Made Moon Blog

The most primal decision with web deals is that you grab the most efficient one for you. What’s fantastic about Compare Broadband UK is that they primarily provide unprejudiced home broadband and mobile broadband advice. Unlike all other operations the organisation display self-sustained guidance on a multitude of contrasting internet providers, the company assist you to discover the very best offer for the public so you are also able to spend the smallest sum of money attainable & be able to receive an exciting deal from your internet company.

Mobile Broadband is the name employed to explain many brands of gadgets, including the wireless dongle USB from Three Broadband, which provide one with wireless high speed net access without the wires and without a fixed phone line connection. Mobile broadband gives the client the convenience to use your laptop where ever you are found to be found. All one need to do is click in their USB modem and off you go, painless wire less broadband whenever and wherever you are to be found. There are many various offers to go for and more different packages to go for with many assorted broadband providers. The broadband operators on the market are BT Broadband, Sky, T-Mobile and 24 Net. These broadband operators have all taken the lead on bringing in wire less web access. With this in mind the above cell phone networks have fore mostly centred their campaigns on marketing the service to laptop users, Wireless Broad Band has become extremely popular and practically 3 million UK broadband consumers now are linked wirelessly to the net in and around their flat, this is a number that is forever shooting up as loads of consumers get wise to all the hundreds of benefits of wireless internet access. Wireless broadband is ideal for a flat which caters for loads of family members or people all desiring to use the net, it means that if more than one person could be connected at the same period of time. And the superb benefit is that should you do not actually have a cable any longer. So that no more telephone tangled cable lines and telephone extensions coming from the wall and being linked to your laptop, magnificent is it not. Save money with Compare Broadband UK and Mobile Broadband.

Recently, while sitting in my chair drinking the last of my breakfast coffee, a thought staggered into my mind. I must confess most thoughts are quite lonely once they enter my mind, but this one had a nagging element to it.

Experience has taught me I should never give in to these strange trespassers. Every time I entertain any of them, I’m the one getting burnt.

This time was different. Don’t ask me how it was different, or how I knew it was different, it just was. Of course, looking back I could have been wrong.

The thought: why not surprise my wife by baking her a cake?

I know what you’re thinking. I thought the same thing when this suggested itself to me. But, the more I thought about it, the more delightfully delicious it sounded. How can anything go wrong if I am doing it for my wife?

The only question I needed to answer was what kind of cake should I bake.

After a long period of ruminating, I settled on a lemon sponge cake with peanut butter icing. This was going to be the best surprise my wife has ever received from me.

Sitting in a prominent place in the kitchen is my wife’s Betty Crocker Cookbook. I don’t know how long she has had that book, it’s been in our kitchen for as long as I can remember which really may not be that long when I come to think of it.

I took the book, sat in my favorite chair and opened it. How do you read a cookbook? As I leafed through it, it did not have any rhyme or reason to me. In musing on the book I said to myself, how important is it to follow directions?

Placing the book back in its revered spot, I concluded that since this was my cake, I didn’t need help from anybody else, particularly Betty Crocker. This is the difference between men and women. Women need a lot of directions, while men enjoy the liberty of doing their own thing.

I knew exactly what I wanted. A lemon sponge cake, with peanut butter icing. What could be simpler?

Retrieving a large mixing bowl, I assembled all the ingredients I needed; flour, sugar, eggs, milk and baking powder. Everyone knows you cannot bake without baking powder.

I have no idea what baking powder is, except when you bake you use baking powder.

I put everything in the mixing bowl. The only thing I wasn’t quite sure of was the measure, but how hard could that be anyway? Betty Crocker mentioned a cup of this and a cup of that, but never defined what she meant by a cup.

I went to the cupboard and looked at all the cups. There were all kinds and sizes of cups and I did not know which one to use. I eyed a large coffee cup and said to myself, this will do just fine.

I dumped 6 or 8 cups of flour into the mixing bowl, I can’t remember how many. Then I cracked a dozen eggs and put that into the mixing bowl as well. Pouring a quart of milk into the mixing bowl, I whipped everything into a nice batter.

This was to be a lemon sponge cake but I could find nothing marked lemon in the cupboard. I opened the refrigerator, and as luck would have it, I found a quart of lemonade.

I poured this concoction into the largest cake pan I could find. As I was about to put it into the oven, I remembered the baking powder. How is this cake going to bake if it doesn’t have the baking powder?

