Tag: fun

Did You Know It’s Rubber Ducky Day?

by Mershon Niesner

One is never alone with a rubber duck. Douglas Adams, English author

According to National Calendar Day, today is National Rubber Ducky Day. Who knew? The Sesame Street calendar, that’s who! Their 1973 calendar says that Rubber Duckie’s birthday is January 13th. A friend of Ernie and Big Bird, Duckie made his debut in a February 1970 episode. 

I think a good long bath with a rubber ducky, if you have one, is just the ticket for celebrating this auspicious day of the year. You in??

Affirmation: I will celebrate National Rubber Ducky Day with a smile on my face.

Coaching questions: How does this silliness resonate with you? Did/do you or your kids or grands have a a rubber ducky?

Photo by Jason Richard on Unsplash

What Will You Do to “Have A Fun” This Summer?

by Mershon Niesner

The space you occupy on this Earth isn’t meant only for work and toil, but also for joy and lightness. Joanna Gaines, quoted from Magnolia magazine

Chip and Joanna Gaines have achieved great success mainly through hard work and perseverance. In a recent article in their magazine, Magnolia, Joanna admits, however, that she takes life too seriously sometimes. Joanna says, “In her Korean accent, my mother frequently reminds me, ‘Don’t forget, Jojo, have a fun!’” 

I also need to be reminded to “have a fun” as I too tend to take life seriously with intentions, self-imposed deadlines, and to-do lists. As memorial day weekend approaches in the USA, I want to declare a season of fun as I kick off the summer visiting family in New York then spending the rest of the summer with family and friends in Illinois. 

Deep, meaningful plans are always a worthy pursuit, but as Jo writes, “I’m learning that sometimes it’s a moment of unexpected lightness that makes our souls sing.” I agree.

Affirmation: I will have fun!

Coaching questions: What constitutes fun for you? Do you tend to have too little discipline and too much fun or too little fun and too much discipline in your life? What will you be doing for fun this summer?

Photo by Vika Strawberrika on Unsplash

Girlfriends, chocolate, champagne

by Mershon Niesner

There is nothing better than a friend, unless it’s a friend with chocolate. Charles Dickens

Girlfriends, chocolate, and champagne—what a great combination! This afternoon I’m going to a Smoking Pots (my cooking group) event. Each of us brings a dish made from our favorite chocolate recipe and the hostess provides the champagne. Good menu.

I’m bringing Ina Garten’s, aka Barefoot Contessa, French Chocolate Bark. It’s a heavenly mixture of dark chocolate, cashews, and dried fruits including crystalized ginger. An early Valentine Day’s treat. 

Affirmation: Having fun and a little chocolate is good for me.

Coaching questions: What’s your favorite chocolate recipe? What would you like to do for fun this week? Get to it!

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What Tickles Your Fancy?

by Mershon Niesner

It was the right atmosphere, right time, right place for waterbeds because that was a very creative era in San Francisco—Summer of Love and Jefferson Airplane and all that stuff. Charles Hall, inventor of the waterbed

We can’t be serious and introspective all the time. Some days it’s fun to celebrate insignificant things —like the 50th anniversary of the waterbed. Charles Hall was a graduate student in product design at San Francisco State University when he designed the waterbed as his graduate project in human comfort. He later brought them to South Florida where they really took off and now he’s bringing them back in a new, updated design. No, I’m not his ad agency,  I just think it’s interesting.

My son, Dan, wanted a waterbed so badly when he was a kid that he saved up and bought one. He brought the garden hose though his bedroom window and filled it up. He set the heater on high and the rest is blissful history. 

Affirmation: It’s just fine to be frivolous. 

Coaching questions: What’s a little story or bit of history that “tickles your fancy?” What do you do to move from a dark place to a place of light?  

Be A Unicorn!

by Mershon Niesner

Always be yourself. Unless you can be a unicorn…then always be a unicorn!” Quote on the Internet

A unicorn is a mythological animal that resembles a horse or a kid with a single horn on her forehead. The myth goes back as far as 400 BC and is part of Mesopotamian artworks, the ancient myths of India, China and in Greek literature. 

Today, unicorns are all the rage with young girls. My granddaughter, Marcella, had a unicorn themed sixth birthday party yesterday. Sadly, I missed it because I’m in Florida and she’s in Illinois but I got a kick out of the photos. If you want to cheer yourself up today, pretend you’re a pretty-in-pink unicorn and throw yourself a party with pastel mint favors labeled as “Unicorn Poop” (my daughter, Marcella’s mom, has a sense of humor).

Affirmation: I know how to have fun.

Coaching question: Pretend you’re six again. What kind of birthday party do you want? Let me know and I’ll see what I can do. 

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What I Learned At Legoland

by Mershon Niesner

What’s really cool about LEGOs is that you can put a bunch of bricks on the table, and everybody will make something different. Everyone has different ideas, and some of them may seem crazy. Christopher Miller, Writer of The Lego Movie

This week I took two grandchildren, August, 10, and Marcella, 5, to our local Legoland. It was a fun morning of observing amazing cities, animals, Star Wars characters and more all made from tiny, plastic Legos bricks. In addition, there was a Lego movie, a couple of rides and lots of opportunities to build with Legos. So, what did I learn in this haven for kiddies?

  1. Amazing creative things can be made from tiny pieces of plastic. 
  2. Kids who are compete strangers can find joy in building a Duplo wall together.
  3. Very happy, creative adults with engineering and IT skills galore can get paid for conceptualizing and building super cool things out of Legos
  4. You have to know a bit about building with Legos to create a workable car with wheels (this grandma was woefully unqualified) but I learned you get extra credit for riding on a kiddie ride.
  5. Well raised kids express gratitude.
  6. I day of fun ages a person backwards.

Affirmation: I know how to have fun.

Coaching questions: What do you do for fun? What brings out the kid in you? What does being child-like do for you?