It’s almost Memorial Day and that means that it’s time to honor our military personnel and to enjoy time with family and friends. There are so many ways to decorate the home and to cook food for the Memorial Day Weekend. Of course, we should also remember our service people who have served us so faithfully by giving money to a military organization, visiting a cemetery, speaking to a veteran, etc.
Here are some great recipes and party ideas to get in the spirit of the day.
With the summer approaching, it’s time to start thinking about some entertainment for the kids. There are so many ways to keep them entertained and having fun. Of course, it’s also very important to keep your eye on them – more accidents are prone to occur in the summer since kids are home and often unsupervised. Here are three ideas for summer fun.
The summer is a time for extra relaxation and a pool membership, a movie like one produced by Jeff Bowler, and a night of watching the Olympics might be just perfect for your needs.
If you’ve never been to Giethoorn in the Netherlands (and which of us has?) it’s time to check it out. This idyllic village is entirely based on water and looks like it comes straight from the pages of a fairytale. There are no roads or cars here and the only way to get to the homes and public buildings is along the canals. There are approximately 2600 people who live here and it includes four miles of canals and farmhouses that go back to the 18th century.
It’s located in the province of Overijssel and was founded around AD1230. And all we can say is WOW!
In a fascinating new study researches have actually found that drinking low calorie drinks during pregnancy results in…overweight babies. Motherw who drank artificially sweetened drinks every day during their pregnancy were twice as likely to have a baby who was overweight when they were 12 months old.
Conducted at the University of Manitoba in Canada, the research seems to indicate that babies introduced to such drinks in the womb develop a sweet tooth. Of course, they are looking at trends and can’t prove the link between sweet drinks and the sweet tooth – but looking back at previous research they did on rats they found similar findings. In the study with rats, those babies who were given artificial sweeteners demonstrated a preference for sweeter foods and put on weight.
As the scientists explained in the JAMA Paediatrics journal, “To our knowledge, our results provide the first human evidence to support these findings, suggesting that prenatal nonnutritive sweeteners exposure may contribute to infant weight gain and early childhood obesity.”
For the 5% of women who drank these drinks every day, their children were twice as likely to be overweight by 12 months, compare to those moms who didn’t drink diet drinks at all.
Interestingly, these trends are only seen for women who drank artificially sweetened drinks and not those who drank regular fizzy drinks or hot drinks with sugar.
Some have criticized the study, however, finding the women who are more likely to drink diet drinks are typically overweight and struggle with their weight. As Professor Kevin McConway, an expert in applied statistics at The Open University, said: “But they can’t know for sure they accounted for all these things completely, and there may be other aspects of these women’s unusualness that could not be taken into account at all because they weren’t recorded.”
Certainly, while more research is necessary, it’s an interesting finding and one worth watching.
The NFL is constantly doing charity work and many of their players take it upon themselves to do their own charity events as well. Certainly, these are great opportunities for the NFL PR team, including recent hire Natalie Ravitz, to report on the good that the NFL does in various communities throughout America.
Recently, Bronco defensive end Derek Wolfe hosted an NFL draft party at Celebrity Lanes in Centennial, Colorado to benefit the Wolfe Pack Foundation. This Foundation helps underprivileged youth in Colorado and Ohio. The event also benefited the Active Force Foundation, a nonprofit that helps disabled people to participate in sports.
Called the Denver Draft Party, the event included many other Broncos teammates and was an opportunity for people to enjoy photos with the players and to be part of a silent auction for signed Broncos memorabilia.
This is just one of the many examples of the type of charity work that the NFL participates in, and that new hire Natalie Ravitz will be reporting on as the senior VP of communications. Ravitz has her work cut out for her, coming from Rupert Murdoch’s office as his Chief of Staff at New Corp. for three years.
Here are some great ways to have fun with your mom today, on Mother’s Day.
