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52 unforgettable activities you can do with your kids this weekend
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This list of simple ideas will transform your weekends into memories. - photo by Melinda Fox
Melinda Fox
FamilyShare
Published: Oct 28, 2015, 2:59 PM
You've finally reached the weekend, and everyone is scattered around the house doing who knows what; and honestly, it's a challenge to put effort into thinking of anything more exciting to do than curling up with some Netflix. It's easy to let months of weekends pass this way, letting valuable family bonding time escape without a second glance. But having an exceptional weekend doesn't have to be a challenge.

Here's a list of unique activities that you can do with things you probably already have at home:

1. Have a lip sync battle

2. Spend the night in another decade with appropriate clothes, music and activities

3. Make pizzas that look like each other's faces

4. Have a cupcake war by seeing who can make the best cupcakes with a weird ingredient

5. Make a chalk mural as long as your entire street

6. Doorbell ditch cookies

7. Go camping in the backyard

8. Have a pie eating contest

9. Dress up in shawls and wigs to play Bingo

10. Paint portraits of each other

11. Write letters to family members

12. Pretend the power is out

13. Look up scripts to movies or plays on the Internet and act them out

14. Have a family Olympics with all the events (for example, create a figure skating routine minus the ice)

15. Dress up in fancy clothes and have a cheese and chocolate tasting

16. Celebrate your favorite holiday at the wrong time of year

17. Pretend you are vacationing in a foreign country

18. Build an obstacle course throughout the house

19. Make up your own ice cream flavor and eat it

20. Do a service scavenger hunt by breaking into teams and seeing how many people you can serve in an hour

21. Have a family sleepover

22. Visit a nursing home

23. Check out library books, and read all of them

24. Have a dance party

25. Eat breakfast in bed

26. Turn a movie on mute and act it out, finding props from what you have in the room

27. Make up your own card game

28. Build a fort

29. Have a spa night with massages, facials and yoga

30. Have a Nerf gun war

31. Make a collage from pictures cut from magazines

32. Build a sandcastle or a snow castle

33. Write thank you notes for cashiers, the mail carrier, etc. and hand them out

34. Make a movie

35. Skype a relative

36. Have a tower building contest

37. Look at family photos

38. Be a tourist in your own town

39. Go to a restraunt just to order dessert

40. Have a family talent show

41. Go on a scavenger hunt

42. Let the kids be the parents for the night

43. Go on a walk

44. Try cooking a meal from another country

45. Pick an actor, genre or series and have a movie marathon

46. Go stargazing

47. Listen to an audiobook together

48. Start a garden

49. Learn a new skill, like juggling or throat singing from youtube

50. Sing songs and roast things around a campfire

51. Find out today's National holidays and celebrate them

52. Make a music video
Its toxic: New study says blue light from tech devices can speed up blindness
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A new study from the University of Toledo found that blue light from digital devices can transform molecules in your eyes retina into cell killers. - photo by Herb Scribner
Herb Scribner
Deseret News
Published: Aug 13, 2018, 1:39 PM
It turns out checking Twitter or Facebook before bed is bad for your health.

A new study from the University of Toledo found that blue light from digital devices can transform molecules in your eyes retina into cell killers.

That process can lead to age-related macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of blindness in the United States, according to the researchs extract.

Blue light is a common issue for many modern Americans. Blue light is emitted from screens, most notably at night, causing sleep loss, eye strain and a number of other issues.

Dr. Ajith Karunarathne, assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said our constant exposure to blue light cant be blocked by the lens or cornea.

"It's no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye's retina. Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop, he said.

Macular degeneration is an incurable eye disease that often affects those in their 50s or 60s. It occurs after the death of photoreceptor cells in the retina. Those cells need retinal to sense light and help signal the brain.

The research team found blue light exposure created poisonous chemical molecules that killed photoreceptor cells

"It's toxic. If you shine blue light on retinal, the retinal kills photoreceptor cells as the signaling molecule on the membrane dissolves," said Kasun Ratnayake, a Ph.D. student researcher working in Karunarathne's cellular photo chemistry group. "Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye. When they're dead, they're dead for good."

However, the researchers found a molecule called alpha-tocopherol, which comes from Vitamin E, can help prevent cell death, according to Futurism.

The researchers plan to review how light from TVs, cellphones and tablet screens affect the eyes as well.

"If you look at the amount of light coming out of your cellphone, it's not great but it seems tolerable," said Dr. John Payton, visiting assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "Some cellphone companies are adding blue-light filters to the screens, and I think that is a good idea."

Indeed, Apple released a Night Shift mode two years ago to help quell blue lights strain on the eyes, according to The Verge. The screen will dim into a warmer, orange light that will cause less stress on the eyes.