Ugh. Valentine's Day.

Neither of us is really all that into this holiday...
I am such a holiday Scrooge sometimes. I am not a fan of holiday hype of almost any kind, but I really don't like Halloween or Valentine's Day. I don't know why, but it's probably based in years of having to celebrate in an extroverted way - cards for everyone! Costumes and opening the doors and going to people's houses - not really something that I like a whole lot. 

I don't really get into too much celebration in the music therapy room. This may be because I really don't care about the holidays, but I also justify it in the fact that kids often get REALLY wrapped up in strong emotions around the holidays. (Wow, three "really"s in one paragraph...I need to get out my thesaurus!) If I'm going to spend some time and effort on coming up with something new to do in the month of February, I will usually focus on historical events or Groundhog's Day or something completely unrelated.

For me, the day will be a planning/preparation day at work. I do not have any group sessions on Fridays due to a clause in my contract that states that I have to have about 6 hours of planning time per week and a summer schedule that eliminates Friday sessions completely. So, because of those two things, I have Fridays as shopping day in the student store (housed by me in my room) and then do all of my intern and peer supervision during my plan/prep time. That way, in the summer months, I don't have to rearrange my group schedule and smoosh group sessions into four days instead of five days. It works to have Fridays reserved for planning.

Today will be a day for changing guitar strings and making my new session planner. That's right - it is time for a new session planner. I had originally thought that I would use my work journal for session planning, but I haven't been touching that journal lately, so I'm thinking I need to make a new format. I have a format already to be printed out. I will be laminating dividers and making pockets and including calendars and all sorts of things to go into this planner. I get a strange thrill out of the thought of figuring out what I want to include in this set-up. 

My pile of materials for my exhibit at the Midwestern Region conference is getting taller, but is not tall enough for my tastes yet. I'm going to spend time this weekend putting together more visuals and resources. I just posted a new file in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and I'll be making some of those files to use with clients. I will also see about making some session planners for sale as well. Fun!!


My holiday plans aren't exciting or romantic or interesting at all. I have a meeting tomorrow morning and then the rest of the day to work on projects and clean parts of my house. I can spend the day doing whatever I want. Sunday is for church, but Monday is a repeat of Saturday - presentation to a local high school health class about music therapy and then things that I want to do for the rest of the day. Maybe a movie?? Hmmm.

I am looking forward to not listening to songs about love today. I am looking forward to not being around other people's roses. I am looking forward to getting things half off tomorrow. Bah, humbug!

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