15 Goals in 2015 - Update

Click here to read the 15 Goals in 2015 introductory post.

We just got back from going out of town to visit with my husband's family.  We had a nice time, and Gracie loved playing with her cousins.  Since we were out of town for several days, I did not get very much accomplished.  That's ok, because I know that I need to be somewhat flexible and it is, after all, only the beginning of the year.

Here are some things that I have accomplished during this short week:

3.  To declutter and organize the house, garage, and shed.

     a.  Declutter 365 (Facebook Group, Webpage for January)

I have completed the first three days of this challenge.  Granted, I already had them set up, but I'm still going to count it.  I've also read the Facebook Group posts and have gleaned ideas from the many comments.

5.  To improve my photography taking and editing skills.

      a.  Project 365 (My facebook group)

   

So far, I'm doing well with taking and posting a photo a day.  I posted iPhone photos, but did take photos with my "big camera" but am not able to post them while out of town.

7.  To read 15 mentally-stimulating books (i.e. not fiction) (and blog about them).

     

I reviewed my Goodreads "want to read" bookshelf and also stalked my friend Valerie's bookshelves on Goodreads to get ideas for more books to add to my list.

In addition to the above, I want to read:

     a.  Free to Choose by Milton Friedman

     b.  John Adams by Dave McCullough (I may change to a different book by him.)

     c.  41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush

     d.  Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

     e.  Pioneer Girl:  The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder

     f.  A Little House Traveler:  Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America by Laura Ingalls Wilder

    g.  Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson

    h.  Laughs, Luck...and Lucy:  How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time by Jess Oppenheimer

     i.  Life Skills for Kids:  Equipping Your Child for the Real World by Christine M. Field

     j.   The Lost Colony of Roanoke by Jean Fritz

One of my goals is to lose 15 pounds, but I really need to lose more than that.  I just wanted to name it 15 because of the year.  I weighed myself on the morning of January 1st and recorded it in my app called Happy Scale.  I have not weighed myself since I was out of town, but I will weigh tomorrow morning when I get up.

I definitely did not adhere to my "No sugar, starch or soda" rule, because I knew it would be nigh impossible.  In face, I rather enjoyed eating whatever I wanted.  Thursday night, we had shredded BBQ beef, black-eyed peas, Amish macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and 7-layer salad.  Friday morning, we had carb overload for breakfast (cinnamon rolls, donuts) and snacked in the middle of the day (including a delicious pineapple-cream cheese cheeseball with Ritz crackers).  For supper, we ate at a restaurant called D'arcy's Pint which is supposed to be like an Irish pub.  I had an Irish boxty for the first time which was absolutely delicious.  I also had a ponyshoe which is Texas Toast covered with meat and french fries and cheese sauce.  The boxty was the best, hands-down.  This morning, we didn't have breakfast.  I thought we were supposed to have a breakfast casserole either yesterday or today, but that did not materialize.  We did have delicious lasagna, 7-layer-salad, black-eyed peas, and garlic bread for lunch.  We were on the road after that and stopped at Lambert's for supper.  I had catfish, green beans, peaches, fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, black-eyed peas, and, of course, a roll.  The main reason why I love that place is for the fried potatoes and onions, but all of their food is good country cooking.

I hope to talk about more accomplishments next week!  Thanks for reading!

15 Goals in 2015

Happy New Year!

A friend of mine (Susan of ByGrace) posted recently about 15 goals to complete before 2015.  I liked the idea, but I knew it would be impossible for me to complete what with all the Christmas prep, illnesses, and everything else going on.  However, I then thought that it would be fun to come up with 15 goals to complete next year.

Here is a list of my goals.  I brainstormed the other day and then finally honed them into a list this morning.  Granted, it's a little more involved than a simple list, but

1.  To read the Bible consistently and all the way through.

2.  To participate in a personal Bible study.

3.  To declutter and organize the house, garage, and shed.

     a.  Declutter 365 (Facebook Group, Webpage for January)

4.  To increase opportunities to grow my photo business.

     a.  3 new clients

     b.  Prints to sell for home decorating and postcards

     c.  Garage studio

     d.  Themed mini sessions

5.  To improve my photography taking and editing skills.

      a.  Project 365 (My facebook group)

      b.  Shoot in manual mode more often.

      c.  Go through book tutorials (Digital Photography Masterclass)

      d.  Study photography tutorials on Pinterest.

      e.  Edit using Lightroom.

