MyTime Calendars

We know it’s a little early for Valentines Day, but we couldn’t resist sharing this with you! We wish we could give credit to the original author of this research but regardless, the message is the same. A group of people posed the following question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds…

‘What does love mean?’

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

‘When my grandmother got arthritis , she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore.. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’
-Rebecca, age 8

‘When someone loves you , the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’ -Billy – age 4

‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’ -Karl, age 5

‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’ -Chrissy, age 6

‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’ -Terri, age 4

‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him , to make sure the taste is OK.’ -Danny, age 7

‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss’ -Emily, age 8

‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’ – Bobby, age 7 (Wow!)

‘If you want to learn to love better , you should start with a friend who you hate.’ – Nikka, age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)

‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt , then he wears it everyday.’ – Noelle, age 7

‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’ – Tommy, age 6

‘During my piano recital , I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.’ -Cindy, age 8

‘My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.’ - Clare, age 6

‘Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’ - Elaine, age 5

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford .’ – Chris, age 7

‘Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.’ -Mary Ann, age 4

‘I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.’ – Lauren, age 4

‘When you love somebody , your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’ – (what an image) Karen, age 7

‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross..’ -Mark, age 6

‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it , you should say it a lot. People forget.’ -Jessica, age 8

And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said…

‘Nothing , I just helped him cry’

What wonderful lessons our children can teach us if we just open our hearts and pay attention! Happy early valentines day everyone!

We had lots of little goblins and ghoulies this Halloween and once again, made it all home safely with our overstuffed bags of candy! Aside from another scorpion sighting, we made it through this spooky holiday unscathed! We hope your Halloween was equally safe and full of more treats than tricks.

Looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, it is easy to start reflecting on the many blessings in our lives. In this difficult economy with financial stresses and economic woes, it is sometimes easy to forget the important things in our lives. It is equally difficult for our children to appreciate the small but important blessings in their lives. We’ve got some fun family activities that might help everyone count those most important daily blessings in our lives. Hope this gives everyone some positive family fun!…

Create a Thankful Paper Chain

Similar to a  regular paper chain (cut strips of paper and connect them together as loops) but a Thankful Paper Chain has things you are thankful for written on each paper strip. Take a moment each day of November to add chains and by Thanksgiving, you’ll have a unique reminder of the blessings in your lives! Use green and white paper and keep it up as a Christmas decoration!

Giving Thanks Placemats

The goal here is to create something that can be a reminder of each year of your childs life and the things they were most thankful for that year. Help your kids cut out pictures, draw, paste special items or photos and make a collage of all these materials. Take the completed collage to a copy shop and have it laminated! Don’t forget to put your childs name and the date on it!

Basket of Leaves

Create a small paper box and cut out leaves from different colored paper (fall colors of course!). This will be their Basket ‘O Blessings! Have your kids write something they are thankful for on each leaf and put them in each others boxes. Keep collecting leaves through the next few weeks. At Thanksgiving, have each child read through the leaves in their boxes and see if they are thankful for the same things or maybe they missed a few! It will be a good exercise for your kids to see what each of them is thankful for and how their blessings differ. Also a great opportunity for each child to anonymously tell their siblings things they are thankful for about that person…great esteem builder!

We hope this gives you some fun ideas for this Thanksgiving season!

Ok, I know this is somewhat limiting to all of you out there not currently in Arizona. But for those of you burned out on the traditional pumpkin patches of Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek or Mother Nature’s Farm in Gilbert, we’ve got a new alternative for you! Hop on over to DeWitt Stables and let your kids enjoy “The Patch of Pumpkins, Pets and Ponies”! You definitely can’t beat the price! Kids under 3 are FREE and admission is $5.00 for 3 and up. Families can purchase a group ticket for only $25.00! They also have special rates for larger groups.

Besides picking out that perfect pumpkin from their pumpkin patch, kids can enjoy hayrides, a petting zoo, pony rides, a hay maze, a craft fair, games and even more rides! The festival hours are Fridays from noon until dark and Saturdays from 10:00am until dark.

