{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

New Year's Goals and a Few Tips

Hello all!

I know I have been very negligent about blogging lately.  One of my New Year's Goals is to blog more often.  I'm shooting for once a week.

We had a great Christmas.  We enjoyed the day together opening presents and playing.  Gracie loved her skates as I knew she would.  Robert enjoyed his lamb dinner as I hoped he would.  I got a new lens for my camera (Nikon 40 mm 2.8 micro).  I haven't tried the macro part out yet, but I have done a family portrait session with it.  I've barely started editing photos, but so far, I'm very happy with the photos.

We spent the weekend after Christmas at my mom's.  Gracie always loves seeing her Mia, Papa, Uncle Steve, and Buster.  It was just a short two-night stay.  Then we went to Georgia to visit with Robert's brother and sister and families and had a great time there as well.  Gracie loved playing with her cousins.

Most of my New Year's Goals are monthly goals in various areas.  I think, mentally, it's easier to stick with something for a month and then continue than to try to do something for a year and get discouraged when it doesn't last.  At least that's what I'm hoping.  My overall goal for 2014 is to get more healthy by losing weight and increasing my overall physical fitness.  For January, my goal is to cut way down on sugar.  I am not drinking sodas and am drinking more water.  I haven't had much sweets (just some pieces of fudge because who can resist fudge at Christmastime?), and I do drink juice in the mornings to give me a little extra boost.

My goal is also to be more consistent with reading my Bible.  So far, I've not missed a day!  I do my reading at night because that's what suits my schedule best. (I wish I were a morning person, but I am not!)  Our church is reading the whole Bible collectively this month, and it's fun to participate in that (I am reading Mark and Leviticus this month in addition to my regular schedule; Robert is reading a few books, but I don't know which ones; and I signed Gracie up for the book of Jude which I will read to her.)

I have other goals which I can share later.  I wanted to share some tips with you.  Today was kind of a If You Give a Mouse a Cookie kind of day because one thing led to another.  (A bloggy friend of mine wrote a blog post about HER recent If You Give a Mouse a Cookie day entitled If You Give a Mom a New Chair.  I like her blog and recommend you take a look!)

First, I needed to change the tablecloth to a new one.  I get the vinyl ones to protect the tabletop, which is almost a waste of time because the tabletop has already lost some of its color from packing tape accidentally getting stuck and then being ripped off of it.  (Not happy about that - I would expect that stain would be more soaked-in than that.)  I like the vinyl tablecloths because they are easy to clean, but a problem I have with them is that they slide around too easily.  I figured out a solution a few months back:  use shelf liner (the rubbery stuff) in between the tabletop and the tablecloth.  It doesn't work perfectly because my husband and my daughter are not as careful about keeping the tablecloth straight as I am, but it does work better than not having it on.

Use Shelf Liner between the tabletop and tablecloth to keep the vinyl tablecloth from sliding around.

Here is the new vinyl tablecloth.  I prefer the ones that have a small print or are almost solid so it doesn't look so busy with all the stuff on it.

While I was at Dollar Tree today, I bought some large stretchy headbands to put on the (children's) game boxes so that they would not come apart and dump the contents all over the place.

Use large, stretchy headbands to keep game boxes closed.

 While putting the bands on the games, I took the opportunity to straighten up the games at the bottom of the closet.  (My not-for-little-kids games are at the top of the closet.)  This is our front closet.  Ever since putting in our Mini Mudroom*, I emptied out the closet of our coats (except that Robert put a few of his back in), and my plan is to put shelves in this closet to hold games, some toys (Legos, play-doh, Lincoln logs) and whatever else I can fit in there.

I just realized I never blogged about our Mini Mudroom.  I will put that on the docket to do soon.

I straightened up the children's games at the bottom of the closet.

I keep Gracie's portable DVD player that we mostly use for car trips.  I have the case hanging on a hanger.

Use a hanger to hang up your portable DVD player.

