Liebster Award!

Hi Friends!

I've been totally MIA the past two weeks… work has been complete insanity. I have assessments on top of assessments going on right now, and truly not enough hours in the day! I apologize for the lack of posts but I'm hoping to be posting more regularly very soon!

Anyway, I hope your week is going well! I'm so excited to say I've  been nominated for the Liebster Award by Noralyssia, from Yo Amo Speech (Thank you so much, Noralyssia… and apologies for taking so long)! The Liebster Award is an award given by current bloggers, to new bloggers with less than 200 email followers. The goal is to help them get their blog started and welcome them to the blogosphere. Anyone who is nominated is then asked to nominate others. To accept the award, the blogger must answer 11 questions posed by the blogger who nominated them.  Here we go…. 

1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging? I'm extremely new to blogging! I just started at the beginning of January 2015!

2. What one word sums up the heart of the blog and why? Intentional. It doesn't sound like a "buzz" word at first, but it truly sums up what I'm trying to do here and really what we are all trying to do in our life as SLPs. We are trying to be intentional professionals, everyday. We are trying our best to provide the most effective and engaging therapy to our students in order to help them be successful. I've already seen in the last month (plus a couple weeks) that by sharing my lesson plans with you all, it really requires me to stop and think through what I'm doing and why. It is another motivator that pushes me to continually evaluate if what I'm doing in therapy is the best I can do. We can get so caught up in the day-to-day paperwork and craziness that we can forget to stop and do that. So, being intentional is what my blog is about. It's for me and for you! :)

3. Is there something that you learned late in your blog journey that you wished you had known before? I'm still very early in my blog journey… but I think I'm learning to reach out to others for support and to promote others when I can. We are all in this together!

4. What is your favorite pastime other than blogging? I love spending time with my husband Sean and our pup, Olive. I have an amazing group of family and friends, so I truly enjoy any time I get with them as well. I love a good girls night, wine, Moscow Mules, dancing, yoga, Netflix marathons and enjoying the beautiful scenery around our home... we live so close to the beach that it is a crime to not enjoy it!

5. How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog? Right now, I dedicate only about 2 hours per week to my blog but I have been dedicating a lot of time toward making materials on TpT and posting on social media. I think this is mainly due to not having collected enough ideas for posts, not having a big following yet, etc. I'm getting the hang of it though. :)  

6. What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most? I really enjoy seeing what others are doing in therapy for the week! It's so fun to see the themes that other SLPs choose and what materials they tend to gravitate toward. I also like seeing personal posts because I feel like a lot of us SLPs are very similar personality-wise. :)

7. Where does your blog inspiration come from? My blog inspiration comes from my kiddos, honestly. As I mentioned above, I strive to make our sessions engaging and effective. I also strive to not be bored as a therapist during sessions…. if i'm not having fun, they probably aren't either.

8. What post have you written that you are most proud of? I don't have many posts to choose from at this point, but I really am proud of my "Look at my Lessons" posts… I put a lot of work into prepping for the week and it's cool to get to share that.

9. Is there any post that you have been planning to do but keep postponing? I'd love to do a post that addresses therapy with cleft palate and craniofacial kiddos. I've had some great training in that area and I have found that many other SLPs do not. I'd love to share what I know and point people in the right direction for resources. I'm sure that post will come along soon enough. :)

10. What is your favorite aspect of blogging? I love connecting with people and sharing ideas! It makes me feel excited about my field every day when I see a new blog post, Pinterest pin or Instagram photo about a new therapy material, idea or even a silly kid quote. It honestly makes me feel "warm and fuzzy" about our field pretty often… that's a big deal when life gets crazy. I'm loving the experience so far!

11. What are 11 facts about yourself?

1) I'm a Southern California girl, born and raised.

2) My husband and I were together for 8 years before we got married.

3) I am a cancer survivor.

4) My chocolate lab is 2 years old and her name is Olive.

5) I've been working as a speech-language pathologist for almost 6 years and I can't imagine doing anything else!

6) I am horrible at math.

7) I love to dance!

8) I was Varsity Cheer Captain in high school.

9) I am pretty type-A and may be classified as a worrier. :)

10) I love country music.

11) I have small feet. 

Well, that was it! It was fun to share some things about me... I hope you enjoyed learning about me a little more too! I now nominate Jennifer Bradley from Speech Therapy Fun, for the Liebster award! I'll be sending her ome questions to respond to and I can't wait to see her post! :)

P.S. 

I will be doing a "Look at my Lessons" post this weekend for the beginning of March, but if you're ahead of the lesson planning game and you're interested in some St. Patrick's Day materials, keep an eye on my TpT Store! I currently have an open-ended St. Patrick's Day Packet in my store and I have St. Patrick's Day Carryover Paragraphs in the works… it should be posted by the weekend. :)