My birth name is Colleen Terese Smith.  Very irish. . . well, the first two portions of my name anyway.  Actually, Colleen means “girl” in gaelic.  Very descriptive.  Not.

I live in Chicago and have for all of my life.  I enjoy listening to contemporary christian music.  I enjoy the taste of coffee very much, but my body revolts against the caffeine big time, so I mostly make decaf for myself.  I am not a college graduate and I have done very, very little traveling.  Pre-children I went to Puerto Vallarta (honey moon) and Cozumel (around a year later).  Now-a-days, the vacations we take are family trips.  We love to go to family camp in Dunbar, Wisconsin and we love to visit our friends in Tennessee.

My Family: The Garcia Clan

In the early 1990′s I met Ed.  We worked together at a company that is no longer in business.  It was an office equipment company and I was a Director of Administration (fancy name for a secretary for a group of people) for one of the many locations our company had.  Ed worked for this company for many years as well.  He was, in fact, with them for years before I made my appearance.  He was a copier technician – and he serviced the machines that were sold through our company.  We became friends.  Then we became more.

Now, years later, we are married and we have six children – Eddie (not a junior as he has a middle name and my husband does not), Dakota (whom I chose not to give a middle name, well, because what do you put between Dakota and Garcia anyway?), Jessica (very beautiful and slightly difficult), Danny (the most affectionate of all of my kids), Bianca (who has a huge personality and also no middle name), and Michael (everyone loves him to pieces).

My Blog: Calming the Chaos and Clutter

First and foremost, I am a sinner saved by grace. I love the Lord Jesus Christ and I strive to have my life be a reflection of that. Secondly, I am happily married to my best friend, Ed. Together we have six children. Ed and my kids give my life purpose. I don’t always do it right, in fact, I often don’t. I’m not a great homemaker, my marriage isn’t perfect and I don’t have the happiest, most well behaved children. Still, I love my life and I am grateful that I can continue to strive to improve daily, because Failure Is Never Final with God!

I blog because it can provide a release for me. I have many thoughts and feelings that I find easier to process if I dump them out of my brain. I also blog because I love to share information. I find so many gems online – through other blogs or sites – and I just love to share what I have found. I also love to share what I might have learned. Help those that are not where I am in life, but are headed this way, ya know? So – I blog to share. In that same mindset, I blog to encourage.  I realize that there are those that feel they don’t measure up.  I am here to tell you that you are loved by God wholly and completely right where you are.  No improvement needed.  You, flaws and all, are loved.  Originally I started my blog when I was just starting out with Clever Container and I saw it as a way to communicate my business journey. You know, a chronicle of where I started and how I progressed up the direct sales ladder. If you go way back to my earliest posts, you will see that is mostly what I shared. I also that it would be a great way to communicate with my customers as I built a customer base. But, my subjects quickly became varied. I blogged more and more about my interests [notice I did not say my strengths (smile)]:  Organization, Time Management, Household Management, Discipline.

My Nickname: “Clever Colleen” explained

I have adopted the name “Clever Colleen” for myself because since December of 2008, I have been a Founding Consultant with Clever Container and I snapped up the domain name (clevercolleen.com) shortly after getting on board with this great company!  I do not have ego issues and I am not self-proclaiming myself to be ‘clever’, although I wouldn’t argue with you if that was a conclusion you arrived at.  ;-)

Very recently (March, 2013) I came to the very difficult decision to quit my direct sales business.   It was not an easy decision at all.  However, I am confident that it is the right one.  However, I still love pursuing organization.  I still love writing.  I still enjoy blogging and the blogosphere.  I shall remain “Clever Colleen” even though now it makes a little less sense.

I’m also a Virtual Executive Assistant.  I found this role through eaHELP.  It was a ginormous blessing to have fell into this role – which could not be more suited to anyone than it is for me (or at least that is what I tell myself).  I like to read, or maybe I should admit that I like to buy books.  :-)  I am huge for seeking out things that can help me to grow and learn.  Now, if only there was a magic button that would force implementation. . .

I am genuinely honored that I have folks that choose to follow me.  I appreciate YOU.  I love to receive ‘comments’ and I always reply to them quickly.  My heart races and I get this goofy feeling when I know that I am not just writing thoughts for myself, but that there are those that are benefiting from reading my ramblings.

There are many ways that you can connect with me.  You can tweet me on Twitter, like me on Facebook or check out my boards on Pinterest. I’d love to meet you.  Stop by and say “hi”!