Blogging, Journaling, and Letter Writing

I have a very dear friend that I met back in college, and pretty much from the first time we spoke we were fast friends. And as fate would have it, the first time I invited her and her husband over to our home... her husband and Daddio knew each other from college marching band (they both played euphonium). Clearly the Lord was working to get our two families together, and it worked. Our friendship grew, and now they are the Godparents of Bubba!

Back to my friend, Littlebit (for my regular readers/commenters you might recognize her sign-in) and I began penpal campaign with one another. This was something we did for a brief time a few Lents' ago, but dwindled after the season passed.

We no longer live near one another, so emails and blogging have been our main source of contact for a couple of years now... with a long distance phone call dotted in there every now and again in our spare moments (ha ha ha ha spare time, um, we both have children and homeschool... those are RARE occasions).

About two months ago, the letter writing started up again. And I wanted to share with you what it is that I'm doing on my end of the penpaling... in hopes that it speaks to one of you who might have a friend who could use a letter, and in turn you would love to hear from them in this personal way. (I had a few friends back in high school, in our junior and senior year we would mail letters to one another... instead of passing notes in class. We always thought it was fun to get mail, and we were writing the notes anyway! And I just knew this would cheer up Littlebit.)

Instead of simply writing one letter then mailing it off, I have a notebook that I keep near me pretty much all day for jotting notes on (groceries I might need, a project that I want to do, a recipe I saw). It is divided into a few sections, and one section I designated for Littlebit. I write to her in more of a journel format. Most of the time each paragraph is a new idea... since I usually only have time for one paragraph at a time... I share with her about our day, about Bubba, my own gospel reflections... anything that comes to mind that I think might be of interest to her. I even doodle on the page, add stamps or stickers that might pertain to what I'm writing especially if they are girly and not something I could regularly use with my boys (harkening back to the old days when paper was decorated with painted images around the edges). I keep going for about a week... starting on a Monday and concluding the package on Sunday. In the envelope will be the letters, any articles I might've found, recipes her family might enjoy, I've even put in sheets of stickers that I thought her and her daughter would like to have.

And while she still reads my blog from time to time, this is a much more personal reflection of our lives... as are her letters in return to me. And while I rarely have time for our 2 hour conversations (which I truly love...), there are many hours of thoughts in each of our letters... and I don't have to worry about what I forgot to say when we spoke, I simply jot it down!

Do you have a friend that you wish you spoke to more? Send her a letter! There's nothing better than opening your mail box and finding a personal letter just for you!