Mommy Has to Work

How to Find Local Eateries That Cater for Your Dietary Requirements

September 29, 2018 By Anne

Finding a place to eat in your area is as easy as opening Google Maps on your phone and filtering it to just restaurants. However, this won’t show you eateries that can cater to your specific dietary requirements.

Finding places to eat that meet your dietary restrictions can actually be really hard. This is in part due to the fact that many restaurants want to appeal to everyone, so they don’t really think of specific dietary needs. With a little research and effort though, you can find a great local restaurant that meets your dietary needs.

Common Types of Dietary Requirements

There a number of dietary requirements that people adhere to. They eat certain things for a variety of reasons including: moral beliefs, biological responses, or religious teachings.

A few common lifestyles that require restrictive diets include veganism, vegetarianism, pescatarianism. These food requirements are some of the most common ones, so many places do cater to those who adhere to them.

Another reason you might be following a regime with your eating is you have an allergy. Allergies to foods are extremely common. Common foods for which people have allergies
include peanuts, milk, soy, gluten, and shellfish. Restaurants are pretty good about advertising the ingredients in their products and catering to people who have allergies. However, it can be disappointing to get to a restaurant and find out they have nothing for you or you have to drastically customize your order.

Many religious teachings also restrict food that people can eat. These restrictions are probably the hardest for eateries to cater to. Often times, you have to go to a place that is known to practice these religious food requirements and restrictions. Some people who follow Hinduism won’t eat garlic or onion, which are two extremely common additives to recipes. Some Jews keep Kosher, which restricts them from consuming quite a few things. This includes pork, which is a common ingredient in a lot of Italian dishes. Muslims wondering where is there Halal food near me? can’t go to just any restaurant. Regardless of what your reasoning is, you need some way of knowing which local eateries are best at catering to your dietary needs.

Take a Peek at Their Menu Online

The easiest way to see if a place has food you can eat is to go online and check to see if they have a website. If they do, they usually layout what menu items they offer and the ingredients in them.

However, this isn’t always the case. Some only list the name of an item with no further information, and other smaller businesses may not even have a website to visit.

Ask Those Friends Who Have Similar Dietary Restrictions

The chances are good that you have a family member, friend, or even coworker who follows the same diet as you. Use this similarity to your advantage. You can ask them what local places they enjoy eating at and inquire about what they get to eat there.

If you’re traveling to somewhere new, see if anyone you know has been there. Perhaps they can offer you a recommendation on somewhere good to eat that is also considerate of your dietary needs. If you don’t know anyone who’s been to the place your traveling, the hotel staff and locals can serve as friends with recommendations.

Look at Customer Feedback

Customer reviews are a great way to get a feel for what to expect when you visit a restaurant. This feedback is most useful to understand the quality of the food and service a place offers. However, this feedback can sometimes tell you if they have food that you can eat.

If there isn’t feedback, certain websites allow you to ask questions, and people who have visited these eateries can answer your concerns.

Call the Place You’re Interested In

If you’re still unsure whether a place caters to your dietary requirements, then you can just call places you’re interested in. They’ll be able to tell you everything you need to know. While it may seem like no one cares about your dietary requirements, when you do a little research, you’ll find that many places are willing to cater to you.

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

Fun Ways to Get Kids Involved in Household Chores

September 27, 2018 By Anne

Housework is not something that immediately springs to mind as a form of entertainment for children, but finding ways to get them involved in caring for their home is an important part of their development. They need to learn how to carry out all the routine tasks involved with looking after the place they live, ready for when they leave home; and helping out gives them more of an appreciation of the work you do for them. The challenge is to get them engaged with undertaking the household chores and not make it seem like an overly onerous task.

