Joining the bandwagon...

So. I did it. I joined the Swagbucks bandwagon. :) I'll be honest; I was skeptical. I'm pleasantly happy at the moment, though, with the whole dealio. If you don't know...here's a very basic run-down on how it works...

Swagbucks is "an online portal dedicated to helping you earn digital dollars called 'Swag Bucks,, which can be redeemed for exclusive Swagbucks.com merchandise." Basically, you perform various things online (many of which you already do regularly) and earn "Swagbucks"...once you have a certain number of Swagbucks, you can buy different prizes. It's all very similar to going to Chuck E. Cheese as a kid and earning those little carnival tickets that the different games spit out and then going and cashing those in for a prize at the counter. But. In this case, you don't have to whack any moles on the head and you end up with way cooler prizes, like Amazon giftcards. :) (You can also buy specific items or chances to win specific items but I'm mostly just interested in the Amazon giftcards, lol. In just a couple weeks of trying this out, I've already earned more than $10 in Amazon giftcards!)

To help (because I know it can be confusing), here are some of the simpler ways to earn Swagbucks (the ways I've been doing it thus far):

• Searching the web. You already search the web for various things, right? You probably use Google or Bing or some other search engine. Well, if you use the Swagbucks search engine, randomly during your searches a little banner pops up at the top telling you "Congratulations! You've earned 11 Swagbucks!" The numbers vary, so it's always a fun little surprise. I've had anywhere from 7 to 28 so far, though I know some people occasionally earn up to 50 for a single search. I've heard that you might earn more on Fridays but have no real experience with that. So. No real extra work on your part...just use this engine instead and have the potential to earn points. Thus far, I seem to average winning about three times during the day for roughly 30 Swagbucks and haven't yet had a search where the results didn't get me to what I was looking for.
• Vote in the daily polls. From the Swagbucks site, you can take a daily poll each day and earn a Swagbuck. Admittedly, one Swagbuck isn't a heap, but that's 30ish a month if you just do that first thing in the morning. 
• Go through the No Obligation Special Offers (NOSO). Just like with the daily poll, I start the morning with clicking through this path. Just go to the page and click on the "Start Earning Now" button. Various offers will pop up asking you for your contact information if you're interested. If you are, go ahead and fill those out. If you're not, just scroll to the bottom of each offer and click "Skip" or "See Next Offer" until a little window pops up to give you a code to type in...voila, two more Swagbucks. 
• Like Swagbucks on Facebook. If you're on Facebook, find and like Swagbucks. Every now and again, they'll post a special Swagcode that you can then go enter on your account and earn extra Swagbucks just for paying attention.
• Follow the Swagbucks Blog. Same deal as Facebook. :) (They also have other deals they offer on the blog and such, though I've really not paid that much attention to anything other than the codes.)
• Watch Swagbucks TV. There's a section on the Swagbucks site called Swagbucks TV. It has a heap of little video clips. For every ten that you watch (roughly), you earn 3 more Swagbucks. (There's a Swag Bucks Meter in the top right corner that pops up when you're playing them and grows to 100% in 10% increments.) You can earn up to 75 Swagbucks per day this way. Note, if the clip is a particularly short one, it doesn't appear to count. Also, you can have the volume off/low and just play these while you're doing other stuff online (like formatting this blog post, lol). And, you don't necessarily have to watch the entire clip to earn the credit on the meter so watch the meter and you can click on a new video sooner.
• Complete Special Offers. Swagbucks has a number of special offers available that will earn you varying amounts of Swagbucks. For instance, if you buy $29 or more worth of merchandise from Old Navy online (through their Swagbucks link), you get 225 Swagbucks just for going through this link instead of shopping otherwise. They also have surveys you can try to complete (you have to qualify first) and other sorts of things. I've done a couple of the special offers simply because I was actually going to shop from a site anyhow and this was just like a little bonus.
• Shop & Earn. A number of online stores have listings through Swagbucks. For every dollar you spend at one of them, you earn 2 Swagbucks. Easy. (Yes, there are obviously some restrictions like you can't have paid for the purchase with giftcards and you don't earn Swagbucks for the shipping and tax and such, but basically it's pretty straightforward.) I've done this a couple times (again, just shopping I had intended on doing anyhow and remembered to check Swagbucks to see if they had a shopping link to go through). To be fair, though, I've not seen the Swagbucks credited to my account quite yet (most Swagbucks are credited instantly but the Shop & Earn ones can take longer since the store has to verify it or something). 

