Top...However Many I Come Up With: iPad Apps

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I mentioned a few weeks ago (here) that I had acquired an iPad 2 (the mention of the "2" is really important). I think after nearly a month's worth of time qualifies me to talk about some super neat apps that I'm obsessed with really enjoying. If you have an iPad or even an iPhone or iPod Touch (because some of these have a version for both), I definitely recommend checking the following out.

1. Houzz. If you're totally into interior design and love virtually house crashing people's pads, this is a wicked cool app. They  have hundreds of thousands of photos of beautifully designed houses in tons of different styles. You're able to go through the photos, which are sorted by room and design style, and make notes on different rooms, and then save them to different folders called ideabooks. So, for example, I have folders for kids' rooms, bathrooms, ideas for our house, etc. You can also check out ideabooks by other designers and other users of the app. Free.
2. Period Tracker. If you're like me and the mysteries of womanhood are still a bit mysterious to you, then this might be the app for you. This little app helps you track when your period is most likely to occur (even if you have a longer or shorter than usual cycle, like me), when you're most fertile, and allows you to quickly and easily document menstrual and even possible early pregnancy symptoms. If you feel a little out of sync with what happens with your body each month (and I am most definitely one of those people), this is a really great and convenient app. Free version.
3. Evernote. This is a wicked neat app, especially if you write or blog, study, or need to take notes. I would have loved this app in my early years of college when I was still taking classes where I needed to memorize facts or take tons of notes. Anyhow, Evernot allows you to take and organize notes, take pertinent pictures to whatever your writing about, and record audio. You can sync all the information with your laptop and your smartphone or tablet. So, imagine you're a college student in a lecture hall. While you're taking notes, you can record the lecture. I would have killed for this app when I was taking biology my freshman year of college. And it's been enormously helpful in getting ideas down for my blog.
4. Touch Pets: Dog. This app is a game and it is my Farmville. You adopt a puppy, you play with it, you earn coins and XP points, they try to get you to buy more coins with real money, and it's completely pointless--but in a fun kind of way.
5. M.A.S.H. Okay, totally not related to the show from way back when (my parents used to force me to watch reruns), but instead, it's a throw-back to that old middle school game where you pick five guys you might want to marry, where you'll live, what car you'll drive, how many kids you'll have, etc. This game could keep me occupied for hours (okay, about 30 minutes, but still, it's really fun).
6. Kindle. I love me some books and I love my Kindle (which is currently on the fritz, boo!), and I love the Kindle app for the iPad. While there is an e-reader app on the iPad, I am an Amazon devotee and I feel like there is a better selection of free e-books for the Kindle, so I downloaded this app. Anything you can do on the Kindle, you can do using the Kindle app on the iPad (except for the games, which stinks). The obvious disadvantage of the iPad vs. the actual Kindle, besides size difference, is screen glare, which does make a difference for those of us who are big beach readers (and is why I'm looking into getting my Kindle fixed A.S.A.P.).
7. My Recipe Book. This is so cool! You can save recipes from your own collection (and I have tons that I've pulled from magazines), recipes you find online, and can search a huge database of recipes already available on the app. Plus, with the iPad 2, you can take pictures of whatever you've made and save it with the recipe. This is one of my favorite apps and is wicked useful!

Swim, Girl, Swim!

Lizzie started taking swim lessons last week and will all through July. She's really enjoying herself and doing such a great job! So far, she's started floating on her back and front with some help, will dunk under the water, and has started kicking her legs using a kick board. We're so proud!

Here are some pictures from today's swim lesson:


Lizzie diving for a ring.



Lizzie dipping her ear in the water through the ring.

Yay! She got it!

Go through the hoop!





Going through the hoop again!



Top Ten: Terribly Awesome Things I'm Currently Unable to Live Without

1. My $15 "sea grass" bag from Wal-Mart. And while I'm currently coveting a $45 one from Cold Stone Creek, this one is doing just fine.
2. Mrs. Meyer's basil scented dish soap and lavendar laundry detergent. OMFG, this stuff makes me want to do the dishes and laundry, a previously impossible task. Love this stuff.
3. Flip-flops. Whatever pair I can find lying around the house. These are on my feet from March until November.
4. My super-sweet key chain--a repurposed shower curtain hook (an idea from Martha Stewart).
5. My camera. I've been taking TONS of photos this summer (something I've had a tough time doing in the past). I don't know what it is, but I've felt a strong need to document EVERYTHING visually this summer.
6. Stuff You Missed In History Class podcasts. These podcasts are AWESOME. Sarah and Deblina, the lovely and ever-informative hosts, are great, pick the best topics, and you feel like you're listening to a couple of your girlfriends talk about, of all things, history (and really neat history, at that). They cover a wide range of topics and have warded many afternoons for boredom.
7. Spray on sunscreen. We've been spending a ton of time outside lately, and with all that lovely sunshine comes sunburns (owie!). So, to head it off, a quick spray of sunscreen is what we use. It's fast, convenient, and works wonderfully.
8. Jergen's Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer. With a family history of skin cancer, I've really never been able to justify tanning, either in a booth or by simply sitting out in the sun with no coverage. However, I'm a blond and I'm pale, so I need something to perk up my skin tone a bit and this product from Jergen's does the trick.
9. Matchbook Magazine. It's a FREE online magazine that is...awesome. It focuses on twenty-something ladies, their interests, their designs, and all that other great stuff. Love it!
10. My roses. They are all over the place at our house and I've started cutting a few every once in a while to bring into the house. The best ever.