DeWitt Stables is located at 2211 E. Quince in Mesa, just 1/2 mile north of the 202 Red Mountain on Gilbert Rd. For more information, call (480) 717-9540 or visit their website at www.dewittstables.com

Be sure to mark your calendars with our pumpkin graphic to help remind your little ones of the upcoming holiday fun! Halloween is almost upon us!

Kids will love this great petting zoo!

Pony rides are sure to delight those little western rustlers!

Don't forget to stop by the pumpkin patch for the perfect holiday pumpkin!

Method 8: The Courage to be Faithful

Stepping out of your fears and into your greatness requires great courage.  Sometimes we are so busy with the work of life that we don’t sit still and take the time to listen to our heart. Being courageous means not allowing life to steal, kill, or destroy your dreams, hopes, aspirations, and plans but living in the now, the moment, the presence of your power to receive life, and the fullness of all life has to offer and even more abundantly.  It takes courage to be honest with yourself, acknowledge your personal truth, and be present in your quest to live that truth.  The easiest thing for high achievers to do is be successful.  But living in the fullness of who they are – and want to be – while also maintaining their success takes true grit.

Method 9: – Exponential Living

Exponential Living is achieved through excellence in your Personal, Spiritual, and Emotional health, and balance in all aspects of your life – with yourself and others.  It is achieved by building and maintaining spirituality; loving and caring for yourself (hobbies, exercise, “me” time); spending quality time with and appreciating yourself and your family; recognizing your success; and living in your own truth.   When living exponentially you are comfortable with who you are, separate from what you do.  It’s when you live in a state of true contentment, being present with yourself and others while also pursuing and maintaining excellence in all aspects of your life.

Often, high achievers are limited by their success because they are only living in the accomplishments in one area of their lives.  They have achieved or have the drive to achieve high levels of professional success but are not truly fulfilled with their lives overall.  Or, they have reached their career goals but now know there are other facets of life they want to pursue but don’t know what/how/why/when.  Exponential Living gives such high achievers the power of being true to themselves and achieving a balance between work, family, friends, healthy living, and spiritual commitment to manifest a life that is genuinely complete and content.

Method 6: Happy is a Choice; Contentment and Joy are Lifestyles

One of the definitions of the word overwhelmed is “to give too much of a thing.” When you truly desire to live a life that is fulfilled in all areas, you are destined to have more to do than you have the time, energy, and ability or help to accomplish or complete.  The feeling of being overwhelmed is when you have what you need and are overflowing with what you want.  When you have so much success, opportunity, potential, clients, projects, options, prosperity that you can’t “handle” or manage everything, your reaction is that you are overwhelmed.  So what about those times when you’re overwhelmed with challenges, struggles, health issues, and other life concerns?  Know the plan for your life is perfect and the struggles are never to defeat you but to make you stronger and uncover your true power.  Surrender and find peace living in the overflow, joy and abundance of being overwhelmed.

Method 7:  Building Lasting Confidence

Believe it or not, whatever you want is available to you if you have the confidence and belief that you can have what you want and that you deserve it. This does not mean confidence in our degrees, our knowledge, job titles, position, social status, etc. Instead, it is about having a pure and honest confidence in the person you are. Many successful people have achieved career success through their fear of failure.  And while such fear can be a powerful and effective motivator, it can also limit your sense of accomplishment and impede growth in other areas of your life.  For many high achievers, confidence is built on external validations like applause, accolades, wins, or promotions.  And their ensuring quest to feel this rush keeps them from being engaged in other areas of their lives.  True confidence should come from a life well lived and enjoyed…not the proverbial feathers in your cap.

Method 5:  Stop Working So You Can Maximize your Opportunities

When you are constantly working, you seldom recognize your achievements.  Without taking these moments to recognize your accomplishments, you are constantly stretching for what’s next and never appreciating and enjoying what you have completed.  This cycle often leads to burn out, health issues, personal relationship issues, and low self esteem.  And, many times, it does not have a clearly defined end of moment of victory.  When you change your mindset from working to maximizing opportunities, you reposition your thought process and how you approach your life.  You are able to separate and segment your work from other areas of your life because maximizing the opportunity has a beginning and an end.  You are quicker to recognize when to end or remove your self because you understand what you are spending your time on is meant to be an opportunity not a burden you spend time on with out benefit or value.