ABOUT ME (NEW!!)

I’m a married(27 years) mother of 4 living children, with two in heaven. I was born at the end of the “baby boomer” generation in Massachusetts while my Dad served in the US Army. We then moved to Virginia where my brother was born, and when Dad got out of the service in 1964 we moved back to my parents native residence on Long Island, New York, where I grew up and still live with my husband and children, who range in age from 23 down to 6 years old.

I am a musician/composer with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. I now primarily play the piano, sing, and compose, but played the tuba for the longest time from junior high through my second year of high school, then again for two years at junior college, where I majored in music with tuba as my primary instrument, with a minor in piano. I taught myself the piano as a young child, playing primarily by ear, picking up every tune I heard, and burning out the motor on my first Magnus Organ. I never took any formal piano lessons, but as my reading skills were honed from playing the clarinet and the tuba, I was able to read music proficiently and applied that to piano playing.

Very soon after graduating from junior college with an Associates Degree in Music, I gave birth to our firstborn child, and took a break from school and work to stay home with her. When she was 3 I returned to college to complete my education with a bachelors degree. My major was Music Education, with an emphasis on choral music. My main instrument was the piano during this time. I still played tuba for recreation but really despised the thought of having to carry it around! (I’m just a wee bit over 5 feet tall!). It took me just about 5 years to finish my bachelors as I attended part-time at first while raising our daughter and working part-time at my church as the organist and assistant music director.

In the last year of my tenure at school, I became pregnant with our 2nd daughter in 1992, and gave birth to her in the middle of my 2nd semester of student teaching. I had to return that fall to finish some incompletes and the math requirement, which I had put off until the end. I graduated in February of 1993, and attended the ceremonies that May. I took my NTE’s prior to finishing college, and had planned to apply for some jobs, but with two children, I decided to stay home for awhile and be a mom.

In 1994, with my third child on the way, our family took up the adventure of home schooling, which we continue to this day. We have since had two more children, the third, a girl, in 1994 and the fourth, born almost 7 years after the 3rd, a boy, in 2001.

I continue to work part time as a musician in my church, and educating our children at home.

I am a Christian in the Anglo/Reformed Catholic tradition. I have passionate beliefs about the sanctity of human life. I love the liturgical year! I have interests in classical education(meaning the learning of Latin and Greek and the study of ancient Greece and Rome as the PRIMARY foundation of education). I am interested in simple living. I HATE noise!(blaring tv’s at gas stations, canned amplified music in all public settings, leaf blowers, etc etc.) I loathe the fact that I can’t see all the stars at night because of “sky glow” and hate the fact that my neighbors feel the need to light up the inside of my home with their “security lights” and I don’t get to see the sun come up naturally because I need room darkening shades to guard my eyes from their intrusive efforts!

I like simple, naturally grown foods that don’t have ingredient listings that are hard to pronounce! I’m against mandatory, mass vaccinations and believe pharmaceutical companies like to make lots of money convincing(forcing)people to use their products by lobbying state legislatures. I love people. I love observing them, and I love being with them. I’m an extrovert, but not on the extreme side(ENFP is my Meyer’s Briggs personality rating-ask me about my numbers and I’ll dig them up for you). I am pretty much a nonconformist in most things, but have my areas where I don’t need to make a fuss. My ethnic background is…German, Irish, American Indian, English, possibly French and who knows what else-commonly referred to as “Heinz 57 varieties”. I love biking on rough terrain through the woods. I love walking through the woods but am afraid of bears so hiking and biking is usually limited to areas where those creatures are not prevalent! I love all things classical, whether it be music, art, or history. I also love anthropology.

I’ll be writing more in the future about the specifics of my growing up, my family, and some of my passions and beliefs. I’m glad to have found an outlet to express a little bit of myself and share some of who I am with others. And, no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, I will respect you as a human being! I may not agree with you, in fact, I may passionately disagree with you on some things and even work against you in that regard, but I have respect for the fact that you exist, and that you are a fellow traveler on this journey we call “life”. May God bless you, and thank you for taking the time to read this!