Merry Christmas to you all. I feel so honored to have you in my life, even though I haven’t met most of you in person. I write for you from my heart and I’m honored when you send such loving comments reflecting your love back to me. I know how busy you all are, yet throughout the year many of you have taken time to share your love with me. And to those of you who haven’t written to me, I know in my heart you are a SHE just like me and I love you.

Make your own beautiful bows for your Christmas presents this year. They're easy to make and when you buy satin ribbon from your local florist, the bows are very inexpensive.

Watch this DIY video and Pam will show you how to make them.

How would you like to enjoy eating all the holiday goodies more than you ever have before? This is the most wonderful time of year to make a decision to do just that! 

However, enjoying your food starts with paying more attention to a part of your body that you may have been ignoring for a long time; your tongue. We all know without our tongues we couldn’t speak, but we also couldn’t enjoy our food because that’s where all those taste buds are.

Once when my kids were teenagers we were sitting at the dinner table and I suddenly noticed the way we were eating. Everyone was scarfing, gulping, guzzling, gobbling, slugging down, chowing down, wolfing down and pigging out like a bunch of animals. You’d have thought we were all late to catch a flight!

Since words don’t teach as well as experience does, I decided to prepare a special meal for the next dinner we’d be eating together. I wanted to get their attention, without words, to help us all be more aware of this marvelous gift we have…our ability to really enjoy our food.

Here’s what I did.

Merry Christmas Mousketeers! What a great year 2016 was for Colby and me.

As most of you know, our family lives with a two-human household (Terry and Pam) and they don’t have kids at home anymore. That’s a concept Colby and I just don’t get. (I average six pregnancies a year and we’ve never had less than septuplets!) I’m happy to say that I’ve never had to suffer from “empty nest syndrome!”

Since we live in the state of Washington, everyone seems to be nutso, Seahawk fans with Seahawk flags waving on flagpoles and out car windows, and everywhere you look there's a human running around wearing a shirt with the number 3 for Russell Wilson or 12 for the fans that scream their heads off.

Of course Colby and I are Packer nuts and have cheese hats I made from packing material we found in the attic. Whenever we hear a game on, we race to our viewing holes to watch television with the humans, hoping it’s the Packers. When we retire, our dream is to go to Wisconsin and get real cheese hats made of cheese like the humans wear to the games!

In this video, which my husband Terry produced for a local ABC affiliate in Portland, Oregon, we took video cameras out in the field to find the spirit of Christmas. It was a spiritual trek and we found the perfect place. It's almost a promise, if you have one of these places near you, you'll find the spirit of Christmas too. This clip will get that Christmas glow flowing through you, so please take some time to enjoy.

 Edible "Indoor" Snowman

Imagine serving this hors d'oeuvres at your next party: A snowman standing more than a foot tall, on a platter surrounded by raw vegetables or cocktail crackers. Guests will wonder what they’re supposed to do with him, until they dip into his luscious "snow" or cut into him for a chunk of his insides. Then they’ll keep returning for more, until the poor snowman is left looking like his brothers Frosty or Olaf on a bad day.

Here’s the recipe which is just one of 75 recipes in The Phony Gourmet, which is now at a low clearance price of $5 plus postage and handling. This hardback cookbook originally sold for $15.

Cream Cheese and Garlic Snowman

Serves 15 party animals

1 8-inch round loaf French bread

1 5-inch round loaf French bread

1 round French roll

2 8-ounce packages Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese (original) softened

2 teaspoons Lawry’s Garlic Powder Coarse Ground with Parsely

1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/3 cup milk

¼ cup instant mashed potato flakes

1 leaf red cabbage (snowman’s scarf)

1 baby carrot (nose)

8 peppercorns (eyes and mouth)

5 coffee beans (buttons)

2 cinnamon sticks (arms)

1 cardboard toilet paper tube (hat)

1 square of black felt (hat)

1 (15-inch) wooden skewer (spinal column)

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, garlic, seasoned salt, onion powder, and milk until smooth.

2. Place the larger loaf of bread on a large serving platter. Frost with half the cream cheese mixture. Stick the wooden skewer through the middle of the large loaf. Stick the medium-size loaf onto the skewer to make the second “snowball.” Frost the second ball, leaving enough cream cheese mixture to frost the third ball. Stick the French roll onto the skewer for the snowman’s head. Frost, and decorate, using items suggested in the ingredients.

3. After the snowman is decorated, shake the instant potato flakes all over him. They look just like snow and are remarkably tasty with the cream cheese “frosting.”

The Phony Gourmet came close to being a cooking show on television, but my sister and I weren’t willing to live five months out of the year in LA. Our six kids needed us at home. This video is the open from the pilot show.

William James said, "Things are not as they are, but as we are." We really do see through the eyes of our own experience and each of our experiences is different, so in every moment, we see everything from the perspective of the mood we're in. It’s almost like we put on different glasses from moment to moment.

Have you noticed you can get in the habit of being in a bad mood? The good news is, if you can get into the habit of being in a bad mood, you can get into the habit of being in a good one! Habits are breakable and like any habit good or bad, it just takes desire to change. 

Using a timer to get out of a bad mood

I was doing some holiday shopping at Michael’s (the craft store) in the late afternoon when I heard a conversation in the next aisle between a mother and her six-year-old child.

“Oh, Mama, look at this!”

“Uh huh.”

“I love this!!”

“Uh huh.”

“I have one don’t I!!!”

“Uh huh.”

“You made it for me didn’t you Mama!!!!”

“Uh huh.”

“Can you make one for Sissy?”

“Uh huh.”

As I listened to the excitement and love for her mother in the child’s voice and the drone of her mother’s responses, tears welled up in my eyes. I thought about how many times I’d done the same thing with my children when they were young. After all, the holiday season meant I had a centerpiece to make, a decoration for the coffee table to think about, colors to consider, people to impress and not enough time! 

The holiday season is notorious for inciting panic in women and if they don’t know how to deal with that shoulder-burdening aspect of this time of year, they’re destined to miss what the holidays are really all about…PEACE, JOY, HARMONY. We need ME time to re-charge.

I recently appeared on a local television talk show in Portland, Oregon, to talk about the free day I have in my weekly plan. To bring up this topic, this time of year when most women who work outside their homes can barely find a free hour let alone a free day each week, seemed absurd!

If you'd like to watch that segment, just click on my little Christmas girl.

If you need activities for kids to do on Thanksgving, this craft will keep them entertained while you are busy with all that goes into your Thanksgiving Day feast. For this craft, all you need is a pack of colored pens and a white, flat twin sheet. 

You'll not only be giving them a creative outlet and keeping them busy, they'll create a family heirloom. 

In this short video, two of my grandchildren, Jackson and Brooklyn (now teenagers) enjoyed making this tablecloth that I use every Thanksgiving.

Happy Holidays!

 Thank you for being here! 

The holidays definitely impact SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives). Because we're creative, we can go into OPM (Over Production Mode).

Our perfectionism kicks in and we want to recreate the magic we see on glossy magazine covers without thinking about how fake it all is. (Incidentally, this turkey is plastic. Marla the Flylady gave it to me because I told her we all want that Norman Rockwell image of the family around the festive table while Gramps carves the turkey at the table.)

In truth, cutting up the turkey at the table makes a horrible mess! I decided if we had a fake turkey for a photo op, we'd eliminate that unnecessary mess at the table.

We SHEs love the holidays, and since we're easily distracted throughout the year, this time of year can pitch us over the festive edge.

The holidays are here, and they don't let us off the hook to follow our daily routine, but they can distract us. Imagine that you have a free half hour specifically slotted for housework. You’ve got four 3x5 cards with specific chores on each to direct your work. There's an estimated time telling you how long each task will take written on each card. You’re dressed for housework, so you won’t wreck your good clothes and you’ve got sensible shoes on. You're a SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) and you're easily distracted.

According to your math, you can do the tasks on the cards in half an hour, but what has happened to your good intentions when you find yourself at the mall buying Christmas presents? WHAT HAPPENED?

Today the Cleaner Guy shows how to make safe, toxic-free furniture polish. Since he made it for this video, I've used nothing else, because it really works. Good-bye Pledge!

One note: I wanted a container that would squirt out just a little bit, so I got the bright idea to use a ketchup holder, not thinking that someone might think it was ketchup and squirt it on his french fries. That wouldn't really be dangerous because this furniture polish is not poisonous. I don't think it would taste very good though.

Mom Let the House Fairy Help

If you'd like to listen to this blog, it was recorded so you could get some mindless job accomplished while you listen.

Chances are, if your kids are in a mess it’s because you’re in one too. But there’s hope. Your children can get organized when you make it fun. What will make the difference? Magic! But in order to put magic into the mix, you’ll need to call upon your children’s imagination. Think of the power you have around Christmastime with Santa and his elves lurking around and checkin’ his list. Kids are natural imaginers! And that’s where the House Fairy comes in!

It's hard to ignore the fact that the holidays are here! We’re flashed with tons of emails squawking about Holiday Sales on everything from food and kitchen appliances to fake Christmas trees and yard decorations. We get inundated with sparkly catalogs hyping the urge to get new furniture (for holiday entertaining) and glossy pages advising us to consider getting new china for that holiday table and maybe even a new car (red or green of course).

We complain about the commercialism and materialism of the holidays, but put us in our local Starbucks slurping a yummy Caramel Brulee Latte from that festive red and green cup and we brim with excitement and anticipation about spending time with family and friends. Love is really what the holidays are all about.   

Starting with Thanksgiving, a holiday that marks our gratitude, to Christmas with its message of peace, love and joy, it’s a magical time and love is behind it all. The 5 words to remember are:

Let’s think about the month of November for a sec.

If you live where there are seasons, you're lucky, because you get to enjoy the winter weather of November. November is a cozy time of year. Time for crackling fires, homemade stews, baked apples and roasted walnuts.

Mother Nature has many lessons to teach us in November. She uses this month as her reminder to us to streamline our homes. It’s her month for letting go of last year’s stuff by stripping her trees bare and putting her plants into a deep, winter coma. November reminds us to slow down, rest, and hibernate a little. She gives us longer nights and shorter days….hint, hint. She also uses November to remind us that life can be harsh sometimes, but it doesn’t last forever.

How many Novembers have you lived? Does the thought of November bring memories of family get-togethers centered on turkey feasts, or are they filled with chaotic recollections as the holidays loomed? Have you been organized in any of your Novembers? Are most of your November memories good ones?

Maybe these illustrations will call up some fun memories for you.

Yesterday was Halloween and Terry and I had such fun in our costumes! We dressed as Trump and Clinton. (I actually planned ahead and bought wigs on the internet.)

Our main stop was to the bank to get crisp five dollar bills for our trick-or-treaters (we just have six children in our neighborhood who have been coming to our house since they were babies). Our banker and the tellers were all dressed as minions and we enjoyed laughing at each other. They wanted to know why our bank accounts don't reflect all that money we have! 

If ever there was evidence that we all have an inner child just waiting for any opportunity to play, Halloween certainly gives us a reason to let them out.

Happy Halloween Everybody! Hope your day is filled with fun!

SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) enjoy Halloween because we love costumes, decorations and parties. Terry and I will be wearing Trump and Hillary costumes.

Since SHEs don't have a very good concept of time, Halloween can take us by surprise. (My kids never knew what they were going to be until they went out the door, but thinking up last minute costumes was always a fun challenge.) Time just doesn't compute for us, but that's a good thing. 

In my career helping SHEs get organized I've asked this question a thousand times: If you didn’t have any appointments on a particular day, could you spend the entire day not knowing what time it is? As human beings most people live their lives as slaves to time, but we SHEs are blessed by being able move through our days pretty much oblivious to it. That’s because we have no concern for time when we are enjoying our ability to get in the zone and stay there until we’re jolted out.

SHEs are sort of like the animals, birds and bugs. For them life has no time. A bear doesn’t wake up with the sun and call it morning and she doesn’t think about all she has to do and wonder if she’ll have time to do it before the sun goes down. She just lives each day.

Humans are the only ones that watch the clock from morning till night, reducing their lives to mathematical fragments.

Time itself is an invention of ours. Yet few clock watchers feel, as they run in the rat race, that they have time for anything to be really fulfilling. SHEs actually spend a lot of time feeling fulfilled, but they don't keep track of it, like a clock watcher would.

Halloween is wearing a costume. Halloween is scary. But the biggest thing Halloween is, is CANDY.

Let’s face it; the holidays are more a Celebration of Carbohydrates than they are to celebrate our spirituality! As soon as the trick-or-carbohydrate fun is over, the push will start from the food companies to “carbohydrate,” in the name of Jesus and Moses (if it hasn't already begun). (Even the 25-hour fast of Yom Kippur is preceded and followed by high carbohydrate meals.)

If you’re on, or have been on a low-carb diet, you know how hard this festive season can be when you love cookies, pasta, kugels, bread, mashed potatoes and gravy, latkes, candy and a million other holiday treats.

One thing we all learn, as we age, is that life changes and we don’t see it happen, because it happens so gradually. The older we get, we realize how important it is to enjoy every single day to the max. When we were growing up, we were too busy raising our families to think much about savoring each day. Most of our younger years are a blur of hard work, chaos, fatigue and a lot of noise. Gratitude is the major aspect to enjoying each day.

