Once you hit 90, your average life expectancy is 95!

If you intend to live forever (well, nearly), the key is to live healthfully now. Here are the top 10 steps to reaching 90 in good health and great shape:

1. Stay active. That daily 30-minute walk is vital to keeping you young.

Get enough of these to keep body and brain humming: whole grains, fruits, and veggies; vitamin D3 (1,000 IU; 1,200 after age 60); DHA omega-3s (600-900 mg); low-dose aspirin (talk to your doc first).

Get next to none of these: saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars.

Sleep 7 1/2 hours to 8 hours a night. Every night.

Manage stress. Meditate (here's an easy way) or take two 10- or 15-minute deep-breathing breaks daily.

Do. Not. Smoke.

Stimulate your brain. Do puzzles, learn languages, and take on new challenges. Stay sharp with these nifty (and fun) brain games.

Support "village" movements: neighbors-helping-neighbors programs that let people live independently at home.

Harass your legislators to get health costs under control and affordable. At some point, you'll need it. Meanwhile, here are 6 ways to cut your own healthcare costs.

Move to North Dakota, Hawaii, or California. They're meccas for 90-year-olds.

Then plan on blowing out more than 90 candles. Once you hit 90, your average life expectancy is 95!

Douglas becomes the first African-American to win the Olympic women's all around.

USA's Gabby Douglas crowned Olympic champion in dramatic gymnastics all-around final

Getty Images - LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 02: Gabrielle Douglas of the United States competes on the balance …more  beam in the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Individual All-Around final on Day 6 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at North Greenwich Arena on August 2, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)  less 

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LONDON – With a big smile and even bigger performance, Gabby Douglas, the high-flying 16-year-old out of Virginia Beach, held off a strong and dramatic challenge by Russian Victoria Komova to win gold in the women's gymnastics all-around final on Thursday.

Douglas led throughout but needed to deliver a near flawless routine on the floor exercise, the final of four rotations, and then wait out the floor effort by Komova, who needed a 15.360 to win gold.
She got only a 15.100.
As the score dramatically flashed on the screen, Komova broke into tears in her coaches' arms and Douglas flashed one of her signature grins and jumped in celebration as chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" rained down.

(Getty)Douglas finished with a score of 62.232, just .259 ahead of Komova. Russia's Aliya Mustafina won the bronze.
American Aly Raisman, of suburban Boston, actually tied Mustafina at 59.566, but she finished in a heart-breaking fourth place after losing the tiebreaker. In case of a tie, the lowest score is thrown out and each competitors' top three are calculated. Mustafina was higher.
Douglas took the overall lead on the vault, the first of her four rotations, and then never relinquished it despite strong challenges from the Russians, who were determined to excel at the all around after being blown out by the Americans in the team competition on Tuesday.
Douglas, deemed "The Flying Squirrel" due to high-wire routines, landed a meet-best 15.966 on the vault to assume the early lead. She followed it with a sharp 15.733 on the uneven bars, managing to maintain a gap.
Douglas then delivered a brilliant performance on the balance beam, scoring a meet-best 15.500 to give herself a 0.326 cushion going into the floor exercise. Her best moment was landing a full flip with a twist on beam just moments after Mustafina, the 2010 world champion, fell attempting the same complex maneuver.
Douglas then delivered a 15.033 on the floor, but had to wait nervously as Raisman and Komova got the final two chances. It's common in gymnastics for scores to increase as the competition goes on. In this case, it wasn't enough.

Douglas becomes the first African-American to win the Olympic women's all around. She follows Nastia Liukin (2008) and Carly Patterson (2004) to give America the overall individual champion three Olympics running.
Raisman was the surprise in qualifying, posting the best score of the Americans and effectively knocking out 2011 world champion Jordyn Wieber. Each nation is capped at having just two participants in the finals.

Raisman was unable to equal her performance on Sunday, however, delivering a few too many mistakes to keep up with Douglas, Komova and Mustafina.
Needing a huge performance in her strongest event, floor, Raisman registered a meet-best 15.133. It turned out to be just 0.001 too low or she would have earned bronze.
Women's gymnastics will stage its individual event finals on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with all five of the American gymnasts qualified in at least one event, so the United States' haul of gold should continue into next week.
Douglas, however, is now the unquestioned champion of women's gymnastics.