Setting the cake pan down, I grabbed the baking powder and liberally sprinkled it on top of my batter. I have no idea what baking powder does but I put enough on my cake so it would do a good job.

Into the oven the cake went, and with a flick of the wrist I turned the temperature to 450 degrees. Remembering this was a big cake, I readjusted the temperature to 650.

The bigger the cake the hotter the oven, is what I always say.

Now all I needed to do was wait for my cake to bake. As I was waiting, I heard rumblings coming from the oven but just chalked that up to a good cake baking.

I guess I fell asleep, because the next thing I knew there was a strange odor permeating the air. It smelled a little smoky and then it dawned on me. My cake, it’s done.

What I pulled out of the oven did not resemble any cake I had ever seen. It looked like a burnt pancake, twice the size of the cake pan, with some kind of disease on the surface.

No amount of peanut butter icing in the world could camouflage this disaster.

It was about this time I began reassessing the idea of reading directions. Maybe instructions have a purpose after all.

I remember something the Apostle Paul said. “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV.)

To live right without getting burnt you need the right directions.

James L. Snyder is an award winning author and popular columnist living with his wife, Martha, in Ocala, Florida and can be contacted at jamessnyder2@att.net.

When buying a new car, a common issue is the way people pay for it. Most use car finance to pay for their vehicles. If you want to make the best deal, you will have to understand car finance and the intricacies of its processes.

When buying a vehicle there are a couple of aspects people think about: whether their future car will be a new one or a used one and where they will get the money from. Regarding the money, problems can be solved by obtaining the car finance from banks, credit unions, dealerships, or auto manufacturers. However, when considering buying an old car, one has to think of the differences between car finance for a new or for a used car and its advantages and disadvantages. People tend to favor new cars. If you are asking yourselves “why?” then you surely heard some attractive commercials. Most of the unbelievable offers are too good to be true, but they come with extra requirements like high down payments and very high interest rates. For a good deal, negotiation is the only adoptable strategy that will make room for more advantages and less terms and conditions.

Making a loan requires a copy of your credit report and a check of payment histories. The lender will verify every aspect of your financial background in order to give you car finance. Once you have all the paperwork done, gather information, ask the dealers for the best offer and use every detail to bargain.

Pre-Approved loans are better for your car finance because you can find near market rates. Start by looking for a good sub prime lender. Search the Internet, look at closing costs, fees, compare and use the APR number to get the overall cost. This car finance can save you money.

You can also use online loan applications from car finance companies to speed loan processes. Before choosing a car finance company you should compare prices and rates. The dealer will want to make the best for him and choose the appropriate car finance company.

Try not to let yourself be persuaded to buy the dealerships finance pack when you can make a better car finance deal elsewhere. You should calculate your APR and take into account how much the car costs in cash and if you have additional rates. Also see if car finance works for you and if you agree with the down payments and closing payments. Even if it seems complicated, it doesn’t have to be if you educate yourself in car finance.

Car finance is a very important part of your credit-related decisions and you should be careful not to take offers that exceed your income. If you end up in a bad deal you will waste your money on unnecessary things and your car finance will lower your budget drastically. If you try to take your car finance from a bank, the disadvantage is that banks take a lot of time to process a loan. The disadvantage in dealership rates is that they cost more overall. You can also try the Internet for online car finance deals, but the offers have to be carefully analyzed before (not to be scams). Some people may even get your car finance information and use it in their own interest. A little research about the online car finance can save you a lot of trouble. However, if you choose online lenders, you will get low interest rates and save time and money.

To obtain the car finance you are looking for, it will take some time to research and find the appropriate solution for you. You have to know exactly what you want and, after that, be careful not to let salespeople convince you into a car finance deal that you don’t want. Being familiar with car finance will enable you to go out and get the beast deal for you and your family.

Please visit this this car finance site to find out more about this topic.

The most common complaint of mothers today is that they are tired. Being a mom is hard work. I love Dr. Phil. He always says, “Being a stay at home mom is like having two full time jobs.” Following that logic, moms who work from home actually have three full-time jobs. It’s exhausting just thinking about it. While we obviously need to conserve our energy, it is difficult when we are confronted with constant energy drainers. This month I am going to address those things in life that steal energy.

