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Renting the Right Car for Your Honeymoon

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Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

Your wedding and your honeymoon are the two times in your life when you will want every detail to be perfect. You already planned to have the hottest music, the tastiest cake, and the most beautiful gown during the ceremony, so likewise you shouldn’t neglect the small luxuries that you deserve during your first special time together as man and wife.

For example, you shouldn’t take a cab or an Uber around your honeymoon destination when you can rent a car and see the sites on your own terms. But, how do you go about getting the perfect rental car for honeymoon travel? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Always Reserve Your Car Ahead

You may wonder how far ahead of your honeymoon trip that you should reserve your chosen rental vehicle. The truth is that you should make a reservation as soon as you get the dates of trip finalized. Like airline tickets, vehicle rental prices tend to increase as you approach the date of usage. That is why it is never a good idea to rent your car on the day that you need it.

Popular Places and Dates

You should also consider the popularity of your honeymoon destination. Will you be in the area during its peak tourist season? If so, it may be harder to find your first choice car. You should look at the websites of all the car rental services in the area and compare their inventory, if the information is available that far in advance (it usually isn’t, see below). Also, if you get married on a holiday weekend, such as Memorial Day, Independence day, or Labor Day, you may find yourself competing for rental vehicles with more than the average amount of vacationers, so a little preparedness goes along way.

Decide Which Type of Car You Want (or Need)

You only get to honeymoon once (hopefully), so why not do it in style? You can choose the car of your dreams to taxi between sites and start your marriage feeling like royalty. Do you want a sweet convertible sports car to ride around an island paradise, or do you want a luxury and exotic car for rental to cruise Vegas just like the high rollers? Or, maybe cargo room for your skis is a concern for you. If that’s the case, rent a van or an SUV that’ll have enough room for all your gear. The choice is yours, and just like you wouldn’t skimp on the honeymoon suite, you shouldn’t skimp on your ride, either

Inventory Changes

Remember, a rental lot cannot absolutely guarantee that a particular car will be available at a given time. Inventory constantly changes since cars can be picked up and dropped off anywhere. This is why while planning a bit ahead is important, you shouldn’t worry about car type too far in advance. Usually, rental companies will only give you the option to choose a specific vehicle 1 to 2 days beforehand.

Some Things You Need to be Aware of

If you are under the age of 25, there are laws in many states and nations that may restrict you from renting a vehicle, even if you are married and have a credit card. If both spouses fall into this category, it is imperative that you check the laws of the area where you plan to honeymoon ahead of time before making any plans or reservations.

Conversely, there are areas where renting is permitted to those under the age of 25, but you may be restricted to a “standard” sized sedan, such as a Toyota Camry. It should go without saying that just as with your own vehicle at home, the insurance will cost more until you reach the age of 25. This means less cargo room and a higher budget, so plan accordingly.

Avoid Extra Fees

Be sure to read the fine print in your contract. You may be saddled with a tracking device that can prove that you were going over the posted speed limit, mileage limits, or left the designated area. These “offences” can result in exorbitant fees.

Speaking of fees, remember to fill the gas tank before returning the car. When the rental company refills a partially empty tank, they may charge you for a full tank of gas, and many rental companies do so at a higher rate than the average gas station.

Take a Quick Inventory

Go through a quick checklist in your mind before leaving the lot. Do you have a key to open the trunk, or the gas cap, if necessary? Do you have a spare tire or doughnut, lug wrench, and jack included in the trunk? Check for essentials before driving off.

Be Sure to Include Insurance

Always look over your documentation to ensure that your package includes insurance. If you are not sure whether it comes as part of the agreement, discuss your situation with the person at the rental counter and pay for extra insurance if you are not sure the coverage is adequate. It is always best to overpay on insurance rather than end up in a crash with a car that is not yours and end up losing your shirt.

Just remember to first read over each of the options and be sure that you choose one that is comparable to the type of car that you are renting. Some packages can charge as much as $40 per day, and this is almost like doubling the rental price. Another option may be to purchase rental car insurance from a third party. There are many companies available that charge less than rental agencies and cover just as thoroughly.

