Marky Maypo with Quinoa, (1950s)

When I went shopping recently I wanted to add quinoa to my morning breakfast on days I did not drink a protein shake.  As I was buying rolled oats for my Sweetheart I saw quinoa in an oat cereal so I thought I would try it.

When my husband saw it he told me he began to eat Maypo as a wee babe of 5 and had a Marky Maypo bank that his mother ordered through the mail from the labels she sent in.  At night when he and his brother said their prayers they would add "God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Maypo" to which their mother would give a word of reprimand, but they would include Maypo again the next night.  😄

Maypo he said has maple syrup in it.  I tried it and it was tasty not too sweet. I added cinnamon and almond milk.  It was pretty good for something different. Marky Maypo commercial can be seen on YouTube if you're interested.

Fat in A Coffee Jar On Your Grandma's Stove? Why?

In April of 1942 Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a reminder for housewives to keep their cooking "fat" and turn it in for the use of the government.  Japanese cut off much of the import of oils and fats during the war years and it was needed for battle.

Fats contains glycerine, glycerine makes gunpowder, explosives and medicines.  The woman at home on the homefront wondered what she could do to help?  This was it.  Cans of fat were to be turned in to help the war efforts.  With everything being rationed these war years, including gas, oil and butter housewives used it daily to cook for their family.

When I was growing up in the South, there was always a can at my Grandma's stove and a can on my mother's stove.  It looked grayish white and tasted bland but salty.  But when your Grandma put a dollop in everything from gravy to vegetables, it was delicious!  Yep that southern cooking, salt, pepper, sugar, and grease made everything delicious.

Housewives were saving the fat but they were not diligent in giving it to the government.

The can at our house is there still.

I wonder if Eleanor started that habit or if it was born from farm living as my folks all came from farms?  It is a good guess anyway.

Productive Procrastination?

In the book The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins she presents her case for her findings as all authors do.  One particular point she made was the difference with "Destructive Procrastination" and "Productive Procrastination."  I think we all can relate to destructive procrastination but...productive?

When I think back on my early life I know I use to forget semi-important things such as a homework assignment or a class project where my part was due and I simply had no memory of it.  I cured this by two disciplines, I began to write down everything, to make lists, and to do immediately anything I could do immediately.  Studying the night before a test was completely useless to my grade, I would make a bad one.  I discovered I need a methodical approach to any task and time to do it.

It was not until I was diagnosed with ADHD and studied behavioral management of it that I was proud of myself for implementing positive ways to manage it without outside help.  This is good since no outside help was ever offered me.  I was very familiar with destructive procrastination.

Now I like that Mel has brought to light with scientific facts that productive procrastination is even a thing.  As hard headed and stubborn as I can be, my husband and I noted that we both, when dealing with marital disagreements have at times chosen "Productive Procrastination."

No man or woman wants to be WRONG.  It seems the louder or angrier spouse can be right because the other one doesn't want to hear it anymore and remains silent.  This does not solve anything and may lead to life with "the old ball and chain" reference.

But this choice to let a topic rest a while, come back to it another day when emotions are not so hostile is majorly productive...I never knew this had a name.  I do think if more unions, marriage or not, adopted this approach, there would be more meeting of the minds and compromises that would move situations forward in peace.

Shallow conversations are not our style, this productive procrastination with much discussion has made us closer over the years.  After all no two people think exactly alike but I believe all of us as a whole want to live in peace and to be kind to each other.

Frankie "The Weatherman"

Frankie Macdonald had a dream since childhood to be a weatherman.  He watched the weather growing up and that became his dream, to deliver the weather on the air.  He has been making weather reports on YouTube for years and he is intelligent and funny.

As entertainment he is fresh and new and personally I never tire of his broadcasts.  He gives the weather reports for the entire planet.  His heart to tell you to get your laser pointer and black tea and stay inside for a few days is so fun, he communicates his concern for others.

How can anyone NOT LIKE HIM?  He is likeable.  He has control of his life and with consistency he delivers a video every day.  This young man has more discipline, drive, confidence, charm, than most people.

I have ADHD.  In the past researchers did not think this was a form of autism but more recently they see the two autism and ADHD overlap.  I know ADHD is real, I have struggled with test taking and school studies all my life and worked harder than others to make a decent grade.

Unlike many that worry when they hear a possibility of such a "label," I do not see my diagnosis as a bad thing.  I see these "labels" as a means to help the individual with tried and proven scientific actions to help deal with their challenges in daily life activities. This is a good thing.  If this had been available when I was growing up I could have gotten the help I needed to be more successful in test taking and ultimately my grades.

Then I think of my girlfriend who had dyslexia.  She was put in "Special Ed" classes all her life but she knew she did not belong there.  As a result she never got far in school although she is extremely bright.  She has confidence and that is why now, she is an elected Councilwoman in a town in PA. Yes she sits on boards and is a part of major decisions including taxes for the town.  Yep, after looking at everything on the table, she voted to raise taxes in her town last year.

Truth is bipolar, ADHD, Asperger's, autistic, all have unique qualities and make for the most interesting adults.  So if we can get past the judgments of the society we live in about being defective, imperfect, we can find we all have great abilities if we look inside. Even you normal people!

Frankie is a great example of going for his dream! He may be autistic but he is entertaining, makes us laugh, and at the same time we are so proud of what he does. He has a passion for what he loves and he not afraid to put himself out there!

We should all be so lucky as Frankie, the world is his oyster.

