As you finalize your plans for New Year’s Eve, it’s natural to become overwhelmed by how fast each year goes. If you’re like me, you’re amazed that we only have two years left in this decade. Wasn’t it just yesterday we were stocking up on canned goods and batteries for the turn of the century?
A good song to listen to this time of year is Kenny Chesney’s, Don’t Blink. It inspires me to start the new year with an even greater appreciation for each new day and opportunity. If this isn’t an Escape Adulthood anthem, I don’t know what is. I love the video, which starts with the wisdom of a “Boompa-like” gent and includes some fun nostalgic home videos. Enjoy!
Don’t Blink
I turned on the evenin’ news
Saw an old man being interviewed
Turnin’ a hundred and two today
They asked him what’s the secret to life
He looked up from his ol’ pipe
Laughed and said, ‘All I can say is’
Chorus
Don’t blink
Just like that
You’re six years old and you take a nap
And you wake up and you’re twenty-five
And your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don’t blink
You just might miss your babies growin’ like mine did
Turnin’ into moms and dads
Next thing you know
Your better half of fifty years is there in bed
And you’re prayin’ God takes you instead
Trust me friend
A hundred years goes faster than you think
(So) don’t blink
I was glued to my TV
When it looked like he looked at me
And said, ‘Let’s start puttin’ first things first’
‘Cause when your hourglass runs outta sand
You can’t flip it over, start again
Took every breath God gives you, for what it’s worth
Chorus
So I been tryin’ to slow it down
I been tryin’ to take it in
In this here today, gone tomorrow world we’re livin’ in
Chorus
Naw, don’t blink
Don’t blink
Life goes faster than you think
Don’t blink
Life goes faster than you think
Don’t blink
Don’t blink
Life goes faster than you think
“Don’t Blink” written by Casey Beathard & Chris Wallin
Copyright 2007 Sony/ATV Music
Copyright 2007 Warner/Chappell Music
Technorati Tags: Kenny Chesney, Don’t Blink, New Year’s, nostalgia
by Minette Sternke
As I noted on a comment on one of the 12 Days of Wishmas, I decided to try to replicate it to some extent here in Illinois. These are GREAT snowy weekend activities!
Instead of making reindeer food for the 3rd Day of Wishmas, I decided to actually go visit a reindeer ranch nearby. They have brought reindeer here to Illinois from Alaska! You can pay for a tour and get to feed them “reindeer cookies” (otherwise known as graham crackers!). One of the reindeer’s name is Jingle Belle. One apparently decided I was a tree – and was rubbing his antlers up against me!
On the 4th Day of Wishmas, I made my own ornaments. They were a little hit and miss but what the hey, it’s not like I’m being graded on it! I did discover that glitter paint does not run as much as regular paint does! As Einstein would say, “a successful experiment”!
On the 5th Day of Wishmas, I made my own gingerbread house, along with the “residents”- Kim and Jason! (I gave Kim a red skirt in honor of the University of Wisconsin!) The house was a challenge. My icing was too stiff – and broke through my icing bag! So, I got the Ziploc baggies out. My decorator tip blew right threw the first one – so I just “made my own tip” by cutting out a tiny corner of the next baggie. After a few rough tries and a few fallen sides, I finally arrived at a finished house! (With a Snowman Peep in the front yard!)
On the 9th Day of Wishmas, instead of making gourmet hot chocolate, (I’m one of those ‘weird’ people who don’t really like hot chocolate.) I made my own tea party for one! For the tea, I used a blend called “Comfort and Joy” with cinnamon and spices. MMM good! I had cookies and even shared with my new “cookie monster” (my 8-month-old Pointer puppy, Molly!).
On the 10th Day of Wishmas, I created edible snowmen. I didn’t check out your site first for ideas so went with my own – looks like I was pretty close! I used fondant for the snowman cap but never thought about using licorice strips! I made two snowmen, one with a purple “magic cap” of sorts and the other is my “spice girl”! I have a food coloring marker and used that to make the eyes and mouth! I had to hold my spice girl up – she hasn’t learned how to walk on high heels yet.
