Archive

August 2019

Browsing

Between running around frantically, picking up groceries, picking up kids from practice, making sure the family is happy, making sure you’re doing your job properly – the list goes on – between all of that and more, every mom needs a few distractions. Some moms like to head out dancing on the weekend, which can be lots of fun and excitement, and other moms just want a quiet corner of the house where they can throw on Entertainment Tonight and relax with a glass of Shiraz.

Somewhere in the middle of the two – somewhere between thrilling excitement and relaxation – is playing the lottery. Playing the lottery can be such an exciting, even therapeutic thing to do, because not only do you get a low-stakes opportunity to win a ton of money, but you also get to dream about what you would do if you hit the big jackpot, which is half of the fun. It’s this kind of whimsical daydreaming about what you and your family would do if, for instance, you won one of the Powerball jackpots worth hundreds of millions of dollars, that makes playing the lottery such a great little diversion.

All you have to do is go online and buy a lottery ticket. Powerball, the lottery mentioned above, is probably the best of the bunch, with huge payouts and lots of chances to win prizes; it has its own unique set of rules, but you can visit Powerball.ca to learn more about how many numbers to pick, and how to choose a chance to multiply your winnings. Once you’ve bought your ticket, you have to devise a way to pick your lottery numbers, which can be super fun. One method that some moms use to choose their numbers is their kids’ (or husbands’) birthdays, taking the day, month and year and putting those numbers on their selection ticket.

From there, all you have to do is wait, and in the meantime, you get to dream about what you’d do if you won the big jackpot. Take Marie Holmes, a single mother of four who won $188 million playing Powerball and used the money to buy a new home for her family, a new home for her mother, secure her children’s future and give to charity. Or take Mavis Wanczyk, a mom from Chicopee, Massachusetts, who won a whopping $758 million and promptly quit her nursing job.

So, what would you do? You could take your family on a trip somewhere exotic, like Fiji, and go snorkeling in the emerald blue waters; or you could buy a dream house in Paris or New York; or you could buy a lifetime’s supply of wine! In fact, you could probably do all of those things! With the kind of jackpots offered by the Powerball lottery, you could set you and your family up for a lifetime of luxury and bliss. But, hey, just dreaming about it is half the fun, and at the end of the day, it’s exciting to buy a ticket and watch the numbers get chosen.

If you want to enjoy popular sports such as gymantics, you would have to visit the gym and pay a hefty amount of money for a few hours. Sometimes, you might not even get the best for your money. This means getting your own technology for sports at home. With airt track tumble mats, you can practice yoga, jumping, and gymantics without the risk of hurting yourself at the comfort of your own home.

The challenge is getting the best quality air track mat. There are many imitated and low-quality air track gymnastics in the market, making it hard and difficult to even know what to look for and where to buy one. If you’re looking to buy the best quality air track for your home gymnastics, consider the following:

  • Air track brand authority

The best brands introduce the best products to the marketplace. With many years of experience in the industry, they make sure every product they make is quality in all form and form to protect their reputation. The use the highest quality materials such as double wall fabric (DWF) and Plato PVC. Apart from that, they have strict quality control,  testing standards and a minimum o 2-year warranty services for each air track gymnastics. A great brand worth talking about is Wholesaleairtrack.

  • High-quality customer service

Customer service is king. Before you buy any air track, take your time to read the reviews about the product and what other customers are saying. You might want to use Google Reviews and social media to find out about the service rating of the manufacturer. What services are available? Are there online services? What about pre-sales and after-sales service for the air track? Find out before placing your order.

  •  Specification and functionality

There are various sizes and types of air track mats. Ask the supplier the various types available and their functionality. Generally, you can get P1, P2 and P3 air mats with heights such as  10 cm, 20 cm and 30 cm. Where do you want to place the air track? You can measure the height and widget of where you intend to use the air track and then select the right size.

  • Easy customer customization

As customers, we sometimes don’t like the one size fit all. We want something that will perfectly fit our unique needs and wants. That means checking with the supplier if they can get you a customized air track with your own size, design and probably logo on it. You might also want a protective bag to protect it when when moving from one location to another.

