Sharing Saturday

Can you hear me galloping in? Howdy, y'all! Cheryl here to wrap up our week. Whew! Sorry I'm late this morning!

Congratulations to the California Golden Girls and the Texas Tidbits for their victories in our very own Highlowaha March Madness. Be sure to join us on Monday for the Finals. In honor of Women's History Month we each shared a creative woman that has influenced our life. It was great fun getting to know them. Today we will wrap up our last day of Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth, a fun game that has a deck of cards with probing questions about Sex & Body, History & Experience, Family & Friends, Spirit, Shadow, and Taste. We've had a fun month sharing the game with you and expanding our knowledge of each other.

If you're new today, Heather, Claudia and Katie have discussed how you can use the game in many settings. Any women's group, family gathering, baby shower, wedding shower, girl's night out and the list goes on. Any time you want to learn more about the women around you, this game will help your new or old friends and family to share life experiences and beliefs. Have a party, mail the cards out, start a note on Facebook or start you're own email survey to share with your girlfriends. Whatever your preference, fun is sure to be had.

I can't help but wonder, would the questions work with men, too?

Here are the questions on my card:
* When did I experience “love at first sight”?
* Tell something about my hobby.
* How was my relationship five years ago? How is it now?
* Tell one thing about my future.
* How do I waste time?
* Am I a shopper? What do I buy?

Since this journey began, I'll be driving down the road and the Brooks and Dunn's song will come on the radio and I can't help but to think of our own Ride on the Trail of Truth. No matter where you are on your journey as long as you are part of our journey here at Highlowaha know you have someone that cares.



Happy Trails!

Signing of until Monday... and the finals of March Madness.

Sharing Saturday

Good morning, Highlowaha! It's Katie here for another Sharing Saturday of questions from the game, "Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth." As some of you may remember, Claudia attended Misty's Annual Potato Soup Party where she played this game with other guests at the party. The game asks of series of questions around the topics of Sex & Body, History & Experience, Family & Friends, Spirit, Shadow, and Taste. Each Saturday this month we have taken a card from this game and posed the questions to you the readers, but we have also given you a suggestion of a way to incorporate the game into your life. This Saturday will be no different, so let's get started!

During my Spring Break last week, I took some time to travel home to Kentucky to visit friends and family. During my trip home, I spent a few hours visiting my grandparents at their house. It reminded me that I have a lot to learn from their life experiences and that great lessons can be learned from their journey in life. That was when it hit me. What if you were to use the questions from the game to create a capsule of the memories and stories of the women in your family?

Here is how I picture it happening. Plan an afternoon to gather all the women in your family: grandmothers, mothers, daughters, nieces, aunts, etc. at your house. Each woman in the family is to bring 2-3 pictures of themselves from throughout their life. Upon arrival, each woman draws a card from the deck and is therefore given a set of questions that they are to answer. During the next hour, they are to create a page for a scrapbook (you would provide paper, markers, stickers, etc.) using their pictures and answering the questions on their card. In many ways, it becomes an outlet for them to share stories about themselves. At the end of the hour, each woman in the family will add their page to the keepsake book. The beauty is that it does not have to be anything fancy like a scrapbook. Its beauty is in the pictures and the stories told by the women of your family. It becomes an immediate keepsake for the family to commemorate the women who keep it thriving. For granddaughters like me who know they have so much to learn from their grandmothers and aunts, it becomes a way to acquire these lessons in life.

For me, I now have hopes of trying to make this happen in the days before my brother's wedding this summer. (Call me crazy?) Until then, though, I'd like to take today to get to know a little bit more about each of you by posing some questions from the Cowgirl game. You can choose one question that you are interested in answering or you can feel free to answer them all. No matter what you choose, we hope you will share a piece of yourself with our community today.

• Who influenced me in the way I deal with relationships?
• How do I characterize myself?
• Tell a story about my favorite pet.
• What would I do if I knew I wouldn't fail?
• In what way am I a martyr?
• Do I do my own housework? How do I feel about it?

