My Mother, Myself

I never studied physics, I loathed axioms, and I never believed that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  But that was when I was younger.

Few of us think our mothers had anything to do with the fine way we turned out.  Self-made women!  Risen above a humble background!  I did it myyyy way!

An alarming thing starts to happen when we give birth to children–they rebel, right from the beginning.  We feed them, clothe them, keep them warm.  We medicate and comfort them, turn our nights and days around for their convenience. And from infancy they challenge our judgment.

We teach them what we know, place them under the tutelage of others who know more; we pray for their safety and for wisdom in handling difficult circumstances.  And they’re convinced we know nothing.

We set aside our own aspirations, adjust our goals around them, live vicariously through their successes.  And they discharge any possibility of “good genes.”

We make excuses for them, love them when they’re miserable, forgive them for the same hurts over and over, take the blame for whatever goes wrong, weep for their spirits wounded at the hands of others.  And they tell us we don’t understand what it’s like to be young.

But they’re wrong.  Maybe the greatest single reason we care so much is because we do know what it’s like to be young.  Every older person was once young, but there is no young person on earth who was ever old.  Even I know that, and I never study physics.

The amazing thing is that, in spite of the inevitability of all this, the indomitable spirit of motherhood doesn’t die.  Good thing, too, or the human race would soon be on the endangered species list.

Don’t get the idea that giving birth and canonization are synonymous terms.  Still, the good qualities we possess are not apart from the way we were brought up.  There is a very direct connection between our mothers’ influence and our present lives.

To say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree no longer sounds like a harsh assessment, but more of an observable fact.  I admit to being my mother’s daughter.  I have few capabilities that can’t be traced back to her.

I guess that means I’m grown up now, right, Mom?

 

USING IT ALL UP ~ Starting with Cosmetics

We used to talk a lot about planned obsolescence. I haven’t heard that term lately, but it comes to mind often when I buy things that are designed to expire. To me, that’s a challenge, and I plan to beat them at their own game. Don’t we take for granted that we will always be able to replace things that run low? That’s America for ya! But it’s part of the mindset of Saving Sense to avoid waste whenever possible.

Nail polish brushes do not reach the bottom of the little bottles. What’s worse, and honestly, this isn’t the manufacturer’s fault, nail polish begins to dry up long before the product runs low. That’s when we usually toss it.

Remedy: buy a bottle of nail-polish thinner at a beauty supply store. Five dollars will buy a lifetime supply, since you add only drops at a time to the nail-polish bottle.

How about soap? Except for specialty soaps, they come in oblong cakes. That’s fine for a while. Then, as they are used down, we have oblong slivers that end up in the waste basket. More practical would be round bars, which  would then wear down to nothing.

Remedy: while both are wet, paste the sliver onto a new bar of soap. Let this dry overnight before using it. Another method is to buy or make terrycloth pockets, drop the small soap pieces in, and use every last bit.

Lipstick can only be directly applied until it’s down to the frame holding it in a tube.

Remedy: get a lipstick brush. This can gather the lipstick down to the very bottom. Of course you will have to wash this brush well from time to time and before changing colors.

Toothpaste tubes are deceptive. When you think they’re empty, there’s actually a fair amount left.

Remedy: buy a slotted roller to press the tube flat and squeeze more out. Free remedy: just about as effective is to roll the tube from its bottom over the edge of the sink. This has been known to save many marriages, too. 😉

Skin cream isn’t too much of a problem until it gets down low. How to get the rest out without it being crammed under fingernails?

Remedy: have on hand some wood popsicle sticks for this purpose, sold in packs at craft stores or the Dollar Tree. Better yet, hang on to those tiny plastic spoons given out with food samples in the grocery store. Drop one right into the cream jar for next time.

Admittedly, all of these products will one day be totally consumed. When it’s time to buy more, keep this in mind:

1)     Larger is not always cheaper. Sometimes large actually costs more per ounce. Check the unit pricing to compare.

