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,

Have you heard about the SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) 3x5 get organized system for your home and life?

For some reason, there has been a wonderful surge of SHEs coming back to using 3x5 cards, and most are Flybabies. One of the reasons is they know (because they tell us) that 3x5 cards are the best tangible way to give you direction, which is the only thing you lack. They also are an excellent tool for delegating.

This from a senior SHE who has come back to the cards:

We talk to ourselves every day, but most of those conversations are in thought form so they often go unnoticed, sort of under-the-radar of our conscious mind because we’re focused more on what we're doing like your driving, cooking, gardening and such . When you finish reading this blog, you’ll understand how easy it is to sabotage your good intentions, by not awakening when some of these conversations take place.

Here’s an example:

We’re always trying to save time and energy, but for what?

We probably all have different reasons, but the main one is to save time and energy in order to have more free time and energy to do what we love. Killing two birds with one stone is like building up a time and energy bank account that we can use for play time.

Find out what my ten top ideas are.

First I thought it was clever, but it sure was NOT! I am sorry that I made you think I was quitting because of my subject line in my last blog.

 Second, I minded the “experts” who said, “Have a catchy subject line to get your readers to open your blog.” Well indeed that worked, because the number of you that opened that last blog “The End of Sidetracked Home Executives” went through the roof. Unfortunately most of you only read the first paragraph that talked about how grateful I am for each of you and how grateful I am to be 75 (my birthday was May 8). Well I’m not quitting!

"Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise" was written 40 years ago and on May 8, I will enjoy my 75th birthday! As the co-author of that book, my life has been so blessed and in the spirit of appreciation, looking back over it, I have something to report; we were all born to enjoy life and SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) have a corner on enjoying life even though that corner can be quite messy sometimes.

As I looked back, I got the urge to read the last paragraph in "Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise" because I remember how poignant that moment was when we received just the right words to end the book. Peggy and I were together in her living room and we knew we had to put closure to the first book we'd write (the first book ever written on how to get organized from a reformed slob's perspective). Here's what we wrote to end that book.

It takes about 21 days of not eating sugar to transform your tongue into a tastebud-touting, pleasure producer. In 2011 Terry and I quit sugar by getting it out of our home and consequently our diet and it was a shock to both of us how sweet vegetables became after those 21 days. Fruit is so sweet it's like biting into a candy bar and whenever I've eaten cake or ice cream on rare occasions, they are sickenly sweet and I feel awful afterwards. In fact every time I've eaten sugar I get a hangover like I'd been on some kind of drinking binge.

You ought to try cutting sugar out of your diet for just 21 days and see if you aren't shocked too. 21 days, just three weeks, and by that time you'll have established a new habit and you won't miss sugar at all.

Here's a post that comes from a very happy eater and I wanted to share with you what she discovered.

This spring I decided to feed the birds peanuts. I put a big pile of nuts on our deck and they sat there unnoticed for days! When I thought about it, I realized I hadn't seen the birds that love peanuts (the Steller's Jays) for quite awhile and wondered if they'd been off on a winter vacation in Hawaii. 

Then a couple of weeks ago we had the Craig's (our neighbors) over for lunch and my conversation with Shay went something like this:

Me in a rather confrontational tone (Shay knew I was playing with her), "Are you, by any chance, feeding MY birds?"

Shay, "Uh, which ones?"

Me, "The Steller's."

Shay, "Well, uh, yeah."

Me, "What are you feeding them?"

"Peanuts."

"What time?"

"About 8:00 in the morning."

"So that's where they are! They're going over to your house and filling up on your nuts and they're not coming here. Do you call 'em?"

"Yeah, I whistle, do you?"

"No I can't whistle, but I use a shrill, very high-pitched voice and say, 'Come on birdies!'"

"Yeah, we've heard you."

Until we wise up, we tend to go to someone outside ourselves for help when the answers to most of our problems are within. You know that feeling that comes to you when you know something isn't right? That's a sign that you're always guided to do what's best for you, even though you don't always listen. 

Even when you don't listen, that's okay, because when you choose not to listen, your guidance will always show up again when you're in a similar need for guidance. Here's an example of not listening and then finally listening. 

Do you like to shop for spring clothes 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,  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.

Think about how fun it is to start a new project when it's something you love to do? Say you love to knit, quilt, work on car motors or read your favorite author, as long as you love the action, chances are you'll enjoy the project. But what about those projects you don't necessarily like to do? How can we get the same emotional joy at the start of one of those projects and keep it going to the finish?

Somehow we have to find inspiration to do them. Motivation from someone worked when you were a child, and your mom got you to do things you didn't want to do by holding a consequence over your head. But now that you're an adult, it's a good idea to find ways to talk yourself into doing those things you don't really want to do, but should to make your life better.