Just popping in to share some highlights from the blogs I read so you can enjoy them and I can find them again someday.

Have I mentioned that I do nearly 100% of my blog reading on my phone now?  I [heart] my phone!  I use the computer to type blog posts and lengthy emails, and to tag people or share links on Facebook; nearly everything else happens on the phone these days.

A few months ago I had zero interest in a smart phone.  A few days ago, I thought I had left my purse in a shopping cart and was hyperventilating over the thought of losing…my phone.  I guess you could say my perspective has shifted.  I think Megan would understand.

Best blog posts I read this week:

[recreading]

What’s the best and brightest of your regular reads this week?

Inspired by Smockity’s weekly webisodes, I spent a few minutes this week interviewing some of my children on video for you.  Don’t expect much – we’re hardly seasoned professionals, and this was my first attempt.  But Rachael’s cuteness makes up for a multitude of flaws on my own part, so we hope you’ll enjoy her 3 minutes of fame.

Next up: Deanna

No, I’m not talking about the fact that I’ve lost 10 lbs. in the last month, though I’m thoroughly pleased with that. Nobody outside my own household seems to have noticed, but I’m ok with that.  It goes with being big-boned, which also means (I hope) nobody outside my household notices when I gain 10 lbs.  At least that’s what I’ve always told myself.

The new look I want you to notice is our blog!  We have switched themes and are in love with the Genesis framework!  It’s so easy now to change the entire layout, I could do it at a moment’s notice – and change it back again before anybody notices.  I learned a lot while tweaking the code to make things do what I wanted, but there’s still more I want to learn.  I love learning about the things I love, and this learning curve has been a joy!

Maybe you don’t like change, but will it grow on you?

I hope the new layout is easier for you to navigate and find what you are looking for more easily and intuitively.  I hope it looks cleaner and less cluttered.  I hope it improves our SEO (search engine optimization) because while we have lots of friends and regular visitors on our blog, we have relatively  little search engine traffic.

I hope you really, really like it, because we do.

And if you miss the big photo header, so do I.  Don’t worry – I’m pretty sure it’s coming back, hopefully with a new photo that includes all 10 of our children.  We’re still waiting for inspiration to strike.  The last one was hard to come up with, and it’s always hard to part with an old header.

So…what do you think?

Psst – I’ll be kicking off the new look with a giveaway on the Life in a Shoe facebook page.  Watch for it!

photo credit: Suat Eman

Below are some bookmarked posts from my recent reading.  Maybe you’ll enjoy them too.

[recreading]

What’s the best post you have read lately?

Remember when I mentioned that we were in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for the weekend to attend a wedding?  I was a little steamed that events beyond our control required Perry and me to drive up separately, eating up more precious gas.  It was no one’s fault, really, but it wasn’t my idea of the way this trip should go.

As it turned out, the awkward scheduling gave me to extra time before the wedding to visit my friend Smockity!  Wait, you knew that already.  I posted a link to our video on her blog.  You did go see, right?  I didn’t anticipate the enthusiastic response to that video, but now I’m really excited about adding a weekly video (a webisode) to our blog!  I’m going to interview my hubby and children one by one, my mom and any siblings that will cooperate, other friends who blog…can’t wait to start!

Over the weekend we also had 2 wonderful evenings with precious friends who used to worship with us in San Antonio, made even better by the fact that they had family visiting.  Their relatives were just as delightful as they were, so there was just that much more fellowship to go ’round.

What I also didn’t anticipate was that Perry and I would decide that most of the kids and I should stay up here for a couple extra days while he hurried back to work.  I miss my hunney, but this is fun stuff!  The kids and I are back with Smockity tonight, staying up late flippin’ our lips with one of her real-life friends (hi, Melissa!)

Look: it’s after midnight and I’m blogging side by side with my bloggy friend!  I don’t know how she writes thoughtful stuff like this while she talks, but I bow to her superior multitasking skills.

