Trudging Into the Last Week

Ugh. Summer.
I'm hot and I don't feel good and I spent all night shivering (I know, silly to think about due to the first part of this sentence) and it is the last Monday of our extended school year (ESY) so I have to go and I really don't want to, but I'm going anyway.

I am looking forward into a week of kids being able to go outside because the weather is supposed to cooperate - depending on where you look for forecast information. In fact, the forecast that I am looking at right now (which is my favorite at the moment) says that we will not break out of the 80's (Fahrenheit) all week! These lower temperatures and the ability to go outside and run off some energy may make for less cranky students and a less cranky therapist. We shall see.

Here's what I have to look forward to this week:
  • Saying goodbye to intern #27 as she finishes up her time with me and moves on to bigger and better things.
  • Constant questions from teachers about the fall schedule - as far as I know, I am finished with schedule changes, but the assumptions still happen...
  • A migraine headache. I always get one after going to the chiropractor, so it is out there, lurking in the murky future.
  • A service evaluation made by the behavior health technicians to rate how "effective" music therapy services are. This concerns me because I'm not sure how many of my co-workers understand my job and how they will rate "effective." I'm also not sure what the data will be used for, and I hate it when people take data but do not delineate how the data will be used.
  • Four days of work before a week and a half off.
At least lower temperatures will make it easier on my breathing and my joints and my overall outlook...right? 

Right.

It is time to get myself together. Time to figure out a strategy for getting things finished this last week of summer session 2019 before heading into school year 2019-2020. Okay - I'm thinking that some self-care is called for here.

 Step One: finish blogging and move on to other tasks for this morning. A shower would help me warm up and may help me relax some of the tension that I'm feeling.

 Step Two: Listen to something new during my commute to work. There are advantages to living 50+miles away from work, and the biggest one is that I have time to switch from home mode into the inevitable work mode. I have some new episodes of my favorite podcasts to enjoy this morning.

 Step Three: Do something in my music therapy office to clean up. Things are starting to pile up on me again, so I want to remove things and replace things. I have some new storage that will help with this process.

 Step Four: Go in to work a bit later than usual. It's amazing how 30 additional minutes can make such a difference, and I will STILL be early to work!

 Step Five: Make some "easy on me" session strategies so that I can conserve the energy that I have in order to respond in a therapeutic manner to my students who deserve a therapist who can be therapeutic.

 Step Six: Feel all the feelings and then use those emotions to get through.

 Step Seven: Plan on sleeping, cleaning, and creating things over the break.

 There - that's my self-care plan for today. I'm going to finish step one and get ready for the rest. See you tomorrow?

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