Happy Sunday! {what I'm loving & new expressive language game!}

Oh this weekend. I've been literally going non-stop, I don't know what has me so full of energy but I'm going to roll with it. Maybe it's my morning green tea but something's pumping through my system making me want to be productive. Who would've thought?:) Maybe it's my #slp bracelet...

I bought this customizable bracelet (made by BCBG Generation) from Macy's in December. It comes with a bazillion gold letters and symbols that you can arrange in any way you'd like; I decided to rep SLP life. I've worn it off and on to sessions but I've been wearing it this weekend and getting a kick of motivation out of it. So cute, right?

Yesterday my roommate and I ran a few errands and then I kicked out a re-eval report, all before 12pm. This is not my usually way. I am the hugest procrastinator but I think I'm starting to realize that that method doesn't do me any favors. Afterwards I got a workout in and did some grocery shopping at Whole Foods. My favorite find was the fajita meal combo they have going on right now- buy the fajita meat and get the veggies, salsa, and tortillas for free! So that's what we cooked up last night. I also tried out a new flavor of kombucha, Green Apple Ginger by holykombucha:

Yum. I actually blended that up with a bit of the that delicious coconut-pineapple juice next to it, added some ice and made a kombucha-rita with a pina colada flair! It was a great addition to our fajitas.

I'm really feeling coconut lately, that's probably why I love this shower cream from The Body Shop.

It is not a "soap" and therefore not drying; instead it's incredibly creamy, moisturizing and has me dreaming about a beach vacation.

Later that night my roommate and I just kicked around and I decided to get to work making a new game for some of my older language kiddos:

"Information Detective: Wh-at's Missing?"

I have a few kids who continue to struggle to provide crucial and relevant information in their discourse, or who use imprecise language such as, "I went there and then played that game," without giving me the head's up of actually where they went or who they were with. I get no context for their stories. This game puts you kiddos in the role of a detective who has to listen to a friend's statements about their weekend and decide what information is missing. They can then work to devise a wh- question to find out the missing information. A table is also included for them to fill in what they know and what they still need to know. 

What are you guys loving this weekend? Do you like kombucha or do you think it's the grossest thing ever? Most people fall on one side of the spectrum or the other, haha.:) 

Little Bit of Real Life

"Real life" is a great thing. It's different than the imagined version of our lives we create in our minds where everything is beautiful because it's perfect. "Real life" is beautiful because of its simplicity...at least for me. The things that aren't a product of me "doing" anything. The little things. Yesterday was a little bit of real life for me. And it felt really good.

I didn't have sessions in the morning so I took my time making organic chicken/maple sausages and my Zen green tea. I enjoyed them post-folding laundry and watching re-runs of Teen Mom 2 with my kitty nearby. Oh yeah. I have a kitty. She became part of the family about two weeks ago, around Valentine's Day. Meet Ava. That's her handsome Dad, behind her. ;)

Afterwards, I turned on Spotify and ran a bubble bath (I use Fair For Life: Everday Shea Lavender Bubble Bath from Whole Foods) while I let my new hair color sink in...finally I am a dark brunnette again! I have been an auburn color for awhile now but it hasn't really felt like me. While in the tub I enjoyed the book, "The Honest Life" by Jessica Alba. Lots of great info regarding all-natural living.

Once my hair was done and I invested in a spray tan, I wrote up some therapy notes, made some phone calls and headed out to a session about 40 minutes away. I decided to stop at my parent's new home also, which is in the general area. I have been concerned that their new home won't feel like "home" to me...but I was surprised to find that all I wanted to do when I got there was lay on the couch I had never seen before and listen to my Mom unpack boxes. God really quieted my fears in that moment. There is nothing like the calmness of home.

I completed my session (which was largely focused on attention) and then went back to my parent's house where I picked up my sewing machine from my Dad (I need it to make my Etsy products). While in the process of loading it into my car, my Dad decided to try and pass off some other boxes they've been keeping for me; you know, boxes of memory items from highschool and college. I spent the next couple of hours just pouring through old journals from as early as age 8 and college acceptance letters from my Senior year of highschool. Man, if I had only known the journey I was about to embark on.

