What You Need To Think About Before Bringing A Dog Into Your Home

 You might be thinking about bringing a dog into your home. This isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. It is a huge responsibility to own a dog and you need to think about it long and hard before coming to any sort of decision. Dogs are a lifetime commitment and not just for a couple of months. They will need to be walked in all weathers, which people often forget about. Take a look below to find out other things you need to consider and think about before going out to buy a dog. 

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Is The Time Right?

This is a question not many people think about. They just assume that any time is the right time to own a dog. Not quite true, if you are working long hours and you simply don’t have a lot of free time then it may not be the right time for you to own a puppy or a dog. New dogs need time to adjust and this needs to be done with someone around the majority of the time. If you can’t put aside necessary training hours for your dog then it may be time to put those plans on hold for the time being. 

Do You Have The Space?

Dogs can take up a lot of room and space in your home, especially larger breeds. You need to ensure you have enough space for them to run about and burn off excess energy. Ideally, you don’t want them doing zoomies around your home, potentially destroying it in the process. You need to have a decent-sized garden or be prepared to take them out for long walks at several points throughout the day. Gardens are ideal for dogs as they can come and go as they please throughout the day. 

How Much Budget Do You Have? 

Dogs are not cheap and you need to make sure that money will always be available as and when your dog needs it. It isn’t just the initial cost of buying the dog that you need to think about. You will also need pet insurance that you pay for monthly. Vet bills, including vaccinations and worming treatments. Dog food will also need to be catered for, finding the best one for your pet may take some time. Walmart fresh dog food is available for you to purchase and is a favorite within the doggy community. Make sure you are putting money aside for all eventualities and you should be fine. 

Which Breed Do You Want? 

Finally, if you have decided that now is the right time to get a dog then you need to decide on which breed to get. This takes a lot of time and research. You need to think about whether you are going to have children in your home, either now or in the future. If so, you need to get a dog that is family-friendly and gentle. There are quizzes you can take to decide on the type of dog that will fit in best with your setup. You could also search for dogs with the best temperament to find one. 

Popsicles for Adults (Boozy Freezer Pops)

I know summer doesn't officially begin for a few weeks, but, it is HOT already, the kids are out of school, and the mosquitoes are biting at every opportunity. In my eyes, that means it is summer. I have been spending a ton of time in the pool, or poolside with the kids. Sometimes my mind wanders to thoughts of boozy popsicles but the ones at the grocery store are like  $20 for just a small package. Seems kind of excessive for what you are actually getting. So instead of shelling out my  cash I turned to the internet and found a few promising recipes for boozy popsicles to share with you. 

Please click through the link to get the full recipe.

4 Ingredient Raspberry Sangria Popsicles are the perfect afternoon indulgence. They are easy to make and they taste perfect after a sweltering day in the summer heat.

Blood Orange Negroni Pops are elegant and easy enough to make on a whim and wow guests this summer.

Pina Colada Popsicles

Give your day a tropical vibe with these totally indulgent popsicles. I love these almost as much as a pina colada itself!

Easy Mango Pina Colada Pops feel like the perfect substitute for a vacation mid week, tropical vibe included!

Blue Lagoon Cocktail Popsicles are so much fun to make and share with a of legal drinking age friend. 

Blueberry Vodka Lime Sorbet is the perfect way to beat the heat and get a little buzz too.

Which of these boozy popsicle recipes sounds the best to you? I would really appreciate it if you would pin this recipe to your cocktail board or share it on social media.

Reader favorite cocktails include:

Sour Apple Margarita

Night Kings

7 Tips For Your Next Family Camping Trip

 Preparing a camping trip can feel like a lot of effort at times, but planning your first family camping trip can be extremely stressful.

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There's a lot riding on the first trip because there's a fear that if your kids don't take to camping right away, they'll never learn to love it the way you do. But the key is to keep things simple and understand that camping is supposed to be enjoyable!

The following are the top ideas for making your family's first camping vacation a success.

Find A Well-Known Or Accessible Campground

The purpose of your first family camping trip is to just have fun. You'll have lots of opportunities to improve your camping skills later in life, but your children will only want to if they like camping.

