admin, Author at 3 Kids and Us

Your Guide To Camping Accessories for Your New RV

April 26, 2018 by admin

Your first RV trip is bound to be exciting. But you mustn’t forget key items and accessories to be safe and have fun. Here some camping accessories you need.

If summer for you means camping and hitting that open road with nothing but a well-stocked and fully accessorized RV, then welcome aboard!

If camping is your jam, regardless if you prefer to take only what you can carry on your back, or a bit more security, you still need camping accessories.

These can cover many areas and a few items will be a personal choice but there are a few must-haves you should consider before heading out. If you are the weekend camper or if you like to go for weeks or even a few months, you should always be prepared.

Technology is always finding ways to make our lives easier and more compact, and camping accessories are no exception. Just because we are camping doesn’t mean we can’t have a few luxuries and items that make our lives a little more pleasant.

Camping Accessories for Safety

You need to cover all the corners when taking a trip and safety needs to be at the top of your list. Here are a few items you need.

1. First Aid Kit

This is an absolute must-have. Most RV’s will have one but just having it there is only half the battle. Keep it topped up, and rotate the items. If you use it while you are out, make a note to replace those items.

Some of the items in your first aid kit can expire so be vigilant about keeping your kit full and fresh. Make a note on your to-do list about checking it each time you go out camping.

2. Flares or Warning Triangles

A flat tire, running out of gas, even the smallest of mishaps can happen. But when bad things happen to good campers, you want to be prepared. You should add flashlights to this package, as well. You always need a flashlight, to fix something, to find something, to read something.

3. Tool Kit

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to fix something with a butter knife because you don’t have your screwdriver. You don’t need a lot but a few basics can really help you out in a pinch until you can get to a garage.

RV Accessories

Some camping accessories that are just a good idea to make the trip easier and more enjoyable.

1. Water

Having some water onboard is a great idea, especially while you are in motion and don’t have water in the tank. Keeping a fresh supply of water for long trips, in cases of emergency and for stops along the way, if you want to have a bit of lunch.

Having a portable and collapsible water container is a great camping accessory. Fold it up and keep it out of sight when not in use, perfect for holding water when you have no other access to it.

2. Side Mirrors

These are great for when you are towing something, like your boat or an off-road vehicle. They can provide so much extra visual even without towing and are perfect for the larger RV vehicles.

Campsmart caravan towing mirrors are perfect for towing or just for a better view and safety.

You can buy just one, for that extra security. It’s often very difficult to see behind the larger vehicles.

3. Sealant, Tape, and Filler

Leaks happen. You need to have something that will act as an adhesive for smaller mishaps. The window frame comes loose, you knock loose your exhaust pipe or puncture your gas tank.

A few very inexpensive but extremely useful substances can help you patch things up until you get to a repair shop.

Comfort Accessories

Camping doesn’t have to mean really roughing it, so we need a few comforts to make our vacation or trip as pleasant as we can.

1. Awning

A good awning is an invaluable piece of camping accessory. You can have the slide out types, manual or electric, and they come in a variety of materials. An awning is perfect for protection from the heat, the rain, or leaves or sap from trees above.

There are also free-standing types of awnings that can be folded up and tucked away. It is the perfect way to extend your RV space and add an entirely new room. Takes meals, read, relax, cook or even sleep.

2. Cookware

It’s always fun to cook something over an open fire on a stick, but you can’t do that with an egg. Versatile and hearty cookware is a great camping accessory and a luxury.

Find cookware that is made of good quality materials, like cast iron and something that can be used on the stove top and on the fire pit.

Whether you place it on a grill on right on the flames, ala John Wayne, you want something that can withstand the flames and not have paint or coating that will burn.

3. Power Source and Adapters

Finding a good alternative power source can be a real live saver. A small generator, solar-powered chargers and regular and rechargeable batteries will come in extremely handy.

From lighting and power to catch up on your favorite show on your laptop, you need a power source to back up your power source. If you are planning to do some work while you are away, you can’t have any excuses.

Plan to Succeed

Make a list of the things you need, like emergency supplies and things you can’t live without, like your coffee maker, and a list of luxury items you would like but can live without.

Get all the necessities in first and then decide if you still want or even have space for the other items. Many things should be obvious, but if you are new to camping, camping accessories or RVing, you may find yourself coming up short for certain items.

