Beer

Since largely giving up drinking (I don’t know how long ago), I have bought six-packs a couple of times.  Both times, when I have drank, I have felt that drinking pulls me away from God.  God is working in powerful ways in my life right now.  Alcohol seems to (in reflecting on my experiences and state of mind afterwards) result in a disconnection from God.  I am not willing to accept any behavior in myself the would result in diminishment of my connection with God.  I want to live out God’s plan for me.  I need to be ‘in tune’ or in touch with his directives.

Website development

I am truly experiencing the power of God right now.  As I wrote on 3/2, I have been studying website development.  Right when I finished studying Head Start XHTML and CSS, Jen pointed out on Caitlin’s preschool’s newsletter that they were looking for someone to update their website!  Talk about good timing!  I contacted the director right away, and we’re moving forward with it.  Nothing is really contractually solid, but it will be a good experience, good practice, and good for my portfolio.  I have already come up with a new design and showed it to [my wife], [father in law and his wife], my mom and [step dad].  Everyone seems to really like it.  [my father in law and his wife] even sound like they are going to refer me to [my father in law’s wife’s] daughter to put together a website for her.

The part I’m really struggling with is how to charge for my work.  Hourly, per page, per project, etc.  After a lot of discussion and some prayer, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to estimate a range and the school director can tell me what works with her budget.  Whatever amount she is comfortable with, I will devote the appropriate amount of time.

After talking with [my oldest daughter] and [my wife] about things, [my wife] seems like she’s very interested, and there may be opportunity for her to do some business development for me.  [my oldest daughter] has also expressed interest in graphic design, since she’s taking a class in school for it.  What a blessing it would be for each of us to work as a team!  We’ll see what the Lord has in store for us! 🙂

Lord, I trust your plan. I’m excited to see your plan unfold! What wonders you have in store for me! Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. Thank you for working in my life in such powerful ways. I pray that you would use my talents and the talents of those around me, especially my family, to serve and glorify you.  Amen.