Faith and Family Reviews - Product reviews you can trust!

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.

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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.”

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Goofy Boys – Wordless Wednesday

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

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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!

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iPad Nano Giveaway and a Facebook Party

Posted by html404 on February 28, 2012
in Contests, Fun Stuff, Giveaways

Just a reminder that Rosslyn Elliot is having the iPod Nano Giveaway and Facebook Party today!

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends at noon on February 28th. Winner will be announced at Sweeter than Birdsong Author Chat Facebook Party on 2/28. Rosslyn will be chatting with guests, sharing a sneak peek of the next book in the series, hosting a trivia contest, and more! She’ll also be giving away some GREAT prizes: gift certificates, books, season 1 of Downtown Abbey, and a book club prize pack! (Ten copies of the book for your small group or book club AND a LIVE Author Chat for your group with Rosslyn.)

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SodaStream Review

Posted by Brande on February 26, 2012
in Appliances, Eco Friendly Products, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, Shopping

Turn your water into soda with SodaStream! This a great concept, and it is very healthy for the environment!

So, how does it work? Glad you asked. If you purchase a SodaStream online, it will be delivered with a caution of hazardous material papers. It’s the Carbon Dioxide used to Carbonate the soda. Assembly is required, however it is very easy. Then end up looking something like this….Next, you will need to take your reusable carbonating bottle, and fill it with water to the fill line (basically the the entire bottle). Put the cap on and put it in the fridge to chill (cold water holds a better carbonation). Once your bottle of water is chilled, take the cap off and tilt the bottle slightly and screw into the SodaStream system.

Pick out your flavor and read the back of the bottle. Check for the number of “buzzes”, most flavors require 3 “buzzes”. However, the cola required 5 “buzzes”. So, make your appropriate “buzzes” and remove your now carbonated water bottle. It will hiss like opening a soda. Then, according to the directions on the back of the bottle. Fill a cap full of soda and pour it into your carbonated water. My recommendation is to do it over the sink, less messy if you miss the bottle. Put the cap back on the bottle and shake slightly to mix.

Then ENJOY! Pictured is Cranberry/Raspberry flavor.

Flavors and Machines

There are 7 different machines to choose from and on the SodaStream site there’s a tool to help you choose which machine fits you best.

You’ll also need to replace the carbonator at some point (not sure yet how long it will last and I didn’t see in the directions or online how long they last, sorry.) SodaStream does suggest to keep an extra around for when yours runs out.

There’s a flavor for everyone! Choose from over 50 flavors in regular, diet, energy, sparkling naturals, sparkling teas, and MyWater Essence flavors.

Each 16.9 ounce of syrup adds up to about 33 – 12 ounces cans of soda! Let’s do some math. If you purchase a 16.9 ounce bottle of Cola from SodaStream which last look was $4.99 and that bottle produces 33 “cans” of soda. That’s a little over $.15 a “can” of SodaStream soda! Sounds like a great deal for me.

My Review –

I’m in love with the SodaStream! It’s fun and healthy for my whole family. Easy to assemble. Granted the machines can get pricey, but the cost of soda makes up for it in my book. My family and I reviewed 3 different kinds of sodas and 1 tea.

Cola – It’s good, it has a “diet” soda taste to it. I hope I’m explaining that okay. Don’t expect it to taste like the big brand colas in the store. We will be buying that one again.

Cranberry / Raspberry – My daughter wanted the “Pink” soda, so this was our next flavor. We all really enjoyed it. It was refreshing and not overwhelming of either flavor. Yet another on our next shopping list.

Green Tea with Pomegranate Peach – My husband’s next choice. I know you all want an honest opinion. Not my favorite flavor, I think the peach made it really sweet and the pomegranate was overwhelming. Just my opinion, again.

Root Beer – When I first tasted it, I instantly thought Sarsaparilla! We had a special treat the other night of SodaStream Root Beer and vanilla ice cream. It was a hit, and will continue having SodaStream Root Beer Floats as a treat! Definitely on the next shopping list!

The initial start up will cost a little bit, but once you get going. I think you’ll make up the cost from buying those big name sodas.

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.

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Words Spoken True

Posted by html404 on February 25, 2012
in Books, Contests

Set in 1855, Words Spoke True is about a young woman who was raised in her father’s newspaper offices in Louisville, Kentucky. Shunning cultural norm, she was a newspaper woman in a man’s world. However, due to her father’s expectations, political and financial woes he puts her in more danger than anyone ever expected. Amidst the danger and political unrest Adriane Darcy is attracted to an unconventional new editor….her father’s rival newspaper.

I really enjoyed this book. I was an entertaining, suspenseful novel with a romantic twist. It was far from your predictable romance, which you may recall I am weary of. Adriane’s romantic life is filled with more than just controversy and not what you would call a dream romance. More like a nightmare run wild, but that’s all I’m saying!

It was interesting to learn just a little about life inside the newspaper office. What is intriguing is the idea that years ago, printing stories that were true could cost not only subscribers but also your life. It makes me wonder if there is still that risk today? Do reporters focus on truth or a story that will sell? Hmmm…..

Adriane’s father seemed to have lost sight of what was important in his life when he began flirting with a politician. A politician whose wealth and position had “pull” shall we say. I just couldn’t imagine being under the thumb of someone who had the power to control what I said and did. What a scary thought.

I admired Adriane’s grit. She had courage, strength and talent, all of which she used for the good of “her” newspaper. And the loyalty shown to her and her father from their trusted employees is something to envy. Loyalty and honesty among friends are rare gifts not to be taken advantage of, but to be treasured and held like a prized possession.

Two thumbs up for Words Spoke True!

The author of this book, Ann Gabhart, is hosting a fun contest that you can check out here.

“Available February 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

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Blackberry vs iPhone

Posted by html404 on February 26, 2012
in Technology/Electronics

If you remember two months ago I purchased an iPhone when my Blackberry died. I think my children use my iPhone more than I do! Of course, most of the apps on it are geared towards them! I even let my 4 year old buy a couple of apps on his birthday. In some ways I like the iPhone better than my Blackberry, but there are certain things that I miss about my Blackberry.

Things I like about my iPhone

– Ease of use.
– Easy for the children to use, obviously!
– Much easier to get photos off and onto the computer.
– The camera takes better quality photos.
– Watching videos on the iPhone works better than the Blackberry.
– It seems like we can do more things on the iPhone – apps allow us to read books, play games, listen to music, play videos
– Participating in social media seems much easier on the iPhone.

Things I miss about my Blackberry

– Word Mole (I read reviews the app is nothing like the Blackberry version).
– Google Maps (gotta look for an app!)
– The key pad.
– Going online was easier on the Blackberry. I do not use my iPhone nearly as much to go online as I did my Blackberry. I don’t care for Safari as a web browser.
– My password could be a word, not just numbers. My children hacked my iPhone!

Cell phone choices are highly personal and what I like about my phone(s) may be what irk or dissatisfy you. However, if you are shopping for a new cell phone it is always a very good idea to read what other mobile phone reviews say before you plunk down your hard earned cash so you can make an informed decision.

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