6.  To complete 15 crafts or projects (and blog about them).

      1.  Two to three photo books.

      2.  A dress for Gracie

      3-15.  To be determined.

7.  To read 15 mentally-stimulating books (i.e. not fiction) (and blog about them).

      a.  Free to Choose by Milton Freidman

      b.  A book by David McCullough

      c.  41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush

      d.  Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

      e.  Pioneer Girl:  The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder

      f.   A Little House Traveler:  Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America by Laura Ingalls Wilder

      g.  Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson

      h.  Laughs, Luck...and Lucy:  How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time by Jess Oppenheimer

      i.   Life Skills for Kids:  Equipping Your Child for the Real World by Christine M. Field

      j.   The Lost Colony of Roanoke by Jean Fritz

      k.  To be determined (please comment with suggestions)

8.  To begin reading all of the Caldecott Medal books in order.

     Next year, we may read the honor books, and when Gracie is older, we will read all of the Newberry Medal books.

9.  To lose 15 pounds.

     a.  No sugar, starch, or soda. (When I say "no," I mean heavily restrict.)

     b.  Drink more water.

     c.  Begin exercise program. (Kettle Worx, Jillian Michaels, walking)

10.  To provide 15 social interactions with Gracie's and my friends.

       a.  Play dates

       b.  Game parties

       c.  Craft parties

       d.  Gracie's birthday party

11. To increase opportunities to serve others.

       a.  Help Mama declutter and with large projects.

       b.  Write notes.

       c.  Visit shut-ins.

       d.  Operation Christmas Child

12.  To complete K4 and begin K5 (Abeka Homeschool).

13.  To increase opportunities for Gracie's extra-curricular activities.

        a.  Swimming lessons in the summer

        b.  Violin lessons (maybe this spring, but possibly beginning in the fall)

        c.  American Heritage Girls in February

        d.  Soccer in spring and/or fall

14.  To prepare for unexpected events. 

       a.  House inventory

       b.  Will

       c.  Emergency prep

15.  To begin writing a book.

I have no idea how many of these goals I will successfully complete, but I think that it will make 2015 a fun, productive year!

I will try to give weekly updates on Saturday nights.

Will you be attempting any goals this year?

{Almost} Paperless Organizing: Evernote, Part 3 (Post 5)

I knew that Evernote would take some time to talk about.  This is post #3 and we've barely got into it.

I will continue talking about the tags that I use to mark my notes in Evernote.

Last time I talked about .Tickler File tags, .What tags, and, my favorite, .When tags.

.Where tags
The .Where tags are what David Allen (of Getting Things Done fame) would call context tags.  In other words, where you will be when you need to do this.

.Where tags

@Computer means that this task or project will require me to be at my computer.

@Home means I will do this at home.  (I used to also have an @Errands tag, but I have begun putting my Errands on Wunderlist.)  In a way, I think this tag is kind of unnecessary, but I saw someone else use it, so I thought I'd give it a try.

@Kitchen Again, most likely unneccessary.

@Mama's  This is for when I go see my mom.  I have a few ideas of places to visit.

@Phone  Phone calls.  Self-explanatory.

Out of all of these, I'd say that the @Computer is the one that is most useful to me.

.Who tags
I only have two .who tags:  Family and Gracie.  I only have one note tagged with Gracie.  This set of tags is ideal for people who have outside jobs and do projects with other people.

.Misc tags
These tags are for when you need to tag it with something, but the .What, .When, .Where, and .Who may or may not apply.  These tags are very important.

My .misc tags

Again, the . in front of .misc means that it is a category header only.  I have seven categories under .misc tags.

.correspondence   These are emails written to me.  So far, this is only for the correspondence from the little girls we sponsor through Touch a Life.

.important info  Eventually, I may further subdivide this category.  I know I need to subdivide the notebook that is called Important Info.

.notes  There are three further subcategories:  Church (for sermon notes), Ladies (for notes taken during our Ladies Bible Studies), and Quotes which I haven't even used yet.

.projects This is my favorite new tag.  I came up with these on my own (You saw it here first!).  I have three subcategories:  Big projects, medium projects, and small projects.  Big projects are those that are going to take multiple days to complete.  Medium projects will likely take one day, and small projects take just a few minutes or maybe no more than an hour.  These tags combined with the .when tags (1-Now, 2-Next, etc.) is very useful for effective productivity.  Look below and you'll see what I mean:

From this list of my big projects, I can see that the most important one I need to do is catching up on my checkbook (recording transactions into my financial program).  After that, I can work on organizing my file cabinet, and so on.

