html404 - Faith and Family Reviews

Archive for html404

Barefoot Executive Review

Posted by html404 on March 5, 2012
in Books, Business

It is always exciting to learn of a person who is doing what you want to do. In my case it’s work-at-home. I know, I know, I am doing that already, but let me finish. Work-at-home and make enough money to obtain financial freedom for our family. Those are my goals and have been during the last four years since my husband was laid off and earning less than he did. Carrie Wilkerson minces no words in her new book, The Barefoot Executive and how she reached her financial goals.

Carrie shares her own journey and the lessons she’s learned in this book. I pretty much marked my copy all up reading it because what she had to say is what I needed to hear/read.

Quotes I like from the book:

“You simply cannot spend your life in fear of losing your job, your health, your life or your wife. I decided that I had to create my own financial reality and job security. Was I afraid of failing? Yes, but I could continue being scared and broke, or I could be afraid and well paid. I chose the latter. At some point, you have to be more afraid of not trying than you are of failing. ~ Carrie Wilkerson”

“Never, never, never give up.”

“To live an extraordinary life, you must resist the ordinary.” ~ Frank Mckinney

“Most miss opportunity because it shows up in overalls and looks a lot like work.” ~ Ben Franklin

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Those quotes were just nibbles, I could add a slew more!

This past weekend I spent time going through Carrie’s websites, videos, blog etc. and I must say I was impressed. Impressed but still skeptical, but only because that is my nature. I am impressed because in some ways she echoes what I have heard in the past but Carrie has more credibility than the others. Carrie has made her money. She’s been on CNN, Forbes, Lifetime.com, Success and others. She’s established herself as an expert and I want to learn from her. There are not too many business books I go ga-ga over but I have gone ga-ga over The Barefoot Executive.

If you have ever been waiting, waiting, waiting for something and then it was all of a sudden right in front of you, wouldn’t you be in relieved? Excited? That’s me. I feel like this book was written specially for me at this time in my life.

You may learn more about Carrie and her book at http://BarefootExecutiveBook.com/

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

{3 comments}

Maple Syrup & Hospitality – Monday Motivation

Posted by html404 on March 5, 2012
in Education, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Saving Money, School, Seasonal Stuff

For once my Monday Motivation is not about cleaning or working, but about showing hospitality and sharing our experience making maple syrup. This week on one of the homeschool yahoo groups someone posted about a maple syrup event that was a great children’s activity especially for homeschoolers, however, it was with a cost. I know how much homeschoolers watch their budgets, after all I am one! So without too much thought I posted inviting interested families to our house for a FREE homeschool activity to see what we have done to make our own maple syrup this year. After I hit send, I was like, “Oh-oh, what have I done?” I wasn’t expecting much response and about four families responded. Therefore, we’ll be getting ready for our guests this week, as I thought hot chocolate and homemade cookies were in order to go along with the children learning about where maple syrup comes from and how it is made.

The catch is we got snow and it is colder so the sap may not be running this week, but we’ll wait and see. Someone said it was going to hit the 50’s by mid-week, which will be perfect and muddy. It should be fun to meet new people and share what the Lord has blessed us with here with our maple trees and space.

This week’s motivation is to share our home and maple syrup adventure with other homeschooling families. Hopefully blessing them by helping them save money on an outing and to show them if we can do it so can they!

The Rest of Our Maple Syrup Story

Obviously we are not done tapping our trees or collecting sap, nevertheless, I thought it was time to show the rest of our maple syrup adventure or what we have recorded so far. We’ve had a few mishaps and bumps in the road and may not get as much sap as we had hoped. 🙁 You see, we have had wind blow our bags off, we have had them fall off due to being too heavy and we have had certain family members dump our maple syrup down the drain thinking it was water in the pot! Yeah, that’s what I said. This happened two different times by two different people and I am like, “Can’t you ask first? We are making syrup!?” Talk about aggravating, to say the least. Both individuals were apologetic and felt bad, but accidents happen…..still, just ask!

