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

Visiting a store in Trondheim and came across this wall of post boxes - love them! Probably the only person in the world who stops to take photos of mailboxes on a trip but I thought they were lovely (not even sure which colour I would choose).

Mailbox Monday

Nothing says 'rustic' like your mailbox nailed to a tree! Love it!  

You'll notice a Norwegian theme for the next few 

Mailbox Mondays - this is in Leksvik.

Home Again, Home Again...

     I feel like I just went on a Flat Stanley adventure…mailed myself off to a friend’s house in Norway (transatlantic flights are definitely akin to being a little squished for 7+ hours – from my house anyway). What a lovely break, adventure, time to relax and hang out with my wonderful friend Bente and her family.  And now I have three lovely boys to write to (might be using Google Translation – lol) & send fun Canadian things. I have to compliment Elias (age 11) on his incredible English and thank all the boys for teaching me some Norwegian (cheese being my very favourite word!). I think one of the things I loved to do most was wandering through the grocery store - drooling over the chocolate and loving all the different products/packaging. It never got old - I'm just unique that way.

Another bonus to going away (besides the awesome travel itself) and then coming back (besides being picked up at the airport by my husband, hugs and kisses from my wonderful family, and a sweet boy who said, “wuv you too” for the first time to me) is that there is a little stack of mail waiting just for me! It’s kind of fun when it piles up – a sweet birth announcement for a beautiful boy, a silly letter from one of my nieces, a fantastic ‘old school’ note from a friend and a few other fun pieces. Let's all go "old school" and send out some notes to our friends!

And now I look forward to writing many cards of thanks for my hosts and for the people who took care of my kids and husband while I was away. Feel so blessed to have such amazing people in my life who love my kids as much as I do! What are your best ideas for sending Canadian items to my three new Norwegian friends (age 11, 8 & 6)? Leave me a comment.

773/1000 Adding two to the mix.

Mail is Good.

Earlier this week I received this lovely card in my mailbox!

So blessed to have such lovely friends! Really, my heart just warmed when I saw the handwritten name and address. Oh and that lovely teal coloured envelope. But really it was the words inside and the person who wrote them that absolutely made my day. Thank you so much! You know who you are! Guess what people...you could be doing this for someone right now or who knows maybe there is one on its way to you!

The other cool thing I received this week was in this beautiful box.

This is a Tea-zer from Steeped Tea - I was lucky enough to be the recipient of this monthly mail out! I get two random 50g bags of tea for 6 months! So exciting to see what I will get and try something new. Looking forward to trying Strawberry Shortcake. I do love blank-of-the-month type gifts. Just really extends the love and there are so many cool ones out there (wine, cheese, beer, tea, treats/products for pets to name a few).  

Another great gift-of-the month would be a magazine subscription...my mom sent my daughter a subscription of Chickadee and she loves getting it every month! We talk about who sent it to her and then read through it together and man does she ever read through each issue a lot (well used). She talks about how she has a collection of them is quite happy about it. She also get a free monthly Lego Magazine which she adores as well. The mail can bring so much happiness, a break from the mundane (flyers, bills), a moment with a friend, a laugh, a smile...yep, mail is cool like that.

771/1000 Just one for now.

P.S. It's Mother's Day on Sunday. Do you have a mom in your life that would love a card? Your Mom? A single Mom? A Mom you admire? Make it happen!

Mailbox Monday

Venezia

Mailbox Monday or Casella Postale Lunedi comes to you from Venice, Italy. My lovely cousin was visiting Italy (with her 4 month old son - who was a rockstar on the plane by the way) and snapped this great photo of this fab mailbox. Dreaming of travel!

Have a great week everyone!

Books and Silliness

     My oldest niece just turned 13 this spring and she's just lovely! As an English teacher (on hiatus), professed book lover, and avid reader I always feel sad when kids in my class don't like reading. Not necessarily class novels - as much as I love Lord of the Flies it probably isn't exciting for everyone (I even like the black and white movie - seriously?). But I am a strong believer that non-readers just haven't found the right book yet (to get them started). And this is the case with my niece. She liked reading for a while I think but then suddenly wasn't interested...until now! It just took a certain series of books to flick the switch for her.

     It's really cool because my husband and I have been able to 'feed' her books, so to speak, from our book shelves. Sharing books and talking about them is a special gift. And I definitely advocate sharing your favourite books with friends and family because they really are a little piece of who we are - we often find ourselves in books and that is part of their beauty. Easy to pop in the mail or even an excerpt that really means something to you.

No shortage of books to lend here.
Two of our five bookshelves that we purge often.

     In addition to lending out books this week I received another silly letter back from my niece J and had a great time writing her back - maybe, I'm enjoying it more than she is? Either way it's a lot of fun to be creative with it to see what silliness I can come up with - pancake fights, bacon jewellery, and skunk jerky - oh it's on!

     And pleased to report that on my way out to run errands I mailed her letter and when I came back to my car my two year old pointed to the mailbox and said, "mail." Now he has new words everyday lately but have to say this is one of my favourites this week! Yep, he knows what his Mama is up to - love that kid!

     Then on my way back from running errands I stopped to check our mail and lo and behold my 11 year old niece S (J's sister) sent me a silly letter - Oh we've started something here! So looking forward to sitting down and writing back! So S tells me she's travelling the world...and other crazy hijinks. Both nieces only live a block and a half away actually (with sister K too) but there is something magical about mail and what we are doing here. Keep that in mind. Mail is not always about distance, it is often just about relationships.

770/1000 1, 2 & 3 to the count this week! Slowly but surely.

P.S. One of those fab letter is going to Stephanie with something special inside for guessing the movie from my last post! And it was Finding Forrester. Way to go Steph!