Dear Heloise: What a great hint in your column about sending letters and postcards to kids, including little thank-you notes. It was especially important that the reader said not to expect or demand a response.

I mailed a picture from the newspaper to my little grandson who showed me a baseball player he liked. My daughter told me that he looked carefully at the envelope with his name on it, then examined the picture. When I visited some time later, he showed me the picture, which was carefully placed in his dresser drawer. So sweet! — Elizabeth Hoffman, via email

COFFEE GROUNDS AND SQUIRRELS

Dear Heloise: Here’s another great use for coffee grounds along the same lines of putting them in your garden. Put them in your flowerpots, and it will keep squirrels from digging in your pots and “unplanting” your flowers. For years, I struggled with squirrels getting into my newly planted flower pots until I read about this solution.

Just sprinkle a generous amount of coffee grounds on top of the soil, and the squirrels will stay out. It does not harm the squirrels and keeps your flowers and pots intact. — Ann Alberico, in Lincoln, Nebraska

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM DONATIONS

Dear Heloise: We save paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, cardboard boxes, and plastic lids and bottles for the Children’s Museum in Denver. They have a construction area where children can learn to use basic tools and build projects with their parents. The children love what they can build, and we help with repurposing. — Jan, in Colorado Springs, Colorado

MUG EGGS

Dear Heloise: I have been making mug eggs for years. Janet Sloey sent in a good idea. However, she used three dishes for this. I do the mixing in the mug (using the oversized ones), heat the eggs up in the mug, and also eat directly from the mug. The eggs stay hot for longer this way, and only one container needs cleaning. — Sharon Lewis, in Henrico, Virginia

DEALING WITH CRUMBS

Dear Heloise: I was raised to keep a tidy table whether we’re dining or eating breakfast. This always included brushing dust and tiny crumbs off the table or tablecloth. I don’t have the space or patience to keep a little brush and tray near the table to use for this.

My new and very effective way is to wrap a fabric (not a vinyl) bandaid around the top part of my index finger and another around my middle finger.

Then I sweep my hand in strokes across the tabletop and over the edge of the table. The crumbs and dust disappear with one or two swipes per area. It’s easy and frustration-free. — Charlotte Kerr, in Richmond, Virginia

TEACH CHILDREN HOW TO SWIM

Dear Heloise: We live in Arizona, and my husband wanted to put a pool in our backyard. I agreed only if all three kids learned to swim and my husband agreed to teach them. Three years after the pool was installed, no one had learned to swim correctly yet. So, I enrolled them in a class that taught swimming, and thank heavens I did!

My youngest was running round the edge of the pool, slipped and hit his head on the pool’s edge, then slipped under the water. His brother jumped into the pool, swam to his brother, and pulled him out before we had a tragedy.

The moral of the story is to teach your kids to swim. I don’t care where you live. It’s a basic survival skill and so easy to learn. After reading the story of the woman whose nephew drowned, I started to cry, remembering how I could have lost one of my children. — Sharon, in Mesa, Arizona