I can look at a similar list of medium projects and know which ones are important to do soon and which ones can wait.

.receipts are further subdivided into Not For Taxes, For Taxes, and Photo Biz Receipts.  When I get an electronic receipt, I tag it with one of these tags and then stick it in the appropriate year notebook in my File Cabinet stack.

Eventually, I want to be able to scan receipts and put them in Evernote.  This will hopefully help during tax time.

.recipes  I have a bunch of tags under the heading of .recipes.  Look below for the first division:

.Dish type

• Appetizers/Snacks
• Beverages
• Desserts (further divided into Cakes, Cookies, Misc Desserts, Cupcakes, and Pies)
• Household Stuff
• Kids Play
• Main Dishes (further divided into Beef, Breakfast, Chicken, Main Misc, Pasta, Seafood, and Soups)
• Mixes
• Sides (further divided into Breads, Fruits, Potatoes, and Veggies)

.Events
There are two subcategories for .Events: Holidays and Potluck.

.Prep Type
Here are the subcategories:  Canning, Crockpot, Easy, Grilled, Make Ahead and Freeze, and Make Ahead Partially.

Tips are for meal tips.

.temp tags  There is just one subcategory: Is in Dropbox.  This is when I thought I was going to use Dropbox to house my recipes.  So, another tag is obsolete.

As you can see, tweaking Evernote to work is an ongoing process; however, it is well worth it!  I love being able to have my brain and more accessible and laid out in such a way that I can make good decisions about prioritizing my projects and tasks.

One final tip
In order to be able to access my most used notebooks and tags, I put them in the shortcuts area of Evernote.

Shortcuts make it easy to find my most used Notebooks and Tags

Fortunately, I can arrange the shortcuts into an order that makes sense to me.

I am currently in the process of emptying my email program of as many saved emails as possible.  I think this is what really sold me on using Evernote.  After watching The Secret Weapon videos that I've mentioned a couple of times, I used their method to work on my inbox.  I was shocked when I wound up with an empty email inbox!  I literally dropped my jaw open.  (It's not currently empty, but I now have a great method to use to get them processed.)

What do you think so far?  Do you think you can now use Evernote to help you go {Almost} Paperless?  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!





{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Intro to the Series

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Calendars

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Evernote

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Evernote, Part 2

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Evernote, Part 3

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Wunderlist

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  AnyList

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Final Thoughts

{Almost} Paperless Organizing: Evernote, Part 2 (Post 4)

Welcome back!  Here is my continuing post about Evernote.  Today, I will get into the nitty-gritty of how to really make it sing and dance for you, and that involves using tags.

Main Categories of Tags
I have several main categories of tags:   tickler file, what, when, where, who, and miscellaneous tags.

Main Categories of Tags

You will notice that the note count (the first number) for these tags is 0 and there is another number following.  The second number tells how many subcategories there are for that main tag.  Most of these tags that you see have a . in front of it.  That serves two purposes:  for sorting and also to help me remember that no note should use that tag but a subcategorical tag.

.Tickler File tags
This is more of a work in progress.  I saw where someone else used tickler file tags and kinda of liked the idea, but I haven't really been able to implement it for my own purposes.  In case you don't know, a tickler file is one in which you place documents that you need for a particular day, month, or year.  We used to use tickler files at my former job as a customer service representative for a company who published financial newsletters.  We had a file box that contained 31 folders, one for each day of the month, as well as 12 other folders, one for every month of the year.  Every day, we looked in the file folder for that day of the month and see if anything needed to be done for that day.  On the first day of the month, we would look in the file folder for that new month and would take those documents and put them in the file folder for the particular days of that month.  It's a great system, but at this time I don't really have a use for it.  I may delete the .Month and .Year tags; for now, I will keep them just in case I decide I can use them.

.Holidays tags in the .Tickler File category

However, I did add in a set of tags for Holidays as you can see above.  The numbers refer to the month that the holiday falls in so that they sort in chronological order.  I don't yet have notes for every holiday, but at least I have the setup ready.  I already have 13 notes pertaining Easter; soon, I will look at those notes and see what activities I can do with my daughter.

.What tags
Several of these tags were recommended by other people (.Active Project, .Future Project, and .Inactive Project) but I have not found a practical use for myself at this time.