We notice the changes when we look back on photos taken when we were younger, and can think, ‘I looked good. I looked young then, so why did I think I looked old? Why was I so hard on myself?’ Most of the younger women I know are so hard on themselves and I wish I could hug them and remind them that they look just fine. You young moms, be easy with yourselves. Everything’s okay.

Here’s a thought. No matter how old you are, if you want to look ten years younger instantly, the next time you get into a discussion about age, say that you're ten years older than you are and watch the compliments flow to you! If you laughed at my joke, think about what you do to get people to think you are younger than you are. My "real" advice is next.

My kind of plan!

Are you following a weekly plan that helps you run a cozy, organized home?

When my sister Peggy and I developed the infamous, get organized 3x5 card file system outlined in our book Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise, we created a weekly plan that included a “free day.”

On that special day, we could stay in our pajamas all day, eat over the sink and lounge around and do nothing if we wanted to. I still have that day only I call it My Day. I do what I want and don’t do anything I don’t want to do. I pretend it’s my birthday to get into the mood.

The interesting thing I’ve discovered over the years of enjoying My Day is that I accomplish so much in the name of being selfish about doing what I want to do! It continues to amaze me that what I’ve been preaching about for 40 years is profoundly true.

Your attitude is way more important than fact,

We've Got to Get Organized 

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.

Want to make a delicous, low-carb custard for dessert tonight? The recipe is below.

The video below is one of my low carb videos giving you ideas for reducing the carbs you eat. I have such fun playing with food and I hope this video gives you a good idea! When this yummy, custard dessert comes out of the oven, you’ll impress and delight your family your guests and you. AND this dessert is very low in carbs for dessert.

In my book, The Mouth Trap: the butt stops here! I talk about the journey I took toward better health and vitality by dumping excess carbs from my pantry and life. Join me now as I whip up a new take on this classic custard adventure!

Extra Rich Custard Ricipe

8 egg yolks

One fourth cup sugar

One fourth tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups scalded whole milk

Scaled milk on medium heat allow to cool until lukewarm.

Slightly beat egg yolks and slowly add sugar, vanilla, salt and cooled milk.

Cover bottom of a roasting pan with an inch of water. Pour custard mixture into buttered custard cups and place in roasting pan. Place pan in 325 degree oven for 40 – 45 minutes or until knife when placed in custard comes out clean.

Saved from the Zone

There's a lot written about getting into "the zone," but little about how to get out of it. This is an interesting story about a very successful and famous artist who spends most of his time in the zone and it inspired me to write about how he gets out of the zone.

There’s a bronze sculptor in Eastern Oregon named David Manuel. My husband has been his official videographer for more than 20 years and we’ve gotten to know the whole family as David has become world renowned for his bronzes. This is one in our collection.  

On this visit, we were there to video an historic event, which I’ll tell you about later.

I’ve had the honor of being able to watch David work on his masterpieces over the years. While my husband would be out and about filming something for the Manuel’s marketing program, David would let me watch him whenever I wanted to. During this visit, he was working on the front leg of a horse (knee area). (Do horses have knees?)(Don’t have time to Google.) Where was I? Oh, yeah, David told me he’s such a perfectionist that he could work on one piece into forever. He said that Lee, his wife, has to take pieces away so he can move on.

That’s a lesson we can learn. Since we don’t have Lee to say, “Enough already!” we need a timer to jerk us out of one of those zones (that we love to be in by the way). We SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) are just like artists when it comes to hyper-focusing. We get into that glorious zone and time flies while we’re in there, and before we know it we’ve turned five (of the 55, dull, stained, bathroom, shower tiles), into shiny squares that look brand new and it only took two hours! A timer can save you from the zone when you need to be.

Is it time to change your dream?

Are you a day dreamer? Do you like to imagine yourself going to exotic places? Do you love to look at magazines and dream of wearing fancy clothes and jewelry? When you watch movies do you like to look at the back drops and what the characters are wearing and eating and the cars they're driving? Isn't it fun to imagine what it'd be like to be wealthy or slim? Be sure to have day dreaming as part of your daily routine.

We SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) are creative, so we spend a lot of time thinking about what it'd be like if....this or that happened. We're really good at visualizing what we want and our lives reflect much of what was in the begining, just a dream. When I was young I dreamed of living in a cozy, happy home on a high hill in the country. I dreamed it into reality, but it took 30 years, but you know how time flies.

If you've had some of your dreams not come true, maybe it's time to change the dream to fit who you are now.

Is Your Car Maintenance on Your Calendar?

Attention mechanics: DO NOT read this blog. At best it’ll disgust you, but at worst, it could make you sick!

I’m a self-confessed car abuser and I’m not proud of it, it’s just the way it is. I’ve abused every car I’ve ever owned. My organizing skills have kept my cars clean on the outside and on the interior, but when it comes to taking care of what’s under the hood, it's out of sight, out of mind, and the skills are nonexistent. I know I’m irresponsible in this area and I'm doing better with our new car which is a Ford Fusion. My friend Steve said, every time he gets his tires rotated and balanced, he gets his oil changed the same day. I'm at least doing that with this new car, thanks to Steve.

Before this car, I'd wait until something happened and then I'd head for repair. I know the “ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure,” deal, but I’ve never minded that proverb when it comes to automobiles and I've paid dearly.

Do you like make-over stories? There's something exciting about a pigpen to paradise saga. Many television reality shows are popular because we get to see a situation improve.

Many struggle with disorganization and I was one of the biggest strugglers. When every room is HOURS or DAYS away from "company ready" and I HAVE BEEN THERE, it can easily be overwhelming and in that state of mind we can freeze, bust out of the place or retreat under the covers. All those actions make things worse.

Being overwhelmed is a state of mind based on true facts and circumstances. But the good news is states of mind can be changed even when the true facts and circumstances haven't. In fact if you’re overwhelmed by a messy house, obesity, indebtedness, an inharmonious marriage, whatever, you have the power to change your mind right now and decide to not be overwhelmed. In fact that’s the best place to start, but it takes practice!

Once a long time ago I was in a bad marriage and in a perpetual state of overwhelm before I got organized. My unhappy husband was a traveling salesman and was gone a lot. Since I had no clue how to be organized, I’d play with the kids, sew, watch TV and then I’d clean all night and the next day to get the house back in shape before he’d come home. Once it was clean and company ready I’d promise myself I’d keep it that way, but as soon as he’d leave I’d go back to playing again and leaving my messes out.

                                The Penthouse Suite Changed My Life

A few years ago my son Michael and his wife Meredith were invited by the FOX network to go to the Super Bowl and Terry and I were invited to babysit the two grandchildren Jack age eight and Brooklyn age eleven. I have such fun with these two! (They're probably 2 and 5 in this photo.

The first night we were with them, when it was bedtime they both wanted me to tell them a bedtime story. Since they slept in separate rooms I sat in the hallway with the light on so they could both see me if they sat up and it was easy for them to hear me. I love to make up bedtime stories because I never know what I’m going to say myself. I guess I should say Nelly (my inner child) loves to hear my stories or maybe she’s the one who makes them up? Whatever, I love to do it.

Here's the story:

Rabbit Ears, Elephants, and Donkeys

You probably didn't know my sister and I had a dance career. Well, it was only one day long for a TV show and was never used. Read on and then I'll show it to you.

In our book, "Sidetracked Home Executives." we wrote about how we went from pigpen to paradise. After the book was out, we were asked to do a television series to air on Christian Broadcasting and sponsored by Proctor and Gamble.

The production company agreed to come to us rather than for us to move to California. So the show was produced out of Portland, OR.

Have you ever spent time on a project and then it never worked out? The television show did work out and we got to do two seasons, but the video you're about to see is a perfect example of what didn't work out. We saved the footage, even though it never aired on television. Now it's just funny and a little embarrassing. (My sister could have been a show girl with those legs, but at 5'2" my legs are not the kind that make it on stage. 

The Cruise Ship YOU

Just for a minute think of yourself as a ship. Okay, you may as well make it a cruise ship since you love romance, excitement, drama, parties and food. Let’s call this luxury liner the Cruise Ship YOU.

Oh indeed, it’s a marvelous ship! It’s a beautiful ship. It’s a strong ship. It’s like the Good Ship Lollipop but unfortunately it has been caught in a perpetual storm of chaos and clutter. It has lost its direction and has been tossed and thrown by the winds and weather in the sea of life! Whew!!

Now that you are using your imagination let’s imagine that your captain (your incredible mind) has just received information from above (a God Breeze) that there’s some place called the Organized Islands in Always Always Land. Your captain goes on the internet to check it out and reads testimonials from other happy travelers who have voyaged to the Organized Islands and love it there. One of them is Steven Sondheim. (Remember we’re using our imaginations.)

There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Waits for us
Somewhere.

There's a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time spare,
Time to learn, time to care,
Some day!

Somewhere.
We'll find a new way of living,
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere . . .

There's a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're halfway there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere!

Next stop: The Organized Islands!

Your captain looks at her maps and realizes the Cruise Ship YOU is going in the wrong direction and if it wants to reach the Organized Islands, she must turn it around 180 degrees!

Because this blog has nothing to do with getting and staying organized, and everything to do with having fun and relaxing, there's a habit to establish at the end for those who want that kind of information today.

Being organized has many facets and one of those is one we SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) are familiar with because it has to do with our creativity. Besides having fun comes naturally, although it can be squelched by overloaded work routines.

When we’re organized, we make time to have fun on a routine basis. SHEs who get organized get to play way more than SHEs who are disorganized. BOs (born organized) have a hard time playing in the first place, because there’s always work to be done.

We SHEs are creative and it’s that creativity that recharges our energy, just like a good nap does. My youngest daughter, Joanna, has found a wonderful way to relax and play with her artistic gift.

It all started with a Face Book page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1194501230583751/ and this comment on the page:  

Woodland, Washington is a cozy, rural town of approximately 5,000 in population. Next door to Woodland is Ridgefield, a small farming community with a main street straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The sister towns are situated on the Columbia River which teams with salmon almost year ‘round.

On September 11, 2016 these two, little towns did something very BIG! A businessman in Ridgefield and a businessman in Woodland put their heads together and with hearts of compassion, invited 16 police officers from Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who suffered through the attacks in July, to come and fish on the river for three days (all expenses paid). The two men also reached out to the local officers in surrounding towns in Washington and Pendleton and Portland, Oregon. More than 150 police officers were able to enjoy a break from the danger they face every day and go fishing. Terry videotaped the fun.

It’s no secret that countless families are deluged by household clutter.

Flylady says; “The most common clutter hot spots are children's bedrooms, home offices, attics, and garages.” What does it take to create a clutter-free space? Here are my 10 best home organization strategies straight from my book, The Joy of Being Disorganized.

1. Stop Homelessness

One of the main reasons stuff piles up on counters, dining tables, coffee tables and floors is that it’s homeless. When an item has no "home," it gets added to an IPOD
 (Important Pile Of Decisions). The free chapter I'm giving you has great information about the IPODs in your home and how to eliminate them. That’s why it’s important to make sure everything in your home lives somewhere. “Homing” items in the room where they're used, helps ensure that they get put away when you're finished. For example, I keep a sewing kit in a drawer of an end table in my living room, because I like to mend garments in that room and not in my sewing room in the basement.

2. Stop Clutter at the Cash Register

Use that, waiting-to-buy time when you’re standing in line at the cash register, to re-think what’s in your hands or cart. Imagine it as clutter. What you buy today can turn
into clutter tomorrow. The better you are about keeping things out of your home, the less likely you’ll be to create IPODs when you get home.

3. Baby Step your Way to Clutter-free

Start with the room that’s bothering you the most. (In my almost 40-year career helping moms get organized, the kitchen is the room most picked by baby-steppers.) Marla Cilley, the Flylady
says, “Start by shining your kitchen sink.” That’s so brilliant! In order to keep your sink shiny, you have to keep it empty. In order to keep it empty, you and your family have to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher. In order to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher, it has to be empty!

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

One of the best ways to get through hard times is to change your mind. I know sometimes that can seem to be very hard to do, but really we make it as easy or as hard as we choose. My experience has taught me that you can’t think two thoughts at the same time and I have experimented with that truth for more than 45 years and I know for sure it is impossible to do. So what?

Well, the bad news is, when you think a “worry” thought and stick to it for a bit of time, your beautiful mind searches your hard drive for more thoughts to add to the initial worry thought. In a few minutes you can be sucked into a pity party of your own making. The good news is the same thing can happen with a “happy” thought.

I recorded this blog, so you can listen while you work. I suggest you take the "junk" drawer in the kitchen, dump it out on a flat surface and organize it while you listen. The message is all about praise; how to give it and take it. Enjoy!
You'll understand why this vineyard photo appears here, as soon as you listen. Now go get that drawer.

Who taught you to ride a bike?

If you enjoy refinishing furniture, you'll love this blog by my friend Judith Robinson. 

