Do you try to stay in a good mood as much as you can? What I’ve noticed is that first you’ve got to catch yourself in a bad mood and then you have to want to get out of it. Sometimes it’s just plain fun to wallow. But wallowing never helps the reason for the wallow in the first place. Sooner or later, like the line in that old song says, you've gotta, “Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.”

Would you agree that happy thoughts run at a higher frequency than say guilty or angry thoughts do? Have you ever noticed when you’re happy you’re kinder to others, more compassionate and understanding and you have way more energy?

Staying in a good mood takes watching how you feel and being selfish about how you feel. So here are 7 ways to get out of that bad mood as soon as you find yourself in one.

1. Pick out a happy feeling and feel it

When you’re in a really bad mood, take a minute and think of a happy time. You have many to choose from, so just pick one. Once you’ve picked one, dig it up. Remember the people and the circumstance. Hear the laughter and feel the love. We SHEs have such a grand ability to pull into our mind’s eye any occasion we wish to re-experience. 

You probably didn't know my sister and I had a dance career. Well okay, it was only for one day. After you watch this video you'll probably figure out why.

The name of my sister’s and my first book was called,

Sidetracked Home Executives: from Pigpen to Paradise.

After the book was released we were invited to have a half-hour television show on Christian Broadcasting. The show was called "Clean Up Your Act." The producer got the idea (when she heard the song I wrote, "From Pigpen to Paradise") to have that song be the open to the show. After the open was produced, the head honchos at Proctor and Gamble (our sponsor) didn’t like it and it was replaced by a different open. 

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 something that didn't fly. 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. 

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 changed 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 

Is your kitchen streamlined, efficient and a joy in which to cook? A couple of years 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 that prity trip with me and if your clothes closet contains more than what you love and wear today, be sure and 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. 

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.

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.

When you’re blessed with wonderful neighbors, their presence just adds to your well-being. Shannon, my next-door neighbor, is a gift from God to me and all of our neighbors. (She’s on the cover of “The Mouth Trap: the butt stops here!” and she’s always ready to help, even though she’s an extremely busy mom, teacher, spiritual adviser for women in her church, wife and devoted daughter to her parents.)

To help me with ideas for a long car trip with kids for my appearance on "Afternoon Live," a television talk show in Portland, Oregon, Shannon wrote out some fabulous ideas for making long, car trips with kids more fun and easy. Unfortunately, I didn’t see her email until the day after I was on the show! But lucky for you, I’ve put her email in this blog so you can reap the benefits of the wisdom in her wonderful ideas. (I’ve also given you a link to my segment on television about this topic, so you’ll really be ready for a fabulous trip with those little ones. And now, HERE’S SHANNON!

As a parent, one thing I always tried to do when my kids were young was to create a sense of wonder and magic in their lives. I rarely heard 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 BOP (Born Organized Person). She always had a daily agenda for the summer months and it included household chores first and then fun. Attention moms, use fun activities you plan as a reward for getting the mundane household responsibilities accomplished every day.

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 our 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 I told that night:

Rabbit Ears, Elephants, and Donkeys

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.

Who taught you to ride a bike?

Do you remember how different riding a bike was than riding your trike? With a tricycle, you really had to pedal hard to get over bumpy terrain, but with a bicycle you could almost glide over it. As soon as you mastered the skills of riding, you were given the joy of riding fast and easy. Remember feeling like you were flying? To go faster than you could run was addictive and you had the same joy a dog has with his head out the window of a Subaru, fur smashed back by the wind. This photo of my granddaughter, Brooklyn, calls up that feeling.

But what does it have to do with getting organized? Well, wouldn’t you say that every, able-bodied child can learn to ride a bike? Do you remember your pre-biker days? Remember how impossible it looked? Remember thinking, ‘I can’t do that.’? And then what happened? You learned! You could do it. When you were learning, there were basic skills you had to acquire in order to stay on the bike when your teacher let go.

We want a happy home.

We intuitively know there is peace when there is order. We want our homes to be peaceful, organized and a joy in which to live, love and play.

In a book called The Tipping Point, the author, Malcom Gladwell, really grabbed my attention when he wrote about the Broken Window Theory. It was the brainchild of criminologists James Wilson and George Kelling. Kelling wrote, “Crime is the inevitable result of disorder.” Getting organized reduces crime.

