What’s the best way to keep your family in clean clothes? I haven’t figured this out yet. It’s a quandary that I have been trying to figure out for a long, long time. My husband and I are both to blame. We hate doing laundry. I don’t have a problem washing, but folding and I just don’t dance together.
Today, I came across a blog that has several tips on how to solve your household’s laundry problems. She’s got photos of a few different laundry rooms for inspiration too. Take a read, you might find a tip that helps you conquer the laundry quandary in  your home. Here’s the link: Complete Organizing Solutions: Laundry Links.

Once every 100 years the dates allign. Today is one of those days: 8-8-8. It also happens to be my birthday. Happy Birthday to me. Tonight, in celebration, we’re having a New Year’s Eve-inspired activity — we’ll be sounding off noise makers and lighting sparklers. I have a couple of friends coming over with small kids so I think they will love this activity.

The Olympics start this evening too and it’s a great way to get inspired. What I love most about Olympians is how good they are at what they do. Although I’ll never win an Olympic medal, I hope to be just as good at one thing as Olympians are at their sports.

So, tonight at 8:00 celebrate you. Do something fun, even if it’s not planned right now. As I’m lighting the sparklers I’ll be dreaming Olympic-sized dreams for myself and my family.

Another great segment from Tory Johnson on “Good Morning America” this morning. Johnson has a new book, “Will Work From Home.” In it, she highlights the five best businesses that allow people (not just women) to work from home. Everything from the uber-chic Etsy.com to hourly service-industry positions.

What I love most about Johnson is how she is so inspiring. She makes you believe in yourself and your dreams. I haven’t read the book, but think it will help many women define their futures.

Related:

• Buy Johnson’s new book, “Will Work From Home” now.
• Read the full article, “Five Best Work-From-Home Jobs.“
• Other work-from-home titles from Amazon.com.

The other day while waiting for people to arrive to a meeting, someone told an interesting story. I can’t remember how we got on the topic, but it is something to think about. It’s told as a joke, but I think that it has very deep meaning. Here’s my best attempt at the joke:

A business man drove past a man fishing in a pond every day. Each day the business man saw the same man fishing. One day, he stopped to talk to him.

“What do you do?” the man fishing said to the corporate man.

“I’m and executive and own a lot of companies. I work a lot,” he explained. “So that I can do what you do one day.”

“Man, you don’t have to do all of that to do what I do!” the fisherman said.

Very insightful, don’t you think. It goes to show that a lot of people don’t do what they love. They drive themselves to the ground, only to be disappointed in the end.

So often I have good intentions to do something nice for others. It may be to make a meal for someone who just had a baby, to send a sympathy card, or mail out birthday cards and presents. I think of these good deeds all the time, but I don’t always follow-through. Too bad my friends and family don’t know of my intentions.

This weekend we had friends that took action to do something nice for us (thanks Ryans!). It’s one of those things that I might have thought of, but probably wouldn’t have been able to get my stuff together to do it.

My husband and I have been caring for his ailing mother, driving 4 hours each way during the weekends to assist where we can. It’s a stressful time. Our friends called to ask what they can do to help and offered for our son to come to their house to have a playdate with their daughter.

Amazing is all I can think to say about this offer. It it something that came at the right time. My husband and I dropped off our son at his friends house (they had a great time playing together) and we went to a movie. It was a great afternoon and something that was unexpected.

The next time I have good intentions I’ll try to remember being the recipient of kindness and follow-through.  It might be the difference for someone else!