You probably saw Ellen sitting by President Bush at a football game in Dallas and they were laughing. Caught having fun with George, caused Ellen to comment about the encounter. She's very liberal, but gracious to discuss the divide in our country today. She said she doesn't like to see people wearing fur, but she has good friends who wear fur and she doesn't cut them out of her life because of it. She really encouraged us to be kinder and more tolerant.

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 11. I have such fun with these two! (They're probably 2 and 5 in this photo of them taking a "pretend" bath.).

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 todo it.

In the story, you'll see why I've titled this blog, "Let's Practice More Tolerance."

Here's the story:

Rabbit Ears, Elephants, and Donkeys

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

You know your kids are going to bring home a pillowcase full of it and you know you'll have CANDY left-over after the last witch leaves your porch.

So the question is, What can you do with all that Halloween CANDY now?

In this video you'll get some great ideas for decorating with that left-over sugar.

Last week I was given the best gift I’ve ever been given! Ally, my niece and her husband Harrison asked me if I would take Maggie, their labradoodle. Maggie is six-years-old and has spent three different weeks with us while her parents travelled on vacations. She loves to run on our three acres and is very comfortable with us. In this photo taken today, I had her jump up into a raised flowed bed with my gorgeous fire thorn bush behind her. She's looking at a squirrel in the yard.

Maggie has the manners of an Emily Post and eats like a model demonstrating a dainty approach to food consumption.  

Harry and Ally are hard working professionals and their focus is on their careers. They were smart and loving enough to see that Maggie was not getting the attention she loves and deserves because of their busy schedules.  Ally said, “There’s a doggy cam at the doggy daycare place where Maggie goes and I’ve been so busy I haven’t looked at it in six months!” Ally is the art director for Columbia Sportswear which is headquartered in Portland, OR. Harry is a paramedic who became one after being on Wall Street on 9/11 as a financier. His building was across the street from the twin towers. He helped rescue people that day and shortly after quit his job and moved back to the northwest.

Maggie even matches my furnishings!

Two months ago I told Terry I wanted to get a dog because I’m a dog person and I hadn’t had a dog in more than 20 years. Terry is not a dog person, but knowing how much I love animals he understood. My guess is he thought I’d forget about it, because I’d talked about getting a dog on-and-off for those 20 years.

So I went on the internet and found out I can’t afford a labradoodle puppy. Yikes, they're expensive! I also thought about how much work a puppy is. And besides, it wouldn’t be fair to the puppy for me to get one because I don’t think I’ll want a dog when I’m 92 or be able to take care of an old dog when I’m one too. It also takes a good year to get a puppy trained and I have very strict rules. That caused me to consider a used labradoodle. There were lots to pick from, but I didn’t want a dog with issues. In one video the poor dog cowed down and could barely walk with her leash on and it made me know I’m not a rehabilitator-type person so I wouldn’t do well with a dog unless it were well adjusted.

As Terry thought, I quit thinking about how much I wanted a labradoodle even though it was simmering in some portion of my mind.

Turn dreary into fun!

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

We who live in the northwest, have had to learn early on, we can’t let the rain dowse our fun outdoors. The main advice is make sure you have play clothes, so you don’t have to worry about muddying up your good clothes.

Whether it's just misting or pouring rats and hogs make the most of the wet weather and play with your kids or grandkids in the rain using 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 and take your phone so you can have music.

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!

9 SHE Don'ts for Halloween

SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) have to be  very cautious when any big holiday comes around and Halloween is no exception. The excitement, assisted by our amazing creative abilities, can send us over the holiday edge into over-doing. The following DON’Ts will help you think twice before you make any big Halloween moves. (This photo was taken in 2016. We were dressed as Trump and Hillary before the election.)

This photo was taken at a couple years ago at a Halloween party at our neighbor's home. Read on and you'll find out what we used to make the very realistic beards.

In the video clip in this blog, my sister Peggy and I share some great last minute Halloween costumes and some very good advice.

(You'll notice Peggy has a beard too. In the first segment of the show she demonstrated how to make that beard. You just smear Karo syrup where a beard would be and then roll your face in fresh coffee grounds.) I've discovered a new way to create that beard and it's very "healthy." 

I received an email one day from a woman who challenged my motto “Make it fun and it will get done,” and it caused me to think about what I mean by that. She said something about fun not leading to happiness and since I think happiness is the most important goal we can ever have, (I think it’s more important than being organized) I had to think seriously about my definition of fun.

