Happy Autumn! Being a human is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff -- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for the entire world to see. This was passed on to me from another pumpkin. Now, it is your turn to pass it to a pumpkin. I liked this enough to send it to all the pumpkins in my patch.

Spending American dollars on American products creates and saves American jobs. There are 293 million people living in the United States... If each one of us would shift $20 a month in spending from foreign made products to American made products, that would create 5 million new jobs. Understand the power that you have when spending your dollars. Know that recycling your dollars when buying American Made products has a compounding effect on the US economy and the American worker. When you send your dollar overseas that dollar leaves our economy and helps support another countries economy. Visit madeinusa.com and begin patronizing companies which produce their products here at home. Tell them you heard about them at madeinusa.com Start asking retailers "Where are your American-Made products?" Make "madeinusa.com" and "Patriotic Spending" a part of your daily conversations. Tell everone you know to visit madeinusa.com and send all the people in your address book a link to the web site. Teach future generations (your children and grandchildren) the importance of "Patriotic Spending". It's their jobs, their future and their way of life we are fighting for.

Linda,
You have a way of hitting on issues that are dear to my heart.
I am in the process of applying for non-profit status so that I can create a homework/research/community center. I want to create young entrepreneurs from the neglect of the schools here and tap into their natural talents, teaching them to use whatever they find at hand. The job choices are appalling.
I am creating hand crafted items made from things I find in the yard like pecans, oyster shells, rocks, etc.
This nation was built (in fact all commerce) from people making stuff up!
Then finding somebody who wants to buy their stuff.

Hey Linda,

You really hit a nerve with the Made in the USA topic.  So much so I have started researching companies that claim to have Made in USA products.  Did you know that most liste on sites like and including the one you suggested, their products are made elsewhere and they are only packaged here in the USA?  What a disappointment when I started delving into this.  We really don't make much of anything that US citizens consume on a daily nasis.  How sad, we have lost the edge that once made us truly great.

Jim

Joyce, WE HAVE got to get back to basics and MADE in USA ! Thank you ! Linda in sunny Albuquerque, New Mexico USA