One of my favorite finds was this great work of fiction I wrote in 2001:

"A STORY ABOUT ALCOHOL" LOL. Yeah. But I got a 100 and man did I deserve it with all those colored illustrations.

After leaving my parents, I treated myself to a little birthday ice cream at Coldstone Creamery at the harbor nearby. Appropriately I chose "Birthday Cake Remix". I'm pretty sure the "remix" is that afterwards you feel like dying, on your day of birth. But it was yummy none the less.

I enjoyed my treat in front of this gorgeous fountain just soaking up the Texas sunshine. I have missed the sun SO much and it was great to feel the heat "beating" down at 75 degrees.

That was about the end of my excursions for the day. I MAY have stopped at Garden Ridge on the way home for bags of Popcorn Indiana Dark Fudge Chocolate Chip Kettlecorn...but you can't prove that, can you? CAN YOU. Haha.

Overall, it was a wonderful, relaxing day. I am about to head off to some sessions during which I will be jamming to this amazing new album by Jillian Edwards, "Daydream":

It is perfect, breezy Spring-time singer-songwriter-ness.

I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday.

I will leave you with this embarrassing relic from my childhood.

How To Get Your Motivation Back (Therapy-Wise)

Across my adult life thus far, since graduating high school, I have struggled with continuous low-grade depression. It affects me to varying degrees daily, and often I feel like my attitude towards work and life and general can be affected by things as insignificant as whether the sun is literally shining or not. I'm working on this.

One thing I continually come back to the drawing board on is how to re-gain my motivation in regards to work. Some people may find this strange; after all, you went to the effort of getting a Master's degree in your field, you must love your job! And I do. But home health can be very isolating; you have a lot of time to yourself to think; a.k.a., ruminate on your problems. Long drives between sessions become pressure cookers for insecure thoughts. Or Britney Spears karaoke sessions. It really is either or. Anyways, this isolation and time spent driving can lead to a monotony that slowly drives you insane. I am sure there are plenty of home health therapists that travel very short distances between clients but I am not that SLP. My closest client is 8 minutes away and my furthest is an hour and fifteen minutes.

However, there are a few things that help me find the joy in what I do on days when I just don't know if I can handle another 30 minutes working on past tense verbs again with the little guy I have seen for several years straight. When 30 minutes seem like the longest 30 minutes of my life. One of them is telling myself that I'm a badass. A la Leslie Knope.

On top of that, here are some of my go-to strategies:

1) Take 10 minutes to print out a new themed cut/paste activity and make enough copies for all clients. Check out Teachers Pay Teachers and bring one new activity or toy to therapy today. 

Seriously. Stop using that same deck of Super Duper cards that only makes your kids cry and you want to hit your head against the wall. Even typing in "preschool March cut/paste" into Google can give me something quick to print out so I don't have to face the monotony of my usual go-to materials.

2) TREAT YO SELF.

Bring a new snack (aka bribe yourself with food, usually works for me) or stop at Starbucks for a midday pick-me-up. Being able to look forward to a treat or something relaxing in the midst of a busy day will help carry you through. I like to download The Jillian Michaels Show podcasts. New podcasts automatically download every Tuesday and therefore every Tuesday I actually look forward to my long drives so I can listen to this show. 

3) Emotionally re-invest in your clients.

Stop thinking about that one client as the 3-year old who's been working on past tense verbs for like forever. Instead, sit down and make a new game plan. Imagine this child finally mastering their goals and becoming functionally communicative in the way you want them to be. Remember their names. Enjoy their personalities. Think about them as if they were your own children before you scold them for scooting around the living room every second of the session. Love on them. 

4) Come up with a new game plan. 

In grad school when I was an SLPA and had only 3-4 clients, I used to come home and think through each child, their deficits, and formulate how I could use very effective activities to get them in and out of therapy fast. I had a lot more time on my hands, obviously. Regardless, consider coming up with three new activities to target goals you're just over, so you can feel more effective during therapy and break up the monotony.

5) Clean out your car. 