Monday: McDonalds in Colleyville from 12:30-2:00

Tomorrow the kids and I are having lunch with any local friends and readers that we can rustle up!  Will you be there?

On Tuesday we’re having lunch with more friends (location: top secret), then heading down to Waco to visit my brother and his wife and baby.  Yay for baby nephews!  We’ll spend the night with them, and then on to Austin for another lunchtime meet-up!

The Austin event wasn’t my idea and it’s not about us, but I was invited by another blogging friend (Sprittibee) who is coordinating it, and I’m excited about joining in – can’t wait to get the details!

I feel like I’m on a campaign trail, but I don’t know what office I’m running for.  I also feel like there should be a really funny answer to that question, but my brain just isn’t cooperating.  Maybe because it’s 2 AM?  Maybe you have the answer I’m looking for?

Please tell me you understand, because I have a terrible case of ovarian guilt over what I’m going to tell you.

KimC is going to unfriend all her bloggy facebook friends very soon.

She’s doing this for many reasons, but one is that she just can’t find the updates of all her siblings and children and real-life friends among the updates of her bloggy friends. She knows that facebook has filters to accomplish this, but they don’t seem to work on her phone where she does most of her facebooking.

Another reason is that she thinks some updates may be more appropriate for one group or the other, and not both.

Don’t think badly of her.  It’s not that she doesn’t like you.  She loves you, but she is rather shy  and is really hoping that you’ll choose to follow her much more gregarious alter ego, Life in a Shoe.  Life in a Shoe is going to do her best to lure you into following her on Facebook by adding extra photos and updates, and proving how much more cool and fun and friendly she is than KimC.  There may even be giveaways exclusively for Facebook fans!

So all of this is really a request that you will become a fan of Life in a Shoe on facebook very soon, and please don’t be offended if and when the Great Unfriending happens.  I still consider you a friend and a guest, and I’m only asking you to come with me, not to leave.

I’m in the Fort Worth area this week and am sittin’ in the real live Smockity Frocks Living Room blogging on my little netbook.

Don’t be jealous.  Just pop over to her blog and watch the little webisode we did last night.  Smockity tells me webisodes are the New Thing In Blogging, and you know how trendy we mommy bloggers are so I pretended to know what she was talking about and we hopped right on board.

What do you think?  Would you like to see videos like this from Life in a Shoe too?  I could interview my own children and husband for starters.  That would keep us busy a good long while.  Then we could hurry up and have more children so we could interview them. Just kidding.  I wanted to see if you were paying attention.

But really: should I give it a try?  Do you click through to watch videos on blogs?  Would you watch one on our blog?

There are now 3 installments to my series on Monetizing Your Blog over at Frugal Hacks, and roughly that many comments as well.  OK, there’s more than that, but those people are quiet, unlike you all.  Maybe you could pop over and stir things up a little for me?  Tell me what you think so far, or what you’d like to know.  Just say something, for goodness sake!

I have at least 9 articles planned for the series and would love to take suggestions for more.

Part 1: Don’t do it for the money
Part 2: Take your time
Part 3: Get your own domain
Part 4: 13 Great ways to build your traffic

How do you like my title?  It probably sounds pompous, but it’s just my way of saying I’m still enjoying my new toy – er, tool.  Yes, a tool that is helping me manage my time better, as evidenced by the lack of new posts on my blog.  See?  I’m spending much less time on the computer.

What’s that?  You’re wondering how much time I spend on my phone?  Let’s not cloud the issue with facts.  I was just about to tell you some of my favorite phone apps.  If I do a good job of communicating the utter awesomeness of the smartphone, you’ll wonder how I ever tear myself away.

THE BEST ANDROID APPS

Here’s my list of personal favorites so far.  I have far more than this on my phone, but these are the ones I worked hardest to find.  These are the apps I use the most, and in most cases I tried quite a few of the similar ones before settling on what I believe to be the best.  Most are free, sometimes with ads.  Some have a free version and a paid version with no ads or extra features.  Most are also available as iPhone apps.

