Our Hard-working Postal Workers

Have you sent something in the mail, wondering where it even is now? I know I'm not the only one whose tracking updates are sketchy or non-existent. I've seen it both from friends on Facebook and from small business groups.

It's hard. It's a hard time. We are entering Christmas, and we like to give and receive gifts, and it's a way to feel connected to people who are geographically distant. And even more people are geographically distant this year. I sympathize and empathize, and I wish everyone could get a good hug, or take a walk, or whatever helps with that loss and frustration....every day. I have compassion for your frustration.

At the same time, I would hope that we have compassion for our hard-working mail carriers. If they are not getting our packages sorted or scanned or delivered on time, let's have compassion on them, too. They are risking themselves to Covid and back injuries and sore muscles, working longer and harder and wearing themselves down, to sort and deliver the mail, with an unprecedented volume of mail and with unprecedented shortages of employees. Can you imagine being short-handed and then trying to pick up the slack whenever someone goes out sick?...when you're already working longer and carrying heavy packages? And how demoralizing it must be when you know that no matter how hard you work, you're probably not going to get some of this delivered on time?

I'm sure the deliveries of the holidays can be overwhelming in the best of years. But this is definitely not the best of years.

Let's be there for our postal workers if we can. Let's thank them if we have a chance. Smile if we have the opportunity. We are even allowed to gift our mail carrier (up to $20 worth, not to exceed $50 in a year is what I have read on the internet). I'm not suggesting that, just sharing it for those who would like to know. Let's realize, too, that in the wee hours or whenever they get off work for the day or on their day off, they might get on Facebook or some other social media, too. And so, when we complain, let's complain because it's hard but not complain about the people who are out there trying so hard. Let's express our appreciation for their Herculean efforts.

Thank you to all our postal workers, and may you stay well through this very difficult time. God bless everyone who is working so hard in this season of our lives, health care workers, grocery store workers, delivery people, retail workers, hotel employees, day care workers, and so many more. Thank you!

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How I Got into the Business of Making Cloth Masks

We had a partial box of paper "surgical" masks in the house when the pandemic hit.  I thought that would be all we would need. After all, we were just trying to "flatten the curve", right? 

Soon I realized I might want to make cloth masks for my family.  Well, I had a bit of fabric left from previous sewing projects; and I had a bit of 1/4" elastic, probably from my grandmother's stash; and I had pipe cleaners from some crafts with the kids. So, having found instructions I liked, I began making masks for my family. 

Then I ordered supplies through eBay, and I made masks for my adult kids' roommates and co-workers, and then for a friend's wedding. Pretty soon, I had made and given away 100 masks. In the meantime, one of my sons kept suggesting I make masks to sell. 

So I ordered more supplies and opened an account on Etsy. About that time a friend suggested metal nose strips to replace the pipe cleaners. That made a huge difference in efficiency and durability, and I was happy to begin my selling on Etsy with this improvement to the masks. 

Update: I have since closed my Etsy shop and am no longer selling masks, because they became readily available at reasonable prices. 

The Poor You Will Always Have with You

"The poor you will always have with you." How often have we heard these words? So many times that you might think you know what I'm going to say. But maybe you don't.

I have heard and read these words in Scripture since childhood. As an adult, I have often heard and read them used as an excuse to neglect people who do not have enough. (You knew I was going to say that part, didn't you?). However, they were originally said in a specific context. But is there yet another take-away for us?

Jesus said this in defense of the woman who had anointed his head and who had been hypocritically accused of waste. He pointed out that he would only be with us on earth for a little while. She had shown him this sign of great respect. She had acknowledged the honor that was due to him.

We know that Jesus cared about the poor. He stated that our very salvation depends on our care of others. He said: "…For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me…"  (Matthew 26:35). And, following a list of people we could help, he said that he will tell us to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

 

So, is there anything we can learn, millennia later, from Jesus saying, "For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me."  (Matthew 26:11).

Is there anything we can learn if we look at this sentence - as many people seem to do - without the context of the woman; but if we include the second part of the sentence? What if we keep at least the context of a complete sentence? We would not always have him with us in the same way that they did in those times. But we do have him with us in our churches, in our hearts, and wherever we are.

