Lots of blessings this week!

Found out a nephew and his wife are expecting a baby this coming Spring! It's an extra special blessing because they originally had some difficulty conceiving. It's one of those things that 'you don't talk about', but there are many, many couples that go through a LOT to get pregnant. And since 'no one talks about it', it's hard to process all the emotions and move forward. So, a prayer of thankfulness for this young family to continue in good health!

Debuted one of my latest arrangements at our flute concert last Monday. This is a very unique arrangement - a duet for piccolo and belltree! It's crazy - but it works! Check it out. I'm working on getting the sheet music published.

Despite the weather (big thunderstorm in the late afternoon/early evening), the flute concert went well. Central Florida Sunshine Flutes also debuted an original composition by the husband of one of our members - "Ghost Dance" by Ralph Venezia which features the low 'spooky' flutes. It was lots of fun to play. 

Finished my latest online course with a 96.5 average! Woo Hoo! Especially since there wasn't a lot of communication from the instructor, which was a little frustrating. The next class starts next week, and I'm looking forward to it. It will finish the requirements for the HRM certificate that I've been working on this year.

Had some excellent rehearsals and private students this week. I love when we get to the point where we're making music and not just playing notes! 

So, lots of blessings from various aspects of day to day life. It's hard to ask for more than that! I hope that each of you finds blessings of your own in the coming week!

Where I work, they have offered an educational opportunity to hourly workers. The company will pay for classes, certifications, and degree programs from a number of participating universities and colleges. I was feeling the need to break out of my comfort zone this past year and so I looked into what was being offered. 
Since I already have a bachelor's and master's degrees, I wasn't sure that I wanted to commit to THAT MUCH studying, but there were some certification programs that looked interesting. I also need to continue working full time, so working on an online certification program might fit with my schedule, and if that went well, I would decide where to go from there.
Since it's been a few years since I have been involved with formal education, (ie - I have 2 grown sons) getting started with the program brought along its own challenges.
The high school that I graduated from is in a very rural section of the country. It does have a website...but it hasn't truly embraced the 'online' aspect of living in the USA in the 21st century. I found an email for the dean of students, whom I wrote with my request for my transcript. The dean then responded with a phone number of the person to contact. Since all of my activity would need to take place outside of traditional working hours (being employed full time myself), I wrote back and asked for an email address. It only took a week to get that all worked out! And, of course, there was not an online option for obtaining said HS transcript! But, I was eventually able to prove, that, yes, I did graduate from high school.
On to college - getting my transcript for my bachelor's degree was much easier. Everything was online and easily accessible - Yay, for small liberal arts colleges that keep up with the times! Then I tried to get my information for my master's from a larger state university. After several unsuccessful attempts to access my information online, I was able to talk to someone in the Admissions Department. They began by asking me for my Student ID # - hmmm - when I was a student there, our ID# was our Social Security #. Pretty sure that is now against the law, so why don't YOU tell me what my ID# is! After the stunned student assistant was able to grasp that someone "my age" was serious about continuing their education and needed access to their previous educational information, he was able to gather enough information from me to find my ID# and assist me in getting my transcript. Whew!
Signed up for the online course. Found out that English 101 was a pre-requisite for said course so I would have to submit my CLEP test score since I had 'tested out' of the class and a grade was not listed on my undergraduate transcript.
Back to the pursuit of online information! First challenge was that since my high school doesn't really have an online presence, it wasn't listed on the CLEP website. After some more poking around, I finally found a phone number to call. Talked with a lovely person who was able to find my HS, but couldn't find me in the system. A little more conversation and I ended up shocking another young person - they only keep CLEP scores for 25 years. But, yes, even though it was MORE than 25 years ago that I graduated from high school, I am still functioning and interested in furthering my education and improving my mind!
Since my 'official CLEP scores' were not available, I wrote to the admissions dept and informed them that the fact that I have completed both a bachelor and a master's degree was going to have to be enough proof that I would NOT have to take English 101 again to participate in the current certification program.
Thankfully, they did accept my reasoning, but also informed me that there was another pre-requisite class that I would need to take, that I had not taken previously. Fine. I'll take 2 online classes while working full time, directing 2 handbell ensembles at 2 different churches, participating in our community flute choir, teaching private students, running a music business, and maintaining my marriage. 
Oh, did I mention that I had to submit a FAFSA even though my company will be taking care of all the financial aspects of taking these classes! Argh! I thought I was through with FAFSA when my kids finished college!
Anyway, over the course of this year, I have completed 3 classes and maintained an A average in all of them. This is largely due to Mrs. Williams, my high school English teacher. For every activity in Mrs. William's English classes, we had to write a 5-paragraph theme. There had to be an appropriate opening paragraph with 3 main points, 3 paragraphs in the body referencing the 3 main points, and a closing paragraph that brings it all back together. For each paper that you submitted to Mrs. Williams, she would tell you what was missing and what you needed to do to correct it. You would them make the corrections and re-submit the paper. You could do this as many times as needed to get everything correct before the end of the term. If you made all the appropriate corrections, you would get an A in her class.
So, Mrs. Williams gets a huge thank you for teaching me how to write a paper. When taking online classes, writing and submitting papers is essential to survival. 
I am finishing up my fourth class, maintaining an A average, and am one power point presentation away from what I thought was the end of this certification program. But, oops, one more thing. Even though I will have completed all of the actual classes required for this certification program, I need 3 more credits to finish up the program. Ugh. So. I've signed up for the last class. I should be finished before Christmas this year.
I'm still working full time, even though my job has changed this past year. (Oh, yeah, while taking classes this year, I also transitioned into a new role at work with a completely different schedule, job requirements, and skill sets used.) I'm still involved with all my musical activities and running my music business.
And, I'm still married. 
It's been a full year with all the regular activities of family and friends and music and work. It's been messy on occasion. But there have been many blessings along the way. It's good to know I can hold my own in a 'classroom' and 'online'.

Is it a blessing or a mess? Isn't that the essential question? And doesn't it change in an instance?
There have been some real messes in my life that have eventually turned into untold blessings that I never expected! AND - there have been some blessings that turned into the worse messes that you could get stuck in.
So how do you tell what is a blessing and what is a mess? 
Well - that is what I'm going to explore with these blog posts - the blessings and messes of my life. Since music is a large part of my life, a lot of these posts will be about music. The blessed messes of rehearsals and musicians and performances and ensembles and arrangements and ... and ... and ...
But there are other aspects of my life - my blessed mess of a family. I love my family dearly, but, as they say, the term dysfunctional family is redundant. 
And I also have a full time job that has little to nothing to do with music or family - and there are days that going to work is a blessing and days that . . .
Anyway, I hope that you are able to count your blessings through the messes of the day.