The .What tags

Even though I do have notes in Ideas and Reference, I am not convinced that I need those particular tags because I have notebooks that contain my ideas and reference material.

I do use the Read/Review tag for items that I would like to . . . well, read and review . . . at some time.

I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, ok, so when are you going to tell me about tags that you DO use and that you DO find useful?  That's the next one coming up!

.When tags (my favorite)
If you are familiar with the Getting Things Done concept of time management (David Allen), you will recognize some of the tags found here.  I do recommend reading his book and other books that utilize his method.  It's very practical and provides a great method for thinking about tasks and projects.

Before I get into my .when tags, let me say that I think these are the most important tags to use to help you be more productive.  If a note has any kind of time significance to it, be sure to tag it with a .when tag.

Here are my when tags:

My .When tags

! Daily  (The ! is used to put this at the top) -- when I first started using tags, I used ! Daily to mark items that I wanted to look at every day.  I have since switched to using Wunderlist for my recurring tasks, so I do not need this one.  I know, I should delete it and quit talking about it. Moving on...

! Ongoing.  Umm, don't use anymore.  Nothing to see here.

! Weekly.  I do kind of use this.  Even though it says 3 notes, the only one is use is my cheat sheet for meal planning which reminds me where to find the recipes I will choose for the following week's meals.

1-Now   Ahhh!  Here we go.  1-Now are for items that are utmost in getting done NOW.  (Incidentally, writing blog posts is not marked 1-Now but serves as a great procrastinator.)  Last week, I had "Get stuff together for taxes" which I thankfully deleted once I delivered our stuff to our accountant.

1a-This Week  I use this for the recipes that I am making this week.  I needed a way to indicate that they are planned for somewhere between 1-Now and 2-Next and this works out fine.

2-Next  After I finish the 1-Now tasks or projects or if I'm looking for something else to do really soon, this is the tag I look under.

Here are some of my 2-Next notes.  Some refer to projects, some refer to random little things that I want or need to do soon, a couple of them are activities with Gracie which may not really be in the near future, but I do want to do.

2b-Waiting  This tag is for notes that need to be acted upon soon, but I'm waiting for someone else to do something so that I can go further with that item.  Three of these items are Honey-Do items.  One is a reminder to get people to get an insurance quote from State Farm and mention my name so that I can earn a $10 gift card.  (No strings attached.)

3-Soon.  These are for items that are a little down the road, perhaps within the next few months.  It may be that I know I do not have the time to do it now, but want to do it soon.

4-Later.  These are for items that I know I want to do, but will have to wait sometime.

5-Someday  These are for items that are some day in the future, but who knows when they can be done.  Want-to-but-don't-hold-your-breath.

The nice thing about these tags is that over time you can review the items with particular tags and change them to a different .when.  For example, in my Memphis Things to Do Notebook, I have 17 different things listed.  See the screenshot below:

Most of these are places that I will go to with Gracie.  We recently visited the Memphis Railroad and Trolley Museum with some friends and wanted to ride the downtown trolley, but the trolley line was closed down due to a fire incident.  I have marked those two items as 2-Next because I want to go there before any of the other places.   3-Soon are for places that I know I can visit soon without too much trouble. (By the way, in case you're wondering, the cemetery one is to scout out for a photoshoot location.)  Since spring has arrived and the weather is nicer, I can see where I can change some of the tags on these (the Zoo, for example).

6- . . . umm, where did it go?  Hmmm....obviously, I deleted it, but I don't remember what it said.

7-Weekend  I saw where someone used this to indicate tasks that were to be done on a weekend.  I haven't used this and I probably won't.

8-Did This.  To date, once I've completed something, I've deleted it from Evernote.  I'll keep it in case I want to keep notes for something I did.

That's enough for one post.  I'll continue talking about the .Where, .Who, and .Misc tags in the next post (or two).

Do you see how useful the tags are for time management and setting priorities?  What else can you think of to add?





{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Intro to the Series

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Calendars

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Evernote

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Evernote, Part 2

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Evernote, Part 3

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Wunderlist

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  AnyList

{Almost} Paperless Organizing:  Final Thoughts

Preparing for a Disaster, Part 1: Backing up your computer

One of my biggest nightmares is the thought of losing my computer files, especially the thousands of photos I've taken over the years, and MOST especially, the ones of my daughter.  I know that it is inevitable that, one day, I will lose my files or they will be corrupted and irretrievable.  For that reason, I am making preparations to be able to retrieve my photos and files.