If we want to look at the lesson as universal, for all time, maybe what he meant for us - who live outside of the time when he walked on earth as a man - is not all that different. Maybe he meant for us to honor his place in our lives and refresh our souls by communing with him...in our churches, in our hearts, in the beauty of his world. After all, the two great commandments are to Love God and to Love our neighbor. He tells us to honor and help our neighbor, but he also gives us the strength and guidance we need to do so.  He said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  (Matthew 11:28).

(Scriptures taken from: Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition).

America was Already Great

America was already great. We didn't need to be made great again. We are great in our people who contribute to food banks or help the people in their neighborhoods or on the street corner; in our people who work each day to keep society running well; and in our people who are not able to work (whether through disability or not finding employment they were educated or trained for), but who contribute at home through their love, and who sometimes bring a smile to others or lift a heart, all of whom are of great worth; and in our people who come from other countries and offer the work of their hands or minds to enrich us. We were already great.

 

 America was never perfect. In our past, we have devastated the Japanese by dropping bombs on their cities; we have abused the Chinese by rioting against them for being here, after they worked hard and risked their lives to build our railroads for us; we took the land from the people who lived here when we first came and have treated them unfairly ever since; we have brought slaves and, once we freed them, never, as a nation as a whole, quite treated them with equal respect. We have always had plenty of room to grow and become "greater".

 

 But in the past four years, we have - it might seem - become less great in some ways. We seem to have become less great as we separated children from their parents with no way to keep track of them and reunite them; as we sent troops to clear a peaceful protest for a presidential photo op; as we have sent federal troops in unidentified uniforms to quell protests by picking up people walking down the street, with no charges, and putting them into unmarked vans; and as we have reinstated the death penalty at the federal level after 17 years and even while we learn of all the people who have been falsely incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. I'm puzzled at the idea that America is any greater. 

 

 But we are still great as a people. We still, individually and in many groups, help others. We still do our work every day, whatever it may be, or if we are not able to work, we still love and are loved by our families. There will always be sin and there will always be sorrow. We can fight some - not all of that, but certainly some - and mostly we can fight it by our personal good works and by striving to be a nation that is greater in its care for all...from helping and protecting the mother who is expecting a precious child to helping and protecting, as much as is in our power, the elderly, the sick, and the dying.

 

 

My Masks for You

While writing has always been my passion, sewing has always been my hobby. Both began when I was as young as 10 or 11 years old. 

Shortly after I lost my job to the pandemic, I started sewing masks for my family and those closest to them.

After giving away many masks, I decided to start selling masks on Etsy.

I would love it if you would like to come check them out. If you are in the market, the price includes shipping by priority mail. Even if you are not in the market, I'd love to have you just come by and take a look. Sewn4UByMMM

Feel free to share the link with your friends and family if you'd like. 

Why Three Cookbooks and What are the Differences Between Them?

 At last, I have all three of my little cookbooks available for you in both Kindle and paperback formats. 

You might wonder: Why three and what are the differences between them?  

A Vintage Pantry Cookbook was born of my finding a little book of recipes my mom had given us one Christmas, and wanting to preserve them. Although my mom could cook just about anything well, these recipes of hers were primarily geared for cooking with inexpensive ingredients you can keep on hand. To further that concept, I decided to add simple quick breads which can be made without fresh milk and eggs. Later, I decided to create and add some simple crock pot soups, again, ones which could be made primarily from the pantry. When I lost my job to the 2020 pandemic - and some foods became harder to get - I finished the book and put it on Kindle in the hopes it might help people. And now I have finally put it in paperback also. I hope you might find it helpful. 

The 1-Button Rice Cooker Cookbook saved my budget and my sanity at a time when I was tired of cooking (and I wasn't comfortable in the little kitchen I had at the time either). We had only three of us at home to cook for, as most of our children had grown and moved on. I told my husband, "If we had lots of money, I would eat out every night." But I'm the frugal one, and I didn't really mean it (and we didn't have lots of money). So I started buying more convenience foods, and then I bought  a rice cooker so I could add flavorings without buying those rice packets. That's when the idea of rice cooker meals caught my attention on the internet. I got a Kindle book by Neal Bertrand, called Rice Cooker Meals, Fast Home Cooking for Busy People. I loved what he did with it, but it was Cajun cooking, and I'm a Westerner who grew up with a Midwestern mother.  So, I started adapting recipes we knew to the rice cooker, and my son Robert and I began creating more recipes, as well, mostly with rice or pasta, but a few others too. During this time, two new cookers came out, the instant pot and the fuzzy logic rice cooker (I still  haven't wrapped my head around that second one.). But people talked about the learning curve, and I still wanted something where I - and those friends who had asked me about easy cooking - could just pop the foods in and walk away, and come back to a meal a half hour or an hour later.  We still use the meals in this book several times a week. 

