Planting and harvesting your own fruits and vegetables is a practical matter.

Prac-ti-cal:  adj. serving an actual use or purpose (syn.) sensible, useful, handy, reasonable, prudent, judicial, matter-of-fact, convenient

     Who doesn’t want to be practical with that definition and those synonyms in your line-up?  There are hosts of practical women who line our pedigrees, Aunt Idon is but one.  She carpeted her basement from salvaged samples and scraps that she glued together onto floor-sized canvas, like a pieced quilt.  Once she cut a small piece of plywood into the shape of the letter “A” (representing her last name) and glued one hundred and one household paraphernalia to it:  thimble, razor blade, bobby pin, safety pin, pencil, toothpaste lid, match, bottle cap, hairnet, and 92 other items.  She topped it with a coat of gold spray paint.  But, the most amazing thing Aunt Idon recycled was leftover bits of yarn into crocheted nose-warmers: two crocheted bands that hooked behind our ears and held crocheted tubes over our noses, topped with a tassel that bobbed when our heads moved.  Aunt Idon was a practical woman and I loved every ounce of her practicality.

   Practical Matters is more than making do, it's a no-nonsense segment discussing a variety of topics--gardening, book lists, economizing, hobbies, whatever deems practical!