30 Things I Love Right Now for #BlogLikeCrazy

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I’d like to thank Javacia of See Jane Write for graciously letting me rip off her image. 😛 She’s the best…go check her out! 🙂

1. Zyp 2. My deeply-discounted, only-way-I-could-afford-it new Kate Spade bag 3. Totally Stress Free playlist on Spotify 4. The Geography of You and Me 5. Sassyfras Strawberry tea from Piper & Leaf 6. The Abbey 7. #bloglikecrazy 8. Gilmore Girls on Netflix 9. The way my husband’s new beard oil smells 10. Handwritten letters & cards 11. This weather. My favorite time of year…bundle weather 12. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats 13. Beautiful Bodies of Birmingham 14. Being quiet, calm, & still 15. My therapist 16. My mother 17. Playing in the rain 18. Magic moments 19. Stone porches 20. Church bells ringing 21. Fruity pebble fall leaves 22. Seeing my friends’ success 23. Spending time with horses 24. Rain 25. Riding with the top down on my car 26. Finding cozy nooks in Birmingham 27. Watching my friends on Periscope 28. Thinking 29. Praying. 30. Loving

A Note to My Husband

Thank you. Thank you for being there when I cry for no good reason at dinner. Thank you for holding me as I recount the emotional session I had that day in therapy. Thank you for offering to cook when you can tell through text messages that the day has given me all I can take. You are an angel sent from above. You hug me in my darkest hours and wipe thousands of tears away. You celebrate all my victories with the excitement of winning the lottery whether it’s finding a lost shoe or finishing a 5k. You support everything I do and hold my hand when I’m unsure about it. But most of all you listen. You listen to me go on and on about friends I miss, relationships that have soured, body issues I deal with, demons that battle inside me. You are the greatest listener. Thank you for being you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for helping me love myself even more. You are my hero.

#TechTuesdays: 5 Tips for Extending Your iPhone’s Battery Life

Courtesy  of Flickr Creative Commons License
Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

There are many ways to help prolong the battery of your iPhone, no matter if it’s on iOS 8 or 9 (though some work better on 9 than 8). Below are a few tips & tricks to help you get the most out of your battery.

  1. First and foremost, for iOS9 users, there is now a ‘Low Power Mode’ built in. It will prompt you to switch to Low Power mode when your battery life reaches 20% or less, but you can turn it on any time you wish by going to Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode. I use this all the time when I know I will be away from a power source for hours. I can still send and receive text messages, but mail retrieval (among other things) is disabled until I exit Low Power Mode, making the strain on my phone very little.
  2. Turning off Location Services in Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Again, anything that doesn’t need to be running in the background (including fetching your location for no good reason, which many apps do) will help extend your power. Note: Turning this feature off does prohibit “Find My Phone” from working (located under Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Settings) so please use this sparingly when needed. 
  3. Turn off ‘Background App Refresh’ for apps you don’t use frequently. You can find it under Settings > General > Background App Refresh. I have this turned off period, but that’s a personal choice. The setting helps apps refresh data when needed, but I’m still able to get my live plays and scores from the ESPN app with it turned off.
  4. Turning off sounds (as in keyboard clicks), vibrations, screen brightness, and more all save power. Setting your phone to auto-lock (Settings > General > Auto-Lock) also helps, too.
  5. Manage Notifications. If you have notifications turned on for all, or most, of your apps then your phone is constantly checking for activity in those apps, reducing its battery life. Setting notifications for only your most important (or critical) apps can help reduce drain on the battery. Go to Settings > Notifications and click through each app in there to see what notifications you have turned on. Anywhere you are able, slide the button to turn OFF all notificationsfor that app and you will save some power. Seriously, do you need to know the minute Payless has a sale or someone repinned you on Pinterest?

I hope this helps you get a bit better battery life from your phone. If you would like more information or help with any of these tips – or any other technology questions – you can reach me at sherri [at] yougotrossed dot com. Happy Teching!

The Darkness is All Around

Literally. We can’t escape it. Sorry for the meaningless post, but we’re heading into month 5 of construction on the front of our building. That means going into month 5 of total darkness in our loft, except for artificial light. They are replacing the front of the building, which is needed and I’m thankful for, but not being able to see any daylight, stars, weather, or breathe in any fresh air for over 5 months is taking its toll on me. So today’s post is about darkness. Because right now that’s all I see and all I can think about.

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