When we first bought our iMac two years ago, my husband also bought a Time Capsule (external hard disk drive) to be used to back up my computer files.  (You can read how to set it up here.)  It's been working great, for the most part. However, about a year ago, it had a problem where it couldn't find the backup files (gave me a heart attack!) and I had to make it start a brand-new backup on the Time Capsule.  It has very recently been telling me that it is running out of room and has been deleting the oldest backups.  What I plan to do is to reformat the drive and start over with a fresh backup of the computer.  Before I can do that, I need to have an online backup of my computer files.

I know what you're thinking!  "Shouldn't the external hard drive be enough?  Won't an online backup be overkill?"  Remember, I collect photos like some old ladies collect cats.  Also, if you are a mother, you know how precious photos of your children are to you.  Besides that, what if we have a fire and the Time Capsule is lost forever?  What if someone breaks into our home and steals my computer and even the Time Capsule?  There are far too many frightening scenarios to think about that warrant the extra backup.

A few weeks ago, I began a trial run with Carbonite.  It offers behind-the-scenes backup of not only your computer, but your smartphone as well.  You do not have to have a paid account with Carbonite to use the smartphone app.  It is a free app!  There are several different levels of service from which you can choose to backup your computer.  I had one day left of my trial left when I started to upgrade to the paid service.  I was || this close to closing the deal when I discovered that, for some reason, it did not let me choose the Home Plus option which I wanted so that I could also back up an older external hard drive that I used to use with our PC laptop.  I found out from their customer service chat line that the Home Plus and Home Premier services are only available for PC/Windows-based computers, not Macs.  Not only that, but if you change your mind mid-year, they will not issue a refund.  Scratch that and back to square 1.

Through some searching of reviews (including recommendations from fellow photographers), I found out about BackBlaze.  It, too, offers a trial period, and is more economical than Carbonite.  It is a great service, and allows you to back up your external hard drives as part of the service (for PCs and for Macs).  You may add on additional computers for an additional $5/month per computer.  I just upgraded to the paid service ($95 for two years) and am still waiting for the initial backup to be completed.  Once the initial backup is completed, I will feel secure enough to reformat my Time Capsule and begin that anew.  I could also start backing up my older external hard drive -- and probably should -- but I want to reorganize the files on it first.

Summary of my Recommendations to You:

1.  Get an external hard drive to use as an on-site backup of your important files.  Backup often.  If you're really paranoid concerned, get two external hard drives and alternate backing up to them, keeping one of them offsite (in the care of a trusted friend or family member).

2.  Use an online backup service such as Carbonite or BackBlaze.  Carbonite has a free app that you can use to back up your iPhone.

Let the Potty Training Begin!

Several weeks ago, I decided that Gracie and I are now ready for the next milestone:  potty training!  I wanted to use up my supply of diapers (I hate to waste good money!) and also be able to clear my schedule as much as possible so that I can be home all day long during the training time.

I will be beginning Potty Training on Monday, February 20th.  My schedule is totally free on Monday and Tuesday.  I have an early appointment on Wednesday, Wednesday night is church (I am scheduled for nursery duty -- that is a happy coincidence.), Thursday is ladies prayer group, and I have another appointment that day as well.



I already have a potty chair (see above link) that I bought last summer.  She has used it several times in the last few months.  In the last few weeks, she has said, "I wan' pa-ee" ("I want to potty."), and I've taken her to the potty.  I think she likes the novelty of sitting there and reading books more than anything because she hasn't actually gone potty.  In the last couple of weeks, when I've caught her going poop in her diaper, I've asked her, "Do you want to go poop on the potty?" and she indicated some interest.  So far, she has pooped in the potty four times!  She has also pooped in her diaper a few times, but I'm happy with the progress.  My favorite tip is to use coffee filters in the potty chair to catch the poop.  Best tip ever!  Dump the poop in the adult toilet, dispose of the coffee filter, and wipe the potty chair with a cleaning wipe.  Done.

Also several months ago, I found a toy potty chair for dolls at Target.  She enjoyed playing with it for a while.  It's been out-of-sight for a couple of months (not intentional at first).  I'm saving it for next week, so we can do some pretend with her babies.

