Addicting and Fun: Play Swag IQ and Earn Real Money

Have you played SwagIQ? It’s a live trivia game show where you test your knowledge to win cash prizes. It’s free to play, just download the app to get started. To earn money, you must be a member of SwagBucks. It’s also free to sign up, and there are plenty of ways to get free gifts cards by using the site! Just click on my Swagbucks referral link to get started!

Here’s a little more about Swag IQ:

Monday through Thursday they broadcast a live game. Simply tune-in at the appointed time by launching the SwagIQ app and log-in with your Swagbucks account credentials. The game show host will ask a series of multiple-choice trivia questions. You’ll have 10 seconds to answer each one.

Get it right; you get SB (points you can use to get gift cards) and move on. Answer them all correctly and you can win a grand prize! If more than one player wins, the winners split the grand prize.

Get it wrong; still play along. Some questions have an SB award attached to them. If you answer those questions correctly, you get SB, even if you’re out of the running for the big money. And, if you’re in a groove but miss a question, you’ll have the option to rejoin a game by redeeming a few SB.

Have fun!

Home: Stress Less When Things Go Wrong

So picture this… or maybe you don’t have to. You’re relaxing in your home and suddenly all of the
lights go out. What do you do? Panic. Or picture this. You’re enjoying your nice warm shower,
singing away, and suddenly it runs ice cold. What do you do? Probably scream louder than you
ever have done before and dart out of the way, then proceed to panic. We always seem to stress
when things go wrong in our homes, but the things we’re stressing most about are often the
things that are the easiest to fix. Yes, we get that when something does go wrong, it’s easy to feel
like everything else in your house is going to come down with it. Or what’s worse, it’s easy enough
to think that it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to fix, when in fact it might even be something
simple that you can fix. Which is why we’re going to encourage you to take some time to relax, and
have a read of the tips we’ve got below for you for coping with stress in your home.

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A Simple Solution To Everything

There really is a solution to everything that goes wrong with your home. Yes, some might be a little
more expensive than others, but there is usually a simple solution to all of your problems. Some
need more promptly fixing than others, because the happiness of your day to day life literally
revolves around it. For example, if you have an air con unit that does both hot and cold, and you
live for the cool breeze that it gives you in the summer, and the warm air it gives you in the winter,
then last thing you want to be doing is leaving it to rot when it breaks! The best ac service will
have it fixed in no time, but if you want to keep things simple, you have to leave it up to the
professionals. It’s easy to think that because it’s your home, that you’re going to be able to fix
everything that goes wrong with it. Well, this is not always the case!

Keeping Your Home In Tip Top Shape

Sometimes just simply maintaining your home is going to stop the stress of something going
wrong. The stress of something going wrong could be because you just haven’t looked after your
home properly. A common example of this can be in the bathroom. If you don’t properly ventilate
the room, and let all of that moisture just soak into the wall, it’s only a matter of time before you
have to deal with mould! Simple solutions really could save you a lot of trouble!!

Making The Most Of Your Home

Finally, we think it’s really important that you stress less about your home. If you’re always
spending so much time worrying about issues, or worrying about issues that might be to come,
how are you ever going to get to the point where you’re actually enjoying your home!

How To Instantly Improve Your Life

There may come a time in your life when you stop and look around and notice you’re not as happy as you once were or think you could be. This is a normal experience or revelation to have and one you should certainly address and give more attention to.

The upside to having these feelings is that there are practical ways for how you can quickly improve your life and get to a better place. Avoid worrying so much about what others are up to or think of you and take this time to concentrate on you and your goals for once.

Identify & Follow Your Passion

Instantly improve your life by securing a job you love and hobbies you actually enjoy doing. Take time to figure out what is and follow your passion so you can be happy once and for all. Your job is a big part of your life, and if you’re working in a dead-end position, you may quickly feel fairly miserable about your life and situation in general. Life is too short to be spending your time in places and at companies that don’t appreciate you or where your skills aren’t being put to good use. This is one of the most important areas you should invest your time and energy into because it’s what takes up the majority of your schedule. 