There are great camping accessories available that can make your trip so much more pleasant. If you are planning to be gone for a long time, perhaps you are fulfilling your retirement dream and taking off for several months, you will see soon enough what you need and what you can live without.

Ideas For Staying Healthy As A Busy Parent

April 25, 2018 by admin

It’s important to take parenting seriously, but not so much that you forget about yourself in the daily shuffle. You need to remain happy and healthy, so you have the energy to take care of the ones you love and feel good each day.

It’s time to stop being unhappy about how much time you don’t have and start implementing strategies that are going to help you stay well and be a busy parent simultaneously. The good news is there are habits you can change and adjust that will aid you in your journey to taking care of yourself and being a good parent.

Set Wellness Goals & Track Progress

You’ll get a lot further along with your health if you set wellness goals and ensure you are tracking your progress along the way. Determine what it is you want to accomplish and specifics about how you’re going to get there. For example, if you want to work out each day, then it may require you to set your alarm early in the morning and hit the gym before your family gets up. You can be a busy parent and stay healthy when you put your mind to it and create a schedule for you to follow each day that allows you to remain on track.

Exercise & Eat Right

Two habits that will help you guarantee you stay healthy if you practice them regularly is exercising and eating well. Make it a point to check these two items off your list daily if you want to function at your best and feel better overall. Set a time each day when you’ll workout and head to the grocery store on the weekends so you can prepare your meals ahead of time. Bring your lunch and healthy snacks to work to help you stay on track even when you’re at the office. While it’s going to be more challenging to move more and eat well when you’re also trying to parent, it’s possible to do so with the right mindset and structure in place that will help you succeed.

Find Hobbies you Enjoy

It’s important you have your own life and hobbies you enjoy even though you’re also a parent. For example, challenge yourself to new recipes, building furniture or putting together silhouette Australia puzzles. You need to have ways to take your mind off your daily responsibilities and activities that make you feel proud of yourself. It’s important to remember that you have many additional talents and abilities besides being a good parent to your kids that are worth practicing and showing off. If you don’t have much free time as it is, then it may be time to start saying no to all you get asked to do and clearing your schedule for enjoying more fun.

Manage Your Stress

You have to learn to manage your stress if you’re going to stay healthy and be a busy parent. Start by making a daily checklist and prioritizing your tasks according to what’s most important. Get yourself a planner to help you keep your obligations in order and reduce the amount of worry you feel on a daily basis. In addition to this, you can practice yoga, take up meditation or go for long walks to decompress and slow racing thoughts. Too much stress will sneak up on you and cause you to act in ways you might later regret. Know your warning signs and catch stress and get it under control before it’s too late.

Spend Time with your Kids

Make time for play and spending quality time with your kids if you want to be a healthy parent. This is the kind of interaction where you need to relax a bit and embrace all the love you have for your children. While it’s important to teach your kids and be a good role model, there are other times when it’s healthy to get on the same level as them and show them how much you care about them and their activities. They’ll likely love this extra attention from you, and your family bond will grow stronger. Put your phone down once in a while and engage with your kids and find yourself having fun and laughing again.

Take Care of You First

Always remember that you should come first before any tasks and even other people. The only way you’re going to be able to parent to the best of your ability is if you take care of yourself first. Start making more time for doing what you love and your self-care rituals daily. Write down what you’re going to do for you in your schedule, so you never forget to attend to your needs on a regular basis too. Getting lazy in this area will have you soon feeling exhausted, and you won’t have the energy or desire to put your best foot forward as a parent and spouse.

Practice Positive Self-Talk

Stop once in a while and notice the dialogue that’s going on in your head. Now is the time to push all of that negativity and pessimism aside and focus on what’s going right in your life. Practice positive self-talk regularly and gratitude, and you’ll quickly see your life situation isn’t so bad after all. Keep encouraging and reminding yourself that you have everything under control and are doing the best you can. Let what you do each day be enough and never stop patting yourself on the back for all your efforts and the love you show your family.

Conclusion

Don’t use being a busy parent as an excuse for not taking care of yourself and slacking when it comes to self-care. These are a few excellent ways for how you can do it all and stay healthy at the same time. Stay focused on what you’re doing right and don’t let a few bumps in the road get you down or make you feel inadequate. Most importantly, remember to enjoy the ride and keep a smile on your face.