For me, customization is crucial.  Few apps do exactly what I want without a little tweaking of the settings.

1. Our Groceries – I tried nearly every grocery app on the market, and this is the best as far as I’m concerned.  It combines all the features that other programs charge for and it’s free.  I use this several times each day to keep a running grocery list for each place I shop.  I can create and maintain as many individual lists as I want (even to-do lists!); share them instantly with hubby, even editing his list while he’s in the store (and he’ll never know!);  access and edit my lists from a computer as well; easily move items from one list to another; delete with a single touch as I shop; add items by speaking, typing or choosing from a list of items I’ve bought in the past.  The interface is clean, and the program is free unless the unobtrusive ads bother you.  The ad-free version is $5.  I’m tempted to buy just to support the developer because I like it and use it so much.
2. Weather Bug – My kids drive me nuts asking for constant updates and forecasts when I’m on the computer.  This little app makes the info available much more quickly on my phone than on the computer, including all the details you could ask for.
3. My Bank – No link here because you don’t need to know what bank I use, but there’s a good chance your own bank has an app to make it easy for you to check your balance and transfer funds between accounts.  It’s secure even if your phone is lost or stolen because the app does not store your username or password.  It may be inconvenient to log in every time but it’s safer that way and it’s still far faster than using the computer.
4. CadreBible - I mentioned this one before and I still love it.  In fact, it’s one of only three apps I’ve actually paid for so far.  CadreBible itself is free and comes with several versions of the Bible, but I paid to add the ESV.  There are ESV apps available for free, but none with the look, feel and customization of Cadre.  This is a case where I shelled out the bucks because I wanted to support and encourage the developer.
5. Kaloer Clock – Quite simply the dimmest night clock I could find for free.  Lets me turn the backlight all the way down, lets me turn off the lights for the buttons, and uses dim red numbers for the clock.  Make your look however you want.  This replaced our alarm clock.
6. AlarmDroid – This is a big part of why I’m making better use of my day.  I have alarms going off all day long to remind me to get busy and stay busy on priorities.  A surprising bonus: after a few days I find that I anticipate the alarm, which is strikingly close toremembering the targeted action on my own.  This makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside while simultaneously raising my self esteem.  ;)
7. AppBrain App Market – An app that actually lets your sort and filter all the apps on the android market.  I love being able to sort by rating and filter out the paid apps!  It doesn’t look quite as pretty as the “real” app market, but it’s far more functional when you’re searching for the best free app to make your life easier.
8. Widgetsoid - This is brilliant marketing.  The guy made the best widget app on the market and is giving it away for free.  Create as many widgets as you want for your phone, use them to do anything you want, make them look and act however you want, and do it with ease.  There’s not even an ad in it.  In the description, he offers his paid services as a custom app creator.  If I ever meet someone who needs a custom app, I know who to recommend!
9. PdaNet - This possibility is part of what motivated us to get smartphones.  Believe it or not, switching to smartphones did not increase our total monthly expenses.  This app let us turn off our internet and use our phones to connect our computers to the internet.  In theory you can do that for free, but this makes it easy enough for anyone.  The free version works just fine but limits secure sites.  We paid the $16 one time fee to remove limitations, and now we can go anywhere we want on our computers – if we actually want to set down the phone and use a computer.
10. Go Launcher EX – Made my phone look and act more like an iPhone, which is exactly how I wanted it to look and act.  It lets me customize everything I ever wanted to change, and I cycle through themes with touch of a finger.  If it was possible to love my phone more deeply and passionately, I do  now.
11. Calendar Pad – After trying a million, I found a calendar that I like. It’s not the prettiest one on the market, but it’s free and functional and it does exactly what I want it to do.  A full month widget lets me see what’s on my plate at a glance. I can scroll through months or weeks with the flip of a finger.  Events are easy to add and customize.  I can sync with my google calendar if I want.  This one is a keeper.
12. Google Sky Map – This one is just on the list for “wow” effect.  I downloaded it at a family gathering and my phone was instantly snatched out of my hands to be passed around a large group of awestruck admirers.  It took me a few minutes to figure this out, but it doesn’t work by actually seeing the stars (i.e. the camera is not involved).  You can aim it through buildings, trees, mountains or use it in broad daylight to learn what constellations, planets and other ethereal objects are around you anytime the urge strikes.  Aim downward to see what’s in the Southern sky.  Use night mode to save your night vision.