Fit in Daily Exercise

If there’s one habit that’s worth adopting that will immediately improve your life it’s to fit in daily exercise. Having a more active lifestyle in general versus being sedentary all the time will help you to have more energy in general. Working out lifts your mood, helps you tone your physique and allows you to reduce your stress in a healthy manner.

It’s worth scheduling in activities that get your heart rate up and will help you to burn more calories on a regular basis. Below is a list of options you might want to consider as you get started:

·         Walking

·         Running

·         Playing sports

·         Practicing yoga

·         Weight lifting

Give it a try and in no time at all you’ll likely feel like a new person and wonder why you didn’t start exercising earlier on in your life. Another idea is to find a workout buddy so you can hold each other accountable and make working out more of a social activity as well.

Make Time for Fun & Laughter

It’s important to remember how having fun and laughing is good for your health and well-being. For instance, take a vacation, spend time with your spouse or play a game such as Kalah with your kids. These types of experiences will allow you to loosen up a bit and enjoy life and the people around you more. There’s a time and a place to be serious but it’s also necessary you make it a priority to laugh and have fun when it’s appropriate as well. This is a healthy way to spend your free moments and will allow you to refresh and rejuvenate so you feel better when tackling your other commitments.

Keep A Journal & To-Do Lists

You can also instantly improve your life by getting better about keeping a journal to record down your emotions. It’s a great tool for putting down all that’s floating around in your head on paper and being able to work through certain feelings that are top of mind for you. You’ll quickly be able to recognize what issues in your life are bothering you the most so you can address them right away and feel better fast.

Also, you’ll feel more organized and less chaotic when you create to-do lists for all that you’re responsible for completing. Trying to remember every single item that you’re in charge of in your head will likely cause you a lot of frustration and you’ll forget to attend to important matters. For example, make a list of work tasks, your weekly grocery store purchases and upcoming obligations that will require your time.

Slow Down

Rushing around and not taking the time to enjoy life and what it is you’re doing at the time is likely keeping you from feeling happy. Instantly improve your life by practicing mindfulness and living in the moment and appreciating all that surrounds you as it unfolds. Pay attention to what you’re doing and avoid multi-tasking and you’ll discover you’re more productive and feel less frantic as you take care of your daily responsibilities. Your days will seem that much more special when you’re fully present and attentive to what’s in front of you. Slow down and you’ll likely sleep better at night as well because your mind won’t be racing all around. It’s also a wise idea to practice gratitude, which will help you to appreciate all the little miracles happening in your life.

Nurture Your Relationships

It’s important to connect with others on a consistent basis and nurture your relationships with others. You can instantly improve your life by spending more quality time with the people who you love and adore. Be there for those who you care about the most and open up and let them in to what’s happening in your days. Do this by picking up the phone, asking someone to coffee or lunch and simply having more availability in your schedule for others. Life won’t feel so cumbersome or demanding when you’re bonding and participating in enjoyable activities with others.   

Conclusion

Your life isn’t going to get better all on its own and it will take an extra effort on your part if you want to experience brighter days ahead. These tips are going to help you instantly improve your situation and find more peace and happiness overall. Give them a try and see what areas have the greatest impact and do more of that going forward. Put taking care of yourself and your own needs at the top of your priority list and you’ll find that you aren’t so stressed out and anxious.

Throw a Super Simple (and Cheap) #Birthday Party for Your Kid!!!

It seems like kids’ birthday parties are getting out of hand these days, with parents trying to top each other for the Most Elaborate Party award! Why break the bank for an off-site birthday party for your child when you can do it yourself on the cheap?  This year, consider giving your child the Ultimate Birthday Party, one where he can play, have fun and just be a kid.  The added bonus is that you get to keep your sanity and money.  Follow these steps (some of which go against everything you’ve ever read about birthday parties!), and you’ll have a stress-free celebration everyone can enjoy.

1. Either call or E-vite.com family and friends to save the cost of invitations and stamps. Invite them to your home or maybe even to a park shelter that you reserve in advance. Set the party time for 1 p.m. so guests know lunch won’t be served (think of the cost plus set-up and clean-up!). Make the pick-up time clear; a couple of hours is usually plenty of time for a good shindig.

