Happy New Year 2018!

Happy New Year fans and Friends!

As I spend a snow day watching Harry Potter movies and hanging out with family (and doing lots of shoveling!) I remembered I’m overdue to send you a personal letter.

Another year zooms forward… another year closed up in the pages of a diary.  Things we are so happy to put behind us, like having the keys locked in my car during a gig and trying not to think about it being towed while I sing cheerfully for an audience that isn’t even listening or any one of a hundred problems and frustrations on the road to completing the construction of the addition to our house and new studio! Dealing with head lice and exterminators and trips to the ER…  Good riddance!

There were tears and fears and pains in the neck (literally when I got diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in my neck!) and losing our beloved kitty Mit Mit of 15 years…

And then there were WONDERFUL times in 2017! Some of my favorite memories include watching my kids performing in playing Favorites and Hello My Baby at school (I’m such a stage Mom!)

, jumping in the waves with my hubby Ralph in Florida after the hurricane

and parasailing high up in the sky!  Hiking with Caleb up Mt Israel

Zip lining with Hannah,

Meeting Captain Jack from Doctor Who at Comicon,

jamming with Johnny V to The Eagles and Steely Dan for our acoustic gigs as Julie and Johnny!

Worshiping with my brothers and sisters of the praise team;

Road tripping to Baltimore with Sarah to audition for The Voice,

Finally finishing the upstairs of our home

and having my mother in law Gisela move in;

Thanksgiving with the Roscoes (Congrats on the engagement Nicole!),

spending precious time with my Mom and brother at Christmas

(and Merry Christmas late everyone!);

Winning the Boston Solo Artist Awards,

Leading student recitals,

singing my heart out with the Harmony Jewels for excited fans at Cary and Joe’s Fabulous party and other shows!

and singing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” with my kids on stage on Christmas Eve!!

New Years Eve we had a communion service at our house with our beloved family group

and we brought in the new year with great friends the Sullivans!

-And so many more! I am the most blessed woman in the world. God is so good! Sorry to boast! But I am very grateful!

So what are your plans this new year?

I have some resolutions, some plans, some prayers and some dreams…

1. Ralph and I expect, God willing, to finish our new studio and open for business! Prayerfully, we will begin making lots more great music to God’s glory and produce all acts as well. I’d like to put out a jazz album this year- but that may not be realistic with the studio still a ways form being done! Keep that in prayer.
2. Part of the new recording studio will be my new teaching studio. There I hope to encourage many students and see them excited about their progress!
3. Did you know I had a dream to make a musical missions tour to our European churches? Well in 2018, God willing, we will start realizing that dream with a trip to Germany! Please keep that in your prayers!
4. I want to pray more with my husband. Unity between husbands and wives is so rare in this world! And so needed!
5. I want to be on time! I am so often late to things! I hate it! Forgive me if I have been late on you! Pray for me to be wise, not to pack too much in to be on time… and to REPENT!
6. Ralph is working on his masters… I pray he continues to ace it- and I can continue to support him in it- While he continues to teach logic classes on line and work full time at Berklee! Busy boy! Pray for his strength and health!

There are some other goals… spiritual goals, family goals, but that’s enough for now. Tell me what I can pray for you about!

Finally, I pray for unity in our country this new year. I pray for news to be objective and judgements to be fair, for love to be sincere and tongues to speak truth, for people to display character worthy of respect and be quick to listen and slow to speak. Protect us from wars and terror attacks, from persecution and prejudice. Let us be brave and humble and trust in God.

Stay warm in this storm and the ones to come!

And I pray that “The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity…The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouses of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.” Deuteronomy 28 11-12

Love and Music,

Julie