I feel like a kid with a new video game.  My computer is beginning to feel a little neglected, I’m sure.  My phone can do more and can do it faster.  Every time I find myself wondering if my phone can do X, I look it up and 45 seconds later I have already downloaded the app and started doing it.  I wonder if it can make dinner for me tonight?

The kids and I have been giggling about how we’ll someday look back on the old days, when phones were only for talking and we thought laptop computers were new and cool.  Of course in a few years we’ll probably be looking at this post and giggling about how cool we thought my phone was.

If you have a smartphone, what are some of your favorite apps?  What do you wish your phone could do?

If a person was going to publish a test post using her husband’s old iPod, what tips would you offer?
The kids bought him a new iPod Touch at Christmas to replace the older one he had inherited from his dad – trickledown technology, some call it – and he is letting me try out the old one.
I assume I can keep it if I find myself unfortunately addicted.
And so I ask you, dear friends, for tips. Like, “Run away screaming!”  Would that be a good one?

To clarify, this is actually an old iPhone without phone service, which makes it an iPod Touch.  Can you recommend any apps that a game-hating internet-loving mom might love and/or find useful?

I’ve helped quite a few friends with a variety of blog issues, and it occurred to me that others might have similar needs.  I can’t offer free unlimited help, but I’d like to offer my time and knowledge for a modest price.

Do you have a WordPress blog but need a little help getting it to act or look the way you want?  Maybe we can help.  We’re not talking about designing a custom template for you, but help with the small stuff – stuff you could probably figure out but really don’t have the time or want to expend the brain energy.

• Resizing an image in your sidebar
• Making your sidebar a little wider/narrower
• Moving that thing in your sidebar a hair to the right so your eye will quit twitching every time you read your own blog
• Getting a cool feature like you saw on __’s blog
• Changing the size/color of the headings in your sidebar or your post titles
• Change the background of your blog
• Creating and adding a “grab this code” box
• Adding a banner for your favorite affiliate program [Read more...]

Actually I’m supposed to be working on tomorrow’s 4 Moms post, but I’m procrastinating.  After this but before I start the 4 Moms post, I’ll convince myself that I should assemble 4 orders for Geneva Bible Pages, go to town for groceries, read some more of Bud and Me to PerryBoy and a few other things.  Somebody should make bread.

I think we’ve had our first encounter with a gen-yoo-ine influenza bug.  I’ve always called any vomiting bug “the flu” but this time we had fevers and chills, body aches, severe headaches, and various respiratory complaints.  It’s the first time we’ve all been sick in a very long time, and Parker’s first illness ever.  The poor guy chose this very week to start getting a tooth so we may not know where the flu ends and the teething begins.

We’re all on the mend now, though it’s not entirely over.  The liquid ibuprofen and Niquil are still on the window sill over the kitchen sink.  We’re still hacking up the occasional lung, and it sounds like an old folks’ home: every time someone laughs it’s followed by a coughing fit.  Unfortunately we laugh a lot a lot around here, sickness notwithstanding.  That may the first time I’ve actually used the word notwithstanding. We’re also cranky when we’re sick.  The two don’t always mix well, but c’est la vie.

Case in point: extreme crankiness can be really cute in a 2yo, and it makes us laugh. ["I'm NOT cute," accompanied by malevolent glares. "Pink medicine DOESN'T make me feel better, and my doll is NOT on the floor under my chair."] Laughter makes us hack and sputter like veteran smokers.  Then we collapse into the nearest chair and trade complaints about our aching throats, chests, and abs.  Meanwhile, the cranky 2yo is either laughing at us, crying because we laughed at her, or both.

