Did you know breads and grains turn into sugar?

Eating sugar in all its sneaky forms spikes your insuline and that's one of the main reasons our bodies store fat. Lower your intake of sugar in all of its tricky forms and you'll lose weight. 

In this cooking video you'll see how easy these tortillas are to make.

No flour. Low carbs. And they're delicious.

The Cleaner Guy is my nephew Jeffrey Jones. He offered to do these cleaning videos because I wanted a cute guy to show everybody how to clean the house. He was so kind fo volunteer! We had so much fun with this series and even though I've run them all before, we have so many new members, I'll just keep re-running them! Today's he's in my kitchen.

Excerpt from “The Sidetracked Sister’s Happiness File.”

From Pam: In our first book we worked out a weekly plan. Each day was devoted to a certain kind of activity. Included was a “free” day in which we could do whatever we wanted to do. But we’ve since realized that to tell a basically disorganized person just to do whatever she wants is meaningless.

When we developed the Happiness File we made a list of all the things we loved to do, the simple things that made us happy. We want you to make your own list of “love to do” things. It is the same as the list of things you made for your spouse in the February chapter, only this is a list of your loves. Sometimes we get so busy that we don’t take the time to do the things we love to do. It helps greatly to make a list. Decide how often you would like to do each thing and incorporate this frequency factor into your card file so that you can follow through.

Most of us 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 I think it’s logical we should take care of our brains first.

That’s why I chose these 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.

Snacks at the Movies Too Expensive?

With the Academy Award nominations announced, does it make you want to go to the movies and see some of those films in the theater? We’ve seen a couple of them, but the cost of treats and tickets will soon be cutting into our vacation budget even though we’re senior citizens getting a break on the cost of our tickets!

For example, yesterday we would have spent $51.68 if we’d purchased popcorn, soft drinks and candy! As it was we paid $42 because we had water instead of sodas and we didn’t get candy. It got me to thinking about how to save money at the movies, by sneaking in your treats.

Do you frequently have a friend or family member whom you love, come into your mind and you think, ‘I should call so-in-so’ and then you don’t, but then the loved one calls you? It'd be good to call your friends often because chances are if you're thinking of them, they're thinking of you.

The other day I’d been thinking about Bernice, my friend in Fresno and because we hadn’t talked in several years I sort of was worried that maybe she was dead (you have to start thinking that way when your friends get old and Bernice is 84). She and I were friends from the church we were members of, and we remained friends after I moved to Washington 42 years ago. I’d been thinking about her for several days and had promised myself I’d call her before the day was over. Bernice is one of those senior citizens who hasn’t even dipped her toe into the 21^st century as far as cell phones, Facebook, Google and such are concerned. I’ve tried to talk her into getting a smart phone or a computer but it was always like trying to talk a slug into running.

So back to the day when I talked to her; the phone rang and it went like this.

Ring, ring, ring?

“Hello?’

“Hi Pam this is Bernice.”

“Oh, my goodness! I’ve been thinking about you and honest I was going to call you today! It’s sooo good to hear your voice!!!! HOW ARE YOU?!!!!!” (I was so delighted to hear her voice my energy level was up there as if she’d been raised from the dead.)

How can that be when I'm only 45? (Okay, I feel as if I'm 45.)

When McKenzie, my first grandchild was born 23 years ago (my youngest daughter Joanna's child) I was stunned by the experience. I was honored to be at the birth and had one of the major shocks of my life; I loved that infant with the identical love I had for her mother when she was born. Being a grandmother was one of those surprise perk events God has up her sleeve. 

When it came to wondering what my "gramma" name would be, I really didn't care. I called my grandma on my dad's side Gramma Dot and my mom's mother was Granny. I decided I'd just wait and see what name McKenzie would give me when when she started talking. She named me Ila, pronounced eye lah.

Last week I was invited to go to lunch with McKenzie and Joanna and at the lunch I was informed that I’m going to be a great grandmother in July! The news lit up the table at the Applebees we were in like news that North Korea is going to be nice now!

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.

“Before you say or do anything when entertaining, consider saying it or doing it in front of your daughter.” Advice given to comedians by Phil Rosenthal, the creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” That is good advice even when we're not entertainers.

What an honorable thought. That premise reflects on Phil’s work. He’s not only a great comedy writer, but he’s a good family man with a wife and kids. He also has a fun new series on Netflix called, “Somebody Feed Phil.” It’s a documentary, food/travel show chock full of Phil’s humor and stars him. It’s very entertaining and worth watching as he eats his way around the world. I am NOT a traveler, but the first episode we watched had me dying to go to Bangkok! That is saying a lot folks!

There’s a huge difference between a drastic transformation and change that takes place as gracefully and gradually as a baby turns into a toddler. But when we’re fed up with our old ways we tend to want an instant and dramatic fix. That’s what impatience is all about. Take weight for example, we want the weight to come off faster than we put it on. We get frustrated with a loss of just one pound in a week, yet if we gained a pound a week, we’d gain 52 pounds in a year. I don’t know anyone who’s done that and you probably don’t either.

If you’re like me, you tend to have that notion: All or nothing at all. When we want to get organized usually we’ve come to a place where every room is laced with chaos. When we decide to fix our finances it’s when the power’s been shut off or we max a few credit cards and sink into financial depression. When we want to lose weight it’s usually because we’ve let it go so long that our pants hurt and we’re scared to get on the scale. We’re sort of like the frog that stays in the water as it is heated to boiling and cooks to death, only we don't cook to death, we snap.