Enjoy your Honeymoon!

So, why would you want to be at the whim of cab drivers, train schedules, and bus routes when you can spend your time your way and travel to each attraction at ease? Renting a car on your honeymoon is a smart way to get the most out of your vacation and your precious time together. So take the time to look over your options and reserve a car today for your special trip.

How a Local Business Can Benefit from Social Media

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Let’s face facts: Successful businesses and social media are practically inseparable. For many, a strong social media presence is seen as going the extra mile, or as something that only the “big” businesses can engage in on any meaningful level.

The reality is that social media matters a lot, more than the majority of people realize at first glance. In this list, we’ll elaborate on how social media for local businesses can be a massive boon that draws in customers, bolsters your base, and improves your overall bottom line.

Customer Feedback

Any business that doesn’t understand what its customers want is doomed to fail. Feedback is a hugely important part of running a business, especially a local one. Feedback is how you’ll know that you should be making your t-shirts a bit softer or your donuts a little less sweet. Businesses that ignore feedback find frustrated customers leaving negative reviews more often.

To combat this, a strong social media presence is the superhighway connecting you to your buyers. Actively engaging with grievances not only makes the customer feel better, but improves your product—and your profits.

Inflated Presence

Marketing gurus are well aware that the products that end up defining our culture do so as a result of shrewd marketing. We are in many ways told what to like, or told what is relevant, despite how much genuine success or hype is actually behind that product.

Just as an example: You may be shocked to know that there has never been a year in history in which the Beatles have had the best selling album for that year, even though they are universally acknowledged as one of the best and most influential musical groups of all time.

If you want an example more specifically related to your business, just look at the attention Salt and Straw gathers simply from social media alone. The West Coast ice cream shop has used Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms to spread the word about their groovy flavors and eccentric cones, using cool imagery and punchy writing to accumulate a strong customer base.

By promoting your business through social marketing, you can increase the amount of importance perceived by an audience about said business. That, in turn, gets people talking, and making your business the topic of conversation is worth its weight in gold.

Public Relations

On a similar note, this is one area where a social media management company can really swoop in to save the day. In the same way that social media can be used to listen to your audience, as mentioned before, it can also be used to communicate to them.

On the one hand, repairing a negative customer experience is great for business, but fumbling with an angry consumer is a recipe for a black eye on your brand. Regardless, it’s still an important skill to learn or to pay someone to pull off.

Finding New Market Trends

If the recent Wendy’s twitter scuffles are any indication, it can be assumed that audience tastes and tolerances to certain forms of marketing changes over time. 10 years ago, replying with a snarky remark to a customer making an ignorant comment would be universally seen as a PR nightmare, but today such popular internet memes are generating unexpected buzz where there was none prior.

Sometimes this phenomenon may feel like catching lightning in a bottle, and to some extent it is, but the point is that social media can be used to research the mercurial tastes of consumers. Carefully observe how customers react to posts that are a little off the beaten path from what you normally post. Carefully respond in a myriad of ways to complaints and judge which responses are the best received. In due time, you may discover a need that you didn’t know existed and satisfy it.

How Does Classroom Design Influence Students’ Learning Abilities?

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Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

Classroom design is an important factor in facilitating a good learning environment for students, and one that helps them increase their learning abilities. Researchers at the Universities of Washington and UC Berkeley estimate that American students spend an average of “11,700 hours of their lives in a school building from kindergarten to 12th grade.” For this amount of time, students need to be comfortable in their environment so they can educationally thrive.

Furniture Arrangement

A classroom’s layout has a much larger impact on students than you may think. According to Teacher Magazine, students are more apt to ask questions when placed in a semi-circular format over the traditional rows of desks. When deciding on the furniture’s layout, you want to think about cultivating a comfortable environment so that students are more apt to interact with one another and with the material being taught. However, traditional layouts can be stagnant, so having different options or using flexible classroom furniture can help keep students stimulated. At all times, a teacher should be able to see each child’s face in a lecture style environment.

