Are You Smarterer Than You Think?

First of all let me assure you that I know Smarterer is not a real word in the dictionary. However it is the name of a website that is gaining popularity, and it does prove to test your knowledge.

So what exactly is Smarterer you want to know?

Smarterer is a platform designed to score individuals on their digital, social, and technical skills. You can show to the world your knowledge and prove to just about anyone how smart you really are on such subjects.

There are various tests including but not limited to: 

*Facebook
*Twitter
*Google
*Photoshop
*JavaScript
*PowerPoint
*Excel
*Social MediaYou can also create your own tests for others to take, and in turn you can take others tests they have created.
Now you may be thinking to yourself that this will be a piece of cake, but let me assure you the description doesn’t do it justice. It IS a challenge. You are only given a limited time to answer each question. Kind of like those minute tests they do in schools. But it is exciting, and you can compare scores with friends. I am so surprised at how much I actually DON’T know about a lot of the sites and programs I use on a regular basis. Some of them I would’ve previously considered myself a pro at. Smarterer proved me a tad wrong on this assumption. If you get an answer wrong it highlights in red, and the correct answer highlights green. This makes it easy to learn the right answer and so you will know better next time and learn what you didn't know before. I actually thought it was fun, and if you like to test your knowledge or are just curious to see how much you actually know about a site or program I urge you to give it a try. It’s pretty fun to try and beat the clock, and they give you badges you can show off to friends if you choose to. Show them how smarterer you really are, and invite them to test their knowledge as well. Then compare scores. What fun.
Here are a few of my scores, even though I'm a bit embarrassed to post them. I took some tests on the sites/programs I use frequently, and threw in a Twilight Saga test just for fun since I am fascinated with the series. Here's what I got:

There's a bit of everything on there, and you can even create your own tests, and test your friends knowledge! Interested? Try it out today:
CLICK HERE: http://smarterer.com/



Disclaimer: As a BzzAgent I had the opportunity to try out Smarterer for myself. Opinions expressed are solely my own.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas...

I must admit, when you are a child, Christmas is a magical time. However, as an adult it is a bit stressful! LOL
Still we had lots of fun, and enjoyed being with family. The best gift of all was seeing my boys faces as they lit up with excitement over every little thing.

Our Christmas Eve was a bit stressful. My four year old just would not go to sleep no matter how tired he was because he wanted to see Santa. He actually had Santa a gift, why shouldn't Santa get a gift he said, (a notebook and crayon to keep his naughty and nice list in) wrapped that he wanted to personally give to him, despite me telling him that Santa would only come when he was asleep so as not to reveal all his magical ways. Finally at around 3am he crashed and me and Daddy set to our task of wrapping some last minute things. What gets me about wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve is that every year me and the hubby say we are going to be ahead of the game. We say we will not only have our Christmas shopping done at least a week before Christmas but that we will have the gifts wrapped ahead of time as well. This...NEVER...happens. We are always scrambling on Christmas Eve trying to ready gifts, do last minute preps to the house, and get things prepared for the following morning.
So anyway after getting only a few hours of sleep we all got up and went to church. After all Jesus is who Christmas is about. It was a good sermon, and we sung Happy Birthday to our Christ. When we got back home our boys started opening their gifts. They got a few things for fun, a few things to wear, and a few educational things each. Then while they played and Christmas cartoons played on the TV we set about cooking. In the middle of cooking we played with the boys, spent time with family, and before we knew it everything was done and it was time to eat.
We had a crammed house this year so I have no pictures to take of a nicely set table. We had about 18 in our house and we just sat wherever we could find a place. The only table set was the kids table. haha
At the end of the day when all the wrapping paper had been bagged, and the boxes thrown away, dishes scraped and washed, baths taken, we were all worn out and every one of us promptly fell to sleep.
All in all it was a very good day. I loved being around family and friends since we don't all get to come together very often.

One funny thing on Christmas Eve that happened is this: We laid out the traditional milk and cookies for Santa. However my son decided that Santa didn't really need the cookies after all so he himself ate the cookies. He left Santa two potatoes to take and bake in replace of the cookies. He said after eating everyone else's cookies all night maybe Santa would like to make himself a baked potatoe when he got home! LOL   Kids say the craziest things!

How did you spend your Christmas? Did you have lots of fun? Did your children do anything funny?

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and hope you all have a Happy New Year. Stay tuned for giveaways, some of which I will be launching this week!


