Notes from Home

As I mentioned, Tony is now at beach camp with our church's student ministry. And, as I also mentioned, I wrote him notes to let him know I was thinking about him and praying for him while he was gone. So I thought I would post a brief overview of what I did...

Now, you may be asking why I wrote him notes in the first place. In this day and age, why don't I just call him? Or better yet, why not text him? Isn't that the modern day note writing?* Well, because our church wanted the kids to focus on interacting with each other and with God, so they took up their cell phones as soon as they got to camp. I think they can get them back for a few hours each day during free time, but Tony decided not to even take his phone. That made me oddly proud... especially since I freak out if I don't have my phone while running errands, much less for nearly 6 days.

---

1. Gather all your supplies.

I told you I'm in love with stationery, so I happened to have these. Yes, I gave him bright pink and purple cards. On purpose. This year's theme is Love Loud, which has been promoted with neon colored everything. Case in point, the handbook:

Our senior pastor's son trying to get people pumped... and loud :-)

I thought about making themed stationery, but I had this idea at like 11:00 one night. This is themed enough. I picked the 5 loudest colors I have... ok the purple's not really loud, but it's his latest favorite color.

2. Prepare what you want to say & write your notes. Luckily for me the handbook had a parent big sister connection, that told me what they would be talking about each night. I used that as an outline for my notes.**

 

3. Decorate your envelopes. I started off being fancy, but by this time it was like 1:00am and I was tired. I'm proud I spelled everything correctly!

I have a thing about not putting cards in matching envelopes...

4. Put them together. I used the bright green cord because I had it and it looked better than yarn he was assigned to the lime green team for games and such. 

You could leave them unbound, or hide them in different parts of the luggage. This was for a nearly-14-year-old boy... I wanted him to see them.

5. Put the notes in the luggage. Sadly, I don't have a picture of this. I didn't want Tony to know that I put them in there until he got to camp, so I had to wait until he wasn't looking. I actually slipped the notes in the top of his bag while I was getting it out of the trunk at the church. Sneaky sneaky. 

---

*To be honest, I would probably still do this if Tony had access to his cell phone. There's something personal about getting a hand-written note. Plus I could say more than I would be able to in a 5-minute phone call or a 140 character text. Greg is going out of town in September for a work thing and I'll probably do the same thing for him. 


** If you're not lucky enough to have the whole trip written our for you (I won't when G goes on his business trip), just say what you want. Be funny, be sweet, be whatever... It really is the thought that counts.