Wacky and Wild Mail

13 ounces or less. The wonderfully wacky things you can mail!

Last week I wrote about my love of good ole fashion snail mail, and included that I would write about when I did a “out of the box” mail camp with my niece. Well, I can usually pat myself on the back for documenting things with photos. However, I remember sweating and being stared down by a postal worker while I attempted this fun adventure with my then four year old niece, who by the way was and is an excellent child! I believe the worker was perturbed that my mom and I would engage in such silly business. Haha he didn’t know us, obviously!

Anyways, I did not photograph this moment as I did many other moments (like the note above that she wrote to her dance teacher), but thankfully I did track down where I wrote this memory down for future recall!

I expressed in my last post how much my niece and nephew love mail- they love making mail, “sending and delivering” mail within the four walls of our house, and truly sending and receiving mail. The summer I did this camp was the summer following my nephew, her little brother joining our family. So making things a bit special was the goal.

We gathered address: Mom, Dad, and Jack; Grammy and Pops; Swing and Duck; Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin; The “Girls” (more cousins); some friends. We wrote these and return addresses out on labels.

We gathered what we wanted to mail: frisbees, bucket and shovel, beach ball, pack of sticky notes, small playground ball, and some postcards that Lilly had made. Placed the label with the recipient she selected on each item, as well as a return address, and room for postage, and we were ready to go.

I decided it would be best to find a post office with a stand alone stamp/shipping station. Just make sure you don’t choose a busy time! 😕 We made a bit of a mistake in timing. As far as this working for postage for the items, perfect!

And then off our items went! To our surprise every single item arrived at the right destination and intact!

Besides this fun adventure, we learned how the postal system works, the roles of different workers- postmaster, “mailbox truck” man/woman, behind the scenes workers, etc. We learned what is required for us to make sure is on our mail – Name and address of recipient, Name and address of sender, and a stamp. And where each of these things belong. We did a lot of labels for addresses- but getting them in the correct places was the goal 😊

If you would like to do something like this, here are some resources:

1. You can find so many more ideas! You can google/search or use Pinterest and type: “mail 13 ounces or less” TONS of ideas come up. (I can’t remember the specific resource I found- which is quite aggravating because it was awesome- but if I ever do, I’ll let you know😊)
2. Blank postcards! These are my favorite!

https://www.forsmallhands.com/design-a-postcard-pack

3. Details about 13 ounces or less from the USPS:

4. The Post Office Book: Mail and How it Moves, by Gail Gibbons

I hope today’s post can at least bring you a smile or a moment of joy, because we all need chance for a deep breath. This week has personally been long, but writing this post has reminded me that even in the hardest things, God does the kindest things. (My Mom’s quote) In the same writing that I had written about this camp I had also written that I was at a low point – really wanting a “you’ve been picked!” phone call to come and be on my way to becoming a mommy. But His timing is always on time- I had such wonderful quality time with my niece and nephew when they were little, nothing can replace or take away these days. Oh how incredibly thankful I am! Every moment I get with them, I am truly grateful – because I know there are those who long to be aunts, who don’t get this opportunity. Or as with my mother’s heart, grieve these moments with my little girl, I also acknowledge there are family that are grieving these moments with nieces and nephews, grandchildren, children. But YET He is Risen INDEED! Happy Easter!

Life Book of the Week: Poems and Prayers for Easter, by Sophie Piper