How stress affects your oral health

April 25, 2018 by admin

Parenthood, thy name is stress. Running a household teeming with kids is hardly ever a picnic; whether it’s from newborn needs or from teenage angst, you’re going to have your fair share of sleepless nights as a parent.

We all know the number that stress can do on you. Ranging from insomnia, mood swings, feelings of distraction and exhaustion, leaving your car keys in the freezer and forgetting you did so, stress does a number on your ability to think clearly and act accordingly. But did you know that the stress you experience can have a negative effect on, of all things, your oral health? It’s true — and here’s what you need to know about the connection between stress and oral health.

The Daily Grind

Ever been so frustrated by someone or something that you’ve just had to clench your teeth in anger? Or maybe you’ve been worrying yourself over a problem in your head and you realize you’ve been grinding your teeth for minutes or possibly even hours? Jaw clenching and tooth grinding is a common stress response — you might even do it unconsciously in your sleep!

Unfortunately, tooth grinding and jaw clenching is absolutely terrible for your oral health. Not only are you running the risk of damaging your teeth or their enamel, you’re also engaging in activity that’s a great way to earn yourself a headache or a sore jaw — or worse yet do damage to your temporomandibular joint (TMJ).

Thankfully it’s not hard to treat tooth grinding. You can take steps during your waking hours to stay aware of what you’re doing and stopping the behavior, but to address an overnight problem you’re likely to need a dentist-approved mouthguard to stop yourself from grinding those teeth of yours down to nothing.

All Dried Up

One of the other big stress-induced oral health problems is dry mouth. While it’s normal to feel your mouth go dry in stressful situations — it’s part of your body’s fight-or-flight response — being under repeated stress means repeated instances of dry mouth, and this leads to some pretty unpleasant oral health issues that you’ll need to deal with.

Your mouth relies on saliva to protect itself from harmful bacteria. Repeatedly experiencing dry mouth means there’s no saliva to wash that bacteria away, and that can lead to issues like bad breath and advanced tooth decay. Gum disease and infection are all more common as well when you’ve got constant dry mouth, so it’s a bad scene all around.

There are ways to treat dry mouth. Chewing sugar-free gum can trigger saliva production, for instance, and you’ll have fewer problems doing so if you also stay away from caffeinated beverages and alcohol-based mouthwash. You should also consult your family dentist for the best ways to prevent and control chronic dry mouth.

It’s Not Easy

Thankfully, good oral hygiene practices, along with some help and advice from your dentist, can help resolve any of these stress-based oral health issues if you find yourself experiencing them. The best way to resolve these oral health problems more definitively, though, is to seek out the root of what’s causing them: your stress.

While it’s unlikely you’ll be able to just drop everything and take two weeks to lie on a beach somewhere, there are always little ways to de-stress and relax at home, even in the hectic life of a parent. Tag in your partner or another family member when you need a break. Get more sleep, drink plenty of water, listen to your favorite music, rob a bank — whatever works for you!

5 Things to Check When Buying a New Camera

April 19, 2018 by admin

Before you diagnose yourself with Gear Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.) or the unnecessary want of getting something new; it would be healthy and wise to test out first the 5 things to check when buying a new camera. Who knows? You could have been wrong and this new camera is really what you need and not just what you want.

It starts with a why.

When the world has already offered you the best, there is clearly just a little room for improvements. With that, the task of choosing a new camera and let alone decide whether you really have to buy one no longer becomes just a pushover.

Valid reason is the game changer. Your present camera must be really old or it’s broken and buying new seems to be the most practical solution. Additional needed feature is also valid.

Nobody really knows exactly what will happen next. So to future proof this, also consider new and necessary features as one of the 5 things to check when buying a new camera. Remember, necessary here is relative. Your specific need is sometimes different than others. Everything depends on the situation. One example is when you need a full frame and not a crop sensor.

In other words, your conscience is your first guru.

You also need to consider a budget consideration.

Now that you get why you have to buy it, next is you have to think if the price is really worth it? Is the return of investment from your photography passion bringing back profits? To make things simpler to you, less than 500 USD is the target price. Several factors are considered here, like what the general population of photographers really just need, and what trusted brands average price is.

The present world of photography offers everything that is already good enough – ideal body stabilization, interchangeable lenses, deep dynamic range, brilliant image quality, fast auto focus and desirable high resolution. Because of this, a value of less than 500 USD is definitely most adequate – the supply of quality products is phenomenal you know!

