The Knowlton Nest: Natural House - MOPPY Review and Giveaway!

The Knowlton Nest: Natural House - MOPPY Review and Giveaway!: I honestly don't like mopping because it seems like my floor never gets clean.  I'm also not sure about the products that I usually use a...

Book review: Lone Star Trail

Lone Star Trail is the first of six books in the 'Texas Trails - A Morgan Family Series' written by 3 different authors (Darlene Franklin, Vickie McDonough, and Susan Page Davis).  

Book Summary provided by publisher: The six-book series about four generations of the Morgan family living, fighting, and thriving amidst a turbulent Texas history spanning from 1845 to 1896 begins with Lone Star Trail.  Although a series, each book can be read on its own.

Judson "Jud" Morgan's father died for Texas' freedom during the war for independence. So when the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas (the Verein) attempts to colonize a New Germany in his country, he takes a stand against them.

After Wande Fleischers' fiancé marries someone else, the young fraulein determines to make a new life for herself in Texas. With the help of Jud's sister Marion, Wande learns English and becomes a trusted friend to the entire Morgan family.

As much as Jud dislikes the immigrant invasion, he can't help admiring Wande's character. She is sweet and cheerful as she serves the Lord and all those around her. Can the rancher put aside his prejudice to forge a new future?  Through Jud and Wande, we learn the powerful lessons of forgiveness and reconciliation among a diverse community of believers.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Being of German descent, I found the references to German customs very interesting.  I can easily side with both Jud for wanting the 'foreigners' to learn the ways/language of their new land and with Wande for trying to blend her family traditions with those she is learning from her new friend Marion.  There is a great inner battle for both characters even though the reader can easily see what is coming for them.  There is also the blossoming love with Marion and her beau Tom, or so she thinks. This book has romance and mystery that blend together with strong morals for a great story!  I can't wait to read more about these wonderfully different and similar families as they blossom in the heart of Texas.

I received this book from Moody Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

Book giveaway from The Knowlton Nest

The Knowlton Nest: The Five Love Languages for Children by Gary Chapm...: The 5 Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell is a book that describes the 5 love languages (words of affirmation, ph...

Apple Valley Natural Soaps giveaway!

Who wouldn't like winning neat products like natural soaps? I know I would! Come and enter the giveaway at Apple Valley Natural Soaps for a chance to win 2 $50 gift certificates! The giveaway is April 2-6 a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Knowlton Nest: A Perfect Pet for Peyton Book Review and Giveaway!...

This would be a great book for my youngest son... even my oldest (at 21) could probably benefit from it!  Looks really cute!

The Knowlton Nest: A Perfect Pet for Peyton Book Review and Giveaway!...: A Perfect Pet for Peyton: A 5 Love Languages Discovery Book is an adorable book explaining the 5 different love languages just for kids! ...

The Knowlton Nest: Simple Green Review/Giveaway

Another great giveaway from The Knowlton Nest - enter before the end date of 3/25/12

The Knowlton Nest: Simple Green Review/Giveaway: Simple Green is probably one of my favorite products because it is multi-purpose.  Whatever I need, this product can do the job.  I have use...

Who/what is Smarterer?

Check out http://smarterer.com for fun and sometimes challenging tests to see if you really know as much about digital and technical skills. This is one of my BzzAgent campaigns so we get an additional category of BzzAgent knowledge questions in addition.  Some info from their site...

About Smarterer
 We created Smarterer to provide people a simple, fun, and authentic way to show what they know. Smarterer is a platform designed to score individuals on any and every digital, social, and technical skill under the sun. Using crowdsourced test design and a scoring mechanism similar to the one developed to rank chess masters, in just 10 questions and 60 seconds we can give you a valid score. 

Why Smarterer?
 People are rapidly accumulating a new set of digital and technical skills that make them valuable and effective in today's workforce, yet no one is measuring or validating these skills. As consumers we need an easy way to enhance our reputation collateral. As employers, we hire based on work history and personality metrics, but are missing the key criteria that prove people's ability to use the tools needed to be successful. 

Crowdsourced Questions
 The sum of all the brains at Smarterer can't hold a candle to the collective intelligence the crowd. Given the speed of change, we believe that a static test can't provide an accurate measure of your skill. We collect questions from our user community, which allows us to provide rapidly-evolving tests that get smarter every day.

 Powerful, Flexible, and Really Cool Scoring Mechanism
 Smarterer's scoring algorithm is based on the Glicko rating system, which is used for chess, NCAA trees, and a variety of gaming platforms. Our adaptation creates a real-time competition between each question and each test-taker. Our algorithm is continuously learning from user interactions and getting smarter about how to rank each question and each user. We think it's cool, and when we showed it to Mark Glickman, the creator of the Glicko score, he thought so too. He's now an advisor, which is also pretty cool.

 As of now, I am "Proficient" in Facebook with a score of 516 and 'Familiar' in BzzAgent with a score of 305. Guess I need to work on those to become master of them!

 Have fun!