Taking a Step Back

Another school year is coming to a close. Sometimes, I think it's gone by so fast. Other times, I think this school year has gone on way too long. At this time each year, I am physically and mentally exhausted, and I can't wait for three months of rejuvenation.

During the course of the year, I don't take enough time to take a step back and think about the good things that have happened and the progress my kids have made. It's so much easier to focus on all the IEPs I have to write, the stress of legal paperwork, trying to prepare a lesson plan last minute to do in preschool the next day, the parents who wont return your emails and phone calls, and the list goes on and on. However, what really matters is the individual child, giving them your undivided attention and letting them know they are important. They are the reason I come to work each day.

Part of my job is that I get to co-teach a preschool class with another speech pathologist, made up of kids who have multiple patterns of speech errors. We recently gave a post-assessment to each child to compare their progress from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. One girl in particular came to us in September only speaking in /h/ and vowels. If you wanted her to say "spoon", she would say "hu". If you wanted her to say "butterfly", she would say "huh-huh-hai". She had no initial consonants other than /h/, and no final consonants. She was extremely unintelligible. We were so pleased, however, so see the results of her post-assessment. She now has most of her consonants at the beginning and end of words, as well as consonant clusters. Her mom can now understand what she says and can therefore meet her needs a whole lot better than before. She is able to communicate! Times like these remind me of why I do what I do.


This an other experiences from this year reminded me that even though we may feel like we're not making any difference, we are! We just need to press forward and do our best each day, taking the time to take a step back and focus on the good.

Banana "Ice Cream"

I definitely have the sweet tooth in this relationship. I'm also kind of obsessed with natural peanut butter. And let's face it, dark chocolate is always a good idea. Here is a healthy treat that I have quite often!

Banana "Ice Cream"

4 ripe bananas
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp natural peanut butter
As much almond milk as you want, until desired consistency

Slice bananas and put in freezer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (if bananas are too frozen, it will not be fun to process!)
After they come out of the freezer, put in a food processor, along with other ingredients
Blend and enjoy!

A year and a half later....

Well, after a year and a half, I thought it was time to resurrect the ol' blog. It's hard enough remembering to write in my journal, let alone blog! But I'm going to do my best. I thought I'd take a different approach, mainly sharing ideas for living a healthier life. I have made a lot of significant changes over the past few months with regard to my health, and would love to share some of what I've been doing. So enjoy!
I thought I'd start things off by sharing one of my favorite breakfasts. It's so important to keep your blood sugar balanced throughout the day, and it all begins with breakfast.

Protein Pancake

1/4 cup oat bran
1 egg, beaten
A splash of almond milk

Combine all ingredients and pour into a greased frying pan (I use butter or coconut oil)
Fry it like you would a pancake! I like to top it with natural peanut butter and coconut flakes, but you could also do coconut oil and cinnamon, fresh berries, or whatever you think up! Just no added refined sugar :) I love it!

Aaaand...........we're back!

So I've decided after 4 months of absence, it's time to update the blog. Life's crazy as always, but if it wasn't crazy, would it be any fun? I think not. Work is keeping us both plenty busy. I'm at a brand new school that opened this year in Spanish Fork, and I've loved it so far. Each year brings new and exciting challenges. My caseload is pretty manageable so far, and includes a special ed preschool and a severe disabilities/medically fragile unit. Most of those students are in wheelchairs and cannot speak. It's been a learning experience everyday. I'm grateful for the chance I have to work with them this year, and I hope I can make some kind of difference in their lives! Brett is busy with school as well. It's cross country season so he has a meet about every week.
He's also busy with his new calling as Young Men President. We were kind of surprised at his call since I'm already the Primary President, but the Lord knows that He's doing. Brett's been awesome and he really enjoys the young men....however I'm not sure how he can handle those deacons :) I've been working on the primary program and each child is creating their own part, based on questions I've been asking them. I asked one CTR 4 boy last week, "Why are you thankful for your family?" and he said, "They help me start the Wii". Gotta love kids and their honest answers!
Well that's our life in a nutshell at the moment! Someday we'll post pictures and all that fun stuff.

The Prophet Said To Plant A Garden....

....so that's what we'll do! A few weeks ago we finally had good enough weather to start our vegetable and flower gardens. We are doing a square foot garden in the backyard with lots of yummy stuff, like squash, lettuce, spinach, radishes, canteloupe, corn, broccoli, and other veggies. I didn't ever think it would be fun to garden, but now that we have a yard of our own, it's different. I like being out in the yard and getting my hands dirty! It's fun to go out and check on the progress of our little sprouts, which we're already getting! Yay!

Brett pouring the compost

Raking

Drilling the boards

Finished!

Our radishes are sprouting! A couple other things are also starting to bud.

We also planted flowers in our front yard. We planted petunias, verbenas, snapdragons, and some other pretty things!

Zions National Park Videos

We finally broke out the video camera that my parents gave us for Christmas. We hope you enjoy the videos.

For the love of BACON!!!

Interestingly enough, Megan and I both have younger sisters who love bacon. When we ate at Denny's on the first night of our vacation in St. George we saw this sign in the window.

If that doesn't make you smile, then maybe the next picture will make your stomach turn. Apparently, someone at Denny's thought it would be a good idea to celebrate bacon with...

That's right! A bacon ice cream sundae! As much as our sisters love bacon, we highly doubt they would even consider trying this. If anyone has tried it, we'd be interested in knowing if it was worth it.