A Good Day for the Record

 Good morning ... We’re up way too early, because it is still the night before. Hmm. What to do, what to do ... LOL well, question asked and answered. Chief came in and first scratched at the door indicating he would like it opened. So I got up and did that. Then while he had my attention he went to the bathroom and then turned around and looked at me. At first, we disregarded ... that only lasted for 1 ½ minutes, because he meowed. Chief rarely does that. So I got up and he brought me straight to the kitchen in front of the fridge. We both stood there for 10 seconds. Missy joined us. Then Chief galloped his way back to the bathroom, jumped up on the counter and meowed. Like shoot, that’s the cue I needed. We went back to the kitchen, got a can from above the fridge and filled his dish, refreshed his water, and filled in the dry food too. It’s like way too early for a normal breakfast, but we’re all for the kitties telling us what they want specifically! *Silly grin* We were like this as a mother too. Couldn’t wait ‘til the boys grew up and talked to us telling us exactly how we could help them. It’s a beauty of a system.

So, now we’re sitting here with the door open getting breezed upon at 11:30 the night before. Hmm. We feel wide awake and ready to go. I know we’ll lay back down again, but we might as well write while we’re up. I’d like to "talk" awhile about earlier today (yesterday, by the time we post). The first real indication it was going to be a forward time was that one of the DSPs (the new one) came into our office expressing her interest in that we were working already. LOL the first inclination is to think we are always working. But, in reality, that’s not exactly the case. This DSP has us pinned! She then sat down so I could respond to her question, "What’s up?!" *Chuckling*

Just didn’t know my not working was so obvious ... Most days I’m at the computer though and hadn’t figured ... oh well, point taken. She allowed me 6 or 7 minutes to try to explain my obvious new satisfaction with the job. God Bless her! Hehe happy kitties just romped past us in a delightful game of tag. Should feed them more often the good stuff! Anyway ... the thing iswe were working. We wrote that note to the staff we were talking about the day before. Sr. Tess came in while the DSP was still there and I told her that we were writing the staff a note. Sr.’s always a little tense with that fearing I’llupset the staff. She saidwhat I knew she would, I was to let her read the note first. Ok, done deal! We work real hard not to upset people. It’s an art form.

Basically, the note stated that it was a friendly note. We told them that we were through with our Annuals for the year and if anyone was missing information to let us know. Then we wrote the five individuals we still had to staff from January 11th through February 8th suggesting that they be prepared. The next part was to remind them that the State would be out in February so we ought to start preparing now. I let them know the paperwork that would be due and when from now to then. I let them know we were going to be caught up with the backlog of Qnotes by January 3rd so would expect the supportive paperwork to be on time. There may have been a few other things, but not much. I was very pleased to have caught Sr. in a good mood. She took a serious look at the note, but approved with apparent satisfaction that all was going according to plan. Yayyyyyyyy!!!

The next task and the longstanding one of the day was to get accomplished the one last annual. Sr. had already told us when she was in that she wanted to cancel the staff training because the DSPs would have their 3 hour first aid training the next day and could use the time today to get done with their paperwork. Thought fine ... we’re all good with that. While she was still there, we asked if we could take a pass on attending the certification meeting. I didn’t like exactly what she said, but I was in too good of a mood to think I wasn’t going to be pinned down those 3 hours. She had indicated that she wouldn’t expect us to be going through this training on account of our disability. That took me back a second ... one because the DSP was there, and two because I in no way think we’re not able to do first aid because we’re a multiple. *Sigh* two steps forward, one back..

The biggest thing at that time was that ... I was in the mood for work, and anything that slowed me from our schedule was just going to be bother. There were a couple other things happening in that one of the DSPs were missing and another was coming in late. That meant that Sr. was going to be short staffed. Thought evade, evade ... didn’t want ANYTHING slowing me down. That worked except the time between 9:30 and 10:00 am. I got nailed that ½ hour to be watching one of the groups. Was like ...fine, fine ... I’ll do it, if pressed. But, to her all that was said, was "Sure, ok." That group was kind of funny. It was a room full of about 10 females. They were all a little disorientated because of the missing staff and substitutions, but we’re all good with that. In this room, we take particular amount of attention relaxing things somewhat. It’s the room where the class is rebelling against their DSP. So we teased and played and had fun ... while all the time they were doing their job. The general flow was ... we’d even allow some light talking as long as your hands kept busy. *Grin* I’m so soft, but in all reality am great with commanding their respect and attention. It’s just like that.

