On "What can I do?"

            How many of you have suffered the sorrow and concern from having learned that a well known member of the community, perhaps a good friend,  or even a family member is very ill.

            Or who of you has been THE main care giver for an aged person, a helpless acquaintance, an ill loved one' or any of a multitude of needy situations?

            We all want to give heartfelt help; to be of some help anyway, but don't have a clue what to do!

            Recently, while visiting with Donna, who has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and who also is a remarkable survivor up to now, I learned that she meets with other Stage 4 cancer friends regularly. They share with each other their joys, sorrows, hopes, and needs.

            What is remarkable is that D is a remarkable woman, and that she continues to help and reach out to others in many ways. In this case, these "Stage 4" individuals have brainstormed and come up with the "how-to-help if you really want to help us" points. I asked her to write down these pointers so  I could pass them on to you as she and the group come up with more hints.

            Being ill and in pain is debilitating. Often the body can no longer perform the same tasks, no matter how minor, as before. Sometimes the stress from the many demands of the disease is just over the top. There is "nothing" left to do the extra things that life demands.

            Many of you are already very thoughtful, however we all want to be much more aware. Here are some suggestions of what you can do to be helpful.

            A BIG THANK YOU TO D. AND THE GROUP!

            1. Buy bottles of water. They are useful for every situation; traveling, working, at home.

            2. Consider gift cards. Food cards for eating out, (Arby's, Subway, Pizza Hut, Freddy's, etc) Dillon's cards are a big help; so are meat markets. In Larned, B&B is another creative source for food treats.

            3. Bottles of lotion; make sure it is fragrance free.

            4. Snacks for the many trips to treatment.  Cheese and Crackers, Chips, gum, suckers.

            5. Fuzzy socks

            6. Offer transportation. Bring along with you water, snacks, a blanket, a pillow.

            7. Be there on the last day of treatment. Clap for them, have balloons, make signs "You did it!"

            8. Clean their homes. Offer to vacuum, dust, do dishes, mop floors

            9. Give a gift certificate for a trip to the Beauty Shop, or Spa.

            10. Visit him or her if she/he feels up to it.

            11.  Let him/her cry.

            12. Take meals, but first check to make sure they have room for them. Pick up a pizza and deliver it to them.

            13. Pump his/her gas while she relaxes. Wash the windshield.

            14.  Give a crossword book or a puzzle book if they can do those kinds of things. A Jigsaw puzzle would work as well.

            15. Bring paper plates, utensils, cups, napkins for daily use.

            16. Get together with friends and bring in a holiday dinner with all the trimmings.

            Remember this. None of us can do it all. None of us can meet all the needs. But if we join together, we can do a lot. And every bit of encouragement …even the smallest amount…is amplified many times in the mind and soul of the person who is receiving the help.

            And last. Pray for them. Pray. I assure you that the recipients of your prayers do feel the peace and comfort of God as well as His love and assurance.

            There, now. Let's go for it!

On Skills for Survival

            Let me ask you a question? Do you or anyone in your family or household have the skills to survive for a long time with no electricity or grocery store?

            We will take a test in a bit to see how you would score.

            When I was a little girl, it was customary for most families in town to have a garden in some corner of their yard. Some raised chickens, too. Customarily, those who lived in the country always planted gardens and in fact, the family garden supported basic food needs for the "country folks" during hard times.

            It was customary after World War II to plant "Victory Gardens" in family yards. These vegetable gardens alleviated food shortages, because so much of the produce was being sent overseas to feed the troops. Also, with fewer men to work the farms, there was less produce available.

            The custom continued. Gardens grew in most back yards during the 60's and 70's, but I don't remember any chickens. At least, the chicken population was sparse and only a few homes had the time and energy to care for them. Sadly, the family vegetable garden eventually faded out.

            Today, when people think of gardening they visualize a flower garden. Flowers don't necessarily give you much to eat. It is easy to run to the grocery store.

            How dependent we are upon trucks and stores! We have subconsciously relinquished responsibility for our own welfare to a system that can break down at the most minor glitch in the chain.

            What would we need to know in order to survive?  And is it at all feasible to consider that we might at some time need to know how to take care of ourselves? I think it is.

            Every civilization has at one time or another experienced a breakdown, whether it was economically, politically, or socially .Nothing stays the same. Things change.

            How many of these necessary skills could you "call upon" if you needed to use them? (thank you to my source. www.the-open-mind.com)

            1.Gardening .It's not hard. But it takes some preparation to learn how to garden and grow food. Start small and plant veggies you like. Tomatoes? Cucumbers? Onions? A good magazine to read from the library is "Mother Earth News". Motherearthnews.com

            2. Animal husbandry means raising  and caring for animals for food sources;  Maybe raise just chickens at first.

            3. Food Preservation. Canning and drying food is another important skill. Refrigeration and freezing food is totally dependent on a power source. Canned goods and dried foods need none. It is time consuming, but not difficult to do either.  Freezing depends on an electrical supply, so another alternative source is always a good idea.

            4. Blacksmithing . Blacksmiths can make or repair anything out of metal. If we were without electrical power, the skills of a blacksmith would allow people to have their tools repaired — and new ones fashioned. Since the manufacturing plants presumably would be shut down, that ability would be essential for rebuilding America -

            5. Basic Carpentry  . Basic repairs, cutting wood, woodworking skills.

            6. Basic Mechanical Repair . Depending on the type of disaster, the family car may just end up being a large paperweight. But there are diverse scenarios where it would be useful to be able to fix your car, keeping it running for general use. As long as there is gasoline, that car would be useful.  The ability to diagnose and repair an engine is useful not only for keeping a car on the road, but also for fixing lawn mowers, chain saws and other power tools.

