Our early lives are filled with ceremonial doors to pass through, with the beginning and end of each school year (not to mention semesters and midterms) providing structure and a feeling of progression for the first eighteen years of our lives. Then, without warning, we are thrust into a world with its seemingly never-ending progression of days, commuting, working, and paying bills until the next big punctuations of marriage, childbirth, and death. Fun, right?

This is why bringing rituals into our everyday lives is such an important––and often overlooked––way to usher in a sense of meaning. Rituals bring shape and connection to our days beyond the confines of the work week. Meg Cox, author of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everyday, recommends “simple, heartfelt rituals that work for the way people actually life right here, right now––not in some parallel Utopian universe where we have tons of time, oodles of creativity, and money is no object.” Amen, sister. With that in mind, here are ten ways to start incorporating rituals into the life you have right now.

1. Greet the day. Whether you relax in bed for a moment after your alarm goes off, ease the Mondays with coffee at your favorite cafe, or welcome each daybreak with a few sun salutations, give yourself a morning ritual that makes you feel cheery about the day ahead.

2. Recurring meet-ups. Participants in a book club know that sometimes these are the friends we see most often because the meeting is carved in stone on a monthly basis. Use the same principle with other people in your life. Get together the first Tuesday of every month with your knitting pals, or the last Saturday of each month with your best friend.

3. Family meal. Your “family” can be a your co-workers, your sweetie, or your best gal pals, but bread was meant to be broken together. Have at least one meal a day, every day if possible, with others as a chance to connect and catch-up.

4. Get alliterative. It can be Taco Tuesday, French Friday, or Sappy Movie Saturday, make one day a week a cue for a special activity, and you’ll start to look forward to this weekly holiday.

5. Choose the hour. The Brits have their four o’clock tea time. Why not have your own four o’clock latte? Or a noontime call to a friend, just for a quick check-in? Or an 8pm, post-dinner stroll?

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This makes sense for a few reasons.

1. Girls have caught on to the Wingman.

2. Females feel more comfortable talking to another female.

3. The unsuspecting female feels no pressure at first.

4. For some reason people are always more attracted to what they can’t have.

However, the are some things to look out for.

1. The most obvious is the unsuspecting woman may assume the couple is together.

2. When the unsuspecting woman finds out she may feel cheated.

Have you been the victim of a Wingwoman? Have you ever been a Wingwoman?

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Most women spend their entire time willing their partner to propose to them. But there are some who take matters into their own hands and ask the men to marry them.

Actor Michael Jai White’s wife Courtney, got tired of waiting for that special day, so she took it upon herself to ask.

Check out the story below:

Sometimes a woman has to stake her claim, and that’s exactly what Dr. Courtenay Chatman did when she proposed to hunky actor Michael Jai White nearly four years ago.

Although Chatman understands why traditionalists might view her actions as unorthodox, she never had any hang-ups about popping the question. “I decided I loved him and he loved me, so why wait?” says Chatman, an OB-GYN who proposed to White after a year of dating. “Of course there was a possibility that he could say ‘no,’ but I was willing to take that chance.”

Because White is “unbelievably romantic,” Chatman vowed that her proposal would be equally as innovative and special. That’s when she headed to their favorite Los Angeles eatery, The Cheesecake Factory, borrowed a plate from the manager, took it to the mall, found a similar plate and added a red inscription: Will You Marry Me at the top and Michael Jai White? at the bottom. Everything in place, Chatman invited her man to dinner.

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“Normally, Michael eats quickly, but of course, this night he was taking his time and it was nerve-wracking to watch flickers of red begin to show on his plate,” Chatman recalls with a laugh. “I was telling him how much I cared about him and how much he meant to me until I became so nervous that I jumped up, sat next to him, and brushed his food off the plate. Then I got on bended knee and opened the ring box!”

A stunned White beamed a Kool-Aid smile and responded affirmatively. “I was pleasantly shocked and didn’t feel emasculated at all, ” admits White. “I immediately said ‘yes’ because I knew that I was going to spend the rest of my life with her whether we got married or not.”

