RSM app review: Wunderlist

I have been a long time user of “to do” lists, both at home and at work. Making a list of the things I need to get done is the best way for me to keep my world organized.  When I started working at my current job, I was introduced to a formal list making program by the folks at Franklen-Covey.  Once I got my very own Franklin Planner, I never looked back. I am never without it.

Once my family gave me my original iPad, I started to think that perhaps I could replace the physical planner with an electronic one on the iPad (and hopefully the iPhone).  I’ve been searching for a while, and I think I might have finally found my replacement. Let me walk you through all of the apps I’ve tried and my thoughts on their usefulness.

The first app I tried to use was Evernote. I still think that Evernote is an awesome app and gets daily use on my iPhone, iPad, and my Mac to share bits of this or that as I coordinate my life. The synchronization between all of my computers makes it a hit. I can use it from whatever Apple device I find myself using at the time, and all of the data is gathered into one place.  It’s a great way to gather data  into topics for use later. I’ve taken to using it as an invaluable tool in the planning of our Family Disney World vacations.  But it’s not a to do list app. It’s too much for that. I need something a bit more simple that just does lists.

Then I tried a series of apps specifically called “to do” or “getting things done” apps. All of them let you manage lists and some offered the ability to put those lists into related folders, but none of them were easy to use. I kept using my physically planner, hoping I’d eventually find something. Among them were: Nubi Do, Toodledo, and Apple’s Reminders. I thought that both Nubi Do ($4.99) and Toodledo (free) did what I wanted but I didn’t care for the interfaces. I actually started to use the Reminders app (also free) at the beginning of the year as an experiment, but since I am not yet moved to the iCloud, I couldn’t sync between all my devices so I stopped using it.

Then I read a review on the blog of a fellow Disney fan, Kidani Katie, of a to do list called Wunderlist. As Katie puts it, this one is also free so it doesn’t cost you anything to check it out.  Immediately, I liked the interface. Versions are available for just about any platform, mobile or not, that you can think of. I downloaded it to my iPhone, my iPad and to my Mac OS X laptop. Even though I am an iOS fanatic to the core, I still find typing just a bit easier with a physical keyboard over a virtual keyboard. There, I said it, and I will deny having said it to anyone.

I started  by setting things up with the Mac OS X app interface. First, I set up a wunderlist account. This is how all of your lists will synchronize across your devices. Since I will be sending these lists up to a server, I am mindful not to include anything that I wouldn’t want to be saved to a cloud interface. Next, I set up boxes for work, for home, for kids specific, etc. In my Franklin Planner, I’d categorize my to do list by splitting it into two: work and home. Wudnerlist allowed me to break that down even further.  Then I went about figuring out how to enter to do items. It took me a few minutes of tinkering to figure out how to link those to do items with a date. If they are entered under the boxes they don’t have a due date. You have to put those in by hand.

Once everything was set up, I logged into the wunderlist app I’d installed on my iPhone using the same account I’d set up on my OS X machine.  After a little bit of syncing, all of the boxes and to do items I’d created on my Mac magically appeared.

I found the iOS interface to actually be a bit more intuative than the Mac OS X interface. It was easier for me to add information (notifications, due dates, categories, notes) to individual to do items via the iPhone than on my Mac just because of the layout on iOS. In spite of not initially thinking I’d use the iPhone interface other than to add or check off the occasional items from my lists, I actually do most of my list making on the iPhone. I think that once everything was set up the way I wanted it to be, that day to day entering is simpler on the iPhone.

My great experiment really started when I noticed half way through my day that I had left my Franklin Planner in a bag in my car. I hadn’t even needed it.  I did all my lists entirely electronically and aside from some notes I took in a notebook in a meeting, I didn’t even need paper.

It’s been about a month now, and I can safely say that the iPhone has replaced my Franklin Planner in tracking my to do list. It’s always with me; fits in my purse; is on my night stand. In fact, I use the iPhone more than the iPad to do my list tracking because it is the thing that I always have on hand.

If you are looking for a getting stuff done to do list tracking app, I’d heartily recommend you give wunderlist a try.

