About Me

I live in a small town called Trumansburg, which is smack in the middle of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. I've been married 28 years to the same, good man. I don't gush about my husband but he has been a stabilizing force and support to me all the time I've known him. We have two children, now grown - Ben and Grace. Ben is a naval flight officer and Grace is finishing up her senior year at Binghamton University with a business degree. I homeschooled both of them, k - 12. We are  in the photo to the left. We took a family trip to Grand Cayman in 2005.

I got my teaching degree before I married and I've always been involved with education in some way or another. I taught in public school, private school, homeschooled, tutored, and worked as a GED instructor in a drug rehabilitation center for a couple of years.

I like writing. At one point in my homeschooling, I looked for a simple, concise guide that would help me teach American government to my children. I couldn't find any so I wrote one. I called it Government 101.

Then I tried to find something that explained the electoral college in a way that I could wrap my head around. That led to writing Understanding the Electoral College.

I always wanted my kids to read good literature and, just as importantly, to process it. So, on weekends I wrote chapter comprehension questions to whatever books they were reading at the time. After a while, I started saving the questions and started a line of literature guides to children's classics.

That's when I figured I'd better get a business name.  I liked the Scripture about pressing on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus, so I decided to name my business, Press On.

I discovered my love for painting later in life. Two of my passions in that area are watercolor as a medium and children as subject matter. It stands to reason that I would enjoy illustrating children's books and I've had the privilege of illustrating two: Poster Girl, by Anne Emerick and The Pearl Girl, by Stephen Rabley. I also started a line of prints and cards from original watercolor paintings for the Press On store.

Music has always been a part of my life and it's always been very personal. The actual songwriting is the part I enjoy most and it comes from somewhere pretty deep inside. It may be the most fulfilling way in which I try to communicate.

In any case, I seem to move between the three areas of writing, art, and music pretty consistently. When I've had enough of one, I turn to the other. Now that you know ALL about me, I will end this monologue with these last, two, important pieces of information. I have a shih-tzu named Jed and a ring-necked dove named Sophie! I love them both so I've included a picture below. Thanks for taking the time to find out about me. - Laura