2)     Higher cost items are usually eye level on the shelves. Lowest priced ones are often on the bottom shelves.

3)     If you question the quality of generic or house brand vs, name brand, read and compare ingredients. If they are the same, go for saving money.

Sometimes spending time can save money. Sometimes spending money can save time. Which do you have more of?

Christmas is Awesome

 A beautiful word that has lost its impact is “awesome.” The dictionary defines this as “filled with reverence, fear and wonder.” I knew it had deteriorated in meaning when someone used it to describe my shoes.

Quickly, before it becomes a meaningless term, I want to say that Christmas is awesome. It’s more than “neat.” More than “great.” More than “allllriiight!” It’s awesome!

But you have to stop and listen to notice.

As quietly as an early-dawn snowfall, Christmas silently appears and then, in a moment, it’s here, in all of its splendor.

The splendor isn’t from ornaments, lights or presents. It’s an awareness of Christ’s appearance on earth, God incarnate. This concept is somewhat obscured in the busyness and noisiness of December, but when those sounds are stilled, awe prevails.

Some experience this as happiness; others as depression. Some feel compelled to surround themselves with family members; others to seclude themselves. What most people agree on, at least, is that Christmas is an emotional time.

Once again, this Christmas got a little out of hand. Too much shopping, running and eating. But that part is almost over now. Soon there will be time to think and listen and reflect. And listen to music.

Music is as much a part of Christmas as the decorated tree. Take it away and you endanger the essence that keeps it from being just another mid-winter festival. Music expresses all the things words cannot: the excitement of anticipation, the drama of the miracle birth, the quiet feeling of love. Awe.

 You aren’t going to sense this with “All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth” or “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” But, listen to the words of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night” to understand reverence, fear and wonder.

Take time to be still. You’ve worked hard. You deserve it. Let the healing streams of Christmas minister to you. That is awesome.

Countdown to Christmas

Did you wake up this morning, look at the calendar, and yell, “Aaargh!”?

Seems as though we no sooner get over Labor Day picnic preparations and it’s Christmastime. For all my sisters out there who are in a last minute panic, I submit these tips.

Make your baking life simpler. Bake batches of two types of simple, small cookies, and fill in the trays with bought cookies, sliced fruit cake, dried fruit and nuts, and/or little colorful Christmas decorations.

Don’t have your cards out yet? Call a family meeting. This year make it a joint project. One will address envelopes, another affix stamps and return-addresses, and each will share in a mini-message or at least signatures. If necessary, threaten (with a smile) to close down the kitchen until cooperation is guaranteed.

Gift list still incomplete? For the person who has far too many things in the house, choose a small and useful gift: watch, gloves, DVD movie.

If you still can’t think of appropriate gifts for some people, go with carefully chosen gift cards. Young kids who are old enough to understand spending limits will go crazy in Toys-R-Us. A teenager will welcome one to a youth’s clothing store. The DIYer will appreciate Lowe’s or Home Depot. Those on a tight budget might appreciate a nice restaurant. If this is for a person who lives alone, don’t just give a gift card. That puts them in an uncomfortable position. Take the person out to dinner instead.

For an elderly person who has everything, create a booklet of coupons to give: so many visits, invitations to lunch, maybe a phone call a week, a promise of needed favors, prayers for a year. You get the idea, tailor it to your relationship.

For a person with limited ability, visit a store that carries health care supplies. It can be a real eye opener. There are an amazing number of gadgets and pieces of equipment to make life easier for these folks–cutlery with oversized handles, triangular holders to prevent pens from rolling away, grippers on long handles to get things out of reach, and many more clever things you never dreamed had been invented.

For someone in a wheel chair, there are soft, comfortable chair pads and egg carton foam pads to reduce the probability of soreness, as well as neck pillows.

It doesn’t take long to do Christmas up well, but it does take a lot of caring, not about looking good, but about what our giving means to others. Who knows? Without you, some may never experience love this Christmas.

Whatever Happened to Thanksgiving?

