A few days ago was the fourth of July.  I didn't miss it, not even a little.  Recently I took my two angels and my beautiful wife back to Colorado for the first time.  My Mrs. and I were married there but my two kids of Three and one and half had never been to the mountains.  It was hard, and rewarding.  We spent time all over the State, and saw all the old family.  Now that I'm home in Scotland though I'm happy I don't live there anymore.  American's are incredible people and I'm proud to call myself one, but we are not looking after one another.  We are not looking after our future generations and we are not looking after the environment.  Despite some of the more special places I went the lack of overall intelligence was also sub par.  I don't mean we Americans are stupid in the sense that we can not comprehend logical thinking.  What I mean is that we are stupid to not see how one part of ourselves is eating the other part.  It's like everywhere we went it was still about having the biggest car, and the richest things.  Even the food is rich.  Heavy salt, lots of butter.  It's just a lot, and everyone is vying to get to the top of the ant hill.  Scotland isn't like that.  In some ways it thinks it wants to be like America, but in the end it really doesn't. 
This year is flying by.  We have some amazing experiences ahead of us, but it will also come with hard work.
The last few years have been the hardest working years of my life, but not in a good way.  It was just a grind.  Everything I was doing was just something I had to do.  I had to really dig down inside of myself to find passion.  I wouldn't exchange the experience for anything now that it's over.  I will say I was hoping this year might be the one I step back onto the big stage.  I've grown as an artist.  I've found consistent paying work for my magic.  I'm teaching dance regularly.  I have wonderful acting representation, and I'm painting a lot.  The painting in particular seems to be really happening.  My hopes have always been on acting more, but my means to pursue acting more are hard come by.  Painting has been a wonderful outlet for my creativity and the past few years were filled with nothing but time and frustrating time.   Beautiful time too.  Just life changing.  Here's one great thing about becoming a new parent that they never tell you.  It is a great time to take up something new.  There are lots of times when as a new parent you just have to be present.  Your days are filled with busy work and or very tedious work.  If you've ever wanted to start painting or learning an instrument, being a new parent is a great time to do it.  This may seem completely backwards, but really it's not.  The one thing as a new parent you'll never have is a completely free moment to yourself.  The rare occasion that you do find yourself with yourself alone... You're going to feel strange.  You'll almost feel guilty that you can put all of your attention into whatever it is you'll find yourself doing, and these moments will always come when you least expect them.  What you will have is lots of down time, when you're holding a baby in one arm and a TV remote or book or laptop or coffee or..... Yeah everything, in the other.  This was my new reality three years ago, and if I wasn't working then I was with the kid.  This soon turned into kids.  For my wife it was the same way, and for the rest of the family it was the same way.  Kids really do take a village to raise.  Anyway long story short, you're going to find a ton of idle time to read about the various requirements to be a painter, or a musician, or physicist.  Youtube should create a free university program.  I've learned so much from so many great artists through the net, and namely Youtube.  Wow maybe Youtube will give me a job advertising how amazing they are?!