Pepper Scraps

Just in Time for School: Top Reading & Writing Android Apps

This post could possibly be part two of Apps for Bloggers, but I know not everyone is a blogger. So I wanted to share these great reading and writing apps.

As a mom I had pretty much given up on reading a book that wasn’t filled with pictures. That was until I got my Android Phone! Now that I have my book in my purse at all times I can catch up on my reading any time I have a few minutes!

Kindle

If you don’t have kindle on your phone and tab you need to download it right now! I have tried some of the other readers but Kindle really is the best. Plus you can get hundreds of free books. I have a huge list of books to read and I think I only have about 4 or 5 books I’ve actually bought. Make sure and check out the promotional section every so often and find more free books.

Bible (YouVersion)

This has been the best Bible app I have ever found and I love it. I had found YouVersion before I found this app. I loved the idea of the reading plans, but jumping online everytime to do my reading was just not going to happen. Then I stumbled upon this app and I was in love.

I use the reading plans for when I’m not doing a Bible study at church to do my daily readings. It is nice that they have a “catch me up” feature because sometimes my boys beat me on waking up in the morning and I miss my reading time.

If you want to read your favorite version while away from a wifi connection you will want to download it in the settings.

Aldiko Book Reader

One thing I recommend, especially if you are a blogger is a PDF reader.

This is a little bit of a cheat. I don’t use this app, I use one that looks very similar. The one I use came with my tab, LumiRead, but doesn’t seem to be available on the market.

I did play around with this reader and it is very similar to the one I use. One reason I like both of these better than the Adobe PDF Reader is that it actually saves the spot you stopped reading. Adobe PDF Reader is hard to use with a eBook more than a few pages long. Either you have to read the book all the way through or memorize the page that you stopped on to continue.

You do have to go into your folders to upload your PDFs, mine were in my download folder. So you may need a little tech knowledge to set it up.

Google Docs

I’m a huge Google fan and have been using Google Docs for years. I love being able to access my documents anywhere. Now with the Google Docs app I can literally access my documents anywhere!

You can use Google Docs for Word Documents, Spreadsheets, Forms, Presentations and more! You can use the app to create documents or read them. This is great as a blogger if you want to write your posts in Google Docs and then copy paste them into your blog when you are done.

Also if you are doing a collaborative project then Google Docs is the tool for you. You can share your document with anyone or even make it public if you wish. You can edit it the same time as others or individually make changes.

Note Everything

I have mentioned how I love ColorNote, but when I need to write long notes I open up Note Everything. You can also take voice notes or paint a note! What’s nice is this app works well with google docs so if you need to transfer something you can just export it to google docs.

I’ve used Note Everything for taking notes at conferences, at church, while reading an eBook and for writing blog posts when I wasn’t near a wifi connection.

Conclusion

Do you read or write on your phone or tablet? Do you find the convenience of having your book or writing with at all times helpful?

A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day: J is for Jelly Fish

Of course I had to be all about ice cream, especially with summer finally choosing to grace us with it’s presence in Oregon. But summer and playing outside is distracting us from our crafts, so we only did half of them this week. That’s okay we still had fun!

If you are new to A Craft a Day

A Craft a Day gives you five activities that you can enjoy with your kids, one for each day of the week. Most of these activities work well for preschoolers, but you may be able to adapt them for your toddler.

You can learn more about the basics of a Craft a Day Here.

I will post the crafts on Saturdays so you can use the weekend to get any supplies that you may need. We are making our way through the alphabet this year so if you missed a letter you can find it here.

The Crafts:

J is for Jiggly Jellyfish – Jello, marshmallows, and carrot make up this adorable snack. I actually just used the premade cups, cut the jello in half to make them a little flatter and decorated. The boys loved these! Oh and if you use the premade jello clean the cups and save them for the Flying Jellyfish craft!

Jellyfish Dogs – I know a second food related craft, but can you blame me these are so cool! You just stick the speghetti into the hot dogs and cook following the pasta directions! Easy peasy & tons of fun!