A strange thing has happened in society. Year by year, Halloween has taken its place in the ranks of major holidays. What was once a day of prayer for the saints, became a few days of candy, pumpkins and black cats, and eventually evolved into what is now a month of Satan-dominated culture. TV programs reflect it. Stores reflect it. And so do lawn decorations.

At the same time, Christmas arrives earlier and earlier each year, lately coming head to head with Halloween, and giving scant attention to the “other” holiday in between–Thanksgiving. It takes a month to prepare for Halloween. Now we find we can’t handle Christmas in the three weeks December allows. Something had to go. And it was Thanksgiving. Quietly, the essence of Thanksgiving has eroded until it is barely an occasion, a mere day apart for pigging out.

In some ways this is understandable. Gratefulness is intangible. We can’t literally decorate the house with it. We negate it if we wrap it in gift giving, and we have no representative cartoon figure to light up and put on the lawn. To place a wooden pilgrim outside celebrates history, not the spirit of the holiday. A turkey outside the door? Further away still. Thanksgiving’s only commercial value is in stores competing for our food dollars, and, family magazines offering new ways to cook the festive dinner. If the best we can do is to dress little girls and boys like pilgrims and Indians, and eat until we’re sick, we’ve come far afield and missed the point.

Even though the federal government has designated a specific day for giving thanks, gratitude can’t be legislated. On this issue, we stand alone. Celebrating, beyond dinner and football, is a movement that requires us to be self-motivated, each finding our own way to express sincere thankfulness. Granted there are probably more families saying a prayer of thanks for their food on that day than any other day of the year. That’s nice, but is it enough? Maybe it’s the cynicism in me that regards this moment of effort as insufficient.

Thanksgiving isn’t about history, although it springs out of it. And it really isn’t about a turkey, a pumpkin, or a week’s calories in one meal.  Thanksgiving is saying I’ve been blessed. I’ve received more than I need, more, in fact, than I deserve, more than many others have.

Thanksgiving needn’t be commercially driven to have social value. Surely, before the larger-than-life Santas appear on lawns, we can take a bit more time out to be thankful in our hearts. Surely we can take more than a day of over-indulgence before we get real about a list of all the things we don’t have and want. What if we declared a week in November as a time of thankfulness? Or how about a month of ceremoniously declaring our blessings? Can we spare the time to be truly thankful for what we have in health, relationships, and yes, things, too? Call November a month of contemplation and gratitude. We can’t spread the spirit in stores, but we can from person to person.

While the Psalmist writes that a merry heart doeth good like medicine, don’t overlook that a thankful heart is healing also.

 

 

 

 

 

Conserving Water – A Good Cause

 Water… one of our cheapest resources and possibly the most taken for granted in our area. That mindset is about to end, though. As more focus is placed on conservation and the environment, it’s time to change the way we use water.

They say if you want to form a new habit, repeat a behavior every day for three weeks and you’ve got it (though I’ve had dogs that were easier to train than that), so let’s get started.

Do you leave the water running when shaving, brushing teeth or shampooing? Save four gallons a minute by turning the water off between uses.

If you don’t have a water dispenser in the fridge, keep a bottle of water there so that your thirsty family will not run two gallons out of the tap to reach the cold stuff.

Use water from cooking veggies for a soup starter.

Dishwashers use less water than hand-washing, and Energy Star machines use even less than older models, 18-25 gallons against 40 gallons for a ten-year-old machine. It’s estimated the difference could mean a savings of $100 a year on combined water and energy bills. Is that enough incentive to replace the old one?

Arrange dishes orderly to get the most in, and run it when full. If your preference is to run it every evening, then find other things that need to be washed to take up the empty space, things like canisters, vases, knickknacks, toys. Be sure that each can tolerate heat, water and strong detergent.

No dishwasher? Forget the huge dishpan. Wash dishes out of the largest pot you’ve used, or a large mixing bowl. But don’t leave water running throughout the routine. It’s a small effort to turn the water on to rinse each piece or group of flatware pieces.

