54 Ways to FLY

Fifty-four Ways to FLY
by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

We all love lists. I started this list when I turned 50. I decided to update it this year. It is always fun to look at what I have learned and how I have grown.

My journey is about progress not perfection. Things change and life goes on. Learning to finally love myself was the key that unlocked my purpose for living.

Here are the lessons I have learned along the way:

1. Sidetracked paths can be wonderful places to visit.
2. There are no decisions to make if you lay out your clothes at night.
3. Post-It Notes on my mirror to floss makes my dentist happy.
4. Drinking water is the cheapest beauty and health treatment.
5. Beautiful music keeps away the bad news.
6. With a happy outlook there is always something to be thankful for.
7. My calendar is my memory!
8. Audio books bless me with the written word.
9. My floors never seem that dirty when I dust mop for 2 minutes.
10. No one can write "Dust Me" when I feather dust daily.
11. Sink shining is an obsession that changed my life.
12. Fifteen minutes is an amazing amount of time. My timer is my best friend!
13. Weighing every morning is my guidepost for the day, not a whipping post.
14. Being in a hurry doesn't get you there any faster.
15. Smiling is contagious to everyone around you.
16. Making up my bed makes me smile.
17. Birds at our bird feeders make me happy.
18. A daily bathroom swish and swipe blesses me.
19. Eating like a baby every couple hours fires up my metabolism.
20. Our home is not a landfill. Getting rid of clutter saved my life!
21. Our home is not a museum either. Tossing out the bad memories saved my sanity.
22. Lace-up shoes empowers me!
23. Shiny sinks give me hope
24. Cleared coffee tables inspire me to write.
25. Flowers in gardens are God Smiles.
26. Gratitude is a precious gift to me. I say "Thank You" often.
27. Attitude is everything! If you think you can, you will!
28. Hate is like the poison pill you take to kill the other person.
29. Martyr attitudes are just self-pity expressed to hurt loved ones.
30. A load of laundry a day keeps Mount Washmore away.
31. Forgiveness is freeing to your soul.
32. My home is my happiness file!
33. Front porch rocking chairs are essential any time of the year.
34. Telephones don't have to be answered.
35. Sometimes hyper-focusing can be fun! You just can't do it all day and all night!
36. Meditation lets the God Breezes blow.
37. Babysteps keep me from feeling overwhelmed.
38. Flowers arranged imperfectly in a vase still look pretty.
39. Routines are not strait jackets, they are the framework.
40. Cooking is fun in a clean, well-stocked kitchen.
41. Fiber in my diet keeps things moving!
42. Taking care of me keeps me feeling healthy, wealthy and wise.
43. I can't help someone who is not willing to help themselves.
44. Having only clothes that make me feel pretty keeps my closet from being mean to me.
45. Surrounding myself with Born Organized was the best advice I ever heeded.
46. Establishing routines helped me grow up and find my purpose for living.
47. Finally Loving Yourself is the gift that keeps on giving!
48. Delegating is a learned skill; I don't have to do it all, just follow up.
49. Loyalty is a gift that you give freely. To receive loyalty, you have to give love!
50. If you multitask you can't listen. Stop, Drop and Listen.
51. Facebook reconnects with you with old friends. Time FLYs when you have fun.
52. Most everything is small stuff; so what doesn't matter; just doesn't matter.
53. Laughing every day is good for me; even if I have to laugh at myself.
54. Love like there is no tomorrow, because one day there will not be a tomorrow.


For more help getting rid of your Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome, check out The Flylady's Web site and join her free mentoring group at http://www.flylady.net/. You can get her book, "Sink Reflections," published by Bantam and her New York Times Best-Selling book, "Body Clutter," published by Fireside. Copyright 2010 Marla Cilley Used by permission.

Hey, Look at Me!

Ever had a time when you cried out, "Hey, look at me!" and you wished no one had looked?

Today my grandson, Chris, was riding his bike.

"Hey Granny, look at me," he hollered as he rode his bike into the driveway across the street. With that he took off and flew across the street into his own driveway, coming to a stop just short of his dad's pickup and the garage door.