Eleanor R. Description of the Constitution Is Sempiternal

Sempiternal means everlasting, indestructible, timeless, abiding, in other words there is no need to completely change it but to modify laws as each age progresses. *Don't ask me 6 months from now what that words means I might forget.  I like it because the Marines motto is {'Semper Fi' short for Semper fidelis meaning "always faithful"} and I have a Marine Vet son. 😜

Eleanor Roosevelt words were written in one of her daily columns "My Day" which she wrote (She received "her own money" for writing) for more than 20 years. She wrote it 6 days a week and it appeared every other day in over 90 papers nationwide.

I like her description of the Constitution more than any other I have ever read, she wrote:

"Here they are terrified lest the Constitution be interpreted as it was meant to be interpreted in each age according to that period's own ideas, instead of past generation.  It seems to me it would be more intelligent to be afraid of strangling democracy by letting a fossilizing process harden the Constitution into a cocoon which must be violently broken because it could not grow up with the life within. Life implies growth and the Constitution was never meant to be used as the Bible was by our most puritanical Puritans.

"'The letter killeth.' Do these people really want to be ruled by a frozen document?  If so, they are the ones who are going back upon the American spirit, not we.

I do hope there are enough men and women of vision in Congress who are not ridden by these fears, which seem most inappropriate ones in the mouths of self-governing people. It seems to me it would be better to have less in the Constitution than more, because it has got to stand interpretation and reinterpretation through the ages."

                                                     Quote from book My Day, page 16,17 (David Emblidge)

The "Forgotten Man" was a phrase ER used throughout her addresses to her husband and to strive for the needed change in the laws and country to help that man.  Her efforts in Arthurdale, W.V. which she personally funded when Congress financially pulled out because of the financial losses was an effort to revive a forgotten community in the Appalachian Mountains.

This community supplied the families with work to make their own food through farming land “given to them” and build houses with materials “given to them.” (Them was unemployed coal miners)  The government abandoned the community project when the town became more and more dependent on the government for money. ER had to abandon financing it as well or she would have gone personally broke too.

Sometimes I think well intentioned rich people who feel guilty for having wealth either through inheritance or original invention think they can FIX the "Poverty Mentality" of the rest of us by giving their money to us.  This does not work.  Arthurdale should have proved that to ER. Her attempt at establishing Arthurdale may have made “her” wealth consciousness guilt feel better in response to the cry of the poor “not fair!” but it did not work for the poor.  I do hope she felt some release from that guilty thought by this experiment she spearheaded.

Today Arthurdale, West Virginia remains can be visited because it is maintained by a non-profit organization, formed in 1985, Arthurdale Heritage, Inc.  

Financially it was deemed a failure as it did not make residents financially independent but more dependent on the government.  ER thought it was a success because she saw improvements in the people's lives.  But I say to ER if it is unsustainable for the individual to thrive a lifetime, what was the outcome she wanted?  To teach a man to fish or to give him a fish for a day?  Did she think a financial gift of land and housing to give poor people a leg up, would be enough for them to dive into their ingenuity and own sustainable income? Clearly it was not.

After a half million dollars loss in Arthurdale, the land was sold at a loss to homesteaders and private citizens.  No major company that ER persuaded to come in to provide work for its residents could sustain the operating costs to be there, therefore the companies had to close. She even allowed her signature on furniture made to be sold at a premium price because HER SIGNATURE was on each piece.  This again would not bring long term financial sustainability to the individual.

This would be an insightful study to see exactly why Arthurdale failed economically.

This is why I write, to restore the "thought" that independent ideas with the confidence to carry these ideas out are available to any individual in this country.  We must have the understanding that to make money, one has to do something that is of value to other people and then make it, advertise it, and deliver it.  A good work ethic with the confidence to succeed in our talent is equally essential.

Bottom line for me is the Constitution is a cocoon with life within.  It grows each day to emerge as a better and more beautiful state of governing laws to prosper and benefit all... the rich as well as the "Forgotten Man."

What an adventure to discover our talents and a way to get paid for it!  This makes life more interesting and challenging.  Imagine this, WE CAN use our brains to discover OUR talent to provide income for ourself!  This is my journey to overcome this fear "to make it on our own" is my challenge.  The animals seem to make it on their own, why do we humans fear we can't?  I have some ideas how to root this "Poverty Mentality" out and so I write. It will take thoughtful repetition on our part, daily work, but it can be done!

It is necessary to merge the business side of government money, our money, with the responsibility of protection and peace for this cocoon (Constitution).  This will continue to guide and make freedom for individuals who live here legally in the USA to prosper and thrive.

Therefore I believe our US presidents that rose to that office bring their knowledge and heart to the balance of ‘Lady Justice.’  Only through balancing these scales will we achieve the world peace and prosperity we all desire...in time.

Time and Time Again, Peace Begins Within

Some truths that are known to generations before us are worth repeating.

Michelle Obama's Childhood Sounds Amazing!

Ted Talk has the first speech given by our First Lady at a school for girls in England. She spoke of her childhood and it was a storybook family.  She told of her great supportive grandparents that taught her the things she needed to know to lead a morally upright life.  Her father suffered from MS, got up and went to work without a complaint every day.  Her mother and father had a respectful supportive marriage that taught her what to look for in a marriage.   Education was promoted  throughout her life and she made top grades all the way through grade school into law school graduate.

She brought her mother to live in the White House with her children so they could also benefit from her mother's wisdom and she could help with the raising of them.

Although her childhood was one of poverty and being from the "South side of Chicago" bad neighborhood, it was her great supportive, wise, family members that made her life successful.
She told the girls that she thought it was "cool" to make all "As" in school and she had faith that the future of the world was in their capable hands.

She said her first date with her husband was to a community center where he was pairing up people with jobs to help the downtrodden of Chicago. He was a community organizer then, so she knew to be with him was to be in service to the people.

Wow, so two keys to her success is a supportive family and a good education. It definitely helps, she is proof of it.