Happy New Year!!!!

So, I know that I have been absent a lot lately.  Honestly, life has just overwhelmed me.  2015 was a BIG year!
At home, my husband and I decided to move our family to a different town.  This meant cleaning, organizing and packing up our old house to sell (it sold in three days) so that we could start looking for a new house.  We didn't expect our house to sell so fast, so it was crunch time really quickly!  We really wanted to find a house in a neighborhood with lots of kids.  We looked all around, and found our dream house in the perfect neighborhood!  We were able to get a little more house than we originally wanted because we moved out a little farther that we had previously thought we would.  This neighborhood is crawling with little buddies for our guys, so it is perfect for us!

We accepted the offer on our old house on June 5, and a whirlwind later, we purchased and moved into our new house on August 1!  

Did I mention that we had also planned a family vacation for the middle of summer too?  We rented a cottage on Grand Traverse Bay, and had an awesome time spending time together during the lazy days of summer.  It was a great break from the craziness at home!  We spent our time exploring the area, climbing sand dunes, kayaking, paddle boarding, making puzzles, and playing games.  It was so fun!

After the vacation and moving, it was time to get the boys registered at their new school.  My oldest son has Type 1 Diabetes, so that took some planning time with the school.  The new school has been awesome with their support and help with his diabetes.  In November, they had Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Week!  My little guy who was selectively mute in pre K and K actually talked in front of the whole school!  AMAZING!!!!  He also got an insulin pump which has significantly changed his insulin delivery for the better.  There was a huge learning curve, but so worth it!

Of course, during all of this craziness, the boys still wanted to play sports too.  They were involved in soccer and a short hockey course this fall!

So, with all of that going on, it is amazing that I was also able take on an additional self-contained Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) room (4 total) and the rest of my general caseload, plus a new preschool program to boot!  Can you say CRAZY?!?!

At work, I have honestly been completely overwhelmed with the ASD classrooms.  24 students with significant delays can be daunting.  I have started to do groups with the students by working on Core Vocabulary.  I will write more about this another time, as this is definitely a work in progress.  The groups have been really successful, and I have loved running them.

My preschool students that I inherited this year are an absolute joy to work with!  I haven't worked with preschool age students in quite a while, and it is so refreshing!  They are so excited for everything I present to them, and have been making great progress too.

So now, on to the NEW YEAR!!!!!

I don't normally have new years resolutions, but this year, I wanted to write some things down to keep myself accountable.  

• Blogging at least 2-3 times a month, if not more.  I have some fun ideas for posts, that I just need to sit down and write.
• Create some new products to go with my Core Vocabulary lessons.  
• Finally finish my Common Core Daily Workouts for grades 3-5.
• Have fun with my students!!!!

Thanks so much for sharing 2015 with me!  I am constantly overwhelmed by the support I receive here.  Even with all the craziness that I have had going on, I love to check in here and see comments from people around the country and world.  Our online SLP community continues to grow in ways that amaze me.  

Here's to an awesome 2016!!!!  Cheers!!!