Let Your Life Speak by Judith Robinson

When the legs came off the table, I should have paid attention. As we slid the lovely Cherrywood tabletop under the bed I did not ask, “What can I learn from this?” As we wrapped those carved Queen Anne legs in felt for storage, I never gave a thought to listening to my life. I’d refused to face the facts. Square footage of our tiny, new place made less than half the space for what we had left behind. I’d insisted we bring everything, and pouted ‘till we did. (Denial? Ya’ think?)  

Every Friday, we post a video and today we shot this especially for you.

Up, up and awaaaay in my beautiful, my beautiful duuhh-rone.

We had to hire a drone for a video project and we had some time leftover so the drone operator shot video of our home and gardens.

We even got to stand on our deck and the drone came within ten feet of us! It made me think about the famous people who now have drones to contend with, not just the random Paparazzi hiding behind a bush with a telephoto lens.

I hope you enjoy the ride!

Taking a Turn for the Best

Because we’re human we get tempted by foods (and other things) that we know aren’t especially good for us. It’s just not fair that foods that aren’t good for us, taste so darn good!

Been on the SES Diet lately (Summer Eating Spree Diet)? You know, too much potato salad and too many corn on the cobs, hot dogs, hamburgers, potato chips, s’mores, sodas, beers, cupcakes and crackers and more. They’re all the treats of summer picnics, camping and barbecues and we associate these fun times with those fun foods. And you probably have it in your mind that those times without those treats just wouldn’t be fun.

Usually we get back on track because there’s something in the future, compelling us. Maybe it’s a health problem and your doctor says you need dump the doughnuts and hit the gym or you’ll drop dead pretty soon. Or, maybe it’s just a wedding approaching and you’re one of the bride’s maids and you don’t want to be the fattest one. Or, maybe you’re planning a vacation and you want to have energy to walk a lot. The decision is the first part of the turn and then you have to have the motivation to make the turn and that’s where a compelling reason kicks in.

Maybe it’s time to go into your imagination booth (by closing your eyes) and use your imagination to get back on the right track. You can take me with you, using these 4 suggestions.

If you love Mexican food, but instantly think about all the carbs in most of it, you can un-carb any high carb dish, with minor replacements. 

Watch this video from my kitchen as I prepare burritos that'll take you right over the border in a low-carb way.

Olah! Oh, by the way, if you are serious about living a low carb lifestyle, I recommend Gary Taubes' book "Why We Get Fat and What We Can do About it." It was this science writer for the New York Times that completely change my husband Terry's and my life. Subsequently I took two years to write The Mouth Trap: the butt stops here! Documenting my switch to a happy, healthy way to eat. Just click on the cover to learn more.

Love,

Pam 

 My Aunt Tottie was extremely disorganized and she was also very dramatic! My mother was a BO (Born Organized) and she used to roll her eyes over the way Aunt Tottie lived.

For instance, she was a lousy housekeeper, wore baggy clothes day in and day out, and rarely put on make-up, BUT when she did get cleaned up, she was a KNOCK OUT. Mom said when they were young; Aunt Tottie would get all gussied up to go out dancing and she’d make an entrance that would drop jaws.

One time when she and my mom were teenagers, hanging out at Aunt Totties', the future Uncle John dropped by unexpectedly and Aunt Tottie was still in her nightgown (it was five in the evening). Her hair hadn't been washed so it was greasy and she raced to her room so Uncle John wouldn't see her. Ten minutes later she came down the stairs in a cute summer dress and she'd wrapped a colorful silk scarf on her head like a turban. Mom said she looked just like Lauren Bacall. (Oh, and Uncle John looked just like Henry Fonda.)

My aunt loved to get a reaction from BOs like my mom. I remember one time; watching her in her messy kitchen, make orange juice from a can of frozen concentrate while she talked with my mom. She couldn’t find a clean spoon to stir the three cans of water into the orange lump of concentrate, so she just stuck her whole hand into the pitcher and stirred with it. My mother was horrified.

 Set your intention to be happy regardless of your circumstances.

Maybe the guy who invented the thermostat got the idea from his own emotional meter. Instead of temperatures imagine words on a meter with emotions like miserable, overwhelmed, worried, desperate, optimistic, hopeful, happy, and blissful. 

When you think about the happy people you know, does one of the attributes, they seem to have in common, a wonderful outlook on life. Happy people seem to have an emotional meter that’s programmed for joy and contentment no matter what happens to them. Unfortunately many of us have meters set on negative emotions, but we can always reprogram them for happy by deciding to practice being joyful regardless of the forces outside of us. What’s interesting about setting an intention of being happy all the time, is when something pulls you from that place you know it and you can kick in and put yourself back on happy. Abraham Lincoln said: “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Is your meter properly adjusted?

In our writing career we spoke to thousands of groups and rarely did we have men in our audiences. We even thought about having a seminar just for men, but most wondered if we could have a television there with "the game" on in the background or better yet, throw the workshop from a tavern or sports bar. Of course we never were able to pull off a How to Organize Your Home exclusively for men. Here we are on television with Gary Collins talking about how to get husbands to help. 

Are you disorganized?

Have you read a bunch of get organized books in the hopes of cleaning up your act, but you’re still in a mess? According to Amazon, there are 4,939 titles in print on the subject and not one result matched for “using your imagination to get organized.” You probably already know being organized is simply about routines and habits, so if you’re disorganized, you just haven’t found the motivation to do it. 

If you are disorganized you know it affects every area of your life: your health and fitness, appearance, finances, relationships and even your spiritual life. By getting a handle on organization you’ll be able to improve in all areas of your life. All you need are a few scenarios to jump start your imagination and help you put entertainment and drama into your otherwise humdrum, boring, uneventful or maybe even sad life, by turning mundane tasks into high adventures . . . until they become automatic habits.

Getting organized is more about MIND management then it is about TIME management. Our minds are the key to our success in getting and staying organized. William James, a famous philosopher said: “Things are not as they are, but as we are.” Our job then is to approach our problem with a new way to see our situation. Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” So let’s start using our fabulous imaginations to put a new spin on our circumstances and get organized just for the fun of it.

When you were little, did you try to get answers from daisies like, “he loves me, he loves me not?” Maiming daisies for answers seems a little cruel but there is another way. Have you ever asked a question and gone to a random book, on a random page for the answer? If you've never done it you don't know what  you're missing. 

Right now, I’m waiting to hear whether my project is going forward or not. My patience is being tested, because I’m excited to know. So I picked up a book, I’ve been currently re-reading entitled, Think and Grow Rich, which I’ve had in my library since 1968. I opened the book randomly, to a page and closed my eyes and pointed to a place on one of the pages. This is what it said: Faith removes limitations! Remember this when you are ready to bargain with Life for whatever it is that you ask as your price for having passed this way. Without telling you what the news is about, I will say that these words fit perfectly (which is almost always what happens when I do this) with what I’m waiting to hear.

Why buy bottled salad dressings when it's so simple to make them in your own kitchen.

It takes more time to choose a bottle and the store and pay for it, as it does to make it. See for yourself in this video from my kitchen.

In a courtroom, if a judge exclaimed, “You’re out of order!” you’d know to shut up, but when your home is out of order, there’s no one to shout at you but the stuff that’s been left out all over the place. When your house is out of order, it causes you to be out of order. Clutter has a voice and it won’t shut up until you deal with it.

Shut the Fuss Up!

There are only two ways to shut the fuss up! Either get rid of it or put it away. If you get rid of it, throw it away or give it away. Why not sell those unwanted items? Simple – because you don’t want to give yourself another task to do! If you give yourself that option, you set yourself up for a garage sale project with a mountain of pricing or a bunch of time spent on craigslist.org, both of which requires a lot of follow-through and dedication to the task.

15 Negative Words to Ignore to Be Happy

So many of you resonated with my blog, (A Daily Routine to Deal with a Cranky Hubby) on living with a critical person, that I thought I should write a little more, since I lived with a very unhappy and critical man for 15 years and received advance studies in the field.

Aristotle said, “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”  Hmmm that sounds fun! Let’s all go into
comas!

The truth is, we women have been dealing with criticism most of our lives and it can effect our self-esteem. We’ve been conditioned to not rock the boat. We want to be liked and throughout history a woman’s life depended on it. Many of us don’t voice our ideas or pursue our most important work because of our fear of criticism. We don’t take risks or speak our truth because we’re afraid of criticism and dependent on praise. But whenever we look outside of ourselves for validation, we’re looking in the wrong place and if we allow anyone to cause us to doubt our ability to succeed, it’s our own fault. That was the main reason I wrote The Joy of Being Disorganized. I wanted women to understand their value in spite of being disorganized. 

Turn a deaf ear to negative words

I decided to look up the negative words our society uses to describe women, especially in the workplace. For example, if a man forgets things easily he’s called an absent minded professor. If a woman is forgetful she’s called a ding bat. Here are the words used to describe women and what I came up with to describe men who exhibit the same characteristics.

Hormonal

Both men and women have hormones, so why don’t we ever hear someone say of a man who has just thrown a temper tantrum, “He’s hormonal.” But it’s commonly used to describe a woman’s outburst and especially in conjunction with PMS (which my sister’s husband thought was an airline). 

She struggles with disorganization. We had time to chat before we went on The Today Show and I share her very funny story in The Joy of Being Disorganized. Katie is just one of many famous people who are disorganized. Notice how serious she is with us, in this interview!

What would you think of a store that catered to SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives)? Of course it’d have to be open 24/7 because we lose track of time and we wouldn’t want to get there and have it be closed. Also, they’d have a cloth shopping bag swap (try to say that fast) so there’d always be a good supply of shopping bags in case you left yours in the car. In the event you remembered, you could bring in several for the good of the SHE. 

This SHE store wouldn’t sell anything shiny or we’d get distracted from what we went in there to buy in the first place, and whatever the store sold, it’d only provide two choices of each product, because we get easily overwhelmed by too many choices.

It’d stock items like diaries that only have 14 pages; just for January, because SHEs never fill out their diaries and they waste all those pages made for the rest of the year. So guilt ensues.

SHEs love to “start” new projects, but in about 14 days most projects lose their juice, so this SHE store would not sell yarn to knit or crochet more than a small hat or a pair of baby’s booties. It would NOT sell patterns for sweaters or enough yarn to produce them.

Do you love your county fair?

Have you been going to the fair since you were a child? If you live outside the city, is there something in the air that tugs at your fair heart strings? What is it that you first think of when you think of the fair? The animals? The Ferris Wheel? The food?

There's a booth at the Clark County Fair in Ridgefield, Washington that's run by the "church ladies." They draw some of the longest lines, because the pies are homemade, fresh daily and delicious! Once you have a piece of the church ladies' pie, the memory stays with you forever! 

I love the Clark County fair and have been going to it since I was nine-years-old when we moved to the country.

Every summer, my parents used the fair as an enticement, with a list of extra chores I could do to make money for the rides, and trying to win stuffed animals and other must-have stuff kids want when they try to toss a poker chip onto a plate and have it stay there.

I don’t do the rides anymore, but I still love to watch others spin, scream, wave and occasionally puke up corn dog mixed with cotton candy. 

Stop Watching the News if it's Upsetting You!

If you stopped watching the news could you be happy for it?

Back in 1929 when the stock market crashed, we didn’t have CNN or FOX, or news or the Internet. Our grandparents (or great grandparents in some cases) didn’t get over-fed the news 24-7. They got a newspaper once a day (maybe) and they listened to the radio (maybe).

Because of this age of information we can be (if we choose) bombarded with bad news, because the access is as close as our finger on the clicker or the mouse on our computer. It’s one thing to be aware of what's going on in the world, our country and our community, but it’s quite another to watch the reruns and regurgitated opinions of “the experts” as they re-hash the re-runs while we click to another channel to watch the news covered from a different camera angle.

The GOOD NEWS is that to the media, the only newsworthy material is what is negative AND sensational. Dog Bites Man, is not “news.” Man Bites Dog (and don’t forget to put music behind the story) is. (I learned that from my journalist husband.) It's the extraordinary that makes “the news.” So most everything you see on the news is unusual and extraordinary. IT IS NOT THE NORM. But we, in our naivety (or stupidity) allow our sweet minds to watch what happened, not once, but on the hour until the next day when the next batch of bad news is ready. How many times do you have to watch the bank robber caught on tape? Isn’t once enough?

We cause ourselves needless suffering

I know we’re human and most of us are naturally curious about bad news.

All Kids Need Attention 

My reason for getting organized way back in 1977 was so that I’d have more free time to play with my family. I wasn’t having that much fun in my chosen career as a homemaker and it was mainly because of my disorganization and the messes it created. I knew that my attitude had to change about my life as a wife, mother and homemaker and once I nailed the reason to make the effort to change, everything fell into place (but not overnight).

I met Nelly, (my inner child; that part of me that’s about nine-years-old), in 2002 and in that meeting I realized she was behind my reason to get organized 25 years earlier. Over the last decade I’ve grown to adore her “take” on life. I see myself as her parent, always needing to monitor her thoughts and guide her into cooperating with all my “adult” plans and rules.

