Wow! January was my last post. I'm sorry. Mostly to Maudie as I have been getting these turned into books so that we have some account of life as she grows up.
Since January, we have obviously done a lot.
We signed Maudie up for Kindergarten at the end of January. She was super pumped!
And the next morning she woke up and got ready so quickly. Then she came in and asked me if we were going to Kg. I told her that it wouldn't be for a long time. She looked disappointed and thoughtful for a minute and then she asked me "Next time I start Kg, can you register me the day before so that I am not disappointed?"
I guess the real big thing that happened at the beginning of this year was my job. I transferred within Alberta Health Services to a different program in February. I had been working with Community Clinics (CC) and I got a position with School Based Mental Health (SBMH). I had been applying for any SBMH position that came available for some time but this was the first interview I got. In both positions, I am doing mental health therapy for children and their families. I'll tell you a bit about why this is so amazing by giving some info about what I do; In both positions, I am doing mental health therapy for children and their families. In CC, we take a new client every week, no matter what, and there are very few things that stop a client that are school age from coming to us, such as they need to have a mental health condition and be able to see us during the hours we are available. We will take kids on the spectrum or with other neurological issues as long as they can do therapy and have a certain IQ (Again so that they can do therapy). All lot of other places have a lot of exclusionary criteria, like they have to have tried a certain type of therapy before, they have to be recommended by a certain type of professional, etc. CC doesn't have any of that which is lovely for clients and I am grateful that they can get in somewhere, but which turns our caseload (Number of clients) into a nightmare at times. We could have upwards of 50 clients whom we are attempting to see every week to two weeks for an hour each... That math doesn't work out with 38.75 hours in a work week. So, I was starting to feel burnt out. We do have an amazing team and an office at the location that I worked at which made the job so amazing so I was always torn between staying and looking for something else.
In SBMH, we get to decide how many clients to take and what will qualify them for our clinic. One of the big differences is that the referral has to be made by the school for mental health issues seen in the school, but other than that, it is pretty wide open. But if I feel like I am at my max, I can say so. Another large part of the position is consults with schools about students they have that may not need my support but that the school needs support to know how to assist the student and I also will do education for schools and teachers on a variety of subjects. I do a lot more driving because we don't work out of an office, we see kids in the school, but I can decide when I do my hours as well. When it's paperwork, which is another major part of each job, I can now do it from home, as I don't have an office to really work out of. This means that instead of being at the office 7.75 hours of each day, I can see my clients during the school day and then do paperwork for the rest of the hours at home. This enables me to drop Maudie off or pick her up from school when needed or if she has a PD day and my schools do too and I want to stay at home with her and do paperwork, as long as I get the hours in, it doesn't matter when they are. It is SO ideal for someone with kids! Thus these jobs are hard to get and often are temporary positions filling someone's maternity leave.
The interview that I got was for a permanent position, so when they called me back, I was so sure that it would be to say that they had filled the position, hopefully liked me and would like to see me again if another temp came up some time. Instead, I was offered the job!! The Lord was truly blessing me, I have no doubt of that! Some of the cons are that I don't have an office, I don't have a team beside me on a daily basis, although I can email or text or call them as often as I need, I work out of my car and have to do a lot of driving. But still, this is such a great job! I can have the summers off, but not get paid for more than my vacation time or I can look for casual work at other clinics. This year, I worked with CC at the south clinic meaning I was able to bike to work most days!
In March, Maudie turned five. First, Scott and I took her out to Eastside Marios where all she wanted to eat was the unicorn milkshake. She loved it!! As you can see.
We celebrated her party at Petland where Maudie got to pick a few different types of pets to have there. She chose a spider (of course), a snake, a hedgehog, a small parrot, a rabbit, two mice, and I think there were two more that I've forgotten. Oops. (That's why I should be doing this monthly or something close to that)
We invited Gramma Linda up and the three of us when shopping and to get our nails done and to get Maudie's hair streaked purple with hair mascara. That was her favourite colour at the time. her cake was an ice cream cake and our good friend turned one of her pictures into a picture for the top of the cake. It was pretty special AND there was enough left over that we (she and I, Scott won't eat ice cream cake from DQ) had some ice cream cake for a special treat a few times after that!!
It was such a great way to do a birthday as we didn't have to clean or do much and we could leave when it was all done. Gramma made her an amazing owl blanket and matching pillow case. She loved it too.
Scott and I decided to purchase a trampoline around her birthday. Because it is so close to Easter, it became an Easter surprise instead of a birthday present because we don't want to have another kido down the road and have her say it's all hers because she got it for her birthday.
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