Lip Balm Tag and Letter Out

Outgoing...

    I have sent out 3 things since I last wrote. The first a letter to my dear friend Donna. I was excited that the envelope I made did not come out lopsided.. lol. I'm still chipping away at my "reply" pile. I have not forgotten about anyone who hasn't gotten a letter yet.. still working at it! Thanks for your patience.

I also sent out 2 tags for lip balm. Both of these went to Finland, to different people. I hope they like them. I didn't take a picture of the envelopes because I just sent them in a regular, boring envelope. (Sorry, I wanted to get them out while I had a few minutes!)

Incoming...

     I was super excited to find this UNESCO card in my mailbox today. This is the brief description of the Archeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne taken from the UNESCO site:
The three main prehistoric sites of the Brú na Bóinne Complex, Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, are situated on the north bank of the River Boyne 50 km north of Dublin. This is Europe's largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art. The monuments there had social, economic, religious and funerary functions.
    I was also excited that this is an Irish card since I don't have many. Here is the stamp and the card:

   Thanks, Brian!
 

 

What! 3 days in a row?

Outgoing:

     Still on track here. Here is my outgoing mail from today and tomorrow. 1 letter to South Africa and 2 to Massachusetts, my home state.

   PS. Thanks for the Minnie stationary, Jenny!

Incoming:

    I have to say that having a project like this is so much easier when you have a happy mailbox to come back to. I was delighted to hear from my penpal, Angie today. Her little flower envelope was nice to pull out of my mailbox on a freezing day. Inside were a whole bunch of goodies- a letter, friendship book, postcard (nice state card!), sticker bag and a label bag. Thanks!  Here's the loot:

The 366 Project:

Sent: 4
Received: 2  

Other:

    I follow a blog called Mail me some Art. Karen always has some cool stuff on this blog and wants to have a lot of participation in this next swap. So, 1) I'm getting involved rather than just creeping her site and 2) I'm sharing her blog post in hopes that some of my awesome penfriends will get involved too.  Here are 2 cool swaps going on now.
Blue postcard swap 
Collage sheet challenge postcard swap
     Let me know if you're getting involved so I can check out your stuff!

     On a sad, and much more serious note, today the house of 1 former, 1 future and 2 current students burned down. They lost everything I believe. My heart goes out to them. Please remember today that life can change so quickly and unexpectedly. Love your family, friends, neighbors and community. Show kindness at every opportunity. Sometimes just listen instead of talk. Tell people you love them every chance you get. I am really grateful that there was nobody in the house but I can't imagine what the family is going through right now.  :(

 
 

Restarting the count!!!!

Outgoing:

     Today I sent out my first letter of 2013. It is to my friend, Jenny, in Germany. It is more like a novel.. ha ha.  I stayed up way too late trying to make a nice looking envelope. Making things visually nice is a real struggle for me so it takes a lot of effort. 

Incoming:

    I received a very yummy package from Oxymord from France. This is part of the Postcrossing Round Robins forum. This was a round devoted to special Christmas/holiday chocolates. This is my first chocolate from France. When I opened the package, my boys said "Whoa!!!!" and immediately wanted to try all of the candy. We have each tried 1 piece so far and it was delicious. I have friends who love Kinder chocolate so I plan to share with them too! Thanks Oxymord! I loved your little Christmas tree card too :)

The 366 Project (2013): 

Sent: 1
Received: 1
 

PS

PS. Here are my cute kids. I want to take a picture of them at the beginning of each month to see how they change over the year. Timmy is in the middle of saying "Cheese" and David has been sick this past week with a fever. Today is the first day that he was feeling better. We had our niece over for a few days and she went home today. We spent the first day of the new year: sleeping in, going out for brunch, sledding in the yard and then just hanging around the house.  It was a nice day.

Here are some other pictures from this past week. This is the first week that it has snowed enough to coat the ground at all.

     Happy New Year!

