Sure Signs You've Found The Destination Of Your Dreams

Why do we travel? The answer might be slightly different for each of us, but there are also certainly some reasons which most of us could agree with. In many cases, people will cite the famous idiom of travel broadening the mind; it is certainly true that it does that, even if only because it forces you to keep your eyes open and your wits about you. That might be reason enough to go out and see the world, but there are still many other reasons that you might find yourself ascribing to. One which is probably very common too is that of discovering new places, merely for the sake of discovering them. If you are someone who loves to tick off countries on the map, then you will understand this, along with the feeling of discovering a part of the world that you love. So what are some of the signs that you have stumbled upon a great destination? As it happens, there might be many.

Pic Credit - Pixabay Licence

You Could See Yourself Living There

This is probably pretty much the gold standard here, as it implies that you have really fallen in love with a place profoundly. It’s one thing to enjoy being there for the short duration of a holiday, but if you start seriously thinking about living there then you know that you have got a real fascination with that place. Have you ever experienced this? It can be quite strange, especially if you are someone who is used to being at home in your own country, and you can’t quite see yourself moving all that much. You could be holidaying in Indonesia and then before you know it you are looking for rumah dijual and wondering what part of the country you would most like to live in. Of course, getting this feeling about a place does not mean that you need to move straight away, nor that you necessarily should. But it’s worth considering that it is a possibility, and one which you are certainly within your rights to consider as much as you like. If nothing else, it really indicates how much you love a place.

Pic Credit - Pixabay Licence

You Get On With The People

It is hard to really love a place if you don’t always love the people. In fact, the people and the place are really two sides of the same coin, in that one can’t exist without the other. So in order to love the place, you have to love the people, and vice versa. So it is a clear sign that you might love a place if you find you are getting on well with the people there. It can be enjoyable to find yourself in a strange culture which doesn’t seem strange at all to you, and is in fact very much more suited to you than home. That can mean that you suddenly start finding yourself considering moving there, and that is a sure sign that you love it, as we have already seen. When you feel that you have really found your people, it’s a great thing to experience, and in many ways it is ultimately what people are searching for when they go travelling in the first place.

You Don’t Want To Go Home

You might find that you rarely want to go home from a holiday anyway, for the sheer fact that it is a holiday. But there is that, and then there is the feeling of really not wanting to return, just in case you should miss being out there quite so much. If it gets towards the end of your trip and you find yourself reading the return, then you know this is somewhere you are probably going to be revisiting at some point in the near future. Whether or not you can really afford to do that is another matter, of course, but it’s something that you will think about if you really fall in love with a destination. Of course, it’s important to distinguish this from just not wanting to go back home and to work!

You’re Telling Everyone

Some of the biggest clues might be those that persist after you have returned home with your travel staple, hardside luggage. If, for instance, you find that you just can’t stop talking about the place in question, then you - and probably everyone around you - will know full well that this is a place you are going to love forever. It’s great to find such a place - it means that you have somewhere in the world that you can think of as your home away from home, and that is an incredible thing for anyone to have.

Must Have Tests For Your Health

Image by kalhh from Pixabay 

There are certain milestones you will reach where you are sent for medical tests. However, despite this, it is important to take care of your own health and make sure that you know when you need a test or when you think you should go for a check-up. Don't put these things off either, many problems, if caught early enough can be treated, some can be reversed, or they can be stopped from getting any worse. 

Your Weight

While it's important not to get obsessed with weighing yourself and relying too much on what the scales say, it is also important to know where 'you're at weight-wise. You might have been happily going along about your life and not realize that your weight has crept up to an unhealthy amount. As you get older, it is easier to gain weight, so you need to watch it carefully and fight back with healthier eating and exercise. Being overweight puts you at high risk for developing a number of diseases.

Your Hearing

Having a hearing test should be part of your annual physical examination every three to five years. Hearing loss often occurs gradually so it can be difficult to recognize when you have it which is why it is important to have checks to make sure that you can catch any issues before they get too bad. Click here to find out more about how testing is conducted. 

Your Blood Pressure

If you have high blood pressure and it goes untreated, it can be a danger to your heart, your heart, your brain, your eyes, and your kidneys. It can easily creep up on your, so stay on top of it and get it tested. 

Your Cholesterol 

Do you know if you have high cholesterol? How would you know? 'It's important to know, so get it tested because controlling your cholesterol can add years to your life.

Your Blood Sugar

If diabetes is left untreated, then it can destroy your health, it can cause heart disease, kidney failure, and blindness. So, don't let it. Get a fasting blood sugar test at least once every three years and take control of diabetes early.

Your Skin

Your skin is something you need to take really good care of and not just so that it looks and feels good. Always look after your skin and while doing that, look at it, study it, and check for any unusual spots or moles. Make sure you ask your doctor to check your skin for you as well. 

