Fifteen years ago, I awoke from a dream about a ladybug and a giraffe.

At the time, in addition to being a professional visual storyteller with photographs and film for private families and advertising agencies, I also had the pleasure of reading to 120 kids each week as a volunteer for a children's literacy organization. So much fun!

It is easy to see how beautiful art inspires one to pick up a book and how a story that enlightens, inspires the turning of the page. Literacy is a powerful and necessary tool with which to be armed, and when reading is shared with a grown-up who cares, it can be magic for a child. Add music and narrated stories into the mix, and we have a full experience! If you grew up in the 70’s and were as enamored as I was with Free To Be You and Me, it is easy to see how this collection's format was inspired by that classic.

That morning when I awoke with the first complete story in my head, I learned quickly that Wendy and Ursula were not characters I had read about in someone else's book but were given to me to bring to life…and so I did, along with Sabrina, The Brothers Caterpillar and many others you will meet in this volume and others that follow.

With over 30 years experience photographing children and intimate relationship in authentic moments both commercially and privately, I have watched, played and learned with hundreds. Inside each family, I was provided an up close look at conscious parenting through my lens and inside their homes. Conscious parenting became a hobby of mine, and a thirty year self study of parental relationship ensued. 

In order to support the Macaroni and Cheese workshops that I have created for elementary school age kids and their parents, I obtained a certified coaching credential. I was accepted as a member of the International Coaching Federation in 2015 with 100+ hours of core competency training in various areas such as neuroscience, neuroplasticity of the brain, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and more. Prior to the coaching credential, I had already acquired a TEFL certificate which prepared me to teach English as a foreign language to both children and adults. Lesson planning came in handy when developing the interactive workshops now used as both a parent education module as well as student workshops. These same workshops are used by schools, Girl Scout troops, and community groups in order to introduce and cultivate emotional intelligence in kids 4-10 yrs old.

This anthology of stories, songs, and activities that I call MACARONI AND CHEESE, has its own life. My hope is that it will touch and enlighten you as a child, parent, teacher or mentor. It is meant to be comforting and it is meant to be shared… just like the warmest bowl of macaroni and cheese!

You will have to wait for Volume II to meet the ladybug and the giraffe...

Blessings,