Category Archives: Lifestyle

3 Things to Remember When Planning a Child’s Baptism

Your child’s baptism is an important event in their life and possibly one of the first big events that they are a part of. It is also likely to be one of the first opportunities your family and friends will have to celebrate your child’s life and show their love and appreciation for you and your growing family.

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Planning your child’s baptism can be difficult and time consuming. There are a lot of things to consider if you are going to get it right and have a baptism that runs smoothly so that you get the time to enjoy yourself.

This quick guide is going to cover three things you should take the time to consider if you are planning a child’s baptism and want the day to go without a hitch.

Find the Right Venue for You and Your Guests

The venue is an important thing to consider for any celebration. You want to choose a venue that has enough space for all your guests and for children to play, but you do not want one so big that people feel separated from one another.

You also need to consider space for any food, refreshments and entertainment that you are going to have for your guests to enjoy.

Make Sure You Send Out Invitations

You want to have a celebration that has a good turnout with plenty of family and friends in attendance to give the party a good atmosphere.

Using an invitation that you send out early, you can almost guarantee good attendance at the event by making sure everyone has enough time to pencil it in the diary. You can use a template to create a unique baptism invitation that will stand out from the crowd and get you a lot of RSVPs early.

Get Plenty of Food – Consider Catering the Baptism Yourself

The food is often one of the most important factors in any party. If you are paying caterers to provide food for your guests, you can take a lot of stress off your plate and let them do all the food preparation and service.

You can provide food yourself, however, or ask party goers to bring a dish with them to help feed everyone. Catering the party yourself is an opportunity to give your party a unique feel and make sure that any special dietary needs for the party congregation are accommodated.

The baptism of a child is a special event that gives you the opportunity to introduce your child to your wider family and your group of friends. Like any celebration, a baptism requires and deserves a lot of planning to make sure your guests have a great time and that your child enjoys themselves too.

It doesn’t have to be too challenging to plan a successful celebration, and with the right planning, any party can be a success without too much stress. Hopefully, this quick guide has given you some of the information you need to plan your child’s baptism and have a celebration that is a success for everyone.

Dads! How Can You Have A Great Wedding After Having Kids?

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It can feel like you’ve got enough on your plate as it is! Whether you’ve welcomed a new baby into the world recently, or you’ve already got a brood of your own, having that talk about getting married after having children can seem to get away from us, even with the best of intentions. But when it comes to getting married, some of us don’t care if we do or if we don’t, but others very much do! And from the perspective of dads, we might have enough on our plate, but how can we make sure that we have a great wedding, especially after having children? And is it even feasible?

Start Off On The Right Foot (Or Knee)

If you have both been talking about getting engaged for some time, it’s important to give her the ring she deserves. Getting everything started on the right foot means that you can both talk about it like you doing something for the both of you are not necessarily for the sake of the “family unit.” So many people used to get married because it was supposedly the right thing to do, and now as getting married after having children means you have to re-register those children born out of wedlock, it can seem like a little bit of a headache. But, if you are doing it for any reason, ensuring that your children can get your estate after you pass away is a good reason. But the fact of the matter is, you both have to want to do it yourselves. So treat it with the respect it deserves, and give it that sense of occasion. Make sure to capture the occasion with photos to always remember the moment. If you’re in the area, wedding pictures Cape Cod has numerous photogenic areas.

Give It The Time It Needs

You have more financial obligations, and you’ve obviously got to ensure that your children are happy, so why bother rushing into getting the ceremony done and dusted? There is no time limit, so why don’t you give it the time it needs, not so that you can plan the perfect ceremony for the both of you, but also ensure that your children are past teething, jabs, and all of those issues that can be a veritable nightmare for the first year or so after a child has been born. Planning a wedding, or meeting caterers the day after you’ve been up with the child all night means that you aren’t fighting fit, and it’s likely you might make a few decisions you’ll regret later on. It’s far better to give yourselves that space and time so you can both decide, with a clear head, what you want. After all, the day is for the two of you!

You Can Still Have A Stag Do!

It just might be a more sedate occasion. You may have friends who don’t have children or aren’t in a relationship, and they have something incredibly messy planned for you. But you have to be firm and tell them you’ll have to function like a proper human being in a couple of days’ time! Perhaps a meal followed by a few pints in the pub may be all you can realistically get in. And, if you feel you deserve a massive stag do, be it on your head! Just keep in mind how terrible you might feel come Monday morning, especially if your child hasn’t decided to sleep the night you get home! That said, if you are in the mood for a more memorable celebration, you might want to Celebrate Your Bachelor Party at Treasures, or a similar establishment closer to you, for an experience that’s a bit more exciting than just a few pints.

You Are Marrying A Great Parent!

Some people don’t know what they will be like as a parent until they have a child, and once you’ve got married to, and then you decide to have children, you might both be in for the shock of a lifetime. But you already know what kind of parent the other person is. And, perhaps more importantly, they already know what type of parent you are like. This means that the marriage doesn’t begin on a foundation of question marks, but you already know a lot about the other person, have already been through the thick and thin and ups and downs of being a parent, and yet, if you still want to both marry each other, then that is fantastic!

And, perhaps the most important thing in the run-up to the big days that you both have to be on the same page, communicate, and discuss everything. It can be like you are passing ships in the night, but remember, because of the stress and strain of having children, make sure the doors of communication are even more open than they were before. They can be a lot to pressure put-upon yourselves even without a date set, so give yourself the time, and remember, it’s so you can all feel like it’s one of the best days of your lives (and the children can still get involved).

A Worthy Investment: Car Maintenance Skills You Can Learn At Home

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Americans generally have a great love affair with cars. After all, they spend an average of 45 minutes doing car-related tasks per day, according to the US Department of Labor. As cars are considered to be good investments, it makes sense to pick up knowledge that would help you care for that investment. It’s good then that there are car maintenance skills that you can learn at home. 

Tire Replacement

A recent AAA survey found that around 20% of Americans do not know how to replace a flat tire. It’s a fairly simple procedure that will require that you invest in a few other tools such as a jack, a lug wrench, a pry bar, and a spare tire. If you’re not quite sure what to do, you can go online and load up helpful tutorials on popular platforms like YouTube or use an app. If you learn how to do it yourself, you can save up anywhere from $100-$300 per tire. It also saves you from having to call a tow truck service if you get a flat tire on the road.

Small Paint Touch-Ups

Cars are a thing of beauty but they are prone to visible aesthetic damage—otherwise called paint dings or scratches. If you leave any paint chips open, you risk leaving your car vulnerable to rust damage, says Paul Wright of Popular Mechanics. Thankfully, small paint touch-ups can be something that you can learn to do in your own home. The reviews of Automotivetouchup.com recommend choosing as close a match to your car’s paint and apply clear coat afterward. It gives your car’s surface an extra layer of protection. An added bonus is that a small paint touch-up should only take about 30 minutes or so.

Checking Car Oil

Your car’s oil helps protect the engine by keeping its components cool and properly lubricated. It follows that, over time, the oil will get dirty and even low. It’s recommended that you check the level of the oil each week by pulling out the dipstick, wiping it clean, putting it back in, taking it out, and checking the level once again. There are marker lines that should tell you what the proper level of the oil should be. If the level of the oil is below the marker lines, you’d better get the oil changed. Of course, you can change the oil yourself—another skill you can master at home.

Any skills that you learn that can help you maintain your car is a good investment of time and effort. Learning car maintenance skills will give you a chance to be hands-on with your car’s care and save money. More importantly, you’ll also have precious skills that you can pass on to your children.