After cooking, fill pots with detergent water and let soak while you eat and before washing. The dried-on food will loosen up and take less water to clean.

Throughout the house, check for any drips or leaks in the water lines. Put your ear against a toilet tank to hear if water is running anywhere in the house. You won’t have to go from room to room first for this check.

Old toilets use far more water than necessary. Adaptors are available to convert them to use less water. Or, place a brick or capped soda bottle of water in the tank to reduce the amount used.

Get a low-flow shower head, and encourage more showers than baths. Set a time limit, or literally set a timer, if teens don’t know enough to come out of the “rain.”

In the garden, lay black plastic around plants to retain ground moisture. They will require far less watering, if any. Bonus: this keeps the weeds down also.

Or, use organic mulch around trees and large plants to absorb and hold water.

There will be less evaporation if the lawn is watered in the early morning or evening.

You know how we all say it’s bound to rain after washing the car or watering the lawn? Check the weather forecast before watering the lawn. Maybe you won’t have to.

Changing fish-tank water? Perfect for watering house plants.

Redirect downspouts to water trees or gardens. Or resurrect the old rain barrel idea to wash the car or water house plants.

Running the sprinkler to cool off the kids? Make sure it’s in an area that needs the water, too, like the lawn.

Drive the car onto the lawn to wash it. Double duty watering!

Aerating the lawn allows the water to reach the roots rather than run off.

Got left-over ice in a cup? Toss it onto a plant.

I could go on and on with more ideas, but you get the idea. This is basically common sense. The point is to take our use of water seriously and use it without wasting it. The reward? Lower water and sewage bills and a greener earth.

Surviving Telemarketing

Next to inheriting one’s fortune, the highest potential for wealth is in sales. Is it any wonder then that so many people take a crack at this work? Sales jobs do not appear high on income charts because the good ones are offset by the bad ones, of which there are far more.

Selling is hard on the guts. You are always faced with the unknown, and the challenge to be a verbal victor is with you every moment.

I’ve been on both sides of the door, and so am usually empathetic to the person who approaches me. But twice recently I was confronted by salespeople who didn’t seem to know that hard-sell is a thing of the past. There is little question these high-pressure people are intimidating their way to the top, and I am concerned about their victims.

Cold canvassing and phoning are not nearly the problem they used to be, but there are still moments when we are inconvenienced by them. With that in mind, let’s look at ways to hold back the wolves and keep our dignity in the process.

There is no free lunch! (though to tell you the truth, I just had one last week) You get nothing for nothing! Every free offer comes with a hook. You will recognize that you are a sales target when told that you have won a prize. More often I know what’s coming when a voice says, “Hello, Betty. How are you today?” The personal approach takes one off guard.

It’s easier to back out at the beginning than later on. Avoid the confrontation if you can.

Some suggestions for saving your time, your money, and your temper:

So, let’s say you want to terminate the conversation. On the phone, try, “I don’t need anything right now, but thank you for calling.” Then hang up quickly.

In your own privacy, rehearse saying, “This product isn’t right for me, but thank you for showing it to me.”

“We aren’t interested in more advertising because we are going out of business.”

“I’m sorry but our charitable contributions are already pledged elsewhere.”

“Our budget is very limited. If I buy it, I won’t be able to pay for it.”

Variations on that theme: “Our credit rating is bad right now.”

“My brother/cousin/father is a contractor and does all our house repairs.”

“We are in the same business. We don’t use outside help.”

If there is ever a time a telephone answering machine is worthwhile, it’s on this occasion. In fact, the ultimate irony is when my answering machine takes a message from a machine calling to take a survey.

Do not say you will think about it if you don’t mean it. Be up front about your intention to buy or not to buy. It’s more fair to the caller, and will prevent a follow-up call.

If this doesn’t clear the room, then you are up against a more aggressive person. Keep your cool while he talks. Get up and walk to the door. He should get the message and follow.