We just got back from a cruise with 3,000 passengers. I did a lot of people watching and I saw many well-behaved children and a few who were out of control. In every instance, I noticed that back of every child was a parent with either good or bad parenting skills. The well-behaved children stood quietly in lines at the buffets and the out of control children (they always stick out more) were always issued a variety of useless directives.

We were in line behind Jason (about six-years-old) and his parents and sister Becky (about four) and we watched him hit his sister when the parents weren’t looking, tug on his father’s shirt, kick his mother’s purse and sag to the floor several times in the five minutes we were in line.

But what about the Inner Child?

My sister and I had a SLOB (Spontaneous Lighthearted Optimistic Beloved) Convention in Portland, Oregon and invited Marla Cilley, the Flylady to speak. Her words are so wise and so worth heeding. Watch this video and see if you see yourself in her talk.

Santa Isn't Where You Think He is Right Now!

What do you think Santa Claus is doing right now? Do you think he’s in some resort, lounging in a hammock, dreaming of sugar plums and listening to Christmas Carols on his IPhone? Nope! 

Santa Claus is organized! In fact, he and Mrs. Claus think ahead, so that on Christmas Eve they can enjoy a nice, leisurely dinner before he sets off at dark to deliver toys and goodies to the boys and girls.

We all know that the holidays require extra time and energy. So why not take advantage of summer leisure and get a jump on the holidays?

1. Stocking Stuffers 

Stuff as you go. Hide a small container, like a shoe box or Zip Lock Gallon bag, for each child. When
you’re out and about and find items that would be good for stocking stuffers, like movie tickets, gift cards, little toys and books, purchase and put in the hidden containers.

Come midnight on Christmas Eve, you’ll thank yourself when you think, ‘EEgad, we gotta do stockings,’ and you’ll have most of the contents ready to stuff.

Is your kitchen streamlined, efficient and a joy to cook in?

A couple of months ago, I took you on a pity trip and so many of you went with me! I loved all your responses and I think the "trip" helped many pare down the contents of their clothes closets! You all are so fun! If you didn't take the pity trip with me and if your clothes closet contains more than what you love and wear often, be sure to read my blog: Let's Take a Pity Trip.

Today I’m throwing a pity party and I hope you’ll have one too.This exercise is designed to help you dejunk your kitchen. Let’s pretend we’re going to throw a huge dinner party, only, just like on the pity trip you have to pretend you’re disadvantaged and this party is going to be as wretched as you can make it. 

You’ll be Serving Bad Food

First, you’ll need to search in the cupboards and freezer for old food. You know any cans or packaged products with words like “best by 7/14,” and frozen stuff you don’t recognize (and never will). Of course all the bad food needs to go in the garbage, but there’s nothing stopping you from pretending you’re going to make a giant and disgusting casserole out of all of it for the big pity event. 

Second, you’re going to look at all your serving dishes with new eyes. Are there bowls, and plates that you never use, not even during the holidays? Are your glasses foggy from age? A good way to look at your stuff with new eyes is to pretend you’re at a thrift store and ask yourself, as you look at each plate, bowl and glass, “would I buy this?” See if you can fill a big garbage bag with kitchen utensils, silverware, glasses, mugs, chipped bowls and plates, and pans you haven’t used since 7/05. 

On the 4^th of July of this year, Terry and I had a dinner party for two other couples. As I was looking in my kitchen cupboards with entertaining in mind, I realized there were so many serving pieces I just don’t use anymore and I promised myself that after the party, I was going to dejunk my kitchen of them. That’s when I decided to pretend to have a pity party. It helped me get to the bottom of why I wasn’t using a lot of what I passed over in preparing for the 4^th.

Go Backwards

If you really want more happiness, start by stopping your complaining. 

Most people don’t realize how often they complain because it has become a habit and, like all habits, it tends to be so familiar that it becomes invisible (like that box of stuff in the entryway to take to the donation center).

Studies show that complaining can be brutally harmful to your health, efficiency and life in general. That’s because complaining is negative and it takes a toll on your energy and your happiness. People who are always complaining tend to have poor health, are disorganized in their jobs and at home, and have relationships that are not good and don’t last very long. And they aren’t that much fun to be around!
 

This is a photo Terry took in Cancun when we were there on vacation. As you can guess, everyone left the beach because of the on-coming storm. Grumbling about inclement weather is probably one of the most common complaints and maybe it's because we can't do anything about it. Here in the state of Washington it rains a lot, and most Washintonians do not own an umbrella or rain boots, we just know how to dash and we're Olympic at finding shelter.

Many have a hard time letting go and it really doesn’t have to be that way. Now letting go of a person whom you love and he no longer loves you is a boo hoo, hard kind of letting go and it may take time to get over, but you know the saying: If he doesn't love you, let him fly away, unless you want to play zoo keeper. But the decluttering kind of letting go can actually be fun, because of a test question you can ask every time you get stuck holding onto an item that needs to go.

You'll learn what that test question is in a minute. First, here's a little story. Because of a contest called Project CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) I’ve been in over 100 homes that were crammed with too much stuff. My sister and I would pick a winner in a city and armed with television cameras, newspaper journalists and photographers; we’d go into the home of the winning family and de-junk a room. The “befores” and “afters” were always media fodder.

I remember one specific winner vividly. She was a physician (even doctors can have too much stuff) and she wanted us to help her with her personal, walk-in closet. It was jam-packed with fashions that spanned two decades and four sizes. She dressed well. Her clothes were purchased at high-end dress shops and department stores and most were designer.

The little boy in this video is Jackson Brace, one of my grandsons. He’s fifteen now, and taller than his sister Brooklyn, who is also in the video. He has gone on to other interests, but he can still name any bird when asked. As you'll see, his sister is not that excited about watching birds, but she was a great sport.

We were at a popular wildlife refuge in Ridgefield, WA, where birders come from all over the country.

10 Fun Summer Activities for Kids

As parents, one thing you can do while your kids are young, is to create a sense of wonder and magic in their lives. If you do that, you'll rarely hear them say, “I’m bored!”

Summer is the perfect season to make fun childhood memories. My mom was a master at creating memories for my sister and me. Thinking about why my summers as a kid were so special, I have renewed admiration for what my mother put into planning our summers.

She was a BO (Born Organized) mom. She always had a daily agenda for the summer months, and it included doing household chores first and then having fun out of the house.

Attention moms; plan fun activities and use them as a reward for getting the mundane household responsibilities accomplished every day. Your kids will have far more energy and desire to do their chores when they know they get to do something fun with they're done.

Freedom

is one of our basic human needs

When we leave our beloved countries behind, we’re seeking freedom from war. When we cut ties to toxic friends and even relatives, we’re seeking freedom from unnecessary drama and stress. When we eat healthily, we’re seeking freedom from illness. When we barbecue chicken, ribs, hamburgers and hot dogs, eat homemade potato salad and blow off millions of firecrackers, we’re celebrating our freedom as a county.

On July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies claimed their independence from England, an event which eventually led to the formation of our United States. Each year on July 4th, also known as Independence Day, Americans celebrate this historic event by getting together with family and friends to eat, drink and be merry AND blow off millions of dollars’ worth of fireworks.

If you are a caregiver, do you find it hard to open your home by asking for help to organize it?

If that's a problem for you, this story may help you to ask for help if you need it.

Incidentally, we all need help in areas in which we aren't competent. We get accountants to help with our bookkeeping, and lawyers to help with legal issues and we're willing to get help with electricity and plumbing problems, but for some reason, when it comes to our homes, we caregivers have a crazy notion we should be able to take care of everything ourselves.

 Just one very simple thought that perhaps you haven't thought before will have you opening up your home for help.

Do you get confused by political issues,

or are you a well-informed voter when you head to the polls?

God bless America, but God help the uninformed voters!

In the state of Washington, our Secretary of State sends out a Voter’s Manual before every election. It’s quite thick, probably a hundred pages at least. In it you can read about and better understand the candidates' positions, ballot measures and issues, if you’re a Yale graduate of the law, that is. Take ballot measures for example. Here’s Wikipedia’s definition:

A ballot measure is a piece of proposed legislation to be approved or rejected by eligible voters. Ballot measures are also known as "propositions" or simply "questions."  Ballot measures differ from most legislation passed by representative democracies; ordinarily, an elected legislature develops and passes laws.

I’ve never read an explanation of a ballot measure on a ballot, that I’ve clearly understood. And if you’re the average citizen, it’s my “proposition” you’ll be wasting your time trying to understand what they’re writing about. If they want us to understand, why don’t they make what they write understandable? Do you think it’s because they want us to be confused? Using big words is just another way to show off one’s education, not one's IQ. There’s also power in knowing more words than the masses. You get to use words with each other and make the masses feel stupid.

In this video, I explain how the zones work to help you stay on track with housecleaning. Inspired by the Sidetracked Home Executives, the zones help you focus on one room at a time. Flylady's Flight Plan is the SHE Zone plan. We gave Flylady permission to use it to help you be organized in your home and if you get her Flight Plan but are still confused about how it works, this short video will help.  

There are about ten well-known marital fights that disturb our peace and if you’ve been married very long, you’ve probably had most of them.

But with the advent of GPS, there’s one less marital fight to have; “the map fight.” Most husbands expect their wives to be natural navigators. Most wives are not. The map fight most commonly occurs when the husband is driving on an unfamiliar freeway at 70 mph and he tosses the map to the wife and says, “Where are we?” If she’s like most women, she can only read the map when the car and the map are going in the same direction and that’d be north. South is out of the question, because it’s just too hard to read a map upside-down.      

When I got married, I wasn’t prepared for the real world of marriage. My parents had three four fights in their entire marriage of 60+ years. It was always over the same issue. Dad would lose track of time, fishing and as it started getting dark, mom would get worried. The fight looked something like this. He’d come in the door wearing his waders and holding his fly rod in one hand and a couple trout on a string in the other. He’d hang his head with a beseeching, I’m-sorry look and mom would shake her head, tighten her lips and sigh with a mix of disgust and relief that he hadn’t drown. My sister and I would run to our room, sure this would end our happy home because they were going to divorce and we’d be put in foster care.

For whatever reason you ended up reading these words, whether you subscribe to this blog and when you see my name in your inbox you know there’s a good chance my essay will lift your spirits and inspire you to get those dishes in the dishwasher or maybe you remember the Slob Sisters and while flying around the Net, looking for tips and tools for getting organized, you Googled them. 

Perhaps you Googled “overwhelmed, help, or get organized” and you clicked on www.cluborganized.com  and there on the home page you saw a deserted island, with a chaise lounge (with your name on it), a swaying palm tree and a frosty, fruity drink and you took a big deep breath and thought, ‘Yes, I need to escape this chaos!’ Whatever your reason, I'm glad you're here!

If you’re overwhelmed by life’s ups and downs and twists and turns, or a little depressed because you don’t like where you live, or who you’re with or just maybe you’ve gotten down on yourself, all that’s happened is you’ve gotten sidetracked by a wave or two. Big deal, get back up on that board and head for another wave. Not every wave is right for you, but there are never ending waves and unless you're ready to play, you'll miss the fun!

The only reason we ever want anything is because we want to feel better. Will getting more organized make you feel better? Sure it will, but there’s not a whole lot to it. All you really need is a calendar, a watch and a timer. If you’re not organized, it just means you’re not using those tools!  

Happy Father's Day to all you Happy Fathers!

Let's join and give a tribute to all the happy fathers (including my own lovable dad) who deserve to be called Dad. 

What's the first thing you think of when you think of your father? When I think of mine, I think of his smile. He was so in love with Mom, Peggy and me that he seemed to always have a happy face. If you read Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise, you know that we got the disorganized gene from Dad. He threatened to sue us for defamation of character, but of course he was joking and if he really had intended to take us to court, he'd never have gotten around to it.

Dad worked hard delivering gas to farmers who had big tanks to supply their farm equipment. He was so loved by his customers there was hardly a day he didn't come home in his big Standard Oil tank truck without a few treasures. In the summer it'd be produce. We never needed a garden as we were kept stocked in every kind of fruit and vegetable known to Dr. Oz. Sometimes he'd bring home packages of beef, chickens or turkeys and other times jams, jellies, cakes or cookies.

Dad was the Best Dad

He loved to hunt and fish and because part of one of the farms was Bachelor's Island, a duck hunter's heaven in the Columbia River, he was given the privilege of hunting ducks and geese there. Being an excellent shot (Mom said her had the eye of an eagle) our freezer was stocked with wild fish and game. To this day I love the taste of wild goose and Chinook salmon. (The photo is my son Michael, with his son Jackson at the beach. Michael is a fabulous father.)

SHEs are passionate!

SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) are passionate people. There's nothing more true than this statement. Have you ever met a real SHE that isn’t? Oh, and we like to use exclamation marks too! One of my longtime SHE friends, LouAnn, was one of my guinea pigs for my Weight Loss book, The Mouth Trap: the butt stops here! 

She reported to me:

“Who knows, maybe my “passion” for eating is a package deal with my “passion” for other things in life. Somehow, I need to trust in the wisdom and love of my Creator to know this was the perfect “problem” for me and be thankful for it. I will never quit trying to look my best and take these pounds off, but I’m going to quit pretending I can do so without suffering.

