About

 

Welcome to My Journey

I want to welcome you to my corner of the internet where I have the opportunity to record thoughts and ideas that might encourage and teach.

Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Melody and I’m approaching my retirement years with a lifetime of memories and the desire to preserve them. I enjoy the simple things in life and the quietest times the most, but have the potential, under the right circumstances, to be the leader in spontaneous moments of mischief.

I have been married to my wonderful husband for 37 years. We were married with a ready-made family with his two children and added  2 more daughters over the next few years. Fast forward to today where we have now been blessed with 4 grandchildren, 2 boys and 2 girls.

I have spent the better part of my life working with kids… as a parent, teacher, supervisor, and youth leader through my church and in the 4-H program. I didn’t think that would be my course when I was in high school. I had very different plans to be a commercial artist, but God had other plans for my life. I can’t imagine what blessings I would have missed out on if He had not been there gently guiding me in the direction of a teaching career. Not that it has been a bed of roses, but I wouldn’t trade it for what could have been. My faith in God has been the Rock in my life that has both nurtured and supported the decisions made along the way.

I love to learn and would probably have been very happy as a professional student had it not been for all the test taking. I love to read books of many types. My Kindle is one of my best friends, although these days my daughters would tell you that I fall asleep too quickly to consider it reading. 🙂 Fantasy, romance, historical, mystery, inspirational, Christian… these fiction books all have a home on my Kindle. But there are also many how-to and nerdy, techy  and informational books there. Whenever I get the idea to learn something new, I’m off to the library to find a dozen or so books that I can bring home and devour. It doesn’t always make me an expert, but it satisfies itch.

My biggest interests at this time (some might say, hobbies) are photography and genealogy. Photography has been an interest for as far back as I can remember. I started when black-and-white photos were common and color pictures were the cool up-and-coming thing. I eventually advanced to the digital cameras where I found that my love for MANY photos was now a reality… simply unlimited! This passion seemed to go hand in hand with my research into genealogy which started back in 1992. I have spent many years searching for documents and records to prove my ancestry and have been lucky to be able to help others learn how also. In the course of researching, photography has been helpful in many ways.

Now I am at the point that I want to begin to travel to all those places that my ancestors came from. I want to be able to do research in the same places they lived and walked and prayed and to photograph the things and places they saw. Part of my intent here will be to record that journey with all the successes and pitfalls along the way.

My hope is that you will find something of interest here that will help you preserve YOUR journey and perhaps present possibilities for your journey ahead. I hope you will join me and follow along. Pull up a cushy part of your space and get comfortable as we continue this journey together.