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 You Can Do It! Candle Votive. This votive may be small, but the message it proclaims is huge and heartfelt. The ceramic votive is hand-painted, lead free, and comes with one tea light, which can be replaced when it has been used.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Just leave a comment on this post, answering this week’s question: “Share something funny you used to believe when you were a kid?”
2. Deadline for entries is 11:59 pm CST on the day of the post. We’ll pick a winner from the list of comments on the following Friday.
3. We’ll contact the winner by e-mail to find out where to send the prize.

Good luck! And don’t miss any of the other cool stuff for the young at heart at The Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand!

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Ever since I announced the official retirement of the Kim & Jason comic strip, I have been working on a new project featuring the pint-sized duo. A busy speaking schedule has kept me from seeing a lot of progress, but I’m looking forward to really making some headway this summer. A script has been written for a new story about monsters under the bed, and my sketchbook is starting to fill up.

Club K&J members will get a behind-the-scenes look at the entire process as things unfold. For starters, I’ve added a couple shots of my sketchbook, featuring some of the zany monsters I’ve scribbled so far. Take a sneak peek!

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Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I’m sure I’ll make a bunch of people angry, but I’m sorry. That’s about the only word I can think of to describe what I think about parents who let their kids have televisions in their bedroom.

With our blue collar jobs being outsourced overseas, the main thing that keeps America humming along as a world leader is our ingenuity, inventiveness, and imagination (all of which flourishes under capitalism, by the way.) Manufacturing and factory jobs are going the way of the dinosaur, and they’re being replaced by an economy of ideas and technology.

Television is a passive, mind-numbing medium. When a strong imagination and the ability to think creatively are the most important tools our kids need to succeed in life, I can’t think of one good reason to let a child have a TV in their bedroom.

Especially with all of the junk that floods the airwaves these days.

Stupid.

And it makes for stupid kids, too. From the New York Times:

According to a recent study of almost 400 third graders that was published in The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, about 70% of the group had a television in their bedroom. The data indicated that the children with their own TV scored significantly and consistently lower on math, reading and language-arts tests. In a similar study of 80 children in Buffalo, N.Y., the presence of a television in the bedroom increased average viewing time by nearly nine hours a week, from 21 to 30 hours.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those people who think TV is the devil. It certainly has is place in our lives. I’m just not sure that our children’s bedrooms is that place. Can we shield our kids from everything harmful in this world? Absolutely not. But should we allow complete strangers into our kid’s bedroom to teach them a thing or two about “life?”

I know that there are at least 52 productive alternatives to TV. I’d bet there are countless more things that would be just as fun and serve our children better than sitting in their bedroom watching the boob tube. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I believe an imagination is a terrible thing to waste. You might be the “meanest” parent on the block, but the gift of letting your child stretch his or her imagination is one they will thank you for later.

So, what say you?

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Judy Irené, Club K&J member and San Francisco Giants fan is the official winner of Kim & Jason Escape Event #2. She received over 60% of the total vote and has won an iPod Shuffle for her effort!

Club K&J members (and their friends and families) were invited to take part in the Escape Event, which was held on April 27, 2008. The challenge was to “do something childlike that is music related in some way, shape, or form.” We chose 3 finalists to compete for the top prize, all of whom did a great job of tackling the challenge.

We want to thank everyone who participated and especially congratulate Judy for her creative approach. You can watch the video she submitted here:

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This week’s Escape Plan challenge (aka our Tip of the Week) is #15: Taste Bud Conspiracy: Eat something you’ve never had before.

Jason and I are officially guacamole people now. Whoopty-do, you’re saying (especially if you live in CA), but it’s a lesson in trying new things. Over the last year or so we have been in 3-4 social situations where fresh guacamole was the center of attention. Being in small groups, we tried it politely, even though we were sure it was going to taste how it looked- like baby “you know what.” The first few times it was hard to get past the visual bias, and the new chunky texture. By the third and forth time I found myself adding more and more of the green stuff to my chips. Jason did too. Mmm… not bad. We had begun to like it… so much so that we even ordered some at a Mexican restaurant when it was just the two of us. Over spring break Jason got daring and decided to make some homemade guacamole. It’s official… guacamole is now on our list of “likes,” all because we politely tried it a few times.

Think about the things you are surrounded by that others seem to really enjoy and ask yourself, why don’t I like it? Have I given it the ol’ college try? Trying something on 4-5 separate occasions is the key. So, have some fun trying something new this week. Remember, kids are trying new things all of the time… and just because you may have thought something was grody when you were little, doesn’t mean you will think that today… unless of course you’re a member of the Picky Eating Adults Group.