Now. Here are some other ways that I've heard are great for earning more Swagbucks but that I don't have any personal experience with as of yet:

• Install the Swagbucks toolbar. This is all explained on the site, I just haven't done that.
• Twitter. Sorry. I don't, so I have no clue, but I get the sense that you can earn more via Twitter somehow. I think it has to do with codes being given out.
• Print and use coupons. I haven't done this yet but probably will. Swagbucks has pages of coupons that you can print out and use on stuff like groceries and services. Once you redeem them, you get 10 Swagbucks for each coupon redeemed.
• Play games. If you're into online games, you can earn Swagbucks by playing their games. I have no experience with this. :)
• Refer friends. Apparently, one of the best ways to earn Swagbucks is to refer your friends and family and get them to sign up through your referral link. When you sign up through my link, I'll get extra points. I'm told that I'll keep getting points whenever you do, too (up to a point)! Score! So. If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks yet and are interested after reading this long post here, lol, won't you pretty please click on my referral link here or on the banner below (yes, I deliberately chose the Star Wars themed banner, lol) and give it a try? Hopefully, we can both earn plenty of Swagbucks and get some sweet prizes!

Thanks! ;) 

(I'm done with my spiel now. Promise. :) Just excited about essentially free Amazon giftcards and thought I'd share, lol. Off to a field trip now...pictures from last week soon!)

Quote #34.

This week:

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well. –Steve Brown

And so, life is a continual process of revising and revisiting in attempts to do it better. ;)

For me, this quote has two parts. First, I have to remember that first step…figuring out whether or not something is worth doing. If it’s not, I need to let it go. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I feel like I’m getting better at this. I’m trying to slow down and ask myself the real purpose behind things and whether a task truly contributes to the life I want. This is particularly challenging for me in our homeschooling, as I’m a collector and love to hoard supplies and curriculums and plans of attack. I’m working, though, at simplifying and demanding that each item on my to do list serves a worthy purpose. (I do this around our home, too…constantly going through and purging things that we don’t need, lol.)

The second part of the quote is making sure that my perfectionist tendencies don’t prevent me from trying new things once I’ve determined that they’re worth pursuing in the first place. Personally, in both running/fitness and homeschooling of late, I’m finding that this works best for me if I purposefully schedule imperfection into my plan. If I remember up front to allow for doing something poorly, then the doing of it doesn’t feel quite so disheartening and I can focus on knowing that it’s just a step along the way. Easier said than done, of course... ;)  

Sharing...

Just a few quick links you might appreciate to start off the week:

The first is just a fun list that made me smile. (I can totally relate to a great number of these!)

The second is an awesome freebie that was so thoughtfully shared. (If you use Story of the World for your history curriculum, this is a fantastic find!)

The third is a cool little app that has our household addicted right now. (Fun and even a bit educational, lol...during the weekend you could totally find Nathan's playing it on his iPad and the three boys each playing it on an iphone...yes, we have three (two that function as phones and one that's retired but still runs apps).)

And, finally, if you're local, did you know that your library card can get you sweet deals at local businesses now? I just found this out and am stoked. :)

Nathan's birthday.

Um, my dear husband had a birthday a week ago. :) (Don't worry. We remembered here, I've just not gotten around to posting about it, lol.) To celebrate, he and I got to (finally) watch the last Harry Potter movie in the theater while our lovely neighbor watched the boys...the boys and I treated him to a helicopter experience (more on that in a minute)...and the boys got him a musical card that had "Kung Fu Fighting" stuck in our heads for days. ;)

Anyhow, here are some pics of his helicopter morning...we drove down to Broomfield and he got some one-on-one instruction from a very nice pilot named Mark and then actually got to pilot the helicopter for a bit!

It was pretty cool, and Nathan says he has a new appreciation for helicopter pilots. :) After that, we grabbed some lunch and let the boys (all four of them, lol) geek out at the Apple store and then REI before getting some ice cream and heading for home. A good day. :)

So. Now you know. :)

(And, yes, I'm aware that the blog's been pretty quiet of late. We've had a house guest and have been having lots of fun...away from the computer. Will be back soon with more...)

Quote #33.

This week's quote:

All I can do is be me, whoever that is. –Bob Dylan

Four years. It’s been four years since that fateful series of phone calls that had me flying home to Washington for my dad’s funeral. In honor of his love of Dylan, I offer up this quote today and can only hope that the “me” I’m being is someone that would make my dad proud.