2. The night before the party, bake the cake (from a box, of course!) or cupcakes. Feel free to get fancy on the cake if you have that talent; otherwise, most kids are just thrilled to have sugar in any form. You could even bake a special small cake (maybe heart-shaped!) just for the Birthday Kid and let him decorate it himself.

3. On party day, don’t worry about setting up a craft or handing out costly goodie bags for the kids. Most parents these days are into de-cluttering and find their kids have way too much junk. Craft and goodie bag paraphernalia will likely just get thrown away later. Parents will appreciate not having to take home anything except for their child, and won’t feel guilty because you spent more on a goodie bag than they did on your child’s gift.

4. To kill some time, consider a piñata (filled with something quickly disposed of like candy or fruit snacks instead of junky toys). Otherwise, kids don’t need every minute of their day scheduled for them … running wild is what they are best at, especially at a birthday party!

5. Assign one adult party-goer to take pictures and one to take video of all the fun (including the opening of gifts and blowing out of candles) so you can concentrate on celebrating with your child and keeping track of the other kids.

6. Make the decorations simple, especially for younger kids who probably don’t watch enough television to even have a favorite cartoon character. Colored paper plates work great, as do regular plastic forks (recycle those forks if you’re going green!). Rather than buy expensive Mylar balloons, blow up some store-bought colored balloons yourself and tape them to walls and doorways or leave them loose on the floor.

7. Have a basic order of events in place to keep things moving along.  For instance, you could have the kids play until everyone has arrived, then open gifts, sing “Happy Birthday” and eat cake and ice cream, which would lead into the piñata, and end with more play until the party’s over.

8. Make sure your child thanks each gift-giver as she opens her gifts. If your child is running around as everyone leaves and can’t thank everyone a second time, go ahead and do it for her. This way, you don’t have to send thank you notes after the party, which just takes more time and money and is yet another thing that ends up in the garbage.

9. Speaking of gifts, are you tired of your kid receiving so many gifts at a birthday party that you can’t even find a place to put them all? Melissa, mom of one, said she (or was this her kids’ idea?) asked guests (when her kids were little?) to bring canned goods for Harvesters instead of gifts. What a way to teach the Birthday Boy or Girl, as well as his or her guests, about gratitude and going green!

10. If you have older kids (ah, tweens!), Jen Wood, mom of 2, thinks pizza and a movie at home, followed by a sleepover, is a great bet.

SIDEBAR

Party Shopping List:

Cake mix

Frosting

Sprinkles and/or decorating gel

Candles and matches

Ice cream

Juice boxes or pouches

Napkins

Forks

Plates

Balloons

Pinata and stuff to fill it with

Rope to string up the piñata

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How to Master Typing

In typing class, many people struggle to keep their eyes on the drill book. The temptation to glance down at the keys is enormous. Who hasn’t typed like a parrot plays the piano in the first days of typing class? Believe it or not, this one-finger malady plagues typing students today, so is there a quick solution to the problem?

Look Away

The real trick is to start typing without being visually guided by letters or numbers. It forces a student to learn the keys from memory. This skill is developed with motor learning. In typing, that means repeated instances of hitting the keys without looking. It commits to memory where a letter or number lay in the keyboard. That way, the students can benefit from the best typing software in the market. All these programs want to see the student use all ten fingers on the keyboard.

Type with Ten Fingers

By learning or relearning the right placement of fingers on the keyboard, a student is taking the first step toward the successful act of typing. It can happen fast too. Some programs assert that they can get you typing 50 words per minute or more in one day! Unfortunately, if you cheat and glance at the keyboard, your progress will slow.

Pays Dividends

By memorizing the location of the letter and numbers on the keyboard, the student can quickly progress from finger placement to touch typing. They will begin to enjoy the superior technology that many keyboards present to us every day. Everybody benefits from the shortcuts found in software applications, and touch typing makes the process of using shortcuts faster. With that level of keyboard skill mastered, the student will get the most out of today’s computer applications.

The motor learning required in typing class will make a difference because without ever looking at your keyboard, you will continue to type for minutes or even hours whether you’re typing from a source or from your imagination. It's the first step toward keyboard competency.