Give Thanks

thank you noteI was brought up under the strict rule of thank-you note writing and it carries with me until this day. I believe in good, old fashioned notes that are hand written, require a stamp and are sent in a timely fashion. Saying this, I still haven’t written ones for my birthday (from May) or to the wonderful friends and family who hosted us while we were road tripping this summer. I used to be SO much better, actually a little obsessed my husband might say, as I made us do all our thank-you notes for our wedding gifts on the plane ride to our honeymoon destination?!

So it was with mixed emotion that I read about Thanks for Everything on the site DailyCandy Kids. In three easy steps, your thank you notes are done – by someone else!

  1. Answer a few simple questions about the occasion, then select your stationary.
  2. List the “gifts” you received and who to thank.
  3. Place your order.

Granted it seems to be mostly geared toward baby shower/birth gifts as well as wedding gifts but I could dream, for a moment, of a “personal assistant” handling one of my most procrastinated tasks.  They are not actually handwritten but use “sophisticated handwriting fonts that could fool all but the most suspicious forensic graphologist”. And I have to love a site that refuses to do notes for kid’s birthday or bar/bat mitzvah gifts stating that kids need to learn and master the rules of writing thank-you notes…before they can break them.

Birthday Buddy

Tired of getting candles / scented lotions for your own birthday or sick of more plastic toys for your kids?  Take a look at this phenomenal program I discovered last year called Birthday Buddy. This is currently through the St. Louis Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition but anyone from anywhere can participate or see if your own local agency has a similar program.

You can make a foster child’s birthday wishes come true by registering to be a Birthday Buddy!  As a Birthday Buddy, you ask your guests to bring birthday presents to donate to a foster child in lieu of gifts for you or your own child. There are currently over 4000 children in foster care in St. Louis and most children spend at least 2 birthdays in foster care.

It couldn’t be easier to become a birthday buddy: Read the rest of this entry

Story People

Almost New Age

Is willing to accept that she creates her own reality except for some of the parts where she can’t help but wonder what the hell she was thinking

Before Dawn

I’ve always liked the time before dawn because there’s no one around to remind me who I’m supposed to be, so it’s easier to remember who I am

Believing My Father

I used to believe my father about everything but then I had children myself & now I see how much stuff you make up just to keep yourself from going crazy.

Kindered Spirits

You’re the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said you too & we decided we’d know each other a long time.

These are just a few of my favorite quotes from storypeople.com but I could go on and on. They’ve created prints, books, frames, cards, etc that somehow capture a feeling that I can never put into words. I’ve gifted these for graduation, birthday, new babes, marriages, & father’s day … I can always find one to match any occasion. What I can’t do justice (on my site) is show you the great illustrations that come with the quotes as I typically buy mine as prints. They are black and white drawings, almost stick figures with amazing colors.

The folks at storypeople.com have this to say about themselves … Read the rest of this entry