Consider a well-established campground with plenty of amenities for your first vacation. Keep things easy the first time because your children may need time to adjust to going to the restroom outside or purifying their own water.

Look for a campground with actual facilities and water pumps. A picnic table and grate over the fire would also be nice.

Learning to sleep in the great outdoors takes practice, so your kids may feel safer if you camp in a campground where they can sleep to the sounds of others conversing in surrounding tents or make friends with kids their age.

Get Your Kids Involved In Planning

One of the most crucial aspects of camping is planning, and proper planning usually gives more time for fun when you're really camping.

The purpose of your first family camping vacation is to teach your children to enjoy nature while unplugging from many of the world's distractions. However, one of the most beneficial side effects of camping is learning the value of planning and the responsibility that comes with taking holidays.

Planning a camping trip does not always have to be a pain; it should be enjoyable and entertaining. For example, inquire about what your children hope to gain from the trip.

If you're camping near a lake, perhaps they're looking forward to swimming or fishing; if so, tell them how crucial it is to remember their swimsuit, innertube, or fishing rod.

Including your children in the planning process is a terrific learning opportunity as well as a way to gain a better sense of how you can make this vacation something they'll genuinely love.

Create A Packing List

A packing list is an important aspect of the preparation process. If you've ever tented before, you understand the frustration of realizing you've forgotten something at home and will have to go without it.

If you've camped a million times, you may already know everything you need, but you can always double-check packing lists.

Packing lists help you remember everything before you leave, which is important for both your safety and your enjoyment (don't forget the deck of cards)! Try to get your children to complete their own packing as part of the planning process. Add things like EcoGearFX, campsite games, and other essentials. 

Encourage kids to make packing lists, and then go over what could be missing and why that item is needed. For example, if kids forget to include socks on their list, you might talk about how sad they'll be if they don't have an extra pair and step in a puddle.

Make Food Over A Campfire

What is the first thing that comes to mind for most people when they think of camping? Of course, s'mores! Lean into the excitement and novelty of camping by preparing foods that your children will come to love and identify with outdoor family camping adventures.

A fire can be used to cook a variety of foods other than hot dogs on sticks. Consider bringing veggies to grill over the grate, such as corn. Camping is an excellent opportunity to break out your cast iron pan and prepare some one-pot dishes.

Allow your children to request some of their favorite dishes ahead of time and see if you can create them over a campfire. Whatever campfire cuisine you choose, sitting around a fire and eating is a typical camping experience that the whole family will love.

Plan Activities

Making family camping excursions enjoyable and memorable requires careful planning of activities. There should be enough structure to keep the days moving and your kids from becoming bored, but also enough flexibility for them to enjoy their environment and find something meaningful to them about camping.

Before you travel, talk to your children about it. Inquire about how they want to spend all their time and what they are most looking forward to. Make an effort to accept their own preferences and give them the opportunity to connect with nature in their own unique way. 

Split the Chores

No degree of planning ahead of time will eliminate all of the duties associated with camping; there will still be food to prepare, dishes to wash, tents to erect, and so on.

To get your kids involved without exhausting them, divide the duties so that they only have to complete a couple each day. Vacations are a time to be free of usual household tasks, but camping still requires some effort, which is best split across the group.

Last Words On The Best Family Camping Trip

Camping is a great family pastime, and the goal of your first family camping trip is to inculcate in your children a love of nature and camping under the stars.

Try to involve your children as much as possible in the planning process, and urge them to help shape the vacation into what they want it to be.

Bring games and organize activities that everybody will like so that your children will want to go on future camping trips.

If you follow the advice above, your first family camping trip will be a success!

Have you been on a family camping trip before? What tips would you add to this list? Please add some of these in the comments below. 

Surprisingly Simple Ways To Stop Your Mountain Of Used Baby Stuff From Building

 

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It’s not until we become parents that we truly realize just how much stuff accumulates when there’s a baby in the house. After all, the theory is that newborns don’t need a great deal. Unfortunately, while there is truth to that statement, the stuff that they do need can be bulky, not to mention that it builds up surprisingly fast throughout their first year or so of life. Given that this period often passes in a blur, many unprepared parents then look up to find themselves quite literally buried by baby stuff or using entire rooms and attic spaces for the sole purpose of storing those used baby items.

