The major economic data released this week was mostly weaker than expected, which reduced the outlook for future inflation. This was positive for mortgage rates, and they ended the week lower.
As expected, Friday’s key monthly Employment report was consistent with a slower pace of job creation from the very strong levels seen over the last couple of years. Against a consensus forecast of 145,000, the economy gained 136,000 jobs in September, and upward revisions added another 45,000 to the results for prior months. The unemployment rate, which is calculated based on surveys of workers, unexpectedly declined from 3.7% to 3.5%, which was the lowest level since 1969.
The other major component of the labor market report contained much less encouraging news, however. Average hourly earnings, an indicator of wage growth, were flat from August, far below the consensus for a substantial gain. They were 2.9% higher than a year ago, down from an annual rate of increase of 3.2% last month.
In addition to the disappointing wage data, two closely watched reports from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) released this week revealed weaker than expected economic growth. The ISM national services index, which covers the bulk of U.S. economic activity, showed a sharp drop to 52.6, which was the lowest level since August 2016. The ISM national manufacturing index declined to just 47.8, which was the worst reading since June 2009.
Looking ahead, The JOLTS report, which measures job openings and labor turnover rates, will be released on Wednesday. Fed officials value this data to help round out their view of the strength of the labor market. The minutes from the September 17 Fed meeting also will come out on Wednesday. These detailed minutes provide additional insight into the debate between Fed officials about future monetary policy and have the potential to move markets. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) will be released on Thursday. CPI is a widely followed monthly inflation report that looks at the price change for goods and services. In addition, news about the impeachment inquiry or the trade negotiations could influence mortgage rates.
Winter break is an exciting time for kids—days off from school, giving presents and receiving them, and more time to have play dates with classmates. But that time off can quickly turn from exciting to boring for your young ones. Take inspiration from these ideas that will keep your kids entertained all break long!
Take them ice skating This classic winter break activity is so popular for a reason—it’s guaranteed to make your kids feel like the star of the show, while also getting some physical exercise. You can snap pictures that will last a lifetime, and maybe they’ll leave the rink with a new favorite hobby.
Have a movie-filled day Spend the morning at the movies for a leisurely day relaxing with the kids. The best thing about matinees is that they are usually cheaper, and many movie theaters play old favorites during the winter months as well. Another way to keep kids occupied is having a movie marathon. Pop in their choice Disney film or feel-good flick and get the popcorn ready for a cozy day on the couch.
Get crafty indoors With the weather turning colder by the minute, most kids probably won’t want to be outside for long periods of time. Make those hours spent indoors count and lay out several crafts to complete. Having options will beat boredom and make your kids more likely to enjoy their time inside. Try out this upcycled jet pack, bookmarks inspired by their favorite book character, or this sock snow pal.
Suggest that they cook dinner This doesn’t have to be as daunting as it sounds. Kids will rejoice at the chance to pick out their favorite meals—chicken nuggets, mac n’ cheese, pizza, and ice cream. Look up healthy or unique spins on these kid meal staples to guide them in the right direction, and then let them be a part of buying ingredients and cooking the dinner!
Museum hop for a day Take your kids downtown for an afternoon and check out some museum exhibits. Look up beforehand what museums offer free or discounted admission for kids, and have a route planned out before you leave. This is a great way to integrate learning into their winter break, and you can learn something new, too!
Play board games Dust off the board games from the basement and have a day filled with friendly competition. This gets kids away from the temptation of technology, as well as providing some fun and laughs.
Preparing for spring can never start too soon! These are the best bulbs to plant this autumn to make sure your spring garden blooms in full.
Daffodils
One of the first signs of spring comes in the form of these familiar yellow and green-stemmed flowers. Plant bulbs of the Carlton or Sunlight Sensation variety to make your yard the brightest shade of yellow on the block come spring.
Hyacinth
Few things bring you back to spring like the fragrant of hyacinth—too strong for some, but reminiscent of the season nonetheless. Popular bulbs are delft blue: a periwinkle color that stands out from the crowd, or Carnegie, which is a bright white staple.
Snowdrop
Consider planting snowdrop bulbs, which are one of the earlier spring bloomers. These white and green flowers do best when they’re not fully exposed to the sun. Plant the giant bulb type for these lovely flowers to bloom in full this spring.
Tulips
Who can forget these colorful and bold flowers? Darwina is a bulb you’ll want to plant if you want the biggest reward, i.e. a garden that will make any neighbor envious. If you’re worried about the rodents, try planting a smaller type, like whittallii.
Dwarf Iris
These flowers bloom in early spring, and give the perfect elegant look to your exterior. Pauline is the most familiar variety—with the classic purple and white color combination. Pixie and rhapsody are other types that when planted now, will make spring that much brighter.
