Mailbox Monday

This is my friend's mailbox (on right) in Norway where I send all my mail and packages! 

Had to include it - love it! Just peeking past it at the garden, the house, even the cars makes me wish I was there. It was a lovely, relaxing trip (now my mail enjoys that journey lol). Wishing I was there for strawberry season - best strawberries I have ever eaten (all that sun!).

Have a lovely week everyone! Happy 1st and Happy 4th!

Enjoy some time with family and friends and be summery!

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.