Valentine's Day Decor

I'm about to decorate my house with a simple little banner

It just says " LOVE "  :) 

Although we already have a "love" decoration in our living room that we got (from the lovely Katie) for our wedding, this one is specifically to be festive for valentine's day.

It's SO simple. I haven't finished or I'd post a picture, but you can see it over at (one of my recent favorite blogs) Kind over Matter in a blog titled, "Freebie Alert! Printable Valentine's Love Banner"

I hope everyone has a great weekend & a great Valentine's Day!

Soon I'll post the awesome things we won through the "Cutest Couples Contest" I posted about before--yes, we won! And it's great! :) For now I'll just leave you with a picture of the gorgeous flowers that came in the prize pack...

Do Nothing.

That's not something that we do often...

We are always BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

I admit that I get caught up in ME. I get caught up in the BUSY.

Today I read a blog over at Kind Over Matter that was entitled "I Dare You: Do Nothing for 2 Minutes"

So I dare you! Do nothing for two minutes.

Click here & do nothing for two minutes. Now, click it!

And then finish this blog....

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Okay, so if you are reading this sentence, you should feel a little more focused...if you didn't cheat that is!

I enjoyed my 2 minutes. My two minutes helped me to clear my mind and realize what I needed to do now, not what I was busying myself with...my two minutes involved thinking, praying and reorganizing what my "to-do" list was based on importance...not the need to feel "busy", and also planning this blog!

Of course all that didn't actually happen in the TWO minutes...but that is where it started. It started when I SLOWED down.

SO I hope that 2 minutes helped you, too!

Julio Diaz...I applaud you!

This story is from NPR and can be read HERE on their site.

It's from 2008 but this is the first time I've heard it....and it's worth the read!

March 28, 2008
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
 "He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."
The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says. Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"
Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"
"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.

The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.

Free Compliments & Positivity--spread it!

We all like to receive compliments and we recognize that they can dramatically improve someone's minute, hour, day or week....so here is a pretty neat idea that came from a blog called Kind over Matter  that we can put out in public places to just encourage "NICEness"

 

So print one out....or ten....by clicking HERE for a link to the PDF, but while you are at it, head over to Kind over Matter to see more like this one! She also made one called "Free Compliments for you or your co-workers" as well as a "Free positive thoughts" and a blank PDF very similar that allows you to put in your own sayings!

So get to printing...
....Hang them up at work, at church, in a public restroom, public library...everywhere! :)