Create An “Active Learning Environment”

Children are constantly mobile and students need adequate lighting and a noise-free environment to thrive in a classroom. Face-to-face interaction allows students to be more active and engaged with their work. As such, a central tenet of active learning involves keeping students stimulated. To accomplish this, well-conceived classroom design keeps distractions at bay while allowing teachers to effortlessly communicate with students in order to maximize a lesson’s resonance. When students are able to sit on or interact with active, ergonomic furniture, they are more comfortable and can focus on learning. Teachers need to have enough space to reach all students, and can ask for their input in terms of classroom design to see what will make them happiest.

Classroom Decorations

Classroom decorations are a tricky subject for teachers. However, decorations go a long way in helping students feel like they belong. Whether they’re arts and crafts projects, dioramas, or informative posters, it can be beneficial for students to see vibrant, educational graphics in which they’ve invested time and effort.

One Size Does Not Fit All

It is fairly obvious that children are not all the same size. However, in many traditional classrooms, every desk and chair is the same size. With new design and technologies advancing, there are now chairs and desks available that are adjustable based on height. Also, if students perform better in school when they are comfortable, then it’s important to not only have adjustable furniture, but pieces that can adapt to varied styles of learning. For instance, if a student does better when standing, then an adjustable sit-to-stand desk may solve problems of restlessness.

Fostering Good Habits

Providing ergonomic furniture fosters good posture, which is ultimately beneficial for long-term health. When students slouch or sit incorrectly, it can cause pain and discomfort for them in the classroom and in their futures. In their day-to-day experiences, this type of discomfort can distract students from their studies and decrease their learning abilities.

Overall, students benefit from environments that foster their physiological, emotional, and cognitive needs. When classrooms are designed to minimize distraction and discomfort, they can maximize students’ potential.

5 Tips to Style Your Kids When Going Out

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Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Style

Life as a parent is a constant rush. With traveling back and forth from school, band and sports practices, trips to the grocery store, and obligatory family functions, it’s no wonder you’re always wondering where the time went. However, just because life as the energizer bunny is not all it’s cracked up to be, getting your family dressed and out the door doesn’t have to add to your workload.

Make conscious, fashionable dressing decisions and teach your children a lesson in personal responsibility and individuality with these five tips on how to style your kids without spending hours playing dress-up.

Plan Ahead

It is no surprise that clothing stores hold big sales events as one season closes and another begins. Take advantage of these opportunities to stock up on clothing options for the next year, at a discounted price.

For baby clothes, use this opportunity to buy clothes the next couple of sizes up to ensure you have options for months, and years, to come.

Explore New Options

When you’re shopping for kid’s clothing, consider layering. Layering adds dimension to any outfit. Choose clothes in different textiles and patterns to diversify closet selections.

Layered clothing styles aren’t exclusive to girls. There are plenty of options out there for trendy boy’s clothing too. Encourage your child’s individual style, and let their personality play out in the clothes they wear. Set out of few staple pieces and let your child decide what to mix and match.

Shop in Boutiques

Shop outside of the box! Yes, you too can dress your kids in trendy clothes, without breaking the bank. While you may not have the multi-million dollar budget some celebrity’s kids do, boutique shopping is still possible. Boutique doesn’t necessarily mean expensive; they’re just small stores that are not run by the megastore corporations like Walmart or The Bay. Clothing in boutique stores have more creative freedom since large companies do not design them, so you can get diverse, trendy clothes that are relatively inexpensive. Explore children’s boutique stores as an alternative to superstores.

Would You Wear It?

When shopping for clothes for your kids, ask yourself, would you wear it? If the answer is no, don’t buy it! The last thing you want to do is fill your kids closet with clothes you’ll never dress them in. If don’t know where to start with styling your kids, peruse online stores for new ideas and price comparisons.