Today my two year old woke up, and I could tell from the beginning, it was going to be one of those days. Independence and opposition were on the top of his priority list. He wants cookies for breakfast…not. The fork I pick is absolutely the wrong fork. After a challenging bath, he insists on drying with the dark green towel. I explain this towel is dirty and he has a choice between a red towel and a light green towel. When he stubbornly refuses to make a choice, I pick the red towel. Of course that is the wrong choice. As all moms know, in this kind of mood, the light green towel would also have been the wrong choice. And every child, regardless of age, has days like this. Dealing with negativity in children is an obvious energy drainer. The answer is to remain positive and flexible, to work at neutralizing the child’s conflict energy. It is important to rise above the frustration and meet his negative energy with love.

While the daily demands of being a mom take an obvious toll on energy, there are many energy drains that are not as obvious. Unresolved conflict and negative emotions can be an enormous, though subtle, energy drain. Many people are not even aware of the energy it takes to hold on to unresolved issues. Think of it this way. The more unresolved issues the brain has to cope with, the less energy there is to cope with every day issues. No wonder coping skills tend to diminish as these issues build up. Forgive and let go. If fear and anxiety are taking over, have faith to believe that everything is going to be okay. We all have the power to handle anything that comes our way.

Relationships that compromise our values drain energy. I know a mom who wants to instill high self-esteem in her son. She is encouraging and loving. Her husband, on the other hand, values making his son tough. He doesn’t want to nurture his son for fear of making him too soft. When these two energies conflict, the mom feels unsupported. Each of us needs to find balance in our relationships. We must understand and convey to family and friends the values we are unwilling to compromise on and set boundaries with those who challenge those values.

Not enough sleep or exercise is obviously going to deplete energy. But how about that health concern we avoid? Taking care of the body, the mind and the spirit are important when it comes to keeping energy levels high. When I first started staying home with my children, I was very lonely and bored. I had been a working mom for over 10 years. Now here I was stuck in the house carrying on one-way conversations with a baby. I didn’t know any other stay-at-home moms, and I certainly wasn’t being intellectually stimulated. It took me a while to figure out why I was so down. I was so busy taking care of my child, that I forgot I was more than just a mother. It took volunteering at church and starting my own business to fulfill that depleted part of me. Our energy drains when we don’t nurture the intellectual and creative parts of ourselves. It is okay for us to take a break from motherhood and be the women we were designed to be.

Clutter and disorganization are major energy drainers. When my house is in order, I feel so much lighter and freer. Believe me, I know it is difficult to stay organized and clutter free. Start with one room at a time. Fly Lady tells us to set the timer and de-clutter for 15 minutes a day.

It is interesting that financial issues are the number one things that coaches work on with their clients. This is not surprising when so many areas of life rest on our financial state. Having a Will to protect children and assets, getting a clear idea of how much money will be needed for a child’s education and for retirement are issues that need to be addressed. Worrying about these things even once in a while drains energy – energy that is needed for daily life.

Understanding the things that can drain energy is the first step towards dealing with and eliminating them. It is amazing how much energy can be freed up and how much more fun life is when we resolve our worries and deal with our unfinished business. Being happier and healthier moms not only benefits us, but also our children.

Lori Radun, CEC is a certified life coach for moms and author of the 8-week eCourse “The Energy Equation – Energizers – Energy Drains = JOY!”. If you’re looking for an instant formula for living a energy-filled and joyful life, go to http://www.true2youlifecoaching.com/ecourses.html

Are you having acne problem? Have you done something about it? No need to worry, almost everyone has a problem with acne. Nearly all of high-school-age girls to older women, even including men, experience this skin care problem. Acne may not be a dangerous skin disease, but the common appearance, especially if it becomes worse and severe, can become a very serious problem. Thus, you’re going to need a significant acne skin care.

Before going further to acne skin care, it will be best to get to know more about acne. It is a skin disorder caused by hormones on the skin’s oil glands. This leads to open skin pores and cause some spots, annoying ones, to emerge. These spots are called acne and usually occur on the face, neck, back, and chest.

A permanent blemish and scar caused by acne should be treated seriously. Besides it may distress the people who are affected, it can also lead to a worse skin condition. Here are some easy guidelines how to treat the acne – and to give care to your skin in general:

1. The first and most important to do is gently wash your skin, especially your face, at least twice a day. Use a mild cleanser and after that, clean your skin with water. Ask your dermatologist about what kind of cleanser to be used according to your skin type.

