Happy Halloween

                                                                  Source: realmomsrealviews.com via Martha on Pinterest

From all of us here at The Motivation Station, have a "spooktacular" Halloween!

Have fun and be safe!

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R and R for Sunday, October 30th, 2011

Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself to others.  It is because we are different that each of us is special. 

Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.  Only you know what is best for you. 

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.  Cling to them as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless

Don't let life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live up all the days of your life. 

Don't give up when you still have something left to give,  Nothing is really over . . . till the moment you stop trying. 

Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect

It is this fragile thread that binds us together

Don't be afraid to encounter risks.  It is by taking chances, that we learn to be brave. 

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find

The quickest way to receive love is to give love;  the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly;and the best way to keep love is to give it wings. 

Don't dismiss your dreams.  To be without dreams is to be without hope;to be without hope is to be without purpose

Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been,but where you are going

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored every step of the way.

R AND R TIP #73:  RELAX and savor every moment  

I savor the moments that fill my life because each day is only lived once.  There is no going back to retrieve those moments in the past.  My life is composed of special moments that are unique and they may never come my way again.

  I'm thankful for the gift of time that makes me conscious of each precious moment that passes.  Beautiful moments like playing with a child, embracing a loved one, reading a good book, and spending time with my family 

Each day is an opportunity for me to enjoy life and good memories of those special times are  like a gift to myself.  I can look back on these experiences with laughter, fondness and joy, making each moment even more precious. 

Once this day has passed the opportunity to live these moments is gone.  I will savor each moment of my life. 

 Come, Relax, Enjoy and Savor every moment

Have a Wonderful Sunday! 

See you all next week!

Love, Live, Laugh and Be Happy!

ma 

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It's GITTING time!

The idea of a GIT Challenge is to play catch up with whatever we need to get done. Just leave a comment saying you'll play along, minimize this post so you can easily come back to it throughout the day, stop what you are doing (meaning get off the computer and stop procrastinating!), take an hour right now to catch up on things you need to do and work as fast as you can!

Come back every hour or two and leave a comment with your progress. Check out what other participants have accomplished - all in the comment section, no blog hopping necessary. After updating, get back to work for another hour or so until you're done for the day. We always accomplish so much during these challenges!

Jump in anytime, there's no special time to start or finish. It's fun working together - join us!

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Show & Tell - Halloween Haunts in Ye Olde Orchard

I think my neighborhood is inhabited by a bunch of secret set designers. This 18 foot goblin is case in point.


Here's the entrance to our humble haunting, decorated by the teens.


Wolfman hiding from Dracula. Or waiting for his prey, you decide.


This is the home of Mr.October 31st himself. The spider on the chimney creeps me out the most. And I'm not even afraid of spiders, but when they reach automobile size, all bets are off.


Happy All Hallows Eve to you and yours. Are there any extreme decorators* in your neck of the woods? Or neck of the victim? Ha, ha, ha, ha!!! (Insert cheesy ghoulish laugh here). Thank you so much.

Linda of Finding Footsteps and her family are Extreme Decorators Extraordinaire!

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Question of the Week

What’s your favorite Treat for Halloween… Do you have a specialty you make each year… Or maybe you have a favorite Trick that you play each year…

Caramel Apples are my favorite…

Bonus Question: Do you carve pumpkins into Jack O Lanterns…

 

Or maybe your collection of lighted ones (electric) is growing each year like ours…

Leave your answer in the comment section or write up your answer in your blog and link up to Show and Tell in the sidebar…

We’d love to hear from you…

Happy Halloween…

 

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I'm Chiming, are you chime.in?

I am a non-tweeting social media misfit with bloggy burnout, who is overwhelmed with facebook between all its games, ads, and "stuff". I don't have time to learn Google+ or pine over pinterest, and my cup runneth over with my real life and online work life, to have had much interest in these endeavors.

Truth be told, except for the wonderful compadres of The Motivation Station, the online world has lost much of its luster to me. I don't know if the novelty has worn off, or if it became too much responsibility requiring too much time and energy. Plus, I felt a little "pimped out" by google with their ownership of blog content and its ad space. It is the bargain we make when we agree to have them host our blogs.

Last week, I read about a new shared interest social media site called Chime.In, which became available to the public in beta form. I found Chime.In to be intuitive and easy to use, and it has filters for not only which posts or topics "populate" your incoming chime stream, but also allows you to filter your "chimes" or outgoing posts to all or specific followers. The site seems to have the best features of facebook, twitter, and blogs too, with photo, video, and site links. Chime.In is also intriguing, because unlike Google or Facebook who keep the huge majority of ad revenue, the Chime.in business model provides 50% of revenue to "Chimers" for ads placed by the company on your site, to 100% of the revenue from ads you place yourself. The CEO said that in order to be relevant by providing interest driven and quality content, that the writer should be appropriately rewarded. Right On! Or more appropriately, Write On!

Please check out Chime.in or I can send you an invitation. Please look for me if you do visit, my Chime.in user name is msakelly. Thank you so much.

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Motivation Monday: The One a Day Challenge - Week 2

Last week we started the One a Day Challenge where we pick one thing a day to declutter. It can be one bag, one box, one basket, one drawer, one shelf, one cabinet - or even just one single thing.

I made good progress this past week, even better than expected! 

I donated 8 boxes of miscellaneous craft, office, scrap-booking and and school supplies...

