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.

catching up

Just a quick bit of random stuff. I've almost recovered and dug out from the CHA madness. I've got some deadlines looming, so I'm creating stuff I can't share yet. Darn it. I won today on the Maya Road blog. They had lots of fun peeks with giveaways and I was there every day peeking. I stopped by their booth and fell in love with the clear Maya Mist. It's just sparkly like you can't believe and you can spray it on anything. The video I took of it didn't turn out well. In fact a bunch of the stuff I tried to shoot was blurry. That's what I get for taking my new micro tiny camera I guess.

I actually worked today. It was my 4th substitute teaching day since I started back in October. The jobs have been pretty scarce. The retired teachers get first pick and I'm sure their retirement money took a dive with the rest of us, so I can't blame them. I just wish I could work a bit more. I taught middle school PE today. Such a fun age, but so turbulent for them. There is so much drama with those middle school years. Not a single kiddo I chatted with felt they fit in. Each and every one said the social stuff was really tough. You see we had free play time today, so I made time to check in with them. I've known most of these kids since kindergarten. It's been a few years since I've seen some of them. I wasn't able to teach for a few years while we home-schooled Kyle. If you have a young teen in your life, be sure to let them know they are special to you and that they have unique gifts to share.

Tonight I hosted bunco at my house. I've been playing with the same fun group for about 6 or 7 years. We play each month of the school year and take summers off. Tonight was a Valentine Tea theme. I made little sandwiches and very pink cupcakes for dessert. We had all manner of tea and a little wine, too. Fun times. I'm lucky to have such great girlfriends to get together with every month. You know the bunco part is just an excuse for a girls night out. LOL