How to Recycle Gifts While Avoiding Holiday Bloopers

Here we are, November 2026, and time for me to start on what is, for once, a fun chore--preparing holiday gifts (and cards) early, with the goal of getting everything wrapped, packed, and mailed around the time November turns to December. If I don't accomplish that goal, my experience is that I'm stuck in the same rut everybody else is--in a time crunch, rushing to get everything wrapped, packed, and mailed days before Christmas, crossing my fingers that what I send will arrive in time, or at least by the new year. 

Time to once again get into my gift drawer(s) and sort through the new, unopened gifts that my mother never got around to giving. When she died, she left boxes and bags full of brand-new things behind, and whatever I didn't want for myself, I'd put into a designated gift drawer. Gift-giving season has been easier ever since.

My mother also left, in the house, two under-bed storage boxes full of gift-wrapping supplies--and more and more gift-wrapping supplies, enough to fill a few more boxes and crates. When gift-giving time comes around, I match gifts to boxes or bags, and the other way around. Gift A can go into box/bag B. Box or bag X, I hunt for gift Y to put in it. 

You may call what I do "recycling gifts" and to an extent that's true. I'm not recycling what I've been gifted or what I've used, only what merchandise that's already been hidden away, unused. If I can't find an appropriate gift in the gift drawer, I fill in. I'd tell you what's in there now, and who's on my gift list, and what I may still need to get this season, but that'd be a spoiler. 

Recycling or "upcycling" many kinds of gifts is no longer the tacky habit it used to be. It's become a way to be environmentally friendly, with more and more emphasis being placed on, "reduce, reuse, recycle." If you're joining the trend, though, you can't just give away any old thing as if it were new. For example, you may get away with gifting a book you've read--but not if you've marked it up. If you do want to give someone a book you've already marked up, or a purse you've already used, or whatever, don't make it a holiday gift--just hand it over, with, "Here, I thought maybe you'd like this." 

When giving a gift, though, whether it's brand-new or recycled, make the effort to know enough about what the person likes or dislikes, what may be needed or wanted, what size of clothes. If a gift is worth giving, it's worth giving proudly and joyfully.

Here are some holiday gift-giving bloopers, many of which I've been on the wrong end of:

• If you don't know for sure that the person has pierced ears, then why on earth would you deliberately give that person pierced earrings? If you don't absolutely know for sure, it's so easy and simple to just give another piece of jewelry--a necklace, bracelet, or pin--instead. 
• If you're considering gifting someone with food or drink, consider the person's likes, dislikes, and whether the person may have food allergies or other dietary restrictions. Maybe the person doesn't drink alcohol, or maybe the person doesn't like candy with nuts, or is allergic to nuts. Once again, if you don't know, either find out or find something else to give.
• Avoid the cheap useless gag gifts that are going to go in the nearest trash once everybody's got their cheap laughs. Far better to demonstrate that both giver and receipient are worthy of providing and receiving something of lasting value.
• Offering to provide the sales slip for a gift may be kind, but not if you're going to keep repeating, "Take it back if it's not what you want." You only need to say that once. This is of particular concern where apparel is involved, because it honestly may turn out to be the wrong size. That's understandable. Not having the confidence to believe your gift is exactly the right thing, though, can make for a difficult situation.

 Family heirlooms are another category of "recycled" gifts altogether. Jewelry, kitchenware, art, crafts, knicknacks, collectibles, pictures--if you don't want them, a friend or relative might, or you might be able to gift certain things to a charity auction. Make your selections carefully, though. Don't foist off anything broken or unclean. Depending on the item and the recipient, you may be able to make a holiday gift--or just give away whatever-it-is. 

Bear in mind, too, that once you've gifted something, it's gone, even if it's to someone in your immediate family. If there's any little part of you that still wants it, keep it. My father provided a good example of what happens when a person "gifts" a heirloom but not really. When I was around twelve, he gave me a heirloom belt buckle for Christmas, all nicely wrapped and under the Christmas tree. It was a Western belt buckle that he said his grandfather had won in a rodeo, although he didn't know anything more than that. Immediately after that Christmas, though, he got this obsession with wearing that buckle himself. Every day he'd come into my room and ask if he could "borrow" it. This went on for months. I finally told him to just take the thing and keep it with his belts. 

I finally did get that belt buckle permanently--it was part of my inheritance when he passed away. Apparently he couldn't really bear to part with it any other way.