Sincerely,
Tori

The Littlest Elf Review

Christopher e. Cricket isn’t like most crickets. He dreams of a place with bright lights, warmth, and festivities. Unlike his cricket friends Christopher admires the humans with their cozy houses and green lawns.
As winter approaches, his cricket friends urge him to start building his den.
Christopher refuses and declares he is going to stay out to see what winter is really all about. Sure that he will freeze they plead with him to reconsider, but he doesn’t relent.
Eventually with winter’s arrival comes snow, and Christopher finds himself colder than he could ever imagine. However a glimpse in a window shows him a beautiful Christmas tree, glowing lights, and carols that warm his heart. The humans sing of Christ and it fills his little heart with warmth. However the cold gets to him, and he falls into a deep sleep.
He awakens on the lap of none other than old St. Nick himself and sees the elves all around the room decorating the tree and frolicking about.
Filled with many questions about Christmas, Christ, and St. Nick he gets all the answers he could ever hope for and then some.
　
My Thoughts:
When I first found this book, judging from the cover, I took this to be a book about an elf. Not only because of the title, but the cover shows four elves decorating for Christmas. I felt this was misleading since the book is about a cricket, so somewhere on the cover should have depicted a cricket. However, that’s why we should never judge a book by it’s cover right? After reading the synopsis of the book we do learn it is indeed about a curious cricket.
I did enjoy the story plot itself, but the story did seem to skip around a lot. However, the story itself still held together well despite that. Even though it did skip around a bit I didn‘t feel lost. I would not recommend this book for young children under the age of seven since there are so little pictures to go along with the story. Out of 30 pages there are only like 6 pictures. The majority of the pages are just words which was a shame because the pictures were very well done. I think this book is better suited for children aged 8+ who are learning to read books by themselves. It would make an excellent starter book for new advanced readers.
The pictures were well drawn and very colorful. It would have been wonderful had there been more colorful pictures to enjoy with every page.
What I loved most about this book was that it combines Christ and St. Nick in a great way. Since both are a huge influence on children it was nice to finally see the two combined. Especially since it touches base on the true meaning of Christmas. Plus something a little extra that touched me is that big hearts can come in small packages. :)

If your interested in this book you can CHECK IT OUT HERE


Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team in exchange for my unbiased review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

Product Details

• Paperback: 30 pages
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc. (August 30, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434912450
• ISBN-13: 978-1434912459

The UGLee Pen Winner Is...

Sponsored by Tomoson.com

CelticLady!

Check your email for my message. If you don't find it in your inbox don't forget to check your spam or trash folder. You have 48 hours to respond before I will have to choose another winner, however since it is the holidays I will wait until 8:00pm EST on Monday 12/26/2011 to hear from you. Congratulations on your win and I hope the UGLee Pen will benefit you as much as it has me. I hope you enjoy, and thank you for entering this giveaway!

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*For those who didn't win this contest stay tuned to my blog for others. I have some great upcoming reviews and giveaways.

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Happy Holidays to everyone, and thanks to all who entered!

Sincerely,

Tori

* I used the random number generator to choose the winner of this giveaway.

The Lucky $50 Gift Card Winner Is:

First I would like to give thanks to the Chicago marketing firm Straight North for hosting this wonderful giveaway for my readers!
And without further ado it's time to announce the winner: (drumroll)

LESLIE!

I will be in contact with you shortly to get the necessary information needed. You will receive an electronic voucher within 2 business days redeemable for a $50 gift card of your choice through icardgiftcard.com. In the meantime you can browse through the options to get an idea of which giftcard you want. Happy Holidays!


*I used a random number generator at random.org to choose the winner of this giveaway.

Again you can follow Straight North on both FACEBOOK and TWITTER.

I thank all the participants who entered into into this wonderful giveaway. Happy Holidays to everyone! Hope you'll visit me again at Mommy's Musings soon. :)

Sincerely,
Tori

Cook'n Recipe Software Review

I have always filed my recipes two different ways:

*On index cards where they reside in my recipe box
*On my favorites tab in my browser under the recipe folder

Admittedly things tend to get a bit disorganized this way. It can be time consuming to flip through/search through for that right recipe. Particularly if I’m in a hurry. But now thanks to the Cook’n Recipe Organizer my life has changed! Cooking has become so much simpler!

