My blog took a typical, SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) turn with an email from a Flybaby and it prompted me to find a very funny article written by a columnist for the Seattle Times who in turn went on to become a very famous food critic in the Northwest. His article gives you the man’s view of a SHE. The article follows this email.

Here’s my letter to Barb,

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I love hearing from SHEs like you because it just confirms to me that we are one huge, happy family, loving our homes and loving order, but careful not to take life too seriously. I purposely approached getting organized with a sense of humor and joy and that book was the first book on the market written from a reformed “slob’s” point of view.  (Remember SLOB stands for Spontaneous, Lighthearted, Optimistic and Beloved.)

Love,

Pam

Here’s the article, written by John Hinterberger  Seattle Times.

I’m grateful to each and every one of you who are raising fabulous citizens of our next generation. It’s an awesome responsibility. Keep up the good work, don’t get too serious (your kids can help you with that) and learn something every day from them (they have much to teach us). 

Now that the House Fairy has a brand new website, I’m so happy with her new and improved programs. More than 20,000 families are House Fairy friendly and I love that the programs are for life! Once you are a member you are always a member and there are no dues or monthly fees and the House Fairy and I get to keep coming up with helpful tools that you’ll receive as they come. I also have some exciting things happening and you’ll be the first to know what’s new. 

Because you’re interested in helping your kids establish good habits that’ll serve them throughout their lives, I’d like to share something that occurred to me about habits.

Join NOSS and Establish Good Habits

 The only way to establish a habit is to put the action you want to become a habit into a routine. You’ll have to do the action enough times for it to become automatic. In order to do that, you have to be an option stopper. Don’t give yourself the option of not doing the action you want to have become a habit. 

For example, if you want exercise to be part of your routine, then you have to stop giving yourself options out of exercise. Options abound. Until exercise is a habit, your options will always look better than exercise. But if you’ll be an option stopper, one day you’ll realize you have a new habit! 

 

Have you HAD it? Is it OVER? Do you wash your hands of it? Do you give up and say UNCLE? 

 

Is that how you feel about your disorganized lifestyle? Well STOP IT!  

I was 34 years old when I hit bottom. Someone said, “The bottom is a great place to be because there’s nowhere to go but up.” Not until I hit bottom did I surrender to my situation and ask for the guidance that’s available 24/7. That’s when miracles happen. In that moment of surrender I was reminded that even though I was in a mess, I was in the right place with the right people, I was just fine and the only element I really lacked was direction. Following a direction is a spiritual issue.

In my almost 40 year career helping moms get organized I’ve come to one big conclusion about being organized: it’s about mind management, not time management. There are thousands of books giving you direction, but until your mind is changed the direction won’t be followed.

Angel Speak

I’d like you to pretend I’m one of your guardian angels and you've prayed to get organized and I’ve been assigned to work your case. I love the assignment because I’ve always loved you and to work with you personally is exciting to me!

So, I’m sitting on your chest when you wake up in the morning and I can’t wait to see you open your beautiful eyes so we can start our fabulous day together. But you’re so tired, you miss the joy before you. I should have known that’s how it’d be because you played on the computer until 2:00 am and every time I tried to get you to go to bed, you ignored me. 

When you finally went to bed, I wished you a wonderful night’s sleep, but you didn’t hear me because you conked out before I was finished talking to you.  Anyway, now it’s morning and you stagger to the bathroom, tripping over shoes you left in the pathway to the toilet. (I was able to block your fall.) By the way, I love to hear you swear! We don’t get to do it here in heaven, so it’s fun to hear (sort of like when you first tried out a swear word when your mom wasn’t close enough to hear).

As your days progress I try to get a few words in edgewise. Little suggestions like, “Look at your calendar Love,” “Get a drink of water Sweet One,” “That job won’t be that bad, put your timer on for 15 minutes and start Darling,” “Don’t take that comment personally, what he thinks of you is none of your business,” oh and “God loves you,” “I love you,” and “Please be kind to yourself Blessed One.” 

Sometimes you listen and take my guidance, but most times you just don’t hear me or you say, “I’m too busy, too tired or I don’t have time. (I really get a kick out of that last one!  I wish you knew how funny you are when you say, “I don’t have time.” LOL My Adorable One, you have all the time in the world.)

5 Decluttering Questions!

Imagine this: You fill a big suitcase (the one that always weighs more than 50 pounds when you check it at the
 airport) and you cram it with all the fall and winter clothes you haven’t worn in the last year. Maybe many of the garments haven’t been worn in several years. If you haven’t worn a garment in the last year, what makes you think a year from now you will?  

If you did this, you'd lose 50 pounds of clothing that was otherwise clogging your closet and if the suitcase is an old one that's probably seen its last flight, you could drop the whole, loaded suitcase off at Goodwill, You'll feel 50 pounds lighter spiritually! Clutter is the biggest destroyer of peace and decluttering closets, cupboards and drawers brings a peace that money can’t buy!

The Flood of 2014 - Water ALWAYS wins

 

Because American Way (American Airline’s in-flight magazine) is featuring the House Fairy this month, I thought it’d be good to write about exercising while flying. So, Mom, want to shrink that belly fat while you’re on your way to Los Angeles? Here are 7 ways to get back into those pants that are too tight.

As an author of get-organized books, I’ve had to fly extensively, and over the years I’ve figured out some ways to get in a little fitness activity on a plane without getting kicked off it. We have to put our fellow passengers first before our exercise regimes. Having a passenger invade my space is on my list of top ten annoyances, so I’m very careful not to bother my seat partners.

Once while travelling, the woman next to me used an inflatable neck rest which obviously had a leak. While she slept, the air leaked out and her large body gradually listed into my space and finally rested on my arm and shoulder. The assertiveness-training classes I took, didn’t take and I allowed the invasion of my personal space. Soon after, she woke up from the awkward slant of her torso, blew the thing back up, and returned to dreamland, gradually tilting back over her armrest again and into my lap. This process repeated every 27 minutes (not that I was counting!) on our nonstop flight from Portland, Oregon, to New York City, New York.

We certainly don’t want to be invasive like that while we squeeze some exercise into our travels.

My goal when exercising on a flight is to keep my workout as discrete as I can. That’s part of the fun! One good way to do that is to get your moves in before takeoff. If you think how much time it takes for all those passengers to get on the plane and the chaos created as they get their stuff stowed and get seated, most of these exercises can be done after you board and before the plane taxis off to the runway, thereby sparing your flight mates any grief while you work out.   

Some of my exercises are isometric and make use of your imagination.

1. The Marching Soldier 

For lower-body strength: Sit in your seat and pretend that your feet weigh 20 pounds each. Discreetly lift one leg up and hold for five seconds, being careful not to disturb your fellow passenger with groans or heavy breathing (especially if you’re in a center seat). Then raise it up as high as you can without knocking into your tray table and continue holding for five more seconds. Repeat with each leg 15 times.