Wednesday, June 13, 2018

This Mom Starts a New Chapter



Dear friends,

I'm starting a new chapter in life.

In the last post on this blog, I wrote about my One Word for the Year, which is Focus. I was trying to figure out what to do next with my life. It's funny how once I really focused on it, the way became more clear. Here is some of it:

School and Work Choices

I also wrote in that last blog post about my friend Patricia leading a Lectio Divina Bible study. That opened a new door for me: I'm starting a Master of Arts in Ministry at Asbury Theological Seminary (Orlando campus) this fall, partly funded with two of their scholarships. 

But this leads to other transitions. 

After 31 years as a (mostly) stay-at-home mom, I'm looking for a part-time job to help pay for my tuition. I went to a job fair last week, and as a result of that, I have an interview tomorrow at a social services agency working with people in crisis. (Update: I got the job!)

Because I will be going to grad school full-time and (hopefully) working part-time, I won't be home schooling my youngest daughter, so she will be going to public school for 7th grade.

 Summer

 During the summer, I'm scrambling to get a lot of stuff done around the house and with my kids before I don't have as much time. Big clutter purge going on here!

 I'm also getting a jump on my seminary studies since there is a ton of reading due pretty quickly. I took home school books to Brightlight Books (my favorite used bookstore) and traded them in for several of my theology text books, which is one of their specialties. I downloaded several texts in Kindle version, which is much easier for me to read since I can adjust the font. I ordered a few other books new on Amazon, and now I have just one left to find at a decent price. 

Side note: My son just came in and said, "I think someone's been using my debit card on Amazon." Oops. We share an Amazon account, and for some reason his debit was listed as the default. I now owe him $80. Of course, he owes me his very existence, but that's beside the point. 😉
Digital Organization

 Getting my digital life organized helps me get the rest of my life more organized. I have used Evernote and gTasks for quite a while, but my friend Susan Moore clued me in to Trello and I'm hooked! 

 I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but Trello is an organizing system that you can use on your computer and all of your devices. 

 Trello has boards for the major project areas of your life. These boards can have really cool photographic backgrounds of your choice.


Each board has categorized lists with cards (tasks) on them.

The task cards can be opened to enter more details, such as check lists, due dates, labels, and file attachments.


I opened two windows in my browser and set up tabs for all of my Trello boards. Then each day, I click through the tabs to see what I need to work on. If I'm away from home, I can open the app and swipe through my boards on my phone.  For some reason, this is just so much more satisfying than my gTask checklist, which I still use for some things. Plus, it's more comprehensive and intuitive.

 In addition to my Trello windows, I keep another window open with tabs for my email, Facebook, Google Calendar, and Mint financial tracker.


Wisdom from James

 I also started another blog, but this one is not your typical format. It's a study of the book of James. Each passage has separate pages for Read+Reflect+Respond (study questions, applications, a hymn, a prayer), My Reflections (an extended paraphrase) essays, poems, links), and Study Helps (alternate versions, related verses, commentaries). I'm about a third of the way through it! Links to each post are below, but the main link is Wisdom from James.



That's about all for now, except for links to my recent blog posts below! I'd love to hear what you are doing, too, so leave a comment!

 Much love,
Virginia Knowles

Recent Blog Posts

Virginia's Life, Such As It Is

Watch the Shepherd
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