March 31st, 2009
The latest issue of ReadyMade has an inspiring article on the growing movement of urban food gardening. Tilling Our City Soil by Rachel Wharton takes a look at some of these urban gardeners, examining what inspires them and how they are able to achieve healthier (and happier!) lifestyles by growing food in the city.
I live out in the country where having room to grow a productive garden is almost a given, but city dwellers often have to get a lot more creative to grow good food. It’s great to read that the community gardening movement is really taking off and has grown rapidly the past couple of years. This article has both inspiring profiles of people growing food in cities and handy, real-world advice, like instructions on how to build a compact raised bed garden box. If you’ve been thinking about converting that lawn into a garden, or just putting an herb garden in your windowsill, this article will help you make the move into urban gardening.
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March 30th, 2009
It’s not too early to start thinking about Easter Eggs, and if you’re tired of the same old decorations year after year, make sure and check out Egg Mania in the latest issue of FamilyFun. How about displaying your eggs on a tiered stand made from paper plates or hanging them from little swings made out of sections of egg cartons? There’s eight fun and creative ways to decorate and display your Easter Eggs in this crafty article.
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March 26th, 2009
Have you been noticing all the recent fuss about Twitter and wondering what it’s all about? If so, you’ll appreciate this cool little article from Maximum PC on 9 Awesome Uses of Twitter. The new “micro-blogging” service seems to be taking the world by storm, and everyone from celebrities to journalists are starting to use Twitter to post short 140-character messages to their followers (called “tweeting” in the new vernacular). Twitter is easy to use and free, so if you’ve been wanting to find out more about this craze or if you’ve already dived in and are looking for more interesting ways to use Twitter, you should definitely give this article a read.
Don’t just take my word on how good this article is though, LeVar Burton just tweeted it!
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March 25th, 2009
April Fools’ Day is just around the corner and if you like to pull some gentle pranks on your little ones, the latest issue of FamilyFun has some great ideas. April Fools’ Pranks has several suggestions for fun and harmless pranks that are sure to surprise and delight your kids. I especially liked the Snack Switcheroo — secretly opening up that bag of Cheetos and replacing them with carrot sticks is my kind of trick!
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March 24th, 2009
Advances in medical science seem to be happening at a break-neck pace these days. One of the things I’ve really been looking forward to is more options for home testing, but I hadn’t realized how far we’ve already come in this area. According to DIY DNA Testing, Home DNA testing is possible today and there are dozens of companies providing these kind of test kits.
The tests aren’t cheap, costing from hundreds to thousands, and the information they provide can be both crucial and confusing. DNA tests don’t tell you what diseases you have or clearly predict which ones you will get, but they can provide a glimpse into the odds and risks of coming down with certain conditions and diseases. This is all very new science though, and some experts caution that is too early yet to be able to use these kind of test results to make meaningful conclusions. Yet consumers seem to be flocking to them, and the data around genetic markers and causes of disease will only get better and better.
Prevention magazine’s latest issue has an exciting round-up of the latest developments in DIY DNA testing. It’s well worth a read by anyone interested in this cutting edge medical technology.
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March 23rd, 2009
Heidi Klum seems to really be on top of her game right now, and the current issue of Ladies’ Home Journal features a fascinating profile with everyone’s favorite reality TV star/model. Not only has Heidi taken the modeling world by storm, become a successful TV star with a popular reality show going into it’s sixth season, but she’s a married mother of three who somehow manages to balance her professional and family life.
A sidebar shows how to “get that look” that Heidi wears so well, including tips on how to rework some of your classic outfits for a more spring fashion feel. Click on the image below to read all about Heidi in Project Heidi.
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March 20th, 2009
The April issue of Ladies’ Home Journal has an important article for parents of teen drivers. Our oldest child is 13, still a couple of years away from taking the car out for a spin, but I’m already starting to worry about this issue! It’s pretty disconcerting that car accidents are the largest cause of death among teens in this country and the numbers are scary — we lose around 6,000 of our kids every year to car crashes. Some good news is that young people are much more aware of the dangers of drunk driving than previous generations, but on the flip side studies show that driving while talking on the phone or texting is just as dangerous, and those trends are unfortunately on the rise.
If you have teen drivers, or know any, I’d highly recommend reading Teens Behind the Wheel and passing on the sound advice and tips to our younger drivers. Some of the advice is obvious — distractions (like cell phones) and speed are both major factors in many teen accidents, but other information was new and thought-provoking for me. For instance, I was pretty shocked to read that there is twice the chance of a fatal accident if there is a second teen in the car. People can be big distractions too, especially to more immature drivers.
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March 19th, 2009
I just realized this past weekend that my rapidly-growing 13-year-old has outgrown his current mountain bike and it’s time for a larger one. So the latest issue of Bicycling couldn’t have come at a better time for us. Not only does the April issue include their massive annual buyer’s guide, but there’ s an extremely handy article on How to Buy a Bike, which answered many of the questions we have.
For instance, I didn’t know that taller riders need longer crank arms. With my son pushing 6′0″ at age 13, he’s going to need all the room we can get there. The article uses an interesting tree analogy (the frame is the trunk, etc) and it’s a quick and easy read that should help anyone in the market for a new bike.
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March 18th, 2009
This month’s issue of Pregnancy magazine features an interesting article about what is commonly referred to as “Attachment Parenting”. We’re raising two kids and many of the principles of attachment parenting are things we’ve adopted in our own parenting.
The basic idea of attachment parenting is that it is a parenting philosophy that nurtures the bonds between parents and their babies, by fostering the innate drive babies have to form a close attachment to a primary caregiver. There are no hard and fast guidelines or rules, but parents who subscribe to attachment parenting often do things like have a family bed, breastfeed for more than just one year, wear their infant on their body as much as possible in snugglies, prefer redirection to discipline when a baby does some unwanted behavior, and in general consider crying a type of communication to try and avoid by anticipating baby’s needs. The underlying belief is that babies who get as many of their needs met as possible in their infancy end up as more secure and happy kids and adults.
Pregnancy is one of the titles that is available completely for free on Coverleaf to all readers. Check it out!
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March 17th, 2009
More Magazine’s latest issue has an inspirational article on a new method of curing depression, anxiety, and other ills: getting active! Several case studies presented here demonstrate the adage, “people who give to others, give healthier, happier lives to themselves.”
Read about how after being stuck in an airliner for 9 hours on the tarmac not only intensified the anxiety problems Kate Hanni had been recently dealing with, but also pushed her over the edge into action. Hanni was so incensed by the experience she founded the Coalition for the Airline Passenger’s Bill of Rights, and the experience of getting active around the issue ended up helping her immensely.
If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety or depression, you should definitely give The Activism Cure a read.
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