2. Use appropriate acne products, which you can get by asking your doctor. Allow some time for the medicine to work as suggested by the doctor or as said in the instruction. You’ll see the improvement later, which usually takes several weeks.

3. Be careful when using cosmetics. You should use ones that are oil free, since oily skin is believed to be one of the factors that contribute to the emergence of acne.

4. Take vitamins for your skin. Vitamin E is the best one for a good skin. You can consume it through some fresh foods (fruits and vegetables) or simply just take vitamin E tablets available at drug stores.

5. Start a new healthy lifestyle by doing a balanced diet. Eat healthy foods, namely the low-fat and fresh ones. Don’t forget to drink a lot of water since it helps bring out toxin from the body.

You see from the above guidelines that there’s no difficulty at all in acne care, right? You just need to live clean and healthy to have a good skin. So, why not start a new lifestyle today? And buy only quality products – for a long-lasting healthy skin ever.

About The Author: Loraine Lesley is editor for some Website concerning women. She wants to help women to look beautiful, that’s why she offers practical articles and tips on Skin Care, Hair Care, and more. To discover her advice, visit http://www.myskincareonline.com and http://www.myhaircareguide.com

As a process improvement practitioner, I never cease to be amazed at the extent to which ideas developed for industrial and business settings seem so fit for personal application. In this article I will consider one of the major process improvement movements and show how its methods may be of value to individuals seeking to do better, reach higher, go further and achieve a greater degree of personal success than they might otherwise do.

The key idea of the theory is that businesses are best viewed as whole systems rather than collections of independent components. Like a chain which is only as strong as its weakest link, the achievement of the system as a whole is limited by the least able of its component parts known the system constraint. No matter how efficiently other parts operate, the throughput cannot be improved. This sounds like John Maxwell’s Law of the Lid in his “21 Laws of Leadership”. Your strengths determine your possibilities. Your weaknesses determine your actual achievement – unless you find ways to reduce or eliminate their impact.

Application:
Your life, affairs, pursuits and concerns constitute a system, the various parts of which affect one another. The recent attention paid to life-work balance issues recognises this inter-dependence.
Take a hard honest look at yourself from time to time. Examine various aspects of your life to determine what it is that is holding you from peak performance and contribution to life. Because various areas of your life are inextricably linked, you can gain plenty of leverage by seeking out and improving your weakest areas.

For example among qualities you need to succeed anywhere are determination and perseverance, integrity, self and time management skills. Say you find that your inability to persevere and stay the course is putting a ceiling on your possibilities. How would you apply these ideas?

The Theory of Constraints advocates a five step solution sequence as follows:

Locate the constraint: This you have done. Emphasis is on the combined use of intuition and logic to locate the true source of your limitations.

Exploit the constraint: This means that, in view of the limitations imposed by the constraint, you should still find ways to be more effective. In the current example about persistence, this might mean getting a coach or someone else to whom you can be accountable. You could also seek other forms of support to help keep you on track.

Subordinate Everything to the Above Decision: Do everything you do keeping in view your decision to improve your effectiveness in spite of a poor record of persistence. This might mean distancing yourself from people who hold a negative sway over you and encourage you to doubt yourself, and take the easy way out.

Elevate the constraint: Find ways to improve yourself and increase your ability in your area of weakness. For a problem with perseverance, you might find it useful to meditate and visualise. It would also help to maintain a journal in which you track your decisions and your reasons for not sticking to them. You could also read biographies of characters that were known for their persistence in the face of odds. The biographies of most people who achieved noteworthy greatness would probably qualify. Set goals for a minimum number of attempts or length of time before you give up on anything you’re attempting.

Start again. Avoid inertia: If truly you succeed in “elevating the constraint” sufficiently, you soon find that perseverance is no longer a problem for you, and your level of achievement has improved considerably. What next? You must go back to the beginning. Take another hard, honest look at yourself to determine what now limits your ability to achieve as you could.

As in business and industry, application of the above ideas to improving yourself is best done from a long term perspective. Thoroughly applied, it could lead to major shifts in direction as you overcome one performance constraint after another.

Samuel Okoro is the CEO of Leapfrog Alliance Ltd, a management training and consulting firm that helps organisations to reduce costs and improve quality through better business processes. His personal passion is to help move Third World business to world-class levels. For further details please visit http://leapfrogalliance.com/resources.html.

The domain name registration process can be confusing to first time buyers. There are a number of terms to worry about. Hopefully, with the information below, you’ll be able to successfully register domain names while avoiding the pain that can sometimes come from the domain registration process.

