music, therapy, and me

I am a relatively new home owner, and it is challenging to me. It has almost been seven months since I moved into this place, and I am still living in an unorganized, box-filled mess. I have had to replace the dishwasher and now cannot even open the back sliding glass door in order to get myself out to the overgrown back yard. I feel like I am floundering and failing in this part of life. I took a gulp and booked some help with the sliding glass door yesterday. I have a person coming to look at the situation and to fix things next Friday. That gives me a week to get this room ready so the guy can access the door without trying to climb over my desk. It also encourages me to move my computer desk to a new place to see if I like the other position better. This part of the project requires that I do some other work first, so I have been working on the guest bedroom/music therapy bedroom so I can put some of the stuff out here in there. I have a week to clear out and clean up. Yesterday, i...

I am in a period of change. This is partially due to my age, I am sure, and partially due to the fact that I have moved into a new home, and partially due to the fact that there are so many things happening in the world that there isn't much that remains static. Things are changing all around us, and it is sometimes difficult to keep up.  So, I am feeling a sense of accomplishment this morning. I woke up at 3:30 (my usual waking time these days) and finished a book. I have been reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett since Monday. It was nice to get to the ending. If you haven't read it, just know that I loved the Amazon series (there is a second season coming!!), and then I read the book. The series was very close to the book - something that I value in a remake and that doesn't happen often enough for me. After I finished the book, I took the pieces of furniture down to the office/studio to set up. Before I started that project, though, I looked at my utili...

My "co-worker" judging my writing! I need to celebrate something that is going on in my life, so I am going to write a bit about what I've actually done this week...this VERY long week full of rapidly changing circumstances and full of the unknown. Oooh, now I am singing the Panic at the Disco version of Into the Unknown from Frozen 2 - my favorite song from the movie - the PatD version, NOT the Idina Menzel version for some reason - but I digress. This has not been the best spring break for me for many reasons, not the least of which was the global pandemic that is happening around us all. I started my break in a preparation for a medical procedure that did not happen because I seemed to be in a feverish state when it was due to start. I don't think I had a temperature, but the nurses would not listen and I panicked and burst into tears because this meant that all the anxiety and bad dreams and panic attacks have to be rescheduled because I was having a faci...

I feel like I had a good weekend - one that was full of self-care and consideration as well as something that has made my immediate plans change. I spent lots of time sleeping on Saturday, and then I indulged in some time with my own energy renewing process - making something, ordering food, watching silly movies, and making something else. I finished one project that I've been working through in my head, and I made significant progress on another project that's been in the works for a long time. I am feeling like I got some things accomplished, and other than my blog topics, I didn't think much about music therapy at all - well, that's not true. I finished up several of the business things that I wanted to get done this month, so I did think about music therapy. Before I let myself get into the process of thinking about what I haven't prepared for this upcoming week of music therapy interactions, let me bask a bit in what I did do. I am part of a business chall...

It's a strange paradox for me, but I find that shorter times off are more refreshing than longer times off. I usually get more of a sense of renewal and rest with my three day weekends during the summer than the nine days that I had at the beginning of the summer session. I'm not sure how that is, but it works for me, and makes me look forward to the summer session every single year. I usually work six days per week. On Sundays, I have a part-time job directing a choir and leading worship music, so it is not a day off. It is a day of work. The other five days per week are my regular work schedule days, so I tend to be busy lots of the time. During summer, my part-time job goes on hiatus because they don't want to have to pay me. I get my Sundays back during June, July, and most of August. I also have a four day work week because our residential program can function better with more consistent days in school than long breaks between sessions, so we get a longer amount of...

...but not really all that sorry since I am currently on vacation and am spending my time in my parents' guest room waiting for them to waken. I've been awake for about three hours now, and I have at least another 2 hours before anyone will start to stir. I've started, completed, and uploaded a new file to my Teachers Pay Teachers store , Music Notation Cards , and now I am sitting on the bed, surrounded by my computer, my bullet journal, my ideas book, and my tablet which is playing bullet journaling YouTube videos to keep me company. My songs are at my house, many hours away, so we will NOT be doing anything song-related this day. If that is why you are here, just go back to last week's post and know that I will be back into my regular routine next week. This week, however, I am still in vacation mode. I have today and tomorrow without travel plans and then I am traveling back to the full routine of work, being an internship director, seeing my cat, and doing the ...

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 ...

Have you ever noticed that songs that have to be written are less compelling than those that just happen? I'm kinda in a place right now where that is happening. I want some more songs for a Halloween theme subscription idea that I have, but everything that I think of just falls flat - you know? Like a balloon deflating? On the other hand, songs are springing into mind that have nothing at all to do with my self-imposed songwriting topic. Blech. I am currently practicing creative composition. What is that? Creative composition is where I set myself some ground rules for songwriting and then just go where my brain takes me. I find that my creative process is helped out by setting rules. With rules, I end up finding pathways into creative expression that I miss when I am sitting there without any type of structure. So, I am going to start out by making up my rules. I want a couple of songs to supplement the Halloween-themed lapbook that I am making. On that lapbook, I have a ...

I have many things flitting through my mind these days. Teachers Pay Teachers plans, website announcements, new CMTEs ! I have accomplished most of the goals that I established for myself at the beginning of last school year, and I am pretty proud of myself. The old school year is over in seven days, and I have an opportunity to set goals for myself, both personally and professionally, at the start of my new year. Last year, I wrote my goals down on an index card which I taped up next to my desk. It is still over there (but my desk has moved - I have to rearrange my pictures to put my bulletin board near the new desk - put it on the list!). I wanted to focus on happiness, play the ukulele, get two CMTE courses up and running, and eat better. Well, I was able to get about 75% of these goals finished, which makes me feel pretty good about the 2017-2018 school year. Now it's time to start thinking about next year. I always set myself some goals, but I rarely get things finishe...

I accomplished something else that I've wanted to do for a time now! I started a Teachers Pay Teachers store for selling songs and visual aids. If you have never looked at Teachers Pay Teachers, you are missing out on all sorts of ideas and opportunities! I posted my first digital file up on the store yesterday. It's a file folder (BIG surprise, there!) for playing around with letters and letter sounds. You can find the visual at the Teachers Pay Teachers link here . (By the way, the file is FREE!) You can find the entire therapeutic music experience (TME) listed here below! Please check it out if you work with people who are working on letter and sound recognition! Therapeutic Music Experience Pig in a Mud Puddle Mary Jane Landaker, MME, MT-BC   Purpose : To address literacy goals – recognizing written letters; recognizing letter sounds and associating with symbols; matching capital letters with small letters; fine motor skill development; Mo...