music, therapy, and me

I am finishing up the last session of the Music for Kiddos Symposium before I head over to complete the course evaluation and get my certificate. I could not face that session on the day - it was just a bit too much to concentrate on during that specific time. I just needed a small break after the six presentations that I watched on Friday. Today, I have to get through all of this just to finish it all. I have started some things that I should (goblin alert) have done many years ago. I registered my "business" as an LLC yesterday. It was a payment and a form filed with the State. That was it, as far as I can find these days. I will have to do some business things with the city - DBA, and licenses - but those cannot be accomplished until I have an Employer Identification Number and some new bank accounts. Those are tasks for this next week.  It is time to get my "business" going. I've had the website for 30 years, and I have not made it into anything that makes m...

EGAD! The last time I tried to write on this blog was a week ago. I didn't finish the post, so there has been silence from this keyboard for this entire week, so let me catch you up with all the stuff that has happened here in just seven short days. My mother and my sister arrived exactly on time (we are a bit concerned about getting them home, but they are here). I got them back to my house at 1am on Sunday morning, shuffled them off to the new mattress sets, and then went upstairs for three hours of sleep before heading off to church to do the children's part of worship. It went off without a hitch - even the littles sang their hearts out! I returned to my house to find that my sister and mother had started right in with the boxes in various areas of the house - the kitchen, bathroom, and office/craft studio. We went to get them a rental car for the week and then went out for lunch and some "necessity" shopping. After that excursion, I was exhausted, so I said goodn...

Yesterday morning, I was notified that one of my cousins out there on the East coast was missing. He had been out hiking (by himself - hope that lesson has been learned) and had not been heard from in 72 hours. (Don't worry, he was found by park rangers and is being observed in the hospital, so happy ending at the moment - just wanted you to know this up front so you didn't have to wonder...) His sister let us in Facebook world know that he was missing and then updated us during the day about the process of finding him. Turns out, he wasn't where he had last checked in from - he was in a completely different state and a different state park. Once his car was found in the parking lot, the park rangers coordinated a search and found him. He was sent to the local hospital for evaluation and there has been no more news. The entire day was spent watching Facebook for news and hoping that it would be a good outcome. Being 1500 miles away from situations like this is frustrating. ...

A lapbook example My post this morning started off as a celebration of all things "end of the school year," but it felt a bit repetitive and a bit shallow. As a result, I've changed my mind and my post to something else. I need help coming up with ideas for visual aids that music therapists will use. If you are a regular reader, then you know that I have recently started a Teachers Pay Teachers store under my business/website name. My goal for this store is to offer inexpensive visual aids in digital formats for music therapists and others. The TPT links include visuals, instructions for putting things together, and original songs and chants. My website includes links to the therapeutic music experiences of the visuals that I've developed for TPT. (I decided not to include the TME portion of the entire thing to help decrease the idea that just anyone can do music therapy...) I have my list of ideas to put up there, but I thought I would ask others what types ...