Get them started young

Springing it on them when they are older and suddenly expecting them to take on a share of the housework is not an ideal way to approach the challenge. It’s far better to start them off when they are little, with small, simple tasks that they will enjoy (although they may not be much actual help at this stage!). Getting children involved in chores can teach them responsibility as well as giving them a sense of pride in their work, and working together. This could involve unloading the dishwasher, or washing up occasionally, or tidying their room once a week. Some tasks won’t be appropriate for little ones, and there will be occasions when you need to carry out larger tasks, for example, if you need your carpets steam cleaned. In those cases, it’s best to use a professional service like mytechnicare.com. Any activity you give to your child should be safe and age appropriate, and when they’re very small, you will need to supervise what they’re up to.

Little and often

Obviously, you don’t want to turn your child into an unpaid servant, expected to do several hours of chores every day. Try assigning them a task that will take ten to twenty minutes to complete each day, and use a variety of tasks, so they have a go at everything. You can inject an element of competitiveness if they have siblings, by turning the completion of tasks into a game, for instance, who can match up the most pairs of socks, or whose bedmaking is the neatest. Small tasks every day will be accomplished far more quickly and with less fuss, and they will soon get into the routine. Offering treats is tempting, but it’s better if they learn to carry out their chores willingly rather than by being bribed. What you could do is offer them sensible rewards, so they are motivated to get the jobs done in good time.

You can also use the methods that you employ yourself to get through the household chores, like listening to music or an audiobook to make the activity more appealing. Learning to do housework is an important part of teaching your children responsibility and how to care for themselves, and if you can inject an element of fun into it, you’ll be bringing up some happy, healthy kids.

Anne

Storm Struggles – Moving In Bad Weather

September 27, 2018 By Anne

When the weather turns for the worst, it can make even the smallest task more complicated. Moving is never pleasant but moving in the middle of bad weather is even less fun. Imagine trying to quickly carry packages to an open truck or van hoping that the boxes don’t get wet or you don’t slip while running to the car. Add the flurry of rain or strong winds that can make vision difficult and you can have a pretty rough time getting it all done.

More than just getting yourself moved to the new place, you are tasked with doing so safely. Professional removalists in Melbourne encourage would-be DIY movers to have a moving plan that can be executed quickly, even in the worst weather.

Continue reading to learn how to make moving in bad weather less of a struggle than it has to be.

Secure Important Papers

When dealing with bad weather, the last thing you want is to hunt for valuable papers and documents related to major parts of your life. Any insurance policies, major information related to loans, and other financial documents should be secured in one place. Most insurance companies suggest that policyholders place this type of information in a folder so that if something does come up, these papers can be accessed easily and quickly.

Pack Against The Weather

Moving in the rain or a storm is a whole different experience. For this reason, the priority is to get your furnishings and other belongings into the van or truck without damaging or ruining them. Those moving in bad weather should make sure they have items like mattress pads, industrial covers, large-sized trash bags, and heavy blankets to protect furniture.

With artwork, cover the pieces in large plastic bags to prevent the art from getting wet. These bags can also be used to protect clothes packed in boxes to prevent them from getting wet and then going mildew. Use the large bags, sheets and blankets with larger pieces of furniture to prevent the wood from getting wet as it might warp.

Move Furniture Quickly And Carefully

Before actually moving your belongings to the van, take a few minutes to prepare. While this can take up some time, it makes moving items a lot safer. Place towels down on the entryway to your home to prevent water from settling and to prevent accidents. Furthermore, make sure that everyone involved in carrying items to the truck or van has appropriate footwear to avoid slipping.

When actually moving, set up an assembly line to avoid tracking mud, rain, or snow into the home on the way to get more items. Those moving stuff from the house to the door keep the floor dry and those moving from the door to the truck do not wet the floor when going back and forth. Ultimately, anything that you can do to reduce the risk of an accident will make moving easier.

Plan For Delays

Bad weather makes transport unpredictable and roads can get congested as motorists have to drive more carefully. If you have to return the rental van or truck or you have to pick up the keys at a certain time, make sure to start out early just in case there is a delay on the road. This flexibility makes for an easy move.