Enjoy,

RSM

All our Children need is love

Yesterday, across town, a high school student brought a gun to school and shot five of his fellow students. At the time I write this, two of the victims have died, and the other three remain in the hospital. The details of why this happened are still being investigated, but there’s been mentions of bullying, and family troubles.  I have been staying away from the sensational reporting of our local news, but enough of it has made it my way, that I have a picture of what is known right now.

Upon hearing the news from a Facebook friend on my way in to work yesterday morning, my first reaction was fear. Fear as a mother who has two grade school age children and wants nothing more than their happiness and safety. My whole being wanted to wrap them up in a little cocoon and protect them from the bad things in this world.

I didn’t bring up the shooting in our dinner time conversation last night. I waited to see if it had been mentioned in their school day yesterday, ready to answer questions, but none came. They are only in third and first grade, so their teachers might not have felt the need to talk about this event to their classes.

Bullying, however, did come up.

My son’s friend is a bit of a bully. He makes fun of younger children, and rarely has a nice thing to say to or about anyone. This perplexes my son, who has tried very hard to be friends with this young boy. They have been friends since they met in first grade, and hang out together at the extended care after school.

For about a month at the beginning of the school year, this boy wouldn’t talk to or play with my son. When my son tried to ask why, he’d been brushed off. Then, the friend started to try to get their mutual friends not to play with my son. Eventually, the boy apologized and they were back to being friends. No explanation was given.

Still, the questions remain. My son asks: Why does this boy say mean things? Why does he pick on younger children? Why does he insult people? Why?

The best explanation I can come to, simple as it might be, applies to all children who bully and all people who choose to act out of hurt and not love. They are somehow unhappy with their lives. The unhappiness can be anything, and might be hard for someone on the outside to understand, but I believe that all meanness comes from a deep unhappiness. If you are happy in your life, and have all that you need, then you will pass that  happiness on to others. If you are sad, then all you  have to offer others is that sadness.

My daughter jumped on that idea, and came up with home life reasons as to why children might be unhappy and therefore might be mean to others. Then they went through other children they knew at school that were mean, and tried to think of reasons why they would be unhappy.

My point wasn’t to analyze the state of their schoolmates, but was rather to teach them compassion and try to give them insight in to why people make hurtful choices. I am not trying to excuse these bad choices. We are all responsible for our choices. You can be happy because you choose to be so in spite of all that might stand in the way of happiness. But if you are never taught that you can be happy and choose happiness, how do you believe it? If you are a child and your examples are to be hurtful, how do you learn differently? Rather than excusing, I am only trying to understand, because I believe that understanding something allows you to deal with it and perhaps help to make it better.

My heart breaks for the parents who sent their children to school yesterday, and who did not have those same children come home. I cannot fathom that loss. My heart breaks for the boy who believed that this was the answer to whatever his problems were. My heart breaks for all children, everywhere, who are so sad that death is an option at the end of their stories.

Sometimes I worry that no matter what we do as parents, there are influences (media, movies, peers) that are beyond our control in the raising of our children. It’s that worry that makes me consider quitting my job and home schooling my children. Slowly, I let that worry pass by and allow myself to believe that the unconditional love I show my children and the compassion I teach them by words and hopefully by example, are what they need to prepare them for the bad and the good in this world.

As parents, loving our children, really and truly, is the best way to raise them to love themselves and to love others. A world with people that act out of love is a world worth working toward.

Thank you for listening.
RSM

How do you handle giving constructive feedback to teachers.

My children attend the extended care program at their grade-school. Since I work full time, I can’t be home at 3:30pm when they would get out of school, so I sought a school that offered on site after school care. The private catholic grade school we picked had such a program. I have always been happy with it. I like the teachers. I know my children are safe. My kids can finish their homework with help from the teachers who work the extended care, spend time with their friends, and watch some after school television.

Last night, when I picked them up, I immediately noticed that my son’s left eyebrow was swollen up huge! He explained that he and another child had collided as he made his way past where the kids were playing basketball. It was just an accident, but he banged heads with the other child hard enough to cause a big old goose egg right above his eye. It was so swollen that his he was squinting just a touch.

