A new Year and many new challenges to come!

Greetings from the new side of 2013. I have not, in fact, fallen off the face of the earth (although at times it seems like a pleasant option). I have been busy celebrating the holidays with my family, entertaining some much-missed out of town family and getting everyone back to school and into a new routine, including myself (both the school and the new routine). Yes, I have gone back to school! After a Bachelors degree in Physics, a Masters of Science in Ceramic Engineering and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering I thought I was well and truly educated beyond all need and yet, here I am, in class again. I was awarded a nifty grant and admission to a masters of teaching program with an emphasis in Physics. In the end (summer 2014) I will be a certified (and possibly certifiable) teacher of middle and high school physics and related sciences with an MAT in Physics degree to add to the list. Goodness help me... I have homework, must attend classes and have to prepare group presentations again... what was I thinking?

On the creativity front... the holiday saw little action except for the finishing of the stockings I talked about here in good time for Christmas morning. Since starting back to class, and the introduction of a few rockin' new tangles on the Zentangle blog and TanglePatterns.com  I have had a burst of drawing inspiration. You should see the margins of the notes from the first two days of class! Lots of personal introductions and reviews of the class syllabus  leaves plenty of time for 'doodling'. Of course I could not pass up the new pattern Phicops featured in the Diva Challenge this week. Here are the pieces that actually made it into the sketch book...

I really like the look and potential of this pattern and I can tell I will use it a lot. I also had some cool pieces featuring Diva Dance, the last challenge of 2012, but never had the time to scan them in and write a post about them. Maybe I will slip a post in about them midweek sometime... oh wait... it would have to be when I am not either IN class, TEACHING an after school class, trying to fix a dinner that the family can finish up and eat while I am in class, do class work, do housework (OK, I seldom actually do housework anyway...)... I will count myself lucky if I can keep a little drawing happening on a semi-regular basis! Forgive me if the blog slows down... hopefully I am shaping myself into an inspiring science teacher for the next inventor of something fabulous.