Monday, September 28, 2015

Blog-Tember | Day 28 A Day In The Normal* Life


Today’s prompt: A day in the life, take us through it with you!

Today is Monday! I am excited to take you through my day and hope it’s not too tedious or boring! It’s not exactly a trip to the Caribbean!

I work as a school-based therapist. After I completed my masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy I went on to work at three different high-schools. I would usually just work at one school and have a caseload of 20-25 clients and families. This is my first year being a lead therapist at three schools and no high-schools included! 

So for me, every day is a little different. I’m at different school every day with a different schedule so I’ll just walk you through my Monday!



6:45am:  Wake?????? (whyyyyyyyyy)

7:00am-8:00am:  Shower??? Find something to wear? But I can’t! We had a leak in my closet and my clothes are literally EVERYWHERE while they fix the leak and fill the massive hole. I need coffee!! Why is my contact lost in my eye socket?! Scott has been making us breakfast sandwiches recently, which has been so nice. I am not a morning person. I just move about my morning like my life is the worst. I don’t come alive until I have had my coffee and approximately 2 hours after I am awake.

8:00am:  Leave for work or at least attempt to as I run out the door with all my bags. #bagwoman #travelingtherapist #circustherapist Scott usually walks me out to the car which is a simple thing but a really bright part of my day. Right now he is working to fundraise to join Young Life so he usually heads to a coffee shop after that to work on emails and phone calls. 

8:00am-9:00am: Sit in commuter traffic and try not to punch something. This is my 5th week at the job so I am becoming calmer about the whole thing. I’ve been listening to Ted Talk podcasts or Magic Lessons pod-casts which has really helped pass the time!

9:00am: Arrive at elementary school

9:00am-9:30am: Check mail box, get in to office, check email, drink my coffee, breathe and do a little bit of writing. Recently it has been blogging for Blog-Tember which I have loved. It has helped create a good rhythm for me.

9:30am-2:00pm:  Generally I see clients or run group therapy during this time. I also write progress notes, review referrals, make calls to parents and have lunch. Today however is my first day doing “therapy time” in the classroom. I am going to a 3rd-5th-grade classroom and our topic is on decision-making. I am really excited about it but a little nervous!

I thought nothing I hear could surprise me anymore after working with teenagers for the past 3 years but I was wrong! If you tell a child you went to the beach, apparently they might want to know whether or not you took off your shirt and suddenly I am caught off guard.

I’m just not as used to working with elementary aged children as I am high schoolers. I’ve brought my Jenga game to the office to help build rapport and get to know my clients. I write process questions on the blocks. I had very nerve-wracking moment as one of my little clients pulled out a block that said, “what is your view on drug use?”. It’s a very useful question for a teenager. It’s a terrible one for a child. Thankfully it was not super readable and I said “tell me about your view on dogs” NOTE TO SELF: Take that block out when working with elementary aged kids.

With high-schoolers I am used to their fears ranging from becoming a drug addict, to not fitting in, to impregnating someone. With elementary kids when I ask about worst fears answers range from “snakes to the dark to Halloween people ” And I kinda agree with them. “Halloween people” are The WORST. They are so scary.

2:00pm-3:00pm: It’s about a 45 minutes drive to the therapy offices where I have staff meetings (aka group supervision) and do a lot of my paperwork. As this is Monday and Mondays are tough and long for me I usually treat myself to a Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks on my way over and listen to happy Christmas music to calm myself.

3:00pm-5:00pm:  Group Supervision time! Also a nice little tidbit: I work with my one of my best friend! She referred me and now we both work for the same agency. We have different schools so we don’t see each other all except for Mondays at the office so Mondays is naturally my favorite. We also sometimes carpool on Mondays and that makes the long commute WAY MORE FUN.

5:00pm-6:00/7:00pm:  I usually do paperwork during this time at the offices or I can see “clinical clients”. Thankfully it’s only Mondays that I don’t get home till 7 or 8. Generally I get home about 4pm.

7:00pm:  My husband is honestly so amazing. Recently I’ve been coming home to a clean house, a candle burning and dinner planned, if not almost ready. I am so relieved to be home from work and immediately change into pajamas or yoga clothes. We eat dinner and talk about days.

8:00pm-10:00pm:  We relax! Especially on Mondays. Throughout the week we have various dinners or events with friends, book club, art nights or appointments. Sometimes Scott goes to play poker. Sometimes I do yoga. Last week we went to a Padres game on a double-date! But on Mondays we chill. If we do anything we take a walk around then neighborhood when it’s cooler out. Recently we’ve been watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine. If we don’t do that, we might have a “reading party” and have a quiet night reading.

