Class Musings

Online classes are one of the ways that I am surviving the empty nest adjustments.  Currently I'm enrolled in four and am challenging myself to keep up with them as much as possible.  Basically at this point I am semi- keeping up with two of them and the other two I'm saving for later.  The first two are classes I've done before.  Shimelle's "learn something new everyday" has been quite a fun class when I've taken the time to do the assignments.  I have one book from several years ago done but I thought I would try to do it again this year.  So far it's not happening so I'm still hopeful for catching up later.  The second is Jessica Sprague's "Now we're Rockin" class which I also took several years ago.  She gave us the opportunity to sign up for the revised class for a lower rate so I did.  I've started my first layout but am finding it hard to find solid time to sit and work on it so far so it, too, is sitting in my to do later list.  The two NEW classes I'm taking that I'm attempting to stay up with are "Book of Stories" by Karen Grunberg and "Me-The Abridged Version" by Cathy Zielske.  In Karen's class I'm making a list of stories that I'd like to record or do pages on eventually.  She's given us several exercises to get us thinking so that we will have a huge list to work with once we start the organizing stage of the class.  I'm really excited about this class because I'm constantly dreaming up other ideas to do pages on and I write them down here and there but they are all mixed in various places from notebooks to pieces of paper, to index cards to receipts.  It will be nice to finally get them organized into one place.  In Cathy's class we are starting to write our entries for our pages.  I've decided to change the plan on her class just a bit.  Her class focuses on doing a book about ourselves and since I have several of those ongoing already, I decided to change it to a book of WE and focus on Russ and I together.  I'm hoping I can adapt all the writing to include both of us and at the end of the project I will have a good overview of "us".  Now the challenging thing is to find quiet time to just sit and write.  I have to be in a certain frame of mind to write well and once I'm there, I can let the words flow to the page.  If I try to write when I'm not in that mode, I struggle more.  So I'm trying to take a little bit of writing time each day to keep caught up.  I'm soooo enjoying this class.  I love a class where I feel like I'm inspired to do the project and Cathy is definitely good at doing that.  She has put in a lot of time on her class from the videos to the handouts to the time she spends on the message boards.  It's obvious why she IS so successful at what she does.  She puts out quality classes and work.  She inspires me.  I'm not sure if I'll finish everything by the end of these classes (they are six weeks) but I will certainly have made a dent in the homework and will challenge myself to finish within a reasonable time afterwards.  To end, I will share a few more of my digital layouts from some of my Jessica Sprague classes.  I've got enough catching up to do on her classes to keep me busy all winter long.  I think that will definitely be one of my goals for winter.