When I got organized in the late seventies, I decided to keep it a secret from my husband, kids, parents and best friend. I’d read that when you want to make an important transitional change in your life, keep it to yourself and wait for “them” to come to you and say, “What’s happened to you?” or ”You seem happier and you’re always on time lately, what’s up?”

What I discovered by keeping my mouth shut on my plans was I had more energy! There was a certain excitement in “my secret.” Also, those closest to us have heard us talk about needing to change, wanting to change and planning to change, so to make a chronic announcement, “This year, I’m going to get organized,” “lose weight” or “budget and get out of debt,” your friends and family are liable to say, “Yeah, sure Martha, what’s new?”

I also think there is power in sharing your intentions with those who have the same goal. I’m so thankful for the platform I've been able to create so we can help each other and share our triumphs as well as our failings. I’m just talking about keeping it a secret from our loved ones, until the results start to show up.

Woah!!!!

Take some advice from an old lady; what goes down, must come up. I’m not talking about the “I fell down and I can’t get up,” commercial for some kind of alarm device, (although it’s probably a good thing to have when you’re old) I’m talking about stairs and hills.

I’ve been recovering from Grave’s disease for the last month and a half and my physical body has gotten happier and happier with the drug I’m taking. I’ve gone from, ‘oh, I’ve got to go downstairs to my office, which means I have to go back up later,’ to being thought-free on the stairs. I actually feel like my “old” old self and it’s wonderful!

Here’s what prompted this blog. I woke up frisky. It was a gorgeous day! 70 degrees. With fall in the air, I always get special prompts to get outside and soak up the start of the season. There was a breeze, and the leaves were starting to rustle in the wind more, because they’re drying out. Have you every noticed that? Green, summer leaves rustle too, but not like tired, old leaves that are ready to turn color and fly.

For two years, Jim, our next-door neighbor, has been working on his property that runs between our homes. He cut down lots of maple trees (they’re like weeds in the northwest) that were threatening our views and cleared trails down to the stream. We’d hear the chainsaw and the weed eater for hours. He turned a rugged ravine into a manicured park in two short years.

Every time we’d see him, we’d rave about how much work he’d done, how beautiful his property looked and how much our view had improved. He’d talk about all that he’d done that we couldn’t see from our vantage point.

Because of my health issues over the last two years, heart surgery, hip surgery, pacemaker implant and then the Graves disease (because of a drug I had to take for the heart problem), I could only visit his work in my imagination.

But on that beautiful day, I felt ready to go see what Jim had accomplished. I dragged Terry and Maggie with me! (Well Maggie didn’t’ get dragged, she was thrilled with the whole adventure.)

Three steps to hook up! HAH!

I don’t know about you, but I’m technically impeded. I can’t say it’s a genetic issue as my parents didn’t have to submit themselves to this technological torture by having to read instructions that are translated from Chinese to English by some 19-year-old anti-American Communist.

What was your answer? I'd grab my Cuisinart. (I'd grab Maggie, but if the flames weren't too much, I'd go back in and get my Cuisinart.)

Did you like Oprah's favorite things show she used to do? She still does it in some magazine, but I'm not sure which one. It's fun to see what she likes and so I thought I'd tell you what I like (not like I think I'm an Oprah). 

SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) have been given very creative minds. It's part of the sidetracked package. It's what gets us into messes and sends us gleefully off to make another, before we clean up the one we just made. But there are such priceless advantages to our creative imaginations. This last weekend I had an AHA moment I'd like to share with you.

We live about two hours from the west coast and we usually make a couple trips each year to "the beach." We've always loved Cannon Beach in Oregon. Since I haven't felt good for the last couple of years, we put off going. It didn't stop my imagination from taking me there any time I wanted. It provided me with the smells, the feeling in the air, the thoughts about food I love at the beach and I can even feel my feet get wet in the cool sand. I'd guess I've been to Cannon Beach at least 20 times in the last two years...via my imagination. Those trips were free each time and since I didn't actually take my body there, I didn't have to drive two hours, pack, make reservations or drive back home for two hours.

So last Thursday, I felt good enough that I had this conversation with Terry.

"You wanna go to the beach?"

"When?"

Today."

"Where would you wanna go?"

"I was thinking Cannon Beach. I could see if there are vacancies "

"Sure."

One of the places we love to stay was full and besides inflation had had her way with the prices. $345 for an ocean view room! I'm spoiled. When I go to the beach I want a room that looks at it. Unfortunately I have a parking-lot view budget with ocean view taste. I swallowed my disappointment and we ended up with a room for $140 with an elevator view three feet away from our window. The tiny room was clean and the bed was comfortable, but Nelly (my inner child) was mad. The beach trips I'd had in my mind did NOT cramp me into a room the size of my office.

There's a totally fake voice some moms use in public with their children to make those around her think she's a great mom. It's easy to spot if it's fake, by looking at the children being talked to. If it's fake, the kids seem confused and a little mesmerized.

In this video Peggy and I talk about that voice. We called it, "The OMSI Voice." OMSI stands for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. You'll hear it a lot in museums, libraries and especially church as they try to elicit admiration from those in earshot.

I've been following this adorable couple on Youtube, with their crazy songs about COVID. My stepson Eric connected me with them, because he knows I have ADHD. Today I watched them sing about ADHD and I had to share it with you, because it celebrates our SHEness. In fact in my book "The Joy of Being Disorganized," the theme throughout the book is celebrating our disorder, not the disorder the disorder creates.

Are there people in your life whom you have not forgiven? Do you think you’d be happier if you could forgive them?

Nelson Mandela said, “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

Would you like to read about a simple approach to forgiveness that has worked for many, who tried it? To find real peace and joy in our lives, we need to forgive those who have hurt us. I shared this timeline in a blog many years ago and if you truly want the freedom that comes with forgiveness, this approach could help. 

February 17:

I got an email from a woman who said her teacher (spiritual) asked the students to bring a clear plastic sack of potatoes to class, with each potato representing someone they hadn’t forgiven in life. In class they were asked to write the name of each person they had not forgiven on each potato. Some of the bags were quite heavy. 

They were asked to carry their bag with them everywhere, putting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to their desk at work until they could forgive the people the potatoes represented.

The woman wrote, “The hassle of lugging my bag of unforgiven people around, made it clear, what a weight I was carrying spiritually, and how I had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget, leaving it in embarrassing places.” 

Is there anything yuckier than a rotten potato? You know that saying, “one rotten apple spoils the barrel”? Well give me a rotten apple any day! One rotten potato smells way worse than a garage of rotten apples. One potato would affect the whole bag, but that usually doesn’t happen because of the smell! I don’t think I could let a whole bag of potatoes rot, because the stench of one is enough of a call to action. 

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

While I was ill for four months, I was thankful to myself for having a clutter-free home. A home free of clutter is soothing and helps in recovery. This is a blog I wrote several years ago giving an excerpt from my book, "The Joy of Being Disorganized."

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 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 fill it with stuff that doesn't server you.

2. 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.

3. Baby Step your Way to Clutter-free

Start with the room that’s bothering you the most. (In my 44-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!

I haven't blogged since June 16, the 44th anniversary of "Sidetracked Home Executives." A lot has happened since then and it has taken me this long to write to you.