Over the years, my family has watched tv less and less and we have spent more time at home making music. This week we finally took the plunge and got rid of the tv altogether to make more room for playing the piano, the guitar, the violin, and my beautiful new harp. I love everything about our new music room. It’s not that I dislike tv. I’ve just lost  interest over time and I’m eager to see what these new changes will bring to our lives.  I’m also feeling a huge debt of gratitude to the many music teachers and musicians my family has been privileged to know and who have steadily encouraged me and my husband and children in their music-making endeavors. I’m thinking particularly of Deb Burgess and Roberta Jackson of the Portland Symphonic Girl Choir, and the Boulding Family of Magical Strings, and Elizabeth Nicholson, my harp teacher, and Colleen Raney one of many Irish musicians who have inspired us all.  I owe a debt of gratitude greater than I could ever repay to the brilliant author and chamber musician Virginia Euwer Wolff who helped me believe that I didn’t have to choose between writing and music and that the two could enrich each other.