Summer Lovin'

As a lot of us know, the past couple of months have been filled with wacky weather. Maybe it was tons (and tons and tons) of snow in early spring, ridiculous amonts of rain, tornadoes, or unseasonably cold temps (or unseasonably warm), either way, things just haven't felt right. Until now.

After weeks (or, at least, what felt like weeks) of lousy, rainy, cloudy, grim weather, we had a full week of almost entirely perfect weather. Warm (even gloriously hot) air, cloudless skies, and beaming sunshine have graced us here in Maine. I spent my afternoons while Lizzie napped lounging in the new house's hammock, inhaling the perfect scent of liliacs (I need to find a perfume that's scented with liliacs), reading a book and eventually falling asleep. I've realized that this is the way I'll likely be able to spend many of my afternoons this summer and I can't say I've much to complain about.

This latest bout of sunshiney weather has infused a new skip in my step. I'm feeling invigerated for the months to come and am looking forward to spending lots of time outdoors. I snapped a few pictures of our outdoor adventures this past week, so I'm goin to share them now.

Cold water! Lizzie playing in the little turtle pool her great-grandparents brought her.

Ah... The good life :-) It'll be nice we get real furniture instead of bright orange folding chairs.

Just one of the many beautiful flowers that have cropped up in our garden.

The pathway down to the saaaaaauna (trust me, not as fancy as it seems) and our firepit.



Lizzie at the park, swinging.



Making Improvements

With school done I've decided I need to find a way to stay on the ball when it comes to my subject area (English). One of my weakest areas is poetry. I like some poetry, but it's not exactly something I'll go and just read. When I was in school and taking literature courses, poetry was frequently and prominently featured (we actually did a whole project on writing, teaching, and reading poetry in my English methods course). So this is where I got a big dose of poetry. But I am horribly underread in that area. I have a smattering of contemporary poets who I've sort of vaguely heard of and read and lots of much less contemporary poets who I am more than familiar with, but don't have an appreciation for them because I has forced to read and interpret their work like a machine crunching numbers. I haven't read poetry with any real pleasure for many, many years, and I'd like to be able to.

So here is one of my (many) summer goals: Read a poem a day. I don't know what I'll do with all this read poetry (if anything--it really just needs to something I do with no real purpose other than to enjoy it), but I feel like it will be good for me on a variety of levels. Poetry, to me, is like exercise. I don't necessarily look forward to doing it, but I'm always glad I did, plus it's good for me. This, along with reading as many books as I possibly can over the summer and along with some professional books I feel better prepared to be in my own classroom (hopefully) next fall.

I think, since I'm writing about this here, I'll at least have some sort of little blurb about what poem I'm reading each day, or maybe a favorite poem for that week? We'll see...we shall see...

Of Chairs and Pillows

Now that school's over (and graduation is only a day away!), I finally have some time to post a couple of pictures that are "domestic" related.

First of all, you might remember from this post that I found two way cool FREE patio chairs on the side of the road. Well, above is one of them (at the time only one had made its home on the new house's front porch, while the other hung out in our kitchen, but now the pair is back together). Their not exactly beautiful, but I kind of liked the style, they were comfortable, and given a cushion and a coat of paint they'll be awesome.

Secondly, in that second picture, you'll notice some pillows. Remember waaaaay back to one of my first posts? All that fabric? Well, I ended up taking a bunch of it and decided to do pillows for our bed in the new house. So, these are the first three pillows. I'm currently working on a minky blanky for Lizzie, but as soon as that's done (probably finish it today or tomorrow night and will post pictures soon after), I'm going to go back the pillows and make a bunch of square ones. Maybe with a button in the center. We'll see.

Anyway, I love the pillows. They're comfy, pretty, and my stitches all came out real nicely (I've probably mentioned this, but I only sew by hand). I'd like to dress them up a bit, but I'm not exactly sure how. I'm a good basic sewer (meaning I can slap some pieces of fabric together), but there isn't much else I can do. 

The next goal, besides finishing the pillows themselves, is finding a white coverlet or duvet to put on our bed. I think the white bed covering with the pops of color from the pillows will look really lovely. Can't wait to post some picture soon!

Vibration

I'm having one of those days where my entire body is vibrating with excitement. There is so much I want to do and so much that is going to happen, and it seems silly to feel so excited about all of it, because a lot of it is pretty mundane, but I can't seem to contain myself and how I feel and I just have this welling of joy and enthusiasm.

It could have something to do with the fact that today is my last day of student teaching.

And tomorrow it's supposed to be about 70 degrees out.

And I don't have anywhere to be. :-)