  • Free convenient, door to door delivery service

You might even get the best air track, but if the cost of delivering it to your home is high, it can be challenging. Look for an air track supplier with a quality product and free delivery service to make it affordable in buying the air track gymnastics for your home. You also want to check whether the supplier ships globally with an accompanying door to door delivery service.

Do you consider yourself somewhat of a wine enthusiast? Do you often have a number of different varieties and types on-hand, ready to pair them with whatever meal or activity you’ve got planned? If that’s the case then it’s also important to think about storage. While you may be vaguely aware of the fact that the way you store wine will affect how good it tastes, did you know that if it’s not stored correctly in the right conditions and temperature, you can actually ruin it?

For those who have started to invest in better quality wine with a higher price tag, it would be a real shame to think of it going to waste simply because it wasn’t stored properly. So with that in mind it’s well worth your time to look into how to properly store your wine.

Keep the Temperature and Humidity Regulated

When choosing a place to store your wine in your home you want to be sure the wine is in an area that doesn’t get below 7 degrees and above 21 degrees. Too hot, or too cold will ruin the flavour and nose of the wine. Usually white wine is stored a little cooler, but it you have white and red that you are keeping together then you can aim for the middle at 12-13 degrees.

You also want to pick an area that has humidity of around 70%, again not allowing it to go too far above or below this mark.

What Position Should the Wine Rest In?

There is often a question as to what position to store the wine in. This depends on whether the wine has a natural cork or not. For those wines that do have a natural cork you want to be sure it is stored flat. The cork must remain moist, so lying flat ensures this.

Light Conditions

Wine should always be stored somewhere that doesn’t get a lot of light, certainly not direct sunlight. It’s also a good idea to pick a spot that doesn’t get a lot of vibration. You want the wine to be able to rest and not be moved around.

When Home Storage Isn’t Enough

If you find that you’re quickly running out of space, or you have a large variety of wine that requires completely different storage conditions, then it may be time to look at storing it in one of the professional wine cellars at a place like Octavian Vaults. Octavian Vaults allow everyday wine enthusiasts and collectors the ability to have their wine stored in a professional facility that is located 100 feet below the hills of Wiltshire. What this means is that your investment will be protected and you won’t have to worry about any of your vintages spoiling and losing their value. This is ideal for those of you that love collecting.

Protect Your Investment and Take the Proper Steps

Taking the time to look into how to properly store your wine means you’ll be protecting your investment and making sure your collection retains its value, and can be enjoyed whenever you like.

First a warning–if you’re my mom, grandma, or just don’t want to read about body waxing? Click out of this post. Now.

Are you gone?

Just don’t want someone to think I’m talking about bikinis when I’m talking about waxing…haha!


Okay, so here’s the deal. I’ve had the Brazilian before and that was awful the first time. It did get less painful each time I went which was awesome. But now that I haven’t been on the waxing wagon for awhile I’m terrified yet again…

So being that Leo will be home in a few weeks and being pregnant makes it impossible to do a lot of things I’ve decided to start getting waxed. Again. Brazilian? No way. I don’t need to take care of everything you know?

Then there’s the regular bikini. But I wanted a little more so I upped it to the French bikini. I haven’t done it yet, but the appointment is set–there’s no going back now! I’m a little nervous…I’ve read it’s more painful when pregnant. I should have scheduled a facial and pedi the same day to relax after getting hair ripped out…

Have you had the French bikini done before? Thoughts? I’m just curious to your thoughts/opinions. And I can’t wait until Leo gets home–I’m thinking he’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Over the years, email marketing has become one of the most popular digital marketing channels with an estimated ROI of $44 to $1. Such returns illustrate an apparent and obvious effectiveness in email marketing. The question is, how do you measure this effectiveness? Most people rely on click-through rates and open rates, but research has shown these parameters are not as dependable.

So, which techniques are reliable? Let’s take a look.

  1. Website Traffic

The website traffic coming from your email marketing campaigns should give you a good idea whether your efforts are bearing fruit or not. You will need to integrate your web analytics and email campaign.

This will help you measure the amount of traffic derived from your unique email campaigns. Through the data collected, you’ll get to see the percentage of website traffic that your emails generate.

  1. Email Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is another reliable metric. Measuring how many people clicked an email link is the conversion rate. Measuring this rate entails identifying the number of people who completed a desirable action, dividing that total with the number of emails sent, and then multiplying the result by 100.

