Just messin with the day

Good morning. Just us today. It’s already almost 8 am. We’ve been up since about four. Seems like a whole lot of playing around has happened. Don’t know how that occurred :) must be one of them days. Oh MAN! Saturday’s Woo Hoo!

We had a chance to talk to V this morning ... that’s the best kind of day start. We both saw each others kitties for the first time ... Not sure why that all took so long, but sure did like seeing Soren... Very, very handsome cat! Didn’t know that he was a Siamese. They are unique! We only have baby pictures of Missy and Chief, so we’ve been properly scolded to update toot-sweet! V wasn’t aware of how black they really are. Hehe

I’m not so sure how the day will turn out. I have brought some weekend work home that has to happen, but that I’m not particularly thrilled to have needed to bring home. It was one of those things that HAD to happen on Friday, but didn’t so there was not much choice. Seems that we were inundated with meetings this past few days and everything else gets worked around it. It will be the same when we get back ... hmm .. how many meetings? Well, actually only about 7 next week, but the first day back will be 3 ... one of which we have to travel *Sigh*

Part of the trouble yesterday was that it was the first Friday of the month that means Administration Meeting and Staff/Safety meeting. I’m proud to announce that there was a break in the action. Sister didn’t say anything nice directly to us, BUT she did use our name four times during the meetings without hissing and spitting it out :) Very, very happy about this. She hasn’t shown us her relaxed side for so long, we got a little slap happy. We’re hoping for the best and we’ll have begun the task of working our way into her good graces again.

We are being on top of our schedule with the scheduler. Even though we weren’t able to finish the reports, we got many side issues taken care of. Hehe this is a list of most of the stuff we’ve done in last two days.

Kept up schedule

Remembered it was going to be Labor day and planned around it

Figure out new pedometer and its measures

Wrote an incident report

Conveyed messages from client to client

Got out six preference interviews

Confirmed meetings over the phone

Did most of work on one Agenda/History report

Made sure a couple of Annual reports were signed by clients/parents

Distributedpamphlets for ID bracelets

Collected Goal Data sheets for Qnotes

Handed over Intake files and correspondents to Sr.

Completed an intake assessment report

Went over On-the-Job Training with peer

Learned how to fill out report for National Register

Held a Staff In-service meeting regarding safety

Attended Staff/safety meeting

Completed check-list for Administration meeting and attended new meeting

Met with Supervisor regarding scheduling and general strategies

Updated maintenance of printer which is down

Collected Legal Guardianship papers

Prepared for Housing and Respite meeting

Reviewed documents for service provider Annual meetings

Reviewed Report standards for ICAP

And, Edited Quarterly Newsletter

Hmm, have to watch this ... appears to average 12 tasks a day. Wonder if this is standard?

LOL, and no I wouldn’t be able to remember all this without my handy-dandy scheduler brought home :)

See, the really neat thing is ... that in all actuality ... there really is a lot getting done and good reasons why my "paperwork" (reports) didn’t get completed. There are scads of things to do in my job ... some of them are putsy little things, but they all need to get done to accomplish the whole.

In the meantime ... there are zillions of things that aren’t done ... This is the list that didn’t get accomplished

Interview with client for preferences

Meet with DSP to complete client assessment

Complete ICAP reports for six clients

Finish one Agenda/History report and start the second

Write formal goals and objectives for eleven clients

Complete Goal Data sheets for ten individuals

Complete collection of data from the last DSP

Write 20 individuals by 6 months each of monthly progress notes (Qnotes)

Check all 20 files for outdated psychologicals, medicals, dental, and State Ids

Schedule training meeting for driver’s safety

Create one year schedule for Staff In-services

Keep CARF books up-to-date

Complete two years of CARF Performance Analysis Reports

Chart Thinking Group meetings for last two months

AND, continue study of "How to Read a Book!"

*Sigh* So there is my schedule in a nutshell. I can’t emphasis enough how happy I am to have recorded this both at work and here. It helps my mind to simplify the tasks completed and yet to becompleted. Makes me feel more than organized. And, while it was happening I had a sense of not wasting moments wondering what to do next or how overwhelming it is to keep this all registered in one’s mind. There is only one period of time (while writing the list) to search out the general details of any given task. This includes the collecting of phone numbers and if you have to do "X" amount of reports ... figure out exactly what the number X represents. For example, I know I had to catch up with ICAPs, but important to note the number 6. Keeps things in perspective.

