A few years ago, we took a vacation I’ll never forget.

          During that vacation, I took the six days off from the 21st century and never once looked at a computer. I didn’t answer anyone’s emails or write my weekly blogs for the last week of the month we were in. I just lived in what I’ll call a techless world. Yes, I was party to using the GPS while we “Yelped” our way around San Diego and yeah, once I talked on Terry’s cell phone. Oh and yes, I used the computer timer on the oven in our condo we lived in for a week, but the rest of the time I enjoyed the real world right in front of me

          One of the highlights of the respite was having lunch with one of Terry’s professors from WSU. Mr. Mott made a profound and lasting impression on my husband. (Thank you Mr. Mott.) Terry has so much respect for the man he can’t bring himself to call him Robert or, God forbid, Bob. Mr. Mott and his wife Edie are in their nineties and both sharp mentally, mobile and healthy.

Guests of Marla and Robert

We spent that vacation as guests of Flylady and her husband Robert. There were times when I felt a little like a beloved family dog. Marla, Robert and Terry spent a great deal of our living room time on their thingamajigs of choice, while I sat and talked to myself, read a little, wrote on a yellow pad and played "retro" Solitaire. (That’s a game you play with a standard deck of real playing cards, dealt onto a real table.)

This recipe for homemade, low-carb pizza starts with the most sumptuous, delicious sauce made from frozen tomatoes you freeze when they don't look good enough to put in a salad (even the really crummy looking ones you thought you had to chuck)! Then you'll see in this cooking video, how to get rid of the skins on tomatoes if you don't want them in your sauce. And the crust? Wait ‘till you see how we'll make one without rolling out any dough. It's so simple and fun you'll wonder why you thought the only way to serve pizza was to take or bake something in a cardboard box. Never again! Ummmm, the smell is heavenly when it's baking and the gobs of sausage, salami and olives are too yummy for your family to resist. It's time to say "ciao" to the best ristorante in town...your kitchen!

Low Carb Pizza

Fresh Tomato Sauce

About twenty frozen tomatoes

¼ cup water (optional)

Italian spices or taco seasoning and Lawry’s Season Salt and salt and pepper if you wish

Simmer for 3-4 hours or more. (More, if you use water.) Skins pull off tomatoes easily when done.

Blend sauce in a blender when it’s cooked down. You can keep tomato sauce in fridge for a couple weeks or freeze it for a long time. Fry a pound of Italian sausage and drain.

 Crust

Two cups Parmesan cheese

½ half cup almond flour

Mix together and fry the mixture on medium high five to six minutes on each side. Cool on a rack.

Build the Pizza

Put crust on a cookie sheet, smear sauce on crust. Put on Italian sausage and other items you choose. Salami, pepperoni, olives etc.

Top with cheese.

Bake in oven at 400 for five or six minutes.

You can also make bread sticks or croutons out of the pizza crust.

Did you know the Easter Bunny is going low-carb?

It may not look that way at Walmart, but it’s true. As an alternative to candy, he’s filling the hollow eggs with notes of appreciation, motivation and inspiration and you can do it too.

You know how we all love fortune cookies, well your kids will love hunting for eggs and getting note-after-note of encouragement, fun activities and surprises in the eggs they find.

Your dentist will be happy too! (Well, we hope so anyway.)

Here’s the list we got from the Big Bunny.

        This coupon is good for a foot rub.
        This coupon is good for a back rub.
        This note is good for one download at iTunes.
        This coupon is good for a book, next time we go shopping.
        Your laughter makes us happy.

 But what if did? Sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? Especially this time of year when you have a deadline looming to get your tax returns done. Just think, if you had a tree that grew $100 bills in your front yard, you'd have to have 24-hour surveillance and security! Oh and if the press every got wind of it, you’d be dodging them to your grave. No doubt you'd worry about how to keep the tree healthy, keep the bugs from eating those precious leaves and how to keep the money in your yard when the autumn winds threatened to blow your crop into the neighbor's yard (the neighbors whose dog leaves stuff in yours).

You'd probably end up a nervous wreck. You'd never be able to leave home, or be able to get all the bills that were at the very top, unless you were a very good tree climber. Maybe it'd be easier to have a hedge fund than a money tree, but you'd still have to guard that too.    