Our Tapping Adventure Continues

Drilling.

The younger ones wanted to try too.

The tap is in. We were not very happy about the sap dripping out below the tap, but that was rectified once we got the drill boring the right way!

The bags were put on the little metal hangers and set on the taps.

The day we put them up the sap was running fast. This is what we got within the first couple of hours.

Then by late afternoon, look what we had!

We improvised when we ran out of metal hangers and use a milk jug and wire.

This pot was full of sap and you have to boil it down to almost nothing.

Then we filtered the sap to get dirt and any other unwanted particles out of the syrup.

Baby wanted in on the action too.

Not a lot of syrup and by the time we had bottle it (sorry no picture of that!) we only got a quart out of 3-4 bags of sap. It wasn’t as thick as we would have liked, so it should have been boiled more. We know that for the next batch we do, as we are living and learning as we go along.

{7 comments}

Get Ready for the Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop Event

Posted by html404 on March 4, 2012
in Blog Stuff, Cleaning, Contests, Giveaways, Organization

It’s been fun participating in these blog hop and cash giveaways. We love meeting new people as they drop by or visa versa. So we are going to participate in the Spring Cleaning Giveaway because we all should spring clean or at least entertain the idea, right? 😉 Hope many of you join in on the fun!

I just signed up for the…

Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop!

Come Join Me! {and mention that I referred you!}

Blogger signups are opening up for the Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop! Interested in joining in the fun and increasing your readership? Keep reading below for more details and learn more about how this event will work. This is going to be an excellent opportunity for you to start thinking about that dreaded housekeeping chore: SPRING CLEANING!

WHAT: Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop

HOSTED BY: MamaNYC and Sweeping The USA

WHEN: March 10th @ 12:01 AM (EST) until March 24th @ 11:59PM (EST)

HOW: There is a $5.00 entry fee for this event.

* There will be a GRAND PRIZE for this event! The Rafflecopter form will be hosted on MamaNYC and Sweeping The USA. Prize and sponsor will be announced on March 1, 2012.

* There will be a 2ND PLACE CASH PRIZE for this event! The entry fee for this giveaway hop event will be used (100%) towards the 2nd Place cash prize.

*There is a good chance we will also have a 3RD PLACE PRIZE! Hosts will announce any future developments and/or sponsors as this event unfolds.

REFERRAL PRIZE! Help Sweeping The USA and MamaNYC spread the word and win a prize!
- The blogger with the MOST referral signups will receive a $20.00 PayPal CASH prize! All you need to do is help spread the word about this giveaway!

[CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND SIGNUP!]

{8 comments}

Kid-Safe Chemicals – Must See Video

Posted by html404 on March 3, 2012
in Eco Friendly Products, Education, Health, Health and Nutrition, Safety

This is a must see video if you are even remotely curious or concerned with the amount of chemicals our children are exposed to today. Thanks to the Environmental Working Group (EWG.org). They also have a site that allows you to look up ingredients, which I cannot seem to find that link right now but will add once I find it:

This video is precisely why we are changing the products we use and the foods we eat. It is for the future of our children and future generations. A change must occur. What will you do?

{20 comments}

$1000 Grand Event Cash Giveaway!

Posted by html404 on March 2, 2012
in Blog Stuff, Contests, Giveaways

We all have bills to pay don’t we? And there are some great cash giveaways going on right now in the blogging world. We have had such a great response to the $700 Winter Blast of Cash Giveaway (ends 3/4!) that we are participating in another awesome cash giveaway! The $1000 Grand Event Cash Giveaway! Be sure to spread the word and to come back and enter yourself! Check out the details below:

Cute-Ecakes and Moms with Voices Media are hosting a Grand Event! (Yes- $1000.00)

With a goal of 100 bloggers, we are going to make this thing huge!!

[CLICK HERE FOR THE SIGNUP FORM!]