That reminded me of the time when I was a little younger than his 11 years, I would guess I was 8 or 9 years old. My family was still living on the farm a few miles from Ainsworth.

I had been riding my Shetland pony, Tony, that warm afternoon. I loved cowboy movies and so I would ride Tony as hard as I could get him to move and run him right up to the water tank where he would come to a skidding halt. It was just like in the cowboy movies!

After several successful runs, my brother-in-law, Don, was standing in the middle of the yard. I had ridden Tony to the far end of the yard to get a good run at the tank.

"Hey, Don," I yelled, as I turned Tony around. "Watch me!"

I kicked my heels into Tony's sides and we took off flying. I hung on to his mane for dear life so I wouldn't bounce off -- my dad never allowed me to use a saddle.

Tony did it just like we had been doing it. He gained momentum and ran right up to the edge of the full cattle water tank, sliding to a halt with his front hooves touching the metal of the tank. Dry dust flew up from under his sliding hooves.

Except this time Tony added something new to trick. He dropped his head at the instant he stopped at the tank.

I flew over Tony's head and landed with a big splash in the water tank.

I saw Don bent over with laughter as I came up out of the water spitting and sputtering.

I never did ride Tony into the horse tank again.

Palm Sunday and the Curtis Pageant

Tomorrow, March 28, is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week for Christians. That first Palm Sunday began with Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, where throngs of people greeted him by waving palm branches. What a contrast to what would happen just a few days later -- but just a hint of what would take place to change history one week later.


There are a couple significant annual events taking place tomorrow. The first is the annual Palm Sunday breakfast at the Masonic Temple at B & McDonald in North Platte.


The next event is the Curtis Easter Pageant at 3 p.m. in the Medicine Valley High School auditorium. Admission is free with donations accepted.


This year's pageant is dedicated to George and Joan Wetzel of Curtis who have participated throughout the years in various roles, as have their children. The following link will take you to a front-page story from the North Platte Telegraph.


http://www.nptelegraph.com/articles/2010/03/27/news/40000235.txt


It's a short jaunt to Curtis and the event is well worth the time and drive to see this performance as the beginning of your Holy Week observances.

This was written by Ron Snell, director of The Connection, a shelter in North Platte and posted on his page in Facebook. It's reprinted here with his permission.


It doesn't matter which side you are on regarding healthcare reform or how you think this administration is doing with its programs. This is about how we respond to one another. ---- Pat Dannatt

Don't be Crude and Destructive for My Sake

By RON SNELL

About the time I heard that Twitterers are being investigated by the Secret Service for promoting the idea of assassinating the president, I read and heard several reports about protestors' treatment of the black caucus members as they walked into the capital building to vote on healthcare reform.


A little searching turned up varying accounts of what the protestors did, with Fox News leading the way in saying it wasn't that big of a deal. Others reported that it was a very big deal.


Whatever happened, it wasn't good, and these incidents remind me that in our country there are people who are being irresponsibly stirred up to the point that someone is going to think s/he will become a national hero for taking violent action.


So I want to go on record: If, given the opportunity, you would spit on our leaders, or tell off-color jokes about them, or hurl racial epithets at them, or use vulgarity or profanity in talking to them or about them, or if you participate in such things vicariously with approval, or if you listen to those who encourage and incite this type of behavior, or if you do not speak out as appropriate against those who are doing these things, I don't consider that you really care about actually improving our country, no matter what you say.


You should know by now that I value free and diverse discussion, even when it is hard-hitting and multi-faceted. But the kind of stuff that's being reported is, to me, unacceptable and I don't want anyone to think that I will support or honor anything like that.


Protest all you want, but do it to others as you would have them do it to you when the tables are turned. Not because the tables will turn (which they will soon enough), but because it's a good reminder of the type of people we say we are committed to being.


I invite my friends to send similar messages to their friends to send to their friends to send to their friends. I do not want anyone's blood on my hands because I sat quietly by and let someone think they were making me proud when in reality they are offending me, and hopefully you.