What Are the Seven Days of Chores, Anyway?

During one of my periodic bouts of schedule-planning, I consulted the classic authoritative guide to cleaning, How to Clean Everything by Alma Chesnut Moore where, under "Schedule" I found, "The old jingle, incidentally, goes: Wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, mend on Wednesday, upstairs Thursday, downstairs Friday, bake on Saturday, church on Sunday."

I next consulted the Internet, and it appears to know nothing about Moore's variant of the "old jingle." I Googled and Googled, and found only irrelevant seventeeth-century variants, ones that include days for churning and sometimes brewing, obviously not anything helpful to developing a schedule for modern household chores in the twenty-first century.

I know of at least two other variants of what Moore calls an "old jingle" and neither can be found on the Internet, either. Two sets of tea towels I found in the family collection of needlecraft are how I know those variants. 

One set, my mother gave me to embroider, although I never did, and I was able to sell it through an online estate sale, supposedly to someone who wanted to do the embroidery. It featured an anthopomorphic cat, and each towel was identified by day. 

Here's what that set depicted: On Monday, the cat walks in the rain, which of course could represent washing. On Tuesday, she bakes. Wednesday, she embroiders, which, like mending, is needlecraft. On Thursday, she sweeps, Friday, she shops. On Sunday, the Day of Rest, she rests on a swing.

What I never did get, though, for Saturday, the anthropomorphic cat was depicted riding a bicycle. Just what kind of chore is that? Are we all supposed to ride a bike on Saturday? What does it represent? Exercise? Travel? Play? Recreation? Of course I found nothing on the Internet to help.

The second set of tea towels, I still have, and those, if memory serves, were made by my grandmother. They depict a "Sunbonnet Sue" character in bonnet and hoop skirt. The towels don't label the chores by days.

Some of this second set's chores-by-the-day are easy to guess. The Sunbonnet character hangs up the laundry, that's Monday. She holds an iron, that's Tuesday. She holds a pie, that's Saturday. She holds a little black book, that's a Bible for church on Sunday. 

The remaining three designs, I can't match to a day. She sweeps, and that could be either Thursday or Friday. She holds a market basket, which could be Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. She gardens, and I have no idea what day that might be. Once again, the Internet is no help. No matter how much I Google, I can't find any "old jingle" that includes a day for gardening.

The closest I got was some ghost town of a blog where someone had come up with her own seven-day schedule, paying no heed to any old jingle. She gardened on Monday and rested on Tuesday, apparently not caring what Christians or anybody else might say about resting on Sunday or washing on Monday.

Back in January 2025 I wrote a column about how I was puzzling over what advice this "old jingle" gives. It was titled "Chores by the Day" and ran in Senior Reporter. Of course I make my schedule independently of any "old jingle" but I'd still like to solve the mystery of what those tea towels represent. Anyone reading this want to venture an answer, or a guess, about what biking on Saturday represents and what day of the week is for gardening? Anybody want to discuss any other versions of the "old jingle" as Moore calls it?

Links to my "Life After Mother" Column, Feb.-Sep. '26

Here are the web links and PDF downloads for my seven most recent "Life After Mother" columns in Senior Reporter. For links and PDF downloads for older columns, please visit the Senior Reporter of OC website:  www.seniorreporterofoc.com

February 2026: "Updating Your Will" (p. 35):

Link:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/feb-2026-vol-52-no/

PDF:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/issues/senior-reporter-ldicap-feb-2026.pdf

March 2026: "How to Build a Better Brain" (p. 35):

Link:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/feb-2026-vol-52-no-3/

PDF:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/issues/senior-reporter-charlizet-mar-2026.pdf

April 2026: "Your Brain on Social Connections" (p. 35):

Link:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/apr-2026-vol-52-no-4/

PDF:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/issues/senior-reporter-jhamm-apr-2026.pdf

May 2026: "Cats That Share My Life" (p. 35):

Link:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/may-2026-vol-52-no-5/

PDF:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/issues/senior-reporter-apotts-may-2026.pdf 

Due to illness, there was no column in June 2026.

July 2026: "America is the Place for me" (p. 41):

Link:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/july-2026-vol-52-no-7/

PDF:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/issues/senior-reporter-july-2026.pdf

Note:  The final sentence of this column was cut off. It should have read, "I’m staying because, despite what’s happening with our government right now, I still think America is the best place for me to live."

