Pen to Paper Challenge – Week 3

As a Pearista I sometimes have the opportunity to participate in fun activities and I recently accepted the Pen to Paper Challenge with Pear Tree Greetings.  Isn’t Pearista a fun word?  I know “ista” makes me think of a Starbucks employee in a green apron.  A PEARista is a bit different – we are a group of bloggers sponsored by Pear Tree Greeting that value the power of connecting through stationary.

I have recently come to *love* Pear Tree Greetings.  Their  products are high quality and simply beautiful.  Pear Tree Greetings is an online stationary company that loves to help people connect.   If you are looking for personalized note cards, Christmas Cards,  birth announcements, and more then Pear Tree Greetings is your place to shop.

In the Pen to Paper Challenge I will be writing a hand-written note once a week for the next two weeks.  As a cool perk, Pear Tree is picking on Pearista post each of the four weeks (three remaining since I missed the first) to win $50 to put towards our Christmas Cards!

Last week I set my notecards on my desk to start the challenge.  While my girls were playing I wrote in a card to my Great Grandma Lucille.  She is a great, great grandma to my daughters.  My grandma holds a very special place in my heart.  She is 3,000 miles away and I do not see her nearly enough.  I love sending her little notes throughout the year but have recently become so busy that I have slacked big time.  It makes me very sad when I sit down and think about it.  My grandma lives in an “old folks home” as she calls it and I know that she enjoys getting mail from us.  There really is no excuse to not write her more.

As I sat down to write I used my best handwriting and spaced my words and sentences perfectly.  My idea of a perfect completed stationary card was complete and I set all the cards back on my desk.

While I was working on the card my girls were playing with the dollhouse.  My older daughter expressed some interest in what I was doing.  I told her I was writing Grandma Lucille a card and asked if she would like to color a picture to add.  She told me “not right now.”  I thought we were done for the day and didn’t give my cards another thought.

Later that day I returned to my desk and I found one of the cards out of place.  I became a little upset because a sippy cup with ice had been place on top of the card.  My perfect card was on the way to being ruined.

I opened the card and this is what I found:

As much as I hate to admit this, I was mad when I opened the card.  Mind you the anger lasted five seconds.  (I am both ashamed and embarrassed for that confession).  My first thought was that one of my four weeks of letter writing was now ruined.  Then the light bulb switched on and I realized that instead of being upset I should be elated.  All my daughter wanted to do was to send her great, great grandma a card too.   At almost four-years-old she wrote all the words she knows how to write “Natalie V, Mom V, Dad V, and Alyssa V.”  She also started writing our last name, but it’s a bit of a doozy with 9 letters.

After watching her mommy write in a stationary card to grandma, Natalie wanted to do the same thing. As a parent I am getting an A+ in teaching my children to care about the people in their lives.  Natalie tried her very best on her card.  And you know what?  We are going to put her card in its’ own envelope, address it, and stick on a return address label and a stamp and mail it.  I honestly believe that my great grandma will enjoy the card from Natalie more than she will me.  There is something endearing about the works of a preschooler.

I am thrilled that I am teaching my children that it is important and fun to send hand written cards.  What we do as parents obviously makes a huge impact in their lives.  I certainly hope that both of my daughters enjoy letter writing!