Approaching work prayerfully

Deloyce Robinson changes the sign Thursday at First Baptist Church at B & McDonald in North Platte. Changing the sign regularly and putting up clever and/or thoughtful quotes has been Deloyce's ministry for several years.

Pirates!

You wanna be a pirate? Can you say "ARRRRGGGGHHH"?

This is my grandson, Chris, who was in the chorus for the performance of "Pirates!" presented by the fourth and fifth grades at McDonald Elementary in North Platte Wednesday afternoon.

I am amazed at how much talent director Marta Holscher-Nelson was able to put together in presenting this program. The music was fun and clever, the spoken lines could be understood and the actors recognized that timing was important in delivering comedic lines.

You might think it no big deal if the classes had practiced daily for several weeks. However Holscher-Nelson said at the beginning of the program that the practices were limited, varying from one practice a week to sometimes three a week.

Well done, fourth- and fifth-graders and director Holscher-Nelson at McDonald Elementary. It was a lot of fun watching you perform.

Going Somewhere?

Friends

Have you noticed how the meaning of "friends" has changed?

It used to be, not so many years ago, that a friend was someone you had known for many years, you knew their family history and their likes and dislikes. Most importantly, you did things together. Maybe you did nothing more than go to garage sales, or shopping, or to just chat over the back-yard fence.

With MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and a variety of other Web sites, the term "friend" has come to mean anyone you socialize with on the Internet.

I have Internet friends from Australia to Wales and many of the states, plus several in Canada. We play word games together, we chat through Yahoo or Google, and sometimes we even visit over the computer just as we would on the telephone.

So we obviously don't socialize in the same sense as we did in the pre-Internet days. That doesn't mean I haven't found some good friends through these sites.

Some of my best laughs have been late at night chatting with a friend in St. Louis. A friend in Pennsylvania and I have shared some good days and bad days via Internet chat and telephone conversations.

A young friend in Australia has shared his hopes and dreams with me. I've encouraged him when he needed it and he's encouraged me when I needed it. Several have become my friends because we share an interest in loving and rescuing animals.

A friend in England has drastically different religious views than mine, and we have on occasion engaged in lively debate. A young woman in Russia asks for my explanation of American phrases and customs as she studies English in college.

Our friends are no longer restricted to just those around our community, for our community has widened to include the whole world. They are just as dear as any friends I have had, despite our friendship being different from how we once defined friendship.

It's not that I have given up personal friendships in my community, because I haven't.

Just as I have redefined the meaning of friends, I have also redefined and enlarged my meaning of community. It brings us new respect for our similarities and our differences.

Apply at Home

It's Never Too Late

It's Never Too Late

by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

The other day this quote came in an e-mail and it got me to thinking. The quote was attributed to "Unknown." I always like to research quotes to make sure I give credit where credit is due.

"It is never too late to be what you thought you could have been!"

As I was searching, I found a very similar quote from George Elliot: "It's never too late to be what you might have been."

George was the pen name of a female writer, Mary Anne Evans, who lived in the 1800s. Evans wanted her work to be taken seriously.

Isn't that all any of us want - to be taken seriously? That is hard to do when you have no faith in yourself. I believe that a lack of faith is really just fear of not being good enough. This is that nasty perfectionism coming back to bite us once again.

This quote spoke volumes. Both of them give us hope. When we were children we had our dreams. Some of us knew from an early age what we thought we wanted to be when we grew up.

Then life happened and those dreams got pushed to the back burner. There was dinner to cook, laundry to be done and dishes to be washed. Some of those "Life Happenings" were our family telling us our dreams were not realistic. That is, if we even had the courage to voice our dreams aloud. Those dreams were dashed regardless of whether we ever told anyone. We were the ones who allowed the negativity of perfectionism to stomp our hopes and dreams.

Well I am here to tell you that it is never too late to figure out what you want to be when you grow up!

When I was in high school, I didn't have dreams! I was just doing my best to take care of my sisters and survive. I made good grades but college was never expected or talked about. Then I got married. I was back in survival mode. There was no time to think, just get things done. Years passed. I was good at every job I did, yet none of them were my passion. I still had no clue what I wanted to be when I grew up. My life was still in survival mode.

