My Bucket List

Hey guys!

We all have a bucket list. It might be a fully decorated, meticulously thought-out list on your wall, or a random few things in your head. Whatever form your ‘to-do someday’ list takes, it’s nice to have, and to know what you’d like to accomplish. Right now I am going to share my bucket list with you, and maybe inspire you to document your own!

1. Learn to snowboard and skateboard.
2. Also surfing would be cool.
3. Go to Vidcon. *bonus: get photos with youtubers*
4. Go to Minecon.
5. Go ziplining.
6. Hawaii?!
7. Play paintball!
8. Become a youtuber?!?
9. Skydive?!?!
10. Go to Uganda
11. Finish learning Italian
12. Work for Google?!
13. Go to Times Square
14. Visit New York (again…)

I think that’s it! Tell me what you want to do in the comments below; I would love to know!

See you next week...

-Lily

Duolingo!

Hey Guys!

Today I am doing a review on Duolingo!

Duolingo is a fun, free website you can use to learn a new language.

You start out by choosing a language to learn. For English speakers there is a large variety of languages to choose from, including Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Irish. For any other language you can only choose from 1-5 languages, approximately.

Once you choose a language, you can start with the basics, or (if you know the language a little already) you can take a placement test.

If you choose “basics”, this is the screen that will greet you. Each circle, or segment, is comprised of several different lessons, in this case there is 4 lessons. You cannot do a lesson before you complete the previous one. You can also “test out” of the lessons to skip a few, if you think you know enough.

This is the “learning screen”. The bar at the top is your progress. You have to get enough questions right to fill up the bar, but every time you get a question wrong the blue recedes. It can take anywhere from 5 to 20 questions to complete a segment.

The first time you see a word it will appear orange, like you see on this screen. After that it will appear black. If you see dots underneath a word, it means you can roll over it with your cursor to see the meaning.

Proper grammar is not required when filling in the answer. :)

When you complete the lesson, you will see a progress meter (not shown) and any added percentage. These end cards vary depending on what you achieved.

You can learn as many languages as you want at one time. You can switch languages by rolling over the flag next to you profile picture.

The flame is your “streak”, or how many days you have completed your daily goal.

The little ruby is a “lingot”, or Duolingo’s currency. You earn lingots by completing a segment and you can use them buy extra segments for your language, and you can gift them to other people. The bell is the notification center.

Duolingo is a very well done website that makes is fun to learn a new language. It’s very easy to add friends and be competitive with other people. My cousin and I enjoy competing against each other to see who has the most xp (earned by completing lessons, among other ways).

There are several way to interact with other people learning languages, including commenting on their feed, following them, and asking questions you might have about your language or the website itself.

There is an app to Duolingo, and I applaud them on how well made it is. Instead of trying to force every thing on the computer version onto the app, they changed the lessons slightly to accommodate the different interface on a smartphone.

There are many other settings you can changes, as well as other options for practicing your language more that I just wasn’t able to go over. I definitely recommend Duolingo to anyone who is looking to learn a new language. The website is well-made and easy to use, plus it makes it feel like you are playing a game instead of just trying to learn something.

In short: 10/10 would learn languages again. Definitely try it out for yourself!

See you next week!

-Lily

Polyvore Bedrooms

Hey Guys!

Have any of you ever used Polyvore? It’s a photo collage site, but with clothes or room accessories. Pretty neat. I spend a bit of time there now and then so I have accumulated a few different collages. As a result of that I have decided to do a Polyvore post: bedroom edition! Take a look:

I hope you liked! Which was your favorite? My favorite is the 4th one...but I want to see what you think!

See you next week!

-Lily

5 tips on Productivity

Hey Guys!

School is hard. Work, in general, is hard. Even if you love it, it is still challenging to get into the swing of things sometimes. So here are my 5 tips on being productive:

1. Figure out where you work best. My family does school at the living room table (we are homeschooled) but I recently found out that it is really hard for me to work there. Don’t ask why, I have no idea. What I do know is that I work best at a desk that is pretty separated from the rest of the family, and thus, separated from most distractions.

Now you might not work best at a desk, and that’s ok. Experiment! Try sitting on your bed, the couch, the dinner table, or even out at the library (depending on where you live). Figure out where you work best.

2. Decide how you work best. I like to do all my work as soon as I get up, without any breaks. But you might work better with a ten minute break every hour, or maybe later in the day after you’ve woken up a bit more and had your coffee. :) Again, toy around with different strategies.

3. Don’t procrastinate. If you are putting something off just so you can have fun or simply not do it now, it’s procrastinating. And if you do this, you are going to end up with a massive pile of work to do instead of hanging out with friends, or sitting down with an awesome book, or playing that video game you really love.

And that’s going to be worse than just doing the work.

4. Be strict now. If you are really slipping and letting the work go undone, then you need to be more strict now while you develop the habit of working. Once you do get into the habit, you can loosen up a bit.

For example: while you are trying to get the work done, turn off your text notifications, keep your door closed, and do not allow yourself to wander through Pinterest when you are supposed to do your work. When you get into the habit, you can keep your door open, and keep your phone on, though I still recommend not going onto Pinterest (or any other website) while you work.

5. Remember: it will get easier! This is like a backwards video game: the first levels are the hardest, and as you keep playing it gets easier. The more you stick to your schedule or plan, the more natural it will be for you to work. The more you do something hard, the easier it will become. Like working out. :D

And those are my 5 tips for productivity. If something here helped you, be sure to let me now in the comment section. And don’t forget to follow me for an email every time I post!

See you next week!

-Lily

Pigs in a blanket!

Hey Guys!

So on New Year’s Eve we always have pigs in a blanket...mostly because every year I ask for them! But this is the first year we can’t do normal bread pigs in a blanket so I went digging for a healthy recipe. And I found one!

Let’s get started!

You will need:

37 Lit’l Smokies or quartered hot dogs
8 oz. Cheddar Cheese (~2 cups)
3/4 cup Almond Flour
1 tbsp. Psyllium Husk Powder
1.5 oz. Cream Cheese (~3 tbsp.)
1 large Egg
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Pepper

Measure out your ingredients and set out a cookie sheet with a silicone mat on top. This is important because you want to be quick later on.

Now melt the cheese in 20-40 second intervals until it is bubbly on the edges and almost like a liquid. Add the other ingredients and mix well.

Thanks to lil sis for taking the photo!

Use a fork to mix while the cheese cools down, but when you can pick it up without getting burned you are gonna want to knead it with your hands.

When it looks like this you’re golden! Now drop this on the cookie sheet and begin spreading it out.

Try and make it a rectangle shape. Now refrigerate it for 15 mins and preheat the oven to 400°F.

Now turn it over onto a cutting board and cut it! I like to do triangles by making trapezoids like this, then cutting those in half. But you can do strips or squares, whatever you like!

Now roll them up and place them back on the cookie sheet! You only see about 20 here because I ran out of smokies but you can make a few more depending on how you cut the dough. Strips will probably yield more than triangles.

Now bake for about 10 mins or until they begin to brown. You don’t want to cook these too fast because then the tips will burn and the rest of it won’t be cooked.

And that’s it! These taste really amazing, especially since they are healthy! If you try these be sure to let me know!

Also, if you liked this recipe, check out this recipe for healthy pizza: Cooky's Creations. This is a recipe I’ve been wanting to share with you for some time, but I recently deleted the photos without saving them, which is extremely frustrating. So while I get everything back under control, you can make pizza and pigs in a blanket for your next party!

Happy New Year!!

-Lily

P.s. Don’t forget to follow me for an email every time I post!