The new 'normal'

It seems that the offerings of Manaiakalani are very valuable and the realisation of their potential as we learn online are becoming very obvious. With a house full of internet users and people needing their own space, I have taken myself to our laundry/sleepout area. While not the prettiest room, it's certainly quiet and remarkably the cups of coffee and home baking still arrive!

What I have noticed however, is that we seem to be reverting to habits that were exciting in my childhood and I'm quite liking this trend. My 83 year old mother is missing us terribly and I can't say that the Facetime calls are totally successful. Once we realised that her comments of "you're not making eye contact with me" was due to us looking at her rather than up at the camera, hence the missing eye contact, we all had a bit of a laugh.

But when you have a  bit of spare time, what can you do with it?

Well, my three girls got out the arts and crafts (one of the benefits of having a mother for a teacher) and decided to write letters to their nearest and dearest. This was most exciting for the 11 year old, who had received birthday cards and gifts in the letter box, but the concept of writing a letter was something totally out of this world. Even the envelopes were handmade (something I could still remember the template for) and decorated to match the person who would be receiving it. They couldn't believe they had so many things to share even though they had been stuck at home and the letters were looking pretty awesome before being put in the envelopes.

Of course, you then have to go out for that exercise walk and buy some stamps ... who would have thought sticking on stamps could be so much fun - I'm sure the postie's had a laugh at the weird places they got put, after all who new they were supposed to be on the top right!

Then they go into this box, but Miss 11 couldn't for the life of her see that this box would get them to the people, when we're all on lock down. Well hats off to the posties, because just three days later she received a phone call from my mother to share her delight in receiving mail. In her words "It was just like the old days, and such a lovely surprise."

The conversation was so surreal, I almost wished I still had a video on to record the contents of the phone call about what would have happened to the letter, because Miss 11 had absolutely no idea of the places her letter had been.

Today was just as magical, when she went to grab in the paper and low and behold there was a letter for her in the mailbox. The excitement, of finding it, the rush to get it open and the sheer joy of reading the letter ... I think it's time we all spent some of that spare time we now have to write a letter to someone ... it could become the new (old) trend.