The holidays revolve mainly around three things: food, giving, and guests. Whether you have family and friends staying over for the duration of the holidays or simply for a long weekend, being a host can be a fundamental part of this time of year.
However, hosting parties on top of accommodating overnight family and friends can quickly turn from enjoyable to overwhelming.
Ease your worries and turn your home into a five-star hotel with our tips to get you prepped and de-stressed for the upcoming season. Worry about those cookies burning in the oven, not whether grandma has clean bath towels.
Freshen up your space. You may be used to the pet smell, but your guests are not. And no matter how much they love you, no one wants to be the bearer of bad-smelling news. Lighting a candle or adding fresh winter flowers as a kitchen table centerpiece can instantly add a cozy, fresh feel to your home. But make sure to clean, vacuum, and bathe your animals thoroughly, because masking a scent will only prolong the inevitable.
Give them the necessities. Necessities mean different things to different people, but everyone wants the Wi-Fi password and clean towels at the ready. Don’t forget to have those tricky internet and Netflix passwords written down (or framed if you want to go all out). Make sure to also put out extra toiletries, reading material, spare hangers, and other necessities that guests may need. Water bottles and an assortment of snacks go a long way too, especially if you want to leave a good impression and make your home bed & breakfast worthy.
Keep the bar cart stocked. Having drinks ready to be shaken, not stirred, is a holiday essential. Plus, this is the perfect time to try out all of those fancy bookmarked cocktails with ingredients no one can pronounce. Guests will appreciate the extra touch to their meal, and it will instantly make your home feel like the most Instagram-worthy holiday destination.
Declutter inside and outside. You remembered to clean the inside of your home, but don’t forget about the front porch and walkway. As it starts getting darker and colder this time of year, you want to make sure you add an inviting feel to your home, so guests can clearly tell you’re ready for them. Adding luminary bags along the walkway, a holiday wreath to the door, and sweeping the area free of cobwebs and leaves will instantly make your family and friends feel like they’re entering a holiday weekend haven.
Make room in your coat closet or entryway. Avoid the awkward situation of cramming your guest’s coats into your closet as they stand and watch, and clear out that space ahead of time. This doesn’t need to be an extreme reorganization ordeal, but rather taking a few of those bulky winter coats and putting them in your personal closet instead for the duration of their stay. PRINTABLE HOME PASSWORDS SHEET
The holiday season is an exciting time surrounded by people you love, but it can easily become overwhelming with the amount of responsibilities on your list. The above reminders are simple ways to make you feel more prepared for overnight guests. Make sure being the host of the season is all of the fun and none of the stress.
It’s no secret that distinct smells go hand-in-hand with certain seasons. But when it comes to fall, there’s nothing more noteworthy than hints of pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and apple. With these easy solutions, your house will radiate the irresistible aromas of autumn, and create an inviting living space for friends and family.
Create a fragrant simmer pot. Simmer pots are an easy way to keep your house smelling amazing for a longer period of time. Simply bring a saucepan to a boil, and add your favorite autumn scented ingredients—oranges, nutmeg, cinnamon, apples, cranberries, and vanilla. Let it simmer on the stovetop during the day so the delicious aromas can waft throughout the house.
Incorporate pinecones. Make the most out of the excess pinecones in your backyard by incorporating them into table centerpieces. With a few drops of essential oils and cinnamon sticks, you can create your own potpourri.
Make a special treat. Who doesn’t love a delicious fall treat? Whether it’s a rich and creamy pumpkin cheesecake or a warm kettle of homemade apple cider, your house will be brimming with both delectable smells and edible treats.
Have friends and family compared your home to a bat cave? If it seems like no matter what you do you just can’t seem to make your space feel like anything but a dungeon, there are a few steps you can take to illuminate both your interior and exterior, and up the value of your home in the process.
Mirror, mirror The power of reflection can make all the difference in a home that gets very minimal sunlight throughout the day. Identify the areas where light peeks through, and place mirrors on an opposite wall so the light can bounce around the room. You might think this tactic would create an annoying distraction (or cause temporary blindness) but you’d be surprised at the maximum amount of brightness you can generate. And don’t just stop at one. Mirrors can add a touch of elegance and charm to any room, so experiment with a gallery wall of mirrors or one large piece over furniture to really make a statement.
Shine a light When it comes to brightening up the outside of your home, it doesn’t take that much effort. Sometimes a single light is all you need! Have a tree in your yard that stands out? Try placing a spotlight behind it to illuminate and make it stand out even further. Spotlights also look wonderful when thoughtfully-placed in the front of a home to give your space a charming glow and add instant curb appeal. However, if you aren’t a fan of the spotlight approach, lining walkways with ground lights (you can even get solar-powered ones to save energy) will also do the trick.
