I am coming up on the four-year anniversary of the start of my blog. I haven’t written a post since April as it seems time got away from me. Summer has been busy, and we also spent several weeks getting over a bad cold. I am glad it wasn’t Covid. Last week was the first time in a long time that I felt really good and full of energy. Therefore, to add a little extra information to my post, this month I decided to add ten facts about me that you may not know.
1.) Before I became a school administrator, I spent seventeen years teaching middle school. I know teachers who shudder at the thought of teaching that age group, but they were my favorite to teach. They are still young enough to enjoy and appreciate creative lessons, yet old enough to not need your constant attention. Plus, I learned as much from them as they did from me. I have many fond memories of my years teaching middle schoolers. When I was pregnant for our twins, I had two seventh grade girls make me two maternity tops as their home economics project. How thoughtful was that? When I had the students in my class help clean our classroom in preparation for summer vacation, two girls did a wonderful job cleaning out my closet. One of them told me that if I hadn’t used it all year, it could probably be thrown away…she was wise beyond her years.
2.) Before graduating from high school, I played the violin for eight years. I started in the fourth grade. After I outgrew my starter violin, my parents purchased, for us at that time, an expensive concert violin for me to use. I became quite proficient and played in both our junior high and high school orchestras. The friendships and camaraderie I developed with my fellow orchestra members was priceless. However, it was my parents’ unselfishness in providing me with the instrument and the perseverance in developing my craft that have stayed with me all these years.
3.) I love to read and learned to read when I was four years old. We moved to a new town and a new school district when I was four. In the previous district, my parents had to buy all the textbooks my older brother and sisters used. They sold the books back to the store when we moved but kept the Dick and Jane readers. While my mother ironed, I spelled out the words in the book and taught myself to read. Now, it is not unusual for me to read three or four books at the same time. I just finished reading The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory, The Regulators by Stephen King, and Gratitude Works by Robert A. Emmons. I am now reading The Midwife’s Secret by Emily Gunn, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and another Stephen King book, Rose Madder.
4.) The only book I have read more than once is Gone With the Wind. I know many people re-read a book they especially like but except for Gone With the Wind, I have not found another book that if re-read gives me the same thrill as the first time I read it. I suppose that is because most of the books I read, except for the non-fiction ones, are either mysteries, thrillers, or suspense novels.
5.) I love classic movies and have seen some of them over a dozen times each. I know what you are thinking; if I don’t enjoy a book the second time, why would I watch certain movies over and over again? I watch them for the detail I may have missed in previous showings. When I read a book, I can savor each word and detail as I read it. In a movie, it moves along at its own speed and little details are often missed. There are many movies that upon the sixth or seventh time watching it, I see something I never noticed before.
6.) I love to rustic camp but dislike gardening. I leave that to my hubby. When we camp, I like the quietness of the woods, the ripple of the river as the water flows over rocks and fallen trees, the campfire, and being outside. Gardening requires getting dirt under your nails, putting up with the gnats that inhabit our yard, and in the summer, the heat. Again, it seems like an oxymoron, but it is what it is.
7.) I love to sew. When I was little, my mother tried to teach me to sew by hand, but I found it too tedious and time consuming. However, when I was in the seventh grade, I became a member of 4H and learned to sew on a machine. After that, my mother let me use her sewing machine and I started making a lot of my clothes. Now, I quilt and have been making chef/hostess aprons that I plan on selling on Etsy once I have the time to get my store up and running.
8.) I self-published my first novel, Justice for Lindsey, in 2020 at the age of 73. I had worked on the novel for about fourteen years before I got the nerve to make it available to others via Amazon.com. Since then, I have written and self-published four other novels and am in the editing process for novel number six. It is the first of a seven cozy mystery series I have planned.
9.) I always make the main character of the books I write a strong, independent woman. I do that because I feel it is important that women have role models that are not dependent on anyone else for their success. My mother raised all four of her daughters to be independent and I raised our daughter to be independent as well. I have been happily married to my best friend for over 54 years and we have a loving, strong partnership. I rely on him to do certain things around the house but also know that if something were to happen to him, I am capable of taking care of myself.
10.) I calculated and I will have to live until I am 90+ years old to write all the novels I have planned. That doesn’t bother me as writing gives me something to look forward to and keeps my mind sharp. I think it is important for people of all ages to have goals and for me it is my writing.
Are their facts about you that you haven’t shared with others because you don’t feel comfortable sharing? If you don’t want to share, make a list and look at it from time to time. Does your list give you ideas for further goals?
Until next time, remember, “Don’t save today for tomorrow.”
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