giving back

I know I've mentioned my fun bunco group before here. I get together once a month with 11 other women to play bunco, and we've been doing this for 8 years now. It's wonderful fun and we learn so much from each other. Quite a few of the women I play with are Catholic and our last bunco night was on Fat Tuesday, so there was much discussion about lent. The closest I ever came to catholicism is the nice catholic boy I dated in high school, but I never really knew much about lent. So, I asked questions. It was a great discussion about reflection and honoring beliefs and giving back. Many of my friends take these 40 days of lent to give to others, in their families, in the schools, in the community, and in the world. Some also give up things like chocolate, but that's not my style.  I was inspired by the idea of helping others.

Yesterday, I met with my regular stamping group that's been meeting monthly for longer than the bunco group. There's a bit of crossover in these two groups, just a few of us are in both groups. I asked the group to help me with a project. I already had 35 cards made to send to Operation Write Home that I really need to get in the mail. OWH is having a half and half drive right now. They're asking people to send in half mother's day and father's day cards and half any occasion cards. The task of making 35 mother's day and father's day cards was a bit daunting to me, so I asked the girls to help me out if they had nothing else to stamp. Everyone jumped right in and we got inky yesterday. I'm happy to say that I'm shipping out 80 cards this morning. What a wonderful group of friends I have in both of these groups.  I love the idea of giving back all the time, but during this time after the holidays and in the last part of winter it's a nice time to remember others who could use a hand.  Thank you to my mountain bunco friends for explaining this beautiful time to me and to my mountain stamping friends for helping me get this box of lovely cards winging their way to our soldiers stationed overseas that they can write in and send to their loved ones waiting at home.

Thanks for stopping by today.