It wasn t until I got rid of my clutter that my life's work found me! Robert and I married in 1996. He had a houseful of clutter and so did I. We put our clutter together and then went to estate auctions and bought more. Our home was piled high and we had the paths that you see on those TV shows.

We were suffering from CHAOS -- Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome! January 1, 1999, was the day I committed to taking the babysteps to get our home in order. I never dreamed that my clutter was holding me back. It took me nine months of daily decluttering to finally feel peace and find my purpose for living.

So you see it is really never too late to be what you thought you could have been; even when you don't know what that is! Your dreams are hiding under your clutter!

For more help getting rid of your CHAOS, check out the Flylady's Web site and join her free mentoring group at http://www.flylady.net/. You can get her book, "Sink Reflections," published by Bantam, and her New York Times Best Selling book, "Body Clutter," published by Fireside. Copyright 2010 Marla Cilley Used by permission.

Good advice

Flylady Column, March 3

Stress Free Start to Your Day

by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

Do you ever look at the clock and find yourself in a panic because you are not dressed yet? It doesn't matter if you are headed off to work in the morning, work from home or you are retired; that same panic tells you that once again that time has gotten away from you!

There is no worse feeling than to walk into the bathroom and be startled by what you see staring back at you. Well, there is something that is worse; running to hide when your UPS man comes to the door with a package.

Why do we wait to the last minute to get dressed? I have heard every excuse in the world for not getting dressed, but the truth is we don't take the time. One minute we are having our coffee watching our favorite morning program and the next minute we need to be walking out the door. It slips up on us!

Even though getting dressed is something we do every day, most of us don't know how long it takes us to actually put our clothes on. This is because we get sidetracked with ironing, getting kids ready, watching TV and everything else that gets thrown our way.

The ease of getting dressed in the morning starts before you ever go to bed. By picking out your clothes and getting them ready you don't have to think. It is all laid out for you. That will help you put an end to your procrastination. Unless you keep hitting the snooze button! This tells me that you are not going to bed and getting enough sleep! If getting up and getting moving is hard, then it is time to set your bedtime just a little earlier.

Our habit this month is to practice getting up and getting dressed, to lace up shoes first thing in the morning! As soon as your feet hit the floor, start getting ready. There are no more excuses! You can do this and you are going to be less stressed in the morning. Stress-free mornings make for a peaceful day! What have you got to lose? Just your nasty attitude and hateful words.

Get up, get dressed and feel on top of the world. Then when you walk into your bathroom you will not scare yourself! You can get more done before you leave. You won't be hiding from a knock on your door. This one act of getting dressed to shoes has you ready for anything that comes your way.

Here are the tools to help you establish this empowering habit:

1. Pick out your clothes before you go to bed.

2. Go to bed and get plenty of sleep.

3. Get up 15 minutes before the rest of the family.

4. Start getting dressed as soon as your feet hit the floor.

5. Then lace up your shoes.

Your day is off to a peaceful start. That stress-free morning sets the tone for the rest of your day.

For more help getting rid of your CHAOS, check out the Flylady's Web site and join her free mentoring group at http://www.flylady.net/ or buy her book, Sink Reflections published by Bantam and her New York Times Best Selling book, Body Clutter published by Fireside. Copyright 2010 Marla Cilley Used by permission.

Spring is Near!

This is how I know spring is near - the baby chicks have arrived at Orscheln Farm & Home Store in North Platte.

You, too, can become a chicken expert by attending their Chick Clinic from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, March 6.

The one thing I want everyone to promise me is that you will NOT buy one or two of these chicks for little children for pets. These little babies are very fragile and are not toys.

However, I am sure if you would like to show these adorable babies to your children, the Orscheln people wouldn't mind if you brought them in to see the chicks.

First the baby chicks. Second will be the Sandhill Cranes to migrate across our area. I do believe there is a hint of spring finally coming to Nebraska.

Which are you?