It simplifies cooking, and there are so many luxuries that this software has for everyone whom loves cooking.
I love to browse the internet for new recipes to try when I have the time. And my favorite thing about Cook’n is that when I find that right recipe there’s a capture button that completely captures the recipe for you. From the ingredients to the directions it creates a new recipe card instantly for you to file away. You can even create your own cookbook and file your own recipes with ease!
If that isn’t fantastic enough it helps you with meal planning and will adjust the serving size of any recipe. You have a wonderful recipe that serves four, but you want to serve it for a party of twelve? Just type that in and Cook’n will automatically adjust the amount of ingredients.
You can also create a shopping list with ease! You can simply click a recipe and then click “List” and it will automatically compile your ingredients, amounts needed, and even estimate the cost for you.
As a busy mom Cook’n is a blessing to me. It makes meal planning and recipe organizing a breeze and frees up more of my time. I have been glued to the program, and while I am still learning the ropes there is a great intro video that take’s you through everything step by step. I can’t wait to use this software to make my Christmas dinner recipes easier to follow! Especially because we will be tripling our guest list this year!
There are so many wonderful time saving features and perks about this software. Here’s just a few:


*Cook'n features an embedded web browser with advanced recipe search capabilities so no more scouring through tons of search engine results for that perfect recipe
*You can capture internet recipes with one click and save them into your personal cookbooks providing quick and easy access later on.
*Users can scale and e-mail recipes
*You will also soon be able to sync recipes and shopping lists with mobile devices and to a Cloud service
*You can even publish recipes into family cookbooks!
*Plus new customers get a free cookbook with purchase (over 130 to choose from!)Want to learn more about this great recipe software? Plus satisfaction is 200% guaranteed!

Plus here's a little Demo you can watch:

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm & Lots Of Lashes Mascara Review

I have to admit that as a mom of two young boys I don’t much wear make-up anymore. Who has the time? It's all I can do to break in a couple of potty breaks throughout the day. I admire the other momma's I see out and about with their make-up carefully applied and wonder how in the world they do it! But I do still enjoy make-up, and as every woman does I like to feel pretty. Anymore though, when it comes to make-up, I like to keep it basic and simple. Something fast, easy to apply, and that will provide the desirable effect and last! My favorite make-up choices include:



*Eyeliner
*Eyeshadow
*Mascara
*Lip Balm/GlossMy main issue with cosmetics is they often don’t last very long. After a few hours they wear off, and I don’t have time to excuse myself continuously to go re-apply, busy moms are on the go and chores are never ending. So I am always excited to try new products to make my life a little easier while still helping create “that look”.
And…lucky me….I got to try out these two new products!
　

Maybelline Great Lash-Lots Of Lashes

Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm w/SPF 20

　
They are from Maybelline, and they are both amazing!

The mascara lasts all day and then some! It did make me appear to have more lashes, which I loved, and I never once had to re-apply that day. It also didn’t make my lashes feel overly sticky like most mascara’s can sometimes do. My lashes didn’t feel weighed down in the least. The only issue I had with this mascara is that it boasts no clumps, but I did indeed experience clumps. Not very many mind you, mainly upon first application. After that it glided on smoothly. And the brush for this mascara is truly amazing. It’s sort of heart-shaped which surprisingly made a difference as far as the application process. The perks about having this type of brush is due to the various size bristles it allows you to reach ALL your lashes! Total perk huh? I was pretty impressed.

　
The Baby Lips Lip Balm was my favorite of the two. I received five of them in these scents: Peppermint, Quenched, Cherry Me, Fruit Punch, Pink Punch, Pink Kiss.

Now they don’t taste like their scents, it doesn’t really have a taste at all, which if you ask me is better because I’m not wanting to chew my lips off throughout the day.

The Baby Lips Balm made a difference to me after the first application. While it didn't last all day it was easy to reapply when needed. The tube fit nicely in my pants pocket, and it glides on easily. I found myself only using 2-3 applications a day which if you ask me isn’t bad. That's only like every 8 hours or so. It moisturized and re-hydrated my otherwise dry cracked lips! Particularly since it is winter! I always have trouble with my lips getting dry and chapped around this time of year. It has a lip renew formula with SPF 20, and it's clinically proven! Oh my dear heart be still. LOL

My own personal favorites were the peppermint and quenched. I’m not into lipstick colors such as peach or red and the other lip balms I received, when applied, did indeed apply to that color effect. This would be great for all you lipstick lovers out there who want the lip color perk, but also desire smooth, hydrated lips.

I would recommend giving each of these products a try as they are each affordable, can be found almost anywhere (Wal-Mart is usually cheapest on prices, and they sell these products there), and they each reach the desirable effect. In particular I recommend the Baby Lips Lip Balm. I have been recommending that left and right because I am THAT impressed with it. It really is my new favorite, and who knows maybe it will be yours too.
　
Sincerely,
Tori

Disclaimer: As a BzzAgent I have been provided with a complimentary product mentioned above for review purposes. All opinions expressed are HONEST and are mine alone.

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***If you haven't already entered into my $50 dollar gift card giveaway you have only one day left to enter! Click Here for details and/or to ENTER GIVEAWAY***