Details

The Grand Event Cash Giveaway will run from Saturday, March 17th (12:00AM) to Saturday, March 31st (11:59PM).
The Grand Event Grand Prize
The GOAL for this event is a $1000 prize
The actual prize will depend upon participation!
Grand Prize amount will be announced on 2/8!!
BLOGGER REFERRAL CONTEST

For an added incentive to spread the word, we’ve added a blogger prize! There are TONS of ways to enter, and I’ve tried to make it as easy for you as possible!
ONE WINNER- will receive $50 Paypal Cash
ONE WINNER- will participate in the event for FREE!
Find out complete details and sign up HERE!!

{10 comments}

Blogging & Photography

Posted by html404 on March 1, 2012
in Blog Stuff, Photography

There is a unique experience when you visit a blog or website that is visually appealing. I visited one this week when I was working for a new client (Yay! another one! :-)). This client is a professional organizer and I am doing her social media. A part of that is coming up with content and I visited another site, which happened to be a blog and I immediately thought, “Wow, this person is organized. I like the look of her blog.” It wasn’t only visually appealing in her blog design but in her photos. Photos are so important to blogging. Not just any photos either. The better they are the more appealing it is to visit a blog. That is a part of the reason why my oldest daughter and I took a Photography Bootcamp class, plus the fact she is very interested in photography. When the local Amazon deal came up for this class regular $150 down to $35, I knew it was a deal I couldn’t pass up and a way to give my daughter exposure to the nuances of “real” photography.

Driving to the Photography Class

First, we forgot the camera manual. It was a requirement for the class and we found out it was required because if the teacher, a professional wedding photographer, needed to help a student but did not know their camera he could consult the manual. This made us have to turn back home five minutes into our drive, making us late. Second, we would have only been 10 minutes late but could not find the building where his studio was located. I tried calling the photographer, but of course he had already started teaching and was not answering his cell phone. A couple calls to my husband because remember I don’t like Google maps on my iPhone and prefer words over pictures, and he could only help so much being at home. He told me, “It’s gotta be there” and my daughter and I started thinking, “We’ve been scammed!” 15 minutes of driving up and down Plaza and American and we finally found the building, which we drove by multiple times not noticing the number on the sign in front of the parking garage! Talk about an “UGHHHHHH” moment in my life.

Photography Bootcamp

Once inside the huge building, we found the classroom thanks to security. We missed the first half hour of a 3-hour class. Thankfully even though the teacher had covered foundational information we needed to know, such as ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture, we quickly caught up by doing. For that first half hour was all lecture, however, was explained again as we put that information into practice by taking photos. So we began using ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture.

The following photos show the difference in shutter speed and aperture:

ISO 800, F 6.3 Aperture and 1/25 Shutter Speed Settings for my sick boy who was willing to be photographed.

ISO 800, F 14 Aperture and 1/4 Shutter Speed Settings for my sick boy who was willing to be photographed.

ISO

ISO for those of who who do not know photography lingo is for lighting and measures sensitivity of the image sensor. (Definition from Darren Rowse’s Digital Photography School) Had to look that up since I missed it last night!

We also learned that there are different settings for ISO 100, 200, 400, 800 and on upwards of 6400 or 8000 on our camera, which is a Nikon D5100. The office classroom was rather dark so our settings pretty much stayed at 800 for the evening.

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed is simply the speed at which the shutter moves to take a picture. The lowest setting on our camera I believe is 1/200 and the highest 5 on our camera, if I looked it up correctly! Shutter Speed is important when taking photos of things that are in motion.

Aperture

“Aperture (A mode on manual settings) controls how many things are in focus.” (Thanks again to Darren Rowse, whose definition better than our teacher’s who used depth perception.) But I did understand that aperture is mostly used in things that are stationary.

Manual Settings

The three things above are all a part of using the manual settings on a camera, instead of the “Auto” function many of us use. By using manual settings you can get much clearer and more precise photos. There is a RAW setting that can be used which allows you to blow up your photos to poster size without losing the quality of the photo and probably other things that I am forgetting. It’s pretty cool though. Oh and also by using the RAW setting because the photos are very large they will take up a lot more disk space on your memory card than JPEG photos, which compacts the photo automatically, if that is the proper definition. But you get the point. Remember, I’m a beginner not a professional. I don’t even want to call myself an amateur any more after that class!