Nearby patrons cheered and clapped for the lovebirds. “It was so magical,” says Chatman. “I was crying and then we were laughing and crying together while he held me in his arms. He said I did really well in pulling it off.”

To Chatman’s surprise, White insisted that they marry immediately. So they eloped two days later at the Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, California, with each of their best friends serving as best man and maid of honor. Although the two plan to renew their vows soon so that their family and friends can bear witness to their eternal pledge of love, they are content with their blended family of six which includes their four-week-old daughter, Morgan Michelle,and her brothers and sisters.

“The funny thing is, when Courtney and I started dating she had no idea that I was an actor until a friend of hers told her who I was,” White says with a laugh, “but that’s okay, because she’s my wife now, forever and always.”

(From essence.com)

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You know how they say the pill is only 99.9% effective? Well, here’s proof that that .1% really and truly DOES exist. Carly O’Brien, of the United Kingdom, didn’t beat the odds just once, but TWICE – and just gave birth to her second set of twins, all while being on the pill.

Says Daily Mail,

The 22-year-old and her partner John Grant, 28, were amazed when she gave birth to her first set of twins Brandon and Daisy.

Now, two years on, Carly has stunned experts by giving birth to another miracle set of twins – Dylan and Lilly.

Carly said: ‘It’s amazing that Brandon and Daisy were born in October 2006, when I was on the pill, and now Lilly and Dylan are here too.

‘Everyone I’ve spoken to, all my friends and family and even the staff at the hospital, say they have never known anything like it.

‘It was a massive shock, but we’re delighted of course, as we now have four beautiful healthy children aged less than three.’

Carly, from Portsmouth, Hants, had been using the contraceptive pill since she was 17 and never imagined she could get pregnant while using it.

She and John, who installs air conditioning units, had been together for only a year and having children had not crossed their minds.

But when Carly missed a period and started being sick, she may be pregnant.

A pregnancy test confirmed it but it wasn’t until her 12 week scan she discovered she was carrying twins.

To read the rest of the article, click here. If that’s not incentive to wear condoms, I don’t know what is.

[From Times of India]

MELBOURNES: An Indian-born Australian woman who allegedly set fire to her husband’s genitals suspecting his fidelity has appeared in a local court with fresh charges of murder slapped against her.

Rajni Narayan, 44, who allegedly murdered her husband, in a bizarre manner by torching his genitals which set her Cleveland Avenue townhouse in Adelaides ablaze had later told her neighbourers “it’s just a penis I wanted to burn I didn’t mean this to happen”

Narayan who suspected her husband of having an affair told the neighbours, “I am a jealous wife, his penis should belong to me, I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else.”

Is this story crazy or what? If she burned his penis, doesn’t that mean SHE can’t use it either? Was this woman totally out of control, or would you do the same thing? Let us know! And to read the rest of the article, click here.

A woman requested that her husband let her smell his penis after she suspected him of cheating. So what did he do? He beat her up.

According to Florida’s TCPalm newspaper,

PORT ST. LUCIE – Police are seeking an arrest warrant for a man accused of hitting his wife after she asked to smell his penis to determine whether he was cheating with another woman, according to a police report released Wednesday.

The 37-year-old victim told investigators her husband of three years punched her face and kicked her arms and legs Monday night after she accused him of having an affair.

The victim said she told her 25-year-old husband as he used the restroom “to display his penis to her so that she can smell it,” the report states.

She said she asked him to show his genital area so she could determine whether he was cheating with another woman.

As she went to sniff her husband’s penis, he reportedly punched her mouth and started to kick her when she was on the floor. The husband then fled the scene.

Police saw bruises and red marks on the victim’s mouth, legs and arms.

She became uncooperative when told a warrant would be filed for her husband’s arrest.

Have you ever asked a potentially-cheating mate if you could “smell it”? Is it even worth all that? Tell us!