This 1972 video of astronauts joking around on the moon has been making the rounds lately, and I don't know about you but I've watched it approximately 800 times. Hard to believe, but this was the last time Americans walked on the moon (and does it blow anyone else's mind that we could send people to the moon before there were even, like, iPhones?!). Anyway, here they are, Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt and Eugene Cernan, hard at work:

Listen to that sheer joy.  Look at that light-footed skipping around! When was the last time you saw grown men singing and dancing and bopping like that? At work, no less? I know we're not all walking on the moon, but we can all embody a little bit of this playfulness. Go on, skip to the copier: "In the merry, merry month of...February!"

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News from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economics Research Service: The cost of bleached white flour skyrocketed to $19.52 per 100 pounds in January, from $14.13 in May 2010. That's a 38% jump! And while the price hike is hitting commercial bakers much harder than it's affecting your Aunt Edna, no one wants to drop a bundle when making a simple batch of cookies. As it turns out, Crain's reports, flour isn't the only baking ingredient that's gone up in price lately. Sugar and nuts have also gotten more expensive (a 50-pound bag of sugar that cost $29.50 two years ago now goes for $37.50; a pound of pecans was $5 or $6 last year but is now more than $8).

But there's good news: The price of butter and eggs has actually gone down recently. Which means if you're trying to save money but still want to enjoy home-baked goodies, shortbread is a godsend. Like most recipes, Jamie Oliver's relies heavily on butter and has just 3 other ingredients, and produces crumbly cookies perfect for dunking in tea. These butter cookies also fit the bill; decorate them with pastel sprinkles and think spring. And Pick-Me-Up Muffins are another cheap treat; you probably have all the (budget-friendly) ingredients in your kitchen already.

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The most beautiful thing you'll see today: an enchanted world of fairy lights. Er, fireflies.

Someone wants that Christmas sweater. Clean out your closet and help others all at the same time.

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"We were very tired, we were very merry": It's the birthday of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Celebrate by reading her poems for free, here.

Each man carries so much on his shoulders. Even if he's made of plastic.

The Life-Lifter: I'll take my daily act of kindness of a scoop of ice cream, please: Customers "pie-it-forward" at this Illinois diner.

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We all have some thing we yearned for in childhood that still makes the heart ache a bit. For my sister, ponies made an appearance on a staggering number of birthday and holiday wish lists. For me, it was sleepaway camp. I was a sucker for young adult novels that revolved around cabin bunk beds and macramé, and I watched The Parent Trap on a near-constant loop as a preteen.

Overnight camp—as opposed to the tepid day camp I attended one summer with other kids from my neighborhood—promised the possibility of reinvention. You could be anyone you wanted, far from home and stripped of your usual surroundings. Friendships seemed easier and deeper. Learning some cool skill, a given.

But attending camp isn’t a dream I have to pack up and stow next to "be a famous tap dancer" and "invent a no-brush hairbrush." Attending camp as an adult can be a powerful tool for expressing yourself. In fact, packing your bag as an adult means more than the friendship, skills-building, and personal freedom I coveted as a kid. As an grown-up, you can choose a camp that fits your interest—whether that’s surfing the seas or cooking up seafood. Check out these six retreats worth writing home about...

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You know you've done it: written "Make To-Do List" on your to-do list, just so you have something to immediately cross off. Because what, honestly, is more satisfying than crossing something off the to-do list? But does a to-do list really make you more productive?  This article on Live Hack suggests that for projects of any complexity, what might actually make more sense are "Done Lists."

Part of the reason is, actually, ironically, the deep satisfaction of crossing off finish tasks. As the article puts it, "It’s too easy to get that smaller thing crossed off first... When smaller things are too easy to get done, smaller, less important things are all you will get done." And then, horror of horrors, you're not controlling the list—the list is controlling you. That's a definite to-don't.

It makes sense when you think about it: When you're in the midst of a longer, more complicated project, it's easy to get lost and lose perspective, but a done list helps you to stay focused on the long view, and to celebrate your accomplishments as you go. Personally, I will still always need a to-do list just so I don't forgot what the heck I'm supposed to do next, but I love the idea of adding a done list to, and will be sure to add "make a done list" to my to do list.  Read the article to find out more about how Done lists can help you to be more productive.