Suppose he doesn’t. Then use one of his favorite strategies. Ask him to spell his name, and ask for the name or number of his superior. Write this down, and let him know you will call and lodge a complaint with the company. If the experience has been unpleasant, by all means, do this.

But sales people are mostly just folks trying to earn a living, and are doing it the hard way. Be pleasant. You can refuse a product and not devastate the vendor in the act.

But if you are confronted by an offensive person, as I was, then say anything you feel like.

And by the way, you can have your phone number put on a do-not-call list by going to donotcall.com. Registering is free, and will cover home or mobile phones for five years. After 31 days of registering, the onus is on the caller. Telemarketers are required to subscribe to and check this list every 31 days and should remove any names on it from their calling list. If you still receive calls, you can report them, and they are subject to being fined.

Sounds foolproof, doesn’t it? Sorry, this does not include any company you have already done business with, political calls or those from non-profit organizations.

Teaching Children Finances

When you consider that parenting is basically on-the-job training, it isn’t surprising that children grow up with problems. More surprising is that they do pretty well… except where money is concerned.

If love is what makes the world go around, it’s money that stops it in its tracks. There is hardly another subject that causes so many arguments, divorces and violence, or so alluring that it becomes an end in itself, and frequently leads to crime. Few other areas are so ignored by parents and teachers.

We send children to school to learn basic academic skills, and to college to further develop marketable abilities. We provide music lessons and introduce them to sports to round out their lives. But money management is expected to be innate. Is it?

What is the likelihood that you will be able to protect your children from financial difficulties throughout their lives? Pretty slim! It would be better to allow them the learning experience of handling money while they are small and you are there to help. What better way can a child learn this than to have some money of his own to use, to stretch out, to run short of, to invest. All this under the watchful eye of a caring parent.

A lot of debate exists on the pros and cons of giving allowances to children. Or should they be paid for working around the house? My opinion? Children are members of the family, and deserve a spending share also, just for existing. Linking allowances and jobs together defeats that purpose. It doesn’t take a parent long to learn that each child handles responsibilities on a different level, and there is no way to be fair with every one that way.

This is not to suggest that children should escape jobs at home. They live there, they create a large amount of the work load, and they should share the upkeep also, geared to their ages and abilities. Cleaning their own rooms, putting their clothes away, doing dishes, helping prepare meals… these are all normal maintenance in a home.

When children are very small, they will prefer a nickel to a dime because, being visibly larger, it will appear to have more purchasing power. But you will show them otherwise. Lesson number one.

If you buy candy or trinkets for a preschooler when they come shopping with you, limit what they can spend, and show them just how much can be bought for that amount. This will teach decision making also, another often overlooked aspect of parenting.

Show children how to budget on paper. Economists say these two habits lead to successful money management: setting aside the first ten percent for giving and the next ten percent for saving. You know from experience that if it isn’t taken off the top, it won’t be there when you get to the bottom. Teach children these principles.

Show them how to spread the rest out over the week if they will be using it for small things like candy or toys, or how to wait it out until the next allowance, if they’ve blown it all quickly.

Help them to comparison shop and learn that they can get more for their money at one store than another.

Each year, on a birthday, for instance, the amount of allowance might be updated according to needs. Don’t include lunch money in this. Eating isn’t optional. Besides, a child who wants to buy something badly enough will skip a meal to reach a goal.

As they get older, establish an amount they may spend on clothing for the season, and then, short of a catastrophe, don’t bail them out. If they would rather buy one pair of designer jeans than three pairs of Levi’s, let them. But let them live with it too.

Allow an opportunity to earn extra money, if the purpose is good and the family budget can handle it. This would, of course, be apart from their regular responsibilities.

Encourage a teenager to open a checking account, and then watch that he keeps the balance up to date. Show him how to prove the total when statements come in.

Don’t use money as a reward or punishment. It becomes easily confused with self esteem.