Leave a comment on the Escape Plan Blog to tell us what you tried this week. Bon Appetite!

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Is this a long-forgotten buddy sitcom from the 70s starring a bright-eyed boy and his precocious inanimate object? Or just a shameless plug for one of my favorite cool things at the Lemonade Stand? You decide. Either way, I think you’ll enjoy it:

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Jason and I spent the week in Northern VA, putting on a number of speaking programs. Two nights were at the same venue. We love doing two-night programs! The second night is always filled with surprises. Last night was no exception. When the crowd started filing in, we were met by these two Adultitis-free spirits. Yes, they wore their disguises for most of the evening. The reminded me that we are definitely in the permission business!

After the program “Groucho Marx” came to our table and shared something that him and his wife would do with their kids, to liven up the family dinner routine. They would pull out a handful of kitchen utensils, like the potato masher, soup ladle, spatula, etc., and put them in the middle of the table. Each member of the family would get a chance to pick which one they wanted. For the entire meal, this was the only utensil they were allowed to eat with- no forks, knives, spoons, etc. Just a huge silly tool that brought tons and tons of laughter and memories.

Have some fun with this idea… I know we will!

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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 bag of Encouragement Magic Bean Wishes. Within each hot stamped velour pouch is a collection of agriculture and heirloom beans that have been marked with thoughtful encouraging words using a patent pending process. The beans can be kept as a sentimental token or planted, however the true magic is seen when the planted beans sprout. The words are still on the pods as they emerge from the soil. People can actually see their wishes growing!

Here’s how to enter:

1. Just leave a comment on this post, answering this week’s question: “Who was your biggest encourager when you were a kid?”
2. Deadline for entries is 11:59 pm CST on the day of the post. We’ll pick a winner from the list of comments on the following Friday.
3. We’ll contact the winner by e-mail to find out where to send the 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 Kristine:

My biggest influence on me as a kid was my music teacher. She is the women who made me who I am now. As a kid with a learning disability, singing was the one thing that kept me going in a adolescent world where I felt often stupid and left behind. Other than coaching me privately after school, this amazing women also had me going auditions for local musical productions, being there for me when I simply needed to cry, and she always-always-always made me feel that I was worth something to this world.

On one particular day that was downright hard, she had given me a rubber band to wear around my wrist. Every time I thought something negative, the band was be pulled back and snapped against my wrist. Ow ow ow ow ow! It seemed malicious at the time. Needless to say, that didn’t last long but the rubber band soon found a place close to my heart wound around a heart shaped pendant I wore around my neck. On the day I was to perform in the school talent show, I made sure that my rubber banded necklace was securely on. It was a good luck charm, with it I could archive anything! I had only placed but I was proud of my myself, giving credit to my “magic rubber band”. But when I went to show it off to everyone, I saw that it had broken off and was long gone. In the end, my teacher had said that I had no need for the band in the first place. I went up on the stage and was confident all on my own.

I kept in close contact with her until high school where she remained a steadfast person in my life. I consider my fairy godmother who let me realize that I needed no magic to make good things happen. Just hope, doing your best, and having a positive outlook.

Even though this week’s contest is over, you can still buy your very own Encouragement Magic Bean Wishes at the Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand. And stay tuned next week for the next chance to win!

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One of my blog posts recently received a very intriguing comment. It was loaded with interesting observations and great questions and I wanted to address them here.

As much as I love reading your website, and others like yours, I have realized that reading about it, and actually doing something about it is 2 different matter. Believe me, I’ve been a long-term reader of sites such as yours and am always comforted by the fact that there are people out there like you. I also talk about your sites, and my thoughts with my friends.

But lately, my friends have come to the conclusion that, yes, many people out there ditch their jobs to chase their dreams (or something less dramatic), but there are also just as many out there who go to work like we all do, live a 9-6 life and enjoy the weekends.

They’ve actually concluded that I’m torturing myself here because I read all these encouraging articles, dream all my dreams, but still am miserably stuck.

Don’t get me wrong. I love this article. And your site is very inspiring. But HOW do you actually get people out there to ACT and DO it? How are we to ditch our salaries, health benefits, career prospects, etc, and go, say pursue our dream of volunteering in a third-world country?

I know it’s illogical, and I know all the arguments against staying at a job just for the money, perks, whatever. But still we are not taking action.

If we are, there will no longer be visitors to your site!