Given that you’re only going to keep on accumulating more things into your child’s second year (and, let’s be honest, every year after that), this is by no means a sustainable way of doing things, and it highlights the need to think about the best ways to stop that mountain of baby stuff from ever building in the first place. This can save you a world of stress when you simply don’t need it, as well as ensuring that your home is always far clearer than it would be.

The question is, what exactly are the best hassle-free ways to fight that mountain, and how can you put them into practice for results that stop you from ever having to scale to its top?

Step 1: Develop a system early on

Too often, we make the mistake of not having any storage system in place for our old baby clothes, etc. until they’re already taking up space. Unfortunately, this can result in piles of unsorted clothes and old toys that range across so many ages that you don’t even know where to begin. Given that you’re already an overworked parent, it’s therefore not at all unusual to take one look at this build-up and close the door to deal with it another day. Then, before you know it, you have that much-dreaded mountain on your hands. 

This is precisely the escalation that you’re reading this article to avoid, and the best way to do that is to put at least some kind of storage system in place as early as possible. Ideally, adding this to your list of things to do after finding out you're pregnant means that you won’t even need to worry during those already busy newborn days. Even better, you can find ways to correlate this with your baby prep in general. For instance, you may find it useful to label some storage containers with ages newborn, 3-6 months, and so on. Then, you’ll be able to see exactly what you’ve got ready for baby, as well as keeping those boxes on hand for when your new youngster grows out of each age range. 

Step 2: Research your options for removal

Unless you’re planning on having more children (in which case, sustainable storage solutions are a must!), you’re best off getting rid of used baby items as soon as you’ve filled a storage container or moved into a new age range. Luckily, there are countless ways to do this, and most of them don’t require all that much effort on your part. For one thing, asking around any pregnant friends, or those that you know are making plans of this nature will most likely see you getting rid of the vast majority of stuff. Even if there’s no pregnancy on the horizon, don’t hesitate to ask around – most likely, your friends will know someone who could use the extra! If you have no luck here, then there are also plenty of additional routes to consider online, many of which could see you earning some semi-decent cash for cast-offs. Great platforms for selling high-quality second-hand baby items especially include – 

• eBay

• thredUP

• Toycycle

• Kidizen

• And more

Simply make sure that you set up a profile in the early days, and get into the habit of uploading items before you put them into storage so that they never have a chance to creep up on you. 

Step 3: Put everything away in pristine condition

Considering that you’re finished with them and ready for them to stop cluttering up your house, it’s often tempting to put items away without properly cleaning them. After all, you can do that another day! In reality, though, storing clothes that need a wash, or even a stroller that’s covered in the usual wear and tear of snacks, spit-ups, and so on, can both damage the quality of those items, and make it less likely that you’ll ever get around to getting rid. After all, cleaning one thing is bad enough – cleaning a whole attic full of stuff just isn’t something that you have time for!

Luckily, you can save yourself time by making sure that every single item you have in storage is cleaned and ready to go for the fast turnaround that you’re ultimately aiming to achieve here. The effort that you spend on putting that one load of used clothes straight in the washing machine, or deep cleaning a stroller that’s no longer a good fit, will most certainly save you work in the long run. Not to mention that, if you’re going down the sales route, this proactive cleaning focus can see you getting far more money, as well as guaranteeing good reviews that make it easier for you to get rid of similar items fast in the future. 

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Step 4: Operate on an in-out basis

Despite your best efforts, used baby items can still build surprisingly quickly considering how often you’ll need to update things like your baby’s wardrobe. In fact, with entire outfit overhauls necessary every three months or so for that first year, you could end up with a whole mountain of stuff in less than six months if you aren’t careful. 

To avoid this, it’s always worth approaching used baby items with an in-out mindset. In other words, every single time that you bring new wardrobe sizes, etc. into the house, make a distinct effort to get rid of the size that came before it, and to not buy anything more until you’ve achieved that goal! It may seem strict, but setting yourself this rule makes it impossible for these items to build, buying you time to get rid without panic, and making sure that you never have more to deal with than you can manage. 