I have a new system, in that when the task is completed I handwrite a medium sized circle with an "X" in it, then color it green with my highlighter marker. LOL - I’m not all sure why this is psychologically satisfying, BUT there was an extremely good feeling that occurred in seeing all the green circles in my margin. It was like our mind was saying to itself, "What else can we be doing given time and circumstance?" I am serious in that, no tasks is too big or small to ignore. If it takes time on your agenda ... it must be written down. This is so at the end of the day, one is not left with that futile thought, where did my day go?

While I did not have proper time with all the meetings to accomplish BIG writing tasks, I was able to get done with a lot of the small picky stuff that tends to slow down all other projects. PLUS, I had the sense that I was covering all bases. While not a complete list of my job responsibilities. These tasks covered fourteen areas of my work, such as schedules, discretionary, clients, annuals, Qnotes, intake, client files, staff training, in-house meetings, CARF, computer, family support, State agencies and field research.

I wonder if it is like this for everyone who holds a regular job? Do you as most people realize the immense number of tasks that goes into each eight hour or more position?

Gazillions of stuff seems to occur!

If there are big amounts of time ... an hour or more, you can attend to real big projects like finishing X number of reports, usually of similar nature, but you can also budget time in-between meetings and such for the smaller projects and errands. One of they really nifty-neato things that happened yesterday was that I got our new pedometer. This goes with the project that we are real super-duper-sized overweight.

So for myself and one of the clients, we got these little devises to attach to waist line. It records how many steps I’ve taken, how much distance I cover, how many calories are burned, and how much time was ACTUALLY spent in walking. Wow ... what a difference in attitude. I found myself actually making trips out of the office getting things accomplished just so my numbers would go up!

I’m not sure what a normal person’s numbers would look like, but for the first half day of mostly office work, I’m proud to say that I covered 1,610 steps which is a distance of 2.68 km. I burned a whopping 120.6 calories and this was done in 13.09 minutes of actual movement (walking time). Hehe now the goal is to increase those numbers each day ... for example burning 122 calories, taking 1,615 steps, or walking 13.10 minutes. Eh, what goofy minds play with over the course of time :) Always need to be going forward.

Ok, ok ... V is going to have a fit ... maybe we need to get our mind off work for a little bit. We blame this on Sister not scowling at us during a couple of meetings. It’s gone straight to our head! Sure is nice though to get done what one intended to do! Thanking the FlyLady for all this!!

Hmm, just remembered to do something. Yesterday, there was a spider in our bathtub, so we were going to turn on our shower to umm wipe it out. The water came on, but our handle came off in our hand. Hadn’t been turning real good of late anyway. We were able to place it over the gizmo enough to turn off shower, but its literally deteriorated and unable to be replaced proper so that we can again pull-on the shower again or turn it to change the temperature. Forgot yesterday to call for a repair while at work and now we’re at home for a 3 day vacation without phone OR shower. *Heavy Sigh* SOOO, we just wrote a note to our friend and sent email hoping he can make the call. I guess, in reality I could try to drive around and find the apartment people, but in five years, I’ve yet to catch them while they are in the office. Maybe my friend will stop on line for a sec.

Hmm, some stuff has been coming through from the Flylady ... maybe she knows we’re not dressed yet? Ok, ok ... the beds not made either ... umm, brb.

Oh man! Was that great! I’d finished up on those few things, but then I went out to the balcony and sat 20-30 minutes. LOL Kitties must of liked it too, because now as I’ve sat down inside, Chief is trying to play a rousing game of untie the shoelace and attack! Hmm, then he came up to the table and I had to give him a real good pet and NOW, he’s playing playfully with the pen we keep next to the computer. I think he’s hinting that someone should take a nap! No way Baby! It’s just not in the cards!!

Hehe ... I guess he made a point ... we figured he could be bought off with an extra mid-morning meal of Salmon. Even woke up our Missy-poo! Funny Cats!

Ok, ok ... seriously now ... we’ve been up for six entire hours and have barely done anything to our credit, but kind of goof around with this or that. Maybe I should squeak something in my morning of more relevance? Hmm, not sure of this. What would Floralilia say? Hmm, we’re figuring she might say, "Pour yourself another cup of coffee Girl!" To which, we’d respond, "Wonderful idea, let’s get on that!" Oh, much better!

We’re having much too much fun to settle down to anything! Hmm, maybe we should have our apple though ... LOL anything to make that pedometer click!

Ok, ok ... eww, she’s a bit too chilly for us ... have to let her warm up a minute.

