Having to deal with the hassles of every day life often means there is not enough time for most couples to have a night to themselves. With work, dinners to make, homework to do, after school activities, carpooling, and so on, it becomes harder and harder to take the time necessary to nurture your relationship. Along with regular date nights, it’s also important to compliment your partner, smile, share a laugh, and show your appreciation. A little can go a long way. With almost half of all marriages in the United States ending in divorce, hopefully some of these simple, inexpensive ways to reconnect will help make your relationship stronger.
1. Take in a show at the comedy club
2. Take a cooking class, bottle your own wine, or make your own beer together
3. Rent a car and go for a mini-road trip
4. Learn to salsa, ballroom dance, or swing dance
5. Watch a new sport and learn it together
6. Try new music, check out a blues or jazz club,
7. Go roller-skating
8. Camp out in the backyard.
9. Head to the Casino with 20.00 each, and see how long you can make it last.
10. Wander through local used bookstores
11. Go horseback riding
12. Have a picnic under the stars
13. Visit a local winery for a day of wine tasting
14. Get up early and head to the local Farmers Market
15. Search cookbooks and recipes online and create a 4 course meal complete with dessert together
16. Check out the Planetarium or Art Museum
17. Create a vegetable garden together
18. Test drive the car of your dreams (even if you can’t afford it, especially if you can’t afford it)
19. Find a place to people watch and make up stories to tell each other about their lives
20. Find a quiet corner in a coffee shop and just talk to each other for an hour
There are a million more date night ideas, you just need to be creative, and make taking the time a priority.
I’d love to hear your date night ideas!
March 16th,2010
Misc |
1 Comment
Mmmm coffee, just the aroma invokes all kinds of pleasurable thoughts and feelings….a feeling of relaxation. There is a sense of peace when you smell coffee….and of course then you taste it, and whether you drink it black, or drink it with cream and sugar, you find yourself in a state of refreshment as the coffee kicks in and gives your day the jolt it needs to keep going.
We were told in the past that coffee is not good for us, that we should cut out coffee completely… but that is not the case. Coffee no longer has to be one of life’s guilty pleasures. Coffee should be a pleasure that is embraced and shared, no more guilt, no more hiding…. Because new studies indicate that moderate coffee drinkers can not only enjoy their morning coffee jolt, but they may also get significant health benefits too.
For many people coffee is the only thing that helps them get through their day. Business and social interactions quite often revolve around coffee. How many times do you meet up with a friend over coffee in a week? Or head to the break room for a coffee each day just as your energy is flagging?
More than 70 Billion worth of coffee is sold every year according to the London-based International Coffee Organization.
In the US alone estimates of sales are 19.2 billion.
People used to think that coffee had negative health effects, and it’s now becoming clear that is not the case. A study done at Harvard University school of Public Health shows that the risk of developing Type II diabetes is lower in regular coffee drinkers.
It’s not a good idea to go overboard with coffee either… it just means that a moderate daily does could be justified.
And Harvard researchers have determined that compared to not drinking coffee, drinking 1-3 cups or more can reduce diabetes risk by a small percentage, but having six cups or more cut down the risk in Men by 54% and in women by 30% over those that did not drink coffee. (webmd.com)
There’s also some evidence that coffee may help manage asthma and even control attacks when medication is unavailable, stop a headache, boost mood, and even prevent cavities.
We all know that we increase our brain power with coffee every morning when we first get up. And when we are having trouble focusing in the middle of the afternoon, we take a coffee break to perk ourselves up. Coffee seems to increase brain power because the caffeine in coffee blocks a brain chemical called adenosine, which prompts feelings of drowsiness. Normally, brain cells release adenosine when they’re overworked. Adenosine is released to calm the activity of your brain cells, and give them a break.
This isn’t so bad, except when you have a deadline to meet, or a late night project that has to be done by morning. By blocking Adenosine, coffee gives us the feeling of increased brain power, just when we’re feeling run down and overwhelmed. Think of all the money we spend on expensive supplements that claim to give us more energy and brain power… we can save ourselves some money and benefit the same way naturally with coffee.
Check out what else coffee can do for you.
Oder Eater: Freshens smelly refrigerators and freezers with unused coffee grounds. They’ll neutralize air by sucking up stinking moisture, while giving off their own great java scent… just place a small blow of grounds in the back of your fridge or freezer, and discard after a few months
Brain Food: A mug of joe a day could help you stay sharp. A daily dose of caffeine may block effects of high cholesterol that have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
De-stress: Inhaling the scent of coffee may just help you de-stress. A relaxation response is triggered by the smell of roasted coffee beans.
Body Refresher: Did you know that coffee is a natural exfoliate? Mix together 1 cup of cooled coffee grounds, ½ cup sugar, and ½ tablespoon of jojoba oil. Gently rub the mixer all over your body in a circular motion and then rinse.
And nutrients in coffee grounds can also help some plants grow. Just sprinkle on the soil.
So drink up!
Thanks to Health.com, Webmd.com, Coffeedetective.com and Forbes.com for the statistical information
March 15th,2010
Health | tags:
coffee,
Health |
No Comments
Along with being a book lover, I love magazines. I love getting a magazine in the mail, and I savor it, reading everything from beginning to end. Quite often I will go back and re-read them as I save them in a small basket next to my chair.
So with that said, sometimes I’ll be reprinting an article and commenting on it…. this particular article/survey was printed in the April 2010 issue of Prevention.
What’s your Feel Age?
We all know our real age, but what counts is how we feel… our Feel Age. This encompasses a sense of self, attitude the state of our emotions, and our ongoing desire to live life.
