Some Women Have a Thing for Shoes pt. 3

Really, I could go on forever about my iPad. Really. But I won't. I promise. What I will do is tell you why I absolutely, positively love, love, love it. Did I tell you that I love it?

I know what I said about books back in early March. Funny how the digitally archived written word can come back to bite you on the butt (or, at the very least, remind you of what you said you were about). I haven't turned my back on books. Our relationship is evolving. It's not them, It's me.

On Christmas morning, hubby surprised me with an iPad. He even gift wrapped the case! I was completely taken aback. (He's good...even though his hiding place was terrible.) I'll spare you the rest of the details which involve a wide smile, near tears, and lots of kisses, but I will share the top ten reasons I love my iPad:

10. It fits beautifully in my pocketbook....all of my pocketbooks!

9. Streaming Netflix. Need I say more?

8. The Scrabble game is bananas!!! It keeps me occupied as I peddle away on the stationary bike at the gym. I consider it part of my preparation for the GRE exam.

7. I always wanted to be a woman who reads the newspaper everyday, but it never quite happened...until NOW. I have been reading the NY Times, USA Today and CNN.com every morning. I eve read The Root to see what's going on with my people.

6. My free Bible app by YouVersion gives me access to countless translations while online AND let's me download several translations for offline use. I can highlight, bookmark, copy, paste, and take notes! On New Year's Eve I even read the Scripture from my iPad. German theologian Karl Barth once said that the preacher should do their work with the Bible and one hand and the newspaper in the other. Well, with my iPad, I still have one hand free!

5. Reading on the Amazon Kindle app is AMAZING!!! Currently I am reading "40 Day Journey with Howard Thurman" and "God Chasers" (which I am adapting for a ten week Bible study that begins tomorrow).

4. While I don't feel like I am cheating on my books, I am surely stepping out on my planner. This self-proclaimed "paper girl" is a believer in the iCal app. I've got my devotional time, meetings, appointments and events in my calendar and I can even accept invitations for events from others. (It was so cool when Pastor Weaver sent the invite to our weekly minister's meetings via email and when clicked on it it wondrously appeared on my calendar for every Saturday ay eight!)

3. I am cooking a roasted chicken--right now--using a recipe from the free All Recipes app. (yes, RIGHT NOW!!!) This app also let's you make a shopping list for the grocery store. Bonus round!!!

2. Pages+iBooks+Holy Spirit=Revolutionized Preaching! I couldn't wait to put it to use, so I spent time on Christmas downloading necessary apps (Pages and YouVersion Bible), transferring my sermons from my laptop, and editing my manuscript. On the Sunday after Christmas, when I mounted the pulpit to declare, "what thus saith the Lord," I did it from my iPad. I used it to preach both the 7:30 and 10:30 services. It was so comfortable and less awkward than flipping pages. My next project is cataloging my sermons on my computer and transferring them to my iPad. The old preachers tell you to have a sermon in your back pocket. I'll do them one better!

Lastly, I typed this entire entry, and the last one, on my iPad. No more writing ideas on napkins or taking notes on my Blackberry and hoping the ideas make sense when I get to my computer. The downside is that blogger doesn't have an app yet, so I used the same web interface that I use from my MacBook. Blogger, get it together!!!

There is more, but I'll save it for another day. I would't want to give hubby any more reason to think that I'm a total Apple groupie. He already thinks I am going to name our first daughter Apple!!!