Bigger is better Even if you aren’t a fan of huge, crystal chandeliers—or don’t want to dish out the time and money to install them—your space could likely benefit from a few carefully-placed light fixtures. The majority of homes are actually significantly under-lit, so installing larger lights or adding light to areas that feel particularly dark can make a huge difference. Also, be wary of how long your bulbs are intended to last. Even if a bulb hasn’t burned out completely, it will fade overtime. If your fixtures are all full of dull bulbs, they might as well not be turned on at all.
Throw away the shade If your design scheme leans toward darker, richer colors but you’re tired of living in darkness, it might be time to reevaluate. This is not to say you have to completely throw away your personal style, but room darkening shades and deep paint colors could make a glass house feel dim. Swap out shades for breezy linens and brighter hues that are guaranteed to reflect the light coming in, not absorb it. Believe it or not, this shift can make your home look brighter from the outside, too.
Ready to let in the light? Follow these tips for brightening your home and you’ll see a change almost instantly!
When a loved one is undergoing chemotherapy treatment, it can be hard to know how to help. This plush, handmade hat brings comfort while also showing your love and support.
Materials
½ yard pink fleece
½ yard pink patterned fleece
Sewing tape measure
Fabric pen
Scissors
Sewing pins
Sewing machine
Sewing needle and thread
Directions:
Take both pieces of the fleece fabric, and fold them in half.
Measure the circumference of your head, plus ½ inch extra for the seam. Divide the measurement in half to find the width of your cap.
Measure from the top of your forehead to the top of the back of your head, plus 2 extra inches for the cuff, for the height of your hat.
On the first piece of fabric, measure out your width, and mark with a pen, followed by the length. Fold the fabric in half, lengthwise, and then draw the arch of your cap—from the top of the hat to the start of the width.
Cut out the first two cap pieces. Use one of the sides to trace the shape onto the other piece of folded fleece from step one, and cut out the second two cap pieces.
Once all four pieces are cut, pin together the two cap pieces cut from the pink fleece, and then pin together the two cap pieces cut from the pink patterned fleece, and sew around the arches of each cap.
When the arches are sewn together, align the caps where the opening will be, pinch the edges together, and pin. Sew the ends together, but leave a small opening to flip the cap right-side out.
Flip the cap right-side out, and sew the opening closed with a needle and thread. Push the sections of the hat together to form the hat, and cuff the end.
Take a drive down the New Jersey coast and you’ll encounter plenty of photo opportunities—dynamically designed houses propped on stilts surrounded by gray-and-white-pebbled lawns, bicyclists strapped with surfboards and beach towels, and weather-worn mom-and-pop shops touting everything from freshly made bagels to hermit crabs.
But the scenery changes when you get to the state’s southernmost point: Cape May. You’ll still find beachgoers on bikes and sea-sprayed storefronts, but you’ll notice that the strikingly modern homes found in some coastal towns, with their random portholes and Picassoesque frameworks, are nowhere to be found—at least not in the town’s historic district.
This district spans 380 acres and is made up of 600 famous buildings, and even though the Victorian-era dwellings have been around for over 150 years, it wasn’t until around 40 years ago that Cape May Historic District was declared a National Historic Landmark. Today, Cape May is recognized as one of many historically important places in the US, with visitors coming from all over the world to tour the town’s famous feats of architecture.
America’s Premier Seaside Town At first glance, many of Cape May’s Victorian buildings have similar features—pitched roofs, ornate porches, and colorful framing—but each house is actually quite unique and has the history to back it up. Visitors can see a number of different styles by walking just a few blocks. Carolyn Pitts, who supervised the recording of Cape May’s architecture and was instrumental in the town’s declaration as a National Historic Landmark, even said that Cape May is “the best textbook of Victoriana in the nation.”
There are a number of different documented styles of Victorian architecture across the town—Queen Anne, Medieval Revival, and Bungalow, to name a few. The American Italianate style is represented at the Levy-Neafie House—the only private estate in Cape May still standing. The Carpenter Gothic style can be found at the Eldridge Johnson House (also known as the Pink House), which receives a lot of praise for having the most decorative porch in town. There are also a number of other Gothic-style cottage homes, such as the Joseph Hall Cottage and the J. Stratton Ware House.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, wealthy families began building homes along New Jersey’s southern tip during the Industrial Revolution because of the area’s close proximity and easy access to Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC. Industrialization allowed carpenters to flex their skills with power tools—experimenting with new patterns and designs in the framework and forming the gingerbread-style Victorian homes.
“From the whaling and shipbuilding days, there had emerged a community of carpenters who became even more creative with the invention of scroll and steam-powered saws,” says Karen Fox, Cape May historian and author of The Chalfonte. “They carved gable trim, balusters, and arches, made sawtooth siding, pierced cornice brackets, and cut lacey balustrades. They turned plain frame boxes into works of wooden art.” The construction of many of these original buildings coincided with Cape May’s growth as a bustling beach town during the mid-1800s.