I also keep a few blankets in this closet, but, until today, they were kind of shoved in there with games on top, bottom, and in between.  Until I get my shelves put in, I decided to hang them on hangers to be more accessible.  The white blanket in front is one that I bought at Hudson's Salvage Store in Hattiesburg, MS, in 1991 or 1992 when I was a junior in college.  I bought it for only $3!  It has served as a doggy car blanket, picnic blanket, and a curl-up-on-the-couch-on-a-cold-day blanket!  It is a thick cotton blanket that is easily washable.

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Hang blankets on hangers to make them more accessible.

A day or two ago, I read a great tip on Organizing Made Fun (or maybe watching her video when she appeared on a KTLA talk show, can't remember) where she hung her husband's hats on shower rings that are on a hanger.  Before today, my husband's caps were on an over-the-door coat/hat rack on the inside of the front closet door.

Hang ball caps on shower rings which are on a hanger.

Here is the inside of the front closet door with the empty hat rack.  The flowery bag is our library book bag, and the thing on the right is Gracie's tool belt.

We also have Gracie's bike helmet hung on this door.

My mom will be visiting us in a couple of weeks for Gracie's birthday.  Since the closet in the room where she sleeps (The Learning Room) is full of stuff, I moved the hat rack to that closet door for her to use to hang her clothes on.  There is also room enough in the front closet for her to hang more clothes if she needs to.

My very messy closet in the Learning Room.  It houses photography supplies, craft supplies, and who knows what else!

This is the door going into The Learning Room (formerly called The Room with the Big Window).  I did have just the hook on the right with various bags and aprons hanging on it.  The hook on the left also used to hang on the front closet door and was only used to hang Gracie's felt play scenes (which I never got out this year because I thought they were in the attic and only just realized a few days ago that they are in the messy closet shown above.) and a Spring wreath that my sister-in-law made me a year or two ago.

My husband just put up a Family sign (which can hold small photos) and Gracie's Baby Dedication certificate which pretty much completes the gallery wall in our living room.  I will post a photo on Instagram (Follow me here) later tonight.

Today pretty much caps off a fairly productive week around here despite my having a cold in the middle of it.  I was able to take down Christmas stuff and straighten up most of the rooms in the house, AND mop the kitchen floor!  Gracie's room is currently a disaster, so I think I will work with her on cleaning that up tonight.

Thank you for your patience in waiting for me to blog!  I hope to pop in at least once a week with projects and to continue various series that I started but never finished.

Merry Christmas!

Here is this year's Christmas card!

This photo was taken at the mall behind the Santa Claus setup.  Most of Gracie's Christmas photos have been taken here.

Her hair looks so blonde here!

The top photo was taken here at home, fully on manual!  (Photog-speak for "I adjusted all the settings myself!"   [Nikon D7000, 50 mm 1.8 lens, 1/125 s, f/1.8, ISO 1600]

The bottom photo was taken May 2013 at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, MO.  My friend Valerie took the photo for us!

I ordered 4x6 postcards from http://www.gotprint.net. The set of 250 full-color on front and back postcards cost just under $50 including 2-day air shipping.  I bought boxes of envelopes from Walmart, 50 to a box at $4.50 each.  I still have lots left over even after mailing out a bunch and handing out a bunch at church.  I will take some to my mom's in case she wants to hand any out.  I'm very happy with the quality as well as the price.  The price per card + envelope comes out to be 30 cents each.

This Christmas season has not turned out exactly what I would've liked, in some ways.  I wanted to do a lot of fun activities, but due to a variety of factors, it just didn't work out that way.

I did manage to do the Elf on the Shelf thing.  Our elf is named Noelle.  Last year, Gracie called her 'Elle, I'm guessing because she usually hears, "No" in front of a name; hence, she thought I was saying, "No, 'Elle."  This year, she has done better, but has also called her "No-elf."  I picked the name because I thought it was pretty.  I didn't realize it would cause some confusion when Gracie heard "The First Noel"  "Mommy!  They're singing about Noelle!"

I use Noelle to deliver a couple of Christmas books each day.  Sometimes she gets into funny situations like tying Christmas ribbon to use for a swing from the ceiling fan or getting stuck in the M&M jar.  Other times she has fun reading to Pooh bear and other friends or taking Owl for a ride to the North Pole in the plane.  Several times, Noelle has written Gracie a note that is clothespinned to the Christmas tree.  It's fun to watch Gracie giggle over these antics.  I tell her "I like Santa Claus!  Santa Claus is a FUN game we play, isn't it?" I don't think it has sunk in that it's all make-believe, but she'll understand over time.

It's been fun to watch her grasp more details about Baby Jesus' birth.  Most of the Christmas books are about The Christmas Story, plus she's learned about it in Sunday School over the last few weeks.

I feel like I missed out on a several local activities this year.  I wanted to go to a live nativity program at a church in Germantown, but we had an ice storm that weekend.  I also wanted to go to Dickens on the Square in Covington, but Robert was sick that weekend (and then Gracie got sick, and then I got sick...).  We only rode around our neighborhood once to look at Christmas lights -- not very impressive compared to the animated lights and music displays that we have seen in the past in other areas.  I did take Gracie to see the Enchanted Forest at the Pink Palace museum today.  They have a variety of Christmas trees decorated by individuals or groups as well as a number of animated scenes and a gingerbread village display.

Gracie has really become excited about wrapping presents.  She helped me wrap some, and I let her wrap whatever she wanted to.  She wrapped pieces of cardboard tubes, her jack-in-the-box, some shoes, some socks, and I'm not sure what else.  I guess we'll find out when we open presents tomorrow!  She has been begging to open presents for the last two days.  That alone makes me glad I waited before wrapping presents.  She actually tore into her biggest present.  Fortunately, it was an Amazon box, so she didn't spoil her surprise (and I know she will be over the moon at that gift!).  After I set out her gifts, she wanted to know which ones were hers, so I showed her her name on one, and said, "You know how to spell your name.  Look on the other presents to find your name."  She enjoyed that, and it became a great exercise in name recognition.

Tomorrow will be somewhat of a low-key day.  As soon as Gracie wakes up and realizes it is Christmas, we'll go into the living room, open up stockings and presents.  We'll probably have chocolate chip pancakes and/or blueberry muffins for breakfast.  We'll play, play, play all day.  Or most of the day.  My husband has been diligently working on a project for work and he will probably devote some time to that.  I asked him what he wanted me to fix for Christmas dinner, and he said, "If you're feeling adventurous, you can try cooking lamb."  So that is party of his Christmas present.  Kroger's only had one kind of lamb, some lamb chops.  I found a recipe online for Lamb Tagine which requires about 8 or more different spices, five of which I had to buy, and, actually, one of those I refused to buy (saffron which costs $12 a bottle for two little pieces!).  I also got a turkey breast which I'll cook in the crockpot.  I'll be able to eat that and then freeze the remainder.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Book Review: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp + Giveaway

A couple of months ago, I was approached by a publicist to read and write a review for the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  I had heard of this book, and had read at least one or two glowing reviews for it (by a friend of a Facebook friend), so I accepted the kind offer.

Unfortunately, it has taken me more than a month to finish the book and only by sheer determination.  As a whole, it's not a bad book.  The author writes in a beautiful, poetical style.  She is definitely a gifted writer.  However, I had a hard time getting into it.








Here are the words that the publicist shared with me about Ann and One Thousand Gifts:

Aside from being a New York Times bestselling author and popular blogger, Ann is a homeschooling mother of six. She is no stranger to the difficulties of motherhood – and life.

In the book and on her blog, Voskamp shares her own journey through hard, dark days and hidden fears as she seeks to answer one of life’s greatest riddles: how do you discover joy—right where you are?

I'll share a few quotes, mostly from the beginning of the book.

p. 15:  "Satan's sin becomes the first sin of all humanity: the sin of ingratitude.  Adam and Eve, are simply, painfully, ungrateful for what God gave."

p. 29:  "How does one live ready, and always?  Yes, ultimately only Jesus.  Yes, this premature dying to self, birthing into the cross-life, the grace cocoon before emerging into the life unending.  Without this Jesus, no, no one can be ready."

p. 32-33: "That's what I was struggling out of nightmares to reach, to seize.  Joy.  But where can I seize this holy grail of joy?  I look back down to the page.  Was this the clue to the quest of all most important?  Deep chara joy is found only at the table of the euCHARisteo -- the table of thanksgiving.  I sit there long . . . wondering . . . is it that simple?"

For the rest of the book, she talks much about eucharisteo.

p. 48-49:  ". . . but he {Martin Luther} did say, "If you want to change the world, pick up your pen."  I just like that quote.  She used this quote to inspire her as she was listing her one thousand gifts from God.

p. 59: "And I see it now for what this really is, this dare to write down one thousand things I love.  It really is a dare to name all the ways that God loves me.  The true Love Dare.  To move into His presence and listen to His love unending and know the grace uncontainable.  This is the vault of the miracles.  The only thing that can change us, the world, is this -- all His love."

I stopped taking notes after that because I just wanted to finish the book already.

Eventually, towards the end of the book, she drew another conclusion about attainging joy through service to others and used the words of Tagore to describe it:  "I slept and dreamt life was joy, I awoke and saw life was service, I acted, and, behold, service was joy."

The last chapter is titled the joy of intimacy.  She writes as the first line: "I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God."  If this chapter had been left out of the book, I could've given a recommendation of "it didn't jive with me, but maybe you'll like it."  With this chapter, based on some difficult experiences with a former preacher and his crazy theology, that chapter turned me just about completely off.  Still I read every word, well, mostly.

This review on Amazon pretty much says what I would like to say, only better.

Gracie's Tool Belt

Ever since Robert let Gracie "help" with some of his projects and I gave her some small tools in her Christmas stocking, Gracie has been begging me to make her a tool belt.  I finally found a great tutorial online and made the time to make her one.

I made the tool belt like the one at One {hip} Mom, with a couple of changes:  I put red piping at the top of the pockets and the ties.  I also added three glitter buttons for decoration.

If I could do anything differently, I would put elastic in the hammer loop as it's rather big.  I would also sew the buttons on the pockets before sewing the pockets onto the main part of the tool belt.  That way I could've placed them at random places instead of just at the top.  I forgot to fold the ends of the ties, so I had to cut the ends with my pinking shears (zig-zag scissors).  I think they would've been too thick for my machine to sew anyway.

All in all I'm very happy with how it turned out!  Gracie is happy with it, and that's the important thing!  She immediately wanted to go out and "fix" her bike.

Pinspiration from One {hip} Mom

Rainbow Rice

This post is long overdue!  I can tell from the photo that I did this last summer, sometime after the Worst Haircut Ever (see story at bottom of this post).  This photo is so cute to me because she is wearing an old T-shirt that I owned as a child (when I was about 6 or 7).  She looks a lot like me at the same age.

There are many pins on Pinterest on making Rainbow Rice.  Some involve using rubbing alcohol and food coloring.  Others involve using Koolaid.  The best method for me was using the rubbing alcohol and food coloring.  The Koolaid one didn't work as well, and it smelled funny.

First you pour a little bit of rubbing alcohol (helpful hint: don't use the wintergreen flavored rubbing alcohol.  It has a funny smell.) in a bowl and drop at least 20 drops of your food coloring in (I did 30 drops).  The more food coloring you use, the brighter the colors will be.  Pour in your rice (and/or pasta) and mix well.  Pour the colored rice onto wax paper (which I put on baking sheets) and let dry.  You can stir the rice around until it dries completely.

As you can see, I used an old tablecloth on the floor just in case Gracie spilled any.  She had fun mixing and pouring.  To store, I poured it into two Tide Pods containers.

I recently got the rainbow rice out again for her to play with, this time I let her play on the kitchen table.  I bought an oil drip pan (a large round container that is fairly deep) at Dollar Tree to use for manipulative activities such as this.  It has a spout which makes for a little bit easier cleanup and is easy to wash up.

One of the best places to get cups and funnels, spoons and colanders, and other fun things to use for rainbow rice or sand and water play is Dollar Tree.  They are fun to use and not a lot out of pocket if they get lost or damaged.

"Worst Haircut Ever" Story
Gracie was born with hair, but not a lot of hair.  I have been patiently waiting throughout her short little life for her hair to grow out long.  I have been taking her to get trims since she was about 1-1/2 years old so that her hair can look nice and neat while it is growing out.  My favorite hairdresser got married and moved to Georgia about four years ago and it has been difficult to find a replacement at a price I don't mind paying.  (I'm cheap when it comes to paying for haircuts!)  One place I like is Fantastic Sams down past the mall towards Lakeland.  They have nice people and it is a very relaxing atmosphere.

Last summer, I discovered that there was a Fantastic Sams closer to us (Germantown Parkway and Dexter Road, next door to Kroger).  I decided to use them since they were closer.  The owner cut both my hair and Gracie's hair.  I told him, very specifically, that I wanted her bangs cut (out of her eyes) and the back of her hair only trimmed a little bit because I wanted to grow out her hair.  So what did he do?  He cut most of the back off of her hair, then combed her hair forward from the crown of her head covering her forehead and trimmed her bangs -- the exact opposite of what I told him to do.  Not only that, but who cuts hair like that?

He cut my hair fine, but he set back Operation Grow Long Hair back by a year!  Needless to say, I have not been back there.  They took my phone number, and I've always said that if they call me, I will tell them I will NEVER go back to them again!  Gracie's hair looks much better now.  The back is slowly growing.  She has bangs and the sides are cut at an angle while they've been growing out properly.

Favorite iPhone Apps and Tips

I'm excited because my friend Valerie, who blogs over at Valerie Write Now, just got a new iPhone!  We have been tearing up the cell phone waves texting about different features, and I got motivated enough to want to write a blog post (or two or ten) about my favorite iPhone apps and tips.

A Few Tips

1.  Tip #1:  How to Take a Screen Shot
Hold down the home button and the power button at the same time and release.  It will "blink" and make a noise like it is taking a photo.  I use this all the time to save information (e.g. conversations on Facebook) to use at a later time or even to send to people.

2.  Tip #2:  How to Send a Screen Shot (or photo) to Someone
After taking your screen shot, go to your photo album, view your photo, select the little arrow in the bottom right of the photo, select message (or email or any of the other options).

3.  Tip #3:  Restrictions
If you have children, I recommend you go into the Restrictions (Settings, General, Restrictions, enter password) settings and turn the deleting apps OFF.  That way, when children use your phone, they cannot accidentally delete your favorite apps.  They will be able to move them around, but not delete them.  When you want to delete any apps, go into restrictions, turn it to ON, delete the app, and then go back and turn the restriction OFF.


Favorite Apps

Here is my home screen:

Home Screen

Here are the apps:

First Row:
Calendar:  I actually do not use this.  I do like how it always has the date on the icon.
Notes:  This app is great for taking notes.  You can have a lot of different notes.
Photos (Photo Album):   Your screen shots and camera photos are stored here.  Also, if you are on Instagram, you can tell it to store your Instagram photos.  You can also set up albums (took me forever to figure out how), but I don't really use that feature.
Camera:  Use this app for taking photos.

Second Row:
App Store:  The number on the icon (called icon badge) shows how many of my apps need to be updated.  This is where you will find and install your apps.
Paperless:  This is a great app for making lists.  I like it so much that I bought the paid version which I think was $2.99.
Cozi:  http://www.cozi.com  This is the app I use to put in appointments for our family calendar.  They have other great features, too.
Clock:  Timer, Stopwatch, and Alarm Clock.  You can set as many alarms as you want!

