Mom's Ipad - Notebooks

I really, really like Notebooks for iPad.  I've always loved to write.  I write stories. I take notes when I'm reading a really good book.  I make schedules and lists and plans and keep inspirational quotes.  I used to pack a few spiral bound hardcover notebooks around in my purse and lament the fact that I couldn't fit more.  I wanted to keep a notebook for each child I have, a notebook for my house, a notebook for personal thoughts, a notebook for toy rotation and one for preschool plans.  It went on and on.  Now I only need my iPad!

I use Notebooks for many similar things as Corkulous.  Actually, when I first started out with Corkulous I thought that was all I needed.  But I discovered that I required more room to type and write - not Corkulous's main purpose, therefore not it's strong point.  So I got to app hunting again!

I love the fact that you can nest notebooks.  For example, in my Notebook labeled Play, I two more notebooks labeled Toy Rotation and Play Kits.  In Play Kits I have ideas listed by category: Play Dough, Quiet Time, Sensory Bin, Solo Play and Unplugged Play. I could go on!  You've probably noticed that I have a serious problem with categories and sub-categories.  I like to list everything out and review it, re-organize it, etc.  This is the app that lets me do all that, without spending a fortune in spiral bound notebooks!  I can plan everything to the tiniest detail, if only I could carry it out in real life . . . but that's another post!

It's also quite easy to move from notebook to notebook, page to page, to copy and paste or import documents. In fact, if I receive an attachment in my email account, by pressing on the email on my iPad, a little window comes up asking me what I'd like to use to read it.  If I select Notebooks, it shows up there without any further effort.  I've opened Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Pdf files so far.  Really nice for work related stuff and for little "ebooks" published in pdf files available all over the web.

One more thing I love is the pinch zoom!  An iPad app just isn't complete without it and I'm so pleased it's included here!  Between Corkulous and Notebooks I've got my whole life covered.

Ipad apps for moms: Menu Board

Scattered though out the saved yogurt and sour cream containers in a drawer are some very dog-eared recipes on bits of paper from all over.  Regular printer paper bent in odd shapes, yellow sticky notes ripped from their pads, little dollar store notebook paper, crumpled and splattered, newspaper clippings, index cards and magazine photocopies in black and white.  Why in the heck am I telling you about this rather gross assortment of bits and bobs in the bottom drawer of my kitchen?  Well, partly because you really can't see it unless you open the drawer, and the drawer sticks pretty good, so it's not likely anyone would ever notice.  And partly because my major plan is to get rid of these random and elusive papers with help from my next featured app.  Mealboard!

When I started to look for a recipe app, I had a few requirements.  I wanted to be able to plan meals, store recipes and create a shopping list using both these features.  I was so new to the app world at first I didn't even realize that I could store recipes and plan a menu on the same app - how neat!  Now I can't live without it.  The thought of approaching a grocery store with out a menu plan and shopping list gives me the heebie-jeebies.  I strongly dislike going into a grocery store more than once a week.  Too many impulse buys!  And I'd probably come home with another bottle of ketchup to add to my collection and no rice, tortillas or cumin.  Wasted money, wasted time! Gad, the thought of unbuckling and re-buckling car seats more often than necessary just about makes me faint!  If for no other reason, efficiency means less car seat buckles!

I did a bit of online research, checked out a few different apps and finally settled on this one.  It's not perfect. It was created for ipod and doesn't rotate for a horizontal view (which I prefer).  It can be a little clumsy and I wish you could access the internet through this app and import recipes from online.  However, having said all that, I use it every single week.  I've set myself a rule:  I may not use a recipe that isn't in my ipad.  So everytime I use a new recipe, whether it's from a website, a cook book or one of the aforementioned papers in my drawer, I have to type it into my ipad.  In a year or so, I'll go through my paper collection and decide if the recipes I have left in there are really worth keeping.  Then that mess will be gone!

My menu-making routine goes as follows.  Wednesdays is the day I get my produce bin from the company I co-own.  I go through my bin, freezer, fridge and cupboards as I plan out the three meals a day for the next seven days.  You add recipes to each day in your set amount of time ( a week for me, like I said), designate them as breakfast, lunch, or dinner (I also have baking and snacks designations), and then create a shopping list.  It creates the list from the ingredients listed in each recipe and I'll review the list, checking off what I already have.  I like that part - it makes me pause a moment and think "do I actually have baking powder, or was that getting a little low?".  There's an option to delete all checked items, which I do before I get to the store to make the list short, sweet and simple.  Another feature I appreciate with this app is that you can arrange your list however you like. I have ordered the list by aisle so there's no heading back to the bakery section because you've forgotten tortillas.

And that's that!  This app has kept me on track, on budget and prepared at three or four o'clock each evening.  Now if I could just keep Oliver from touching the screen while my back is turned to the shopping cart, I'd have it made!