I’m not saying because your house is a mess you’ll inevitably rob a bank or shoot your husband, but it’s a fair guess you’ve been late for church because you couldn’t find your car keys and broke the speed limit to get there on time, or you’ve been pulled over for driving under the influence when really you were just trying to put a little lipstick on while getting to your meeting.

Wilson and Kelling claim, “If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge.” They tell about the horrible crime in the New York Subways in the 90s and that by cleaning up the graffiti on the outside and inside of the cars, crime plummeted! A cluttered room, among other things is like graffiti. It’s symbolic of the collapse of a system. It sends a message that no one’s in charge and no one cares.

Here are 6 simple household tasks that convey the same message as the graffiti-free subways did.  

Is there a broken window in each room?

Let’s use the metaphor of the broken window in each room of our homes and make “repairs” that will take you less than five minutes each. That means that in about 20 minutes you can fix five windows and you’ll show yourself and your family that you are back in charge and that you care.

Come along with me to the market as I pick out something I used to be really scared of buying....kale! And if you think I was afraid to buy it, I was realIy afraid to cook it! Kale is one of those vegetables that looks pretty and scary at the same time when you don't know what to do with it. But it's a super food! Packed with vitamins and nutrients that can't be found in that chocolate bar you have up in the cupboard or under the bed (the House Fairy visits adults too!) So together in this video, I'll help you conquer the kale issue (if you have one) by making a classic Caesar salad with a twist and you won't believe how much you'll love it! Kale Caesar!

An important message from Flylady.

I remember when I was a young mother there was a public service announcement on television that would come on around ten at night and the guy would say, “Do you know where your children are?” I remember thinking, ‘Duh, how could good parents not know where their children are?’ (Recently I found out my son was often not where he said he was, but [ahemm] that’s not what I’m writing about.) I was interested in one of Flylady’s musing about “dreaming” of getting out of her childhood home as soon as she could and that she realized that getting out of that house only changed her physical location. 

Somebody (it was either Shakespeare or Harrison Ford) said, “You take yourself with you wherever you go.” Hey wait a minute, I said that! It’s true and that’s what Marla did. She got out and took herself with her. Only until she realized that the only way to feel loved was to finally love herself was she able to make peace with her past and be happy. 

Everything we can see, touch, hear, taste and smell is outside of us and we make judgments with our five senses about everything in our lives. If we don’t like what we see, hear, taste, touch or smell we have the power to change any of it and judging by the volumes of you-can-change-your-life books on the market (mine included) our society is certainly trying to do just that. The problem with self-help books is they won’t work if you don’t know yourself very well. “Do you know where your child is?” Ah, back to why I’m writing this.

One of my all-time favorite low-carb cooking recipes is what I call “Cauliflower-oni and Cheese." Who needs that carb-loaded, slimy macaroni when you can cook up a yummy, steamy head of cauliflower and leave your pickiest eater drooling for more? In this fun, how-to cooking video, I share with you the secrets of happy cows from Ireland, and the joys of a forty year old pot. (The kind on the stove.) This is sumptuous, dining, and you'll want to make plenty for the crowds that will be begging for seconds and thirds and the recipe.

This is Bruno the new mascot at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon. According to his trainer (Kim) he’s number eight in a line of Brunos that have graced the magnificent lodge built in 1937. Bruno just happened to be out with his trainer while we were at the lodge on Saturday. As a mascot in waiting, this day he was there to get used to kids of all ages gushing over him with kisses and hugs, posing with him for vacation memories, whistling at him and baby talking to him. He’s just six months old, but in this photo Terry took, he looks like an adult St. Bernard! He reminded me of one of those huge kids, that by appearance is expected to act older but doesn’t because he isn’t. Bruno was oblivious to all the people and only interested in other visiting dogs, birds, chipmunks, butterflies, flowers and the occasional drift of an aroma of food coming from some human’s lunch sack or snack.

That’s Mt. Hood in the background and Bruno was sitting on a rock wall (the trainer’s husband lifted him up for the photo shoot and said “In another month, I won’t be able to do this, because he’ll be too heavy.”).