Synthesis Sunday: Time to Unpack

Today is my second day of a 16 day break from working at my facility. I spent yesterday finishing up a course about music education for persons with special needs, and today, I have church obligations before two days of nothing for anyone else. I think I may go see a movie tomorrow and on Wednesday and possibly again on Friday. Ah, the life of a school therapist on break...

My quest focus (not goal - I've got a strange difficulty with that word when it comes to myself) is to unpack as many boxes as I can in as many places as I can. Box living is not for me, and I do not feel like this is my home yet because there are so many things that I have not found. It is almost time for the church's rummage sale, so I have an incentive to get going as quickly as possible so I can get as much stuff out of here as possible. I also want to start going to garage sales to find things to store my remaining stuff, so I am going to work on this as my quest for this summer. 

Take things out of boxes, move them into storage or out of the house completely.

My quest.

I will work a bit on each room each day. The kitchen is functional and pretty much ready to go - I have some things that I need to move from where my sister wanted them to be to where I want them to be, but the rest is out and ready...except for the box of elusive Tupperware sitting somewhere in this house...

I figure that I can get bits and pieces out and going in each room which will help me not get overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. I will bring down my dolly to move boxes to the places that they need to be unpacked without having to use my back to pick things up. I still have a month before I can see the next doctor on my list.

I finished up my binder project for my course and for my professional quest for this school year. There are still some things to tweak, but I have the basics ready. I will be getting this prepared as a Teachers Pay Teachers file for my store later today. Basically, this is a communication set specifically for music therapy sessions. I have drawn different icons for things that we do and have in music therapy sessions at my facility and will get into binders and on the walls for my clients to use to communicate different concepts and ideas. I have the black and white versions finished, but I want to color in many of the icons so they are easier to decipher for some of my students. Once I have finished the TPT file, I can print out copies to laminate for my communication binders and then investigate the cost of getting the same pages printed as poster-sized prints from Office Depot for the walls. My goal in all of this is to equip my clients with more opportunities to communicate what they want to do in the music therapy session than they have at the moment. The next phase is to find some very honest representations so they can tell me what they do not want to be doing in the music therapy session as well. That element is important and is often missing from the communication devices that I have and that my clients bring into the session. It is just as important to be able to tell people what you do not like as it is to tell them what you do like.

I also have some bed pictures to color in for "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" for another TPT file. I am hoping to add some more files into my store this week. Someone bought my summer rhythm file yesterday. That's 87 cents into my bank account. Thank you, if it was you!

To help me with both of these quests, I think I will go back to my old system of 30 minutes on one task, then 30 minutes on another task. I need to find my timer to move around with me... come to think of it, I haven't seen my R2-D2 timer. It is probably in the box with all the Tupperware... Well, I have computer timers that I can use in the meantime. I find that changing my location and focus every 30 minutes helps me get things finished up. It also means giving myself permission to leave things unfinished and to walk away from them for a period of time. I will use my KanBan board to help me focus and get me doing the various parts of my quest of cleaning up and getting organized.

For me, organization is a never-ending process. I am never satisfied with the options that I have available to me, so I keep wanting more from myself. I always fall short of my Pretty Perfect Pinterest world vision for myself. I am still clinging to the idea that I can achieve the organization system of my dreams, but I also have to realize that I am not always entirely able to achieve the storage of my dreams. I do not have the money at the moment. That's the reality. That fact will not stop me from dreaming about it all.

So, my quest is clear for next week - unpack, arrange, get rid of, create.

It is time to move towards my Pretty Perfect Pinterest world. Wish me luck!!