On the 11th Day of Wishmas, I decorated some stockings- one for me (Minnie is my nickname from my nephews), one for my twin sister, Marietta (we call her Acey) and one for Molly.
On the 12th Day of Wishmas, the “free gift wrap” day, I decided to recycle what I had around the house. I used some craft paper for wrapping (and some leftover green wrapping paper for my nephew’s gift – I didn’t want the Tonka toy labels to show through his wrapping!). I also used some of the stickers left over from my stocking decorating and magic markers. You’ll notice one present (the small one) is NOT a Christmas theme. My mother’s birthday is Christmas Eve – and she MUST have a present wrapped in BIRTHDAY wrapping instead of Christmas wrapping. Seems only fair. This is why, in my house, we have always saved Christmas Eve as “Mom’s Day” and Christmas is “Jesus’ Day”.
Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!
Every Thursday, we pick out one of the cool things from the Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand and give it away. Yep, for free.
This week’s prize is a scoop of California Dreaming Bath Ice Cream. Pamper yourself with some bath ice cream, a flavorful and moisturizing scoop of luxury for your tub. It’s like a big scoop of soda for your bath. When you drop one into your tub, the bath ice cream will begin to fizz and release oils, minerals, and fragrances into the water. As you soak in the tub, your skin will absorb all this great stuff! When you emerge, your skin will feel moisturized and smell great — and you will be re-energized.
Here’s how to enter:
- Just leave a comment on this post, answering this week’s question: “What was your favorite bath toy as a kid?”
- Deadline for entries is 11:59 pm CST on the day of the post. We’ll pick a winner from the list of comments sometime on the following Friday.
- We’ll contact the winner by e-mail to find out where to send the free prize.
Good luck! And don’t miss any of the other cool stuff for the young at heart at The Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand!
UPDATE: This week’s winner was Jean:
Being a child of the eighties, I had a Cabbage Patch that was one of the “bathing” ones. She was plastic and had a little swim suit and robe w/ red sandals.
Stay tuned next week for the next chance to win!
My friend Matt pointed me to a story from reveries.com that matches up with his personal “Hoop and a Stick” theory of raising kids which states that all kids need is a hoop and stick — and certainly nothing that requires batteries — for a good healthy upbringing. Here’s a snippet from the article:
It also turns out that the best way to encourage kids to exercise is simply to “give them a ball, jump-rope or hula hoop” — along with more in the way of “active play time.” That’s according to a report due out in next month’s American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
This gets me thinking about Christmas, and how common it is to see a young child sitting amidst an avalanche of recently unwrapped trendy toys and whiz-bang gadgets while playing with the boxes they came in. It’s easy for us grown-ups to get so caught up in the craze for the latest and greatest that we don’t even know we’re in it. And whether it’s providing them with state of the art playground equipment at school or buying them Billy the Battery Operated Wonder Robot, we end up unconsciously dragging our kids into fray with us.
How fortunate are we that we have little guides that can remind us every once in a while that life is not about the “stuff.” It’s about using our brain (an underrated gift in its own right) and being creatively engaged in our world.
Long live hoops and sticks and cardboard boxes!
Technorati Tags: childhood obesity, exercise, active play time, Christmas presents
Anyone out there who doesn’t love the classic 1983 movie A Christmas Story? Not sure it needs to be played in a continues loop on Christmas, but still.
Did you know that you can actually visit the house where the movie was filmed (not sure if the furnace ever got fixed) and buy your very own leg lamp to display proudly in your window?
Don’t believe me? I’m as serious as a kid with his tongue stuck to a flag pole.
Brian Jones makes fishnet-stockinged leg lamps for a living. And the house? He bought that on eBay. Read the remarkable story in Guideposts Magazine. I double dog dare ya. It’s a great reminder that lots of good things still happen to you after you’ve gotten the biggest disappointment of your life.
[Hat tip to Libby]
Technorati Tags: A Christmas Story, Brian Jones, Guideposts, Leg Lamps
You’ve heard of “Name That Tune“?