Was really appreciative when I got back to the office though. Still had schedules to keep up with. Writing an Annual shouldn’t be a very big deal, except in all reality it is. It is the summary of the year up through the actual meeting and it installs the scope of the following year in that this is the time where new goals are set. We by standard set 3 goals with each of our clients. We try to take into account the client’s preferences, but the are most often not stated. It’s more like ... ok, we know this client loves to eat, is a leader amongst his peers and should be encouraged in his work done outside in the community. We know his mother trusts us to plan his course, especially since he was starting his 4th year in the program. Most often we are fairly specific going into Annual with what goals we want to work on, but in this case we had just established the areas we were concerned with. This is the point where it took the rest of the day to write things up.

The first goal was going to be a work related goal ... The year before, we had done work with this client in being able to express details and feelings. This only met with some minor success, because the client had changed DSPs mid course and the second staff hadn’t picked up the ball. But, at this point, you can’t go back over what didn’t happen, you have to expand on what did. The reality was this client is still most likely the top client in the program toward general success. It be easy to rest on our laurels,but that wouldn’t be fair to the client. So, we figured out the next step with his work was to be learning from it to improve each week that he worked. This was something he wanted because he is just that type of guy. So, the first goal established that every week he and his DSP would come up with new work goals that were measurable.

We had the opportunity to talk with the DSP ... so we ran her through a couple of examples of how to set up goals. She was kind of funny in that she tends to gloss over things so fast, sometimes doesn’t appreciate the fine details of how change occurs, hence goals can be arranged. We figure that a good goal is exciting to the staff for all they can learn and contribute towards as well as the work from the client. At one point, we were going through a mock trial of the goal. I was asking her questions and she said in her hurried matter, "He fills the bags, and ..." We thought gotcha! What does that mean "he fills the bags." We’d figured right in that she had never thought through the task. We thought for a second and then grabbed our lunch bag sitting atop our desk. I said, "Ok, here we have a bag." She agreed, but was confused. We quickly emptied the bag which in reality had only our orange and an apple. We put the bag in front of her, along with the apple and orange and added a third item from my desk a small heavy 3" tall stone statue of an owl. Eh, go figure!? LOL Then we told her to fill the bag. She grabbed the apple first and we said, "AHA, why the apple?" She hadn’t paid attention. But, the thing we get our clients who are bagging to do was to THINK first what is the heaviest item which was the owl. Then the next point was to make her aware when she set the owl in the bag it would go to one side or another so she could next place the apple balancing the bag.

In all reality, the lesson goes on and on with quite some detail ... But, just like our work with the clients, if you can get a staff to think consciously of what she is doing then all the rest is gravy and very gratifying to both client and staff. This particular DSP is an eager student so it is fun for us also. I’m pretty sure we overloaded her on this goal so will go back over it again with her. We were adamant about staying on schedule so we had to push forward to the second and third goal. The next goal was also work related, but we grouped it in community. In all reality, we’d been trying to install for ages that this particular group be working on a newsletter. But, we hadn’t been able to follow through with the lack of its progress. Through this client we thought, "AHA!" We would teach the DSP how to make an article (entry) as this client’s goal to reflect on his work at the grocery store. We thought through the process and typed out four examples. It was important that the client use the journalistic structure of who, when, where, what, how and why and also that they why pertain to something that had happened that was funny, serious, or interesting. Hehe believe me ... it works! The real beauty is in the fact that what this client thinks while working IS really newsworthy.  How many of us know what goes on in the mind of a person of this functioning level?  What priorities and events mark his days as being memorable and what could that teach the rest of us about our own aspirations?

We then taught the staff how to run the goal ... I was excited after lunch she bounced into it. Hehe this is the group that sits within hearing range of our office. We decided after a quick thought to join the group just to make sure it all went down straight. I’m pretty sure she was intimidated by us being in her group, but she accepted us nonetheless. The clients have all been with us enough to know our style of "learning is fun!" I listened to her for about 5 minutes and then interrupted with her blessing. We ran together an example of me asking the questions and her taking notes for the client. Then we each took our own client ran the exercise and compared notes, then I let her fly solo. *Silly grin* She did very well in our book and am happy with the confidence she gained.

