Be they humorous, heart warming, or inspiring -- or all of the above -- the one thing all the posts in this category have in common is that they were all submitted by Club K&J Members. If you want to join a community of like-minded folks who are serious about living life with less stress and more fun, you should subscribe today!
by Sue Gudenkauf
How do I Escape Adulthood?
I’ll tell you, family brings out the best of this in me. For my birthday this year, I happened to take a road trip with my sister, her husband, 3 nieces, and my parents to visit my oldest niece in college about 10 hours away. It wasn’t
just my birthday, but I also share a birthday (1 day apart) with my now 17-year-old niece. In the spirit of a road trip, I wanted to help make her birthday extra fun and silly (like she would do with her friends). So, I decided to start a new family tradition and being that my birthday was the very next day, I knew I would have to follow in accord. So, the day before we left, I (on a whim) bought a Jester hat from the Lemonade Stand to have the birthday girl wear it on her special day. Needless to say, with that hat on, you couldn’t walk into a restaurant, gas station, store, hotel or anywhere without getting a smile from someone coupled with comments that ensued from strangers….’Nice hat!’….’Way cool’…..’Love the hat!’….’Way to go!’ People were smiling as they passed by - grinning from ear to ear, which as we know, smiling is quite contagious. So, the next day, any embarrassment my niece felt in wearing a jester hat in public was passed along graciously to me, which I have to say was a joy to see the smiles that occurred on other people’s faces.
What a blast!
So, from here on out, the hat will be passed along (shipped, delivered, whatever means necessary) to the next birthday in the family, and they will get to wear it for the day. Hopefully I can convince all ages in my family to wear it in public and let the joy and silliness of escaping adulthood be passed along to random strangers.
Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!
Related Posts:
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!
Related Posts:by Walt Kotecki
When I was younger there was a “fast” food restaurant in our town call Sandy’s. One of the drinks they offered was a cherry slush. That was the first time I have ever heard of them and I loved them. Nowadays cherry and a million other flavors are common and I still like them. I don’t get 
cherry like I used to because of all the choices.
This summer I have tried a different approach to my slush selection process. Maybe this fits into one of the Escape Plan challenges. The one day when my wife and I were going for one of our evening treats she said that she was getting a medium strawberry cone. I told her that I was wondering what flavor I was going to get today. She said, “don’t you know?” I said, “No.” What I’d been doing is starting at the top of the list of 12 flavors that they offer and each time I get the next flavor on the list so I really don’t know what flavor I’m getting (unless I cheat and look ahead). Some of the choices are not my favorite but I’ve never had some of them before and maybe they’ll become a favorite!
Also, there is a special way to drink a slush, too. “No lid please!” And don’t use a straw. The other day when I told the girl I didn’t want a lid, she asked if I wanted a spoon. I said. “That’s a good idea, I hadn’t thought about that, but no thanks!”
Remember to get the most mileage out of your slush, don’t use a straw, just drink it!
Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!
Related Posts:
by Bob Henry
Last Thursday my manager at the telecommunications company I work for treated my whole department to custard from Culvers. We did not have the custard at the office - rather, we carpooled to the Culvers in Middleton and enjoyed a break from the hectic pace of the office for an hour and a half on a beautiful and sunny afternoon (a Ferris Bueller type of day indeed). We sat at the tables outside and talked and laughed. The highlight of this little adventure, however, was after we had finished our custard and were driving back to the office. I was in a minivan with several of my co-workers and a little confusion resulted in our driving twice around the Middleton roundabout! It reminded me of the scene in National Lampoon’s European Vacation where the Griswold’s were stuck in a roundabout in London. I was shouting out Clark’s words “Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!” Everyone I was with laughed and we enjoyed the moment.
Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!
Related Posts:by Mary Beth Updike
My favorite way to escape Adultitis is to play with niece Merlyn’s train set. She has one of those wooden train sets and every so often we get it out and set it up. I love figuring out a track (there are enough pieces you can change it any time) and then running the train around the track is so much fun. Really turns back the years. Plus she has the Hot Chocolate car from The Polar Express. There is a button you can push on the top and it plays the Hot Chocolate song from the movie. I always push that button as I’m pushing the train around the track.
Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!
Related Posts:by John Gundich
I’ve been able to escape adulthood by having my first child with my wife, Patrizzia. Before Miabella was born, Patrizzia and I would have a rough commute to and from Downtown Chicago every day, work, eat, watch TV to unwind from the stressful commute…and then do it all over again. It was mundane and empty after a while.
Then, Miabella entered our lives, and we have both been filled with such joy and life. Every day has been filled with new experiences and laughs. She makes every day special again….like it was when I was a kid. It’s not that we will live vicariously through her…it’s just that she brings us to a better place in our lives, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!
Related Posts:by Katie Richert
I never realized I was getting, as I always called it, “old,” and that my childhood (and even young adulthood), was gone until a few days ago. I was sitting in the living room at 11 in the morning, still without a shower while my (as he puts it ALMOST) 4-year-old screamed about being a Ninja Turtle who had “team” and my 3-month-old slept comfortably in his swing. I glanced down at the cup of coffee I had been trying to consume to stay awake after pulling another all-nighter with the littlest guy, and saw the words “MOM” written on the cup.
That makes someone at 27 cringe. At that second, I crawled out of the chair and picked up the second little plastic golf club he was using to attack the “bad guys” and decided to join in. I guess it isn’t really a way to escape adulthood (I never really thought of myself in that term), but I guess I looked like a rather large child in a bathrobe at that time swinging at invisible monsters. But the squeals of laughter both boys were emitting by the time I was finished helping in the battle made me realize that sometimes to make it all seem better all we really need to do is play. So I guess my advice to escape the whole grown-up world is to find your plastic golf clubs (or whatever the kids may have laying around), shower or none, and just play.
Then go off and down 4 marshmallows as a way to refuel (which was the advice the oldest gave me), and continue the battle. So needless to say, 4 marshmallows later we were back at it — bathrobe and all.
Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!
Related Posts:
