Winter Phone Wallpapers and My iPhone Home Screens and Life Updates

Here’s a couple of phone wallpapers if you would like to download them. They are from Canva. I DO have a paid version because I use this for the blog and the vlog. But they do have free wallpapers as well. I am not sure if these were ‘pro’ images or not.

I played around with my phone yesterday and uploaded “the look” for January. I also decided to share my iPhone home screens. I like to have a personalized look to mine. I have 4 main pages. All the other apps are not used often and are parked in the Library if I need them.

Home Page 1

I like to see how other people lay out their iPhones and so I thought you all might like to see mine. You can change the color of the icons now and I think even the icon themselves, but oh I think that would drive me crazy as I’ve memorized in my brain what these look like and it would sooooo throw me in a disorientation to change the color.

My needs for the home page are much different for retirement than they were for my work career days. My criteria for page 1 is to have things on it that I use every day, but I wanted it to look appealing and aesthetic. So I have a widget using ColorWidgets app (free version). The Weather (Weather Channel Widget) was a must for me. World Bible School, of course. Camera and Photos are used daily and always will stay in that position forever until I’m gone, lol. The MyRadar app is my go to when I want to see where the precipitation and storms are. It’s been faithfully accurate and I trust it the most. It’s also good for travel and storm warnings while traveling.

I use Mom’s bank app every day as I look at the account daily and check it. YouTube gets a cube holding all its relative apps: YouTube app, YouTube Studio (for my channel), and my own bank account which my YouTube monetization goes into.

Sleep gets its own cube as well. The Sleep Number app. The app contains not only my sleep data, but also contains the remote, so if the real remote is not charged, lost somewhere in the night, or for some reason gets stuck in a glitch (it did that once), I have a back up. I also use the “White Noise” app (free) for sounds to go to sleep by. I use this every night. Only sometimes if I am sickly (like lately) I will find a “healing/sleeping” YouTube to play that helps me get to sleep.

Home Page 2

Page two houses the YouTube Widget. I’m trying it out since I use YouTube a lot. So far I’ve mainly used the icon on the front page since it’s there so this is in trial mode. I don’t have room for this widget on the front page unless I moved something else.

Settings, I debated. It always seemed like it should be on page 1 but I got over it quickly. I rarely access it – about twice a week so I consoled myself by allowing it to be the 1st position single icon on that page.

Last Pass, my password app is used often. Amazon used about every other day. I was hesitant to move it to page 2, but gave in and let it go. lol. Waze got the boot to page 2 as I’m no longer driving every day. ChatGPT is on page 2 as I use it several times a week but not every day (AI, the free version).

Apple gets its own cube for the things I use or think I’ll use. I did this a couple of years ago and it’s worked well. I stuck Safari in there too, but mainly use Google as my browser on my phone when looking things up.

My Home cube contains Alexa, Nest, and Google Home – all of which have cameras and settings. There is a SpotCrime app which I rarely use. But you can see where crimes have occurred around you – thankfully there’s none so I rarely use this app. And the LG Remote app so if the remote is on the other side of the room, temporarily missing, etc., you can just use your phone,

As hard as it is, I moved my social media apps I use most often to the 2nd page. This houses instagram, Facebook and Facebook messenger. It actually helps me to stay off of it more. I have a separate cube on a later page for “all the other” social media, lol.

I did decide to try out the Facebook widget to see if I liked it. So far I like the birthday app part of it the best. But also fond of the Home Button on it because it takes me straight to my home feed. Since I have the Less Hustle More Coffee page on Facebook if I use the regular icon it often takes me to the brand page instead of my own personal page (according to where I was on it last). So I like that home button on the widget for taking me straight to my personal page. I think it’s a keeper widget!

Home Page 3

This is kindof a mix of a fun page and other tools I may need fairly often. I really put a lot of thought into this and basically page 3 is a mix of both a “fun page” and a “wouldn’t fit on page 2 page”, lol.

It’s fun to scoot over there and see the Jetpack (WordPress) widget to see how many people have visited the blog today. To its right, is the Jetpack and the WordPress app. I haven’t used WordPress app in a long time. I was afraid to delete it but pretty much everything is in JetPack for what I need. I rarely blog from my phone but can and do when we travel sometimes. Statcounter app is in there as well in that “blog cube” as it gives stats on the traffic which can be interesting and entertaining in itself.

The TOOLS Cube has the clock, calculator, and my AVG security app.

Now that I am retired, I prefer the real “hold in your hand” Bible book and devo book at home, so I scooted the Bible app to this page instead of its former spot on Home page 1. It’ll still be handy if traveling or if I need it at church. Our church directory and the Chosen app is on there. I figure maybe I’ll finish watching someday. Maybe can do that as my devotional?

My “Fun Cube” has games I like to play on the phone. Mainly is Soda Crush and Candy Crush. But there are all kinds.

The Kindle Widget is my reading app and shows the current book I am reading. I mainly use my iPad for that and love it. But sometimes when we are out if I have a few moments, I want the widget to entice me to read. By having the widget there showing the book I’m reading, helps.

The “My Info” cube has Google Drive, Evernote, and my Files. I see that I probably need to change this. I don’t ever use Google drive since I have a Mac now and use it’s cloud for my files, and I don’t ever use Evernote now that I have Notion, and the Apple “Files” app could join my “Apple Cube” from page 2. So I need to fix that.

Believe it or not I rarely refer to the Calendar app. I’m trying to use the calendar for appointments and time blocking but I just rarely reference it when I do. I prefer a planner I can hold in my hand. I always have and I can’t seem to conform. So it did not make it to page 1. I have both the apple calendar and the google one. I love the google calendar but just don’t seem to migrate to a mobile calendar.

My music cube holds my Apple Music and my Spotify music. I’m hardly ever on Spotify anymore. I have some pretty good play lists on there though and I can play it in the car I think. Not sure how it’s set up now free vs subscription. I already have an apple subscription and happy with it so not paying for another. Not yet ready to ditch Spotify app yet in case I decide to use it as I spent a lot of time developing play lists on there at one time.

The Plane Finder app is awesome (free version). You can see all the planes in the sky at any given time and place. When you click on the plane it tells what airline, where it took off from, where it’s going, how many feet it is up in the air and how fast it is going, and how much time is left in the flight. Looks like it might have the flight number as well. I’m shocked this is available to the public. I do notice that when a plane is landing the data is kinda in a hold pattern and shows it in the air longer than real time. I think that is a good idea. But I know when a plane goes over Mount Juliet in the middle of night and wakes me up (rare), I look to see “who just woke me up?” – lol. Usually it’s a low flying plane due to fogs or cloud coming in for landing on a night that there has been a lot of backups and delays.

Home Page 4

This page was intended to be a “News Source” page. So I really doused it with news widgets. But it also a parking spot for things I was not wanting to kick off to the app library or create a page 5 for (I mean why when there’s spots on page 4).

I love my Mac news 9 to 5 Widget. I’d love to have Apple News but refuse to pay for the subscription when you can get a lot of the same info or free elsewhere. So I have the Google News, NewsBreak, CNN widgets.

In the “News” cube I have AP News, local News 2, and MSN because the MSN app always has it laid out with articles I’m interested in and it remembers what I like.

So all the other non-newsy stuff is just parked. The rest of the social apps, the watch TV apps. I mean what if you get stuck in an elevator, or you are waiting in the car for someone and bored to tears. It’ll remind me that I can watch something other than youTube. lol.

My other shopping apps that I rarely use but sometimes do – Walmart and Target. I usually do orders on my computer at home, but if I need it, it’s there and handy.

The Weather Cube holds all my weather related apps: the Apple one, The Weather Channel, WSMV4 local weather, and WKRN Channel 2 local weather. I’m a weather gal. What can I say?

The photo cube has my Canva app and SnapSeed app. I hardly use either on my phone. I use Canva on my Mac but occasionally I need it for like a Wallpaper background or to grab a YouTube Thumbnail. So not comfortable with just keeping it in the App Library. I’m afraid I’ll forget about Snapseed if I let it go to the library and I like that app even if I don’t use it much.