What the heck is a nameserver anyway? Nameservers refer to a service that runs on servers belonging to a web hosting company that hosts the account that the domain name will point to. Every domain name on the internet must point to an IP address but each IP address can have multiple domain names on it thanks to shared hosting. Entering the nameservers of the hosting company you have for the domain name you are registering lets the big DNS nameservers on the internet know where to find the hosting account for the domain name in question. Without this service, it would be impossible for any computer to find any web page. This is all usually done very quickly – in a fraction of a second.

Whois information is another thing to get knowledgeable about. Whois refers to the owner of the domain name. This information is provided by you when you register a domain name. This information in turn is offered to anyone who cares to search for it. For this reason, it is important to consider privacy issues when entering your information for a domain name. It is not advisable to falsify domain name information. At the same time, you may use the most generic information you can when entering your domain. If you have a work address and home address, use the work address. If you have a post office box number and a street address, include the post office box number only.

How many years should you consider registering your domain name? I would argue that it depends what you are going to use the domain for. If it is your business name and you intend to be in business for at least the next five years, I would register it for five years. That way, you don’t have to worry about it for a long time. In fact, you can register domain names for up to ten years. If you register your domain for that long, you won’t have to worry about it for a decade. Maintenance and stress free.

Make sure you lock your domain. After you’ve registered your domain name, log into the control panel for your domain name and confirm that it is locked. What does locking do for you? It prevents anyone from transferring your domain name to another registrar without your authorization. Most registrars require you to approve the transfer by clicking on a link but some registrars may simply allow the transfer if you don’t expressly forbid it. Miss an email and you could lose your domain name. Don’t take a chance. Lock your domain name right away.

Joe Duchesne is the webmaster for Yowling.com which provides domain name registration services along with web hosting a web site builder. Reprint freely as long as the live keyword link in this article points to our website.

Many people try to hold a raging fire within themselves, but it restlessly and relentlessly gnaws at their core. Some have tried to cover it up with alcohol, numb it with drugs, hide it with shopping, kids, work, or religion, or fuel it with sex. The Baby Boomers looked for eternal youth and to change the world. They thought they would never grow up, but they did. They thought they would change the world and they did.

The previous generation looked for the American Dream. Some found it. Many did not. The present generation seems to be seeking success. Yet, the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” widens. Each generation and each individual, in turn, searches for something, but it often slips from their grasp. The fire carries both energy and discomfort. The key is to use the discomfort as a motivator and the energy as fuel.

Redfield in the “Celestine Prophecy” talks of the need for a historical perspective. The first man or woman met his/her physical needs. Then he or she explored and conquered the world and put it to their collective service. Now we seek something and we don’t seem to know what it is.

When we are connected to our roots and our souls, passion rises quickly and pushes us the next level of life or learning or love. It does not have to be love of a mate. It could be creative passion, fueling what we do for ourselves, work, community, or family. Anything where the totality of who you are is absorbed in the doing, requires passion. To loose it, is soul death, or at least deep sleep. It will cry to be heard when it sleeps.

I’ve sometimes been afraid of my passion. It seems so fierce at times. I guess I fear it will consume me and nothing else will matter. I know that can happen. I’ve had a small taste of it when I work for hours into the night, so absorbed by my work that I forget time, sleeping, and eating. But, I also know that I must have time in my life to live the every day life of doing the mundane things that must be done. Balance is probably still the key, but you must not loose your passion all together. Your life will be too dry and dull without it.

Remember your first love? Nothing else mattered. You felt as if you would walk to the ends of the earth for that love. Remember that? While that first passionate, all consuming love does not last, it gives us a taste of a force within ourselves that carries tremendous energy. Look for your passion and it will find you.

In many of the companies I have worked in, there is a very high proportion of male managers to females. This causes a major challenge in the work environment, (although many of them are unaware it is an important issue).

The women know that with a more balanced hierarchy, and viewing things from a totally different perspective this would increase morale, save time and money.

Women are naturally good at developing relationships, nurturing, caring and sharing whereas men tend not to be as sensitive and prefer to “get on with it”.

I’ve noticed many managers are out of touch with the fundamental issues in their departments, especially the ‘people issues’.

