did I mention we had a baby?

Better late than never seems to be my life motto right now, but hey, we're rolling with it.  I've been working through a lot of I-want-an-education-but-it's-just-not-working-with-two-young-kids-right-now issues. Tried the online degree thing and it just wasn't working for a number of reasons. Chief among them being that getting a degree in something that's an option just because you want to graduate from college and not because it's something you are passionate about proves to become a chore very quickly and that's not really how I want to feel about my education years from now when I look back on my life.  My grandma Teddy is my hero these days. She got her degree later in life when she had the time, energy, and money to pursue it and loved every minute of it. The other day I took the final for the online class I've been trudging through to finish for the past year. I had to go to a local community college to be proctored. So here I was sitting in this tiny testing room, feeling nostalgic for BYU and the testing center (say what???) and a little bummed that it just wasn't meant to be right now, all while trying to do well on this test and anyway, there were just a lot of thoughts and feelings going on in my head and heart, when in walked a woman in at least her forties, sitting down to take a test, and I'll tell you it took all of my will power not to stand up and start clapping for her. I wanted to hug her, congratulate her, tell her how proud I was of her. I figured that maybe that was against testing center policy...? So I refrained, but you go girl!

Having our kids right away was the right decision for us and I don't regret it one bit. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm not looking forward to "my time" someday. Whenever that day does come and however it happens, I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, when Emily of Jones Design Company started her Graphic Design mini series and then announced she would be selling an online Simplified Graphic Design course it felt like the answers to a million prayers. Spots were limited so I registered the very minute it opened up. It's been so great. I did the first half the day I started and it's like my brain is exploding with "mind blown" again and again. Stuff I've been trying to do in Microsoft Word for years that just really doesn't work because that's not what it's for and now with the touch of a button in Adobe Illustrator I can make it happen just the way I envisioned it. And the scary thing is I just barely know the basics! I'm loving this class, loving this new craft and form of art that I've been trying to do for so long but didn't really know what it was or what tools to use. I literally slept one hour last night because I was too excited to sleep and when I finally did calm down my mind was bombarded with idea after idea after idea. 

Feeling happy. Feeling satisfied. Feeling grateful for this answer to prayers. Glad to be able to continue my education even if it's informal for now. There's going to be a lot of changes around here in the coming months, and I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve just thinking about it!