Did you know the other day, we spent quite a bit of time over at our Zoo’s web page? This is a fact, I tell you! We had so much fun and interest for it. :) See, the nifty-neato thing is that I live in the Village of Brookfield, directly west of Chicago and Brookfield hosts the State’s biggest Zoo. *Giggle* Umm, that’s why they call it, "Brookfield Zoo." You catching on?

When we moved to this town about four years ago now, it was a pretty big deal. After the first year, we’d even gotten an annual pass. It’s just that about then is when we started having real problems with severe arthritis in our spine. For the most part, we just discontinued doing as much walking as could be avoided. Between that though and discovering last year we had diabetes, we knew that we should re-insert walking back into the schedule. Just we’ve been avoiding it like anything else that had to do with our dismay over the way the apartment looked. Just disassociated into the computer.

Sooo, long story made short, we’re thinking that it might be time to re-invest in a Zoo pass. Hehe, but we never do anything half mast. We figure that we should make a study out of it. See, we blame that on V too. We’d been talking to him the other day and we figured that our very, very most enjoyable thing to do is studying through reading, writing and observation. Man-o-man, can you see how the Zoo might just fit in here? Seems as if I’ve been destined to live in Brookfield,I should be making the most of it!

Hmm, some interesting facts ...

Statistics & Facts

The population of Brookfield is approximately 19,085.

There are approximately 7,536 households

The amount of land area in Brookfield is 7.962 sq. kilometers.

The amount of surface water is 0.01 sq kilometers.

The distance from Brookfield to Washington DC is 627 miles. The distance to the Illinois state capital is 171 miles. (as the crow flies)

Brookfield is positioned 41.82 degrees north of the equator and 87.84 degrees west of the prime meridian.

Zoo is home to animals representing more than 400 species and inhabits nearly 20 naturalistic exhibits in the zoo's 216 acres. Hmm, says there are seven zoos in Illinois.

Hmm, didn’t know this either!

There are 7,536 households out of which 31.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.5% are married couples living together, 10.6% have a female householder with no husband present, and 33.2% are non-families. 27.8% of all households are made up of individuals and 11.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.50 and the average family size is 3.10.

Wow almost a full 28% of us Brookfielders are living on our own here? I didn’t know that. We’re an important populations.

In the village the population is spread out with 23.9% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 38 years. For every 100 females there are 90.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 87.8 males.

Ahh, pretty near an average age too ... we’re seven years over the mean age.

The median income for a household in the village is $52,636, and the median income for a family is $64,075. Males have a median income of $45,293 versus $33,136 for females. The per capita income for the village is $24,307. 4.3% of the population and 2.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 4.0% are under the age of 18 and 6.4% are 65 or older.

Shoot, we’re still way under the average median income per household, but hey we’re really an individual household ... they didn’t give a stat for us! Giggle, we’re closer to the media income of males than females ... that’s good then! Really not much poverty going on around our Village. 

History

Settlement of the village dates to 1889 when Samuel Eberly Gross, a Chicago lawyer, began selling building lots platted from farms and woodlands he had acquired along both sides of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad line, which provided passenger and freight service between Chicago and Aurora, Illinois. "Grossdale," as his development was originally called, offered suburban living at prices affordable to working-class families. Prospective buyers were enticed with free train rides, brass bands, picnic lunches, and an inevitable sales pitch.

Oh man! That’s terrible .... "Grossdale??" What ever possessed the man!??

Grossdale was incorporated as a village in 1893. The name was changed to Brookfield in 1905 after residents became displeased with Gross, whose personal life and fortune had floundered.

Oh for sure ... heaven to Betsy what a dumb choice of names!

In 1920, the old Plank Toll Road, now called Ogden Ave (US Hwy 34), was paved, providing easy automobile access to and from Chicago.

The Chicago Zoological Park, commonly called the Brookfield Zoo, opened in 1934.

Oh oh ... this is not good!

One area that experienced a rise in crime rate was Brookfield, with an increase in 2003 of 24.3 percent from 2002. Breaking down the figures, Brookfield’s robberies doubled from seven to 14 in 2003 and its assault cases increased from 48 to 91. Burglary cases increased from 98 to 165, and thefts increased from 207 to 310.

Somebody with Badges should know about this! Plus we had four sexual assaults, 33 auto thefts, and one case of arson ... Tsch, tsch, tsch ... not happy at all here!

Well ... we lost some more hours here playing around in our minds ... get back to you in a little bit.  We're off to clean out the trunk of our car.  Wouldn't want anyone to make off with our valuable fast-food wrappers!  :)