I'm super pumped to announce that I've finally created new home pages for my websites. (Except for Texas Blues Guitar, since this site is mainly dedicated to the course itself rather than news and updates.)

I've been meaning to redesign a central hub page for my sites for a long time but dreaded the process of setting everything up. Luckily, I have an amazing plugin to make things simple and quick. I've used it for such web design tasks for many years. It's called Thrive Architect.

I haven't talked about it much, but this plugin has been my go-to resource for all things web design since early 2015, when I released Bluegrass Guitar Essentials. The Thrive Themes company offers an entire suite of plugins and themes, but Thrive Architect is the main one I use for all my blog posts, landing pages, and all-around creative elements for my site. It's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a way to take your Wordpress website to the next level. 

You may or may not have heard/read the devastating news, but my mother passed away in her sleep on May 20th, 2019. None of our family expected it. Not my brother or sister, not my cousins, not my aunts. Nobody. This is the first time I'm writing anything about it other than small Facebook posts.

She had been dieting and trying to lose weight and had actually lost quite a bit over the past month or so. She had also been getting out of the house more often than I've seen her do in a very long time. I was glad to see her starting to enjoy life more. The last time I saw her was Mother's Day, when me, my brother, and our sister took her out to Cheddar's.

After we left, I told her I loved her and gave her my gift: A coffee-scented candle from the Country Porch in Muddy Pond, and a funny card—she loved to laugh—that said it was discounted because it had a "slight defect." Not only did it say "Happy Birthday" instead of "Happy Mother's Day" but it also had the words written upside down. I wrote a personal message (upside down as well, hee-hee) saying something to the effect that she and I needed to have a Mother/Son date over coffee soon.

We never got to have that date. I wish more than anything that we did.

Thankfully, I saw her just before Mother's Day, out in town at a local coffee shop with my sister. I was there for one of the writer's meetings I frequently attend. If only I'd known what would soon come about two weeks after, I would have spent every second enjoying coffee with the two of them.

But we never know. That's why it's so important to spend the most time we can with our loved ones. Cherish every moment. Make time on the days when you have none instead of saying "I'll see you on the next game night." There might never be a next time. You'll never regret being with them after they're gone—best of all you won't have to wish you did.

Rest in peace, Deborah (Debi) Sue Gullette Wade, aka Mom. I'll remember you always and continue clinging to the hope I'll see you again some day. Even so come, Lord Jesus.

As of late May, classes where I teach guitar, ukulele, and novel writing were officially out for the summer! I decided not to teach private lessons in the summer due to lack of interest. So I now have plenty of time to catch up on several of my own personal goals, mainly...

The above list is actually taken from my latest F.O.C.U.S. goals for Quarter 2 (Q2) of 2019 (click the image below to see the full details). I hope to write a blog post about my goals for the rest of the year around the halfway mark for 2019, which would be sometime in July. Some of the details are still in the works, so I hope to have them sorted out by then.