I asked what the teachers who work extended care did to help and he let me know that, as usual, they didn’t see it happen and had no idea. I immediately walked him over to one of the teachers, pointed out the swollen eye, and asked if they had ice or something to put on it. They were very accommodating, got the ice pack, and asked if he was ok. They stressed that they can’t see everything and he needs to tell them if something like this happens.

On our way home I asked why he didn’t tell the teachers, and he answered that it was for two reasons. First, in the past when he’s asked to use the bathroom, he’s been told to wait and not interrupt their conversations. And second, he didn’t want to get the other boy in trouble. It was entirely an accident. They just weren’t looking when they collided. My son just isn’t one to cause a fuss about things.

I wrangled with how to handle this situation all night. I didn’t want to get the teachers in trouble, and I do know how hard it is to keep an eye on two children let alone a whole gym full of children in ages ranging from preschool to eigth grade. The extended care program is essential to me, and I have been very happy with the service. However, from my past experience on the board of trustees at my children’s daycare, I do also know that sometimes teachers and care givers can use gentle reminders to keep their eye on the children.

So, with that in mind, and laying out all of those caveats, I talked to the Principal this morning after I dropped my children off. I asked him for only five minutes of his time, so he could make the first bell announcements, and I stressed that I love his staff and that I am overall very happy with their care of my children after school. But I wanted him to know that sometimes they aren’t paying as much attention as, perhaps, they should.

He thanked me for bringing it to his attention and said that we can all use small reminders from time to time.

How would you have handled it? I hope that the teachers don’t feel as though I’ve dumped on them. They do a great job, and this was one mistake, but it followed a pattern of distraction that I worry could result in a larger accident occurring.

We shall see what this afternoon’s extended care pick up brings.

Three Little Kittens

It all started when I went out to feed our outdoor cat, KeeKee, yesterday morning.

For some background, we were adopted this summer by an old lady cat, and I’ve made her a nice heated outdoor home on our porch so she can weather this winter. Since she arrived, she’s back to her healthy weight, and while she used to just sit in our bushes all day long over the summer, now she spends all day off in the woods doing her thing, and only comes back for meals and to sleep in her shelter overnight.

It’s a good life and I am happy I can provide it for her. If someone is going to dump a sweet cat in the country, the least I can do is make her a nice home to compensate.

Back to yesterday morning.

When I was feeding KeeKee, I heard the faintest of mews coming from under the porch. It was so faint, in fact, that I thought I was hearing wrong and that I had mistaken a creak for a mew. Until it mewed again. Yup, that sure sounded like a kitten. So, I walked down the steps and what should poke it’s head out from under them but a tiny black and white kitten.

He was adorable.

We already have one cat inside, and one cat outside. My husband is indulgent but only so far. There is no way I am bringing another kitten inside. So I put out more food. Gave it some hugs (it let me pick it up), and continued with the morning routine of getting the kids ready for school. It was a huge feet of deception that I was able to get them past the meowing kitty at the door and convince them that it was just the old outdoor cat.

I worried about this little kitten all day at work. How was I going to take care of it and keep it from the kids. As anyone who knows me will attest, I am horrible at lying. I knew that was out of the question. My decision was made. I’d tell the kids when we got home, then I’d walk to the neighbors houses to see if anyone lost a kitten. Perhaps this little guy was an escapee and his children were looking for him/her.

As soon as the kids saw the kitten, my son fell in love and my daughter freaked. My son is just like me and if everything were up to us, our house would be full of cats. My daughter is a bit reserved when it comes to animals and she has to warm up to them as much as they have to warm up to her.

I went around to the neighbors houses who were home and none of them claimed this little kitten, although all of them thought he/she was adorable. How can you not? It is a fundamental fact that kittens are cute. It is natures way of protecting them. Having no luck, I returned home, put out more food for the kitten and KeeKee, and fed my kids dinner.