The third goal was one orientated toward the client’s favorite subject ... FOOD! Since we are pretty well convinced that this client is smart enough that he could eventually do everything including perhaps one day cooking the food for himself, we figured that we wanted him really conscious of the food gathering processes. We thought this was particularly helpful in that he is a big guy and his doctor is worrying over his weight. We decided to break his year into four quarters an each quarter he would be responsible for one week’s menu. It might not seem like a lot over a year’s time, but you’ll have to trust me on the scheduling. Most importantly is that the DSP only has a limited 20-60 minutes to work on a goal ... 20 if doing independently once a week and 60 if she involves the rest of her group in the same goal. The first couple of weeks they will brainstorm for a week’s worth of meals, three per day and snacks. The next couple of weeks, they will work on a grocery list working from recipes. The next month I figure it will take to sort through all those foods in that I want themmock shopping through the Internet (Peapod Grocery Service) items per cost - unit price, serving size, calories and brands. Hehe yep think he can do this. The 9th and 10th week we have the client looking of sales ads and store in-housediscounts looking for good deals. We entrusted that during one of the groups field trips they could bepicking up ads brochures. Then finally the 11th and 12th week, the group should go to a grocery store and locate the items on the list. There! That’s it! And, as we said ... each quarter they’ll repeat the lesson over the course of a year.

Man-o-man just love my job! After the last goal was explained to the DSP we were pretty happy with the days work. There is still finishing up work. As I had been working through the goals I’d been writing down the steps so we could implement them formally. The actual Annual report includes a lot of stuff that is preset, but there are places to insert on the report individuality. During the actual Annual meeting we take notes of what is relevant to the family, State representative, client, staff, Sr. Tess or ourselves. Since we facilitate the meetings we have a good thread on how things are expected to go ... Helps too that by now I’ve gone over 100 staffing meetings in our "career." At the bottom of the page is written what the new goals for the year will be. Then, we print out and "walk it around for signatures." There are a couple of other things as well. We make out what is called the goal data sheet which is what the DSP uses to keep progress notes and there is another set of papers listing out the goals and objectives. This is to record why the goal takes place, who is responsible for it, and so forth. Yep, Yep got one whole Annual done within one slim day! Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!

The only thing not mentioned is the simple pleasure it gives me to walk into my office each morning and close it up officially after a good days work. Thrills me no end to see our "stuff" each morning and knowing we have a place to be that might make a difference to someone’s life. I know I’ve gone through before in this journal entries where we’ve talked specifically about our first and last routines of the day. There is one especially good feeling I have in this process. I love while working to be taking out new projects, and then afterward be putting them back. Sometimes our mind gets pretty complex through the day, so I especially need the order of placing work properly in the clients files, or in my monthly stash of notes, or in one of the many folders I keep retaining particular information. I know when we’re doing real good, because like know I insert wouldn’t it be nice again to put our home in this much order? You know ... knowing that you have a full container of staples and paper clips, or knowing that yourprinter is humming along quite well, or that when you turn toward putting away your coat there is a nice hard plastic hanger to be placing the coat. Everything in its place for purpose! Yep, yep these things excite me to no end.

The last thoughts of our day were that ... there was another meeting with Dr. M. I couldn’t count how many parts were out ... maybe seven or eight. Lots of chit chat amongst us. The key elements were umm. What were they again? Well, I remember somebody was determined not to have a problem taking off our coat. There was something after having brushed past one of Dr. M.’s assistants. She was weird! Then, shoot, not sure exactly. I know that Casey and Annemarie had a fair amount of time to be going through what they needed. Casey is still insecure about being replaced ... sort of competitive. Annemarie was doing better than expected in that she was answering questions like about a good thing she remembered in that there was a family dog, and there were an additional two to three parts out that contributed to the conversation of how things were going with the session or through out this past week. There was speculations made regarding our mother’s influence particularly with our unconscious thoughts. Think mostly due to it being in the middle of the holidays. I remembering now too that we’d talked through some processing issues. One of the very bestest, bestest things about Dr. M. is that he asks about a million jillion questions each hour we are with him and it allows us to figure things out. The processing questions related to how it is like being a multiple or more specifically how do we communicate or prioritize who is out and what agendas we each will hold. It’s a pretty something something deal.

In general, it was a very goodday ... especially in comparison to some others during the end of last week and the beginning of this. We talked about hospitalization again, but it seemed at this point we were moving away from it. I think one of the last notes made was someone who had thought we were much to busy to want to be finding ourselves in the hospital. I think we all worked very hard on this during the appointment just in trying to figure out where we each were. In reality, only one or a handful of parts may be close to hospitalization while the majority are outhere fighting for our survival in the outside world. Can’t say whatever has overtook us the last few days is over, but it was sure nice to have a reprieve from it.

Hmm, pretty much it? I think we’re feeling good enough about getting something down that we might even consider going back to bed. I know when we are getting ready, because someone fills our head with nice soft cushy images of being wrapped underneath that down blanket. Tongue in cheek here, we might go as far as believing that when we do die, we’re going to go wrapped up in this blanket. She’s just this sweet!