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We’re a couple of weeks into LetterMo 2024, so I’m wondering how folks are doing? This is a no-judgement zone, sending mail every day that the mail is delivered is a big undertaking and we call it the Month of Letters Challenge for a reason! I’ve been doing LetterMo since 2018 and I have never successfully completed the challenge, though I’ve had a lot of fun trying and have met some great pen pals along the way.
- What day of the challenge are you responding to this post?
- Have you been able to keep up with mail every day? Have you missed a few days? Have you only been able to send a few times?
- How many letters have you sent so far?
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Today is February 13th here as well! The challenge is, well, challenging, but it’s going pretty well! I’ve only missed one day of the challenge, which I’m quite proud of (here in the USA it’s mail 6 days a week). I’ve mailed 16 letters to Lettermo participants thus far in February (24 if you count the last week of January, when I started a bit early to get a jump on my friends list), and then I’ve also mailed a birthday card to a family member and at least 5-6 other Valentines cards to friends and family. So I don’t have an exact count on how much I’ve mailed in February, but it’s probably around 22-ish pieces of mail thus far.
I still have a lot of letters to write (and to respond to!), and I’m trying my best to keep a good mindset about it. Part of me wants to panic and worry and feel bad that “I’m letting people down” by not having written to them yet – but I am doing my best to remind myself that as long as I do write to everyone, then I’ve met the challenge. Also, I remind myself that I’m just genuinely excited and happy when I receive a letter from someone else in the mail, and I’m not sitting and impatiently waiting for letters to arrive and harrumph-ing at people. No – I’m just happy and excited to receive mail, and I need to keep that in my mind that it’s likely the mindset for all of my letter recipients.
So, off I go to write more letters, and keep going in the challenge! It’s fun, it’s exhilarating, it’s exhausting, it’s a challenge, and I’m here for it.
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Today is Feb 13 and so far, knock on wood, I’ve actually managed to send mail every day that the mail runs. I’m crossing my fingers but maybe this will be the year I complete the challenge?
As for how many letters I’ve sent, I had an early boost because I happened to be on vacation the first couple of days in February, so I had lots of free time and went to town catching up on my backlog of response letters. By my count so far, I’ve sent 23 letters/postcards, including a few ones for postcrossing.
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It has been challenging here as well; it’s a bit of a hike up to my nearest postbox and I was snowed in for a few days last week, so there is a little gap in my sending! Not in my writing, though – I just sent out my 18th and 19th letters today! That being said, collections from the post box have changed to mid-mornings now, so they won’t go anywhere until tomorrow. I used to be able to count on mail being picked up at the end of the day, so I could usually drop letters in and know they’d get moving that same day. But it looks like mail is now collected in the mornings instead, so now nothing I drop off leaves until 9am the following day!
I’m working through my list of folks to write to slowly. When I first started adding people I thought I might need to supplement with Postcrossings but I’m chugging through! I’m also taking advantage of there being a bit of a delay, given that I’m in the UK. I’ve only had two letters so far (one right at the start, and one yesterday) but that will probably change as things catch up over here. If not I still have plenty of folks to write to 🙂
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So frustrating the not-before-but-possibly-as-early-as 9am collections! That is what the postbox I used most has changed to, so am posting elsewhere – either in or outside a post office, or in one of the boxes (5.15pm) collection inside the supermarkets here (handy if it is raining/rain due at collection time, as the post goes in a bag in the box, rather than the postie having to take it out of the box to put in the bag).
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This is my first year participating. I have been busy. This challenge came at a great time. Today is the 15th of February!
I have been busy, setting aside time each evening to write. I am keeping a spreadsheet to tally my writings. To date I have sent 73 pieces of mail. Most of the time I have to hand carry the cards I mail as they need to be hand stamped. YIKES! The added postage for the service sure adds up, but well worth it. The clerk at the post office is getting to know me!!!
TOTAL as of 2/14/2024
9 – LetterMO participants
5 – Valentines
3 – Birthday cards
18 – Postcards for Postcrossings
38 – Thank you, cards and lettersHere is a little back story on all the Thank You cards and letters.
I put out a call for 95 cards/postcards for my 95-year-old fathers-in-law birthday! It was heard all across the country and beyond!!! WE DID IT!!! With friends and family, we had 106 pieces of mail on Dad’s birthday last week. Believe it or not, mail is still arriving. The count is currently at 135! I was beyond moved by the generosity of all that took the time to mail a card to dad. Everyone helped make Dad’s 95th birthday so special. He was surprised beyond belief. He wondered how I knew so many people to get all this mail for him. He choked up a few times during the 2.5 hours it took to open the mail. It made a lasting impression on him. He said he will be going through the cards again and again. He did tell me this was the best birthday ever.I am doing my best to write Thank You notes to all the people that took the time to write, many made handmade cards. There were cards from the very young to dads’ contemporaries! The month is half over. I hope to have the task completed by the end of the month. Luckily for me there are 29 days in the month this year.
I have kept up with writing every day except Sundays, I took a break. Today the 15th I will not take the mail out written on the 14th due to the snow. I will have to wait until tomorrow, but I did write!
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Today’s the 24th for me. I don’t want to jinx myself but I’m doing it! I have finished my 23rd piece of mail, but it’s actually more than that since I forgot to mark some of them down. Technically I am done since I don’t think they deliver mail on Saturdays here (I’m away from home), so I think I could stop now if I wanted to… but I don’t want to! It’s been a mix of short letters and postcards to friends, my mum, online friends, and penpals new and old. It still does feel overwhelming and I keep thinking that I have to catch up, but I’ve done pretty well. Full disclosure, I haven’t written every day because some days are too busy, but it’s been several pieces of mail on days I can manage it. It’s been fun! I think I will continue and try to hit 29 pieces of mail because I’m on a roll. How is everyone else doing?
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Today is the last day of the month, I am writing my last letter today to one of the individuals I requested as a friend, it will be mailed tomorrow. I will respond to letters received next month.
Earlier today I went to the post office and mailed 29 postcards. 19 of them to LetterMo friends. I walked in and asked to have them all hand stamped. I wanted to guarantee that the 29th postmark was on all of them! I also find if I have postcards hand stamped, they seem to move through the USPS more rapidly. Not sure it that is my imagination or actual!!! LOL
I cannot believe I sent a total of 118 pieces of mail this month. I know I cannot keep that up all the time. But it felt good to send FUN mail to family and friends. Happy LetterMo. I will be participating again next year.
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I was able to write and mail a letter or postcard every day during February. I didn’t keep careful count of either outgoing or incoming mail but I easily sent 60+ pieces of mail this month as at a minimum I mailed 2 items a day and often quite a few more on some days. Incoming mail was noticeably lighter than in previous years but then I didn’t post an introduction nor comment on the forums during the challenge this year. I had a huge pile of outstanding mail I needed to answer and that kept me quite busy for the first 3 weeks. Arriving mail picked up enough by that point that I was able to finish the challenge quite easily. I hope everyone else had a good month as well.
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Gary, congratulations on completing the challenge! I know last year during LetterMo I went most of the month without receiving much mail, but then it all arrived during March. I think Canada Post was dealing with delays somewhere in their system, so it just took a while for all the letters that were sent in February to make it to me.
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