We shot this cooking video last fall, because chili is such a fall comfort food.

However, the last few mornings, we’ve been waking up to temperatures in the 30s and I thought that chili sounded like it would really hit the spot, so I had Terry dig the video out of the archives.

 

 

 

 

 

You are Your Own Best Teacher

Could you teach another person the best way to fall asleep? I don’t think so. I’m an expert at sleeping, but my procedure for drifting off is unique to only me. Terry says I fall asleep within four or five minutes from the moment I put my head on my pillow. If I tried to impose my falling asleep techniques on you I would be remiss. 

Only you can figure out the best way to fall asleep. Sure I could give you some suggestions like, don’t have a television set in your room, turn off the lights and don’t have any electronically glowing digits announcing the exact time, but as far as the ritual that will put you to sleep, it has to be yours alone.

I could not fall asleep in the nude (I’ve tried it and every time, I’ve ended up putting pajamas on.) Mind you I didn’t say nightgown. I can’t sleep in nightgowns because the thought that it will end up all bunched up around my sweaty armpits by morning keeps me awake. I have to have pajamas on and the waist can’t be too tight and I don’t like button up tops because the buttons get between my breasts and bug me.

 

Eat healthy food.            

Have healthy children.    

                                           

                    Have happy children.      

 

 

 

 

Come and join my bonus daughter Kristi Marsh and our two adorable grandsons Tanner and Kyle as we all explore what is called a CSA, or just simply a shared farm! Kristi and the boys show us how much fun it is to actually see where your food comes from and take part in growing it. You'll never have to wrangle your child to the floor again pleading “one more bite of green beans!” when they actually pick them themselves. Your kids will love the fresh taste that just can't be found in the supermarket aisles and will leave them loving the crunchy, sweet taste of sun washed fruits and vegetables. For more great ideas on ways to live a healthy life be sure and visit Kristi's website at choosewiser.com!

 

 

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 to find.

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

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

        Redeem this not for a foot rub.
        Redeem this note for a back rub.
        This note is good for one download at iTunes.
        Redeem this note for a book, next time we go shopping.
        Your laughter makes us happy.

 

Just Another Day in a Basic Week Plan

                but a Very Valuable One...Planning Day

Do you have a certain day each week that you take care of items on this list?

pay bills

answer mail

write thank you notes

make appointments

organize your office (filing paperwork etc.)

do bookwork

plan fun outings

How would you feel, if all those important elements of your life were organized on a weekly basis?

When you are organized, you are on top of everything from the boring stuff you tend to put off to the fun of not missing out on events that are on certain dates. How many times have you missed out, because you didn’t plan it?

On my Planning Day, my husband and I coordinate calendars so we know about each other’s commitments, if they affect us. I spend from two to five hours on that list above. My Planning Day has developed into a very contemplative day.

For instance, when I pay my bills, I focus on how grateful I am to have the services and objects in my life that make it such a wonderful life. When I write my weeks’ worth of thank you notes, I think about each person I’m thanking and I visualize each one being happy and content. When I file paperwork, I am grateful for the organizing tools at our disposal that make it so easy to be organized. Being organized doesn’t cramp your spontaneity; it sets the stage for you to be even more creative.

When you claim a specific day of the week to plan, and then you stick to that regularly, you’ll begin to see that you can actually set aside tasks that fit into your weekly work schedule. In other words, you can have a pile of papers to file once a week if you’ll do it. You can add to a list of people to thank, if you’ll really do it once a week. It’s only when you don’t do what you’ve piled up for the week, that’ll you get into trouble.

21 Days to establish a habit

 

My kind of plan!

 

Are you following a weekly plan that helps you run a cozy, organized home?

When my sister Peggy and I developed the infamous, get organized 3x5 card file system outlined in our book Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise, we created a weekly plan that included a “free day.”

 

On that special day, we could stay in our pajamas all day, eat over the sink and slouch around and do nothing if we wanted to. I still have that day only I call it My Day. I do what I want and I don’t do anything I don’t want to do. I pretend it’s my birthday to get into the mood.

The interesting thing I’ve discovered over the years of enjoying My Day is that I accomplish so much in the name of being selfish about doing what I want to do! It continues to amaze me that what I’ve been preaching about for 40 years is profoundly true.

Your attitude is way more important than fact,

Don’t you just love the idea behind the rosary? My granny was Catholic and she taught me the rosary prayers and I loved hearing her recite them as she felt each bead. When she handled her sacred strand she did it with such humility and she treated it like it was a gift from God.