After dinner, then insisted on coming with me to the last house I had not yet knocked on. We brought the kitten with us and it meowed and meowed. We’d just started up our neighbors driveway when a meow answered back and out from the bushes another identical black and white kitten dashed toward us.

Now there were two little kittens.

We made our way up the neighbor’s driveway with two little kittens and two very excited children, only to find them still not home. So we returned to our home. Setting down the two kittens now with KeeKee (who gave me a look that can only say “seriously?!”), we went inside to finish up the kids homework. When asked if they could go back outside to see the kittens again, I said they had to finish their homework first.

In what was a record for them, they finished their homework, got on their pajamas, put away their toys, and got coats, slippers, and mittens on to go back outside. The kitten motivation sure is something.

As my son opened the door he said “Mom, you have to see this. Now there are three kittens.”

“What? Three kittens?” what my incredulous reply.

“Yup. Three kittens.” he answers.

And there were. A third little black and white but fluffy kitten had joined the first two short haired black and white kittens. It was obvious that these three are siblings from the way they wrestle and play together. I set out more food and the kids and I spent about a half hour in the cold playing with the kittens on the porch. Setting out a box, blanket and more food, we told them goodnight and that we’d see them in the morning.

Although KeeKee the outdoor old lady cat has a heated shelter, she didn’t invite the kittens in to stay with her. I am just happy that aside from a hiss or two, she’s been fairly “whatever” about the arrival of these interlopers. She’s not pleased that they are eating out of her foodbowl, but she’s not doing anything to stop them.

The kittens were still there this morning, waiting for more food and playtime from my kids. The weather is going to get up to the 50s today, so they will be ok, but it’s going to be frigid by the end of the week. The countdown begins. Time to find these babies a home.

My son wishes it could be with us, but even I can’t get my husband to accept three more cats.

Wish us luck!
RSM

RSM Reprint: Girls Can Train Their Dragons Too!

Reprinted with permission by Foreverparenting.com from March 2010

Originally, I wrote the column below for a parenting site called GNMParents.com. Since then, the site has sort of gone out of business, and one of its primary editors is working to set up a new parenting site with new goals and wonderful authors. I haven’t had time enough to become a regular columnist there yet but I do love the site. If you get a chance please, visit the link above and give them a little love.

The idea for the column came from my inability to find toys for my daughter. Sadly, I don’t think much has changed, especially in the wake of Lego’s new Friends line of toys aimed for girls (I will be writing about them shortly). You can read the rest after the dashes.

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We took the kids to see the new Dreamworks movie: How To Train Your Dragon this weekend. To say that they (and I) loved it, would be an understatement. The dragon reminded us of our now teenage kitten. The lead, Hiccup, was easy to relate to, and, although the action was a bit intense, the morals: be true to who you are (to the children), and accept your children for who they are (to the parents), were subtle and significant.

So, as is often my response to a movie I like, I headed out to my nearest toy store in search of Dragon toys. I easily found the toy of the titular Dragon, and of Hiccup (who trains him). Who I didn’t find was the main female character, Astrid Hofferson: the one who’s tough and who stands by the lead when he doubts himself. She kicked butt throughout the movie: both as a dragon-slayer in training, and also as a friend.

They don’t even make an action figure of her.

I knew I wouldn’t find one before going to the store, because I’d searched online over the weekend. Worse, though, I knew I wouldn’t find a figure of her before I even started searching, because of past experience.

I grew up collecting action figures. My Star Wars collection still sits in a box in the basement (and still grows from time to time — yes, I know I am an adult). Then, as now, the one thing that angers me is the lack of action figures of the female characters. Try to find Amidala or even Princess Leia, and you’ll probably have to turn to e-Bay rather than your local toy store.

This is my open plea to all those toy manufacturers out there. You have an audience in the girls who go to your “action” movies, and if you’d just make figures of the women you portray, we’d buy them! We are hungry for non-Barbie action heroes. You know, not just the Lara Kroft kind, who are really designed for boys anyway. Make them, sell them, I guarentee you’ve got a market you still haven’t captured.

