I married kind of late: at 30. We had our kids even later: our first was born when I was 35, our last when I was just shy of 41. But I love being a mom, and I've never been shy about being an older mom. My parents were "older", and I always thought that was a good thing. They had a lot of experience that made them very interesting people, and much wisdom and patience. They were great parents.
I did a lot of things with my life before getting married. My dad was in the foreign service, and we lived in France when I was growing up (ages 10 - 16). It was life-defining for me. I have been interested in all different languages and cultures ever since. I've traveled a lot, and lived/studied and/or worked in the US, France, Germany, England, Nigeria, and Israel.
When we were first married, I taught 2nd grade in a Christian School, and my husband was the Jr/Sr HS science department. It was a good way to start our marriage. After 3 years I left to start a family. When the kids came along, I stayed at home with them until Liesl was entering 2nd grade. We homeschooled at first, but after a bout with depression, I needed a change. I put them in Christian school, and I got a part-time job as a reference and children's librarian. It was the perfect job to mix with my responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom of 3 young ones.
I'm a teacher by nature as well as by profession, altho I've had a wide variety of jobs outside the teaching field as well. I have a degree in deaf education, which I chose because deafness is related to both language and culture. Most recently I spent the better part of the last 10 years teaching HS French.
Among other things, I have represented foreign students who come to study in America for a year. It's always fun to learn about their countries. I love having the chance to help them negotiate intercultural challenges, social and language barriers, etc. It's the next best thing to traveling!
I also explore my artistic side when I have time, like during the summer months. In the summer of 2000, I started a life-size reproduction of the Bayeux Tapestry, a 1000-yr-old masterpiece, and completed the first 55 feet (of the full 235 ft). I am painting and appliquéing, not embroidering - but the result has been gratifying. For a few years it hung in my classroom. It is a labor of love, which I will again pick up when time permits... A long-cherished dream is to one day be able to do the artsy stuff more full time.
As a family, we all love history, and watch a lot of historical fiction movies. We also share the same sense of humour, and usually have funny flick & homemade pizza every Saturday night (Liesl's creation). I love to watch action flicks with my son Karl, 19. He is very interested in WWII, as am I, and sometimes we watch series like Band of Brothers together. With my daughters I like to watch girly movies, academy awards classics and old musicals.
Everyone loves to read.
My kids are as different as the colors in the rainbow. They are mostly grown now, and are really coming into their own, excelling in their strengths, and making their contributions in the world. I’ll include more on them under “kids”.
Apart from my husband and the kids, my favorite companions are my cats. At the moment my three are Truffle (we usually call him Mushroom :) ), Edelschweiz (because he is white with a lovely apricot dusting, so he looks like an edelweiss/swiss cheese), and Keoki (her eyes are like red fire - very unusual for a cat - so I named her after a Hawaiian volcano: Kana Keoki).
So that's about it for my "hobbies". Life is good. :)
