American actress Marisa Tomei won an Academy Award for her work in the 1992 movie My Cousin Vinny. People laughed when they saw her film character telling a boyfriend that they need to get married. Why marriage? Because her biological clock is ticking and she wants a baby.

“Well I hate to bring it up because I know you got enough pressure on you already. But…we agreed to get married as soon as you won your first case(law case). Meanwhile, ten years later…my niece…the daughter of my sister is getting married. My biological clock is ticking like this (stomp, stomp, stomp). And the way this case is going…I ain’t never getting married.”

“Lisa, I don’t need this. I swear to God I don’t need this right now.”

Using it this way, a biological clock means the time in a woman’s life when she is able to bear children. In the not-so-distant past, most people thought that when a woman reached her 40s it was too late for her to have children. The time on her biological clock had run out.

Well, that has changed. These days some women are resetting their biological clocks. They are giving themselves more time to have children.

Make no mistake. Being a “Single Mother by Choice” is very different from younger women who find themselves pregnant, perhaps not by choice.

Generally speaking, single mothers by choice are older and well educated. They are usually financially secure and successful in their careers. So, they have the money. What they may not have is a partner.

This is the place in life where writer Kerry Reichs found herself several years ago. She says she did not plan to become a single mother. She says she just did not find the right partner.

“Well, I think I had a set of standards for the partner I was looking for and I didn’t meet anyone that fit those standards. And, at 39 I found myself single, without children and I wanted them very much. So, I made the difficult decision that I could do this on my own.

While enjoying good incomes, physicians suffer from a lack of time. Between scheduled clinical work and being on call, it’s common to have only one full day off in seven. Not surprisingly, it’s far too easy to spend that entire day just trying to do the boring tasks for yourself and your family.

The good news, however, is that new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that many professionals can increase their happiness by using their incomes to buy back some of that lost time through the use of time-saving services such as housecleaners or online personal assistants.

Study authors Ashley Whillans and Elizabeth Dunn found that when people spend money on such services, happiness improves. Their findings suggest that “using money to buy time may provide benefits by serving as a buffer（缓冲器）against the harmful effects of time pressure on overall life satisfaction”.

Spending money on a big purchase, such as an expensive car, can feel good and serve as a reward for having worked so hard. Research has consistently shown, however, that the gains from such material purchases are short lived. Instead, buying back time and then using it to go after meaningful activities is more likely to result in long-term gains in well-being.

There are the obvious tasks that have been outsourced（外包）for decades，such as house cleaning or meal preparation. In my own physician coaching practice, it amazes me how many of my physician clients do not take full advantage of these classic opportunities to save time, particularly meal services. When your time is worth well over $100 to 200 an hour, how could you NOT pay another person far less than that to do the job better than you would do it yourself?

Regaining a couple of hours on your only day off can change your well-being. How different would you feel if you had a few more hours to spend quality time with other people, improve your health, or try a new hobby?

Much like the season itself, the fresh fruits of the summer often don't remain long as we want them to. All too often, you reach into the fridge and find that the strawberries you purchased just a few days ago have turned moldy (发霉的). 【小题1】

Vinegar has an extensive and ever-increasing list of household uses. Because it is non-poisonous, unlike other washes, it can be used to clean fresh fruits. 【小题2】 Putting the fruit in the mixture of one part vinegar and three parts water can remove 98 percent of bacteria. It will make the fruit much cleaner than it was when washed with an antibacterial wash or with water alone. 【小题3】

By following the same process, you can prevent the growth of mold for far longer than if you haven't washed them with the mixture. But be careful: this trick doesn't kill any mold that has already grown. 【小题4】 Besides, try to make the strawberries as dry as possible before storing them in the fridge. You can pat them dry with paper towel, and then pack them away in a clean container.

【小题5】 Actually, there is a simple solution to your concern. A thorough wash with plain water afterward will ensure there are no unwanted tastes left.