Post Production

Finally we were taught a bit about post production, Photo Shop and using light room software.

This is just a summary of the things we learned. I, in no way, claim to be an expert after taking this photography class. I share this in my simple terminology just to share my experience. That is all.

We learned a lot and are glad we went. My daughter went to the barn yesterday, do you think she used “Auto”? Nope, she was practicing what she learned and used manual settings. She said it is hard, it takes longer to download and edit photos but the quality of photos are worth it in the end!

I am working on getting some comparison photos done but need my daughter’s help because I have not figured out how to edit RAW photos yet!

{64 comments}

Do You Like Facebook? Then You’ll Probably Like Zurker

Posted by html404 on March 1, 2012
in Business

Social media is a huge part of my life, mostly because it is what I do online. As a blogger being active in the social media world is a must, after all blogging is considered social media too. As a Virtual Assistant, well, what I do is what my clients either do not have time to do or do not know how to do it and for most of them it is social media. But what is social media? It is a place to network with friends, business associate or family over the internet. It is a place to do business, find leads, make referrals or even make sales. Social Media sites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and there are probably more but I am just too tired to think of them right now, as it is nearly midnight. These are big ones for my world.

Yet, I know people who do not use Twitter, much less know what it is. Then new social media sites like Pinterest come along and BOOM another way to connect online. Pinterest is becoming very popular because it is fun, easy to use and different. It is different in that it is all about sharing photos. I began using it a few weeks ago. Quite addictive if I do not limit myself to 15 minutes a day.

Today I learned about another new social media that launched in December of 2011, in beta since January and is now accepting new members. It’s called Zurker. I have only been able to sign up and take a quick look around. It has a clean look to it, doesn’t look as “busy” as Facebook but best of all it is owned by it’s members. There are no sign up fees so being a member costs you nothing but you can own vshares (or equity not stock shares) in it? What’s the catch? Nothing that I know of so why don’t you join me and we can find out together?! What do you have to lose? Again, nothing. That’s what I thought too. If you like Facebook, then you’ll probably like Zurker too.

{2 comments}

Rally For Real Pizza

Posted by html404 on February 29, 2012
in All Natural Products, Food and Treats

There is nothing like the smell of bread dough rising in the kitchen on nights we make homemade pizza. Can’t you just smell it? I can! We use unbleached white flour or wheat, yeast, warm water and salt to make our dough. Occasionally we will put oregano or basil in the dough to give it a different flavor. We will either make deep dish pizza in cast iron frying pans or use the big bar pan from Pampered Chef as our pizza pan. It makes a nice crunchy crust.

It is important to us when we make pizza for our family that we use fresh, all natural ingredients. My older girls and I love to use broccoli, onions, green peppers, red peppers, spinach or even mushrooms on occasion. Really our toppings are whatever we happen to have in the refrigerator when we make it. The rest of the family goes for pineapple, pepperoni or cheese pizza.

As you know, I am trying to lose weight, but I still eat pizza! Our goal is to eat healthier and pizza can be healthy depending upon what you put on it and how thick the crust is and how much you choose to eat. Besides it’s one of our favorite foods!

In the Rally For Real Pizza, Freschetta®frozen pizzas desire isn’t just to taste better, but be better. “Freschetta®frozen pizzas are made with top-quality ingredients and taste-tested recipes, just to make sure your pizza will always deliver Fresch® flavor. “ We have tried Freschetta® and really enjoy their pizzas, therefore can attest to how good they taste. Frozen pizzas are great to have on hand for those busy times when there is no time to make something from scratch.

You can join Freschetta’s Rally for Real Pizza by submitting a photo to the Rally Mosaic on Facebook www.facebook.com/freschettapizza. Each week we will select 100 winners — to each receive 5 Freschetta® Pizzas. On March 30, we will also select 10 winners – who will each receive Freschetta® Pizza for a year!

