Hey Scotalia, that was a nice read. It sounds like your hearts in the whole web design thing and ive been in a similar position.....if your not working as a web designer its hard to find the free time to become good at it. About these "hiatus''" u like going on lol.....don't do it, ive made the mistake before, if you leave your site for a couple on months or so, theres quite a good chance that the designs become outdated judging by how fast the web is moving these days.
If you have any money to spend, i find video tutorials excellent for learning.........go to
www.lynda.com and see if you can afford to sign up, theres thousands of great video tutorials and new ones getting added every week with no extra cost.
Just have a bit of patience, hope it all works out for you.
Danny322