The word fun can conger up vacations, yachts, fast cars, parties and any of the stuff of brochures luring us to spend money. The brochure brand of fun doesn’t make us happy unless we already are. Don't you know that from experience? This pic was taken at Senior Frogs in Cancun. The Frog definitely knows how to play and get not only children, but adults to have fun if they want to. I remember on that outing one of our grandchildren was upset about it all. It was too loud for her and she wanted no part of it. She was an example that joy has to come from within in order to have fun.

Clooney's Refrigerator

Now that I'm a great grandma, my creative right brain kicked in with a new idea for you if you know an infant you'd love to put in a costume for Halloween. Stop! Why not decorate the baby's carrier instead of the poor baby. They've gone through enough recently! So now I'm going to send you to watch a video on the live television show I appear on regularly.I'll show you exactly how to turn an infant carrier into several scary beings.

We want to get organized for several reasons. We think that if we get organized, we’ll save time, money and energy. That’s true. Disorganization causes us to spend time looking for our stuff, more money because we buy stuff we already have but can’t find and energy just being overwhelmed, discouraged, and angry with ourselves.

By establishing just a few simple habits, we can train ourselves out of many of our messes and save time, money and energy. Our brains were wired for establishing habits, and when we have a healthy brain, it takes about 21 days to establish a habit. So it’s logical we should take care of our brains first.

That’s why these are the 3 important habits to establish, because they’ll lead to health and a healthy body makes for a healthy brain and a healthy brain leads to well-being.

These profound words came in an email today from Abraham and Esther Hicks. The wisdom in them is worth forwarding to you all.

“We would like you to reach the place where you’re not willing to listen to people criticize one another… where you take no satisfaction from somebody being wrong… where it matters to you so much that you feel good, that you are only willing to think positive things about people…you are only willing to look for positive aspects; you are only willing to look for solutions, and you are not willing to beat the drum of all of the problems of the world.”

After reading the above quote this morning, I vowed to do what they were espousing. Maybe an hour later the thought of someone I’ve chronically criticized over something that happened at least 30 years ago, snuck into my mind producing a litany of criticisms. At least I caught myself and that’s the important thing. But the next thing I did was criticize myself for thinking the critical thought! Keeping our minds clean and clear for positive aspects is like keeping a home tidy and clean. It takes establishing a habit.

In “Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise” one of the habits I established was “Pick it up, don’t pass it up, then put it away.” Can you see how that one habit could get and keep your home free of clutter if every member of the family established it?

In this video, The Cleaner Guy (Jeffrey Jones) shows you how to clean Zone One, the dinning room and entryway. Flylady's Flight Plan (which is the Zone Plan my sister, Peggy, and I developed and gave permission to Flylady to use on her website) has Week One/ Zone One focusing on the dining room and entryway. So if you're following her the Cleaner Guy will show you what to do in this video. Have fun! 

Watch The Cleaner Guy cleaning my dining room. By the way, did you notice, he used a Shark Vacuum Cleaner? It's the best vacuum cleaner I've ever used...EVER! It's like those Shark people looked into everything wrong with vacuum cleaners and made theirs a PERFECT machine. If you're in the market for a new vacuum cleaner, you just can't go wrong with a Shark. Click on my home and it'll take you right to the one I bought and I'll get a little money for telling you about it.  

It's so much fun getting to know some of you on a personal basis through the consultations I do. I’ve learned so much about how alike we all are in our SHEness (Sidetracked Home Executive-ness). To learn more about talking with me, please go to www.cluborganized.com  then to the Get Organized tab.

I recently talked to a very fun-loving and brilliant SHE named Pat, who emailed an update after our talk. She has been gracious to let me share her thoughts. 

She said, “I enjoy creating a mess. That's part of the trouble I had a long time ago; I couldn't understand why I should clean up such tiny messes, when it felt so fun to clean up a big mess. Unfortunately, after a while I just kept putting off the cleaning up until it was too big a mess to clean up!”

When I read that comment, it made me think about the Ta Da affect we SHEs love. I thought about what Pat said about liking to make a mess because it’s fun to clean up! I liked it too. I remember when Mr. Cranky (my first husband) would go on the road (he was a traveling salesman) I’d let the house unravel. It was soothing and relaxing to have him gone. He’d be gone four days at a time and that’s enough time to create some very big messes that verged on scary!

Give it up

When my sister and I got organized, we both discovered we had to let go of the need for a Ta Da moment. There’s no Ta Da in a little clean-up, so we have to get used to mini Ta Da moments.