i

Ok, it’s been 3 months, and I’m finally ready to talk about it. Back in November, I got an iPad mini. Before then, I had never had or used any sort of i-device for more than 5 minutes. It’s true. I was utterly i-illiterate.

Jeff has had a school-issued iPad for the past 2 years, but I never really cared about it. I have always found iPads to be pointless because they are huge! Where do you stash something that big and expensive and breakable? I had zero interest. I was fine with our old school first-gen Kindle Fire. Then the iPad mini came out. Finally, the ideal size with the superior touch screen! My thoughts were stirred. But psh, the things are more than twice the cost of a Kindle Fire. That is SO not in the budget.

But then I got paid for a long spurt of long babysitting days…and the Kindle got slower…and I started using Evernote to journal…and the LDS church app is awesome for scripture study…and my mind was slowly turning in favor of the iPad. I thought I’d just get a refurbished iPad mini for about the same price as a new Kindle Fire. When Apple revealed the latest model of the iPad mini, however, Jeff convinced me that it would be much smarter long-term to get the new one. I got as far as putting it in my shopping cart on apple.com, but I could not physically click “order” on such an expensive, utterly frivolous purchase. I just couldn’t! Jeff came over and clicked it really fast and boom. I became an i.

About a week later, a small box came to my door. Inside was a sleek, shiny, intimidating brand-new iPad mini. Slowly over the next few weeks, I grew accustomed to all things iPad. I downloaded apps. I got a bluetooth keyboard so I could type in my journal easily on the iPad. It took me a solid 6 weeks before I was completely reconciled to my iPad. For the entire first month of ownership, I kept having these insecure “what on earth was I thinking—this isn’t worth it!” moments. It was cool and everything, but there was nothing on the iPad that I couldn’t have done on a Kindle Fire for a third the price.

Enter: Paper 53, my true i-Love. This drawing app stole my heart and made me love my iPad. It is so cool and so fun! All those drawings I’ve been posting lately were done using Paper 53.

I have a special Pencil stylus to use in the app, and I can sketch with one end and erase with the back end just like a real pencil. I can even blend and smudge with my finger!

The app has sketch, pencil, marker, pen, and even watercolor tools. I can mix and swirl colors in a little pallet. It is all the fun of art with zero mess! Perfect for a Mom with lots of little hands reaching and grabbing constantly.

I have always liked to draw and “make art,” but I never took any real art classes after high school, so I’m kind of frozen in my 2-dimensional juvenile artistic style. I got a how-to-draw book and every now and then I do a sketching lesson. But mostly I just doodle and goof off on my iPad when the mood strikes.

That’s my confession: I have an iPad. And iLike it.