Include children in limited family discussions on finances, but don’t divulge to youngsters details that you don’t want known outside of the home. You should also be careful not to burden them with your worries. This area calls for a lot of good common sense.

One of the most unrealistic things parents do in the area of finances is to allow a working child to live at home without contributing to the home expenses. Parents often feel they are helping their children to get a start, but what they are actually doing is protecting their babies from the mean realities of life, keeping them dependent and immature. Whether you need the money or not, they need to own up to their own responsibilities.

After all of this, I’ll have to admit that in the end children are going to learn more about money handling from what they see than from what we say. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it,’ (Proverbs 22:6) includes the injunction to teach stewardship. So be flexible and set a good example. God surely intended for us to manage our affairs sensibly.

For better or for worse, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Scary, isn’t it?

Last-minute Food Substitutions

I don’t know what it is that tries men’s souls, but the times that drive me batty are when I begin a cooking project and find I’m out of an ingredient.

Being a most resourceful person, I can frequently get through with a stand-in. We are far too busy folks to run to the store mid-project for something that can be substituted, right?

Out of brown sugar? Mix 1 cup of white sugar with 1 teaspoon maple flavoring and 1 teaspoon molasses.

Granulated sugar can be whipped into confectioner’s sugar in the blender. The longer you blend, the finer. It will not  reach as fine a consistency as the real thing, but will serve the purpose for sprinkling and other uses.

Use half as much honey as you would sugar, then use 2 tablespoons less liquid for each ½ cup of honey.

The secret ingredient in soft or diet margarine is water. To make your own, soften 1 pound of regular and whip with ½ cup of water. It will reduce oil intake and will remain soft. For better tasting yet, whip it with ½  cup of milk.

Applesauce can be substituted for oil in baking. Cakes do not rise quite as high, but do not dome in the middle. Perfect for layering! Adds a nice flavoring, and it’s perfect for cutting fat in the diet!

No cream cheese? Beat low fat cottage cheese until smooth. 

You may never need mascarpone cheese, but I found it in a recipe and at the last minute was pleased to learn I could substitute cream cheese whipped with little butter.

For buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of milk and let it stand for five minutes to thicken.

Cream of tartar?  1/2 teaspoon = 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar 

Three tablespoons of cocoa plus 1 tablespoon of shortening will do in place of 1 square of unsweetened chocolate.

Radishes can be used in place of water chestnuts, and are less expensive.

One eighth teaspoon of garlic powder equals 1 clove. That’s one where you definitely want precision.

For 1 teaspoon of allspice, mix ½ teaspoon cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of  ground cloves.

One teaspoon baking powder equals ½ teaspoon baking soda plus one third cup sour milk.

A mixture of vinegar and orange extract will substitute for lemon juice.

White sauce with a little vinegar added may be used for sour cream in a recipe.

One tablespoon cornstarch equals 2 tablespoons flour.

Self-rising flour is simple to make and store. For each cup of flour, add 1 teaspoon of baking powder ½ teaspoon of salt.

Prepare your own instant hot chocolate mix with one cup of Nestles Quick, 2 ½ cups powdered milk, and ½ cup powdered cream. Make it extra rich by adding ½ cup powdered sugar to the mix. To serve, add one coffee scoop per cup of water.

Croutons are a piece of cake to make. Brush stale bread with butter or oil, dice into cubes, shake in a bag containing any or all of the following: salt, onion salt, parsley, basil, oregano. Toast in 325 ⁰ oven. Save power by doing this when the oven is being heated for another purpose.

If you tend to forget things that are tucked away, try sprouting your own beans. Simply put them on a very wet paper towel in a covered bowl placed in a dark place for four days. If you do happen to remember them, rinse them each day and cover them again. These are highly nutritious and an inexpensive addition to salads.

Are you creative? Try reproducing any product that has the ingredients listed on the label. Just remember that they are in descending order of quantity. Here’s your chance to substitute where an ingredient is a no-no.

