Good Like a Medicine

I think I can officially call my web design projects “work” now. After almost a year I have slowly emerged from the books and started putting my learning into practice. “God, please bless my efforts to help others!” That was my original motivating prayer behind starting web design coupled with my passion for “decorating” the pages of my internet collaborative ownership. The last few months my prayers sounded more like, “God, please help me not to mess this up!”

By God’s grace I have found the time to study and work hard when I’m not giving kids “mommy’s attention,” and I have finished my first three big projects.

1) ECBC Women
2) Good Like a Medicine
3) CCD4Kids

I also got to take a break recently and give Ann a redesign to her blog. She stayed with Blogger, so it was pretty familiar to me to design and code it for her less than a week. It was a fun project. She wanted to clean it up and give it some spunk. Here is a shot of the transformation. I love before / after photos!

Here are some things I have learned from the last 12 months:

1) “Web design” is not easy. True web design involves stacking many building blocks of education on top of each other, and the blocks are sometimes eroding and changing form. Web designers who are of any value don’t just sit down and “make” a site like you make Word document or an email. It involves databases, hosting, domains, reading, linguistics, scripting, coding, debugging, communication, and determination. It’s hard, but even some of the best have been self-taught. I have a lot of respect for all of the talented designers out there.
2) There are so many web and programming languages, and it can be daunting to learn. Once you really start to understand the relationships and rules, however, any language can become so much fun to practice.
3) The internet is an amazing educational tool particularly forums. I have found an amazingly helpful and encouraging community of brainy lovers of God over at Godbit, thanks to an initial plug from Nathan Smith. I cannot thank God enough for the way he is using that place as a tool for Christians in technological fields. I’m in the forum at least 3 or 4 times a week asking questions and learning from others.
4) A few weeks ago I almost felt so overloaded that I wanted to quit. I kept telling Eric, “I feel like I’m in college, and I shouldn’t be.” He has been so wonderful to support and cheer me on to pursue this, and I am thankful. I have decided I’m going to keep learning, praying, and taking on projects because God has given me this avenue to bless others and bless our family, and I love seeing Eric’s excitement in this.
5) That is the last thing: I am learning that this can continue to be a win-win for us: a creative outlet for me and another way to bring income into our family. I cannot think of another way at this time that I could use my hands and mind to do this because during the daytime hours they are pretty full!

I am going to be finishing up the redesign of Good Like a Medicine and Poco Creative in the next few months, and I will be learning a lot more (mainly about CMS options for clients) as I develop these and push on with other projects. Please pray for me if you would, that the God who rules would give me wisdom and guidance in continuing this education. Thank you!