The productivity cube has my Apple Notes app which I rarely use but I might use it sometime and don’t want to forget about it. It has my FOCUS app on it which I hardly use and I think is mostly almost obsolete unless they have improved something. I paid for that one and don’t want to kick it to the curb but I’m about to I think. I use Notion now to track my To Do’s. And Freeform which I want to play with sometime but it’s kinda like Notion I think and I’m just not wanting to learn anything new as Notion works well for me right now.

Then there is ADP which houses information from the new company I had to work with for a week. lol. Once I download the w-2 from there, I will be done with that app. I’ve already downloaded my check stubs from there.

And there you have it. All my iPhone home screens and I did not show the static widget page if you scroll to the right. These 4 screens are what I set up when I scroll to the left. But the static wedge page when you scroll to the right, has a personalized series of widgets such as my Google Search widget. My battery charges for phone and watch, calendar, Bible version of the day, CNN top news and a personalized Google news briefing. The idea was to start my day there every day, but I hardly ever go there unless I need to search something from Google. lol. I kinda think that static page is pointless really now that the Home pages are able to be more personalized with widgets and such.

Life Update

So the snow let up on the roads and I was able to do Care Now – an urgent care center. I was the only one there at 2:17. Others started showing up at 3:30 – probably leaving work early etc, before getting off roads before dark. I felt like I had a fever and it was 100. They looked in my ears.

I was seen for my sinus infection and urinary tract infection. They weighed me and took my temp which was below normal. I asked her to take it again and it showed normal. She did it so quick and through my bangs, but I was shocked it didn’t a light fever. When I got home mine again read 100.2 so I don’t trust their thermometer. Mine reads normal for me too when I do not have a fever. But regardless, they could tell I was sickly and they asked for my urine specimen. I could barely go but did and they were able to take it. They verified I had a UTI. And are sending the specimen off to be tested for the type of bacteria in which they said they may have to change the type of antibiotics. So they gave me antibiotics and I have to take them every 12 hours until they are all gone. I’m TWO in!

I has been hard to sleep at times because my nose is still so stuffy. I’m so OVER this sinus thing. I’m miserable. So the best thing I can do is just keep my mind busy. I have prayed and prayed. I get better and then the sinuses release again. So I’m feeling like I’m going to have this thing forever and it’s never going away. I know that is not true but I’ve been stopped up since Dec 26th! I’m also not sure why the Lord is not answering my prayers. But I know he is not an “Alexa” or “Siri” or a pet, to be told what to do. I have to remember He is our Lord and not just our “fixer”, “zapper”, or “Magic Jeani” up in the sky. I mean He can be those things but maybe He is wanting something from ME, or maybe He wants me to do or be something different, or just to be patient and learn to wait, or to find joy while being sick. All I can do is try to be patient and wait. And then I feel guilty because, who am I to be worried over a stuffy nose for 18 days, when others have burned homes, cancer, loss their eyesight, and colons that have been cut out. So maybe that is my answer.

Busy Days Ahead

AI cracks me up. It’s soooo good but then there is like 3 hands. Oh I wish on some days! lol I asked it to show someone who is confused looking at their calendar this week. And the snow and deer outside. The deer looking on like – “oh she’s really having a tough time with her calendar this week”. Or maybe they are interested in a human having 3 hands, lol.

Today is busy personally. I have quite a few office tasks, doing this blog entry, getting the next video in the Final Cut Pro timeline, doing some filing and going through pending files, looking at the upcoming week, figuring out when to do my birthday lunch with Mom and get our nails done. Figuring out when to get things done at home as I have two videos to edit this week and Mom has two doc appointments.I also have a fun lunch out planned for Tuesday. I also need to start working on Mom’s house cleaning over there. I want to start on her counter tops. And I need to start videoing another video for the following week. So yeah, I’m running into a time problem as predicted, ha. No it’s all good. No stress, and I will rollover what I don’t have time to do. But it is a busy week and we will try to make it fun.

I just hope I am physically up to it. The antibiotics are seemingly taking care of the UTI but so far not so much on the sinus. It’s not making a dent in it – matter of fact it’s worse as it’s giving me a sinus headache but maybe it has to get worse before it gets better? I’m trying to be patient but when it’s my nose, it’s just so hard.

Continue with your prayers. Maybe He will answer YOUR prayers on my behalf. lol