Two Straight Lines

Summer is (more than) fading (it's over) and school is back in! And I'm back...in more ways than one. Back on the blog, back in the classroom (part-time), and back to meal-planning, baking, letters/notes/packages...

My daughter completed the Summer Reading Program through our local library and loved it! During the last week of August we had a great book that inspired me a little and I was so happy to think that it might inspire others as well (kids and parents alike). These two pages are from a Madeline book about politeness and manners (excuse these not so great phone pictures).

We also checked out a Curious George Thank You book where he writes thank you cards to everyone, including the mail carrier! I knew I loved that little monkey for a reason! My darling girls is selling mint chocolate GG cookies so she has a number of thank you cards to write as well. And suddenly we are in a season of fundraising - for school and activities. Funny how all of a sudden we are in that realm (no doubt frozen baked good and chocolate covered almonds ahead). So many thanks to our neighbours, friends, family and strangers as you support us in this new era of (school-aged kid) life. We'll do our best not to hound you.

Adding 12 to the count - which brings me to an even 800! Wow, only 200 to go. It's pumpkin month - enjoy all things autumn!

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
~Anne of Green Gables

Sweet Summer Reading

     Yesterday, my husband and I had an Auntie/Uncle date with our three beautiful nieces (9, 11 & 13 - these are of course, their ages, we don't refer to them as numbers - lol). And we decided to take them to a very cool bookstore near us called Kidsbooks. The ladies are so knowledgeable and we were excited to take the girls in for an end-of-the-school-year-beginning-of-summer gift/book. So the girls were able to say what they liked, the staff picked out a few options and then they sat down and perused each copy and made a decision! Of course, you know, I just sent the store a handwritten thank you note because they are awesome!

To round out the afternoon we headed over to Menchies for a sweet treat (their first time!) and fully indulged our sweet tooths (teeth?). Just noticed they do fundraisers too - always looking for new fundraising venues (yum, frozen yogurt) - making a mental note about that.

    Summer and reading go hand in hand! I know I'm compiling my summer reading list right now and starting the stack to pull from.  I think we are going to head to the library in a couple of days to see what their summer reading program looks like and get our sweet five year old excited about that - brings back so many memories! Of course, libraries are great places for recommendations as well and love that you can also rent movies and take out magazines and more. Reading on the beach, on the deck, in a hammock, in a tent (with a flashlight) tucked in a sleeping bag, in a book nook, at Grandma and Papa's house, at a sidewalk cafe...reading has always been a big part of our summer and I hope that continues. All of those places are great places to read and write mail as well.

     Connecting with characters in a book is not so different than connecting with people via the written word (aka letters & postcards). In fact, one of my favourite sayings is, "We read to know that we are not alone." Some of the world's greatest people and mentors are characters in books - share that with your kids and give that to yourself as well! Some books even have letters and postcards inside them (The Jolly Postman & Meerkat Mail for the younger set and Griffin & Sabine for adults - full of beautiful mail and an intriguing story/series).

778/1000 Sent a couple of great packages to Norway, one to Piper's pen pal, and a couple of cards - making it 5 that I get to add to my count.

Mailbox? Monday

Other

Okay, so this isn't exactly a mailbox but it is super cool and has a lot of the same attributes. 

Free Little Library - check out this page for an article all about it and lots of other cool examples of Free Little Libraries out there! I want to do this!