Often managers are promoted to their positions, not because they know how to manage people but because they are good at doing their job. A salesperson may be great at selling the products of his organisation and then gets promoted to Sales Manager. He knows the product and makes plenty of sales and suddenly he is faced with managing a team of salespeople…a totally different experience.

And for some unknown reason it is automatically assumed he has the skills to handle this new position.

Communicating With The Opposite Sex

Managing and communicating with people is a skill that for most of us doesn’t come naturally. It’s even more challenging communicating with the opposite sex effectively.

I was having a meeting with a manager and his personal assistant recently. The p.a. had a list of things to discuss in regard to improving their joint office systems.

Instead of providing the male manager with a brief summary of each issue she wanted to raise, the p.a. delivered a sermon for each one.

You could see the manager switch off after the first couple of sentences and become impatient. She, on the other hand didn’t notice anything.

In another company a female manager never received any recognition from her male boss that she was doing a great job. In fact she felt very downhearted and left the organisation because she felt she wasn’t appreciated. Her ex-boss old me afterwards that she was the best manager in his organisation and he couldn’t understand why she left.

The Final Word

So learn how to communicate with the opposite sex in your organisation and in your life. A great book to read is “Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps” by Alan and Barbara Pease www.pease.com.au .

About The Author

Lorraine Pirihi is Australia’s Personal Productivity Specialist and Leading Life Coach. Her business The Office Organiser specialises in showing small business owners and managers, how to get organised at work so they can have a life! Lorraine is also a dynamic speaker and has produced many products including “How to Survive and Thrive at Work!”

To subscribe to her free ezine visit www.office-organiser.com.au

This article may be reproduced providing it is published in it’s entirety, including the author’s bio and all links. For further information please contact Lorraine Pirihi; lorraine@office-organiser.com.au

Have you purchased a “self-help” book lately? A motivational tape? How about an ebook about “achieving success”? What do they have in common?

Nine times out of ten you’re given the same instruction, “Visualize”. “See
yourself 10 lbs. lighter” or “See yourself as CEO of Acme Industries”. To
visualize is to see and to visualize in the mind’s eye is to IMAGINE. It’s the
alpha tool of possibilities and, often, the springboard to accomplishment.

Today’s parents have all kinds of options to occupy their kids’ busy day.
CDs, videos, low-tech, high-tech toys and even, the computer. The drawback?
Kids participate in a passive mode or by repetitive tasks. Sadly, imagination is
not an important component.

So what to do?

Open the door to potential.

Parents are the first teachers in the most formative years of a child’s life.
With a little effort, a little planning and a bit of time, parents can plant the
seeds to a creative imagination. How? Read books to your kids!

The process of reading aloud is dynamic. It offers the child the
opportunity to combine the spoken word with imagery…images not created
by someone else, but uniquely created in the mind of that child.

How to begin? Start with picture books. They’re the “training wheels”.
They introduce kids to shapes and colors and context. Illustrated books are a
great way for children to see the relationship of words to images, albeit,
someone else’s images.

The next step? Books with no illustrations. Read aloud. This experience
switches your kids into an active mode of visualization. They process the words
and create the images. All it takes is your participation.

Practice makes perfect. The more often you read to your kids, the more
often they have the opportunity to develop their mind skills. They create the
images, they organize the images, they sort the images, they categorize the
images, they recall and visualize the images…they imagine!

Somewhere, sometime, someone visualized converting chemical energy
into electrical energy and, today, we have the battery. Someone, somewhere
visualized a fabric stronger than steel. Today we have kevlar. Someone
imagined a diseased heart being replaced by a healthy heart. Today we have
heart transplants. Imagination is the key. Plant the garden.

Here are some suggestions:

• Choose a book to read to your kids that YOU like. If you’re
  enthusiastic about it, chances are, the kids will be too.
• Plan ahead. Set aside a reading time that’s quiet and with few
  distractions (turn off the cell phone).
• Pressed for time? Purchase books via the computer. Get the kids to
  help you browse. And consider downloading ebooks. They’re often less
  expensive than hard cover books. You can download immediately to read on
  the computer and you can store the files on your hard disk or removable media
  device to create a library of your own to read and reread when you choose.
• Take the kids to your local library. Let them do the choosing.
• Check out your local bookstores (and public library) for scheduled
  “book reading” days for kids. Great fun.

Patricia Gresham is a free-lance commercial artist and graphic designer, author
and educator, wife, mother and grandmother. She is currently the publisher of
the family website DoodleDuds
Depot.