In preparation, I also bought a potty ring to put on our big toilets.  Even though the potty chair comes with a removable ring that can be used on adult toilets, it doesn't fit our elongated toilets.  I let Gracie choose which one she wanted, and she chose Pooh Bear.  I'm glad I have it because I can take it with me if I'm going to be out and about for long periods of time (plus it'll be more sanitary for her. Public toilets are so gross!).  I keep this potty ring in the small hall bathroom.  The potty chair is in the master bathroom which has more room.

I asked for potty training tips on Facebook and got a lot of great ideas.  I was unsure as to whether or not I should use pullups at all.  I had already bought a box (that also came with a pretty much useless potty training DVD and a potty reminder watch which I don't even know where it is at the moment) several months ago.  (I'm a planner and I like to be prepared!)  Based on the great Mama tips, I decided to get the Gerber Training Pants (plain white) for daytime use and the Gerber Training Pants with waterproof cover (for girls) for nighttime and out-of-the-house use.





Once she is sufficiently trained, I will give her big girl panties (which I already have and she has already seen) for a big reward.

I also plan on using a chart and stickers for rewards for staying dry and making it to the potty.

I've read several books and articles on potty training, and the one listed below (Potty Training in Three Days by Lois Kleint) is the main method I'm using



I'm somewhat nervous about this new stage of her life, but I'm excited, too.  I do think she is ready; I just hope we can both have a successful time of it.

If I remember and have time, I will give updates on our progress.

Why I Am an iPhone Fan

Gracie plays with my iPhone 4.  At age 19 months, she is quite adept at navigating the screens and finding her games.

What's not to love about an iPhone? It's a beautiful cell phone with a bright, engaging touch screen. It has access to thousands, if not millions, of apps that can do many wondrous things. You can use it to view photos and videos, to listen to music via the iPod app, to communicate with people via email, text, or voice, and even to surf the web. It is a marvelous invention!

Although I had heard of the iPhone and iPod for several months or maybe a couple of years, I didn't really understand what was so special about them until I looked at the demo version of the iPhone 3 at the local AT&T store in the mall. Although I've been a techie-geek-type for many years, I was pretty much out of the loop at that time. I still remember what impressed me most about the iPhone and what started me drooling over it: YouTube. I thought it was so neat that you could pull up any video you wanted. I would always pull up this video which shows one of my favorite singing groups at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, singing one of my favorite songs "What a Saviour He Is."

About 2-1/2 years ago, I began looking at phones since I knew that my contract would be ending in July. I was hesitant to get the iPhone because of the expense ($200 for the iPhone, an extra $30 monthly charge for the data plan). I looked at a number of different phones, but always came back to the iPhone.

On May 9, which was a Saturday, my husband Robert and I went out on the town. I don't remember where we ate that day, but I remember he said he had a surprise for me. We went driving towards the mall, and I said, "Oh, are we going to AT&T?" He had a perplexed, surprised look on his face, and he said, "Why do you say that?" I can't remember my reply, but it had to do with something he had mentioned wanting to do. I had no idea that we were going to go there to get me a new iPhone!! It was an exciting time. I still remember the salesgirl who took care of the transaction. You may wonder why Robert chose this particular day to surprise me with my iPhone. After all, my birthday was still more than a month away. The special occasion was that the next day, Sunday, was Mother's Day. Although we would not be sure for another week, we thought we were pregnant with our first child, my beautiful daughter Gracie. Robert was taking it on faith that we were expecting and wanted to make this First Mother's Day a special one for me! The next day, he had a balloon for me that said "It's a Girl" This was a very special weekend for me. All you mothers should understand. There's nothing like wanting children for ever-so-long, and finally having that dream come true.

There's not a day that goes by that I do not use my iPhone. I do not like to talk on the phone (probably a holdover from being a telemarketer and then a customer service representative for three years), but I do like having a phone with me where-ever I go. I do not keep a file of contact information on the computer like I used to. It's all on my phone. (incidentally, it's also synced with Google so that I do have access on my computer and there's little worry that I'll lose the information.)

I use the Cozi app (also available on the computer) to keep track of important events and appointments. You can have Cozi send you a reminder text which really comes in handy.

With the Google Maps and Yellow Pages apps, I can find the nearest location and contact information for certain businesses and get directions for how to get there!

I can also keep in touch with my social media using the Echofon (for Twitter), Facebook, and Byline (for reading blogs) apps.