The Myers Family Cookbook was the first cookbook I wrote, and is somewhat of a basic teaching cookbook. It's not as comprehensive as Betty Crocker or Mark Bittman, but it takes the reader through steps for making a number of different dishes.You see, when I got married, I knew how to cook eggs and quesadillas, and make a salad, and not much else. When my mom got married, she didn't know how to cook very much, either. I decided I would break that chain, so I had my six children cook with me, as soon as they could safely stand on a chair. They have become better cooks than I am. This cookbook includes some family memories and a few of their creative recipes (although I think most of them, now, often cook without recipes, though they look on the internet for ideas).

I hope you might enjoy one or more of these books. All of them are available on Amazon. You can click the above book links or visit my Amazon Author Page. 

The Pursuit of Life and Health Isn't Always about Fear

When I first studied the Catholic Faith, I learned that the Ten Commandments were not just for Old Testament times, that they applied to our lives today, and not just in the most obvious ways. For example, the commandment, Thou Shalt Not Kill, didn't just refer to murder. We don't get off that easy. It also included anything which intentionally or knowingly could lead to a death or to injury of the health of others or ourselves.  

I read an article this morning where a woman said she has dealt with chronic illness, and this has prepared her to deal with the panic around Covid-19.  Without quoting, because my purpose isn't to get into an article battle, the impression I got from the article was that she felt we are destroying our health and the health of those around us by living in fear of the virus, and more specifically in fear of dying.

Let me say this. As someone with a strong faith in God and a strong trust in his mercy I am not afraid of death. Now, that is not to say that I have no fear about what manner of death I might face. Another thing I learned, a little later in my studies of the Catholic Faith, is that if God allows hard things to come to us, he will give us the graces when we need them, not necessarily before we need them. In other words, if we fear a certain type of death (I never could get on board with being eaten by lions), that doesn't mean we won't be able to deal with whatever actually does happen to us. I've learned not to dwell on the various ways I could die. But as someone whose son died, and I experienced how hard that was on all of us, I want to do all that I can to live, especially for the sake of my family and other loved ones.

But being cautious in a time of a highly contagious virus is not only about my own life and health, but also all those I come into contact with, as well. Although there are some people - on both sides of the thinking about this situation - who turn it into fear and anger, it isn't fear that drives me to be careful; it is love. When I decide to stay home, it is out of love for myself, yes, but also out of love for my family who wants me around.  When I decided to wear a mask wherever I go (unless it's outdoors in a wide open area), I made that decision out of love for myself, my family, and everyone I come in contact with. Not out of fear. Certainly not out of fear of death.

Yes, we do need to be careful that we don't let fear and anger destroy our health, as the author of the article pointed out. But that same caution – to not let fear and anger destroy our health - is needed on all sides of the issue. She pointed out stories of people who have gotten angry at people in the store for accidentally or minimally invading their boundaries. No, that is not healthy or charitable. Nor is it healthy or charitable when people get angry with a store employee because the store or the state requires a mask. Some people on all sides need to lay down their anger or at least ratchet it down a notch or two. 

So, yes, we do need to protect our mental health and that of those around us. We don't do that by panicking about an illness; but neither do we do that by panicking that the government might take away our rights by asking us to wear a mask until we get better control of an illness which has been highly contagious so far.  

Don't Miss the Protests for the Riots

No, I'm not telling you to get out there regardless of any danger you might perceive. Public protests are not for everyone. But please don't miss what's happening. Please don't misinterpret what's happening.

Black lives have been in danger, and black people have been disproportionately targeted and abused, for years. If some of us have not been aware, it's time we become aware. And some have been doing just that in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, which was videotaped and shared to the world. We've seen it in that video.

