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.

If you're a SHE, no doubt growing a garden was tempting, but if your garden didn't do so well, as mine didn't in 2015, watch this video and you'll feel way better! 

The biggest lesson learned was.....well watch the video and you'll find out.

There are just some things we SHEs should not attempt.

Eat healthy food.          

Have healthy children.    

                    Have happy children.      

Come and join my bonus daughter Kristi Marsh and our two adorable grandsons Tanner and Kyle as we all explore what is called a CSA, or just simply a shared farm! Kristi and the boys show us how much fun it is to actually see where your food comes from and take part in growing it. You'll never have to wrangle your child to the floor again pleading “one more bite of green beans!” when they actually pick them themselves. Your kids will love the fresh taste that just can't be found in the supermarket aisles and will leave them loving the crunchy, sweet taste of sun washed fruits and vegetables. For more great ideas on ways to live a healthy life be sure and visit Kristi's website at choosewiser.com!

What if there were such a thing as a real fairy that came to your home right before you woke up in the morning, and was like a magic servant who helped you have fun throughout your day? At night, she’d leave just as you slipped into bed in order to get an eight hour night’s rest.

What if when you got out of bed in the morning this magic fairy was back to make your bed for you and had your house slippers right by your bed so you could slip into them on cold, autumn mornings? What if when you brushed your teeth, that same magic fairy rinsed the sink out and hung up your towel?

What if when you prepared breakfast, this marvelous, magic fairy cleaned up after you every step of the way and when you were through eating she put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher?

What if your fairy was right there when you purchased something with your credit card and made sure you put the card back where it belonged and put the receipt in a special home for credit card receipts?

What if your organized fairy was with you at the grocery store and reminded you to use the cloth bags you got when you were in an especially “green” mood?

What if your fairy had a stopwatch mentality that helped you get chores you don’t like (but have to do) over quickly?

What if she had a check list of rules like: start your day with God, fill car with gas when it gets to half a tank, balance your accounts every day and get at least eight hours of sleep each night?

You could have this fairy if you wanted her and she is free. See the fairy’s name is Habitha and when you establish habits that serve you it’s just like having a magic friend.

Labor Day should be for women who've been in labor. Come to think of it, labor doesn't really describe what we go through to bring a baby into this world. The word "labor" must have been posed by a man who, after watching a woman go from one centimeter to nine said, "Whoa, that looks like a lot of work, let's call it labor." The real words to describe the birth process could be, organic torture, or natural agony, or biological warfare. Let's stick with the word labor with collective smirks and let's start celebrating!