Blogger has just put out an app that enables me to post on my blog. I usually use it to type out ideas to use in future posts which I save as drafts. At this very moment, I am using this app to continue writing this post as I sit on the couch with Robert who is watching some guy movie.

There are some fun games to play including Words with Friends. Robert and I will sit in the same room and play each other. When I was pregnant with Gracie, I got hooked on the game Gold Rush. I was determined to get three stars on every level, so I made maps of each on graph paper (told you I was a geek!).

Right before Gracie was born, Robert tried out a couple of other smartphones and finally decided that nothing beats the iPhone! He got the iPhone 3GS which has video. He was able to use his phone to take videos of Gracie right after she was born (even though a nurse had told us this was not allowed as I was having a c-section). These videos are very precious to me.

Robert has used his phone to do online stock trading. We both use our phones to do google searches and other Internet research when we are away from the computer. The screens are rather small for this (which is why mobile versions of websites are so nice), so we have to pinch and zoom quite a bit. Even so, it is very handy to have a world of information at our fingertips.

Fourteen months ago, my husband got me the iPhone 4 for my birthday. This phone is much more improved over the iPhone 3 with better reception, better resolution, better photos, and better video over the iPhone 3GS.

My daughter inherited my old iPhone 3GS and LOVES it! We have misplaced it twice. The first time was right after our Christmas trip to see family. I finally found it camouflaged in my backpack while getting ready to go to my mom's this last June. The second time was last week, and we still haven't found it. Please pray that we do find it. It's a great educational tool and keeps her entertained.  UPDATE:  The iPhone has been found!  Hooray and Praise the Lord!  It was in a plastic bowl in my pantry.  A little squirrel put it there.

The only negative I can really think of is that when we go visit my mom in rural South Mississippi, we do not get good reception.  Unfortunately, Mama is not part of the "97% of Americans" that AT&T boasts having coverage for.  With my original iPhone 3, I got NO coverage whatsoever.  With Robert's iPhone 3GS, I think he gets spotty at best coverage.  With my iPhone 4, I surprisingly am able to make and receive calls and texts.  My internet capability is spotty at best.  That is only at my mom's house.  At my Grandparents' house, which is just across the road and down a few hundred feet, I can only use the phone on the front porch.

Rumor has it that the new iPhone 5 will be coming out in mid-October.  If you are in the market for a new iPhone, I would definitely wait until the iPhone comes out and either get the new iPhone 5 or get the iPhone 4 which should be deeply discounted, much like the iPhone 3GS was last Christmas.

If you're not an AT&T fan, you also have the option of getting the iPhone through Verizon, and beginning with the iPhone 5, through Sprint as well.  From what I understand, the Verizon phone is different (not as good) as the AT&T phone.  I don't know how different the Sprint version will be.

I'm not sure how long ago, but AT&T changed their data usage from unlimited to limited with new iPhone customers.  Because Robert and I were existing customers, we kept our unlimited data plan.  I do believe that Verizon also offers a limited data plan, but I've read that Sprint will be offering an unlimited data plan.  You'll have to check that out for yourself, though.

Looking at AT&T's website, there are three data plans available for the iPhone 4:  4 Gb ($45), 2 Gb ($25), and 200 Mb ($15).  I just looked at our AT&T bills for this year and noticed that with the exception of the January bill, I have not gone over 1 Gb of data usage.  The January bill showed over 2 Gb of data usage.  This was quite surprising to me. It seems that we could actually go with one of the limited data plans and save money in the long run.  The overage fine is $10 per 1 Gb (It does not say if that is a prorated amount.)

Special Updated Section:  How to Find a Lost iPhone (without totally losing your mind)

How to Enable and Use Find My iPhone for Free on iPhone 3GS and Other Pre-2010 Devices -- This will work for the iPhone 3 IF you have a newer device as well.

 Find a Lost iPhone:  Putting Tracking Apps to the Test
(I have only tried one of these apps.)

14 Ways to Find a Lost or Stolen iPhone

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In future posts, I will be highlighting various apps.  If there is anything else you would like to know about, please leave a comment below.

You may want to read the comments below for more information on the iPhone.

Why I Became a New Fan of Pinterest

This is a continuation of an article about Evernote.  To read that article, click here.

I started reading about Pinterest a couple of months ago. I visited the site, and initially wasn't too excited about it. It looked like visual overload to me. Kinda like looking at the community bulletin board at the library: a collection of mishmash that looks like a random mosaic. I don't know about you, but it wearies my mind to think about looking at each item. That's what Pinterest reminded me of.