Among the most famous buildings constructed in these years is the Chalfonte Hotel—the oldest original hotel in Cape May (and one of the oldest in the US). It was built in America’s centennial year by Civil War hero Henry Sawyer, and it has been reconstructed several times due to fires that swept through the town in the late 1800s. “The Chalfonte is often described as an overgrown wedding cake,” says Fox. “But it is considered American Bracketed Villa—a stylistic hybrid.” The hotel has hosted innumerable guests through the years and, in the early twentieth century, it served as a summer retreat for wealthy southern vacationers, who were brought in by the new owner, Susie Satterfield.
The Rebirth of Cape May The hype of Cape May among vacationing families died down after the early twentieth century because of interest in other South Jersey hotspots like Atlantic City. However, it was revived in the 1960s, when a group of interested preservationists decided to stop the destruction of the town’s historic buildings. Through the work of architectural historian Pitts and the Historic American Buildings Survey, the group worked to catalog Cape May’s most important structures. Pitts recruited a team of architects to create detailed pen-and-ink drawings of twenty-nine of the homes—an effort called Operation Gingerbread.
The drawings were responsible for Cape May Historic District’s designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and helped revive interest in the historic buildings that dot the town’s streets. “It was becoming obvious that Cape May’s past could well be its most valuable asset in the future,” says Fox. And, thankfully for the millions of people who are able to enjoy Cape May’s architecture each year, Pitts’ and her team’s efforts paid off.
Preserving this splendor and tradition of Cape May makes the town feel truly distinct from the rest of the state’s summer destinations. New Jersey is full of family-friendly beaches, but Cape May has something a little bit different. Visitors can stroll down Washington Street or Beach Avenue (the two main thoroughfares in town) and feel like they stepped into another century entirely. Tours of some of the most prominent homes, the restored World War II Lookout Tower, and a critical piece of the Underground Railroad, as well as a moonlight ride through the historic district, give visitors a comprehensive look at not only how the town has changed throughout the years but also how it has stayed the same.
Fox says that when she first discovered Cape May in the 1960s, the architecture was essentially abandoned, disregarded in favor of more contemporary construction projects. But over the last quarter century, she has had the pleasure of witnessing these buildings come back to life. “Today, the nation’s first resort by the sea is a romantic, colorful, and architecturally preserved National Historic Landmark city,” says Fox. “It’s beloved for its friendly culture, the beauty of its homes and gardens, its beaches and bikeways, its abundant local produce and wine, and its diverse dining, music, and theater.”
Without its vast collection of nineteenth-century vacation homes, Cape May would still exist as a resort town. It would bring in tourists eager to hit the beaches and local ice cream shops, purchase postcards from five-and-dimes, and take turns building sandcastles. The architecture is not the only thing to see in Cape May, but it is the thing to see—and the glue that holds it all together.
Brussels sprouts are often a great sticking point at the dinner table: you either love them or loathe them. This recipe, though, may just push you over to the “loving them” side—these creamy brussels sprouts feature lots of cheese, herbs, and even bacon, making them the perfect cold-weather side dish.
2 pounds brussels sprouts, cut in half and blanched
2 shallots, peeled and sliced
Instructions:
Preheat oven broiler.
In a large, high-sided skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat for 4 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, and let drain on a paper towel.
In the same pan, add butter and flour, and stir, creating a roux. Whisk in milk, bring to a simmer, and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue to whisk until sauce thickens slightly. Season the sauce with nutmeg, salt, rosemary, and thyme, and stir.
Whisk in 1 cup Gruyère and the Parmesan, a quarter cup at a time, until melted and blended. Add in brussels sprouts, shallots, and bacon, and toss to coat. Spoon mixture into a casserole dish or ovenproof skillet, and sprinkle the top with remaining Gruyère.
Broil casserole for 5–7 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned on top. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
The thought of understanding your breast and ovarian cancer risk can be both comforting and frightening, but when it comes to your health, it’s best to be in the know. Here’s a look at genetic testing, including questions to help you decide whether you should consider getting it done.
Things to remember:
Genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancers generally looks at the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
A mutation in these genes can increase your risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers.
Tests involve giving a blood or saliva sample and it can take a few weeks to yield results.
A genetic test is currently the most effective way to determine risk of hereditary cancer.
Should you get tested?
Consult your doctor to determine whether BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing is right for you. There are many factors a person should consider when making this decision—these are just a few questions related to genetic testing and risk factors. For a more comprehensive list of questions, visit a site like mayoclinic.org and consult your doctor.
Do you have a personal history of breast cancer diagnosed before age 50?
Do you have a family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer?
Has a relative tested positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes?