Until then, I remain disappointed, for myself and for my daughter.

Adventures in HD TV land

Our family has finally joined the rest of most families in America who have already upgraded their living rooms with an HD TV. My mother in law treated us to the Panasonic HD TV that my Rocket Scientist husband spent many many hours researching, as our Christmas present this year. We ordered in on Black Friday via Amazon and have already opened it and hooked it up to our DVR. Now, the adventure begins.

I am not opposed to having a huge TV but I must admit that I am still taken aback by how really large it is. I almost don’t want to sit in the TV room with it to watch it. I’ve spent most of my viewing time doing so from the kitchen which overlooks the TV room. That distance seems to take the edge off the hugeness factor. Perhaps I am just getting old.

Now that we have it, we are taking the baby steps to hook it up and create the entertainment center around it. Physically it’s sitting atop our entertainment unit until the new one we ordered from Amish country is finished. That’s what’s in the photo associated with this article and the juxtaposition of how large this TV is with how very quaint our old TV is makes me laugh.

Stepping back, just what TV did we purchase. We bought the Panasonic VIERA® 50″ Class S30 Series. It is pretty, and I have always been a fan of Panasonic’s electronics.

Next up, how to get movies and content onto this device. To first order, we have it hooked via component video to our DVR with it’s small selection of digital HD channels. Most of our stations do not have an HD option, so the large format adds a bit of grainyess to the image.

To start, I ordered an Apple TV this morning as a Christmas present from the husband and I to each other. An informal poll of four folks around work over the last two weeks who all have Apple TVs yielded 100% satisfaction results. Since the Apple TV is about the only product by Apple that we don’t own, it’s about time we did. Having typed all this, just watch as Apple releases something new in the Apple TV area the first two months of 2012.

I will report back on how we set the HD TV and the Apple TV up in a subsequent post. I’m curious to see how the streaming between my iPad, iPhone, and MacBook iTunes account and the Apple TV works.

Enjoy
RSM.

Drawing a Day: RSM Day 40 – Fairy flight

Fairy Flight

Another drawing to keep my drawing promise to myself (and forty drawings already? wow!): Fairy Flight. The inspiration for this one was a suggestion from a twitter friend of mine. She suggested I do some drawings where I could leave them outlined and let my kids color them in. While I colored this one in, it started as a line drawing of a fairy that I thought my daughter might want to color. Then I ended up playing with the colors myself. I did this during one of the “mommy come and draw with me” times with my kids recently, so it’s as light and free as they are. With the Brushes app on my iPhone, I plan on going in with another layer and tracing the outline of the fairy so I can make this into a coloring book style drawing for my daughter to color in as she sees fit.

Enjoy and I hope the fairies are flying for you today too.
RSM.

RSM Reprint from GNMParents: Do Not Play Favorites

Reprinted with permission by Foreverparenting.com from March 2010

I have always believed very strongly that a parent should do everything they can to avoid falling into the trap of favoritism. When a parent adores one child over another, either openly or subtly, the child who feels that he or she is less loved never shakes that feeling. It can cloud their entire life. I’ve seen this in those close to me, friends and relatives, and the results always seem to be same. This feeling of “Why did Mom or Dad love my brother or sister more?” can undermine their very sense of self.

A friend of mine just lost his father after a lengthy battle with cancer. His father, it turns out, named my friend as executor of the estate, but the kicker is that he has left everything to his other two children: my friend’s brother and sister. I am beside myself with the what I consider to be a huge slap in the face.

When asked why, my friend simply says that his father always loved the brother and sister more.

Knowing his father only in passing, I have a feeling that what’s more to the point is that while my friend is an entirely self sufficient adult, capable of starting and growing his own home business and raising a wonderful family, his siblings definitely are not. They needed taking care of well into adulthood. Whether it was because of because their father did everything for them and they never learned themselves, or because they are just inherently slackers or because they used their father’s weakness to their advantage, they always managed to garner more attention and get more “stuff” in the process. My friend, never asking for anything, never got much of anything: attention or otherwise.

