Launching the graduates.

The hardest thing to do when your kids are becoming young adults and are trying to launch themselves out of the nest is letting them decide on their own what they want to do and not pushing them into anything.  (Or, it may be letting them launch when you wanted them to stay little!)  My oldest son graduated, didn't know what he wanted to do, hung around the house, finally found a pretty terrible job and within 4 days of finding it, came and told me he wanted to go to college.  Then began a search for scholarships which led us to scholarships.com which led him to a school in Mississippi, 9 hours away, which has been really hard on his homebody parents, but I think it's the best thing that ever happened to him, so I can't begrudge him that.  I'd rather he be where he is, working 3 jobs and finishing college with a beautiful girlfriend, happy as can be, than here working that job he hated, though I miss him terribly.

My daughter is still working on her book, kind of casually looking for a job and working on crocheting and knitting for the small business we are doing together.  She does not want to go to college and though I would like her to have a backup plan and some kind of training to earn money in case she has to some day (if the novel doesn't sell, God forbid!) it's her life and I need to keep out of it.  (I did hear of a job lead today that I will discuss with her.  They are specifically asking for homeschooled graduates at this job.  You don't hear of that too often.)

My youngest son is going to be graduating this spring and he wants to go to college and get out and see the world and I want him to stay close to home but when it comes right down to it, I will have to help him launch in his own way.  If he doesn't snag a scholarship like his brother did, it's probably going to be community college for him.  He's going to retake the ACT to try to get a slightly higher score and hopefully get offered the scholarship that he wants.

As to what I want to do, now, having lost my job, I am in one of those crisis opportunity states that you hear about.  What will I do?  How will I reinvent/restructure my life?!!  Stay tuned, because right now I have no idea. :-)

I painted this picture last night.