            7. Herbal Medicine . The roots of medicine were herbal medicine. Before docs had such a wide range of pharmaceuticals to work with, doctors made their own medicines. Many women learned what nature provided and she learned from her mother.

            8. Horseback Riding . This may not seem like much of a survival skill, since today horseback riding is only done for sport. But if the automobile were no longer useful, people would be looking for horses once again. Today riding a horse is a skill few know and hitching and driving a team would be a further reach. Can you ride a horse?

            So how did you do? You say you got an 8? Wow. For the rest of us, we have our work laid out for us. I got a 6!

On Traveling and Restrooms

This article might be only for women this week. Or, if you are a brave or uninformed guy, I guess there will be some educational value in this column for you.

Women can talk about the craziest things. And most of the time, we don’t understand how we get on a particular subject. So, as we meander in our conversations, we do sometimes say the funniest things.

Art Linkletter used to say on his television program that “kids say the darndest things.” Well so do we gals. And we consider all topics important!

Our discussion recently focused on bathrooms, and toilets.

Every one wants to know more about bathrooms and toilets, right? Not.

Since every one of us travels on the highways at times, I assure you that we gals share the same experiences. We are thinking alike. We may not say it, but we are thinking it!

When on the road, we like our breaks. We want a good experience and primary to our tastes is a place with a variety of food, a coffee bar, a frozen drink maybe, and nice restrooms.

Restrooms are at the top of the scale, because the ‘girls’ room” is the first place we women head for when we stop for gas or refreshments. We look for THE sign.

If the “restroom” is in a crummy little corner with a wooden painted door, we know immediately that THIS is not a good sign. And in these cases, there is often a line of desperate female faces (acting casual but no one is casual about this subject).

Fred and I have observed that when we cross the Kansas line going east, that we get many choices of crummy restrooms. What is it with the border? Fred remarked, “You can tell we are in _____ because the restrooms are dirty!

 We unfortunately are often trapped at gas stations with one little restroom for women with toilet paper pieces on the floor, and empty soap dispensers. Often there is no paper to dry hands either. And I don’t think the bathroom has been cleaned for a week.

What is it with people? Did some lady sit in the girls’ room tearing up little pieces of TP just to entertain herself? And if there is no soap in the dispenser, then what is going on with the help? Hmmm. Looks like they don’t wash, either.

Ugh.

“I love to find a nice truck stop,” I remarked to the girls..” I have noticed that the nicer ones have restrooms with the automatic soap dispensers, automatic faucets (with hot water!) and coordinating hand dryers right there over the sink!”

Fred says, “Yeah, and they have higher prices too!”

            “I like the toilets with the revolving paper instead of those sheets that you have to balance on the stool and hope they don’t slip back into the water,” added Tilly.

Greta and Maudie both agreed that this is a most difficult task placing the paper “just so” on the seat. First, the paper is often stuffed in the dispenser and in trying to pull one loose, the whole wad comes out. Sometimes it takes two or three tries before the paper can balance without falling in the toilet.  Paper “placing” can be especially difficult, too, if there is no inside hook on the door for your purse, so then you must hang the strap around your neck as you bend over the bowl to balance the paper on the seat. Whatever happens, don’t place the purse on the floor. The floor is as dirty as the toilet, after all.

On Easter and Candy

It’s happening to us again, folks. I told you I would warn you. It’s a plot.

They, the “Sugar Gremlins”, are out to get us again.

I walked through Wal-Mart a few days ago, and I know that I have never seen so much candy in my life! The aisles are packed with every kind of candy imaginable. Then I visited Walgreens. Oh my gosh!

Now, I am not even going to touch the grocery store “gremlins”. They visited Dillons too!

Now what are we going to do?!

First, the health something or other tells us we are too fat and need to re-assess our eating habits. Then Michelle Obama puts more carrot sticks on the lunch plate and takes away ½ of a bun.

The World Health Organization, (WHO) has determined that we are an obese bunch, and that obesity leads to diabetes, cardiovascular, and cancer. It also acknowledges sugar and corn There’s even a National Obesity Foundation that has declared that 35% of the population is obese and 70% are overweight.

The AMA, the nation’s largest physician group, has voted to adopt a policy to stop the “obesity epidemic”. Well, goody goody for them. They recommended (in their many meetings) that there needs to be improved consumer education on the adverse health effects of sugar.

Well, duh.

So with nary a word, with hardly a wink of the eye, we come into the highest holiday of the Christian calendar with our stores stocked with more sugar, more chocolate, more marshmallow bunnies, more jelly beans, and so forth than has ever been

displayed before!

And what is this all about? Economics, you say? Well, yes. That too.

But, the main point here is that we, the American people, the Parents, the “mature ones” are going to overindulge, over-sugarfy, over-glut our children with this junk. And if we are going to keep the “Easter Bunny” story going, we will cram our baskets with the stuff.

We can have the AMA make statements. We can buy diet food after the party. We can look around us. But the worst thing is that the words seem to mean NOTHING. Instead, we decide to teach our babies to eat way too much of this sugar.

The Sugar Gremlins must be thrilled as they stand there with their decaying teeth and fat bodies laughing at us!

As soon as Easter is over, the stores will be offering the sweets at ½ price and we, the lemmings, will rationalize that this is a good buy, and we will take home more of the stuff for treats from now until next Halloween.

Oh my.

But I have good news.

It’s Easter this weekend. Christ is risen.

It’s a time of renewal and we can see it all around us. The grass is turning green; the trees are in bloom, and life comes anew.

There is no greater celebration in the Christian year than Easter.

Christ died. The seed goes into the ground and comes up new and alive. He did the same.

He came out of the tomb. He is risen.

Death has no sting. The grave has no victory.

And if we remember this, we will truly be celebrating Easter in our hearts.

And we don’t have to sweeten up this truth!

Happy Easter!!