So how and where do people finally say and go, right, enough of reading….I’m gonna do it!? How do you get to that point?

First of all, it’s never a bad thing to read or listen to things that inspire you to make positive changes in your life. Encountering the stories of people — people just like us — can help us to see that impossible things are actually more possible than we realized. And they can help us build up the courage we need to launch off on our own epic journey. However, a good many people go out of their way to avoid — and even criticize — these sorts of stories. After all, it can be quite unsettling to have your own self-limiting beliefs challenged, forcing you to face the possibility that you’ve settled for less than your best.

One of the things I was fortunate to learn pretty early on in my career as a professional speaker and writer was that I can’t get anyone to DO anything. Not one person. Not one thing. It’s easy to forget that sometimes — because I really wish I could — but remembering that truth has saved me a lot of frustration. Conversely, if someone is waiting for some speaker or some book or some fairy godmother to wink twice, twitch her nose, and magically transform their life for them, well, that person will be waiting for a very long time indeed.

What I can do is try and live by example and use emotion and intellect to communicate a message that serves as a catalyst for someone to make a positive change in their life. Believe me, that’s the ultimate. But when it all comes down to it, nothing I do or say can make them do anything.

All that being said, one thing that seems to be very effective in getting people to take action is bad news from their doctor.

As enticing as a dream may be, the good ones always involve some sort of uncomfortability and a certain level of risk. Two things most human beings aren’t too fond of. Change and risk are scary things, and most people choose to stay in their current situation (which although admittedly not ideal, is at least a known quantity) than set off into the unknown. Bad news from a doctor, or a near death experience, or a sudden death of a loved one does a pretty good job of helping people realize that the things they worry about are not really worth worrying about after all.

I also think people get so caught up in the big picture that they forget that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. It’s understandably overwhelming to consider the concept of quitting your job, abandoning a career, taking a pay cut, giving up benefits, and moving to a third-world country (or whatever the dream requires.) But in most cases, dreams are accomplished in baby steps. Books are filled with examples of people who began chasing their dream while they were still in school, still had a family to support, still had kids at home, or were still working at a job they didn’t care much for but at least paid the bills.

Indiana Jones is a hero because he takes action when most of the people around him are too afraid (or cynical.) That’s not to say he isn’t afraid (snakes, anyone?), just that he moves forward in spite of the fear. He doesn’t always plan everything out to the last detail (that can become just another form of inaction) because he knows that unexpected things are going to come up anyway. We, too, can expect the unexpected on our journey. Just like Indiana, our quest for the holy grail — our “dream,” if you will — is wrought with peril, lonely paths, and bad guys. Undoubtedly, it’s an adventure of a lifetime and the journey is totally worth it.

But nobody can do it for us.

If you’re feeling stuck, maybe you just need a little bit more courage to take that first action step. A baby step. You’re closer than you think.

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This week’s Escape Plan challenge (aka our Tip of the Week) is #16: Family Tree Trivia: Call or meet with someone in your family and ask them a question you are curious about regarding your family’s history.

A lesson I learned early on from my husband (boyfriend, at the time) is that the easiest way to strengthen a relationship is to ask sincere questions… then shut up and listen to the answers. Anyone who knows Jason knows that if you have more than a three minute conversation with him, you will soon be asked a question that will take the conversation to a whole new level. Questions like, “So, what’s your favorite part about your job?” or “What’s something about your profession that most people would be surprised to find out?” What probably started for reasons associated with a strong disdain for “small-talk” has evolved into a finding that people love to talk about themselves and be listened to. It sure makes interacting a lot more fun when people are enjoying themselves… and not always relying on discussions about the weather or the most recent natural disaster.

Ironically, our family members are often the ones we know the least about, simply because assumptions are made that we already know everything… like how your parents met? Where did they go on their first date or their honeymoon? Moms love sharing details about the day of your birth. Grandmas love sharing details about when your parent was a teenager. There are so many stories to be told!

Asking questions allows for the opportunity to learn and grow closer to the ones you love. Have fun making that call or visit this week. Share with us in the comments of the Escape Plan Blog what you learned by asking a simple and heartfelt question.

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Kim and I just returned from a speaking engagement in Florida. This was the view from our hotel room on Clearwater Beach. When we checked in, our original reservation was listed as “garden view,” but we were offered the option of upgrading to an “ocean view” room. As appealing as “garden view” sounds, I can assure you that it is usually hotel speak for “ugly air conditioning units view.” Because we stay at this particular chain of hotels often, the cost of upgrading for both nights of our stay was $40.