Realistically - I don't craft, I don't do any scrap-booking, and the kids school supplies were getting ancient. I don't think either of the boys will want Spiderman folders, little rounded tip scissors, or the massive supplies of crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc. now that they are in high school.

My office supplies were ridiculous too. I'm all for not having to buy what we already have, but when we have so much that it has to be packed away and can't find it when we need it is when we know we have too much.

Why was I saving all this stuff to begin with?!!

I put some larger items down at the curb with a free sign, I didn't realize how far away I was for the photo but you can see them way, way down there to the right of the driveway.

Also while cleaning out the garage this weekend (links to before and after links are on our sidebar for Show and Tell) this is what will go to the garbage and recycling this week...

Last is a box of clothes. When I did the Closet Declutter Challenge mid August I left an empty box in my closet and vowed to put anything that didn't work for whatever reason in there immediately for donation. I have stuck to my rule, these have now been donated...

How did you do this week? 

Ready for Week 2? Together we can do it!

Wishing you a Motivated Monday!

Don't forget to join me at my new blog Minimalist in the Making to follow my journey to Minimalism.

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R & R for Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

Everything you now do is something you have chosen to do. Some people don’t want to believe that. But if you’re over age twenty-one, your life is what you’re making of it. To change your life, you need to change your priorities. 

John C. Maxwell

R and R #72:  Your life will always be, to a large extent, what you make it.  Make it well. 

Plan for a better tomorrow.  Your life is yours.  You own it and what you make of it is purely up to you.  Others may support you in your aspirations, but, in the end, it's your creation.

 Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold.  But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision of the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow

 Douglas Pagels 

We are responsible for becoming the person we want to be. Change is possible. If you are tired and 

out of control, realize that the choice is yours to make.  

Yesterday was history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present

Sometimes, when you're feeling overload, you can try to rest and relax to gain back the energy of motivation.  Yes, you definitely cannot change what had happened, but you can focus on now and change the future.  

In fact, some of the experts claim that the more you relax and rest yourself, the more productive you’ll become.

Just make sure that you take action and do what you need to do. R and R, rest and relax, is not a way for you to procrastinate, but it is a technique for you to get motivated.

One of the best things you can do for your mind and your body is to give it a rest. Relaxation is crucial for overall health and longevity.

Life is what you make it.  Always has been.  Always will be.

 Grandma Moses

Have a Wonderful Sunday! 

See you all next week!

Love, Live, Laugh and Be Happy!

ma 

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It's GITTING time!

GITTING is as we define it here at THE Motivation Station primarily about the materialistic 'STUFF' in our lives whether it's decluttering the garage, packing to move or just everyday house cleaning.  But, GITTING can also be about our attitudes, emotions and even our personal health which in turn affect how we deal with the materialistic 'STUFF' in our life whether it's decluttering the garage, packing to move or just everyday house cleaning etc...  you see where I'm going here?  It's the whole "vicious circle" or "domino effect" and both of these are easier when you 

GIT!  So, please join us.

The idea of a GIT Challenge is to play catch up with whatever we need to get done. Just leave a comment saying you'll play along, minimize this post so you can easily come back to it throughout the day, stop what you are doing (meaning get off the computer and stop procrastinating!), take an hour right now to catch up on things you need to do and work as fast as you can!

Come back every hour or two and leave a comment with your progress. Check out what other participants have accomplished - all in the comment section, no blog hopping necessary. After updating, get back to work for another hour or so until you're done for the day. We always accomplish so much during these challenges!

Jump in anytime, there's no special time to start or finish. It's fun working together - join us!

More about → It's GITTING time!

Question of the Week

Are you dressing up for Halloween… Have you dressed up in the past… Are the kids dressing up… If not, do you remember a favorite trick or treater’s costume that has come to your door…

Leave a comment or link a blog entry to our Show and Tell in the sidebar of you/or another in your/their costumes…

Here are the costumes that the boys are planning… (images courtesy of Party City and Spirit Halloween)

Son3’s new mask…

Son2 is deciding whether to upgrade his scarecrow costume or be a twisted jester…

Son1 and girlfriend will be out partying as Super Mario and Luigi…

Below are pictures from last Halloween…

Son2 as a scarecrow…

Son2 and son1…

Son3…

This year will be our 4th year in a row of decorating the yard… We gave out almost 300 treats last year… Son2 is our star attraction… The first year he was the joker, then the werewolf in the above picture (that is not him in that picture, we set it up and people were poking it to see if it would move as they remembered him being in it from the year before) and last year the scarecrow…

Happy Trick or Treating…

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Forget the Fear, Worry about the Addiction is Right!

Flying through the air with much unease, comes the fifty year old on the flying trapeze!

For my 50th birthday, the boys and I took a flying trapeze class at the Trapeze School of NY- Santa Monica. Here we are pre-flight, all thinking, "What have I (she) gotten us into?"


You have ground practice for proper take off off the little bitty platform 23 feet up in the air.



Did I tell you I am not a fan of heights? The net is 14 feet below the platform, 9 feet off the ground.

I am sore two days later in places that I didn't know I had, but so well worth it, it was amazing.

Here's the boys who also really enjoyed it and took to it so easily.









It was a wonderful way to celebrate and I agree with Eleanor Roosevelt that you should do something each day that scares you.

More about → Forget the Fear, Worry about the Addiction is Right!