With the advent of credit cards, many of us were tempted into living beyond our means. Those pretty, little rectangles made purchasing stuff so easy, especially when you didn't have the money yet! Before I met Nelly (my inner child) in 2002, I was in big credit card trouble. Because I'm a writer and was able to make a good living writing books, when I wasn't writing and the income wasn't there, instead of changing my spending habits, I used credit cards to pretend I was still making money. I actually looked at credit cards as income. "Oh, goody, the bank just increased my credit limit $10,000!"

When everything came to a head, I was faced with figuring out how to get out of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. I knew I had to raise my financial consciousness and get out of debt, but I didn't have a clue as to how to do that. What happened was a miracle and I wrote about it in "The GOOD Book: Get Out Of Debt." 

Hey, come and join me as I play in the kitchen with my low-carb friend the artichoke. Not friends with Arti yet? You will be! Did you know that artichokes have more antioxidants than any other vegetable, are high in fiber and even are good for the liver? Some people actually use artichokes for a hangover remedy, but of course I hope you don't have to enjoy them for that reason! The ancient Greeks and Romans even considered artichokes a delicacy and an aphrodisiac. Who are we to argue with Aristotle? We'll use a few sharp tools and cut our way around the bright green leaves snipping off the pokey ends as we watch out for flying tips. This recipe is gonna be a favorite soon!

So come on into my kitchen and watch me cook them.

Wanting What Others Have Hurts You

“You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.” That quote is by Vernon Howard and he was probably never dazzled by brochures for fancy vacations or a catalogue from William Sonoma. We are continually tempted to buy what we don’t need. 

There was a recent ad on the Internet hawking the latest autumn purses (referred to as bags). It said in the email subject line: 9 Bags You Must Own This Fall. With suggestions like this, it’s no wonder we can hardly move in our closets!

Really the only thing we need to buy regularly is food and gas. Vernon would not be happy with some of my purchases. Like this crab hat my granddaughter Sophia is wearing. What was I thinking? I know, ‘I’ve gotta have it!’

Vernon’s quote resonates with SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) because we’ve experienced the clutter and resulting chaos that comes with not learning when enough is enough and being tempted by advertising. Yeah, we have duplicates of many items but that’s only because we lose an item and have to buy another. And yeah, we have more babies than BOs (Born Organized) because we never pay much attention to a calendar.

Easter is April 16 this year!

As we come together to celebrate the awesome miracle of Jesus's Resurrection, the sugar manufacturers have, once again, given us very colorful reminders (if we can make that mental leap) to remember what Easter is really all about. Let those brilliant Peep bunnies remind you of all the people who follow His teachings, and let that collection of multi-colored M&Ms remind you of all of your blessings. Don't EAT them, just let them remind you of how blessed you are and how grateful you are that Jesus did return in love for us all.

With that said, we really need to be careful not to buy into the sugar push in the name of this holy event. We can actually use the ubiquitous goodies to remind us that it's NOT ABOUT SUGAR. Try it the next time you're at the store. The minute your mouth starts to water because you just spied a display of Cadbury Eggs and you remember how much you love them, just swallow, pass the treats and run a quick thank you to Jesus.

I received this email and it's what inspired the subject of my blog today.

        Dear Pam,

If you're concerned about your sugar intake, this is an especially hard time for us. If we're going to stay off the sugar, we've got to just ignore those carb-loaded, chocolate-filled Easter goodies glaring at us from every woman's magazine cover and store shelf, because they'll just tempt us into buying a bunch of sugar and then we'll eat it! (If we don't buy it we can't eat it.)

With the big sugar push on, I got the idea to think up some sugar-free Easter treats and that idea turned into an Eastery way to serve real food. With a few wooden skewers and clay pots, you can get the whole family involved in making festive, affordable, Easter creations for the dinner table or for some festive hors d'oeuvres, that are so easy and fun to make.

Be sure to watch this video and let me show you what I did.

This year, Lent began on March 1 and will end on April 13. They say it’s a 40 day fasting deal, but if you count Sundays it turns out to be 46 days of giving up something that you love and are in the habit of having.

Are you, or do you know anyone who is celebrating this period of restraint? It takes self-discipline to not eat or do something you really love for ten days, let alone 46 days, and when I look back over my 73 years I’ve always admired those who observe Lent. I never have been that disciplined.

Today, March 22, 2017, we’re smack dab in the middle of Lent, and I received this poem from Judith Robinson, an amazing writer and contributor to Club Organized. When I read her poem, I cried. Okay, I didn’t sob and get snot all over the place, but sweet tears of love for women and our humanity dripped, tastefully down my cheeks. Here's her poem with her permission.