Pen-to-Paper Challenge Week 4 (a little late)

Well, I'm a few weeks behind on wrapping up my Pen-to-Paper Challenge hosted by Pear Tree Greetings. But, better late than never, right!? I was pretty excited that my last post for the Pen-to-Paper Challenge won the weekly prize of a $50 gift certificate to Pear Tree Greetings (hello Christmas Cards!)

For my last week, I decided to write a little thank you note to a lady at my work. She has been extremely flexible with me the last month or so. As you've all heard, I worked a lot of extra shifts in September and October and she switched days with me several times, so I could do something fun with my family here and there. Also, last weekend I needed to go to a funeral, but was scheduled to work and she switched days with me again. I really appreicated her being so willing to work with me and decided to write her a little note to say so!

Bloggy Opportunities

Well, the last couple months I've found so many great things to participate in here in the blogging world! I think my husband thinks I'm a little crazy because I keep saying, "Oh! can you watch in the mail? I'm expecting ___!" Or "Oh! By the way... I'm participating in this new ____!" Haha.

Here are a few things that I'm doing - I think you should check them out too!

Busy Moms Book Club

This months book is Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark. I'm a little nervous about this, since it's a little out of my normal realm of reading material. I'm not sure how well I'm going to like the Suspense genre, but I'm willing to give it a try. I've got the whole month of September to read it and then link back to Busy Moms Who Love To Read with my review.

Pear Tree Greetings Pen-to-Paper Challenge
I've posted about this quite a bit - find out more here. I've had a great experience with this so far... I would definitely encourage others to try sending out a few unexpected cards to friends and see what happens!

Dear Darlings Penpal Project

I sent out my "intro" letters to my three penpals for the Dear Darlings penpal project this past week and I'm looking forward to receiving letters back soon! Check out he Oh, My Darling blog for more information - there are "rolling admissions".

And last but not least...
A Pretty Place to Play Book Swap
Unfortunately I'm posting this a couple days too late for newcomers as the admission deadline was September 1st, but I am waiting to hear back from B on who my swap buddy will be. Then we are both supposed to pick a favorite book from our bookshevles and mail it off to our buddy! Hosted by A Pretty Place to Play.

Pen-to-Paper Challege Week 3

I am participating in a four-week Pen-to-Paper challenge sponsored by Pear Tree Greetings for Pearistas. Read more about it in my original post.

When I started this challenge, I didn't realize all the different ways I would use these cards. A thank you, a miss you and now a sympathy. Not quite what I expected to write this week.

How often do we see a hard situation that happens in another person's life, be it a friend or loved one, on a social networking site like Facebook, or read about it on a blog or in an email. It is just so easy to shoot something back with a quick "I'm sorry!" or "Thinking about you today!" or even the ever popular and sympathetic "Praying for you!". I know that when I write those things, I try to actually mean them, but it is just so easy. It really takes little or no effort on my part to leave a quick comment or even shoot off a simple email to that person.

This week my cousin announced that she was pregnant with her second baby. She had just found out and was so excited that she posted it right away on Facebook for the world to see. We all delighted in her news with her. The next day, we waited as she posted that she was heading to the hospital because something was wrong and then later mourned as she let us know - no more baby.

She got married this past year and moved half-way across the country from Washington State to Kentucky. I can't give her a hug at church or meet her for coffee. And as I was posting my comment to her on Facebook, I felt like part of a group. I was just one of many people posting an "I'm sorry" on her page - how impersonal. And suddenly I knew who I was writing my card to this week. Realizing that I didn't even have her new address, instead of leaving her an impersonal comment, I sent her a message asking for it and sat down to write her a nice and simple handwritten card.

Dear Leila,
I just wanted you let you know that I'm thinking of you and Brian (& Jo-Jo!) this week and sending up prayers for your family during this time. I wish I could reach out through space and give you a big hug, but this card will just have to do for now.
Love you lots,
Elsie

Not long, no great words of wisdom or advice. There's not really anything to say to make it better. But hopefully she'll get it in a few days when the Facebook comments have petered out and people have started to move on to the next online crisis and appreciate the fact that we're still thinking about her.

Pen-to-Paper Challenge

I'm participating in the Pear Tree Greetings Pen-to-Paper Challenge for Pearistas. You can find out more about that on my original post about it.

Week Two:
 Well, this was an interesting week for me. I debated back and forth about who I was going to send my second card out too. My original thought was to send it out to Kelly, who I've known for a long time - her family and mine have both attended the same church for practically our whole lives - but I can't say that we are really good friends or anything.

Over the last couple years, I have become good friends with her cousin and through that relationship I've had the opportunity to spend more time with Kelly. She has been a regular sub in our bunco group among other things. Kelly's husband just returned from Iraq and they are now living all the way across the country and I know she hates where they are living currently. They are away from family and friends and I don't think she likes the particular area either.

So... my first thought was to send a little note to Kelly, but then I dismissed it because I didn't think she would be the kind to send on a note to someone else (and we include a blank card for that purpose). I tossed around a few other ideas, but I kept coming back to Kelly - which is actually kind of strange since we're not really close friends or anything.

I finally decided that it didn't matter whether she was going to send a card off to someone else and that shouldn't be part of my decision process in whether I was going to send a card to her or not. What she chooses to do with the other card is completely up to her.

I sent her mom a message on Facebook and asked for her address so the card would be a complete surprise - I'm not really sure what she's going to think of getting a card out of the blue from me, but I feel kind of excited about it.

Here is my note to Kelly:

I was happy with my decision - I'm not sure why I felt so compelled to send this card to her, but I just decided to go with my instinct.

Update:

Sylvia thanked me on Sunday morning for the beautiful note and card that I send her last week. I know she appreciated getting something handwritten.

Pen-to-Paper Challege

I have chosen to participate in the Pen-to-Paper Challenge as part of being a Pearista with  Pear Tree Greetings.

The Challenge:
To write a hand-written note once a week for the next 4 weeks. Pear Tree Greetings has generously given each of us who has accepted 4 notecards with envelopes along with a second card and envelope to pass along to your recipient.

They have also asked us to blog about our experience. It's rare these days to go to your mailbox and find a hand-written note isn't it? And if you do, it's probably to a baby shower or a wedding or something. Think about the last time you received something like that in the mail?

Week One:

For my first card, I chose a sweet lady who works on a volunteer basis at our church in a position that should be paid. She has chosen to do it as a volunteer. I used to work as the assistant to the children's pastor at our church and she worked alongside me. She runs all the classes for children in the nursery-twos. That may not seem like much, but we have four services on Sunday mornings, one on Wednesday nights, the women's group meets on Tuesday mornings and multiple other special events during the week. Just my ONE Toddler class that I work in on Sunday morning can have anywhere from 7-15 kids in it.

I just wanted to tell her how much she is appreciated and that I know how much she does. Here is my note:

I would like to issue my own challenge to my readers... pick several people that you feel needs a note of encouragement, thanks, congratulations or even an I'm sorry and write them a handwritten note! If you do, I'd love to hear back on how they responded or even how it made you feel!