“Actually…” (as E3 would say) it has been 61 weeks since I “graduated” with my Masters of Science in Management and Leadership! July 4th weekend of 2020 I finished my masters degree! Wahoo!!! A major personal goal that I have had for quite sometime.

It all began because I honestly wanted to wear a hood (my master’s degree was 100% online, so I didn’t even participate in a ceremony) and say I had completed master level coursework. Now, if you’ve spent any time with me at all you’ll know that sitting still and focusing on “schoolwork” for significant amounts of time is almost an oxymoron hence the reason for the goal of completing master level coursework!

The goal slowly morphed into obtaining my masters in order to further advance my career in post secondary education. I worked in post secondary dental hygiene education and loved it! My dream was to be a dental hygiene program director which required a Master’s degree! As life would have it, our family needs changed as did our location which meant I no longer would be teaching collegiate level,

Now you may be reading this and thinking “that’s a whole lot of change!” Yes, it was. These changes occurred over the course of 6 or 7 years. All while we were having babies, my husband was finishing his master’s degree at DTS, and I was thanking the Lord daily for His continued provision of amazing jobs that I LOVED and that supported our family while Craig was earning his degree and working for a church. I didn’t even start my master’s degree until after I was finished teaching collegiate level and was close to the end of my career in teaching high school. And I would have never thought I’d be working through my master’s while in transition! Much less finishing it during a global pandemic!

So that’s where we are.. or where we were. July 4th weekend of 2020. I turned in my final coursework and graduated with my master’s! A dream of a decade and close to 17 months of hard work! But what to do with it? Especially now since we live in a totally new place, in the middle of a global pandemic unexpectedly homeschooling my 3E’s. The questions have been asked more times than not and they generally sound like this. “Now what?” or “So now that your kids are going back to school are you going to pickup some days cleaning teeth at a dental office? How about see if ODU is hiring for a clinical professorship?” All meaning questions and inquiries. Ones that I’m afraid my answer to all of them (at this current time) are the same, “the Lord hasn’t released me to step back into dentistry!” People who have been through the journey with me sort of gasp when I say it. Dentistry has been my life for the past 15 + years. I have worked hard and diligently to help develop processes and protocols when I began teaching college and then when developing a dental assisting program for high school. Blood, sweat, and tears!!! And to accomplish the next educational journey needed to progress and then walk away from it?!? Yep. That’s it. So, what then?!??

As you can imagine completing my degree, in a new state where we had relationships with only a hand full of people only months into this global pandemic thing meant I had tons of free time on my hands. I mean I was preparing curriculum choices for the upcoming school year for my 3E’s, but still there was lots of time! And I don’t do well with free time. New school year kicked off. We settled into our daily methods and routines. Kids were doing great, but I just wasn’t being challenged FOR ME!

September 2020, while visiting on the phone with my sweet friend back in Texas she mentioned she had done a thing! A thing that she was loving. It was pandemic friendly and was affording her opportunities that frankly wouldn’t exist otherwise. You have my curiosity. Tell me more! I left that conversation that evening with a spark of interest and a prayer to pray. A prayer of maybe this could be my thing. A fun thing. An educational thing. A family thing. We prayed. Ran numbers. And we jumped in feet first! WE STARTED A SMALL BUSINESS DURING GLOBAL PANDEMIC!

Stay tuned for more on our small business!