10:00pm:  We get ready for bed! Usually we do “gratitude and prayer” and we list off the things we are thankful for from the day. Then one of us prays and we usually fight about who it is because we tired. And if one of us falls asleep in the middle of the prayer, we fight about that too.  Basically all our fights at night are due to how tired we both are. But by the end we feel content and happy to be falling asleep together.

*This is what I would consider a "normal day in the life". Unfortunately yesterday and today are not normal. Last week we had another hot water pipe break/leak on my closet. There is a large hole in my closet. We have crazy amounts of fruit flies/drain flies and ants?! And then we found a mushroom growing in our closet. Needless to say we stayed the night at our friends' Abby and Wil's last night until our landlord gets back to us. I thought my day sounded boring and now I want boring. No more crazy!!! At least I am wearing a new striped shirt from Marshalls today. #win 

7 comments:

  1. Wonderful! Heather you are living such a blessed life angel and the work you're doing makes the world a better place, not just for the families & students you help but for everyone who has any contact with them. You should be so proud of what you do because you're making such a positive contribution to the world, I think your students are very lucky to have you to help them. I'm so sorry about your closet! Long story short, we had a satellite dish moved up onto the chimney because the trees behind us were blocking the signal, the man who moved it moved/broke a slate on the roof and didn't tell us. The rain began getting into the loft and first we knew was when the front bedroom ceiling was damaged and I had to throw out such a lot of linens from the cupboard in that room because they ruined. Awful. I so hope it all gets fixed for you soon. You so made me laugh when you said you wanted boring :)There is a very old curse, Chinese I think? which says "may you live in interesting times" Heck no! boring is fine by me too :) Sending you heaps and heaps of hugs dear Heather, you are a very special, very dear lady, I hope you know how special you are xx
    ps: Is your blog private? I mean do you not want it shared on twitter, pinterest etc? you don't have share buttons and I so wanted to share because your blog is wonderful & should be shared, but then I thought maybe you don't want it to be posted? Just wondering huggles xx

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    1. Rosie, your comment meant so much to me. Thank you so much. Today after I read your comment I thought about it a lot while I drove around in traffic stressed and time crunched and wanting to punch something. Your comment reminded me of the good and hope and the meaning of what I do. :) I'm so sorry about the rain in the loft and into the front bedroom! Those things are so stressful. Ruined linens :( I get so sentimentally attached to my things. Even if things get old and have holes I feel like keeping them. And no my blog is not private! Thank you for wanting to share my blog! That is amazing! Truth be told, I don't really understand or know how to do share buttons. I think I would like it though. I would love you to share any of it! And maybe I'll get around to understanding buttons :) oxoxo

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    2. Oh I'm so glad! Your blog so deserves to be read & shared Heather. I just tweeted this post from my main twitter account (@roselady64) and later today when I have my chores done I'll try to backtrack my steps (it feels like ages ago) and work out how I got those buttons to appear at the bottom of my posts. I'll do screencaps as I go and try to write a step by step. I'll let you know when I have it done, hope that will help. The tech side of blogging really is a mystery to me still, so I'm starting work on a notebook purely for this. Have a fabulous day Heather, huggles xx

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    3. Sorry Heather, me again :) found this https://www.maketecheasier.com/add-share-buttons-to-blogger/ written in 2011 so no idea how accurate it is but wanted to share. I'm still going to try to deconstruct mine though, will let you know how it goes, hugs x

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  2. I loved reading about your day, your job sounds awesome! I had to laugh at the "drugs vs dogs" block, I can totally relate though. I'm constantly flipping back and forth trying to make programs fun and age appropriate for everyone I work with! I also love how you and your husband end your day together, I would like to read more about that routine! It sounds like something I'd love to start doing with my boyfriend (or at least a modified version since we don't usually spend nights together). I hope all your plumbing troubles get sorted out soon!

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    1. Thank you for reading Donna! The age appropriate thing is no joke. I'm constantly thinking how I can communicate something well to such a variety of ages! And thank you too about the routine! Maybe I'll have to write more about that. It really is grounding and helps us think about what happened that was good in our day or a bright spot. I have a very active imagination and so for me, it's good to think about something calming and centering before sleep. It's also connecting, like a way to feel together at the end of long and busy day :)

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  3. Oh my goodness you drive all over the place! Monday's sound totally crazy! But to you they are boring haha
    Your life sounds so nice with your hubby. Even though you don't get much time with him, it's so nice that you actually do see him more than just those tired moments at the end of the night. That's how it is for me and my hubby, I only really see him after work super late at night and super tired.
    I think it's so cool that you are a counselor for children at schools! I know how much they need it! I wish I had one in middle school and high school.

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