Now, many people would stay with the “garden view” room, pocket the $40, and rationalize that at least they were near the ocean. A few years ago, that would have been my thought process too. But that all changed when I read a semi-controversial book by Randy Gage, “Why You’re Dumb, Sick, and Broke.” I also had the chance to hear him speak last year in San Diego at the National Speakers Association Convention.

One of his key stories was about a trip he and his mastermind group took to Tahiti. For lodging, they rented a glass-bottomed bungalow, which was stationed directly over the water and offered spectacular views of the brilliantly-colored fish swimming below. He noticed that there were plenty of similar bungalows left unrented, while all of the beach bungalows (with no glass bottoms and no spectacular views) were booked solid. As you might expect, the bungalows on the beach were a couple hundred dollars less.

Randy was perplexed. He noted that it’s not cheap to go to Tahiti, and you don’t usually go there often. After investing all that time and money and effort, why in the world would you chump out on the best view for a few hundred dollars? He chalked it up to a disabling mentality of lack thinking.

That story and the point he made really stuck with me. I try to keep it in mind often. This mindset is what inspired Kim and I to try parasailing last December. It was on our life list as something we eventually wanted to do, but it was pretty pricey. We did it anyway. After all, who knows what life will bring? Maybe that would have been our only shot. At the time, it was tough to drop that kind of money — money we didn’t have. But I can tell you this: the view we enjoyed floating above the Gulf of Mexico was priceless, and seeing dolphins swimming below us is a memory I’ll never forget. And you know what? We’ve never missed the money.

So, when offered the chance to get the “ocean view” room, we went with the upgrade. And we milked it for all it was worth. We enjoyed watching the sun melt into the Gulf of Mexico from the comfort of our bed. We fell asleep and awoke to the soft sounds of the ocean surf. And I wrote most of this post from the balcony overlooking the white sandy beach.

Don’t get me wrong; too many people are buried under a mountain of credit card debt primarily because they have no self control and recklessly buy whatever their little heart desires. I’m NOT advocating that. Kim and I operate on a fairly strict personal budget. I think we’re a dying breed. If there are any of you out there who are more likely to put the dollar you find on the sidewalk in a piggy bank rather than a vending machine, my message is simple:

Live a little.

Those little splurges make life way more fun. And the view is simply breathtaking.

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Real live, easy-to-read, portable printed issues of Kim & Jason magazine are part of an annual subscription to Club K&J, but the lastest digital issue is FREE to download!

In this issue…

Children are passionate about life. As we get older, Adultitis has the tendency to choke out that passion. This issue is jam-packed with stories, tips, and ideas on how you can tap into your passion and re-energize your life!

Features…

Break Free by Jason Kotecki | An essay on following your heart, pursuing your passion, and living life daringly.

An Interview with… Peggy Willenberg | This tornado chaser shares her passion for crazy weather.

Kitchentertainment by Kim Kotecki | Relive the first ever Kim & Jason Escape Event.

Feeling Good Is Quick, But Not Always Easy by Bonnie St. John | Speaker, author, and Olympian Bonnie St. John outlines some easy ways to feel a whole lot better.

The Workplayce by Brett Farmiloe | Brett shares some lessons learned from a cross-country road trip in an RV.

Escape Plan: San Diego Zoo by Kim Kotecki | Discover five awesome ways to escape adulthood at this world famous zoo!

Living the MAP Maker’s Life by Curt Rosengren | Craft a life of meaning, abundance, & passion with these simple ideas from the Passion Catalyst.

Thoughts from a ToyMaker by Marilyn Scott-Waters| Paper toymaker extraordinaire shares her philosophy and one of her toys you can make!

A Passion for Children’s Books by Jen Robinson | Jen explains her love for children’s books, and recommends a few of her favorites for adults.

Freedom to Have Fun by Shirley Jones | A nostalgic look back at the free-spirited days of childhood.

Too Much Passion? by Doug Kotecki | Is it possible to live too passionately? Funnyman Doug explores the issue.

…Plus much, much MORE!

*Download The Issue Now*
(You can also buy individual printed copies -OR- subscribe to Club K&J to receive every issue conveniently by mail.)

Technorati Tags: escape adulthood, Kim & Jason magazine, passion, living with passion, Peggy Willenberg, Bonnie St. John, Brett Farmiloe, Curt Rosengren, Marilyn Scott-Waters, Jen Robinson, Shirley Jones, Doug Kotecki

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