Home health speechies, I know you feel me on this one. Hey, who knew you had these auditory awareness dry erase worksheets in there?! It's amazing what you can forget you're lugging around after weeks of dragging toys in and out of your trunk and backseat. Pull everything out, take an inventory, make sure you're carrying only what you need, and then replace worn-out toys and activities with new and exciting ones. 

Also throw out all those Starbucks cups and fast food wrappers. That will be helpful in maintaining your sanity. 

I hope some of these ideas help shake things up for you. And when you're all alone in your car, drinking an Icee and eating another bean burrito from Taco Bell, driving an hour to your next session...know I'm here for you, girl. 

Lindsay

It All Spilled Over

This blog post will be a monster post symbolic of the past few days. Everything has spilled over.

You know, life gets moving and so you start taking things and put them on the back burner to deal with, but before you know it, even the back burner is full. The past few days have been full of a whole lot of wonderful and a bit of stress. Most of it I managed to capture in pictures.

To begin, last Friday was Valentine's Day, as I'm sure every single one of you were aware of. Amazingly, my Facebook newsfeed was NOT flooded with a million pics of flowers men sent their perspective wives and girlfriends.

Hence the reason I feel comfortable showing you all this beautiful bouquet of roses and lillies that Jake showed up with at my door. The best part was the strawberry cheesecake chocolate sticks poised at random throughout. He did good.

Anyways, not to get ahead of myself, Friday was a therapy day that consisted of dessert Skittles articulation therapy and various Valentine's language activities. I was given a cupcake by a 3-year old that I professionally scarfed down with my bare hands like a savage immediately following the session. That red food dye does NOT wash off skin easily, P.S.

Here's a picture of my car mid-day Friday. Oh, who am I kidding. This is a typical home-health car, at least MY car typically. I guess I should note that my trunk is generally much more organized than my back seats. You can see I do not have children at the moment; where would I even put a car seat? I'd make room, though...just saying.

In the afternoon I did a bilingual penguin activity, which I know, is typically a January theme. But it was Friday and that's what I had. Here's the front and back, showing the way I used it to target basic verbs and subject-verb agreement:

Following therapy I headed back home to celebrate the evening with my handsome Valentine. We went to Torchy's Tacos, per my request. If you haven't been, you need to go. Just say, "2 Trashy Trailer Park's." Trust me, you'll be happy. 

                                                                Before Dinner


Those 4 evals I mentioned in my last post? I am just now finishing the fourth one. Like I said, everything began to spill over. I am feeling good about the month of March, however. As for now,
I am going to finish this last eval and begin working on a new pillow for the Etsy shop.

Also, stay tuned for a new therapy game in my next post! It is self-developed and has always been a winner with my preschool crowd. Target area: phonological processing goals!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and is finding productive ways of dealing with the stress that comes along with the workweek and life spilling over. :)

Sunday Feels

It is Sunday. Let me tell you how Sunday feels. 

Sunday feels like a McDonald's medium french fry and ice-cold Coke.

Sunday feels like a very heavy, scratchy grey blanket that I don't want touching me.

Sunday feels like a humid room with a barely functioning oscillating fan. 

Sunday feels like an all-too hot bath that you were dying to get into but five minutes later are dying to get out of. 

Sunday feels like a song you started writing but quit when you got to the chorus.

Sunday feels like the comforter you put in the dryer that you will purposefully forget about.

Sunday feels like the mess on the floor that is better suited for Monday's sense of purpose.

Sunday feels like an empty playground punctuated by the sound of a clanging flagpole.

Sunday feels like the ball you attempted to play with that you accidentally kicked out of reach.

Sunday feels like the tea you set aside to cool down but is now too cool and must be reheated.

Sunday feels like the excitement of wearing flip flops followed by the let-down of a chilly breeze.

Sunday feels like the shirt you want to wear so badly but never lays just right.

Sunday feels like the talk you will have with that good friend filled with long pauses. Those muffins you made, they weren't very good, were they? People are unreliable, aren't they? You don't want tomorrow to come. 

Sunday feels better in my head than it looks on paper. 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation. - psalm 51:12