Signing off until Monday...

Sharing Saturday

Since we are hopeful that there are several new readers in our mix we decided that Saturdays in the month of March by be best used getting to know everyone a little more. Never fear though, in keeping with our promise of an idea a day you are certain to get a new creative idea out of each Saturday post.

For those of you who were around for year one of HLA you might recall Claudia sharing with us her experience at Misty's Potato Soup Party. This party is a time honored tradition amongst Misty's friends and they are allowed to cautiously add women they think would be fun to the mix. Claudia turned out to be the lucky addition Misty selected this year and so she headed into the party only knowing that the invitations were awesome and surely there would be potato soup involved.

What Claudia didn't know was that Misty's friends would use the occasion to play "The Cowgirl Game" or more accurately "Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth". The game's intention is to get women to story swap and get to know one another on another level by answering questions in several topical areas. The categories range from "Sex and Body" to "Taste".

While Misty and her friends use this game to reconnect with one another and to get to know new friends I can think of 1001 other uses for a fun game that gets people to share themselves. With that in mind comes today's creative idea. What if you used the Cowgirl game via email (or snail mail would be even better!)? I think highlowaha has been testament to the fact that our communities can certainly be fostered via the USPS and come on, who doesn't like to get mail?

I have to be honest that the implementation of Facebook into my life has reconnected me with friends from high school, college and drum corps that I haven't seen in years not to mention adult cousins and siblings that I get to see far too infrequently. Living far away now creates an added difficulty in getting to see them at reunions or holidays when everyone converges on Northern Kentucky. This means that I am having to rely on my virtual network to maintain those relationships. Thus my suggestion for the Cowgirl Game is born. What if you created a friendship "chain letter" of sorts. Create a list of a circle of friends that are all interconnected...select the first topic and ask the question of the first name on the list...You send them an envelope explaining the directions

#1-Answer the question as truthfully and thoroughly as possible and then select the next question to be answered.

#2-Insert into the envelope with the coverletter and mail to the next name on the list.

#3-The last name on the list forwards their response back to you and the cycle continues.

Ideally your friends would start to get creative and send other notes along with their responses but if not at the very least you are getting to know one another on a deeper level without having to take time out of your busy lives to have a party and even more so allows for friends from across the world to enjoy the Cowgirl Game without having to spend money on airfare.

I'm sure by now your interest is piqued and so let's open our first round of the VIRTUAL cowgirl game. Here's the question for this week hailing from the category "History and Experience":

If I had a daughter what would I tell her?

or

If you have a daughter, what do you want to tell her before she grows up?

Announcements:

Shamrockin! Congratulations to Chaotic who won the Shamrockin' Treat announced on Tuesday by suggesting that she would utilize April 21st as her RAK day. Chaotic expect a treat in your mailbox in the next few days.

RAK Box Winners: Thanks for filling our RAK box for Year Two. Never fear if you haven't yet sent yours as the 18th postcard hasn't yet been received so there is still time (and you can always win when Claudia uses the box for a true RAK!) As promised a drawing was held yesterday evening for another $25 Target gift card and winner was: Peggy Robinson!

Cookbook: Tera hasn't had many submissions turned in yet for the first ever HLA cookbook. Don't forget to send her all your creative (or just scrumptious!) recipes by 3/18 so she can get it pulled together for Mother's Day. Email them to tmichalski05@jcu.edu.

Surprise Surprise!: Our first Surprise Surprise! stunt is just around the corner. Don't forget to create your rainbow that says "Follow "your name's" rainbow to highlowaha!" and drop it in the mail to Julie Schnepp (16630 N. Reems Rd. #1064 Surprise, AZ 85374) no later than 3/13 so that she receives it before St. Patrick's Day. Remember that if your rainbow is followed you will be entered to win a fabulous prize and everyone who participates will get a rainbow patch for their "Patchwork Denim".