Mom's iPad - Corkulous

I love Corkulous.  Love it.  Can't live without it!  I'm a very visual person and adore how I can lay everything out, all tidy and lined up, and really see what the heck is going on in my life.  I use corkulous for many, many things, but first let me tell you how it works.  For those of you who don't know, it's basically a big electronic cork board.  You can create as many cork boards as you want, and you can put many things on each one, including post-it notes, slips of paper, checklists, pictures, contact information and even more corkboards (great for a sub-category loving mom like myself!).  You can rearrange everything as much as you want and just recently they've added a feature where you can email or export either a section of a board or an entire board in order to share what you've created.

Let me share some of the bulletin boards I've created in order to give you some ideas of how this app can be used:

My most often used is the board I call Home. This is where I set up to-do lists, daily routines (I'm a structure girl!), projects, ideas, and some-days for my house, as well as the odd picture of my family to keep me motivated.  I've got some sub-boards absolutely plastered with papers, all laid out just so.  This app is great for those of us who spend time trying get everything to line up and look nice - and for those of us who're just as happy sticking them up any ol' place!

I created a board labeled Christmas in November, and was tickled pink to have an excuse to use the lock that required a password to get into this board - and good thing I did as my teenager stumbled onto this board while exploring my ipad!  I had a sub-board for each of my children, as well as my husband and also kept an area on the main board for every other gift-recipient this year.   I kept a budget on each board, kept track of what I bought, where I got it, if it had arrived in the mail (I shop a lot online), and whether or not I wrapped it.  Additionally, I had a sub board to keep track of decorating, fun stuff to do as a family, and I had the days from about the 23rd to the 27th roughly scheduled so that it was easy to remember where to go and what to bring each day.  I used this board a LOT during the lead up to Christmas!

A third board I'll share with you is my work board.  With my friend and my sister I co-founded an organic produce delivery service.  This board is where I keep track of ideas for the monthly newsletter I write, hours I worked, credits and debits I have for purchases and supplies, and items I'd like to discuss in upcoming meetings.  Once again, the visual format is fantastic!  It's really just a glance and I can figure out if I have more debits than credits, which piece of information is gonna come together easily for this month's deadline, or how many dozen eggs a supplier has provided that month.

I personally love that I can move the little bits of paper, sticky notes and photos around the board at will, rearranging my day or priorities really easily, as well as editing any typing.  I think it's a cute touch that I can also use sticky note type paper in an array of colours and custom sized to fit your text.  Of course, one feature that always makes my toes curl on the iPad is the pinch zoom.  This one has it!  Yahoo!

In the latest update provided free of charge from Appigo, we were given the ability to email boards, as well as share them in itunes or hook up with your account in Todo (which I don't have, but have been considering - opinions?).  I've yet to figure this out.  At this point, I'm not sure if it's me, or if there's a glitch somewhere.  But I'm pretty sure it's me.  Someday it'll all fall into place, I'm sure.  In the meantime, I don't really need to email boards, right?

I'm really excited about the future of this app . . . there are hints and rumors all over about what's coming up.  I'm stoked to be able to get them free after buying this app for only $5.99!  For more information about this app, see their website or visit the app store.

A Stay-At-Home Mom's IPad

I have an iPad - it was an early Christmas gift (Thank you Val and Gordie!).  They paid for half, I paid for half and I love it dearly.  LOVE IT!

Surprisingly, there's no "Home Management" app for stay at home (or otherwise) moms.  At least not that I could find.  There are plenty of home maintenance kind of reminder systems, but nothing for actually keeping everything else running smoothly.  I guess it's just not what people pictured for the iPad (haha)?  The main reason I wanted an iPad was to get the portability and simplicity of one of those home management notebook you read about all over the place, with the adaptability, tidiness and editing capabilities of a computer.

The world of apps has almost unending possibilities.  It's overwhelming how many apps there are.  Every time I was looking for an app that would do a particular thing, I went online and searched for recommendations from third parties.  Then I'd look up the apps recommended in the app store, read reviews, peruse its website.  Often I googled the nameof a particular app for more reviews and critiques online.  As someone who'd never even used itunes before, never mind a iphone or ipod (or even my own cell phone!), I wanted to make sure I was wasting my money and I was purchasing the right app for my needs and purpose.  I tried to google "mom's iPad apps" for some app recommendations that I might find useful, but really, there was no easy package recommended by some stay-at-home mom somewhere.  Weird.  So, like the little red hen, I did it myself.  It's still a process, I'm always on the look out for something useful, some way to improve what I'm doing and I know my ipad hasn't reached its full potential, but I am pleased with what I've got so far.

So stay tuned, one iPad app will make it's appearance each weekend!