We've even seen it in the crushing responses to some of the protests. Peaceful protests in the daytime, and then, sometimes, as curfew nears, tear gas is used before the protesters can even get out of an area, and sometimes people are trapped on a street or a bridge, or attacked with dangerous rubber bullets.

Some people see it now. But some others have questions.

Some people say: But there's police overreach against white people too. Yep, that's true; but in infinitesimally smaller numbers and degree per the size of the white population. But, also, if we work toward better training and more accountability for our police forces, wouldn't it help people of all races?  And wouldn't it also help those many officers who want to do the right thing and are trapped in systems that are not always honest or fair?

"But it's not okay to loot and destroy," some people say. Is it okay to kill people? Honestly, is it?

While it's true that two wrongs don't make a right, let's get our priorities straight. Life is more important than property.

But who is looting and destroying? Very few compared to the huge numbers protesting. And in the videos I've been seeing, I've been seeing white people vandalizing and destroying property. I've heard that some are anarchists and others white supremacists (think klan or neo-nazi types).  Opportunists find a way to further their malignant goals, and will unfortunately take advantage of such a crisis.

If any of the looting does comes from black people (and like I said, I haven't seen it), that TV you see going out a door might be exchanged for rent, or for food for the kiddos, to keep them alive, or it might come from angry hopelessness, or an effort to get people to pay attention.

I've heard that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "A riot is the language of the unheard."  He was explaining where it comes from, not participating. And he was referring to the rioting against police overreach and brutality of the 60's, not to the riots which were done by white people against minorities in the 1800's and the first half of the 1900's, where white people took the lives of many black people and some other minorities. 

In some ways, we have come a long way since those white riots against people of other races. Yet, black lives are still being taken, just differently. We need so much more growth, because for too long, we have turned our heads away in denial. We need to grow and make serious changes in our systems, wherever those systems oppress people.

It's time we listen. It's time we learn. It's time we grow. 

A Vintage Pantry Cookbook

Okay, I have just set my newest little cookbook, A Vintage Pantry Cookbook, to be free, as of tomorrow morning, for five days. I thought it might be useful at this time. (Five days is the maximum free period which Amazon allows in a 90 day period.)

"Two dozen recipes you can make with foods you can keep in your pantry, refrigerator, or freezer. Or you can just take a journey back through other times. You will find simple quick breads made without milk or eggs. You will find Spanish rice and crock pot soups and chili. You will also find some original recipes for meals you have probably never heard of before now. Whether you add the recipes to your collection or simply enjoy the trip into 20th Century America, enjoy."

If anyone noticed that I was looking for crock pot soup recipes recently, you see, the soups in this book are made from canned goods. Also, they are made in small batches (4 or 5 cups of soup). However, some of the other dishes in the book are able to serve more people or can be doubled.

Free from Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 12:00 AM PDT through Sunday, April 5, 2020, 11:59 PM PDT.

I have set this to public in case anyone would like to share.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086L1MPSV?fbclid=IwAR3pMUKwTkg_vI1FUWGSnMdVpqwnsZ_ooaNSJl2RlWA3RdFwySlAjRhOYaA

1-Button Rice Cooker Cookbook

I'm not recommending anyone run out and buy something right now. But do you happen to have a simple rice cooker where you just push down the switch for on, and it pops up when it's done?

If so, did you know you can make whole meals with it? Yes, with rice, but alternatively, with pasta. 

That's what my 1-Button Rice Cooker Cookbook is about, using the 1-button rice cooker to make one-pot meals with ease and with what you might have on hand. 

Having trouble finding ground beef but you can find hot dogs? (Or even Vienna sausages?). And do you have spaghetti sauce? And penne? You could make Frankly Pasta in the 1-Button Rice Cooker. Honestly, if you don't have penne but you have elbow macaroni, that would probably work too. 

Do you have rice and barbecue sauce and some chopped chicken or frozen chopped chicken (or even canned chicken in a pinch)? You could make Barbecue Rice and Chicken in the 1-Button Rice Cooker. 

How about Chicken and Rice with Veggies? Macaroni and Cheese? Or even Tuna, Rice, and Tomatoes? 

You can get this as a Kindle book by clicking on the link at the right. It's 99 cents on Kindle. 

It will be free from Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 12:00 AM PDT through Saturday, April 4, 2020, 11:59 PM PDT.