Thrive

At the start of 2015 instead of resolutions I chose to live by one word. It's a concept to live your life by one word for the year rather than plan resolutions that could possibly fail or last only a few months. I heard about it through a local radio station and researched the concept on-line. There is a website and a book that is dedicated to assisting individuals in choosing one word. I read the book and decided that it is what I would do for 2015. It took forever for me to decide on a word, I didn't want something too easy like happy or joy, I already was happy and I have joy in my life regularly. I also didn't want anything complicated since it was my first year trying this out. I should have known that I wasn't choosing my word but it would be chosen for me. I was driving in the car and a song came on and tears filled my eyes. My word had been chosen, it was thrive. 
I knew after I chose the word that it was perfect for the 2015 year because as I looked for devotionals and books, I found a book titled "Thrive" by a band that I listen to. They explain how to thrive in your life and how to keep God in your life, which as I now reflect realize I was struggling with.
Thrive is a verb that means to prosper and flourish. From reading about thriving, it's about digging deep and reaching out. For each month of the 2015 year I chose to focus and "thrive" on a different aspect of my life building me into a better person than I started. January was finances, February was health, etc....
I was doing great and then a tough decision arose during the summer: to stay with my current job or jump and take another one. I am
not spontaneous, I love structure, balance, routine so leaving my job (that I never thought I would leave) seemed a dumb decision on my part. I took a mini vacation to Florida and realized just how toxic my job was on my life. I no longer enjoyed getting up and playing with kids all day. As soon as I woke up, I began counting the hours till I was home. I didn't want to travel and visit friends, didn't want to craft, or take pictures. I also saw co-workers who I loved (and still love) feeling the same way and it was breaking me down. I was so angry that I wasn't thriving and I couldn't see how starting a new job would help me thrive, especially since it was a brand new company that had yet to begin.
And then I leapt, I quit my job and chose to go to the unknown. My new boss promised protection and support and a lifeline for stability when I didn't think there was one. Little did I know that this change would make me thrive more. 
I have been in my new position for 4 months now and am blown away. I work less hours, spend more time with friends and family and have been able to accomplish more goals and start new adventures. I know if I was still at my previous place of employment this would not have happened. I travel a little more now and am finding and seeing more of Columbus than I could imagine. I know many of the highways without my GPS and am able to laugh and smile a lot more. Once I chose this life change I had friends comment on how happy I seemed, how much more I smiled, and how often I was willing to go out and be with family in friends. I even started to notice these things about myself. 
I can definitely say that this year my word lived up to its expectation and more. I thrived in so many ways and cannot wait to see what my next word (still narrowing options down or for it to be told to me) will do for me in 2016.‪#‎thrive‬ ‪#‎blessed‬ ‪#‎oneword‬

Blinked and it's 8 months later!!!

Goodness gracious! Where has 2013 gone. My life has been filled with so much (all good/some sad) that I cannot believe it is August already. There have been numerous times where I have wanted to blog and Pinterest, Facebook, work, or my hobbies take over! So where has this year gone, who honestly knows but I can say 2013 has been great so far. I have really expanded my photography, been on top of my game at work and have gotten to craft a lot. I have posted a lot of things I have made just recently, to try and go back since my last craft post would be ridiculous and almost impossible; especially since I have been into card making and each one of them are different. A few weekends ago my roommate from college and stayed and we spent the weekend crafting. This is a compilation of what I was able to accomplish, some I did not add because they were more fixes than actually making them. I also am working on starting a new blog about my life in the occupational therapy world. I am still working on titles and what I exactly I want to make it, but I am looking forward to it.

Christmas Crafts

These are some of the items I made during Christmas:

Beach Ornaments- this was the first time for my friend's children to visit the ocean during our Disney trip. I collected sand and mini shells from the beach and placed them in plastic ornaments, added a light blue ribbon and tag with the name of the beach and the year.

Wedding Ornament- I attended 6 weddings this past year and for the 7th one I could not attend I took their wedding invite and cut it into strips and then curled them. I slip them into an extra large plastic ornament and added the ribbon from their invite for the top. It turned out great I might do this for every wedding I attend from now on.

No Sew-Fleece Blankets- I made 3 small blankets this year for the dogs. To make you need to fabrics laying on top of each other. Cut about a 2.5 x 2.5 inch square from each corner (this is so your blanket does not round or bunch during tying) then starting on one side you cut 1inch wide by 2.5-3inch long strips all the way down each side. Once done finish with tying the blankets together and voila.

Snowman Envelope- I used a strip of white paper and my Martha Stewart scoreboard to score the paper so it folded like a matchbook. I added the eyes using buttons, paper made hat, paper made nose and used my Martha Stewart holly punch. Then I attached a mini plastic bag and added kisses to the bag.

Rudolph Hershey's- wrapped a brown piece of card stock around the candy bar. Attached 2 google eyes, a red circle nose, and hand cut lite brown card stock antlers.

Melted Snowman Ornament- I used a large size clear plastic ornament and filled it with Epsom salt. I then added 5 peppercorns for the buttons and eyes. I fortunately had a carrot nose button in my scrap booking supplies and a top hat button. I added a Christmas plaid ribbon to the top and it was finished.

