More Lifestyles category, Page 52
Living with Children: Avoid the soap opera
One website is titled “How to Cope with Kids During Coronavirus.” Another, featuring a staged photo of an obviously frazzled mom with a toddler on her lap, tells the reader that “Parents are losing their minds having kids at home during coronavirus!” There’s yet another, advising on “How to Keep...
Pitt-Greensburg seeks input for planned New Kensington mural
Community members are being invited to share their ideas for a mural planned for the side of the Walt’s Deli building in New Kensington. The mural is a project of the Community Arts and Reintegration Project (CARP), administered by the Center For Applied Research at the University of Pittsburgh at...
Adapting: Coronavirus restrictions keeping beloved Excela volunteer from his roundsVideo
Editor’s note: Adapting is a regular series spotlighting the ways the coronavirus pandemic is changing the everyday lives of people in Western Pennsylvania. “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” The line to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” resonates these days...
Kids can join theater’s ‘Pirates of the Mon’ online adventuresVideo
Children are invited to set sail from home with Gemini Children’s Theater for an action-packed “Pirates of the Mon” adventure. The McKees Rocks-based theater has posted a video in which Allegheny Annie and Captain Schnook board the Black and Gold Pearl in search of the Triangle Treasure. In order to...
Westmoreland Historical Society to offer free online genealogy workshop
As you pass the days in social isolation with your family, are you wondering: Who are these people and where did they come from? The Westmoreland Historical Society can help you find some answers with a free online ”Introduction to Genealogy” workshop, set for 1-3 p.m. April 25. “This beginner’s...
Kennywood video shows how to make Potato Patch fries at homeVideo
Instructive? Sure. Creative? Yep. Disturbing? Eh, kinda. Kennywood Park released a video Wednesday demonstrating how to make its famous Potato Patch fries. Although it wasn’t a human chef manning the kitchen prep, it was perhaps the park’s newest mascot: Patchy the Potato. In a 2-minute video tweet, Patchy — a...
Say ‘hi’ to others with Children’s Museum photo, video challengeVideo
Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is sponsoring a “New Ways to Say Hi” challenge, asking kids of all ages and families to share the special ways they are saying “hi” while social distancing. Those wishing to participate are asked to submit a photo or short video (10-15 seconds recommended) showing creative...
Pittsburgh art gallery turns its physical space into a digital den
Amid the coronavirus lockdown, most museums and art galleries have turned to virtual experiences. But one Pittsburgh art outlet has taken things a bit further — digitizing its entire physical space. LikeLike, on North Evaline Street in Garfield, is a gallery launched in February 2018 devoted to art as told...
With salons closed, here’s how to keep hair and nails looking goodVideo
If ever there was a time to focus on inner beauty, this is it. With hair and nail salons closed for the foreseeable future, some of us are starting to feel a little unkempt. “I thank the good Lord that someone invented headbands,” says Teri Bowes of Hempfield. “They’re a...
Communities plan Easter activities while keeping social distance
Easter egg hunts are out this year in local parks, neighbors’ yards and church grounds, but communities are finding ways to share the joy of the season while maintaining social distance. Here’s what’s happening around the area: Carbon-area Easter Bunny visit The Easter Bunny will hitch a ride on a...
Living with Children: The problem with ‘parenting’
I am convinced that “parenting” causes otherwise rational people — people whose thought processes are not typically driven by emotion — to lose their minds. If that is not the case, then why, ever since 1970 (or thereabouts), when “parenting” replaced the simple, straightforward process of raising children to adulthood,...
Region’s churches spread Holy Week message online
A number of the region’s churches will livestream Holy Week services as the state’s stay at home order remains in effect through the month’s end. • Catholic Diocese of Greensburg’s virtual Holy Week services will be streamed at dioceseofgreensburg.org, facebook.com/dioceseofgreensburg and youtube.com. • Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik...
Edgewood residents invited to decorate windows with paper eggs
With Peter Cottontail likely under stay-at-home orders just like everyone else, people in Edgewood Borough are planning their own Easter egg hunting fun. Neighbors are being encouraged to decorate paper eggs and place them in windows, on doors or in other places where passersby can see them. Eggs can go...
‘Priceless’: 97-year-old Latrobe woman’s Facebook baking sessions go viral
It started with a live Facebook baking session as a way to connect with some socially distanced friends. Like a yeast dough left untended, it grew and grew and grew. Suddenly, Lucy Pollock, a 97-year-old home baker from Latrobe, became a social media sensation. A couple of weeks ago, Mary...
Coronavirus taking big bite out of Easter candy sales for region’s makers
Coronavirus-related business closures are taking a hefty bite out of area confectioners’ Easter candy sales. With chocolate bunnies, eggs and other seasonal sweets accounting for about half of annual revenue, it’s a situation that could put some companies out of business. “It’s devastating, actually,” said John Mandak, owner of Valos...
Have gardening questions? Master Gardeners’ hotline has answers
Home gardeners can have their questions answered beginning April 1 via the annual garden hotline sponsored by Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Westmoreland County. The hotline is a free service offered through the Penn State Extension Office to help Westmoreland County residents with various gardening questions and concerns, including...
Living with Children: More on picky eaters
Per the old Chinese saying, “May you live in interesting times,” it may be that the most interesting of times are those when people do not want to hear the truth — as in the present, or so it would seem. I did not intend to write a follow-up to...
Couples in quarantine: Stress, anxiety, fear of the unknown
The 60-something husband works in the food industry and still insists upon leaving every day for work, saying he needs to keep his business afloat. His frightened wife desperately wants him to stay home. For another couple, in the midst of a separation, the bitterly fought issue is the kids...
How communities are staying connected while respecting social distanceVideo
There are plenty of sayings to inspire us in these trying times: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Or, alternatively, “When life gives you lemons, take out the salt and the shot glasses and fill them up with tequila.” So...
Veterinarians, pet owners forced to adjust during coronavirus outbreak
Medical professionals treating humans aren’t the only ones having to adjust the way they practice in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Veterinarians have made similar changes in asking pet owners to postpone routine appointments and elective surgeries. They’re also reassuring pet owners that, though animals are the likely original source...
Living with Children: Time for parents to keep calm and carry on
Vital to a child’s sense of well-being are parents who act competent to provide adequate provision and protection under any and all circumstances. I often refer to that obligation as “acting like a superior being.” It requires, under the most trying circumstances, keeping one’s cool, projecting a sense of having...
It’s National Puppy Day … let’s celebrate
Today is National Puppy Day. It began in 2006, and there’s little doubt we’ve never needed it more than we do today. We are going into our second week of coronavirus quarantine, practicing social distancing holed up in our houses. We are missing our friends, our jobs, our teachers. You...
Remember When: March 23
A look at the Valley’s past in the language of the times as compiled by George Guido. 100 years ago Pittsburgh Plate Glass to expand The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. has announced it will acquire the 37-acre Wainwright plot in Creighton for $100,000. This will allow the adjacent glass plant,...
Living with Children: The best cure for picky eating
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) said there is no idea so bizarre that a philosopher has not advanced it. These days, the philosophers in question are psychologists and the bizarre ideas are their explanations of human behavior. Said explanations are bizarre because (trust me on this, I am one) psychologists wear, as...
Couples scramble to revamp wedding, honeymoon plans amid coronavirus pandemic
After their August engagement, Greensburg couple Gregory Mertz and Janelle Stayt planned a dream wedding. They were going to marry March 21 in Montgomery County, host their reception at Stateside Vodka Bar in Philadelphia and then depart on a European honeymoon. As the fast-spreading coronavirus raced around the globe, the resulting...
