When you have a book, you always have a friend!

My grandfather said, "Read as many good books as you possibly can.  When you have a book, you always have a friend." And I’m always happier when I have a friend!

I love that as long as I have my phone, I have a book!

Here are the different ways I read on my phone:

1. Kindle for Android. I’m a semi-frugal person, so I love to read free books, and there are plenty out there, like this: http://forthemommas.com/free-stuff/free-kindle-book-o-little-town
2. OverDrive. eBooks and Audio books from my local library.
3. Aldiko. You can load all sorts of books on this app. And ePub files can be read on here.
4. Deseret Book. A huge array of LDS and other great books!
5. Google Reader. All the blogs I follow.
6. Evernote. When I’m online and run across an article, by using Google News, StumbleUpon, etc., I send it to Evernote, so I can read it when I’m not at my computer.

I wasn’t a reader growing up, but now I love it! Sometimes I have to resist the urge to check Google+, Facebook, Email, etc., but I try to always make myself read first.

Places where I read:

1. In bed. So much easier than holding a book and having a book light.
2. In the lazy boy, while nursing my baby.
3. In the car.
4. And everywhere in between!

Best Voicemail Setup Ever

I used to use T-mobile’s voicemail, and it worked fine. But since I LOVE new technology, I decided to try using Google Voice as my main voicemail. Think I’ll ever go back to normal voicemail?! NEVER!

When I used to get a voicemail, I would listen to it, and most likely forget about it afterwards. Now I get the voicemail as an email, transcribed and all! And I can listen to it on my PC too. It helps me to have the voicemail in my email Inbox, so I remember to call them back!

It’s hard to describe all the amazing features it holds. Please go check it out yourself! It’s SUPER easy to make the switch.

I love you Google Voice!

I LOVE the new Gmail theme!

My eyes love the new Gmail Preview theme. Isn’t it so appealing?

I have two to-do lists. One is my Gmail inbox. The other I keep in Evernote. Any email I have in my inbox, means I need to do something with it still. Since I look at my inbox many times a day, including on my Android phone, I love the new Preview theme!

To change your theme, go to: https://mail.google.com/mail/#settings/themes, and choose Preview or Preview (Dense).

Enjoy your new theme! And if you’re not using Gmail, I recommend making the switch!

Fine Tune Your Google Search

Do you love Google as much as I do? Maybe not, but I bet you still love it. If not, I’m confused.

I use Google to search for everything. If I have a question, do I call someone? Nope, I just ask Google. Some of you would be be appalled at that, but it’s the way I work.

Sometimes I can’t find exactly what I’m looking for without using Google Operands. I love the OR and AND features. And the “-“ feature as well. It omits something from my search.

I also use this when searching on Craigslist. I use the “-“ a lot. For example, I’m looking for a baby swing to buy. I would type under the baby section “swing –swingset”. I don’t want the swingsets to show up in my search. Love that feature!

Enjoying searching even more now!

Send & Archive, Simultaneously, In Gmail

Instead of having to click “Send” and then later clicking “Archive”, just turn on “Send & Archive” from the Labs tab under Settings.

This feature makes it much easier to keep your Inbox clean!

Thanks to the Gmail Blog for this article.

How My Family Stays Connected

Google Calendar!

My husband has a Google Calendar and so do I. Then we “share” them out to each other. His calendar is green, mine is purple, and my son’s is orange.

My son (16-months-old) doesn’t have his own calendar yet. Google Calendar lets you add other calendars under your own. I have my son’s, a menu, my pregnancy, and a family birthday calendars under my own account.

It’s so easy to setup and so easy to use! If my husband adds something to his calendar, I easily see it. He doesn’t even need to say that he is working later one night, because he knows that goes on the calendar

I have an Android phone (which is a Google phone), so all my calendars are on there. So easy to stay on top of things! When I’m at my OB, and I’m making the next appt, I just easily put it on my phone, and I’m done!

You don’t have to have an Android to use this on your phone though. I know Blackberrys and other phones can do it as well!

As you can see below, we aren’t super busy, but busy enough for me I don’t put things on the calendar like naps, work, etc.

I highly recommend that everyone have some sort of system like this. If you need help, just let me know!

3 Ways To Make Blog Reading Quick And Easy!

Since I think it’s important to read my blog every time I post something new, I figured this would be a great first post!

It makes me sad when people say they don’t have time to blog or read blogs. I love feeling closer to people by reading their blogs. I love that my family blog is our journal. I love the knowledge I gain from reading computer programming, homemaking, crafts, frugality, cooking and many other blogs.

I can’t spend all day reading blogs, so here are the top 3 ways that makes it easy for me to read blogs.

Google Reader

Google Reader is my preferred method to be notified of new posts and to read them. I use the Google Reader widget on my iGoogle homepage, which makes it easy to be notified every time a blog is updated. I like this introduction video to it.

Email

• BlogSend Address

If I have a friend that has a private blog, I ask them to add me to their email list. I do not have time to be going to private blogs just to see if they have posted anything new.

In Blogger there is place to enter up to 10 email addresses for people to receive a new post in their email inbox. My sisters and I use this method to have each post we write sent to my mom in an email.

If you have more than 10 contacts (grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc.) that would like to receive a copy of a new post, use a Google Group. Here is an explanation on how to do that: http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Mailing-List-for-Blogger. I use this method.

• FeedMyInbox

My mom uses FeedMyInbox. She understands how her email works, and that’s about all. For the few other blogs she reads besides mine and my sisters, she loves using FeedMyInbox.

Windows Live Mail

If you are a Hotmail user, using Windows Live Mail works great. I actually use this to read all of my couponing/frugality blogs. For example, I can save a post about Walgreens deals for that week, and look at it again when I’m ready to use it.

Read this post for instructions on how to set this up.

Conclusion

Now you can enjoy blog reading without feeling like you are wasting time!