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Fun Friday: Design Day

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Today is Design Day. By hook or by crook, I will have at least three new designs ready by the end of the day. I am close to this right now. I have two designs in progress. I have arranged a tool and started a game but I still need to scan in some images and write TMEs for all three things before I consider myself finished. So, I will be moving from my place here on my desk to my drawing table and back again for most of the morning. I will be printing things off, taping things down, and I need to get to the laminating stack that is climbing up and up. These designs are for our first Creation Group which will be happening on December 5th. I want to have some pictures to help sell the idea to others. I also need to talk to the two people who have indicated interest a bit about who they work with and what will be most valuable for them in their practice so I can adapt what I have into useful things. I am thinking that a tool, a song, and a game might be the best format for designs for this...
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Wednesday: Relief For a Moment, But Now It Is Time To Work

Much like many Americans, I went to sleep yesterday in a state of anxious hope. As I am sure that you know, things aren't going great in our country, and it has been difficult to be a particular type of person lately. I slept fitfully, but when I woke for the last time this morning, I was encouraged by the news. So, the mid-term elections are over, but we will see what will actually happen once the new folks take their seats in Congress. I think that it is pretty evident by most of my comments about politics which party I vote for consistently. I try not to put too much political stuff on this blog or on my social media accounts because I feel that how you vote is a private affair. I don't have to tell you how I vote, and I prefer to keep that private - most of the time. Today, though, I really want to celebrate that my state has elected our first Democratic senator in almost a century! I want to celebrate that we are getting rid of our nefarious Attorney General, but that is n...
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TME Tuesday: Thinking About February in November

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I write therapeutic music experience (TME) collections. I compose music to go with specific months and for specific themes. Right now, I am preparing resources for February to share in December with folks who want to make visual supports for clients. I enjoy making visual supports, and I enjoy seeing what other people do with my ideas to make them unique to themselves and their practice. I find, though, that the visual support is not the only thing that music therapists want from my resources. They also want the music to go with the visual supports. I try to include a song with many of my digital files, but I don't always do that when I post files in my TPT shop .  For me, thinking about how I can use visuals in sessions with clients is the best part of it all! Since I do not have any clients at the moment, I am thinking about how I could use these things with hypothetical clients. I am thinking about how to use things with clients with other goals and objectives than the ones that...
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Monday Musings

It is Monday again, and I am looking for some sort of routine in my life! I didn't make anything this weekend, so Make-It Monday is not happening right now. Actually, I started making a Valentine's Day themed game board, but I did not finish it. It is sitting on my work table waiting to be finished. I just need to put together the candy rhythms  to go with the board game that I am making, and it will be ready to show my registrants for my Make It! CMTE coming up on the 5th of December. I did not do much other than sitting in my upstairs bedroom, reading books, and watching Korean television shows. I also made bean soup, but I haven't tried it yet. I have a dubious relationship with soup to start with, but the weather just seemed to call for making soup. My house smells like soup now, and that is both good and bad. It is dark outside. This is the time of year where I feel happier than the summer months. Even with the shift in allergies, I like autumn better than summer. I li...
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Just a Song Sunday: Time to Head Into a Random Song

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I have no idea what song to write about this morning, so I am going to use my random number generator to select a letter for the title and then pick something from my music library that fits with that letter. Now, I have so much music in my library that I can't really figure out a way to narrow things down a bit more. So, off to the random number generator to get a letter number. 23. That means that I look at my W titles to see what songs I have available, and that leads me to Wunderkind  by Alanis Morrisette and  The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe soundtrack. I love this song, but I do have a bit of difficulty with how she pronounces the word "wunderkind" throughout the song. Other than that, it is a great example of Alanis being Alanis in her music - lots of throaty and growly vocals with good harmonic support throughout. I love the song and have forgotten how much. This is a song that needs to be added to my empowerment playlist. I enjoy the harmonics, the lyrics, t...
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New Book Day!! New Book Day!! New Book Day!!

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(Can you tell that this event excites me EVERY SINGLE TIME it happens??) Today is the first day that I will be officially using my new work bullet journal. If you read this blog regularly, then you know that I am a paper planner and scheduler type of music therapist. I sit down every morning (even most weekend days) to write down my tasks and prioritize what I need to do. I use it to capture my thoughts and sort through situations that happen to me. My book is part of my brain and this is important to know as I talk about how I use this as an essential part of my structure. It is my system, and this system makes things happen for me. Now, I do not use any one type of organization system in my books. There are many ways to plan, to track, to use a book similar to mine, and I choose to use my own system. For this, I make my own layouts and spreads to help me do what I need to do. If you are interested in some of the systems that others have developed for their use that I have used from t...
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Fun Friday: Another Dream Coming Up!!

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SQUEEEEE! So, I am getting chances to do things that I have never really thought I could do these days. I have been approved to run two ongoing music therapy continuing education opportunities, and I am excited about it all!  The first is a course on Composition and Creativity . It is a self-study course that encourages creativity for music therapists - something that I really love to encourage. Participants can select how many modules they want - either one or up to ten modules at our set price per CMTE - $10.00 per CMTE earned. This course includes topics including composition, budget-minded materials, and avoiding burnout. Lots of choices and options are available, and I get to add new topics when appropriate for me and for other music therapists. I am hoping that I can get some folks interested in taking this course and offering some feedback. This has been a course that I have developed over many years, and it is something that I wish I could take! The second CMTE opportunity ...
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