I cannot. So, I’ve decided to turn this suffering into a prayer for others who are facing something worse. My neighbor works at Ronald McDonald House and has no shortage of stories about suffering far worse than a weight problem. I don’t have a child going into surgery today—but somebody does. My transmission is working—but somebody’s just went out—on the freeway.

So for today, I’m going to think about how wonderful it will feel to wear my
“skinny jeans” again and go fill up on steamed cauliflower. I’m starved and lunch is not for another two hours and that’s the pits. But, guess what else I get to do? I get to go hug my two healthy girls in the next room. Zero calories. I’ll take it.”

During your day, find as many ways as you can to get housework done so that you can stop at 6:00 pm. Consider it quitting time. Of course your little Snuggle Bunnies will need your love and attention after six, but I’m talking about the household workload.

If you tend to be frazzled in the evening, you’ll love my 4 tips for quitting at 6:00 and having a leisure evening be a reality. 

As a valuable member of Club Organized, do you have any examples of going to Plan B, either because there was no plan in the first place, or, Plan A failed? My example is that I was always putting off getting a gift for someone until the day of, or within the hour of the party. That’s how I came up with more than 100 funny ways to give money. In the end, my disorganization saved me time shopping, money for driving to the mall and my sanity. I have always known I can come up with something I’ve put off until the last minute. (For more information on one of my invention, click the box at the bottom of this page.)

This email came from by Jill Bowen, one of my charter members.

Swamp Thing

When you see a happy family out in public, whether it's at Costco, the zoo, church, in a restaurant at a campground, wherever, does it warm your heart and help you know that all is well and going to continue to be good?

Because our brains are wired to look for what's wrong (they've been that way for millions of years and are slow to change) we can tend to let the dysfunctional families stick out.

If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation.

Children with no boundaries are going to get our attention hanging on the railing around the polar bears, or running through stores and restaurants either unattended or void of parents who discipline such behavior, than the children who happily stay within the family unit and display the good behavior that requires endless guidance. 

I received an email from Brenda Lovell, who told me that my sister's and my books had helped her as a mother of nine girls. A mother of nine girls! When you read a sentence like that, does it blow your mind? Nine (9) girls? How did she do it? Thank goodness she included a photo of her family and allowed me to share it with you!

When I first looked at the picture, the father was the one who caught my eye. He looked so proud and happy and perhaps a little dazed by the amount of estrogen in the air. This man must be very close to saint hood.

Then Brenda caught my eye. She looked lovely, poised, peaceful and way too young to have had nine babies. I wonder if she has a single stretch mark. As you look at each beautiful happy face, you won't find one woman in the bunch, who isn't lovely. You all know it takes work to turn babies into good citizens. It also takes time, courage and faith! And above all it takes love, kindness and wisdom. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Lovell!

When you see families like Brenda's, you know all is well. There was a plaque I saw at a Hallmark store years ago and I wrote about it Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise. It said:

If We’d Just….

Really the little things we do are what save us time, money and stress. Like if we’d just look at the calendar before we go to bed, we’d catch those easy-to-forget appointments we’ve made for early in the next day. Or maybe we should just make all appointments for afternoon when we know for sure we’ll be wide awake and have really had a chance to seize the day.

If we’d just get dressed first thing in the morning, we’d be free to go at a moment’s notice, instead of missing opportunities where nightgowns aren’t welcomed as the proper dress.

And this one, hit home last weekend. If we’d just put name tags on our suitcases we wouldn’t end up without them if we leave them somewhere. See I didn’t have a tag on my carry-on because, well, it was going to be with me during the flight and I saw no reason to have my name and address flapping around for all to see. If someone asked, “Whose is that, I’d be there to say, “Mine.”

All went well when I took the tagless suitcase on the Alaska flight to Spokane, Washington where I spent four days at a Sweet Adeline regional competition. I roomed with the same three really good friends I shared a room with last year during competition. They are all BOs (Born Organized) and I’d forgotten how amazing these women are when it comes to being prepared! (I’ll get back to the suitcase fiasco in a minute. I’ll just tell you it was on the way home that I had a problem.)

I swear between these three women, (I'm front/right) they were prepared to preform minor surgery, repair mechanical devices, feed us in case the hotel restaurant closed down, dress for every kind of weather situation, and treat most physical ailments from sore throat and constipation to indigestion, headaches, and leg pains. And they can sing!  

I love these women and truly appreciate how organized they are. I used to want to be that organized, but as I’ve matured, I’m so happy to be traveling light so to speak (hence the carry-on). They all had to check big suitcases to carry all their organized stuff.

One of my roomies just happened to be going on the same flight I was taking home and she offered to make shuttle reservations for both of us because “the shuttles fill up fast with so many leaving at the same time,” she explained. She took care of it the day before (of course). That morning (9:30) it turned out the van was only one quarter full, so my SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) factor wouldn’t have prevented me from going in it at that time.

We shared the van with four other Sweet Adeliners, all going on Alaska Air, and a couple that weren’t part of our group. When the driver asked us what airline, they said, “Southwest Air.” When we got to the airport, Alaska was the first stop and the driver got out our luggage, we tipped him and he was gone. We rolled our suitcases, talking and laughing, into the terminal. I love the new rollers because they allow you to walk beside your suitcase like it’s a child on roller skates (and like a child, you can’t leave it unattended on the slightest incline).  

I bet you don't know this answer! 

Young people don’t have bucket lists.There’s just too much they want to do to bother making a list. Besides, young people are too busy with NOW to think much about TOMORROWS. They’ll also discover as they age, they could never imagine some of the stuff they’ll do, without it ever appearing on a list. Like this duck who never dreamed he'd swim with the flamingos, ended up doing it without it being on his bucket list.

My bucket list is getting shorter (like that duck's legs), but it’s a good thing. I’m finding out, I cross off been-there-done-that stuff faster than I’m adding more to do.  

Then there are those desires that gradually fade in time. For example, I carried around a wish for fifty years that I’m “happily” crossing off my bucket list, not because I did it, but because now I don’t want to. With just a little thought I got to the bottom of why it’s been such a perennial desire. ADVERTISING!

Does it bug you when you're around someone who smacks while eating? 

Unless you’re taught to close your lips while you masticate, the sound coming out of your mouth (especially when you’re eating something crunchy) is very unpleasant for those around you. If you think about it; when your kids are little and they smack, because they haven’t learned how not to, you might say to your child, “Stop smacking!" But rarely do you demonstrate what it sounds like to smack and actually show how to fix it. Who do you know that gives anti-smacking lessons? The House Fairy, of course!

The House Fairy Program has more than 65 videos starring the House Fairy teaching children the basics of keeping their rooms neat and tidy and having good manners. She has helped thousands of kids, but some of her videos have helped adults.  See the video.

One woman wrote that when her “smacking” friend saw the video with the House Fairy showing what it sounds like to smack and how to prevent it, her friend realized she was a smacker herself and took steps to change her behavior. (She told her friend that she tends to forget not to smack when she’s really hungry, but she's getting better.)

Speaking of smacking, here’s an email from one of the House Fairy's Snuggle Bunny graduates, twelve-year-old Brady Main. It's so sweet. 

Maternity Awards? Could there be such a thing?

It's graduation time again, and it got me to thinking about it, which lead me to the idea of celebrating. I looked up the definition of celebration and it said: a joyful occasion for special festivities to mark some happy event.

When we’re young, because we’re growing and changing, there’s cause to celebrate those achievements of going from grade school through high school and college, as well as celebrating the holidays and birthdays.

If we work at a job, there’s usually the annual awards banquet giving out Employee of the Year statues and BO (Born Organized) achievement pins and certificates. I know because as a keynote speaker, I’ve sat through hours of achievement awards presentations. 

But what about us moms? Yeah we might get a Hallmark card once in a while, but there’s no annual awards banquet for Mom or Dad.

Also, a great graduation gift idea below.

It's worth a try! 

You were probably thinking, when you read the title of this blog, that I was writing about drinking gin.

Well, this blog is about the card game called gin rummy. (Incidentally, this is my husband in his winning costume when we went to a Halloween party as Dow and Jones, during the stock market scare.)

Okay, I’m not a marriage counselor so I probably shouldn’t be going around giving advice to married couples, especially since I’m on my second marriage and so is my husband, but the idea of letting a little gin improve your marriage is really a good one, at least for Terry and me and I thought I’d share with you why it is.

You probably should know that Terry is a workaholic because that’s one of the reasons I came up with this idea in the first place. He’s never without his cell phone or IPAD and he looks at weekends as catch up days to finish all the work he didn’t accomplish during the week because of overbooking. It seems when each day comes to an end, his “to do” list is longer because for every task he crosses off, he adds a couple more jobs.

I don’t think guys like tricks played on them.

When you’ve lost weight on a low-carb diet or maintained your weight with a lifestyle of limited carbohydrates, but then you gradually start gaining, it’s because of one reason (well unless you’re pregnant), you’ve let carbs sneak back into your diet.

Scientists have proof that carbohydrates are addictive. They include, all sugars, breads, pasta, rice, corn, beans and potatoes. Because they are addictive, they come to mind way more often than the thought of a spinach leaf or a stalk of celery does. A carb-thought turns into a carb-excuse like: “Just this once,” or “Oh, well, it’s been a while since I’ve had French Fries,” or “Hey it‘s my birthday or his birthday or the neighborhood party.” The carb-excuse turns into carb-consumption. Ultimately, the carb-thought turns into carb-consumption.

The solution is so simple because you’re so smart! There are two parts to the solution. One is metal and one is physical and you can do them both at the same time or separately.

1. If your home is immaculate and running like a well-oiled clock.

2. Your family begs to help with household chores.

3. You’re happy with your weight.

4. You’re wealthy and debt free.

5. You have a team of professional housecleaners who come and clean daily.

6. You are ecstatic with your marriage.

7. Okay, I thought of another one, you’re never late.

If these reasons aren’t yours, read more. Disorganization affects every area of your life; your finances, your health, your relationships, your stress level and I’m sure you can think of more ways it affects your life.

A Little Organization Goes a Long Way

Get organized just enough to please you. That's your goal. The only reason to get organized is so that life doesn’t get in the way of YOU. When you’re disorganized, you let life run you as you stomp out fires caused by your disorganization. But a little organization goes a long way. Just getting in the habit of looking at your calendar every evening and then again in the morning will increase your level of organization tenfold!

What can be discouraging is trying to get organized when you’re in a huge mess and you don’t know
where to start. That’s like trying to waterski under water. If you’ve ever waterskied you know getting up is the part that takes the most effort, but once you’re on top of the water that’s when the fun begins. It’s exactly the same with being organized in your life. Once you’ve established just a few good habits and you get into a routine that serves you, you’ll glide along with ease. It’s the establishing part that takes a little extra effort. 

Where Should You Start?

If you'll look closely, you'll see a woman with outstretched arms, greeting her morning with profound gratitude. Either that or the police are out of the shot with guns and a megaphone saying, "Arms up! You're under arrest."

It seems it was just a few years ago when my sister and I were on Regis first time. My we were skinnier then!!!

Do you like to be on the receiving end of a surprise?

A “little” surprise is like being outside on a chilly, spring morning without a coat when the sun pops out from behind a big cloud and warms your back. Like Mother Nature executing one of her random acts of kindness. Here's a trio of daffodils getting their little backs warmed. Just getting this photo from my photographer husband was a little surprise that made me smile!

Most people don't like those big deal birthday bombshells where you walk into your house and the whole neighborhood yells “surprise,” or those horrid surprises on your credit card statement, right after Christmas. 

Ask everyone in the family, "What one thing could I do to help you be happy?"

This blog is about the times when your husband comes home from work with a single rose for you or your child surprises you by doing a chore you didn’t ask him or her to do.

If you thought to yourself, ‘Ha, Carl’d never come home with a single rose for me,’ or Jenny wouldn’t lift a finger if I didn’t ask her to, maybe you need to ask yourself when was the last time you surprised Carl or helped Jenny with a chore?

Do you have friends you rarely see, but when you do it’s like you’ve never been apart? Dianna, my best friend in high school, was such a person. When we graduated, she moved to California and we saw each other once every 10 years.

My husband Terry and I became low-carbers five years ago.

Was it tough to give up lots of things?  YES! 

Do we love our low-carb meals? YES!

Do we love being healthy? YES!

Do we love being in control of our weight? YES!

Will your answer be YES! too?

Today I want to show you how to cook a low-carb pizza that's absolutely delicious.

by Judith Robinson

Before you read Judith's insightful and entertaining blog I want to thank her for contributing such classy writing! She's a SHE (Sidetracked Home executive) complete with a brilliant mind and humility that doesn't always go with one so talented. Just a note: the photo is not of Judith's 40-year-old, (she has three daughters) but of my son Michael at his 40th birthday party. Yeah, I made the hat complete with 40, one-dollar bills (you can see how thrilled he is with his gift). Michael turned 50 this February and like Judith, I've needed parenting books for all my adult children as they continue to grow and change. When were we told that once we're moms we're always moms?

What to Expect When Your Child Turns Forty

by Judith Robinson

That’s the book I’d like to see! 

