge in February, which challenges you to :

1. In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
2. Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

  Although I'm getting a late start, if I mail something every day, I should be able to get at least 23 things out. 

    Here's what I got today:

 This card is my first Lettermo mail this year! It is from Michelle. I can't wait to respond. I have something special I'd like to send back to her.

 
   This is from Pedro in China. It is of West Lake, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. (I collect UNESCO cards so I was really excited to get this!) The card is really pretty.

Olympics

     How many of you watch the Olympics? Although I'm not a huge sports fan, you can't help but be impressed by the dedication of all of these athletes from around the world.  Meghan Duggan, captain of the US Women's Olympic Hockey Team is actually from our town. I have never met her but I think it's awesome that she made it back to the Olympics. I will try to catch a few of her games on tv. 
     We are going to do a little "Family Olympics" over the next month. Today we made some Olympic rings for our front door, made team flags and competed in our first event- The Snowball Toss. I made Olympic rings in the snow with some food coloring. The object was to see how many snowballs you could toss that would land in one of the rings. I won this event. The boys tied for 2nd and Matt didn't play. The kids are excited about this. Many events will be pretty goofy but we'll have fun. Do you have any suggestions for us? The boys are 5 and 8 so we want it to be something each boy could be successful at while still having to try and enjoying themselves. They do not all have to be sport related. 
     What are your favorite events to watch in the Winter Olympics? 
 

Incoming 1/6

Incoming Mail:  

     I got 2 nice postcards today. The first one is from Russia.It is a picture of The Main Shaman of Oikhon (Baikal, Siberia). He is dressed in traditional clothing and has a "national shok musical instrument."(It also has a really cool Olympics stamp.) I looked up the shok and found 1 reference that said it was a type of whistle. I thought it was the drum. Not sure. Any readers from Russia want to help me out?

     The 2nd card is from a US-US postcard tag. (A tag is when you sign up to send a card to someone and then someone chooses to send a card to you.)  This card is from Postcrosser, hootnoodle.  It is Ruby Beach on the Washington Coast. It is in Olympic National Park, which is a UNESCO world heritage card. I collect UNESCO cards so I was really excited to get this. Thanks, hootnoodle! I had also never seen these stamps.

 

366 Project:

Sent: 7

Received: 2 (Annagoman, hootnoodle)

Rejuvenate

     The day I've returned to work after a few weeks vacation (extended because of the snowstorm) doesn't seem like a day that should feel rejuvenating but:

      1) I started my new Chorale today. This is my auditioned after school chorus.  It's a young group   and the ability level is more varied than some other years, but it went really well. I look forward getting to work with this group and hope that the rest of the rehearsals are as good as today's way.  

     2) I started a 5 day Bible study on Colossians through Hello Mornings  Again, renewal of my spiritual life and study of the Word will be something that will rejuvenate me more than every other option out there.

     3) Matt has the night off and we're just going to have a sweet, stay-at-home and do nothing night with the boys. I have really enjoyed our family time lately. (Maybe this rejuvenate so you're not an absolute stress case has something to it!) Oh, and Matt is cooking my favorite dinner while I blog here. Super cool!

     I hope you are all having a blessed day and that 2014 is still going well for you and your family. 

Lots of Postcards to mention...

Incoming

So when I got home from vacation I had a lot of postcards that I wanted to write about. Here they are:
PL-485357

From Poland. Dorote told me about the Slot Art Festival near Wroctow.

RU-1064282

Here are some Russian airplanes from 9 year old Ann from Russia. Thanks Ann!

BY-518632

    This is a view of Upper Town in Minsk in Belarus.

UA-305181

   I really like this card from Ukraine. It shows the former Praha hotel, a monument to Yaroslav the Wise, reconstruction of the Golden Gates and Kreschatyk. This was sent from Anna who is 13.

Occasionally there are "mail casualties." This card looks like it got soaked and then another piece of mail (from China I'm assuming since there is Chinese writing on it) got stuck to it and later ripped off. It looked like a nice card though.  Here it is:
CN-654617

I also got 2 cards (3 if you want to include one I'm putting in the B-23 group!) that were picked out with my boys in mind too. We loved them. The first is from Canada.

CA-259834

This card is really cool because you can cut it up and fold it into a 3-D Canadian Goose! So fun!

US- 1782633

Wow! Check out this children's museum. It is in Indianapolis. Deb put all some great stickers and a nice Pixar stamp on the card too.

     Sometimes on the Postcrossing forums I will enter groups to trade specific cards. Volvomom, a postcrosser from MA whom I have actually met, runs an Alphabet RR. You sign up for a letter and then send cards relating to that letter. I signed up for the B-23 group. Here are my B cards, all of which I love:

From crizle, Brisbane, Australia:

 Write Shop Robert sent me this great Where's Waldo card full of bands! I sat with my boys to find Waldo, a steel band, a one-man band and saxophones and a sack of phones. On the back of the card Write Shop Robert included more Bs, including a nice bonsai stamp. (I love these stamps. They are so pretty)

 From Alienne, blue Great Barrier Reef- How beautiful is this? I can't imagine what this must be like in person. The Great Barrier Reef is also a UNESCO site so this was very exciting for me.

The 366 Project:
Received: 20
Sent: 43 

Nice to finally see some progress made in the letter project. If you are a reader dropping in for the first time, I'm hoping to send/receive 366 letters this year. If you would like a letter from me, or would like to send me one, please e-mail me your address and I will write. I am still catching up on some penpal letters so I will write theirs first, but I will respond to anyone who writes. Feel free to comment to say hello too or tell me a little about yourself. For people I know, how about leaving me 1 thing I don't know about you to make this fun. (I'll even match your comments with a fact you may not know about me.)