Third Row:
Instagram:  Fun app where users share photos (that have been edited with their special filters).  You can like and comment on others' photos.  My username is MrsKinsey.
Twitter:  Tweet here.  The only thing I don't like about this app is that I can't add specific users to my lists.  I have to do that on the computer.  My username is MrsKinsey.
Facebook:  Social Media aka biggest time waster ever, but oh-so-fun!
Show of Hands:  This is a fun app that has various polls with only two answers from which to choose.  You can view the stats for each question based on political party, gender, age, and income.  My username is MrsKinsey.

Fourth Row:
Pinterest:  I love me some Pinterest!  If you do, too, get this app!
Gmail:  I read my regular home email on here.
Words with Friends:  Fun game that is like Scrabble.  My username is AvaKinsey but you can find me through Facebook.  I like this game, but I'm also kinda off-and-on about playing.
Kindle:  I read my many ebooks on this app.

Fifth Row:
Pages:  Here is where I post and view my blog Facebook page and my photography Facebook page.
Amish Wisdom:  Fun app sponsored by author Suzanne Fisher.
Simple Bible:  My Bible app. (I'm pretty sure it's free.)  If you see me on my phone in church, I promise you I'm reading the Bible on this app!
Say the Same Thing:  New fun game.  You have to be Facebook friends with me in order to play with me.

Sixth Row: (The apps on this row show up on all of the screens.)
Phone:  For making calls
Mail:  I have a Gmail email account that I use only on the iPhone.
Safari:  iPhone browser
Messages:   Text messages

Second Page
While on the home page, if I swipe to the left, this is the next page:
 

First Row:
Settings:  This is sometimes called iOS Settings.  You control all of the settings for your iPhone here.  I may do a future post on specific settings at a later time.
YouTube:  View and post YouTube videos here.
Maps:  Look up locations and how to get there.  This app has a far better GPS than the one in our car.
Reminders:  I don't really use this, but you can set reminders here.

Second Row:
The Weather Channel:  View the weather forecast here.
Beat the Traffic:  View current road conditions for Memphis (and other cities, but I don't know which ones)
Roku:  I don't use this, but if we lost our remote, I could use this app to control our Roku.
Google Maps:  Another Maps/GPS app.

Third Row:
ShootLocal:  For photographers to find and post favorite photoshoot locations.
PhotoBiz folder:  Some of the apps I use for my photography business.

Another tip:  To put apps in folders, press down on the icon of an app and drag it over another app.  It will automatically make a folder and put both apps in that folder.  You can drag other apps into the folder.

Yellow Pages:  For finding the contact info and location of businesses.
Netflix:  My daughter's favorite app.  Actually, we all love Netflix.

Fourth Row:
Home Routines:  I don't use this much anymore, but it's great for people who follow FlyLady.
Royalty Rewards:  I don't even know what this is.  I will delete it.
Google+: I don't use this because I have little time to view the other social media things I belong to.  I probably ought to delete it, too.  I will put these apps in a folder called Delete and when I feel like it, I'll delete them all at once.
Weebly:  This is the editing app for my photography website.

Fifth Row:
Carbonite:  Free backup for your iPhone data and photos.  If you're very new to your phone, this is a great time to start it because otherwise it will take days and days (and so far, a couple of weeks) to backup the stuff on your phone.
BackBlaze:  This is the backup I now use for my computer.  I can view my backedup files using this app.
Mail2Group:  Set up groups of people to email to at one time.  One of the things that the iPhone email (and Gmail app) is lacking is how to email to the same group of people at once without inputting all of the names every stinkin' time.  I just downloaded this app so I haven't really tried it yet.  I send out Prayer KneeMail emails to our church members and this should be a great, easy way to do it when I'm away from my computer.
OurGroceries:  I haven't tried this app yet.  It's supposed to be a good app for grocery lists.


I have MANY more apps on my phone, but they will have to wait for another post.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!