Three Fun Things to Pass the Time

Sometimes in life you need some fun things to help pass this time, things you can do while you are waiting for something else to happen, someone to arrive, or just trying to relax and not worry so much. Here are three very fun distractions that I have recently enjoyed to pass the time.

I could not pass up the Charley Harper Memory Game at Anthropologie a few weeks ago. I immediately fell in love with the graphics and if you have to ( I mean GET TO) play kids games with a kid, then  this is a gorgeous way to to spend your play time. There are a LOT of sets of cards in this set, we just choose 10-12 sets to play with and vary them every time we play. It's amazing how much better kids brains are at this than grown ups. I am afraid our brains are way too cluttered with dumb details and worries about a thousand things.

If you are going to watch DVDs with a kid, can I recommend Shaun the Sheep, by the makers of Wallace and Grommet. This is a video that grown ups enjoy just as much as kids, at least for the first 3-4 times. Haa-haa. It's clever, creative, there is no talking and the sounds and songs are not annoying. That's huge for me. There are some kid oriented sounds that make me want to pull my ears off. There are other Shaun the Sheep episodes available on DVD too, but I think of those I've seen this is my favorite.

Lastly, when I need to relax and can't get my mind off things that are causing me stress or I just need to really unwind to fall asleep I do word search puzzles. I like to buy the wire-bound books on sale at Barnes and Noble or Borders on the clearance rack. I first picked up a word search book about two years ago. I took it on vacation and everyone wanted to play with it. It's fun to sit with someone and do a puzzle together, competing to see who can find the most words the fastest. It gets pretty competitive.

I always get very relaxed and I have to say that I have really noticed that my ability to spot words quickly has increased exponentially from when I first started doing these again.  And when I say again, the last time I did these was probably during public school years. Word search puzzles are also fun for time on a plane, waiting in a doctor's office, waiting for drop offs or pick ups. They only take a few minutes and are easy to put down and pick up again later.

Hope you are enjoying your down time, whenever you can grab it! What do you like to do to unwind, relax and get your mind off things for a while? Please do share!


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