You can also coordinate clothes with your children. Dressing similarly doesn’t have to be just for holiday postcards, nor does it have to be an exact match. Choose a color palette or style, and go from there. Not only will your kids look stylish, but you will look like a cohesive, well-represented family. You may even find yourself trying new style combinations from your own closet.

Make it Fun

Styling your kids isn’t always about clothes. Pay attention to details like hair and accessories. You can make any outfit fun with a big pair of sunglasses. Complete a casual-cool look with a messy bun or mussed-up hair. When it comes to style, it’s the complete picture that pulls together a look, so don’t forget to consider the details when you’re dressing your kids.

To dress your kids in style doesn’t require a big budget, a big closet, or endless amounts of time. Take the time to make wise purchases when there is a sale, plan for future wears, consider layers and different textures for endless outfit combinations, and pay attention to the details.

Happy styling!

Baking Essentials that every baker needs

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There are a hundred and one things that might all be used when you’re baking, and we’d count each of them as essentials. However, there are some things that are more essential than others and are often overlooked in the kitchen.

In this article, we’re focussing on some of those overlooked essentials, as well as making sure that we’ve picked out products that can truly boost your baking to the next level!


Image by Pascal Bondis 💙💛 💙💛💙💛 from Pixabay

Instant-Read Thermometer

An instant-read thermometer might seem like a flashy gadget to have in a home kitchen, but it’s incredibly helpful for any number of things.
The first use that comes to mind is when making fudge or candy. Sugar reaches different stages at different temperatures when you’re heating it, so if you’re aiming for the soft-ball stage, you need to be within a certain temperature bracket. That’s where an instant-read thermometer comes in handy!

The other use that is handy is when making your own bread. Bread is cooked all the way through when you can take its internal temperature at 96˚C/205˚F. When making your own bread, it can be tricky to know when you’re at that point, and tapping the base of the loaf is an unreliable predictor. Instead, we would suggest investing in an instant-read thermometer for perfect bread every time.

 


Image by 为 肖 from Pixabay

 

Digital Scale

A digital scale is a game-changer in the kitchen! You won’t have to worry about perfectly using measuring cups ever again, instead of being able to perfectly measure the amount of each ingredient as you add them to your mixing bowl.
This is a really great way to enhance your recipes for more finicky things, such as meringues since they require very precise ratios of different ingredients to correctly bake and rise in the oven.

A digital scale can also help you to get rid of measurement errors with old measuring jugs. If the measuring lines of a jug have worn off, it becomes quite useless. On the other hand, a digital scale will always be able to tell you the exact number of mL of a liquid in a container. How handy!

 


Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

Whisk

Okay, this might sound a little obvious – of course, you need a whisk! However, you’d be surprised how often there’s hesitation to buy a good whisk. Make sure to get one that’s comfortable in your hand and quite lightweight – your wrists will thank you later!
We’d recommend getting one that’s completely made from stainless steel. That way, you can throw the whole thing in the dishwasher after you’re done with it! It’s really handy, and we love it.

Now, these three essentials might not sound too groundbreaking, but we’re completely sure that if you’re missing one of them, picking it up will mean you can see a huge improvement in your bakes in no time at all. Even if you just start with one, it’s a huge help!

So, without further ado, make sure to pick up the essentials we’ve pointed out here – you’ll love them!

Ortho Phase 1: Complete #LaurenGoFar #LaurenOrtho

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The last 8 weeks have been very interesting.

On April 8th, Lauren got her pallet expander installed. She came home with a calendar and over the next 4 weeks, were to turn the key 21 times.

Pallet Expander

Initially, this didn’t bother Lauren too much. She said that it’s uncomfortable and she had a bit of a lisp.

Over the 21 turns, when she was asked if it hurt, she would explain that the bridge of her nose hurt. Which makes sense when you remember that your pallet is the bottom of your sinus cavities.

After the first 21 turns, it was back to Dr. Bozek’s office.  On June 6th, she was checked out, things were progressing well and we needed to do 21 more turns.

