Merry Christmas to you all. I feel so honored to have you in my life, even though I haven’t met most of you in person. I write for you from my heart and I’m honored when you send such loving comments reflecting your love back to me. I know how busy you all are, yet throughout the year many of you have taken time to share your love with me. And to those of you who haven’t written to me, I know in my heart you are a SHE just like me and I love you.

If you want to hear the rest of the poem, here it is!

I know, I know, you haven’t completed your shopping and Christmas is the day after tomorrow. I get to say, “I know” because I really do. I’m a Sidetracked Home Executive and in case you don’t know, we SHEs are procrastinators.

So calm down and breathe. Everything’s going to be just fine. 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 ad 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.

When I was growing up I remember how great it was to wake up to wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. It felt so good to just snuggle deep into the covers anticipating the delicious breakfast being prepared. Then, later on as an adult those delicious smells were up to me to create for others, and I had to shiver out of a cozy bed to begin chopping, frying and cracking away for the gang while half asleep.

Well, help is here! In this video I show you how to throw together an easy, nutritious breakfast casserole that you can make ahead of time and just heat up when you're ready to feed a houseful of hungry guests! It has a coconut flour crust, parmesan cheese and lots of yummy ingredients that are absolutely divine together. Of course, it's low carb and sure to get rave reviews just like all the recipes I share with you. This is a favorite Christmas morning tradition at my house and I hope it becomes one of yours! Enjoy!

Sausage & Egg Casserole (for two)

Make Coconut Flour Crust:

• One half cup coconut flour
• One quarter cup coconut oil
• Enough water to make a dough (add slowly and work with the consistency of pie dough made from flour)

Bake crust at 375 degrees for half an hour 

 Filling:

• 3 large mushrooms sliced thinly
• 1 cup thinly sliced onion
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• One quarter tsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
• One half cup parmesan cheese grated
• One quarter cup olives chopped
• One half cup sausage fried and drained
• 4 eggs beaten
• Lawry’s Seasoned Salt to taste
• Pepper

Melt coconut oil in frying pan on medium high. Sautee mushrooms and onions until they begin to brown. Add cheese and seasoning. Keep cooking until the contents are a delicious brown. Put mixture in the baked crust. Spread chopped olives and any other choices like peppers, tomatoes and such.

Fry sausage and drain put over other ingredients.

Pour beaten eggs over mixture and refrigerate in you are making this ahead of time.

Bake at 400 degrees for half an hour.

I'm so glad that nothing is really ever lost--- especially when it's me!

The busyness of Christmas can sometimes bring oodles of stress and kids have a way of cashing in on adults shattered nerves and fatigue. Listen with me as we go back in time to a fun story my sister Peggy tells in a most creative way and enjoy the scene of a couple of worried, frazzled parents whose child was "all tied up."  

I was shopping at Michael’s (the craft store) in the late afternoon when I heard a conversation in the next aisle between a mother and her six-year-old daughter.

As I listened to the excitement and love for her mother in the child’s voice and the drone of her mother’s responses, tears welled up in my eyes. I thought about how many times I’d done the same thing with my children when they were young. After all, I had a centerpiece to make, a decoration for the coffee table to think about, colors to consider, people to impress and not enough time!

December 12, 2014

Want to simplify this Christmas? No problem! My granddaughter Kaytee proudly demonstrates that even those of us with butterfingers, can decorate beautifully with...well....butterfingers! Watch her create a magical gingerbread house using that stash of Halloween candy we told you to save.

You still have that candy right? Well, if not, don't worry, we'll wait for you to go get some more and then get ready to have fun putting together this festive holiday favorite.

Ready to watch this fun video....to see how 9-year old Kaytee orders her older brothers around?   

The best gift you can give the world is to be healthy and happy.

Consider this: What if spiritually you chose to come to this planet at this specific time, in this specific body with this specific life? And what if you knew before you came that you'd never be alone, that you'd be protected and loved every moment of your experience during your stay?

 What if this life experience you're having as you read this blog is exactly what you signed up for? Shakespeare said, “Life is a stage and we are actors upon it.” So imagine before you came here that you went over a bunch of scripts and you picked a play that really intrigued you and after much consultation with your fellow actors, producers, directors and from your angels you decided to come here and be YOU in this play called This is Your Life.