You won’t meet as many of your neighbors over the back fence with this sort of resourcefulness, but you will save a lot of time and get more done in the kitchen.

Picnic Days

As natural to early July as fireworks is picnicking. Big ones. Little ones. Backyard ones. Park ones. You can hardly drive anywhere without catching a tantalizing whiff of barbecued hamburger or chicken.

Do you love picnics as much as my family does? The only problem is, the first picnic each spring tends to be a disaster. Our measure of success is being able to keep the occasion from registering on the Richter scale. Were I given to taking my own advice, it might not happen so regularly. So let’s both pay attention.

The menu is simple, but don’t all those little nuisance details make work out of relaxation? See if any of these suggestions help.

  Take advantage of nearby parks. Life gets a whole lot simpler when you aren’t planning a long drive, and when it’s easy enough to get to, you may want to picnic more often. Saves gas, too.

 As time goes on and the family expands (in number, not girth), be more generous with delegating jobs. Have one person responsible for recreational equipment, another for tableware, another for fire starting. If one is preparing the food, another might prepare the drinks. When you get there and the chicken is still at home in the refrigerator (yes, I’ve done that), it’s a sure clue one person had too many responsibilities.

 It’s picnic-standard to stretch a blanket out over the grass. Why not keep one in the trunk of the car all the time. It also may be just what someone needs when the air conditioning gets to be too much.

Use a flat bedsheet for a tablecloth instead of plastic. It can be shaken out later and thrown into the washing machine for a minimum of handling.

 Fold the broad side up six or eight inches, sew pocket divisions every two feet, and you will have sections into which to put napkins and anything else that tends to fly away.

 Fold each corner up and sew a pocket there also. Put a stone into each corner and your cloth will stay put in a breeze.

 You can also buy wide clips especially made to hold the cloth on to the table. A couple of these clipped on to the ends of the table will give you something from which to hang a trash bag and also handbags that are forever getting knocked onto the ground.

 Another sheet makes a good ground cloth for sitting, when you choose to forego chairs at the table.

 When you plan to grill chicken, cook it in water at home to shorten the time on the grill and to assure thorough cooking. The by-product is chicken stock for another meal.

 If time is more of a factor to you than money, buy only self-starting charcoal, which starts with the flick of a match and may keep tempers from igniting.

 If money is more of a factor than time, put charcoal or briquettes into paper egg cartons doused with a little lighter fluid.

 Either way, charcoal bought in quantity should not be stored in the basement. The dampness will be counterproductive. Keep it in the attic. The alternative would be to buy charcoal each time you need it, but for us forgetful people, that would be another disaster waiting to happen.

 Ever wonder why marshmallows are considered picnic food? Marshmallows are to keep us saving sense people from groaning over the charcoal waste after eating.

We don’t want to take good flatware outdoors, of course, and plasticware just won’t always do the job. Watch for an inexpensive set of stainless steel pieces at a garage sale or thrift shop for this purpose. I used to think I didn’t want the work of washing them when I came home, but it’s worth the whole job for the convenience of eating with something substantial.

 Carry a wet washcloth in a plastic container for each person, unless you know that wash-up facilities will be nearby.

 You will always be ready if you keep a basket or box already packed with cloth, napkins, dishes, cups, flatware, and a container of packets of ketchup, mustard, sugar, salt, and whatever else fits the occasion.

 My family laughed when I showed up at a picnic with a thermos of hot water on a very warm day one year. But by the cool of evening, everyone was lined up for a cup of hot cocoa. Just goes to show you don’t always have to follow the crowd. Better to be a step ahead of them.

One more thing. Make some of the picnics by a lake. Then, when the eating’s over, don’t be in a hurry to rush off. Sit awhile and breathe deeply of the pure air; listen to the sounds of birds, water, breezes through the trees; gaze at God’s handiwork, and feel the peace wash over you.

Picnicking is inexpensive, easy, and fits all ages. And, for some inexplicable reason, food tastes better outdoors than in. Is it any wonder picnics are so popular?