Tasker introduction

Next 5 events and monthly budget to-date.

To Do list with add to Habitica and calendar buttons.

Store-specific shopping lists.

“Driving page” with music control.

This is a brief introduction to Tasker post. Talented and knowledgeable people have already written excellent tutorials on starting with Tasker. Here I will list links to the sites I use the most frequently for help, as well as the links to the plugins I am using.

USEFUL LINKS:
Reddit has a comprehensive list of links (which is why I’m not attempting to duplicate it here) and an active and supportive community for people already seriously trying their best.
Pocketable articles by Andreas Ødegård. I started with these articles and, while many of the articles are focused on the older version of Tasker, they still have a great deal of basic information and follows a nice progression of difficulty for the beginner’s exploration.
The Tasker Wiki has been setup by the developer for users to share their profiles. I actually have rarely found them to suit my needs. Primarily, because I found it after I started to get the hang of things.
The Userguide is comprehensive and … brief. It is a nice list with descriptions of nearly everything maintained by the developer. Now that I’m more proficient, I find I am using this guide much more frequently but it was challenging at first.
Google Group and G+ group are both active and cover the gamut of bare beginner and wizard adepts. It also covers the gamut of personality types.

APPS and PLUGINS (currently used):
Tasker: the base of all the greatness. $2.99 (I think?) But vastly worth more in entertainment alone than a movie.
AutoApps: This group of plugins can be bought individually, but a yearly subscription is well worth the price for the fun and functionality! Individually they run about $2. These plugins allow for more automation without rooting your device.
Spreadsheet Tasker Plugin: love spreadsheets? You need this plugin!
KWGT or KLWP: these widget and wallpaper creators let you use data that Tasker collects or to trigger Tasker tasks. Yet another fun way to customize your smartphone.

Photos, my version of blogging ‘success’, and kitchen progress!

I’ve tried to keep up several blogs in the past, but I’ve always lost momentum and interest and I finally began actively ignoring them. What I am considering a success with this one is that I’ve kept at it! I’m not counting readers, or outside links. Just the fact that I’ve taken the time, 3 times a week, to contemplate my chaos and solutions.

So, what made my last blogs so hard to keep up? Photos. Taking a good picture on my camera isn’t hard. It’s the downloading the photos later and doing my blog AFTER I’ve done the project. It’s the finding time to go into the office and sit at my computer and try to remember the past to write a whole post.  I am not successful that way!

What seems to be working is using my tablet for taking notes directly in a WordPress app as I’m working and also getting pictures with the tablet which are immediately available for posting into WordPress, too. I do some last minute touch ups on my desktop and then publish from there. But that means I use ugly pictures. And I’ve decided that that’s ok for now. I need less chaos and more success right now and, since ugly pictures make that happen, it’s ugly pictures we’ll be using. 🙂

On another topic, my Auntie came by yesterday and gave me some time and help in cleaning and inventorying the fridge and some cupboards! Yay!
We mostly just rearranged stuff. The lower right cupboard is full of stuff its ok for Robin to play with when he’s crawling and getting into things. I’m going to put in wooden spoons and some other good-to-play-with kitchen stuff.

Here’s the “before”:

Here’s the “so far” (there’s more to be done!):

I promise, that really is more organized!

New need, new blog

“No chaos, no order.” A new mantra for my new life. I think it acknowledges the craziness and disorder in my life while reminding me of the opportunity that comes from it. It is a simple phrase that will help me see the positive in my daily endeavors.

Chaos isn’t new to me, nor do I imagine that I’m particularly special in the type or amount of it, but both aspects have changed a lot for me recently and I recognize that I need to change how I deal with it – I’m not happy with how things are going now. Some sources that have helped me see this, and gave me the idea for how to address it, are the organizing blogs I Heart Organizing and Delightful Order.

The biggest change in my life has been the birth of my son, Robin, and the second change has been the rather spontaneous decision for me to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. Robin came early. Really early.  There we were, debating if we wanted to rent a tub for our home birth, happy that I was finally getting over my morning sickness, and gearing up for some serious nesting when I started bleeding. And kept bleeding.  With a complete placenta previa our home birth became a high risk c-section and, not only that, would require my hospitalized bed rest until the baby had to be delivered. We made it another month, but Robin had to be delivered when he was 28 weeks old. He weighed 1 pound and 13 ounces. There’s a lot more to that story (one of my current projects!) but the point is the unforseen complications that came of it.

 

We’ve got the normal upheaval of having a newborn – for which I’m often grateful! – but he has a few extra medical needs, too. I often feel guilty knowing how well Robin is doing compared to other families,  but these things are still upsetting and exhausting.  The primary things that have added to our chaos is Robin’s tubes and oxygen tank, Robin’s feeding difficulties, and my continued exclusive pumping. That and our decision for me to stay home full-time for a year (to avoid the illnesses so prevalent in public schools).  So now, not only will I not be earning any money (I’m a Speech and Language Pathologist in a public school), I’ll be home all day. Every day. Not that that’s bad! Far from it!  But it’s different from what I thought I was going to be doing.

 

Robin and I have been home for two months now (last weighed in at 12 pounds 3 ounces and meeting all developmental benchmarks) and I am actually becoming more distressed in some ways. Sure, I’ve mastered his medicines and feedings,  but I am struggling to maintain my optimism as this drags on. I had hoped he’d be getting better at breastfeeding or at least eating from a bottle so we could have the gavage tube removed from his nose, but he’s actually getting worse. I’m upset about that, so I’m more sensitive to stupid things like cat hair clumps in the kitchen, and I respond by flopping on the couch to watch tv and eat ice cream.

The purpose of this blog is to resolve the chaos I can, so I can face the rest a little stronger.  My goal is to write at least three times a week as I address the chaos in my health, my heart, my home, and my relationships. That may be too many topics, but we’ll give it a try for now. The point is not to complain, but to identify and solve problems. I’ll probably be doing a lot of cleaning and organizing for a while! 🙂

My first two solutions will need time to see if I am successful – I’ll check back in a week. Those solutions are:
1) blog three times each week (1 of 3 down!)
2) change out of my flip flops into tennis shoes at 9am every morning!