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My Current Secret Shame - Bullet Journal Planning Videos

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Everyone has at least one weakness, and mine is that I am currently spending WAY TOO MUCH time watching bullet journal planning videos. If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know that I use the bullet journal method for my life - personally and professionally. I enjoy watching what others do with their journals - mine is definitely NOT fancy or pretty. It is functional, and I have FINALLY found a system that works for me, but I still get pulled into the YouTube world of Bullet Journal Plan With Me videos.

These videos all happen the same way. A person with a great manicure focuses the camera onto a wonderful background where the journal is featured. There is almost always a cat who shows up to see what is going on (so far, I only have the cat to contribute - my manicure is never GREAT!). There is a cute theme that is accompanied by a variety of artistic skills - watercoloring, stickers (often designed by the star of the video), shading with fancy pens, and all sorts of things. …
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Make It Monday: Music Note Cards

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I often make things for my students so that they can choose music-themed familiar games for days when I am not able to sing or make music with them. One of the most functional things that I have made is a deck of music note cards. We use these cards to play notation WAR, Go Fish, Old Maid, Memory/Concentration, Slapjack, and other card games. These are some of the most versatile visual aids that I have, and they are really easy to make!!

My music cards have the following notes (at this time - I'll be adding some more) - sixteenth, eighth, quarter, half, and whole. I currently have four different card decks - they are color coordinated so I can make sure to put entire sets back together - all the purple cards go together, etc. They are a bit smaller than playing card deck size, but that doesn't seem to bother my clients. We use them for many different things.

So, how do I make these?

I go back to my favorite visual aid base of all times - 4X6 inch index cards!!

When you cut these i…
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Song Conversion Sunday: Lullaby - Lopalong

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It is Sunday again, and that means that I will take a song, randomly chosen from my shelves of sheet music books and single copies of music, to analyze and make into something that has a therapeutic purpose for my music therapy practice. This process jumpstarts my creative interpretation of music in general by making me think about something out there in the world that doesn't have any therapeutic meaning for me to begin with and then finding that meaning through contemplation, study, and thought.

This month's song is from a book called, Musically Speaking. It was written by Roberta Wilson Dolana, published by Word Making Productions located in Salt Lake City, Utah. I can find very little information about the company or the author/composer, so I'm thinking it is a very obscure book.

Now, I got this book from the discard pile at my facility when they disbanded the employee resource library many years ago. I'm sure that I picked it up because it had music in it, but I hav…
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Organizing a Symposium Has Lots of Moving Parts

I have been working on a project lately that is coming to a head today. It is an educational symposium for music therapists from around the world, and I'm always reminded that there are lots of things that have to happen in order to have any type of meeting of music therapists (and others, of course).

This symposium has been my labor of love lately.

I took this concept and ran with it. Here's a list of all the things that I had to think about during this process...

Convince the board to support this idea
Develop idea for symposium
Contact potential presenters (my first choice took me up on the offer! - This was easy!!)
Start to define symposium purpose and CBMT information
Select date and time for symposium
Submit CBMT paperwork to become preapproved and officially offer the event
Set up registration through various entry sites
Get web master to update website
Coordinate registrations and payments
Communicate with registrants
Answer questions (there are ALWAYS questions, even when I'v…
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Moving Right Along

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My week has been a good week. It's been full of ups and downs, but, on the whole, it has been pretty good. I had to spend some time, during my 12-hour day at work, focusing specifically on finding things that made me feel happy in that moment, but I was able to fill a page of those things - even in the midst of my disgust at having to be somewhere that I did not want to be AND doing something I did not want to do. I found some happy thoughts and was able to refocus on those things rather than my immediate situation.

At the moment, I am enjoying a late arrival day for the last day of this work week. Everyone else had an opportunity to leave early on our 12-hour day, but I had already worked the hours, so I went to the doctor yesterday. Turns out I have an outer ear infection (which I knew about) and a urinary tract infection (that started about 90 minutes before I made it to the doctor's office). As a result, I am waiting to pick up my medications at the pharmacy at 9am before h…
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Thoughtful Thursday: Feeling Productive

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I am on the downhill side of a long workweek, and I feel that I've managed to get quite a bit finished. I have two new Teachers Pay Teachers files up on my store, I have kept up with the registrations for the symposium I am coordinating that happens this weekend, and I finished up a really long day yesterday. I did manage to wake up about an hour later than usual this morning, but I still feel that I am ahead of the game.

I think this goes along with my reverse seasonal affective disorder. I tend to feel happier and more productive in the dark hours of the winter than I do in the hot days and nights of summer. I'm not sure why, and I wasn't really this way when I lived in California, but here, I am not a fan of the bright days of the summer.

For the moment, though, I am feeling pretty good.

This may also have something to do with getting back into some of my music therapy groups. We are starting to address termination of services by my senior intern, so I am now in the room f…
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Too Many Ideas - Not Enough Time

My creative phases come and overwhelm me for a time, then they morph into a time of ennui. I am in a creative phase right now. Ideas are coming faster than I can manifest them, and it is a bit hectic around here as I am trying to put them down on paper so I can get things arranged, organized, and make them a reality.

My current project is a mini edition of sing about songs with some links to visual aids offered through my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have way too many ideas to include in this mini edition, but that's not a bad thing. The mini edition may spur me to write another full-sized edition of sing about songs with additional TMEs to go with the visual aids and the themes. We will see what I get finished in this next month before the mini editions become a reality.

So, in the next two weeks, I have some visual aids to design, print, and make as examples for a photo shoot for the new edition. I have TMEs to write out. I have a music therapy disclaimer to formulate. I have my…
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