Incorporating color in our homes can be so scary for many of us. It's a commitment issue. What if I paint the walls red and then change my mind a few months later? What happens when the trend changes? Here are 5 ways you can incorporate color into your home without having to truly commit to a specific color, theme, or trend.

I bet you have a few habits you would like to break, or better yet, a few personal traits – maybe anxiety or depression -- that you would love to kick to the curb, too. Hey, we all do! Those ticks are just part of our pesky human existence. Luckily there are various tools we all can use to help ease the excess stress we face every day. One great tool is meditation.

Bug season has returned, and from the picnic blanket to the dinner table these little critters pop up to bite and annoy us human beings. No matter how “natural” you consider your lifestyle to be, you probably don’t want bugs crawling through your house and over your skin. Although the best natural bug repellent is prevention (keeping your house clean with all food sources sealed away), even the tidiest among us can get attacked by buzzing, biting insects.

When it comes to your health, hair products are usually the lesser of your worries, given that the majority of what you put on your hair gets washed out. However, when it comes to leave-in conditioners, gels, and sprays, haircare can go from harmless to dangerous pretty quickly. Try out this homemade, 3-ingredient leave-in hair condition to get soft locks without the toxic baggage.

Spinach might seem like an odd choice for a smoothie, but its flavorful sweetness is actually enhanced by being paired with the bananas and almond milk. Get your iron, calcium and a good bit of veggie protien in this delicious green smoothie recipe. Don't like spinach? Try subbing in your favorite green such as kale, chard, or romaine lettuce. You can even choose powdered greens if you're out of the fresh stuff.

On his 80th birthday, the red-headed stranger, Willie Nelson, launched an app. "Lend a Hand" is a story within a song written by Nelson and Marty Dread to educated children about food and farms.

My great-aunt Marlene lived to see 96, but she wasn't really present for the final five years. She didn't remember my sister, my father or me when we went to visit her at her nursing home in the Bronx -- although she was always thrilled to see us, she would take several guesses at our names before we finally revealed our true identities, and meaningful conversation was nearly impossible. It must have been difficult for Marlene to live in such a cloudy world, and I hope not to suffer the same fate. Some cognitive decline may be inevitable in old age, but there are also numerous tactics to keep your mind sharp and have a healthy brain for life -- and you bet I'm using them.

It’s Monday morning: is your head groggy, your attitude foul and your mood lower than a lizard’s belly? Did you have trouble waking up, getting up, staying up and perking up? Would you turn around and go back to bed right now if you could? Are you snapping at your dog, your computer or your co-workers?

Each year, America invests nearly $1 billion on non-prescriptive digestive remedies. From fizzy drinks and tablets to syrups and powders, antacids are often just as necessary in the pantry as salt and pepper. The amount of money spent on digestion problems shows that we’ve come to accept it as a part of daily life. It doesn’t--and shouldn’t--have to be this way. Food combining is an underrated, albeit extremely effective, part of the puzzle to solve our digestive woes.

Did you know that, like fruits and vegetables, certain cheeses have seasonality too? Goat cheese is one of them. This fresh cheese is usually available all year long, but its true season is springtime. So take advantage of the local goat cheese that you can find at markets and with local cheesemakers, and try some of our very favorite goat cheese recipes this Meatless Monday.

Furniture polish can be incredibly helpful in not only removing dust, but in also giving your home a fresh and sparkly look (crucial for when the in-laws visit, right?). But those store-bought brands (rhymes with "Ledge") can exacerbate allergies and cause even worse health issues. No, don't fret. Just make your own furniture polish. It's easy, effective and safe.

Chow-chow--a pickled mix of green tomatoes, onions, cabbage and cucumbers also known as piccalilli--is a beloved traditional Southern United States relish. If you have tomatoes aplenty cropping up in your garden, give this recipe a whirl.

Chow-chow relish recipes vary widely from family to family. There is even a Pennsylvania version that's much sweeter than the tart Southern classic. This version is adapted from a cookbook passed down from my grandmother, Housekeeping in Old Virginia. While you can eat Chow-Chow on its own, the relish is usually eaten atop biscuits, burgers, hot dogs or even crab cakes.

We like oranges in my house and that means lots of orange peel waste, but adding too much citrus to the compost pile can be tricky and I don’t feel right throwing them in the trash. I do use the garbage disposal sometimes, but I like to try and use the peels around the house as much as I can--they can be surprisingly versatile. There really are an astonishing number of uses for orange peels in the home, so, the next time you eat another piece of that citrusy goodness, consider trying out these great ways to use those peels.

What could be a better match than lemon thyme and lemons themselves? Not much, except perhaps, adding flour, sugar, butter and eggs to the mix, which makes for a pretty zesty and tasty bread that's hard to pass up. Try this lemon thyme bread recipe and discover a delectable use for the citrusy herb and its namesake fruit. The lemon glaze makes this baked treat much more delicious, but can be omitted should you be looking for a lighter version. Enjoy straight out of the oven at breakfast, as an afternoon snack or a healthy dessert.

The affirmation that a glass of red wine a day is a healthy part of a well-rounded diet probably has had you clambering for your favorite bottles for some time now. But as summer approaches, it might be white wine and not red that's struck your fancy. While there's certainly nothing wrong with enjoying a glass of chilled white or rosé, take advantage of the health benefits of red all the way through the summer with three delicious red wine cocktails.

Welcome to this week's installment of From Our Friends, our weekly roundup where we highlight some of our favorite posts from the past week and more from our friends and partners around the web. This week's edition includes articles on the importance of reviewing priorities, plastic bottle alternatives, DIY energy bars, the deeper side of yoga, how to choose between good and bad carbs and the sustainability of e-readers.