Let Me Introduce You to a New Friend

One day not too long ago, as I was scrolling through Instagram, I saw a shot of some postcards that my friend had received.  The hashtag #postcrossing made me curious, so I followed the rabbit trail right down the hole into wonderland.

I like getting mail - who doesn't? Postcrossing is just a way of taking matters into your own hands.

From their website (www.postcrossing.com):

"The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world."

My stash of postcards that I've collected to send.

You sign up, request to send a postcard, and they give you an address.  You can see the person's profile with a bit about them, so you can customize what you say or what postcard you choose to send, and then when they receive it, they log it on the site.  THEN, the next time someone requests to send one, they get YOUR address.  And you get mail.  

And all the ones I've got so far!

Just a little something I've been having fun with over the last little while - thought I'd share in case you'd like some happy mail, too!

Tidbits from the past week or so...

Madeline and Cailey - a friend from her other (red!) soccer team - playing against each other in their first high school games.  Wearing the same #21, too.

I gave Nolan another haircut.  We did the top / front sitting on the back deck Tuesday, and wasn't able to do the back until Saturday... You have to find the right balance of cooperation and quiet!  Then when he showed Dad, Dad thought it would be a good idea to style it up all spiky.  Pretty cute!

A downside to writing more letters is that I was getting a little too excited for the mail to come each day, thinking that writing more meant getting more... silly me.  But then I got TWO!  Kadence and Zach picked out cards and wrote in them and took them to the post office to send to Auntie - I smiled all day long.  They're sitting on my desk making me happy even now.

I found a great surprise when I was purging our bookshelf last week.  Back in 2007, I got bookmarks from my nephews with their school photos on them.  I had one in my bookmark box that I keep on the shelf, but had no idea where the other two had disappeared to, and that had made me sad a few times over the years.  I found them - in some of the books that I had been working through and forgotten, I guess - and that made me pretty happy, too.

Did you know there are three verses to Row, Row Row Your Boat?  We have a book of nursery rhymes that we've been pulling out at bedtime, and Row, Row Row Your Boat has been a favorite that I have sung hundreds of times lately, before putting him down for a nap or bed.  I'll leave you with this now and hope it gets stuck in your head.  You're welcome.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently on the tide.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

To the other side.

 

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently back to shore.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Home for tea at four!

Package of Happiness

Do you shop online?  I rarely do, unless it was getting textbooks from Amazon, but I check out some scrapbooking steal sites on and off.  Since I rarely shop for scrapbooking supplies (only when we travel to somewhere that has a shop), and since I found a few things that I would use at good prices, I decided to just do it and placed an order with Crafty Steals.  That was February 18.  On Friday I got my package!  Yep, March 25.  I wasn't a patient waiter at all...  And the irony is that in that 5 weeks of waiting, Carla and I went to Saskatoon, I bought a bunch of stuff and have already made stuff with it. 

I'm happy to have this and someday soon will carve out some time to play.

Christmas Cards & Cookies!

Or, What I Made Today.

I picked up supplies for cards on Saturday (thinking the whole time, I should just buy some...) but I'm glad I didn't.  These are coming together quickly, and I'm working on my list of who to send them to as I go.  I started the assembly line yesterday, and today some are ready to go.  The cards are a box of blank reds & greens, and they all look good with the brown and white.  Hooray for homemade!

Madeline's class is having a bake sale tomorrow to raise money for the Humane Society & I sent the form back last week saying yes, we'd send some goodies - and hoping I'd have a stove at least by now! We do have the stove, but still not much prep room, so these are a roll of Pillsbury dough - they'll do!

 

When I wrote last I said all we had left was a coat of color on the walls... Sean did that while I was at the craft sale on Saturday.  He also moved the fridge and stove and table and chairs back into place, so it's looking great!  Yesterday he put up those lights over the table, and right now he's in the kitchen installing the new pot lights in the kitchen.  It's coming!

Now I'm heading back to the studio to make some more cards, or maybe to write in & address some... or maybe I'll just pick up my book and relax...  Thanks for checking in!

If you want a Christmas card, send me an email to followandlead @ gmail . com with your mailing address - even if I don't know you!  Ha - especially if I don't know you! 

Bits and Pieces

My brother and his wife are in the hospital having a baby.  I am waiting patiently for news but am very excited.  Nieces and nephews are so amazing.

When we moved the piano from one wall to the other in November, we heard a crack and it's now dreadfully out of tune.  I'm scared to call the tuner.

We are in paint mode around here.  Pictures to come when it's all done.

Sean made homemade burgers tonight for the first barbeque of the season.  Ten minutes and we'll be eating happy.

Madeline's into string figures and skipping.  So glad we've got all that fun stuff around the house.

I got a call this morning with an order for 15 magic bags.  I happened to have that many in stock & dropped them off on my way to work.  Nice to have a little sideline like that.

There is a thank you card on the phone table in the office that Madeline wrote right after Christmas that I haven't delivered yet.

I'm graduating on Saturday but I'm not really that excited about it.  It's a diploma.  I'm glad to be done, but feel like I'm quitting half way through.

I was asked to join a book club.  We're getting together on Thursday night to discuss A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews, and I'm halfway done.  It's well written, but strange and sad.  I sense there's a plot in there somewhere, but it's going to have to speak up if the book is going to get a 'good' at the end.

Please leave me a comment related to any of the above snippets of my life.  Or not related to anything at all.  That's okay too.

Not Covered???

More good content in my mailbox yesterday.

We got an envelope from our health benefit provider. I am usually happy to see one of those because usually they have cheques in them. This one didn't. It had a note about why our claim was denied. It said:

"YOUR PLAN DOES NOT COVER A FRENCH MANICURE."

Seriously?? They seriously thought that I was submitting for the manicure and not the massage on the same receipt? The massage that was CIRCLED along with the date and the massuse's credentials? I seriously need to keep this for a laugh. French manicures. Not covered. Really.

Compassion Plug

I got mail today from Compassion Canada. They sent me a child packet and asked if I would help find a sponsor for this little girl. On one hand, I sort of feel that this is a dirty guilt trip trick. But on the other, if kids get sponsored because people think about sharing it with their coworkers or family, then ok, that's a good thing. Each child sponsored is one life - you can see the picture, look into their eyes and see how you can help. I think that's what makes child sponsor programs so attractive.

The child who is looking up at me from this packet I have in front of me is named Pyetra. She's a 5 year old from Brazil. Let me know if you're interested. Or go to the Compassion site and search for a child. You can browse by country or birthdates. This is what I was doing when I found our latest sponsored child, Salome. She was born the exact same day as Madeline; now she has a twin that lives in Ghana!

I just looked for the post with that story, and realized I never told it - I think I just put the short version on facebook and didn't get it on here. That will be my reward for finishing this paper I'm working on - I will scan pictures and tell the stories of our Compassion experiences. Now I'll quit procrastinating and get back to the paper. This never ends...