Making a Homemade Ice Pack

I really like the slushy ice packs you can make with this. Details within the link. Lots of recipes online. Just make sure that you in some way delineate the fact that this bag contains alcohol, and if you have children in the house, preferably use cheap vodka rather than rubbing alcohol, which is toxic if ingested.

http://www.diynatural.com/how-to-make-an-ice-pack/

His walker is styling as a Scion :)

He needs a sports walker because he is speedy. I think faster than a Scion!! As he walked out and saw a man in a wheelchair coming he challenged him to a race. Ahahaha. A spunky guy. My fav. Met him at hospital as I helped them find main entrance when I was leaving my baby cuddling shift!

The benefits of styrofoam

Even as a little girl we knew that styrofoam, while evil in many ways, was a great toy. Still love using left over styrofoam with my occupational therapy kids. Details to come when not on iPhone!! Me on left my twin Kristina on right. Early 1980s 🙂

Frustration with occupational therapy as a profession right this second!

Grrrr

Working on getting my business license with the city, and professional liability insurance, etc, as I become self-employed through my (in process) company Miss Awesomeness! 🙂

For professional liability insurance through HPSO, it asked if I was part of a professional association. I said yes. It gave me a drop-down list only. Guess what, everything in the world but OT was on the list. It was like "American Association of Latte Drinking Paleontologists Who Collect Dinosaur Fairy Wings" level specific otherwise. So I had to say no, I wasn’t part of one, to complete the application. Will call soon to ask them to add it.

For my business license with San Diego, it asked me for my license number, which I provided. Then once again, a drop down list of possible occupations for it. EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD WAS ON IT. But OT. So I couldn’t finish the application, because it was specific enough that I couldn’t find something even remotely similar that was valid. So I threw in physical therapist just so I could save the application to edit later as it wouldn’t even let me save otherwise. I will call the CITY tomorrow to ask them to add OT to the license.

Oh, and when I called my awesome banking/insurance company USAA that I use for everything, to see about their professional liability insurance, they had a policy place they use but they covered speech and physical, not OT. I asked the agent to call their insurance people and find out if that was deliberate or omission or what. He had me wait on the line while he spoke to their underwriter, and alas, it was true. They specifically don’t cover OT, although he couldn’t provide a reason. Speech and PT were on every single one of these options.

Of course I can still make all these things happen, some with using other companies, some with calling and asking them to add OT to the list, but it’s making everything harder when I can’t fully complete any of the tasks. Shocking, too.

Empowering the bystander to prevent cruelty and violence in bullying

Dr. Wexler is amazing and I quoted the below paragraph from the article (linked at bottom), because I had never really thought before about the role of the bystander in bullying.

Since its inception, the Safe School Student Ambassador Program has decreased incidents of violence and referrals by 76%. Dr. Wexler explains “although much focus is given to ‘the bully’ and ‘the victim,’ the focus should be on the 80-90% of ‘bystanders’ with the actual power. The Safe School Student Ambassadors Program “empowers the bystander in order to prevent cruelty and violence,” and the Encinitas Rotary Peace Committee applauds their proactive endeavors.

http://encinitas.patch.com/groups/announcements/p/2014-peace-maker-award-turns-the-tide-of-bullying?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001&evar4=picks-2-post&newsRef=true

Amen to this one

I feel like the author of this one has a school aged child!!! So inappropriate what schools have 4 year olds doing these days.

April 2nd – Apps Free For the Day

I vote that you definitely download Toca Band!!

These apps normally cost money but today are free.

Functional Communication System – https://appsto.re/i66r93j
Functional Planning System – https://appsto.re/i66t6HW
Discovering Emotions with Zeely – Educational Tool for Learning Emotions –https://appsto.re/i66c6dh
EZCOMMA – https://appsto.re/i66c6dd
PICTURE CARD – Can you do it? – https://appsto.re/i66t9dG
Sorthings for Autism – https://appsto.re/i66t6Tq
Sequences for Autism – https://appsto.re/i66c6d2
Toca Band – https://appsto.re/i66c6dp
Sequences for Kids – https://appsto.re/i66t6TT
Teacher’s Assistant Pro: Track Student Behavior – https://appsto.re/i66r93F
ColorSay – Hear the world in color! – https://appsto.re/i66c68R
Gesture camera – https://appsto.re/i66r3vp

This list was copy/pasted from an e-mail by Mark Coppin at Mark.coppin (at) annecenter.org

He is an assistive technology director, and he is awesome. Saw him speak once. He sends out a daily e-mail with free apps of the day. You can email him to ask to be on it.

