for my fiftieth year, a new career!

Yep. It just kinda fell out of the sky, right into my lap. I believe it is from the hand of God. Not that He goes around throwing steno machines at people, but He did give me certain talents that just happen to fall into the right categories, and the right circumstances in life, and the need for some additional income for our family, and plenty of places for that income to go...well., you get the drift.

But keep praying, dear people. There is the school, first. Now I love school, and I  love learning stuff, but this is going to be some Hard Work, and learning to "play" the steno machine well is going to be the Big Goal. After that, I could get to sit* (see note) in a courtroom, with which I am fascinated, and merrily record every word that  is said there.

*It has long been my assertion that the sitting down jobs pay the best. It has also long been not my job to ever get to sit down, even for a moment, at any of the jobs I have had. Occasionally I have been asked in a gracious and complimentary way (many thanks to you all, you know who you are) how I have stayed so "young looking" (whatever), having had seven children. My answer, besides, "one at a time" has been, "I haven't sat down for the past 29 years." That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The fact that my own mother began nursing school at age 50 continues to inspire me. I remember helping her study. I was eight at the time. She did well, and I intend to do the same. I will carry on the proud tradition! I feel better at this juncture of my life than I did in my late twenties and thirties, and every bit if it is purely the grace of God! If He has given me a talent, and nudged me in this direction, then, off I go! It is very exciting! As Mother Angelica famously said,  "Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous."

and about following the will of God-

People often ask me, “How do you know whether something is God’s Will in your life?”  I say, “Ask me next year, and then we’ll know whether it was God’s Will.”
The Lord isn’t going to come down and say, “Now, look sweetie, I want you to do this little thing for me.”  He’s not going to do that.  He gave you a brain.  He gave you a memory, an intellect, a will.  Do you realize that if you’re a Christian, you have Sanctifying Grace in you?  The Holy Spirit is in you.  Pray.  Move forward in His grace, and you will discover His Will for you. 
(Mother Angelica, from Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality, ©2007  by Doubleday Publishing)