The resulting percentage should be a steadfast illustration of whether email marketing is working or it’s a dud.

  1. The Bounce Rate

Basically, the bounce rate measures the number of inactive visitors to your website. The visitors that leave instantaneously without any activity are said to have “bounced”. In effect, if readers are landing on your page and bouncing immediately, then there’s a problem with your email marketing campaign.

The problem may also be with your landing page content. The content should be properly aligned with your email to get the reader hooked the moment they land on your page.

  1. Spam Complaints

Some people just won’t like your emails or the content. The usefulness or the relevance of the content will be lost to them and as such, they might mark your emails as ‘spam’. The percentage of spam complaints measured against the number of emails sent is indicative of the success derived from your email campaign.

Measuring this rate entails identifying the number of people who marked your email as spam, dividing that number with the number of emails sent, and then multiplying the result by 100. A high spam complaint percentage should act as a warning that a change is needed, and fast.

  1. Measure the ROI

At the end of the day, your Return on Investment (ROI) is the only measure that really counts. In essence, the efficiency of an investment will determine whether your email campaigns are profitable or just a drain on your resources.

Measuring ROI is quite simple, you take the revenue gotten from email campaign-related sales, subtract the money invested in the email campaigns, and then multiply by 100. The resultant amount will be a clear indicator of whether your email marketing strategies are working or not. Stacked against the other determinants, ROI should ultimately be the measure that determines whether you need to stick or twist.

Not all gifted children are alike in their giftedness – that’s one point at the top that bears mentioning. While difficult to generalize, a gifted child is usually recognized as one whose intellectual ability is significantly higher than the average for their age group. But the similarities stop there. One gifted child might be socially awkward and withdrawn, while another might be charismatic and socially fluent. One might excel at sports, while another struggles with basic physical tasks. In short, there are a wide variety of gifted children.

And it’s not always easy being gifted, either. The increased demands for perfectionism can weigh heavily on a child whose only error – they might think – was being more intellectually inclined than others. That’s why if you have been searching for a child psychologist to assess your child for giftedness, it’s good, as well, to talk to them about how to match their curriculum and programming properly to their level of ability. Intellectual curiosity and passion can be a great benefit to a child’s wellbeing, if respected and handled correctly.

Assessment by a psychologist is important when dealing with a gifted child; relying on school evaluation alone can be tricky, as they may under-identify for reasons like lack of attention or organizational skills. With that in mind, here is a list of 5 signs (by no means comprehensive, but a good starting point) for telling if your child might be gifted. If your child meets some or all of these criteria, look into getting a gifted assessment from a psychologist.

Complex Vocabulary

Does your child like to participate in adult conversation, perhaps at your dinner parties where subjects like science or politics come up? Their precociousness might seem precious to everyone at the table, but under their actions and vocabulary lay a deep desire to connect with more complex issues. If their vocabulary and reading comprehension are higher than average, and if their sentence structures more complex, pay attention, as they might be asking for a more challenging curriculum.

Following Long Instructions

The ability to internalize and follow long instructions is an indicator of giftedness. For instance, if you were to ask them, “go in that store, ask where the cereal aisle is, pick the cereal with the lowest calorie count per serving, take it to the checkout, pay for it with this bill and ask for the change back in quarters”… that’s a long, multi-step instruction! The ability to follow that shows great memory and comprehension.

Memory

If your child can easily recall conversations, or things they saw and learned, they could be gifted. Memory underpins a lot of other intellectual capacities, like scientific knowledge and vocabulary.

A Passion For Learning

Does your child have a long concentration span? Do they take evident delight in learning new things and exploring new topics? An unusually robust intellectual curiosity is certainly an indicator of giftedness, and should be followed up with assessment by a psychologist.

Emotional Sensitivity

Finally, emotional sensitivity, often coupled with a strong sense of ethics and a great capacity for empathy, could indicate giftedness. An appreciation of natural beauty and art is also something to look out for, and to nurture.

Again, if you think your child might benefit from the gifted identification, or if you just want to ensure that your child’s curriculum and learning are matching their intellectual needs, visit a psychologist for an assessment.