“Faith and Family Reviews occasionally receives compensation in the form of products for posts. However, the opinions I share are solely my own.”

{13 comments}

Goofy Boys – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on February 29, 2012
in Family Stuff, Wordless Wednesday

{No comments}

Weight Loss Goals with Slique™ Tea – Part 2 of the Slique™ Series

Posted by html404 on February 28, 2012
in All Natural Products, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition

Last week I shared my struggle with weight loss and told you my plan to do the Slique™ Tea Challenge. At first I wasn’t sure what that even meant for me. I just knew I was going to do my best to follow the guidelines set forth within the kit.

Weight Loss and Slique™ Tea

I didn’t do too badly this past week. I didn’t get to weigh myself until Friday so no known weight loss to speak of yet. However, I can tell you on my most successful days I do notice that my appetite is less that it usually is. In last week’s post I shared just a wee bit about the Slique™ Tea and how it tastes good and is suppose to suppress appetite and give you natural energy. I can attest that it does as I have been pulling really late nights for the better part of a week and a half now! Usually I can only go a couple of nights before I crash (getting older you know! HA!). I have had a lot to do.

I wanted to show you that I really am drinking it! Next week I’ll remember to show a cup of tea! 😉

Slique™ Tea contains a blend of Ecuadorian ocotea leaf (natives used it for health and wellness), a member of the cinnamon family, Amazonian caco, proprietary vanilla essential oil, jade oolong tea leaves (antioxidant content), stevia and 100% therapeutic grade Arabian frankincense powder, exclusive to Salah, Oman. No wonder it tastes good!

Slique™ Essence

This week I am going to talk to you about the Slique™ Essence, the second product of five that are a part of the Slique™ Kit. It is very flavorful and I have been putting a drop or two in my water and there is a nice feeling of fullness that comes with drinking a couple glasses of water between meals. Not that I have not been hungry at all, I have been, but neither have I been 100% true to the guidelines. I forget to take my tea 15 minutes before my meals or take my enzymes with my meal etc. Plus I am still nursing my youngest so I am starting out slow as I do not want to do anything to jeopardize my milk supply. I am trying to adapt it to my son’s breastfeeding needs. When I weigh myself Friday, I will know if I have to tweak things depending on my weight loss or lack thereof.

I wanted to show you that my bottle is being used. Notice the yellow stains around the cover on the front and more so in the back, as shown below.

Slique™ Essence is made up of these essential oils: grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, spearmint, and ocotea with stevia extract in a unique blend that supports healthy weight management goals. These ingredients work together to help control hunger, especially when used in conjunction with Slique™ Tea or the Slique™ Kit. Several studies have actually been done on this proprietary blend, which is impressive. More and more studies are being done on essential oils and the health benefits they provide, which makes me very excited! (see PubMed)

Exercise

So far I have not implemented any exercise program, which I need to do. Tune in next week to see how week two goes!

Slique™ Challenge

This is how motivated I am…I actually joined Young Living’s Slique™ Challenge, open to all new and currently active distributors. For the challenge we had to send two photos of ourselves (front and side view), our age, weight and our weight loss goals. I just did this last night. We do have to purchase a Slique™ Kit from now through May and be at the Young Living 2012 convention. At the convention six $5000 prizes will be awarded to those who lost the most weight, if I remember correctly. So every month I will have to send my weight and photos! Yikes! How humbling is that? But you know when I think about a prize like that procrastination kind of flies out the window! Like I said, I have never, ever done anything like this before, here’s to a first of firsts! By blogging to all of you I am holding myself to a higher level of accountability or at least I’d like to think I am. (wry smile!)

There you have it, my progression so far. I survived the first week…or so. Any of you make any steps forward in your weight loss goals? What is the hardest thing you are facing?

Giveaway at Planet Weidknecht!

If you would like to win a box of Slique™ Tea, we are hosting a giveaway over at Planet Weidknecht! Ends 3/4. Thanks for your support!

{20 comments}

« Older Entries Recent Entries »