Flying Jellyfish – Another craft that I totally failed at. I recommend putting the hole in the cup before having Zane decorate them. When I tried putting the hole in the glue didn’t hold to the plastic so kind of destroyed the craft. And I was so excited because cutting the yarn would have been a really good scissors practicing activity.
Jellyfish Invasion – We didn’t make it to this craft, for one rare week I didn’t have tons of produce bags this week. Oh well, I still think these turn out really neat!
Coffee Filter Jellyfish – Both boys had fun creating their jellyfish and this is such an easy laid back craft. This is also a great toddler craft!

Supplies: jello cups, carrots, mini marshmallow, mini chocolate chips, hot dogs, spaghetti, Snack Cups, glitter paint, yarn, grocery bag, tissue paper, scissors, curling ribbon or yarn, tissue paper, coffee filters, pens, spray bottle with water, google eyes, glue dots or glue

Are you Supermom?

Now I’m not supermom and I don’t expect you to be either. We don’t always get to each activity, sometimes life is just too busy. Hopefully you may try one or two of these activities with me and my kids! You don’t have to do every single one. You don’t have to be doing preschool with your child. I just hope to give you a resource for some great fun with your kids!

Be Featured

If you do any of these crafts and happen to take a picture or write a blog post about it please make sure and share your link in the comments. Also don’t forget to link the original crafter! I may feature you and your blog on the following weeks post!

Crafts

Coffee Filter Jellyfish

I saw a great Jellyfish activity on No time for Flashcards. When I saw it I knew I could instantly use an old coffee filter craft trick to make it even more fun!

Step 1: Color the coffee filter. Notice the mat underneath, the pens will bleed through. You can do it on newspaper also.

Step 2: Spray the coffee filter with water. Watch the colors transform!

Step 3: Let your coffee filter dry in the sun!

Step 4: Fold your filter in half

Step 5: Cut out strips from tissue paper. Zaney really wanted red.

Step 6: Use glue or my favorite glue dots to paste the tissue paper strips to the back of the Jellyfish.

Step 7: Place two googly eyes on Jellyfish and enjoy!

This is such an easy craft you can do it with your toddlers. As you can see Zarek joined us in this activity and he loved it! If your little one is not good with scissors just cut the strips of tissue paper beforehand.

Hope you enjoyed this craft.

Bloggers you Should be Following Blogging

Bloggers you Should be Following: Amy Lynn Andrews

I’m excited about this new series on Pepper Scraps. I want to share with you some of my favorite bloggers. Over the years of blogging I have met some amazing people and have found some outstanding blogs to read.

If you are striving to learn more about blogging then I want to share with you some of the best bloggers to start following. I recommend not only following their blogs but also check out their other networking profiles.

Amy Lynn Andrews

I’ve been reading Amy’s blog Blogging with Amy for over a year now. I love her voice and the simple way she explains everything.

This is a great place to visit if you want to learn more about blogging and the technical side of blogging.

One of the features I love on her site, especially for beginners, is that she shares a lot of her tips on video. If you are a visual person you will want to make sure and subscribe to her blog and Youtube channel!

The goal of BloggingWithAmy.com: To cover every major aspect of building a successful, smooth-running, money-making, self-hosted WordPress(.org) blog from the ground up. A step-by-step guide for beginners, a fill-in-the-gaps guide for pros. – About Blogging with Amy

You may be surprised to be finding me recommending a blog that is within my own niche of helping beginners improve their blogs. But I believe that to help you become the best blogger possible you should have multiple resources for information and tips.

Where to follow Amy

Now that you have learned a little about Amy from me please make sure and follow her on her blog and her other social networks.

What to expect next week?

I will be sharing a new blogger with your next week. But I would love your input in the comments. What bloggers do you look up to and subscribe to? Is there someone you would like me to feature?

Getting Healthy

Beating The Fat Loss Progress Plateau

As you go about your workout and diet program, one issue that may arise at one point or another that definitely throws a big kink into your plans is the fitness plateau. You were seeing great weight loss up until this point, but all of a sudden, that progress has come to a halt.