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Photo: Scott Takushi for the St Paul Pioneer Press

Selling Girl Scout Cookies is no joke: As the St Paul Pioneer Press reports, the top cookie sellers are going out door to door every night of cookie-selling season, determined to sell as many Do-Si-Dos as they can. Selling the most cookies earns a Girl Scout a special "Cookie Diva" badge and rewards like an iPad or even a trip to Ireland, but for Kyla Gronau, the #1 seller of The Girl Scouts of the Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys council (she's sold over 12,000 boxes of cookies in her day), it's about much more.

Kyla has cerebral palsy, which has always affected the way people see her. As she told the Pioneer Press, "I want to be looked up to. All my life, I've been down here. All my life, I've wanted to be up here (pointing up). I feel people have looked down on me because of who I am. Now, girls want their pictures taken with me." Here's a girl with some grit--and if there's not a badge for determination and stick-to-it-iveness, well, maybe there should be. (via MSNBC Photoblog)

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I'd be the last person to say regular French fries needed improving, but have to admit their sweet potato cousins have stolen my heart lately. The one-two-three punch of honey-like flavor, savory salt, and crunch is hard to resist. And now that there are a few frozen varieties on the market, I can easily get my fix. Alongside a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch or served with roasted chicken for dinner, they've become my new back-pocket side dish. They're more expensive than making your own, and they certainly have a longer list of ingredients, but it's hard to beat the ease.

Ore Ida Sweet Potato Crinkle Fries
140 calories, 7 grams of fat per serving
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 400 degrees
These zig-zag-cut, French fried sweets crisp up nicely. They're thin enough that there's still a high crunch-to-potato ratio, and stand up well to dipping in ketchup, sour cream or an aioli dipping sauce (this garlic aioli is perfect).

Alexia Spicy Sweet Potato Fries
130 calories, 4 grams of fat per serving
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees
With a good punch from the chipotle pepper seasoning, these julienned spuds are almost shoelace-thin, and many have tapered ends (which means if you like those little burnt crunchy bits , these are your fries). They're especially good with a cooling sauce like this yogurt-cilantro lime one.

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Like every other mother, working woman, and human being in America, I'm always looking for ways to have more energy. Of course, my search usually starts and stops in a coffee cup. But of all the alternative ways to get more energy -- eating better, avoiding energy-drains -- I have to admit I've never considered flying.

Let me explain. I was reading this interesting article about how researchers figured out that squid sometimes fly. That's right, according to Nature.com, "squid of many species have been seen to 'fly' using the same jet-propulsion mechanisms that they use to swim: squirting water out of their mantles so that they rocket out of the sea and glide through the air." Until recently, scientists thought squid did this gliding thing to avoid predators. But the squid were doing it even in captivity, when no predators were present. And migrating squid were moving much faster than they should have been, considering how fast they swim.

“It makes perfect sense that these species are using flight as a way of saving energy,” says Ronald O’Dor, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, who has calculated that propelling themselves through the air could be how squid travel long distances. That's all well and good for squid and the scientists who love them, but to me it all began to sound like a metaphor.

After all, here I am, slogging through the water like any ordinary squid, stopping now and then for another shot of caffeine which I know will just slow me down in the end. Maybe I need to rethink my whole concept and, so to speak, fly a little. Try something unexpected. Try something physical. Move more. Move differently. Take a deep breath. It can be as simple as reading a newspaper or Twitter feed from a source I don't usually check, or walking a different route to a much-visited place, or talking to someone I don't usually talk to. There are so many ways to rethink the day! And it just might be that instead of tiring me out further, trying something unexpected may even save my energy.

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Yes, you should buy those pretty shoes. Really, it's good for your mental health!

Red fingernails have their place, but they don't reveal much about your taste in film now do they? Movie-inspired manicures.

As this baby chick knows, sometimes the best hiding place is the one closest to your enemy. Also, the snuggliest.

Why girls are so obsessed with boy bands, and why it's not that big of a deal (according to a former super-fan).

The Life-Lifter: This quick-thinking hero-mother jumped aboard a runaway school bus full of children after the driver had a seizure.