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,

You and Peggy came into my life in the early eighties. I sat in the middle of a big, beautiful new house after our tenth corporate relocation, indulging in a well justified tantrum. (I sometimes fear this will be the episode my three now, adult daughters will bring up at my wake.) Not a pretty sight. I enrolled the girls in their new schools that day and took myself to a bookstore for purposes of covert procrastination. It was there where God lassoed me with a copy of Sidetracked Home Executives: from Pigpen to Paradise.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Through your words and your humor and your stories you mentored me, gave me sanity one 3 x 5 card at a time, and were, well...my
friends. The two of you reflected the relationship I had with my sister, except for the fact that we lived 1500 miles from each other. And I'd found myself again a stranger in a new city. I read every book you published again and again and sometimes remember your stories as things that happened to me. (Not a good sign.)

Rewards for Doing Boring Household Tasks

Let’s face it, most household tasks are mindless and boring and you’d be a moron if you had fun scouring toilets and scrubbing floors, or I guess you could be a BO (Born Organized). But to have a clean, cozy peaceful home, someone has to take care of those unexciting chores.

If you can’t afford to pay for help or you haven’t trained your family to help (that’s a whole other blog and a chapter in my book, The Joy of Being Disorganized), you’re stuck doing them. It does help to play your favorite upbeat music while you work, but let’s face it, boring is boring.

There is a light at the end of the mop! Today, we’re so fortunate to have wonderful ways to counter the mundane. Introducing, entertainment as a reward!

A Juicy Carrot

We’re drawn to romance novels, two-hanky movies, reality TV, trashy check stand journalism and glossy magazines that feature the latest celeb pregnancy. (The mother of quintuplets once told me that with five babies she didn’t have time to read magazines, but she got enough of a celeb fix waiting in line at the grocery check-out and reading just the headlines.)

The definition for “loser” depends on the circumstance in which a loser finds him or herself. One definition has to do with losing at a sport, gambling or some kind of game or competition.It sucks to lose, but if we’ve been raised by loving people who taught us how to be good losers, we spare ourselves being the “bad sport.”

So you lost at Monopoly and landed on Park Place laden with hotels, or you didn’t win the Miss America contest; boo hoo, big deal. It’s not like you fell off or climbed down from some social ladder, but you’re still considered a loser. Anyway, that’s not the kind of loser this blog is about.

SHEs are Natural Losers

I know for sure we SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) are losers, because we spend a lot of our valuable time looking for stuff. As SHEs, we’ve had a lot of experience calling the Lost & Found departments in various establishments like hotels, restaurants, theaters, airports etc. and like the guy who doesn’t take car maintenance seriously and becomes known by the local towing company in town, SHEs usually get to know the Lost & Found people in familiar institutions like the building at work, the kids’ school, your school, your gym etc.

In this blog, I’ll share two ways to curb the search for your stuff. In part 2, I share two other ways we lose; one from loss of loved ones through death or disease and one from theft.

You'll be shocked at how getting organized just a little will add great joy to you and your family because:

1.   You do 50% less work

2.   You know where everything is

3.   You keep appointments

4.    You’re on time

Merry Christmas! Hope you truly enjoy the magic of this holy day.

This is a delicious, company breakfast dish that's so easy to make ahead you won't have to get up extra early in the morning to fix your Christmas guests' breakfast. So please enjoy this shart cooking video. 

One of my joys in life is to take a different tack on something famous.

With Christmas in just a couple of days, could you use some last-minute, clever gift ideas?

Get a pen and paper, sit down with your favorite beverage and think. Your creativity is one of your special gifts and that super mind of yours just waits for times like this to come to your rescue. Knock and it will answer.

Here are just a few of the last-minute ideas I’ve come up with over the years.

1. Give gifts from your kitchen

Since I love to cook and I make all my salad dressings from scratch, I’ve often given the dry ingredients along with the instructions to add olive oil and vinegar (you can provide those too, but let the recipient shake them together later for a fresher gift). I save glass jars and quart jars are the perfect size for the recipient to add the oil and vinegar to the dry ingredients. You can also use those wine vinegar bottles for the oil and vinegar and put the dry ingredients into one of those cute little jars that sample jellies and honey come in when you have room service at a hotel.

Gifts from your kitchen are always welcomed. See what you can whip up to give. 

 2. Give money

Download Everybody Loves Money from my website for ten fun ways to give cash using stuff you’ve got around the house or from the grocery store.

I bet my friend Ina Scott will put a smile on your face. You'll probably see yourself in her writings.

"Yesterday Glen and I had our first really smooth, Thanksgiving dinner ever,

thanks to the marvels of list-making and doing as much as we could ahead of time. Even so, I cooked and washed dishes all morning long, but it was a peaceful time, and shoot dang, I was fresh out of the shower, dressed, and putting my hair dryer away as my guests rang the doorbell 4 minutes early, not that I was counting
much—okay maybe I was counting, but definitely not obsessing! 

Outside of the improved organization, I had a few breakthroughs that seem minuscule but are actually huge because they represent such a shift in my thinking.

First, as I was getting ready to cook pasta for Mac & Cheese (the meatless option on our Thanksgiving menu); I looked at the pasta and thought maybe it was the wrong shape. Visions of running down to the grocery store for a bag of the “right” shaped article danced in my head, but they were interrupted by a little voice saying, “Don’t doubt yourself. You decided on this pasta and it will be just fine.”  

This lovely Christmas poem was written by Judith Robinson for her Christmas card this year. She gave me permission to share it with you. She also asked me to make this notation: 2015 Judith Robinson (inspired by Rob Brinkley)

Oh those magazines can trip us SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) up!

Their glossy pages taunt us and make us want the impossible.

Although this song I wrote and am sharring with you, does exaggerate a bit, it’s very close to what can happen if we’re not careful.