At any rate, after a month-long break it’s been surprisingly hard to renew my blogging addiction and I feel a little like my sweet husband many years ago when he was still a smoker.  In spite of several half-hearted attempts at quitting, he had been smoking cigarettes for at least 10 years.  As he recovered from a bout of bronchitis, I heard him bemoan the fact that after more than a month he still couldn’t smoke a cigarette without setting off a coughing fit.  I couldn’t help but ask why he didn’t just quit, and he grinned ruefully because he didn’t have a good answer.

Remind me: why do I need to get back to blogging?

Have you heard of Dropbox?  We love it so much we filled our 2 GB of free storage, and we want more!  If you join, you get 2 GB, plus you and I both get an additional 250 MB.  It’s great, easy and did I mention it’s free?

Just install a small, simple program on your computer and then you’ll have a folder called My Dropbox on your computer.  Anything you put in that folder automatically gets saved online.  Any changes you make to anything in your folder will automatically be saved online.  This is very cool on several levels.

1. Share lots of files, photos, etc.  with other computers. If you want another computer to have full access to your dropbox folder, install dropbox on that computer and link it to the same account.  The My Dropbox folder that appears on that computer will have all the same files as yours.  It’s very easy – no technical know-how required.   We like to edit photos on one computer, then save them in dropbox so all our computers will have them.
2. Share particular files with someone else. If you want to give someone access to a single file or photo, you can just send them a link to that one.  They won’t be able to access anything else in your online dropbox folder.  We do this with big files instead of trying to email them.  Much faster for both sending and receiving, and inboxes don’t overflow.
3. Backup your own files. Just put anything important in My Dropbox on your computer and it will be saved online as well.  If you make changes, the updated files will be saved online.
4. Collaborate on a project. We’re always working on articles and books.  We like Google Docs, but it’s a little limited for some purposes.  Instead, we now keep whatever we’re working on in dropbox so that we can work from any computer, and so other members of the family can see how our projects are coming along.

Interested?  Give it a try and tell me how much you love it!

Thank you to everyone who takes time to comment.  I do appreciate receiving comments, but on rare occasions I have to delete a few.  It’s only fair to tell you why and when that might happen.

While we welcome dissenting opinions, these are also the comments most likely to be deleted.  I consider this blog to be my home on the web.   As such we like to keep an open house, but that doesn’t mean that anyone who comes along can stomp inside and behave however they want.  We do our best to keep the atmosphere welcoming to all, but especially to our friends.  We are responsible for the tone and nature of the discussion on our blog and will delete comments if we feel it is necessary.

Your comment may be deleted if:

• We deem it crude, aggressive, slanderous or needlessly offensive to our family, friends, readers, or other commentors.
• You are a known or suspected internet troll, regardless of the nature of your current comment.
• You’ve never had an approved comment on our blog before and your current comment is highly critical.  My friends might get away with this in my living room; strangers will be quietly shown the door.
• Your comment opens a big fat can of worms and I’m simply too busy at the moment to answer it.  I’m sorry, but let’s face it; I can’t leave worms crawling around my living room floor.

If you don’t think any of the above applies, there are 2 more possibilities:

• You’re new around here, and your comment is waiting to be approved.  Please don’t let that discourage or offend you.  Hang around and you’ll be on our list of regulars in no time!
• The spam filter is working overtime today.  Sorry.  Sometimes Fil is overzealous.

I’ve seen this around the web, most notably at my BFF’s blog, and decided it would be fun to do here as well.  I have lots of links that I think are worth visiting regularly, so maybe you’ll find some of them useful as well.

Here’s the deal: just open a new browser window or tab and hit your “a” key to see what site your browser thinks you’re going to visit.  Have you ever seen “The Quiet Man”?  This could be a little like the ole Michelin’s horse wanting to turn in at the tavern.  I’m hoping nothing embarrassing turns up…

A – affiliates.visionforum.com/ – that’s me, checking for new commissions.  Did y’all buy anything from Vision Forum recently through one of my links?