Let's try this again, just slightly different- 2013

    Goodbye 2012 and hello 2013!  Happy New Year to all! My letter project in 2013 was a minor failure, mostly due to the fact that I have been really bad about responding in a timely manner. On a good note, I have discovered that I have an issue balancing work, family, responsibilities and personal life. This sounds negative at first but I have discovered:
1) I really value all of my friendships that have been developed through penpalling.
2) I get extremely guilty when I haven't written someone back within a week. (Then I feel bad and don't want to write to anyone, which just adds to the issue).
3) I send lots of mail- letters, postcards, swaps, etc.
4) Writing has become a major source of relaxation and enjoyment for me. Sitting and writing to connect with another person- whether it is someone who lives 5 minutes away or 5,000 miles away- feels similar to going out to lunch to catch up with a friend. I'm a pretty social person so I enjoy being around people but I've realized that I don't like shallow relationships. If I'm going to sit to write a letter or visit with a friend in person, I want to make sure that it is quality time and that I'm investing in that person. So, this is the only solace I have given myself in regards to why I haven't been caught up with my writing- that I want to actually give the person my time. (Any of you who have read my letters also know that I have an issue with not having any free time, no matter how hard I try to plan some.)  With this being said, if there are any people who have been secretly annoyed that I don't respond as quickly as I want to and you want to stop being my penpal, please e-mail me here and I will understand. I hope there aren't any but I figured I'd put myself out there just in case. I'm still struggling with how to fit everything in my day that needs to be done, as well as the things I want to get done.

So, here are my "blog resolutions."
1) I will try again for the "366" numbers of incoming and outgoing mail BUT I'm going to count letters, postcards and packages- both outgoing and incoming.
2) I will update the blog at least once per week. I haven't decided which day yet... probably closer to the end of the week since I have lots of due dates and meetings at the beginning of the week usually.
3) I will try to document all incoming and outgoing mail with pictures.

Thanks to everybody who reads this blog and to all of the great friends I've made this year. Here's to a really happy mailbox for all of us in 2013!

    

STILL HERE

    Sorry for not posting for a long time. I have been in a super funk lately. Life has been very, very busy- too busy.  Essentially, I have tried to spend all of my free time with my family since I haven't had the opportunity for a lot of quality time for anything. When I finally felt like things were slowing down, the awful shooting in Newtown, CT happened and I just wasn't in a very cheerful or sociable mood.  I'm on Christmas break this week so I'm hoping to catch up with everything from the house to my mail. So.. if you're expecting a letter from me, I hope to get it written this week.
    I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a happy mail week! I will be checking in here a lot this week and coming up with a plan to make sure I get back on track with the blog. Thanks for still checking in!

Fall Colors...

Other...

     So here are some pictures of what my backyard looks like in the fall..

         I got a few great mail days at the end of the week but today I just enjoyed some nice time with my little guys. First we went to church where I served on the worship team with my husband and a few friends. (Favorite song that we sang today  (Great I Am from New Life Worship.. It's high but it is a great song.) We rehearsed at 9:15 and my sons read some books but Timmy ended up coming and singing along during rehearsal. It was a nice moment for me as a mom to listen to my son worshiping with me- especially because he wasn't doing it for attention from anyone. He felt happy that we let him sing along.  After church I got a massage- major luxury for me. It was fantastic! 
     In the afternoon, it was a beautiful, autumn day so I spent some time outside with the family. Timmy and I had a little time swinging on the hammock and looking up at the trees. This year the colors are very pretty. We have a few really yellow trees this year. There is a gorgeous red/orange tree but I can't get a good picture of it. 
     At 6 we had Fall Fun Night at our church. We had 4 outdoor fire pits that we had out in the parking lot. People sat around the fires and talked while eating all the yummy food people brought. We brought a caramel apple pie. There were desserts like pumpkin pie, apple pie, cookies, brownies, fruit cups, trifle (delicious!) and other small pastry-type things. For the other food we had hotdogs that people could roast over the fires, butternut squash, Mediterranean chicken soup, a few types of chili, meatballs and clam chowder. A Korean couple from church also made Korean scallion pancakes, which I really liked too. In addition to the firepits, there was a "leaf ride" (hayride, with a leaf pile in the back instead of hay), face-painting and crafts for the kids. (Nice job Jen if you are reading this) This even is one of my favorite events my church does.I feel very blessed to have such a nice group of friends and family and a wonderful church.
     I will write about mail again soon. I would love to see pictures of your area at this time of year.