There’s no shortage of parenting advice for that prenatal crowd. Bookstore shelves are packed with parenting advisers of every ilk. Don’t want to let the baby cry 'till she gives up? Keep looking. Next shelf down it’s nature’s way all the way: family bed, wearable cradles. He’ll never cry. From Dr. Sears to Dr. Roebuck they’ve got all the answers, and they are as different as pink is from blue. 

It's Never Too Late to Change

A woman wrote that she'd been married for 25 years. Her husband had cheated on her more than once and she'd “lost” herself and hardly recognized her home or her person.

It's never too late to change your life! This woman had successfully raised two happy sons and worrying about what her husband did and not focusing on what she was doing could very well have given him (in his dishonest mind) a good excuse for the affairs. Focusing on getting her act together, could erase that excuse and down the road, he'd wonder what happened.

When someone is unfaithful it's his/her problem. It’s only OUR problem if we make it ours.

How to REALLY clean the cabinet under the kitchen sink

As part of organizing the kitchen, do you clean the cabinet under your kitchen sink once a month? Happiness is a clean kitchen, but the old saying, Out of sight out of mind can really be true when it comes to this cabinet. If your knees had eyes, they'd see under the sink when the cupboard was open and you’d be down on them with a bucket of sudsy water and a brush at least once a month to clean under there.

To show you how to clean under the sink and to prove to you how clean my kitchen cabinet is, I got into it! Actually when we shot this video Terry didn’t think I could fit in the cabinet, and I wasn’t about to let him think that! The rest is history as you'll see in the short video. 

You Can Stop Struggling Right Now

You look around at all the unfinished tasks and sigh. Most are the result of an interruption by a needy family member, or from taking on more than you can handle so people will like you, or from your own mind (because the task got boring) or, or or.

You look at the time and discover you're in a hurry to be somewhere in a few minutes, but you're not completely dressed and you can't find your other shoe. You sigh, put shoes on that match and were left in the doorway to the family room and think to yourself, ‘I’ll clean this place up when I get back.’

But when you get out into your day, away from the CHAOS you left behind, you're in a completely different world. It’s like you've jetted from Alaska to Hawaii and you get a false sense of freedom from all there is to do back home. It's only when you get back to the mess you left that you pick up the inner fight with yourself for being so disorganized. 

Many struggle with disorganization. If the above scenario seems a little familiar, how would they feel if being disorganized didn’t overwhelm you? Take a few moments (and a couple of deep breathes) and get that struggle-free feeling. You know the feeling you get when you put your hands in warm water or when you open the door and greet a person you love or when you look at a surene photo like this one Terry took when we were in Austria.

See you can feel at peace right now! When you get the flu your body doesn’t assess the situation, it just mechanically gets to work with its immune system and it makes you slow down, drink water and rest.

When your home has the flu (every room is HOURS or DAYS away from "company ready") it can easily be overwhelming and in that state of mind you can freeze, bust out of the place or retreat under the covers. All those actions could make things worse if you aren't open for guidance from within. The guidance comes when you're at peace.

When you freeze, you are in a place of choice and when in that place if you asked yourself, “What is one thing I can do now?” you’ll be directed to do something. If you feel like busting out, do it! Go for a drive, or a walk or a run. Have lunch with a friend or take a book to the park and read in the shade of a big tree. If you feel like retreating under the covers, do it. Get some rest and when you get up refreshed ask that question again, “What is one thing I can do now?” If the thought comes “I need help,” get some help! There are BOs (born organized) everywhere just itching to share their talent of organizing with you.

Have you had it?

That’s how you can feel living a disorganized lifestyle. It's like living in a continual storm. But when you hit bottom with words like the declarations above, you're in the perfect place to change. Someone said, “The bottom is a great place to be because there’s nowhere to go but up.” Not until you hit bottom can you surrender to your situation and ask for the guidance that’s available 24/7. That’s when miracles happen. In that moment of surrender you'll be reminded that even though you're in a mess, you're in the right place with the right people at the right time. The only element you lack is direction.

DIRECTION! You can deal with that! Direction involves choices! You just need a map to follow and you'll be fine! For me it was the 3x5 card file system my sister and I came up with and the reason we became known as The Slob Sisters.

When my sister and I had had it with our home organization skills, that’s the first time we considered the word “direction” in reference to our problem. We weren’t lazy? Come to think of it, we worked harder than those BOs (Born Organized) who refuse to make work for themselves by being disorganized.

I knew I wasn't crazy? I'd been able to maintain a high level of creativity within my messy lifestyle, have three happy children, continually adjust to the personality of a very unhappy mate and remain stable.

I wasn’t stupid? Come to think of it, NO! I was very smart though my disorganized habits sabotaged my schooling so my grades didn’t reflect my intellect.

So I wasn’t lazy, crazy or stupid even though my messy life could certainly have made it look that way. When I look back on the way I used to live, the only question I have today is, “What was I thinking?”

As Carolyn Myss would say, “If I can talk Angel 101 to you for a moment, consider this.” Let’s pretend I'm one of your guardian angels and you have prayed to get organized. I've been assigned to work your case. I love the assignment because I’ve always loved you and to work with you personally in an answer to your prayer, is exciting to me!

Your Angel is With You

Get the secret today!  

Today I'm sharing my prize winning recipe for deviled eggs with you.*

Watch this cooking video and learn how easy they are to make. When you serve a platter of these to your family, they'll be begging for more.

After Party Meltdowns

Part of training children is dealing with APM. It can happen after a party, a special holiday or any overindulgence. I’ve seen it played out in all three of my kids and all 12 of our grandchildren. Child psychologists call it over stimulation.

I remember being in the back seat of our Ford family car and coming home from a glorious day at the circus. My sister and I were decked out in new matching dresses and new shoes we’d got just for the special outing and we started fighting over whose circus program was whose (even though they were identical).

The battle triggered a rash of admonishments from both of our parents in the front seat. Dad was first, “Girls, knock off the bickering or I’m gonna stop the car and take the programs away!” Mom chimed in, “I can’t believe you girls are fighting after all we’ve done for you today. Here we take you to the circus, you got brand new matching dresses and new shoes and we let you have hot dogs and Cokes and souvenirs and you’ve been fighting ever since we got in the car!” I recall feeling ashamed.

APM tends to go into remission as children mature, but the potential for its reoccurrence remains even into adulthood and it sneaks out in adults in subtle ways but it’s no more attractive than the episodes children display.

APM can start with just an, “is-that-all-there-is” feeling. It can emerge as a vacation winds down, as we drive in the driveway with a cranky knowing of what was put off in order to have the fun. It can appear in the form of the “full” feeling after a feast, or the frustration of receiving credit card statements in January reflecting the joy of holiday purchases. Acquisition is fun! Maintenance sucks and so do the bills that follow it.

My husband, Terry and I took a road trip to the Oregon Coast for our anniversary a couple of years ago and while he was driving I suggested we play a gratitude game. 

“Is this gonna be some lady’s magazine deal?”  he asked with a sense of apprehension.

“No, I’ve been reading Deborah Norvel’s book on the power of being thankful.”

“So Deborah told you to do this?”

“Nope, I thought this game up all by myself. In fact it'd be a great family game.”

“Okay, what do I do?” 

“So, I’ll tell you something I’m grateful for about you and then it’ll be your turn and you have to tell me something you’re grateful for about me and the guy who can’t think of something loses and the other guy wins.”

“What’ll he win?”

“He’ll get taken out to dinner when we get to the beach.”

We probably traded 15 thankful comments with each other and what was very interesting to me was how much I loved hearing his comments for me and I couldn’t wait for the next one. 

I was telling Marla, the Flylady, about the game and she suggested we play it with our inner child. So I had a session with Nelly (she’s my inner child, in case you don’t know). Here’s what happened.

Did you know breads and grains turn into sugar?

Eating sugar in all its sneaky forms spikes your insuline and that's one of the main reasons our bodies store fat. Lower your intake of sugar in all of its tricky forms and you'll lose weight. 

In this cooking video you'll see how easy these tortillas are to make.

No flour. Low carbs. And they're delicious.

Your appearance is tied to your age. 

Right now, how old would you like to look? If you ask a 30-year-old, she’ll probably say, “25.” Ask a 40-year-old and she’ll say, “Between 25 and 30.” A 50-year-old generally wants to look 35 to 40. When you ask a 21-year-old, she absolutely won't want to look six or 11 and could almost want to look older!

This issue for women wanting to look younger than they really are is surely a desire that’s been perpetrated (especially on women) by the media. Do you think our early ancestors worried about looking younger than they actually were? Doubtful, because when you’re in survival mode you’re more worried about staying alive than how long you’ve been doing it. 

Do you like to shop for spring at Ross Dress for Less? Do you make the same mistake I make, if I'm not careful?

The other day I had a half hour to kill before I had to be at my chorus practice, so I decided I’d go to Ross and just browse. I’m sure this isn’t right, but I do it often, especially at Ross; I buy something not because I really love it, but because its original price is horrifyingly high and the mark down is too good to pass up.

The first item I put into my shopping cart was a good example. It was pajamas by Ellen Tracy (she’s expensive) originally $70.00 for $21.99! How could I pass up a savings of $48? Never mind the designer brand sleepwear was in a leopard print in purple and lime green and just about the ugliest pajamas I’ve ever seen. (Sorry Tracy.) But in my mind, the $48 savings canceled out the obnoxious look of them. Besides pajamas are worn in the dark and I did love the luxurious feel of the fabric.

The next item that went in the cart was a bath lotion I swear smelled just like a cinnamon roll. I think I was especially attracted to it because I was hungry and I hadn't had a cinnamon roll in years (and won’t in the future because my husband Terry and I are low-carbing it these days). I didn’t stop to ask myself why it’d be cool to smell like a treat, but I’ve noticed recently that many toxic-free health care products often smell like some kind of food like lime, caramel, cloves, chocolate, apples or pumpkin pie. 

Don't miss this final video on getting to know your inner child. In it you'll learn how to talk to her when she's about to put cookies in the cart at the grocery store and how to remind her who's in charge before you even go in the store.

If you're just starting to wrap your mind around this concept of having an inner child, this video will really help!

Turn dreary into fun!

Make memories you'll talk about for years to come.

Living in the northwest, we learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. Just make sure you all have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about messing up your good clothes.

Whether it's just misting or pouring cats and dogs make the most of the wet weather  and play with your kids in the rain with these family-tested outdoor activities.

1. Puddle Play

Mom, you usually discourage your kids from jumping in puddles, so they’ll be shocked and excited when you suggest a splashing contest. Get your play clothes and rain boots on and head out looking for the biggest puddles you can find. Let your kids get soaking wet! Let the child who makes the biggest spray, get to pick the movie the family will watch or be freed from some chore. Give points for the one who gets the wettest. If you’ve got dancers in the family, have them practice some steps they’ve learned.

Mom, come on; get in the puddles with them! Motherhood is not a spectator sport. Let your kids splash you. All it takes is saying, “Don’t you splash me,” in a way they know you’re daring them to do it. Oh and just think how good a hot shower will feel after the fun!

Everyday I receive emails and comments from happy, enthusiastic, positive women who earnestly want to become more organized, efficient and happy in their homes.

They’re so optimistic about a new way to be organized because they get inspired by others who have experienced success in their homes. Thank you to all of you who send those kinds of sentiments to me!

My goal in spending most of my days writing is to encourage positive change in a lighthearted way and I appreciate all of your kind words and that you take the time to write to me.

“I’m completely overwhelmed with my situation!”

Top 10 Sidetracking Distractions and How to Deal with Them

 Thank you for coming over! 

Now that you're here, imagine with me that you have a free half hour specifically slotted for housework. You’ve got four 3x5 cards with specific chores on each to direct your work. There's an estimated time telling you how long each task will take written on each card. You’re dressed for housework, so you won’t wreck your good clothes and you’ve got sensible shoes on. You're a SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) and you're easily distracted.

According to your math, you can do the tasks on the cards in half an hour, but what has happened to your good intentions when you find yourself at the mall getting a pedicure? WHAT HAPPENED?

 Read on to find out.

A good rule of your green thumb is Plan, Prepare, Purchase, Plant. If you try to prepare and plant at the same time, you’ll poop out and then those plants that you’ve taken into your care face possible death. Of course it’s not premeditated, but the plants will be just as dead.

 Death by good intention

Have you ever seen a honey bee that’s got so much pollen on her feet and thighs that she can barely fly? I often wonder if some of them never make it back to their hives they’re so overloaded. 

Have you ever caught yourself in the middle of doing something you didn’t want to do?

It happens so easily, especially at the grocery store. Oh, the temptations! Especially in the bakery department! You're on a low-carb diet and a mission to lose weight, and all of a sudden you wake up and realize you put a cake in your cart! Most people don't wake up and they head right on through to check-out.

But if you're serious about losing weight, this behavior has got to stop. If you don't buy it, you can't eat it.

If this or something similar has happened to you, then be sure to watch this video and I’ll explain what really happened and what you can do about it.

Before you watch the video, here’s an email from a woman who figured out how to handle those grocery store temptations. 