David from Cameraseals can help you with his review on the best camera under $500 here => https://cameraseals.com/10-best-cameras-under-500-2017/

Lens resolution and lens compatibility is important.

The megapixel marketing is nothing but a myth because the pinnacle suitable number of megapixel for a good camera has long been reached ages ago. Focus more on the lens, because nowadays, it is easy to find a high resolution and adequate megapixel camera at a fair price anyway.

It makes sense because everything will be put to naught if your lens cannot give the proper resolution that your camera can actually provide. It’s like you are limiting its capacity when it can actually reach better performance.

Interchanging lens definitely provide convenience. So in 5 things to check in buying a new camera, it is a common sense to see to it that your camera body is harmonious to your lens. Lens mount adapters are also available in the market. It is your job as well to see to it that they actually support your lens and the harmful or augmenting effects they may bring to the specific features of your camera are understood well. Read your manual!

Don’t forget your storage space and computer specs.

Bigger pixels result to bigger photo files. Buy a camera with more internal storage capacity, as well as having memory cards which can store lots of data. Larger raw files won’t be problems then and to access them quicker is another advantage if you don’t have to resort to external hard drives and other dedicated storage arrays.

Also, the aspect of photo processing should not be left unattended. Make sure you won’t get a slow processing experience. You can do this by making sure that your computer’s system configuration is in sync and in par with your new camera.

Check the manufacturer’s claims and disclaimers on repair, support and maintenance.

Protection given by product warranty is a common thing but in reality, a business is a business. It is for the benefit of the manufacturer if it will find loopholes to any of your outcry. So bear in mind that it is your right to see the manufacturer’s claims and disclaimers, and written warranty before you even buy your camera. Don’t take them for granted.

If something is really off to be considered for a warranty, then make sure that you understand the service and support platform that your product manufacturer offers and that you get the most out of it.

So before you venture on researching the next newer version of cameras or the next newer and cooler features of the product; study everything first and let 5 things to check when buying a new camera guide you, accordingly.

The Importance of Family Road Trips

April 18, 2018 by admin

When it comes to vacations, it’s not always about the destination; it’s also about the time you spend with the people you love.

Taking your kids on vacation will give you the time to help teach your children essential life skills and more. In fact, there is a far better chance for them to remember the lessons and activities you did together rather than the destination itself.

Aside from that, there are a lot of reasons to go on a much-needed vacation with the family. Here are a few of them:

New Experiences

There are experiences that reading can’t give you. Allow your children to experience life first hand. They will absorb the lesson better, and it will make them eager to learn more about nature, culture, and more.

As part of encouraging experience, push them to try different activities and to face their fears within reason. For example, if one of your kids is afraid of horses, show them that there’s nothing be afraid of and try to get them to pet the horse, and eventually ride one.

When you take it one step at a time, it allows them to adjust and see that not everything is out to get them. After all the adventures and experiences, you can see your kids having more confidence in trying things out for themselves.

Promote Family Relationships

One great thing about road trips with your family is that everyone is free from the usual distractions. There are no board meetings to attend, no school, and no television; it will be just you, your kids, and the open road.

Use this time to reconnect with each other through games and stories. Ask them about what they are looking forward to on the trip, school, or any other future activities. Communication is key to developing well-adjusted individuals in the family.

Recharge

Meeting work deadlines, ensuring that everyone has their packed lunch before they leave the house in the morning, and you still need to arrive at the office on time is a lot of work. Over time, you can feel yourself getting burnt out from everyday life. Recharge and relax on your road trip with your family.

Go camping and share outdoor skills with your kids. Put up a tent, start a fire, and roast marshmallows. At night, tell each other ghost stories and funny tales from work or school to remind yourself that there’s more to life than deadlines and chores.

Ditch Digital

An advantage of going on a road trip and choosing a destination with little to no cell signal is that everyone will be forced to put down their devices and spend time with each other.

Now is the perfect time to let your child’s creativity shine and allow them to try their hand at entertaining themselves without the use of digital means. Let them play in the dirt, swim in rivers, and let them have fun in a different way.

When you make road trips a regular part of your family’s yearly plans, you help create a bond with each other. Not only that, but you also create a family tradition wherein everyone can pitch in their ideas and support in their unique way.

Letting your children help in the planning and packing for the trip gives them a sense of responsibility and gives them the confidence to take the lead in school and other activities. So, plan your next family road trip, find and rent a compact car, and have fun with the essential people in your life.