I had a dream many years ago on this topic. I walked into a large conference room where there was much laughter. I focused in on a very large black man dressed in a glorious, white African tribal chief’s robe. When I approached the oval table he looked at me with great love and his eyes sparkled with joy. He asked me if I had any questions about my life, so I asked him, “What happens to evil people when they die?”

"Mmmm.... what's cooking?" That's the question you're bound to hear as this simple dish simmers on the stove sending a savory smell that truly excites the senses. One bite of these sautéed onions and mushrooms and you'll forget you ever craved those carb laden side dishes of the past.

Recipe:

4 large mushrooms sliced thinly

2 cups thinly sliced onion

2 tbsp coconut oil

One half tsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt

Three quarters cup parmesan cheese grated

One quarter cup almond flour

Melt coconut oil in large frying pan on medium high. Sautee mushrooms and onions until they begin to brown. Add cheese and almond flour and seasoning. Keep cooking until the contents are a delicious brown. Serves four. Watch me cooking this delicious dish.

Lack of motivation causes procrastination!

I’m always trying to figure out ways to use my creative mind to motivate me and then pass my discoveries on to you. I’m sort of like a walking SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) research lab.

As you know, if you’re a SHE, you have a retarded concept of time and then it’s, “Holy Smoke! It’s December 23, Christmas is in two days!” So why not use your divine gift of imagination to quick-start your motivation? 

Here’s my idea and it’s so simple, just pretend it’s December 23, and evoke a little panic and a good dose of adrenalin into your system. Because you’re a SHE, you know that familiar terror you’ve felt over years of last-minute shopping for holiday gifts. You’ve experienced that very un-Christmassy feeling you get from dashes to the mall with its irritating marketing to get you to buy “mine,” “mine,” “mine,” like those seagulls in Finding Nemo.

And don’t beat yourself up for knowing exactly how horrible that feels; according to the National Retail Federation, nearly 32 million people will not have started their shopping by Dec 9! (I should get them on my mailing list.)

Just thinking about the chaos of post-Christmas morning, I wrote this poem in the hopes that while you shop this holiday season you’ll think of ways to cut down on the clutter of it all.

It’s Sunday and the family that traveled over the river and through the woods to visit “Grandma’s house” is back home and there’s a Ziploc bag in my fridge screaming at me to be creative with its contents: one dried out turkey leg, part of a wing and bits and pieces of light and dark meat. I gave most of the turkey, all the gravy, dressing, cranberry sauce, rolls, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes away in take home goody boxes for all my guests, but kept sort of a martyr bag of leftovers for us.

“So, are you the one who decided to keep some of the turkey when I was making up the “to go” boxes?”

“Yep!”

“Why’d you do that?”

“Because I like the drumstick and I didn’t get to have one on Thanksgiving because you said the real kids would want them and then they didn’t even take one but Pa Pa Gary ate one.”

“So, when you saw the one left you put it in the bag to keep.”

Happy Thanksgiving.

The following is an account of a disorganized Thanksgiving Day (from experience) and an organized one. I hope it makes you smile and plan ahead.

ORGANIZED SCHEDULE

6:00 a.m.   Exercise, shower, fix hair, put on make-up and dress in festive clothing.

7:30 a.m.   Say prayers, read inspirational material.

8:00 a.m.   Make bed, dress, eat a hearty, bacon and egg breakfast (no toast or potatoes) take a walk, and check appearance of the front door and entryway.

9:00 a.m.  Stuff turkey with stuffing prepared yesterday, have children set holiday table. (Silver was previously polished.) Boil potatoes (they were peeled yesterday and have been soaking in cold water overnight). Make pies         (pumpkin filling, apple filling and dough were made yesterday and refrigerated).

10:00 a.m. Listen to holiday music; check table, centerpiece and candles. Bake pies. Whip potatoes and set aside to be micro-waved just before serving.

11:00 a.m. Put turkey in the oven.

Noon  Prepare a light meal, soup and salad for family.