Frustrated, you think about just throwing in the towel altogether, chalking it up to the fact that you just weren’t meant to get down to your dream weight.

But, before you’re too quick to do this, there are a few other possibilities that you should keep in mind for ways that you can perhaps get past this plateau and back on the road to success.

Let’s take a quick look at what these methods are so that you can be sure to give it a full effort.

Start A New Workout

The very first way that you can work to beat a fitness plateau is simply by trying out a new workout program. Remember, after so long on any given workout program, your body will have adapted and will no longer see a reason to change.

When it can comfortably handle whatever it is that you’re trying to throw at it, you aren’t going to be moving any closer to your goal body weight.

Instead, shake it up. Try some new exercises, join a new workout class, or start a brand new weight lifting program altogether. Just do something different and you will be amazed at what this does to your end result.

Re-Calculate Your Calorie Intake

Second, the next important step that you must take if you have hit a weight loss plateau is to take a very good and honest evaluation of your calorie intake.

Are you eating a few more calories than you should? Do you nibble on some chips while you prepare supper but then forget to add those to your total daily calorie intake?

If you aren’t totalling your calorie intake correctly and are actually eating 200-400 more than you think each day, this will certainly hinder your fat loss progress.

Remember, success at weight loss does come down to burning off more calories than you consume so if you’re misjudging how many calories you’re consuming, this will set you up for a plateau.

Take a good honest assessment and see if you are making a few errors you should be accounting for.

Consider A Diet Break

If after that assessment you come to find that you are actually eating a very low calorie intake but weight loss has still stalled, then it’s time to consider a diet break. Sometimes what you need is to give your body a break from the rigors of the diet altogether, allowing it to recharge its metabolism so that it’s running top-speed again.

Since the metabolism does tend to slow down after so long on any diet program, sometimes a diet break can be just the thing to get fat loss moving again.

If you can’t remember the last time you had a few days off your diet, now’s the time to take them. Take 3-5 days off and eat whatever you want, still aiming to be healthy.

Then get right back on your diet and more often than not, you’ll find weight loss picks back up again.

So there you have the top tips to remember about beating a weight loss plateau. If you can be sure to try these out before you choose to throw in the towel, you’ll find that you get right back on track to striving to reach that goal weight again.

[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]Aishwarya is a passionate blogger and is associated with Offshore Ally- A Company offering virtual assistant services. She has been recognised as an active VA for real estate clients.[/box]

Uncategorized

Project 52: Don’t be afraid to edit

As I had mentioned before I’m going to be focusing a little more about me besides my photos for Project 52. This weeks photo is of my most current nail polish masterpiece. Well it’s not really a masterpiece, but I’m working on it.

I decided this month to try painting my nails in the evening while TJ and I sit and watch TV. I’m a terrible night snacker and I decided to try a new hobby to break this habit. I figure you barely want to move when you have wet nails not alone stick your hand into a snack bag.

Today I decided to also talk about editing your photos a little bit. I have terrible cuticles (I’m hoping keeping my nails painted will help me with another bad habit of biting my cuticles). I debated for a couple days if I want to share a photo of my nails, but I decided this may be a great way to show how you can share photos even if they are not perfect. I took the photo and took the time to edit my cuticles so that I felt comfortable to share my photo.

If you are not taking self portraits because you have a pimple or bad skin, if you feel like you just don’t look good in your photos, then learn how to do some tweaking and editing. If this is what you need to do to feel comfortable to share your photos then feel free. Sometime I hope you will learn to embrace your imperfections, but photos that are edited are better than no photos!

Join Project 52: Self Portraits

Lynda (from Daily Window) and I are not going to be putting up the linky anymore, but still want to invite you to participate in this project with us. I hope you will join us!

If you want to use the Project 52 badge feel free and grab it and use it on your post. You don’t have to do every week with us you can post just once even and you don’t have to follow the weekly theme either. We just hope that you will join us for some fun.

This is the challenge take a photo of yourself!

Do you edit your pictures to hide imperfections? Or do you think that if you edited your photos more you might be more likely to take more photos of yourself?