Snail Mail Challenge // Week 2

A friend of mine, who was engaged last year, sent an email to a bunch of friends asking for helpful wedding tips. In my busyness (awful excuse, I know!), I completely forgot to write her back. So, when I was thinking of who I would write my second letter to I knew, off the bat, that it would be her.  

Here were some of my wedding tips:

1. Relax! If possible. I remember how easy it was to get overwhelmed (guest lists and thousand dollar deposits can do that to you!) so I encouraged her to keep focus on what's truly important - their marriage. The wedding day, while significant, isn't the most important thing. The joining of two people before God, family and friends is.

2. Get a day of coordinator! I have seen weddings where day of coordinators take charge and ones where the bride and groom have to do everything themselves. Having someone run our day so that TheHubby and I could sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour was key to not stressing out. I would have freaked out if I had to deal with all the little details on top of smiling, greeting people all day and being the center of attention. Not to mention, get married while I am at it :p  But you know yourself best :) 

3. Pick your battles! In the end, you can't (and won't) please everyone. Fight the battles you can and need to win and let the rest go. [Refer back to point #1].

We initially wanted a small and intimate wedding. Instead, we ended up with 400 guests! I'm sure we could have fought for a small wedding but I knew that regardless of how many people attended, TheHubby and I would be married and that's what truly mattered. If it made our parents (who have a lot of church friends!) happy to invite their whole congregation, so be it. Did I love our wedding? Yes! Would I have still wanted a small wedding? Probably. But was it worth the fight with both sides of parents? Nope. Not for us.  

4. Renew your passport! I didn't know my passport needed to be valid for a certain number of months in order to travel. Because of that, we were limited to vacationing in Cuba for our honeymoon. It would have been nice to have had more options but we loved it regardless.

5. Balance!!! Again, planning a wedding can be super exhausting and overwhelming. I don't think TheHubby and I ever fought as much as we did during our engagement.  Thankgoodness for that!  If I could do it all over again, I would have set aside a couple of days a week (especially closer to the wedding day) to talk about non-wedding related stuff and do some of the things we did before getting engaged.

What are some of your favorite wedding tips?

Have a great day!

Tea

Snail Mail Challenge // Week 1

LittlePeanut 3   Glass Ornaments 0

We were recently invited over to a friend’s place to see their new house, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was decked out with lovely Christmas decorations and I seriously believe it could have been featured in a magazine it was so pretty.  Needless to say, LittlePeanut had fun touching and grabbing everything in sight (and I mean everything!), and even broke one of their big glass Christmas tree ornaments.  Technically, he didn't drop the ornament (it was my brother-in-law, who was watching him at the time) but still, had he not been fooling around with the ornaments in the first place…

Thus, my first snail mail letter goes out to my awesome friend and her beautiful family, who are now one Christmas tree ornament short. 

Lesson learned: Glass ornaments and toddlers do NOT mix.  

JK Sign-up... Already!

While TheBoy won't be attending Junior Kindergarten for another 9 months, registration for the 2015/2016 year has already begun.  I am always amazed at how fast my boys grow up.  I still remember waking up every couple of hours to feed my little guy, and here we are getting ready to send him off to school.  

I've filled out all the necessary forms, I just have to send them in.  So just for fun, I'll backtrack and post some colourful snack boxes I've sent TheBoy for preschool.  Next year I get to pack full lunches and snacks!  Is it weird that the thought gets me very excited? Because it does! Crazy momma here. 

Red grape tomatoes with Swiss cheese slices cut into bear shapes (TheBoy was asked to bring his teddy bear to school for the first day), mandarin orange slices with a strawberry in the middle and bread sticks.

Mandarin orange wedges with a strawberry in the middle, a turkey sausage stick (cut into 4 pieces), a couple of goldfish crackers (in the rainbow container), sliced black olives and green grapes.

Corn nibs, a couple goldfish crackers (in the rainbow container), red grape tomatoes, green apple slices and fruit leather cut into stars.

A couple goldfish crackers (in the rainbow container), a turkey sausage stick (cut into 4 pieces), red grape tomatoes, green grapes and (not so) checkered cucumbers.  

Snail Mail // 52 Letters, 52 Weeks

I LOVE stationery.  Don't believe me, just ask my husband.  He'll vouch for the many (many!) boxes I have of pretty paper. From cute personalized stationary, to boxed cards, to rolls and rolls of stamped craft paper, I have enough paper to last me a good long while.  If there's one thing, however, that I love more than stationary, it's snail mail. 

I was praying for a friend recently who was going through a hard time. I was asking the Lord to greatly bless them, when I realized that I (yes, lil ol' me!) could BE that blessing! Or at least a part of it. That's when I decided to challenge myself to write more snail mail in 2015. More specifically, 52 letters in 52 weeks.

While we're bombarded daily, or even hourly, by a plethora of emails and instant text messages, there's something special about receiving a handwritten letter via one's physical mailbox that a 120 character limit simply cannot covey. And who doesn't love stumbling upon a written note in the midst of bills, bills and more bills? I certainly don't! 

So, I hope that this 2015 new year will be one full of many snail mail blessings! If you're interested in joining me with this challenge (or a similar one - you could always do a letter a month or a letter a DAY, if you're so inclined!) message me at humblywritten@gmail.com.

It's time to BE a blessing.

Happy writing,

Tea

Welcome 2015!

Today you are you!  

That is truer than true!  

There is no one alive who is you-er than you! 

-Dr. Seuss