I've always known that Torie (my inner child) was there, but I never thought about how old she was! Thanks to you, I now know she is 12... and LOVES to make 'deals'.

Checking out at the grocery –

Torie: “Oooh! Snickers!”

Me: “No, you know that makes us feel horrible.”

Torie: “Just a small one?”

When it comes to finances, we don't always make mature choices.

Have you made choices in your lifetime that caused consequences you didn’t like? We all have and that’s how we learn to be more careful as we grow up. (Second marriages, for example, are almost always better than the first ones, if we made a lousy choice the first time).

I recently took a much needed three-day vacation away from home with two girlfriends who are incredibly wise women. Both women are extremely private people. They both gave me license to quote them, but with no names so I don’t get to give them credit for some of their wisdom.

We were having lunch in a beautiful restaurant in Astoria, Oregon when the subject of self-improvement came up. I explained my theory of having fun with the inner child and they both loved the concept. I told about how far in debt I was after my sister retired and left me with a huge company debt. It was a little embarrassing to admit, because both these women are very wealthy and they were shocked at how immature my sister and I had been with our money.

1. You are denying disorganization is affecting your life in a negative way.

2. You are comparing your organizational skills to reality show hoarders. 

3. You are blaming your family for the mess  you’re in.

4. You are minimizing the problem and the gifts you possess to solve them.

In Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) it speaks of the four defenses an alcoholic uses while he/she continues to drink. In Get Your Act Together, I wrote how SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) use the same defenses to remain in a mess.

There is really no difference except for the outcome… drunk or disorderly.

Like an alcoholic, once a SHE stops using the four defenses, she is then able to change. Could one of these defenses be holding you back from the life you want to live?

Off Your Diet?

Splurge at the Mall?

House a Wreck?

The best laid plans of, well you know the rest of the saying, are generally messed up by an important part of you that just doesn't want to follow the plan.

I call that part of us the inner child. There is help and it's so easy to succeed with your best intentions, once you understand what's behind your failure to stick to your best intentions. 

In part three of this five-part video series, I share how I work with that part of me whom I call Nelly. Enjoy the video and see if what I share will work for you.

My sister Americans (I’ve been watching too many political speeches lately), why wait until thoughts of April 15 circle your mind like mad gnats on a glass of cheap wine?

You could get your tax return done now and get it in ahead of that date. Of course there’s always that blessed word extension! But if you’re a procrastinator, will the extension just add more days for you to put off what you could have accomplished back in January? Would it just be five more months of gnat swatting? If so read on.

Here’s a letter from a reformed tax paying procrastinator. Her story just might inspire you to get going now before the gnats come!

Praise 101

Giving and receiving compliments is truly an art that needs to be practiced if you want to become proficient at it. Praise is such a beautiful way to spread joy.

Do you like praise? When you get a compliment how do you react? Do you say something like, “Oh, this ol’ dress? I got it on sale ten years ago,” or do you accept the compliment gracefully? Do you love to give honest compliments and look for positive things to say that are true not only with your friends and family, but with strangers too?

Have you ever given a compliment to a friend and received no reaction? One time I raved about something to this guy who was responsible for doing a great job and I received no reaction; not a thank you, not a smile, nothing. (I’m glad I don’t give compliments to receive positive feedback.) I had to assume he was embarrassed and didn’t know what to say or perhaps he’s not comfortable with giving or receiving compliments. I guess I could ask his wife.

If you're like my friend and you want to improve on the art, I have a great idea for you; start complimenting yourself. Praise yourself when you do well, when you stick to your resolve and when you do the right thing especially when it’s a hard thing to do. Have you notice how interesting it is that often the right thing to do is hard to do? What a life lesson though. When you look back, those decisions to do the right thing when it was very difficult have always been filled with blessings. For instance, my decision to end a relationship that meant the world to me at the time has returned to me such power and joy that it tickles me to think the decision was so hard to make in the first place.

Looking for Praise in all the Wrong Places

I remember when I was losing weight for the Mouth Trap book, I wanted praise from Terry. When I didn’t get it, I had to think about it and realize he’s not a complimentary person. He’s not critical either and I think the two must go hand-in-hand. The other thing I had to figure out was why do I need a compliment from him? I realized I really don’t. My opinion of myself is enough.

Part Two in Weekly Series on Knowing Your Inner Child

Join me in the woods behind our house as I share my thoughts on how and why to be in a relationship with your inner child. In today's session (part two of a five-part series) I tell you how important it is to let your child within know you love and enjoy her, but are wise to her tricks when it comes to your self-imporvement. You are the parent to your inner child and she needs your guidance. 

I hope you enjoy the video.

Whad’ya Want?

To Look Younger or Just Not Look Older?

Did you happen to watched the Academy Awards the year Barbra Streisand sang a tribute to her close friend Marvin Hamlisch who had passed away? She sang The Way We Were but she wasn't the way she used to be. It's because she was trying to look the way she used to so she had a facelift and bless her heart, she looked wonderful, but when she sang, her lips didn’t move! 

She's a genius as a singer, actor and producer, so why did she put herself through that procedure? We’re the same age and she definitely looks younger than I do, but at least my lips move when I talk!

That’s what the steak house’s tantalizing email said.

$42 and you’ll be home on the range, with another person of your choice.

Start out with any “Steakhouse Starter or try the Wagon Wheel Sampler Platter for only $3 more!

The words on the colorful and tantalizing E-Flyer were carefully chosen by an in-house Mark Twain, accompanied with photos from an Ansel Adams-type photographer.

Just looking at the food (which is probably plastic) your mouth starts watering. You can smell the aroma of the meal being grilled on an open fire! You can hear the wine being poured and taste a plethora of hor’s d’oeuvres you imagine displayed on a miniature wagon wheel. 

No matter how crammed your in box gets, when an email like that comes alive on your cell or computer screen and it's around 5:30 pm, it’s just not fair! It can easily ambush any dinner prep.

Who wants to eat tuna casserole when you could drive downtown for fire-grilled chicken, BBQ ribs, crispy shrimp, grilled salmon or filet mignon sizzling on an open fire, accompanied by a loaded baked potato and a fresh garden salad, while finishing your feast off with any one of their decadent desserts?

“Honey?”

“What?”

“There’s a special on at Black Angus!”

“It’s not date night.”

“I know, but look at this!”

Okay, it has been two months since you made a New Year’s Resolution to stop or start doing something to make a change for good in 2016.

How's that working out for you?

How Many Rooms Have You Decluttered?

Okay, before you get all upset that you didn’t know February is National Decluttering Month and here it is the end of February and you didn’t get to partake of the celebration, there’s no such thing as National Decluttering Month.

I just wanted to get your attention. Cheap, I know. 

But what if it were? And what if you focused on organizing your closets, cupboards and drawers in the master suite for a start? Would that make you happy if they were organized and they only held what you love to wear? Here’s an experiment I did today and I thought I’d share it with you because it really opened my eyes and made me happy to find yet another way to get rid of what isn’t making me happy!

Use it or lose it!

Remember when it was fashionable to say, “Lose the belt,” meaning for the person to dump the belt because it didn’t look good or was out of fashion? Today I was in my closet and I spied a pair of leather boots I hadn’t worn for at least a year. That’s when that use of the verb to lose struck me. I decided I’d make a new rule, Use it or lose it.

Do you have unpacked moving boxes from a move a year ago and every time you see them they scream “Unpack us now!” Do you beat yourself up for procrastinating? If you do, you’ll feel way better about your procrastination when you read what Judith Robinson, a longtime SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) had to say. 

She began her email to me with this:

Our New Year has begun with enough challenges to remind us we are alive. Once those challenges end, I suppose we will not be. I hope your entry into the New Year has been an easy slide.

Procrastination: A Fascinating Aptitude

By Judith Robinson

I’d no sooner shuffled my youngest child off to pre-school than I was sniffing around for a way to avoid unpacking the moving crates stacked floor to ceiling in our breakfast room. Being a creative procrastinator, I decided to go to college.   

Do you know what freshen up means?

What does it mean when a woman says, “Excuse me, I’m going to go freshen up"? Does she just say that because it’s not lady-like to say she has to pee, or does she actually do something special? In the movies when a woman says, “Excuse me, I’m going to go freshen up,” she shuts the door and you don’t get to see what she freshens. 

If you have a home-based business (38 million Americans do and $427 billion per year is made by them), or you are a full-time peacekeeper and peacemaker at home, or you’re doing both, this blog is for you.

When you think about it, every institution has its “costume.” Prisons, hospitals, courtrooms, restaurants, car repair shops, beauty salons and the list could go on-and-on. But if you Google, Dress for Success at Home you’ll get a gob of photos of people in offices, outside big city buildings and walking on sidewalks all dressed for success for business outside the home.

Hey, you don’t need to look like a Wall Street tycoon to work at home, but there are some important rules for you to follow if you want success and to feel good about your work and yourself. 

When you’re home all day, if you’re not careful you’ll end up in recluse attire! You know, your pajamas. God knows they’re comfortable and cozy and if you don’t have some style boundaries, you could hang out in them for days. That’s probably what’s happened when you see an adult in the grocery store in pajamas. Just remember, this person could be contributing to that $427 billion dollars! 

Actually working at home as a full-time caregiver or an at-home entrepreneur or both, you actually need a wardrobe that changes during the day. Before you panic, the changes are simple, and will save you time, money and peace of mind in the long run.

Rule 1   Pajamas are for sleeping.

Dress in your jammies right before bed as part of your before bed routine. In the morning, get dressed for the next activity which might be exercise, housework, office work, yard work depending on your daily schedule. When you work at home, if you stay in your nightwear, you invariably have that somebody-might-come-over monkey on your shoulder. For your peace of mind, get dressed first thing in the morning.

j

Did you ever watch the Slob Sisters play with Gary Collins on national TV?

We had so much fun with him and we miss him. In this video, with romance in mind, we came up with some pretty good ideas for Valentine's Day.

Judging by the audience laughter, it's a very funny video. 

This blog was written for both men and women, so no matter which one you are, listen up! With Valentine’s Day in a few days you might consider this very important tip. It’ll not only perk up your marriage (if you’ve been in it a while), you'll be happy and more healthy! You can tell by the title it’s a pretty simple suggestion, but wait until you understand why such a little “event” is so valuable. 

Attention Men:

Hey guys, for your information a woman loves to be touched and you should be touching her ten times a day, BUT that doesn’t mean she wants to have sex every time you rub her shoulders.
One scientist explained that as children, boys and girls both have sensory receptors all over their bodies, but with the onset of puberty, boys are the only ones of our species whose sensory receptors congregate in just one place, while the girls continue to enjoy touch just about everywhere. 

Experts claim romantic love lasts from 18 months to three years. Mother Nature must know this, so once she makes a connection, she has to work fast if she wants more babies!

In 18 months she can put out one baby and one on the way (giving the mother a little recoup time) and in three years she can produce three. Done!

That’s what happened to me anyway and I blame it all on Mother Nature. 

This will date me, but I have three children thanks to Johnny Mathis. When he sang Misty and those luscious tones flowed from his lips, “Look at me, I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree,” bang…I was pregnant with Michael and wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d come out bi-racial I was so in love with Johnny. Chances Are (one of Johnny’s biggest hits) rang in Peggy Ann and Wild is the Wind pulled Joanna from her non-physical place in the Universe to a place in our home. 

My sister and I almost had our own  cooking show on television, but we would've had to be in LA four months out of the year and our six kids were young.

In cleaning out our warehouse I found the master tape of the opening for the show and thought you'd enjoy watching it. The show was going to be called, The Phony Gourmet after the name of the successful cookbook of the same name. Had the show materialized, we would have shared all our short-cut cooking recipes and ideas. 

When you read autobiographies of famous people who had absolutely horrible childhoods, but survived and are happy, productive and successful adults in spite of it, doesn’t it give you faith in knowing that each of us has a guidance system within?

In the cases of Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle, Jewel, Never Broken and Drew Barrymore Wildflower, these women survived unimaginable child abuse.

Now, as adults, they are beacons of light, proof that the Universe has your back if you’ll only become aware of the guidance that waits for your recognition. In every one of these autobiographies, these women had forgiven their parents, when it would be so hard to do! In that forgiveness they were able to use their God-given talents for the good of all.

Dr. Wayne Dyer is another example of a child having a father you’d like put in the slammer to rot, but Wayne was able to see clearly (part of the title of his final book) and pardon and even thank his father for his part in Wayne’s birth (sperm).

Reading forgiveness literature opens doors for those who have been unable to do that. Books like these with unbelievable stories of child abuse, can put into perspective petty grudges we might otherwise have and tend to rehearse from time-to-time, involving our parent’s parenting.

Do you love the thought of a romantic get-away up in the mountains in a rustic cabin?

What is it that draws us to want to go to one, or, better yet, have a cabin of our own?

Is it the thought that cabin life is simple, restful and peaceful? Does that thought of life is better at the cabin make you think of a crackling fire, the aroma of hot chili on the wood stove, the sound of the wind in the tall firs and no telephones? Peace and rest, away from the chaos of modern life definitely calls us to retreat and enjoy a simpler time.