Step 5: Take inventory once in a while

While most of us are used to taking inventory at work, few of us apply the same thinking to our home lives. Yet, when it comes to the potentially mammoth task of sorting used baby items, this simple process can become invaluable for helping you to keep your sanity and your space. 

After all, if you don’t know what you’ve got, then it’ll be impossible to effectively impose things like the in-out rule discussed above. Not to mention that, even if you think you know everything that you need to organize/reduce, it’s all too easy to forget even entire boxes of clothes that could then end up as the basis for a build-up if you aren’t careful. 

Luckily, taking even a basic inventory of things like age ranges every few months is all you need to offset this risk and is a process that couldn’t be simpler if you’ve got a decent storage system in place as mentioned. This way, you can always keep track of what needs to go first, what’s newest to your storage setup, and what’s happening with everything in between. 

Step 6: Don’t let yourself get sentimental

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So, you’re prepped, ready, and armed with all of the platforms/know-how to keep used baby stuff under control. Only, then you see the first babygro your newborn ever wore or that coat that they took to their first meeting with the family. Suddenly, you’re overwhelmed with emotions, and can’t shake the feeling that you need to keep every last scrap of it for the sake of memories.

In reality, though, there are very few things that warrant keeping simply for sentimental value. After all, even if you did keep every memorable outfit, you’d likely look at them once every twenty years and coo before putting them back to clutter your home again. With this in mind, our last and perhaps most crucial pointer is to stop yourself from being sentimental about items that, ultimately, have served their purpose. By all means, keep things like the odd handmade piece, or perhaps even that first sleeper that you can’t part with. But, be strict with yourself, and make sure that you’re limiting what you keep to these few special instances before you’ve got an avalanche on your hands.

It’s by no means easy to stop a mountain of baby stuff from building at some stage, but taking it one step at a time with these tips in mind should at least help you to keep your home that bit clearer, and more manageable, for your baby’s first year and beyond. 

How To Put Anxiety Behind You

 If you’re serious about dealing with your anxiety and overcoming the problem, it makes sense to put a plan in place and consider what it’ll take to really move forward and away from your anxiety issues. We’re going to talk about all of that and more today, so if you want to overcome the problem once and for all, here’s more about the approach that you might want to take.

Get Professional Support

Getting professional support is obviously important. When you have any kind of mental health condition, going through it alone is normally not the best answer. There are therapists and mental health doctors out there who can help you find treatments that will enable you to deal with your anxiety problems far better going forward, so make the most of them.

Make Sleep a Priority

If you’re not getting enough sleep at night, this can fuel your problems relating to your mental health. That’s why you should try to stick to a solid schedule and make sleep a real priority moving forward. If you’re able to get a good amount of sleep, you’ll feel refreshed and more positive the next day, and that’ll help you to overcome your anxiety in a much healthier way. 

Use Stress Management Techniques

For many, anxiety and stress are two things that go hand in hand. Lots of people experience them together, and that’s why dealing with your feelings of stress head-on can help you to minimize the anxiety you feel each day as well. Managing your stress can be done in all kinds of ways, and there are professionals out there who can help you with creating a plan for how to do that, so be sure to make the most of their services.

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Try Internal Family System Therapies

There are all kinds of therapy options out there and you might want to explore some of them if you want to really overcome your anxiety problems and move forward in a healthier and more productive kind of way. There’s the internal family system approach to therapy that lots of people with anxiety find useful, for example, so you might want to try that.

Stay Physically Active

It’s also important to focus on your physical health as well. Many people who go through struggles with their mental health can let their physical health decline at the same time, and it becomes a vicious circle of negativity in the end. That’s not what you want, so it’s a good idea to really focus on your fitness and try to get at least a little physical activity into your schedule each day if you can.

As you can see, there are plenty of steps you can take if you want to put your feelings of anxiety behind you. It’s what most people want, but taking those first steps is never easy and it’s not always easy to find help, but it is out there and it’s worth searching for if you’re struggling.