Your Eyes

Make sure to get your eyes examined regularly to make sure that you are not suffering from anything undetected or that your eyesight isn't deteriorating. Again, this is something that can happen gradually, so it's important to keep one step ahead and make sure you detect any issues early. 

Keep an eye on your health, you're in control of it, and sometimes it just has to take priority over other things. 

Designing FOR Kids, Not AT Kids

Photo © Kirill_grekov - Dreamstime.com

Children are unique.  They may look like small adults, but they behave quite differently.  The great W.C. Fields was once quoted as saying “Never work with children or animals.  They are … completely unpredictable”.  He of course meant that working with children was difficult for an actor or director, but many designers feel the same way when it comes to designing FOR children (I don’t know how they feel about animals).

Illustration © Blueringmedia - Dreamstime.com

Whether you are building a website, educational materials, game or “marketing” messages aimed at children, it is critical to understand how kids process and use information differently from adults.

Photo © Ipek Morel Diplikaya - Dreamstime.com

Let them Play

Kids learn through play.  They are quick to use the knowledge they have from everyday life, and apply them to the challenge or “game” at hand.  Use interfaces that are intuitive and self-explanatory. The more a child can relate to the task at hand the faster they will develop new skills to accomplish the task.  Give clear directions by making the goals specific and clear.  And of course, make it fun and engaging with multiple levels of “rewards” built in while accomplishing tasks and goals.



Be Clear and Concise

Stating objectives or goals of the exercise to a child can help prevent them from getting confused or discouraged.  And while it is important to give specifics, it is equally as important to not  “lecture” or be too demanding on how they approach the goals.  It is important to encourage kids to explore on their own to tap into their natural curiosity.

Illustration © Evgenii Naumov - Dreamstime.com

Pick the right level

The ability to learn new skills, follow directions, and infer information varies differently within a few years of age for children.  In everyday conversation, you talk differently to a 6 year old than you would to a 9-year-old.  Take into consideration the target age group for your design and the limitations that come at that age.  Talk at the right level – not above or below it.





Engage the senses

Regardless of your users age, information is learned and processed differently depending on how it is delivered.   While there are no hard and fast statistics – every individual learns uniquely – it is generally agreed that people learn more from doing something than they do from simply seeing or hearing something.  Creating designs that encourage interactions will be far more effective that ones that only present information in a static manner.

Photo © Yarruta - Dreamstime.com

Don’t Dictate the Pace

All children are unique.  Using an interface that assumes how fast or how slow a child will learn or process information can lead to discouragement and disengagement.  Set up your design to let the kids set their own pace, giving them options to slow down, speed up, or go back in the process.



And while designing a fun and engaging environment for children can be challenging and rewarding, it is important to always maintain ethical standards when targeting such a vulnerable population.  Keep it fun, keep it safe.



Thanks to Dreamstime.com for the illustrations and images used in this article.

Here's How I Get Paid to Grocery Shop #Ibotta Rebates

Originally posted 8/14/15 and updated every now and then, like today (September 6, 2019) … my new lifetime earnings are $516.48 ($54.00 just in the first 6 days of September and I have a lot more positive financial damage planned!). Just realized I can also get $3 back doing Walmart Grocery Pickup, which I already do, but I'll just do non-rebate items when I do pickup because rebates don't count on pickup items since they want you to experience the product in the store (they told me this).

Ibotta basics: You get cash back (or you can do gift cards instead) in your PayPal account just for buying things you would normally buy or for trying new things. My family LOVES when I use this app because I bring home cool things they love that I don't normally buy, like Kind bars and Lara bars (my teen boys flip over them) and Naked drinks and cool yogurts and all sorts of fun things.

**As of June 18, 2019, I try new things like granola bars and different kinds of cereal and yogurt, but I am also getting rebates on milk, eggs, bananas, ground turkey, butter, veggies and even beer and wine! There are also rebates at places like Petco and Amazon.com, restaurants and liquor stores. I'm so glad I found this app. I'm addicted to it!

I should cash out again today at over $18 because Aron got paid today and so it's GROCERY SHOPPING DAY at my place. Every little bit back helps and this is better than coupons and easier too! Our Hulu and Netflix subscriptions, as well as other school things we might buy on eBay, come out of my PayPal account, so it's nice to pad it a little bit each month!

How does it work? Download the free app in your app store (here's my referral link [ugh, working on getting this fixed so if you get a message that says DISABLED, please contact Ibotta] so we can be on the same team and earn more together!). Find your favorite grocery store. I do WalMart (neighborhood market) and Price Chopper and HyVee for rebates most of the time. Scroll the products (see below) and there are many! I also now go to Dollar General since I've moved and they also have rebates.

