(StatePoint) There’s no doubt that Americans spend a fortune on lawn care annually. But you can trim your costs without sacrificing your beautiful yard.

(BPT) - There’s nothing like the smell of a home-cooked meal wafting through the kitchen for hours and hours – that is, if you have time to prepare such a meal. Since most of us don’t have that sort of time on a daily basis, many time-pressed cooks are rediscovering pressure cooking: an age-old cooking method that makes mealtime fast and easy.

(BPT) - The weather’s heating up and that means one thing: road trips.

From custom prosthetics to minimally invasive surgery, innovations in medical devices are leading to some astonishing advances. One example: an artificial heart that uses plastic tubes instead of heart valves to move blood in and out of two plastic ventricles. Implanted in more than 1,000 patients, this plastic heart has extended lives by more than 270 years. And now U.S. regulators are reviewing an accompanying mobile power supply carried in a backpack, so suitable patients could leave the hospital and live at home.

(BPT) - Staying safely in their own home as they grow older is a major concern for many Americans. In a 2012 survey by AARP, 70 percent of surveyed members said they were “extremely or very concerned about aging in place.” Even if you maintain an active lifestyle and good health, growing older often requires you to manage changes in mobility, vision and accessibility.

Some were in wheelchairs, others lay in beds and some walked with canes, but the veterans at the St. Albans VA center will always be heroes, courageous men and women who served our country and protected our freedoms. That fact is not lost on comedian Charlie Murphy, who visited the servicemembers on Tuesday to thank them for all they had done.

The event was part of National Salute to Veteran Patients Week. Murphy, a Navy veteran, is serving as the chairman for the 2013 festivities, which will include visits from dignitaries, deliveries of Valentine’s Day gifts and cards and performances by various entertainers.