B – bloglines.com – that’s me checking on you.

C – christcovenantsa.org – our church’s website.  Not sure when I visited last.  Er – the site, not the church.

D – docs.google.com – hubby and I use this to create and share documents between our computers.  Free and very handy, especially when we’re working on something together during lunch break, 52 miles apart.

E – ebay.  Who, me?  Really, I was hoping to see e-sword.net pop up.  In fact, I was just there this morning.  My computer is trying to make me look bad!  I was framed!

F – facebook – The ultimate time-warp.  I try to stay away, but apparently I don’t always succeed.

G – google – OK, I admit it.  Swagbucks doesn’t always do the trick for us.  But I still love the free gift cards from Swagbucks.

H – handstowar.wordpress.com/.  The blogging brother of One Thing (who writes the best birth stories ever), one of my (very occasional) guilty pleasures.  He’s a little vulgar now and then, wickedly funny, and madly in love with his wife.  You can’t fault a guy for that.

I – inashoe.com – Hey, that’s me!  I read my blog?

J – Just search results for John 7:24.  Now there’s a conversation starter.  Judge not, huh?

K – www.kbb.com – Kelly Blue Book, to find average prices for used cars.  Never buy a car without checking this first.

L – Lowes.com – Checking prices and availability on supplies for yet another household project.  The fun, it never ends.

M – my.statcounter.com – That’s me checking on you again, wondering how of you there are and where you came from.

N – nextdaypets.com/ – An amazing way to sell registered pups.  We’ll never pay for another local classified ad again!

O – ourmeanwhileranch.wordpress.com/ – my BFF’s blog.  We talk nearly every day on google talk and read each other’s blogs.  That’s what real friendship is about.

P – paypal – Just checking my balance.  I wasn’t going to buy anything, I promise.  But did you know you can get 2 years of Reader’s Digest for just $15 on the Reader’s Digest official site?  I’m just sayin’…

Q – http://www.quickonlinetips.com/ – one of the blogging blogs I keep up with.  I clicked through from Bloglines to share one of his articles in an upcoming Frugal Hacks post.

R – redbox.com/ – Did you know you can log in online to find and even reserve the movie you want?  Much easier than running all over town or just browsing one machine and hoping they’ll have something you actually want to see.

S – statcounter.com/ – Yes, that’s me checking on you again.  And you thought you were the stalker.

T – tinyurl.com/ – I use this occasionally to share insanely long links on Facebook.

U – used.addall.com/ – My favorite way to buy books!  Searches Amazon, Half.com, and nearly every other online bookseller you ever heard of, plus the ones you never heard of.  Sort by price to find the very best price in one easy search.

V – visionforum.com/ – Probably checking on the daily specials, or creating affiliate links for A, above.

W – weather.com/ – Can you imagine living back in the old days, when you had to look out the window to check the weather?  Barbaric.

X – nothing at all.  zip. zilch. nada.

Y – http://yedda.com/ – Huh?  Oh, a link I hit while researching an article.  I was trying to find what percentage of their income the average household spends on food.  Us?  About 25%, but that figure includes non-edibles too.  The rest of America?  12-14%.  How about you?

Z – zennioptical.com/ – Order online prescription eyeglasses starting at $8 plus flat $5 shipping on any order.  I’m not kidding.  This is where Perry gets his glasses.  I can’t tell you how much we’ve saved in the last 6 months, because then you would know how many pairs of glasses Perry has lost and he wouldn’t want me to tell you that.  Oh, hi hunney!

You didn’t know it, but I’ve been publishing test posts all afternoon.  That’s because none of them showed up.  Which is why I was testing.  But I’ve heard that the 9th time is a charm, or something like that.  Here’s hoping.

On the bright side, I’ll have learned something new when I finally figure out the problem.   Until then, I’m learning patience and self-control, because what I’d really like to do is throw the computer over the deck rail and panic about my broken blog.