I need to update this pictures because it looks different now!

After you do your "task" the rebate unlocks (update: not so many tasks anymore to do). Sometimes you have to scan the product code or enter it by hand if it's on something wonky like chicken and it won't scan. When I am in the checkout line, I hit the green REDEEM button at the bottom on the screen and it brings up my loyalty card and I check out that way. If I don't have a loyalty card for the store, I take a picture of my receipt and they process it.

I have been getting my rebates in my Ibotta account about the time I am done unloading my groceries. Even on weekends. Give it a shot!

Here's my referral link so you can be on my "team" ... this means that when we all get rebates as a team and reach a certain goal, we all get extra money in the form of bonuses! This is my screen from today. I only have to go to the grocery store today to redeem another rebate and, because my team has already hit $10, we all get an extra $1 when I redeem! Just for being a team! I believe you can do this four times a month.

UPDATE: I'm now on Level 4 of the teamwork bonus. I got $1, $2, $3 and am on track to get another $4 by the end of the month just by redeeming a few more rebates because my team has already hit $15 in rebates. The bigger the team, the easier it is to get the bonuses every month. That's an extra $10 each month just for using the app.

Update: I just got back from grocery shopping. Normally I would go to Aldi (zero rebates) and Price Chopper (so-so amount of rebates but higher prices; not as high as HyVee) and I would spend about $400. Today I went to our WalMart Neighborhood Market instead. It was WAY not crowded, for one thing. Also, I only spent $300, filled my cart like crazy (see picture below) and got $18.55 in rebates. I just had to take a picture of my receipt so they could confirm I did all that shopping and I was good to go! Since I can cash out at $10 in Ibotta, I am right now over $20 and that's all going in the PayPal account!

WARNING: Sometimes I do get frustrated with Ibotta because they are SUPER specific on what you get the rebate on. I wanted the $2 rebate on toilet paper but I had to get the MEGA roll of some specific Cottonelle Clean Care product and WalMart did not have it. Same for missing out on a $1 rebate because Tyson doesn't stock regular chicken thighs in the frozen section and the strips did not count.

MORE WAYS TO GET PAID:
MyPoints lets you print coupons and get points, and the points translate into gift cards and cash.

Receipt Hog is an app where you upload your receipts once the shopping is done. That's it. They just want your receipts. And coins add up to cash.

Bottom line: Still loving this app 3 years later!

Helping You To Keep Your Cool In Your Home Now And In The Future

While summer will soon be a distant memory, we shouldn’t be too surprised that September and easily Fall in general tends to give us good weather. Which means there is still hope for wearing those summer clothes and enjoying the great outdoors before getting into full on winter mode. However, whether we have sweltering temperatures this month, or perhaps for next summer, we can all prepare to help our home allow us to keep our cool. For some reason, many of us start to struggle when the temperature begins to rise, so with that in mind, here are some of the ways you can keep your cool. 

Image source - Pixabay - CC0 License 

Utilise those curtains and blinds

Something so simple as shutting the blinds and curtains before the sun rises and leaving them closed all day can make a huge difference to the temperature indoors. When the sun shines through the window, it can really heat up the room and make it feel much hotter than even the outside temperature at times. This simple action can make a big difference to the way a room feels. Another step would be to even shut doors off from rooms you won’t be using, especially the likes of your bedroom, keeping it cool for the evening. 

Keep a stock of frozen treats and cold drinks

The name of the game is to always try and keep yourself cool, so indoors it is worth having a good stock of frozen treats and cold drinks in the fridge. The best drink would always be water in high temperatures. Enabling you to keep your body temperature cool and your body hydrated. 

Invest in decent fans or an air conditioning unit

A decent fan can be a life saver at the hottest point of the year, especially if you need to be working from home, for example. However, if you find that you are spending a good deal of time indoors, perhaps an air conditioning unit might be the best choice to invest in. It may be a great time to book in an AC repair to ensure that your unit is still functioning correctly, ready for any decent weather we may still get or ahead of time for next year.  

Add a tint to the windows

As mentioned earlier, the windows can be a huge problem when it comes to increasing the temperature in a room. However, not all of us can keep the blinds shut all day. So you may want to consider a tint on the windows instead. If this sounds like a good option, then you can find out more here. This option can also help to keep the heat in your home during the winter so you may find it is a worthwhile investment that could work for you all year round. 

Keep the use of electrical items and ovens to a minimum

Finally, using electrical items and ovens can add more heat to your home. So during the day try and keep the use of these items to a minimum to help keep the room temperatures down. 

I hope some of these tips help you keep your cool in your home. Now let’s keep those fingers crossed for a nice September.