However, I read that a number of people LOVED it, so I requested an invite to use it.  Later I read about how you can put a "pin it" in your bookmark toolbar. I put one in half-heartedly. A few days ago, I tried it, and was instantly wowed.

I don't recall which article was, but I hit "pin it" on my bookmark toolbar. Up came a new popup window showing all of the pictures on that page.  Below is a screen shot of when I hit Pin It for a blog post telling about how to make slime.

I selected a picture, and clicked on Pin It. Another popup allowed me to write a caption for the picture and put the pinned photo into a board (category).

Later when I viewed the board, I clicked the picture that I had pinned, and it took me back to that article!  This is the one thing that I didn't know about Pinterest.  I just thought it allowed people to collect pictures of interesting things.

I immediately saw the advantage of using Pinterest over Evernote for items that contain photos.  Rather than use up a limited amount of space allowed on Evernote, I can pin it to Pinterest which uses very little space since it's essentially a link to the original article and picture.  (Note:  I just read that there is a limit to how many pins and boards you can have, but I do not know what that limit is.  I also read that a quick way to tag things you like is to "like" the pin rather than "repin" it.  You can later go to your profile page and categorize the pins that you liked.)  I do still like to use Evernote for text-based information (such as recipes).

For you fellow iDevice users, there is now a free Pinterest app!

For bloggers, you can possibly increase traffic to your blog by pinning a few pictures from your posts.  Use caution as it goes against Pinterest etiquette to overuse this strategy.

If you would like an invitation to try out Pinterest, please email me at mrsavakinsey@gmail.com

The EASY Way to Change Closed Captioning for AT&T U-Verse

We have only had AT&T U-Verse for a short time, about six months or so.  We love the new service, but there is one thing (besides the fact that we do not get the Hallmark Channel!) that we do NOT love:  the tedious process we have to go through to turn closed captioning on and off!

Although I am hearing impaired (since infancy due to being born three months prematurely), I don't usually need the closed captioning, but it does make it easier for me at times.  Plus, I like catching their mistakes!  My husband doesn't really like having the words on the screen -- especially when he's watching his financial news shows, in which case he turns it off -- but he tolerates it for me.  We have to switch back and forth and this is a 30-click process!  You may wonder why we do not do it from our TV.  That is because we have an older, tube TV and I have not ever been able to find the option using the TV menu from the original TV remote control.

Then, last night, my darling 18-month-old "wonder child," was playing with the remote and to my GREAT surprise, activated the TV Closed Captioning!  The funny thing was that the TV started showing double closed-captions -- from both AT&T U-Verse AND the television!  Makes for a crazy case of double vision!

I immediately started trying to figure out she did it (fortunately, she was pressing the same buttons) and discovered that turning Closed Captioning on and off is now a simple 3-click process!!  Gotta love that!

Now here's how YOU can do it, too!

1.  Using your AT&T U-Verse remote control, press the TV button at the very top (just to the right of the AT&T button).

2.  Press the Exit to TV button that is located to the "northwest" of the yellow triangle.

This will make "TV CC: Off" pop up on the screen as shown below.

3.  Use the right arrow key to change "off" to "1" as shown below. You can cycle through the whole selection of Closed Captioning options, but this is the one that I use.

There you go!  Closed Captioning has been activated.

One thing to note is that when you turn your AT&T U-verse off, it will automatically reset the Closed Captioning to "off."  Now that you know how, it's a simple 3-click process to turn it back on!

Another advantage is that now we can have closed captioning for when we play DVDs rather than going through the process of turning on subtitles which may or may not be available on the DVD.

This may not work for all TVs (if not, leave a comment), but hopefully, it will work for you!

UPDATE:  I did try this procedure when I watched a DVD that we own and it worked fine. However, when we rented a couple of movies from Redbox, it didn't work at all!  I could change it to 1, but it wouldn't do it.  I don't know why.

UPDATE #2:  One of my Anonymous readers posted this great tip in the comments:  "If you press the ENTER key at the bottom right of the remote, it will bring up a VIEWING OPTIONS menu on the side of your screen. Scroll down to CLOSED CAPTIONS and hit OK on the remote and then choose ON or OFF for the captions. Fewer steps this way! :-)"  That pretty much made my day!  I can't wait to show my husband!