Why is Reading Aloud So Important?

Why is Reading Aloud So Important?

                                             Building A Better World

An interview with Mary McLeod Bethune

“Bethune: My mother kept in rather close contact with the people she served as a slave. She continued to cook for her master until she [saved enough to purchase] five acres of land. [Her former master] deeded her five acres. The cabin, my father and brothers built. It was the cabin in which I was born. She kept up these relations. Very often I was taken along [to my mother's job] after I was old enough, and on one of these occasions I remember my mother went over to do some special work for this family of Wilsons, and I was with her.

I went out into what they called their play house in the yard where they did their studying. They had pencils, slates, magazines and books. I picked up one of the books and one of the girls said to me -- "You can't read that -- put that down. I will show you some pictures over here," and when she said to me, "You can't read that -- put that down," it just did something to my pride and to my heart that made me feel that some day I would read just as she was reading. I did put it down, and followed her lead and looked at the picture book that she had. But I went away from there determined to learn how to read and that some day I would master for myself just what they were getting and it was that aim that I followed.

One day we were out in the field picking cotton and the mission teacher came from Maysville, five miles away, and told mother and father that the Presbyterian church had established a mission where the Negro children could go and that the children would be allowed to go. I was among the first of the young ones to enroll, and... so it seemed to me.

That first morning on my way to school I kept the thought uppermost, "Put that down -- you can't read," and I felt that I was on my way to read and it was one of the incentives that fired me in my determination to read. And I think that because of that I grasped my lessons and my words better than the average child and it was not long before I was able to read and write”.

Charles S. Johnson, [abridged] (1940) in Mary McLeod Bethune: Building A Better World: Essays and Selected Documents. McCluskey, Audrey Thomas and Smith, Elaine M., eds., (University of Indiana Press, Bloomington, IN, 1999): pg. 36.

Tips to Encourage a Love of Books and Reading in Young Children

• Hearing stories helps children learn new words.
• Helps develop children’s speaking and listening skills.
• Reading experts tell us that children need to hear 1,000 stories aloud before they can begin to read themselves.
• Reading aloud with a child creates important cuddling time for you and your child.

What Kind of Books do I Choose?

• Look for books with repetition: it helps children feel smart when they can figure out what comes next. 
• Use books that have lots of rhyme and rhythm which is soothing and helps to calm children.
• Non-fiction (books about real subjects) help children relate to the world around them.
• Look for bright, beautiful illustrations that will ‘catch’ your child’s attention.

How do I Get Started?

• Get a Public Library card!
• Relax and enjoy yourself: the best way to help a child learn to love reading is to love it yourself.
• Read with enthusiasm.
• Read slowly and enjoy your time together with the book
• Ask questions about the story as you go along.
• Read books over and over again: children love hearing their favorite stories again.

  Read to your child 20 minutes each day!

Farewell to Paris!

Farewell to Paris!

My companion for 15 years

Paris my mixed breed dog was given to me in

 in April 1987 as a gift from my nephew who

was leaving to join the Marines.

This little tannish white puppy was put in my

care and for the last 15 years we walked, ran,

he swam in every stream, pond, lake or pool of water

we walked by and when we finished our water walks,

Paris looked forward to being hosed down on the front lawn.

As he grew to know me and I to know him, whenever

you saw him, you saw me.  We knew when it was

time to wake up and walk in the morning and we knew

when time it was time to walk in the evening.

Paris knew when I was dressing for work, walking, or bed,

just by snipping the clothes I were wearing and he would adjust

himself according to what I was wearing….work clothes….short walk.

walking clothes….long walk and evening walks in between.

Paris would look into my eyes and I into his and I could the spirit of life,

loyalty and living.  Paris was a great companion to me.  We walked for 15 years.   

Paris and I walked 5 miles of more daily; during all seasons and all weather.  I hope I was a great companion to Paris as he was to me.

Thank you Paris for 15 years of life, love, living, and loyalty!