Each turn spreads her pallet by 1/4mm. It’s not a lot. After 42 turns, that’s 102mm (10.2cm)! 

 

 

Orthodontics – The 2nd journey begins #LaurenGoFar #LaurenOrtho

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Our children were destined to need braces. Both Craig and I had braces when we were teenagers.

In April 2018, Rachel started her orthodontics journey. The estimated time for her treatment was one year. She had a bit of crowding that needed to be fixed and a little bit of an overbite. Dr. Bozek put on Rachel’s braces on April 18th and the current estimation is May 2019 to have them removed. Seems like just yesterday she was losing her first tooth!

Lauren was told that she needed to wait a year; she had to lose the rest of her baby teeth. In November, Lauren lost her last tooth. We called Dr. Bozek and set up an appointment. 

March 11th, the day after Lauren’s 12th birthday, we met with Dr. Bozek again. They took new x-rays and photos. They came up with a plan.

The plan.

Lauren’s treatment plan is going to take 2 years. Her little mouth has so much going on in there. 

The teeth on the top need the most treatment. The molars need to be moved outward. This allows more space to move the teeth at the front so that they are straight.

You can see the top molars on the right side are inside the molars on the bottom.

To move the molars outwards, they will be installing a pallet expander. 

But before they can do that, they had to put in spacers. These do exactly what they sound like they do. They create space between the molars. They need this space to put bands around her teeth that hold the expander.

Step 1: Spacers

Yesterday was the first step in her orthodontics journey. Lauren was nervous, but she climbed into the chair. She was in the middle chair and she carefully watched the two girls in the chairs beside her: one was getting fitted for her retainer and the other was getting a mould. Lauren was going to have to do this as well.

She said the mould material tasted like marshmallows and that it wasn’t that bad.

Orthodontics - Spacers

With Lauren’s dental history (6 cavities when she was only 6), I wasn’t surprised when the ortho technician told me that she flinched a little when she went to put the spacer in. Lauren is very hesitant when to comes to any dental stuff as she’s worried that it will hurt like getting cavities filled.

In the end, they were done and she was excited that they were turquoise. (I’ll post again about why.)

The new family game night with Xbox One S – @XboxCanada #XboxTogether

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Xbox makes gaming fun for the entire family!

In October, we were invited to join Xbox Canada for a fun-filled day in Toronto.

Lauren spent lots of time at the Minecraft programming table or playing Minecraft. Craig loved Forza 7!

 

Xbox Canada sent us a package!!

At the end of November, Christmas came early!

Lauren shared her excitement with everyone on Instagram:

What was in the box?

Xbox One S Box @ mapsgirl.ca

Xbox One S Contents @ mapsgirl.ca Xbox One S Minecraft controllers @ mapsgirl.ca

The Minecraft console is amazing! It has a slim design and can sit horizontally or vertically fitting well into any space. 

The controllers are all Bluetooth enabled which means easy play from anywhere in the room. We were able to set up each controller to be connected to each of our Xbox profiles. Lauren chose the pink Minecraft Pig and Rachel‘s profile is connected to the Creeper. This allows each of us to automatically sign in when we connect our controller. 

The girls’ profiles are part of our “Family“. Craig and I have administrative privileges and can control what the girls can do with their accounts. This helps keep them safe and minimizes unwanted downloads.

Xbox - Girls @ mapsgirl.ca

First up… Minecraft, of course! 

It didn’t take long to download the Minecraft game and to get the girls signed in.  

Family time is special

I love that Xbox has so many games that we can play as a family.  Seeing the girls smile and hearing them laugh is great! They are having a great time trying to teach us how to play Minecraft. We love the multiplayer games like Monopoly and Scrabble.

Check out Xbox Canada’s website to see all of the family-focused games that you can play on your Xbox One S.

I love that we are now part of the Xbox Canada family!  We are going to have a lot of fun!

Disclaimer: We were not paid to attend the Xbox event and I was not required to write this post in exchange for receiving the Xbox. We are really enjoying gaming together as a family and I wanted people to know about it.