I wish that my friend’s father were still alive. I’d tell him the damage he did with this less than stellar parenting. I would make him see that of his three children, it was my friend (and his amazing wife) who was there throughout the cancer, throughout the doctor’s appointments, the search for a skilled nursing home, everything. My friend was always willing to drop his life to take care of his father. You couldn’t say the same for the brother or the sister.

I would show his father how wonderful a son he has in my friend. I know it. I just wish that his father were the type of parent who could see that the point of being a parent is to one day no longer be needed by your children. It is to train them well enough that they can stand on their own, without assistance. This man never told my friend that he is proud of the person his son had become. Now, it’s too late.

I caved. Disney Moms Panel Application Complete

Screen grab of my Confirmation page

Alright, yes, I am weak. I hereby acknowledge that I am a weak person. After going on and on to myself and any of my followers who care to read my twitter feed yesterday, that I was not going to apply to the Disney Mom’s Panel, I gave in an quickly applied this morning. I know I have no hope of getting chosen. They allow you 100 characters to tell them how much you love the Disney theme parks. What can they get from 100 words for goodness sake? I am resigned to being a Disney Mom’s panelist for my friends and family and never one for The Mouse itself. So, why did I apply?

First, I followed a link from the disney themed blog Chip n Company on their facebook page, to the Mom’s panel application page. Disney opened the applications up yesterday, September 12th, and will be closing them on September 16th or when they reach 20,000 applicants, whichever comes first. I deliberately stayed away all of yesterday, on purpose and because I was extremely busy, so I figured that they’d have reached that 20,000 by now for sure.

Nope.

When I logged into my disney account, the mom’s panel application boxes came up and I was invited to apply. I guess that’s what made my decision. It wasn’t yet closed, so perhaps it was a sign that I should set aside my negative feelings and just fill in those little boxes.

Even if I am not chosen (which I won’t be), I love Walt Disney World. The hubby and I have taken our kids their every year of their lives (sometimes twice) and everything about the magic of WDW is a part of me. I love the pixie dust, the attention to detail, and the way that being there makes you want to be nice and kind and spread the magic yourself. If I never win anything Disney I will still be my local WDW expert and disney nerd. I will still go to the parks once a year, at least. I will still love hanging out and looking at all the tiny touches the imagineers have put into this or that attraction or land. All of this because the Disney magic speaks to me. I get it. I can’t help it.

I am weak? Maybe, I am just full of Pixie Dust.

RSM.

RSM Reprint from GNMParents: Excuse me, Momma

Reprinted with permission by Foreverparenting.com from March 2010

Even when I have time off, I seem to bring my kids with me. Yesterday, I escaped from home for a few hours to get my hair colored. It is about my only indulgence and one of the few times I get to be on my own without kids in tow. While talking with the hairdresser about children, we found we held similar beliefs on how to handle it when our children interrupt our adult conversations. We both thought that to interrupt our conversation was no small price to pay to answer something our kids needed to ask. Upon further reflection, though, I find that while I do believe that adults can more easily hit the pause button in their conversations to take care of a question of a child, there are times when I do make them wait their turn.

In my heart, I don’t mind putting any adult conversation on hold to answer a question or address a need that one of my children have. I am working to teach them to say “excuse me” when interrupting, and figure that using manners is lessen enough. Plus, at least with my children, I have found that they sometimes forget what it was that they were going to ask me in the first place if I have them wait until I finish my conversation. That leads to unnecessary frustration that could have been avoided.

Then there are times like last summer when we were on vacation in Canada with my Mom, brother, step Dad and step sister. I was having a conversation with my Mom and brother, and (no exaggeration) I couldn’t get more than four words out at a time before my son or daughter needed something and needed it RIGHT NOW. After not finishing a single thought, and making sure that they were in no immediate danger and suffering from no emergency situation, I asked them to just wait until I was done with my conversation (or I would have lost my mind).

So, while I’d like to think I will always pleasantly allow them to interrupt my adult conversations with a polite “Excuse me Momma”, I am pretty sure there will be times when I’d just like to finish my sentence.