August 2026: "Keep the Memories, Online or Off" (p. 41):

Link:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/aug-2026-vol-52-no-8/

PDF:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/issues/senior-reporter-elongoria-aug-2026.pdf

September 2026: "Find Treasure in Strange Places" (p. 32)

Link:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/sep-2026-vol-52-no-9/

PDF:  https://www.seniorreporterofoc.com/issues/senior-reporter-dvandyke-sep-2026.pdf 

To keep up with future installments of my column, visit the Senior Reporter website or follow me on Facebook, Linkedin, Bluesky, Substack, or Alignable.

Book Review: Ending US Wars

Ending US Wars by Honoring Americans Who Work for Peace by Michael D. Knox (2021 PAX) 

I'm on the email list for the US Peace Memorial Foundation, and I got into an online discussion with Michael D. Knox, the organization's founder and chair, about the organization's membership, and how the recipients of the organization's US Peace Prize are selected. Each year the group's members make nominations of persons or organizations who've taken antiwar actions in the last 16 months, and who the members have direct contact with--so the awards go to people already in the members' network, essentially. 

Knox is also the author of the book Ending US Wars by Honoring Americans Who Work for Peace which was published in 2021, and has been updated online through at least 2025. At present more than 180 individuals and more than 80 organizations have been awarded the foundation's US Peace Prize, and all are listed in a "peace registry" in the book, in the print version up to 2021, and in the online version up to the present. The book's other purpose is to help raise funds to create a "peace memorial" honoring all these US Peace Prize recipients in Washington, DC. That would add one more "memorial" to a city already crowded with memorials.

According to Knox, "The US Peace Memorial Foundation is an ongoing project as we continue to celebrate antiwar models." Pages 280-281 of the book explain the foundation's purpose, "This tax-exempt 501(c)(3) Foundation established in 2005 directs a nationwide effort to honor Americans who stand for peace by publishing the US Peace Registry, awarding the annual US Peace Prize, and planning for the US Peace Memorial as a national monument in Washington, DC. These educational projects help move the United States toward a culture of peace by recognizing and honoring the thoughtful and courageous Americans and US organizations that have taken a public stand against one or more US wars or who have devoted their time, energy, and other resources to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts. The foundation celebrates these role models to inspire other Americans to speak out against war and to work for peace." A one-time donation of $100, or several smaller donations totalling $100, gets you a founding membership and the priviledge of nominating candidates for the US Peace Prize.

During my online exchange with Knox he asked if I could publish anything about the foundation, stating, "The US Peace Memorial Foundation is now in its 21st year, and this is our 18th year of awarding the US Peace Prize. Unfortunately, mainstream America is unaware of our existence." I said I could at least blog about it, if nothing else, so I'm reviewing his book here.

If Knox and his foundation are serious about this campaign for a "peace memorial," then let us examine some other attempts to create monuments or "memorials" to peace. Already there have been several attempts across the USA, some successful, some not, but most have been gardens or parks:  

• The Peace Memorial Park in Portland, Oregon, is a giant floral peace sign dedicated to the memory of all victims of all wars. 
• Peace Garden at Fresno State University in Fresno, California, is a statue garden that honors Ghandi, MLK, Jane Addams, Nelson Mandela. Other features are added from time to time.
• The Lyndale Peace Park Garden in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Peace Garden in Riverfront Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, both honor victims of the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• The Peace Plaza in Salem, Oregon is simply an abstract sculpture garden, with little to link it to peace beyond its name and the fact that it is a peaceful public space.
• Prairie Peace Park was located on Highway 80 near Lincoln, Nebraska, and opened in 1994 but closed in 2005--a measure, perhaps, of how much America values its monuments to peace.
• The Pacifist Memorial at the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachussetts, contains a statue of Ghandi along with plaques and stones honoring thirty or more men--and also thirty or more women--who practiced pacifism, along with plaques and stones honoring war victims and war correspondents.  

I personally find building a "peace memorial" far less of a priority than practicing peace. You may make a memorial to victims of war, or to practioners of peace, but "peace" isn't an event to remember, the way a war is. You don't achieve peace by putting up a "memorial," you do it by changing America's miltaristic culture. 