Take this quiz like I did, and see what your Feel Age is….. Mine was 25.
1. Do you feel physically strong and capable most days?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
2. When you size yourself up against others your age, how often do you feel you’re in good (or even better) shape?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
3. Do you see your body as sexy, shapely, attractive – any or all of these?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
4. Are you at ease shooting off a text message or twittering?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
5. Are you the knowledge-seeking Google-eyed, curious type?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
6. How often do you feel let down by what your body can achieve?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
7. Whether it’s your “muffin top” or your “jelly belly” how often do you negatively rate your body?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
8. How regularly do you wake up feeling more tired or sad than excited and energetic?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
9. As you age, do you feel more confident and optimistic about what the future holds?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
10. Do you draw inspiration and support from your friends?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
11. Do you have friends in every age group from 18-88?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
12. Are you prepared to gracefully accept some aspects of aging?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
13. Do you think getting older means losing your marbles?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
14. Do you get exited about experiencing new things?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
15. Do you feel under siege from minor illness and fatigue?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
16. Do you actively help other people or volunteer for charity?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
17. How often do you feel that these are your best years?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
18. Does your face reveal a happy no-holds-barred kind of life?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
19. Mirror do you look older than your age?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
20. Do you often think that getting older is the pits?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
21. Is there meaning and fulfillment in your life?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
22. Socially and politically, do you feel you have some opinions to share?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
+2 +1 0 -1 -2
Add all of the negative scores together and ,separately, total up the positives. Write down your age. Now subtract the negatives, and add the positives, and that’s your feel age! It’s a score based on your physical confidence, personal, development, optimism and attitude toward aging.
If your feel age is younger than your real age: You are the adventurous, positive type; you love life and are young at heart.
If your feel age matches your real age: You are balanced, lively, realistic and curious, you have a strong sense of self that, along with your other strengths constitutes a great recipe for positive aging.
If your feel age is older than your real age: Self-awareness and honestly are two of your strengths, yet it’s likely you have some health concerns preventing you from aging in a more positive way.
What’s your feel age? I’d love to hear from you, and if you are younger, older, or the same.
I just finished Comedian Chelsea Handler’s book “My Horizontal Life” It was laugh out loud funny and had to be totally exaggerated, but hilarious. She talks about her parents a lot, especially her dad, and I can tell you she wrote about things I would never in a million years want my dad to read, but at the same time it is very liberating to think of writing something that is no holds barred, and just put it all out there. Granted, I’m not nearly as witty, and I don’t have the stories she had to tell, but I would love to be able to write without censoring myself all the time….. I’d like to do that here in this blog, but not sure that will happen either. But I’ll try.
I have decided that this year I am going to step outside my reading genre for a little bit. I’m not quite going back to the classics, but I’ve picked seven or eight books that I want to read by the end of this year. I’ve never read Little Women, so I’m going to give that a go… as well as a few others by John Barth, Anais Nin, John Irving, and maybe Jane Austin. That’s an aggressive little selection for me, as I am prone to reading the same kinds of things all the time…. mostly Urban Fantasy, science fiction and paranormal romance… although I’m reading less and less of the last one. I love big novel…. one I can really sink my teeth into, so occasionally I’ll find one of those as well and devour it in 2 days time. Now if only I could write like that…… I’d have it made.
March 13th,2010
Books | tags:
biography,
Books |
3 Comments
It’s that time of year where everyone wants to take off their jackets as soon as the weather hits 40 degrees. It’s also the time when everyone is trying to lighten up their wardrobes with light colors…. and now is also the time to change your eyeshadow to something a bit more flirty, in keeping with the spring feeling in the air. I recently got for Christmas an amazing shadow pallet. 100 different eye shadows, and I have yet to try them all. So I thought I would do that now, and show you the results. I’m not a make-up expert by any means, but I love, love, love putting on make-up… I try to go with the less is more philosophy unless I’m going out for the night, then I try to glam it up just a bit. I didn’t do much else with the rest of my make-up while trying these shadows because I wanted to see the color’s themselves. So we’ll start here:
This is the first color pallet I used
The shadows I used were part of these 4 colors. The bottom one is quite green, while the two the left and right of it are a lighter shade of green.
First I tried the dark green....
Then I tried the light green.....
And then a combination
First of all I have never looked at my eyelids so closely before. Where the hell did those wrinkles come from? It has to be a mistake of some kind…. those eyes look all of their 40 years and then some I think. I like these colors for an evening out, and if I were wearing something that matches this green hue so my eyes don’t stand out so dramatically against whatever backdrop of clothing I decided to wear. Tomorrow I’ll take you through some of the other color pallets.
March 11th,2010
Beauty |
No Comments
This weekend is the weekend that everyone dreads and looks forward to each spring. Yes, we’re going to lose an hour of sleep, but hey, spring is here…. finally. I can tell you this is a time of year I definitely look forward to. February is the longest short month ever in Minnesota. Snowy, cold, and just no fun at all. Of course by January 1st I’m sick of winter anyway, but by the end of February I’m ready for the loony bin.
March 10th,2010
Beauty |
1 Comment
Having to deal with the hassles of every day life often means there is not enough time for most couples to have a night to themselves. With work, dinners to make, homework to do, after school activities, carpooling, and so on, it becomes harder and harder to take the time necessary to nurture your relationship. Along with regular date nights, it’s also important to compliment your partner, smile, share a laugh, and show your appreciation. A little can go a long way. With almost half of all marriages in the United States ending in divorce, hopefully some of these simple, inexpensive ways to reconnect will help make your relationship stronger.