I’m not Catholic, but I’ve always loved the idea of using a tangible item to remind us to be thankful, to be joyful and to love and praise God for our blessings.

Who thought "this little piggy" could bring you thankfulness?

That’s how I came up with the idea to use my feet like a rosary! Why not? So combining the This Little Piggy Went to Market poem we perpetrated on our kids and really makes no sense when you think about it, I decided to start a new morning routine using my toes while I’m still snuggled under the covers.

Here’s what I came up with, and I’ll tell you what happened after I did my rosary toes.

Starting with my big toe of my right foot, I held each toe the same way Granny held her rosary beads, and said the following:

 

After I did the toes on my right foot, I did the same thing with my left ones. When I finished with them, the thought came, ‘Why stop there?’ So I took a hold of both my feet (I was still under the covers) and I thanked them for all the places they’ve taken me and where they’ll take me today. Then I moved my hands to my ankles and thanked God for the miracle of swivel. It made me be happy.

6 Romantic Ways to Spark up Your Marriage (Part I)

Romance is not just about sex. My mom cracked me up, after reading some article in a woman’s magazine about sex being the main reason for a happy marriage, when she said, “If sex was the cause of happiness, then hookers would be the happiest people in the world.” 

 

To me romance is not just about sex. It’s all about creating magical moments in your relationship that will take little time out of your busy schedule. Stop thinking you’re too busy for romance.

 Here are 6 ideas I’ve collected from some very happy couples as well as some tried and true ideas from yours truly. (Please note: I’m on my second marriage.)

1.   Use your calendar

I know Flylady would agree with me that most of us SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives) are romantics at least in the literary sense of the word. We both advise having a date night once a week. We love books and movies about romance and we both know that being organized helps in the romance department. (If you don’t shave your legs regularly, you’re not going to want to be romantic and your mate probably won’t be either.)    

Just a little bit of planning will pay off. Plan a romantic rendezvous during the month. You can get a room at a local hotel or plan to have the house all to yourselves. Just the anticipation of being together in this way will add spark to your romantic life.

As you read the ideas in this blog, write the ones you like on your calendar and don’t plan on doing all of these in one month. Spread out the ideas throughout the year.

Maybe you’ve thought, ‘how can romance be put on a calendar?’ Well, you’ve got four Saturdays this February and one of them is Valentine’s Day, so go get your calendar and put a heart on every Saturday this month and let your creative mind come up with some great ideas for each one of them. If date night has sort of fallen off your radar, now’s a good time to start over and reinstate it.

2    Let the pros help

Men love hors d’oeuvres!

That’s because hors d'oeuvres send a chemical message to the male brain that tells the animal there’s food ready to eat, NOW. My husband Terry told me that when he smells the aroma of food cooking, his nose is unable to decipher when that food will be ready to eat. A plate of hors d’oeuvres, on the other hand, goes straight into the blood stream, assuring the organism that everything is going to be alright. Now you might ask, “Why do you think men like hors d’oeuvres more than women do?” Well, women like hors d’oeuvres too, but they don’t need them like men do. When I fix dinner I’m hors d’oeuvring through the entire cooking process. Many times I’ve hors d’oeuvred myself into a bloated stupor before I’ve sat down to the dinner table.

Have you noticed men are weird when they’re hungry (especially tall ones)? I learned that early in my marriage to Terry. When it was dinner time he used to always be ravenous and, quite frankly, I didn’t like him when he was that way. He was six feet, three inches of uncontrollable hunger and he’d drive me nuts!

He didn’t act mean or cranky like some men do; he just acted like he’d skipped his meds. He’d sort of be a combination of Kramer (in the sitcom Seinfeld) and Barney Fife (in The Andy Griffith Show) on speed. He’d dart around the kitchen trying to get closer to the pending meal. He’d find difficulty concentrating and our kitchen just wasn’t big enough for both of us, when he’d be famished.

A famished man definitely acts differently than a famished woman. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Swanson didn’t think to name their large portioned TV dinner, Hungry Woman Dinner, even though an average lady can put one away with no problem. No one addresses the idea of a hungry woman because, quite frankly, we never are. That’s because we snack. From the time we are youngsters; we spend more time in the kitchen and therefore have more access to food than men do. If we work outside of our homes we carry with us a snacking pattern gleaned from generations of female snackers. I would bet that more business women have snacks in their drawers at work than men do. And men don’t have purses (a natural snack sack) to tuck treats. 

 

 

 

We all have emotional ups and downs, especially if we have young children. This might help.