Make/Print Your Own Grid and/or Graph Paper: Beneficial for OTs

Griddzly and Incompetech’s Graph paper are both great EASY and free sites that let you either customize or choose graph paper to print.

Many of us OTs have clients that need bigger or smaller sizes, or different shapes, or different spacing, etc. Or we have games we want to play or exercises we want to use to teach strategies, and yet don’t have time or energy to reinvent the wheel. Even fieldwork students can use this just to skim for ideas.

http://gridzzly.com/Very easy to make your own grid/graph papers in various shapes or sizes, although semi limited in options. If you don’t want to print then, you can save as PDF. I do like the matrix dot options.

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Look, incompetech versus incompetent. Love it. Not sure what it says about their quality but…AHAHAHAA

I haven’t played around with this one, but they have a LOT of options to print, including triangular, asymmetric, note taking, square, etc. Best bet if you want something complex.

*I’m finishing up report cards today, and done moving tomorrow! April 1st begins OT month, so I’m hoping to have up a new post and/or resource on my blog, Twitter, FB, etc, every day of that month. 🙂
*That also includes going back to posts like this to add in a pictures and more ideas, etc

How time flies during a move

Wow, it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve last posted. I shake my finger at myself with shame.

I’m wrapping up my former job as a school-based therapist (now I will be an independent contractor), although I’m still doing some hours there. My replacement is fabulous and I’ve learned some great activities from her.

I’m also going to be doing a little bit of private clinic work, and a little bit of home visits.

However, I’m trying to do as little of those pieces as possible for now, for the next few months, because I need to focus on building up the Miss Awesomeness resources and trying to make this a more virtual job (at times). I have several children’s books and one adult book (adult in the sense that it’s for grownups, not in the sense of R-ratings…cough) that I’ve been working on. The children ones are coming along. 🙂 They focus on children under the radar and/or children who have challenges.

This week is report card week and it’s my final week of moving. My hope is that most of April and all of May are really just Miss Awesomeness building. I’m going to try to be somewhat hermit like if possible except for social exercise.

I’m also working on the liability insurances, business licensure, taxes, and other important legalities for the brand. Step by step.

I just wanted to quickly write something up so that you saw I’m not dead, just sleeping. To paraphrase Monty Python.

That reminds me (I guess because of the sleeping part) that I had a dream, and in the dirt along with all the bugs they had these tiny raccoon bugs. Just like a beetle in size, but the cutest little raccoon ever. Kind of translucent and hairless, but those little black eyes. Amazing. Just sayin’.

Adoringly,
Karen 🙂

How to Find the Best OT Job – Infographic

http://www.aota.org/en/Publications-News/AOTANews/2014/Best-OT-Job.aspx

An infographic about how to find the best OT job…I have a tiny quote in it, yay. Seriously, the global network of OTs is one of the best ways to find a mentor…one of my first mentors was in New Zealand, Merrolee Penman! 🙂

There is also an article that goes along with it, for AOTA members only.
http://www.aota.org/en/Publications-News/OTP/Archive/2014/3-10-14.aspx

It’s in the paper magazine, or here digitally. If you don’t have an AOTA membership, I do highly, highly recommend it for the resources available. And lots of other reasons. But that one is my favorite reason.

The only thing I would change, if I could, is to change where I talk about my first job and being scared. It says in there "I had no clue what I was doing." In reality, it FELT that way, but I did know what I was doing. Just that typical "imposter syndrome" where it seems like everyone knows what to do magically, except me. I was safe, I was careful, and I was being supervised carefully enough that my patients were not in harm. I was just really scared. But FEELING like you have no clue is different than actually not HAVING a clue. Just sayin’. That was poorly worded on my part.

Back to reports. 2 to finish tonight. Start looking for more resources around March 19th, I’m excited!