Then there is the question of who and what any such memorial honors. Even people who spend some part of their lives working for peace are, well, only human, so any decision to honor them with any permanent memorial must be considered very seriously. The Peace Garden at Fresno removed its tribute to the late Cesar Chavez following revelations about his conduct towards certain women. The US Peace Memorial Foundation includes Tulsi Gabbard on its list of "Individuals Honored" because for a time the former congressmember did speak out for peace and against US militarism--only to turn around and become just another tool in the militaristic and authoritarian Trump administration.

To me a far more useful goal for Knox and his foundation would be a cultural institution modeled after the only major brick-and-mortar museum dedicated to peace in the United States, the International Peace Museum in Dayton, Ohio. A museum does far more than create a "memorial" to peace, or war victims, or pacifists--through ongoing educational exhibits and programs, it encourages peace.

For more information about the book and the foundation:

The updated chapter 7 that lists individuals honored by the foundation can be read at:  www.uspeacememorial.org/Individuals.pdf

The updated chapter 8 that lists organizations honored by the foundation can be read at: www.USPeaceMemorial.org/Organizations.pdf

Foundation website: www.USPeaceMemorial.org

Remember, the foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity and its mission is to celebrate and share the work of those opposing US war and militarism. If you've got $100 to spend, you may want to join and work for peace.

Amnesty International and Leonard Peltier in "The Spirit of Crazy Horse"

While reading the book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Mattheiesen (Penguin Books 1992) about the radical American Indian Movement of the 1970s, I was able to confirm what I already knew, that Amnesty International has been following the case of Leonard Peltier since 1976, when they sent observers to his legal proceedings. 

Despite what the people at that long-ago meeting I blogged about last April so hysterically insisted, whether or not Peltier and the rest of the American Indian Movement "advocate violence" is not relevant to why Amnesty has followed his case for fifty years and counting. It wasn't about whether he was guilty or innocent of any violent crime. It was about how he has never been proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt--even the prosecution has admitted it. He was convicted on tainted evidence in a trial tainted by prosecutorial misconduct.

For reference, here's a link to my blog about that crazy Amnesty Intenational meeting where a roomful of people insisted the organization didn't "do" Peltier:   https://lynjensen.blogspot.com/2026/04/weird-guys-weird-meeting.html

Here's a key passage from Mattiessen's book:  "In a comprehensive report issued in October 1981, Amnesty International discussed at length the FBI's role . . . which revealed, "at the very least, some disrespect for the law on the part of the FBI. In Peltier the Court of Appeals held that the more prudent course might have been to allow the defense to present Myrtle Poor Bear's evidence to the jury, in Marshall [another questionable case involving Native American rights] the judge felt some "concern." Considered together, these two cases give rise to sufficient doubt about the integrity of the FBI in these matters to warrant further examination . . . Amnesty International . . . wonders what conclusion should be drawn when a federal government agency (the FBI) . . . appears willing to fabricate evidence against its "targets" and to withhold information which, according to law, should have been disclosed. It is, moreover, clear that the FBI have abused their power by producing false evidence and infiltrating the defense teams of people indicted on serious charges." Proposal for a Commission of Inquiry into the Effect of Domestic Intelligence Activities on Criminal Trials in the United States of America (Amnesty International Publications, 1981)

That 1981 book may not be the only Amnesty publication to address the Peltier case, either. I recall Jackson Browne, appearing at the 1986 Conspiracy of Hope tour, holding up an Amnesty International publication, and saying, "Leonard is in this book, when the truth comes out, Leonard will be a free man." He may have been referring to the 1981 book, or maybe to another, later book.

According to Amnesty International's own website, here is their statement regarding the news that President Biden had commuted the sentence of Peltier, dated 23 January 2025: "Amnesty previously sent observers to Leonard Peltier’s trial in 1977 and has campaigned for his release from prison for many years. Amnesty International will continue to monitor the circumstances of his confinement moving forward." 

Here is a link to more details about the commutation of Peltier's sentence, on the Amnesty site:  https://www.amnestyusa.org/campaigns/free-leonard-peltier/

Then there's the Wikipedia entry for Peltier, which, despite spending much space on persons who insist he's guilty, also acknowledges, "Human rights watchdogs, such as Amnesty International . . . campaigned for clemency for Peltier."

True, Peltier was never one of the cases officially taken up by Amnesty on behalf of a political prisoner, because their bylaws prohibit cases involving violent crime, but it's hard to believe that an entire roomful of Amnesty supporters would be so ignorant of fully understanding Amnesty's interest in Peltier's case. If I were to meet any of those people today, I'd tell them to read their own group's website.