There are romantic mountain cabin get-aways all over the Internet and just perusing the ads can slow your heart rate and let you breathe deeply. But life is better at the cabin is just a thought. Did you know you can mess with your mind and make it think you’re at a cabin when you’re not? Well you can! Our subconscious minds don’t know the difference between reality and fantasy and that truth is so much fun to play with.

We are wired from conception to be happy. No one has to teach us to laugh, we're born with the gift. Happiness is a choice and like any muscle we've been given, we have to use it or it has a tendency to lose it's power.

That's why my sister Peggy Jones and I decided to write The Sidetracked Sister's Happiness File. We figure out a way to use 3x5 index cards to include what makes us happy in our daily routine. 

In this short video, I read an excerpt from the book: 

Whoa Mama! Nelly, my inner child, has control of the keyboard for this blog! Look out! She’s wild!!! WARNING, this blog could make you hungry, but it might help you lose weight!

.

Pam just spent a week in Seattle taking care of her son’s monkeys. That’s what they call the kids; Brooklyn 16 and Jackson 14. She was so excited to get to play with them! Except Brooklyn had finals all week and spent most of her time in her room studying, or at the library studying, or at her girlfriend’s house STUDYING and she couldn’t play with her very much. But Jackie and she played Gin Rummy a lot and they got to talk like two grown-ups when he wasn’t at school (I just listened in).

But here’s the part you’ve got to know: the monkey’s house was loaded with carbs!!! Oh there was lots of healthy food too, like fresh berries, broccoli, romaine, tomatoes, bacon, eggs, milk, avocado and yogurt (full fat Greek), but the carb section was impressive to me.

1. Face the problem in full light

2. Assess what you can do to solve it

3. Create a plan of action

4. Do at least one action every day according to the plan

5. Be patient and persistent

6. Know you’re not alone

1. FACE IT  

It’s never too late to change your life. When you don’t like something in your life you have to be able to illuminate the cause of a problem and what part you’ve taken to create it in the first place. If you can't see your part in the problem, and blame someone else for it, you have no control over the change. You can’t get anyone to do anything they don’t want to do.

One divorced woman wrote that she’d been married for 25 years and her husband had cheated on her more than once during the marriage and had ultimately left her for another woman. She said she hardly recognized her home or herself and she blamed him. Then she realized in spite of a cheating husband she’d successfully raised two happy children and she needed to stop worrying about what her husband did and focus on what she was going to do.

She figured he probably felt he’d had a good excuse for the affairs because she’d gained a bunch of weight and was not attractive, she hadn’t had the energy or desire to be intimate with him because of her unhealthy body, the house had gotten out of control and she was a full time homemaker and felt guilty for her shortcomings.

It occurred to her if she were to get her act together, she’d get her life back, her body back and her home back. She didn’t mention anything about wanting to get her ex back. It took her a little over a year to reach her goal and she was looking forward to flaunting her new self (in a size eight, mother-of-the-bride suit) at their daughter’s wedding.

As a parent, you can nurture your children's imagination by providing good books that inspire them to imagine and art supplies that give them a way to express their creativity. If they’re musical, be sure to give them access to musical instruments. One of the best gifts you can give your kids is clutter-free space in which to create.

It’s also a good idea to encourage kids to share their dreams when you’re at the breakfast table every morning, as sharing dreams will cultivate the child’s ability to remember their dreams and learn from them. Children love to talk about their dreams, I know because whenever I get the privilege of being with a messy-haired, sleepy-eyed child, I always ask and it always turns into a wonderful and creative discussion. Try it tomorrow morning as you sit and enjoy the start of your day with your kids.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT URGES AMERICANS TO

LIMIT SUGAR TO 10% OF DAILY CALORIES

That was the headline in the Friday, January 8, 2016 issue of USA Today.

This is great news and it's about time the word got out to the masses. It'll send warning ripples to the food manufacturers, drug companies and of course the doctors who have been prescribing statins all these years.

YES, the very first paragraph in the article says, “Concerned about the cholesterol and fat in your diet? That’s so 2015.” (It should have said, “1960” because the science has been known and ignored since then).

The article went on to say, “If you want to stay on the cutting edge of nutrition advice, what you should really worry about are added sugars, according to a new report from the federal government that urges us to cut back—way back—on sugar.” 

If you wonder what that means to you, the dietary guideline recommends you have no more than 12 teaspoons of sugar a day and there are 10 teaspoons of it in a Coke or most soft drinks.

What I learned from Dr. Childers, my low-carb physician, was that by going on a low-carb diet (synonymous with sugar-free) fat is good for us. It’s not the evil we’ve been told it is. Once you know that, it’s so easy to cut out sugar! You quit buying low-fat this and low-fat that and you get fat back in your diet and your cravings for sugar literally disappear!

See, in order to cut out fat in food, food manufacturers had to add sugar, because foods with the fat sucked out of them, suck. So we ended up with shelves full of low-fat, processed food loaded with SUGAR. And we all got fat and sick. (The article goes into depressing detail on the medial costs because of what we’ve been previously told to eat and not eat.)

My book The Joy of Being Disorganized is the first book I’ve written that makes a great gift!

I believe there are 10 SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executive) to every BO (Born Organized) and I wrote this book to celebrate our SHEness!

There’s a modified 3x5 get organized system in it that'll really help you get help from your family. Here’s what Allison, a successful banker, had to say:

Dear Pam,

Thank you for writing The Joy of Being Disorganized. I’m a successful banker and am organized at work, because there are systems in place and I handle my staff with understanding, patience and support. But my home has been another story. Somehow, I let my disorganization at home undermine my self-esteem. I didn’t even know I was doing that, until I read your book. What a wake-up call for you to tell me to celebrate my disorder! And how could that possible help me get my home organized? All I can say is that it was a shift in energy!

 Edible "Indoor" Snowman

Imagine serving this hors d'oeuvres at your next party: A snowman standing more than a foot tall, on a platter surrounded by raw vegetables or cocktail crackers. Guests will wonder what they’re supposed to do with him, until they dip into his luscious "snow" or cut into him for a chunk of his insides. Then they’ll keep returning for more, until the poor snowman is left looking like his brothers Frosty or Olaf on a bad day.

Here’s the recipe which is just one of 75 recipes in The Phony Gourmet, which is now at a low clearance price of $5 plus postage and handling. This hardback cookbook originally sold for $15.

Cream Cheese and Garlic Snowman

Serves 15 party animals

1 8-inch round loaf French bread

1 5-inch round loaf French bread

1 round French roll

2 8-ounce packages Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese (original) softened

2 teaspoons Lawry’s Garlic Powder Coarse Ground with Parsely

1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/3 cup milk

¼ cup instant mashed potato flakes

1 leaf red cabbage (snowman’s scarf)

1 baby carrot (nose)

8 peppercorns (eyes and mouth)

5 coffee beans (buttons)

2 cinnamon sticks (arms)

1 cardboard toilet paper tube (hat)

1 square of black felt (hat)

1 (15-inch) wooden skewer (spinal column)

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, garlic, seasoned salt, onion powder, and milk until smooth.

2. Place the larger loaf of bread on a large serving platter. Frost with half the cream cheese mixture. Stick the wooden skewer through the middle of the large loaf. Stick the medium-size loaf onto the skewer to make the second “snowball.” Frost the second ball, leaving enough cream cheese mixture to frost the third ball. Stick the French roll onto the skewer for the snowman’s head. Frost, and decorate, using items suggested in the ingredients.

3. After the snowman is decorated, shake the instant potato flakes all over him. They look just like snow and are remarkably tasty with the cream cheese “frosting.”

The Phony Gourmet came close to being a cooking show on television, but my sister and I weren’t willing to live five months out of the year in LA. Our six kids needed us at home. This video is the open from the pilot show.

Do you love to make a "To Do" list every day?

If your daily housework is a habit, you don't have to make a To Do list for it and you're probably never too busy to do the next thing that needs to be done on a daily basis. If your kids are grown and you've gotten used to the reduced workload, of raising a family, you've probably forgotten how busy young moms are these days. All it takes is to have one or more grandchildren for a few days and it all comes back to you what our busy moms are dealing with today. One mom of four said, "When my husband comes home at the end of a long day and wonders what I've done all day, I figure if I can account for all four of his children, I've done my part." 

Do you ever put things you’ve already done on a list, so you can cross them off. That's great if you do. We need all the sense of accomplishment we can get. That got me to thinking, what if we made a list of things we don't have to do today, it'd be very fun and give us a sense of relief! It's so important for us to seize every moment we can in joy, and do things that tickle us, especially when we're on the verge of feeling overwhelmed. 

This thing called life is whizzing by you without your notice. Just like we aren't aware of how fast our little planet is spinning and flying through the cosmos, we miss the speed in which our lives are hurtling through time. 

So, if you’re inclined to make lists and add auxiliary tasks you did that weren’t on the list in the first place so you can cross them off and feel more productive, you'll love this list of 5 things you don’t have to do today. Now if you want to write them down so you can cross them off, you’re going to have to write the word “don’t” in front of each one, but really, just enjoy the list!

Time to pull out those 3x5s

How many times have you made Get Organized be your New Year's Resolutiion? When it comes to getting organized, it’s such a juicy project complete with visions of peace, joy, beauty and order in your home.

But if you’re not careful, the thrill of victory can end in the agony of defeat. It’s hard being human, but it’s even harder when you beat yourself up because you're disorganized and didn’t achieve what you set out to accomplish because of it.

Getting organized just enough to please you is so simple, but being creative you can blow the whole project up like it’s a major motion picture.

Because you are creative, there’s nothing you love more than a new project, except for maybe breakfast, lunch and dinner! You get so excited and enthusiastic as you dive into a new mission with astonishing glee. But like the poem you learned when you were a kid, “First came love, then came marriage, then came pushing a baby carriage,” projects have a honeymoon period and then the reality of the situation kicks in and sometimes the work can be a drag.

Don't you just love the aroma of something cooking in the kitchen all day? 

One of my low carb cooking videos is Crock Pot Chili. How can it be low-carb? More meat, less beans. This chili recipe is so easy to make, it smells great while it cooks and if your family likes chili, they'll love this recipe. 

As they say in restaurants nowadays....."Enjoy."

This is a sweet and inspiring letter from a successful, longtime SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive). It’s so well written, it deserves to be shared (with her permission). Enjoy her humor and SHEness.

Dearest Pam,

You and Peggy came into my life in the early eighties. I sat in the middle of a big, beautiful new house after our tenth corporate relocation, indulging in a well justified tantrum. (I sometimes fear this will be the episode my three now, adult daughters will bring up at my wake.) Not a pretty sight. I enrolled the girls in their new schools that day and took myself to a bookstore for purposes of covert procrastination. It was there where God lassoed me with a copy of Sidetracked Home Executives: from Pigpen to Paradise.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Through your words and your humor and your stories you mentored me, gave me sanity one 3 x 5 card at a time, and were, well...my
friends. The two of you reflected the relationship I had with my sister, except for the fact that we lived 1500 miles from each other. And I'd found myself again a stranger in a new city. I read every book you published again and again and sometimes remember your stories as things that happened to me. (Not a good sign.)

Rewards for Doing Boring Household Tasks

Let’s face it, most household tasks are mindless and boring and you’d be a moron if you had fun scouring toilets and scrubbing floors, or I guess you could be a BO (Born Organized). But to have a clean, cozy peaceful home, someone has to take care of those unexciting chores.

If you can’t afford to pay for help or you haven’t trained your family to help (that’s a whole other blog and a chapter in my book, The Joy of Being Disorganized), you’re stuck doing them. It does help to play your favorite upbeat music while you work, but let’s face it, boring is boring.

There is a light at the end of the mop! Today, we’re so fortunate to have wonderful ways to counter the mundane. Introducing, entertainment as a reward!

A Juicy Carrot

We’re drawn to romance novels, two-hanky movies, reality TV, trashy check stand journalism and glossy magazines that feature the latest celeb pregnancy. (The mother of quintuplets once told me that with five babies she didn’t have time to read magazines, but she got enough of a celeb fix waiting in line at the grocery check-out and reading just the headlines.)

The definition for “loser” depends on the circumstance in which a loser finds him or herself. One definition has to do with losing at a sport, gambling or some kind of game or competition.It sucks to lose, but if we’ve been raised by loving people who taught us how to be good losers, we spare ourselves being the “bad sport.”

So you lost at Monopoly and landed on Park Place laden with hotels, or you didn’t win the Miss America contest; boo hoo, big deal. It’s not like you fell off or climbed down from some social ladder, but you’re still considered a loser. Anyway, that’s not the kind of loser this blog is about.

SHEs are Natural Losers

I know for sure we SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) are losers, because we spend a lot of our valuable time looking for stuff. As SHEs, we’ve had a lot of experience calling the Lost & Found departments in various establishments like hotels, restaurants, theaters, airports etc. and like the guy who doesn’t take car maintenance seriously and becomes known by the local towing company in town, SHEs usually get to know the Lost & Found people in familiar institutions like the building at work, the kids’ school, your school, your gym etc.

In this blog, I’ll share two ways to curb the search for your stuff. In part 2, I share two other ways we lose; one from loss of loved ones through death or disease and one from theft.