Santa-tizer- I wrapped a red card stock around the body of a Sanitizer bottle. Then added a 1/2 black ribbon around it and added a gold square over top of that.

Salt Dough Puzzle Piece Ornament- I used 1 cup of salt, 2 cups of all purpose flour, and 1 cup of Luke warm water. First you mix the dry and then added the water. After I kneaded the dough well I added liquid blue food coloring to make it blue, kneading the dough really well. I then rolled the dough out using flour and cut the puzzle pieces with a cookie cutter. I placed the cut outs on a cookie tray and cut out a hole using a straw. I baked the cut outs for 5 hours at 200F. I then set them out for a week to dry.

OSU Crayon Art- I downloaded an art piece for the O-H-I-O silhouettes and used a projector to make them the size I want. I then used a pencil to draw them on the canvas. Next I created a pattern of the crayons to achieve the effects I wanted and used Elmer's glue to attach them. I always break my crayons in half. I placed painter's tape over the top of the pencil drawing and melted the crayons. Next I painted the silhouettes black and it was finished.

Disney Shadow Box- created a 12x12 scrapbook page and placed it in a shadow box for a friend that went to Disney.

DG Shadow Box- my sister is a Delta Gamma and wanted to preserve the lay and rose she received for initiation. I placed them in a shadow box with her letters and symbol.

Winter Fest Crafts and Games

This year I volunteered along with one of my co-workers to be chair of the crafts and games at our Winter Fest. This is a time when all of our kids perform their songs they have been working hard on in music therapy and a time for our families to gather to celebrate the season. The theme this year was Christmas around the world. We decided to have our crafts and games split into 5 countries with a game and craft representing the country or holiday celebrated there. We chose Israel, Mexico, Africa, USA, and Sweden. Below are the pictures of the crafts and games we did as well as the posters that were designed by students.

Winter Therapy Ideas

One of my duties as a Occupational Therapy Assistant at my job is to complete a group project weekly. Last week we made water bottle penguins. This was perfect to work on fine motor skills and bilateral coordination. The kids had to hold the water bottles while using their preferred hand to put cottons balls into the bottles. Next I had precut the body, arms, and feet but to work on cutting you could have the kids cut out the pieces themselves, the kids used wet glue to paste them to the water bottle. I found the glue to not want to stick so well so we added a rubber band to help everything stay in place until the glue dried. Next we added the feather and tape around the top and glued the eyes and nose on.

This past week we made Christmas trees out of strips of paper by gluing to construction paper. Each child was given 6 different size strips of paper and were required to sequence the pieces in order from smallest to largest. Once sequenced they glued each piece down and added the trunk and a star. They then dipped a q-tip into white paint and added snow. Really easy and super cute!!!!

Christmas crafting and cooking

This season, as I prepare for Christmas I have been crafting like crazy thanks to Pinterest and even though I did not see this exact wreath, I did come up its the concept. It was simple o make but I did need help from my mom to hold the wreath while I glued. To start I gathered Christmas bulbs, a wired hanger, feather boa, and a hot glue gun. I opened the wire hanger and did my best to make it round (I used a tree trunk to help with the shape) and randomly looped the bulbs on the to the wreath. While my mom held the wreath I hot glued the bulbs together so that they would stay in place. I closed the wire hanger with pliers and then hot glued the feather boa to the back. Took me about a total of a half hour to complete and I love it!! I also spent last weekend busy making cookies. I made fruit drops, pistachio cookies, peanut butter cookies, no bakes, and sugar cookies!!! This weekend I am planning on finishing the Christmas gifts I am making. Photos will come after Christmas.

Busy, busy, busy

Where have the past four months gone? I have been so busy traveling, working, and crafting that I cannot believe it is December 2nd already. I have so much to blog about and cannot decide on where to start. I guess it would have to start with the fact that I passed my boards in October and am officially a Certified Occupational Therapy Asssistant. I love my job and could not ask for better kids and supportive staff. I love going to work every day and being challenged by the kids and staff, all in good ways. In September I travelled to Disney World with friends for a week. We had such an awesome time and I am starting to want to go back to Disney already. I didn't realize how much I would love being there and seeing everything. October kept me busy with studying for my boards and preparing for the fall, my favorite season/holiday. November saw me travel to Warsaw, KY which is a very small town right on the Ohio River. I missed peak season for the fall colors by a few weeks but in all it was absolutely beautiful. The town is extremely small, has only 2 traffic lights, is 20 minutes from another busier town, but has the gorgeous view of the river. There is also this beautiful bed and breakfast called the Riverside Inn, officially on my bucket list of places to stay/visit. I saw Rise of the Guardians last week while babysitting. The movie is fantastic for children with vivid colors and the joys of seeing Santa, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman but the storyline for adults is also important. Each character has been chosen by a higher power, in this case Mr. Moon, to bring a gift to the world. North (a.k.a. Santa) brings wonder, Tooth brings memories, Easter Bunny brings faith, Sandman brings dreams, and Jack Frost learns through the movie that he brings joy. The movie teaches that without these gifts in our lives there is fear, represented by the Boogey Man, but with these gifts and our belief in them we can succeed. I love this movie!!! Especially for the field that I am. The children I work with, the parents I converse with, and the coworkers I support all need this as a reminder because some days our job can seem overly challenging and we can lose sight of these precious gifts we have been given.