Ride Out The Storm

A million issues can arise when you have to move in bad weather. Avoid any mishaps or delays by carefully planning and executing your move. While it might take more time than you had initially allowed for to complete your move, it will be worth the effort if it helps everything to go more smoothly when bad weather puts a damper on moving day.

Anne

Purchase Sprinkles from Pink Zebra to help those affected by Hurricane Florence #PZSTRONG

September 13, 2018 By Marijean

Pink Zebra is donating $1 from each Anniversary Jar purchased to food banks in areas affected by Hurricane Florence. If you haven’t heard of Pink Zebra, they are a home fragrance and decor company. Sprinkles are little tiny “sprinkles” of wax that you can light using a plug in warmer, or a traditional wick. The scents are long lasting, and makes your house smell great. You can also mix them to make your own custom scent.

Check out consultant Laurie Leal’s page to see all of the jars available in this special, and to check out all of the other items.

Marijean

My name is MJ. I have two wonderful children and work part time as well as volunteer at my children's school.

Coworking Comfort – How to Make Yourself Comfortable in a Coworking Space

August 26, 2018 By Anne

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You have found a great coworking space among the many that make up the Hong Kong’s business environment. In usual fashion, your coworking space is fitted out with the latest amenities making work great. The space is one of Hong Kong’s twenty-four-hour offices, which allows you to work at your convenience.

The coworking space offers a variety of events and activities to encourage interaction. The space is almost perfect, except you have not quite connected with those in your environment making the space only about work. However, you just need to allow some time to settle in as one of the major benefits to this office solution is that the space does most of the work of networking for you.

Continue reading below for some useful tips on how you can get comfortable in a coworking space and maximise your experience.

Consider Co-Living While Coworking

One of the hottest trends in Hong Kong is the concept of co-living residences that also have cropped up in response to exceedingly high rents in the city. As professionals shack up with each other, they are beginning to find community. One solution to coworking doldrums is to consider co-living as a way to both reduce costs and work in close proximity to your coworking space.

Look for co-living spaces that are near some of the more popular coworking spaces. Please click on the following link at http://www.servcorp.com.hk/en/coworking/ to see some popular areas where coworking outfits are located around the province. By co-living, you might develop friendships that can extend into your coworking space.

Join The Coworking Community

The benefit of working in a coworking space is in part because of its social benefits. However, one of the best ways to get comfortable in a space is to participate in the community. Prospective renters can get involved in a number of ways.

Make an effort to attend events that are relevant to your business and the goals you want to accomplish. Plus, most coworking spaces in Hong Kong make a concerted effort to get members to participate by holding various social and professional events. coworking professionals can also get involved by volunteering to help out with any community events. You could also volunteer to host events that place a spotlight on the different activities your business engages in, and more specifically, show off your expertise.

But, Start Small

The best way to get comfortable in your workspace involves getting to know the people you work around on a daily basis. Take this opportunity to chat with others about your industry while working at the hot desk. Not that you want to monopolise their time, but these networking opportunities are the foundation of more work, namely the collaboration.

Collaborating with others in the community is probably the culmination of a lot of networking effort, but more than raising your business’s profile, these activities also place you firmly within the coworking social scene. With access to a number of resources through all of this connecting, you can find it easy to get a number of tasks completed quickly. Ultimately, making connections in your immediate workspace can be the start of creating a comfortable workspace.

Stash Creature Comforts

When all else fails, surround yourself with the things that make work comfortable. Bring your favourite coffee cup to work, or create a screensaver that cheers you up. A comfortable seating cushion can make a work chair feel like the most comfortable living room piece. Finally, do not forget to bring music to tune out the often gregarious atmosphere.

Coworking Comfort

Making yourself at home involves getting to know those around you in your immediate environment. Whether this involves moving into a co-living space close to your coworking space, networking and relationship building, or bringing a little bit of home to the office, getting comfortable can happen in many ways. Ultimately, though your comfortable place in the community translates into your most productive place.