How about “Name That Tree“?!
A dear friend shared with me yesterday that every year they get a real Christmas tree. They have the family tradition of naming the tree. One year it was Bruce the Spruce, another year Ralph. This year their tree’s name is Leviathan. (I asked her to repeat the name like three times over the phone). Yes, Leviathan. You know, the Greek fabled sea monster! (He’s the green freaky guy in the picture.) Do you think there’s much Adultitis in their household this holiday season? It’s hard to be a stressed-out mess when you look over at Leviathan in the corner, showing off his sparkling lights. She shared that her and her kids were lying under the tree the other night having fun recalling all of the different trees who had come and gone over the years.
Our living room was adorned with a plastic tree growing up, so I never took part in such a tradition. We did name our beater cars in high school, though (I miss you Blue Blare!). And, as many Apple users will relate to, Jason and I name all of our computers. We have more Macs than Jason has shoes. (No joke!)
Naming things that really shouldn’t have names is such a fun way to Escape Adulthood. It brings a little unexpected fun into the day.
What typically nameless things have you christened? (Keep it clean!)
Technorati Tags: Name That Tune, Christmas trees, Leviathan, Escape Adulthood
The Cure Adultitis Institute has released a new public service announcement, just in time for Christmas. It can be the most joyful time of year, unless someone with a serious case of Adultitis shows up. It’s a crucial time of year to spread the word about Adultitis. And look on the bright side: both Ebeneezer Scrooge and the Grinch were Adultitis survivors. There is hope.
Jason and I got the chance to sneak away recently for a weekend of warmth to Ft. Myers, FL. There’s nothing better than putting lotion on your sunburned cheeks while watching The Weather Channel report that your zip code is getting pounded with inches of white stuff.
With all the talk about life lists this past year, I was motivated to check another thing off the list before the end of ‘07, so when the opportunity arose for us to go parasailing, I jumped on it. Jason recalled that he had it on his life list to not only parasail, but to parasail in the Gulf of Mexico. So, it was meant to be! Before we knew it we were on a boat stepping into harnesses with cheezy grins on our faces.
Anyone who has had this thrilling experience will attest that it is actually quite peaceful, which is not what I was expecting. Not that I thought it’d be like water skiing, but I did think it would be a little more frightening on my own scale of scary. It was not. I’m guessing it is similar to a hot air balloon ride. (We’ll have to ask Kimberly Sellers, since she won one this past year.)
For those 15 minutes the clock stopped, the rotation of the earth came to a screeching halt, and all possible traces of anxiety and stress were left on the ground, with my sandals and sunscreen. The coolest thing is that about three minutes into it, after Jason pointed out the three dolphins below us (so cool!), I became very self-aware, knowing that I needed to “capture” this feeling of clarity to come back to later when inevitably life would not be this stress-free. So, I breathed deep and made a conscious effort to absorb and appreciate the magnificent beauty all around me, the perfect breeze through my toes, the salty smell of the ocean, the sounds of the seagulls and distant music from the shore, and my smiling husband right next to me… does life get any better?
That “capture” has served me well these last few weeks following our trip. I returned to that capture when I helped push our car out of the frozen snow and ice it was stuck in at the airport when we arrived back home. I returned to that capture a handful of nights in bed, as I instinctively resorted to worry thinking of the to-do list for the next day, knowing there just weren’t going to be enough hours to get it all done. I returned to that capture in line at Wal-Mart, after I realized I had picked the wrong line, once again. I returned to that capture as I called to cancel our credit card which had been stolen. And I returned to that capture when I finished giving our mechanic $900, just six days before Christmas.
No doubt, the busyness that comes with this time of year creates more stress and strain in your already crazy lives. Create a moment for yourself to capture, to be able to go back to when Adultitis takes over. Whether it’s lying under the Christmas tree with your kids, or taking a peaceful drive to appreciate the holiday lights, those moments of clarity will serve you well!
Technorati Tags: parasailing, Adultitis, Ft. Myers, FL, clarity, stress-free, life lists
