Newsy Post

There is so much happening right now that I can't keep up with posts so this is a newsy post to get up to date.

Lucky Tails

Claire has been busy up until late most nights working on her company.  She has designed t-shirts, set up a filing cabinet, made labels for products, picked up many items from Freecycle for  her dogs (crates, collars and leashes etc), found out the addresses of everyone within a mile radius from our house so she can direct mail them a plea to be a foster family! and researching how to liaise with volunteers in the South to bring the occasional dog up to Connecticut.  She is also preparing for the Stratford dog show and has a tent (borrowed from a lady at the Fire Department) and has had a banner and new business cards made.  She is making a large display board to go on her table.

She was also contacted by a cable channel who asked to do a segment on her on the news so she can get more exposure.  They will be coming to film her at the dog fair.  She has also been asked if she'd like to set up a booth at various rescue events that are coming up over the next month.  We are limiting her to one event/weekend to try and keep sane.  She held her second adoption event at Choice's pet supply last Saturday and a family is interested in adopting Jessie (Claire's most recent rescue).

Jessie had two lumps removed at the vet 10 days ago.  One was fine but the other was a mast cell tumor- low grade but a stage 2 which was completely removed.  She has a great prognosis, but of course being cancerous, it is a little scary.  Her potential family seems not to mind but we want to make sure they do their research as we don't want Jessie to end up back in a shelter somewhere.  We want to find a perfect family and she is such a great dog.  We love her and will keep her until the right family comes along.

On Thursday we are going on a rescue mission to the Hartford, Bridgeport and Fairfield shelters.  I will keep you updated.

Tristan's Dance 

Tristan had a dance recital last week.  He was with a little breakdancing crew of beginners that did a summer dance program at the Enchanted Garden.  Tristan is loving his dance.  Nicole, his teacher is coming once a week and on Tuesdays Tristan goes to the studio to dance with his homeschooling friends, Kaya and Evren and other dance buddies.  After class they have a special hip hop session with Nicole, just the 3 of them.  They are so cute and funky to watch.

Wicked

Claire has been enjoying her singing classes at The Studio.  Her teacher knows all of the cast of Spiderman, her favorite musical and is very charismatic.  Claire LOVES...I should say lives for her singing class.  She has been singing Use Somebody and now she is moving on to a Taylor swift song.  She has also been going to her group singing class where they are learning all the songs from Wicked.  So far they have done Defying Gravity and Popular.  Her teachers will choose someone to sing each song solo in a concert on December 13th.  She likes this class a lot but it challenges her in many ways. Here is a photo of her doing popular in her group.  She is in a green t-shirt.

Penny Lane Players

Our esteemed directors

Last night the parts for this years's Shakespeare play came out.  Claire is playing Peter Quince and Tristan will be Francis Flute.  These characters are part of group of actors that have been sequested to perform a play at King Theseus's wedding day.  You probably know the story...  Claire is the director of this little play and Tristan plays a boy who is forced to play "a girl in love" in the performance much to his disappointment.  It is an hilarious part and I think he will have fun doing it.

Claire wanted to play a girl this year (as she is usually cast as a boy)...so she is allowed to change the role to Petrina Quince if she so desires.  Because both my children are in the same scenes our rehearsal schedule won't be as crazy as last year and I am very happy about that.  It will be a great year with so many children in the production, most of whom have acted together before.

After two hours of reading the play, these guys were ready for a play/nap.

Final Cut Pro at Jacob Burns
I decided to go and take a class in Final Cut Pro as I was thinking of using it to edit our documentary.  I met Iva our instructor and found out that we were going to be learning FCP7, a different version than what I was expecting and very different to what I need to know to edit our documentary.  Final Cut Pro X is very similar to iMovie and also a better choice if you are using 1080i footage from a SLR camera.  It is also more intuitive for children especially if they have already learned iMovie.

FCP7 is fun to use and I am enjoying learning it even though I can't use it.  At least I will understand what is involved in preparing clips for a documentary.  In January classes for FCPX will most likely be available at Jacob Burns, so I will take them if I can.

It is fun and unusual to actually take a class for myself and I like that feeling!

The Huckleberry Hill Project (2HP)
2HP starts tomorrow!    I am so excited about it and can't wait to start.  Many of the kids have already started their projects and I am thrilled to get the structure in place that will continually motivate them and give them the necessary skills to do and share great things with the rest of the world.  I have seen great development in Claire over the last 3 months as she has motored through the initial stages of her project and I now marvel at the ease she has, talking to people about her project.  There is great energy in the house and we are excited to start our days.

This week has been especially fun as documentary equipment has started arriving and I am in the process of making a hub for the documentary making.  It is actually happening and soon this project will have a life of its own.

Our two youngest members are setting up an indoor garden (4ft x 8ft) under lights in the basement.  Soren just wants to grow a garden for his project and Nick is undecided on his great work so the two of them will be making a garden, expressing themselves through art. They are also going to learn how to use technology to show the world what they are doing!

Wholefood Kitchen Online Class
I have been very busy.  When I am extremely busy (as I keep myself normally) my diet is the first to go.
I have read a lot about healthy food and know how to prepare it but it is hard to fit in supermarket visits and to prepare in advance all the different components to create three healthy meals a day for my children and I.  I feel that I can do it if I just focus on that. But it is not interesting to me.  I have so many other things to do, teaching the kids, driving here and there, cleaning up after the zillions of projects we have going on.   I can make up excuses but really I just need to get organized and motivated.

To achieve these goals I thought I would do Heather Brueggerman's Wholefood Kitchen course over the next two months.  It started today!  I thought on Monday night's I would have a sauna, read through all the material and plan a to do list for the week.  I don't know how successful I will be but I feel I have to do something otherwise I am going to eat toast and drink wine for the next three months.  Anyway I am glad I will get my weekly downloads and reminders that will bring my attention back to this very important aspect of my life that tends to  fall to the side.

Birthday
And I turned 44! I had a cake and I had a bunch of people sing me happy birthday which was awesome!!!  I felt very special and happy...so thank you for that!


YAY!  I've caught up!  And tomorrow I can post about the first day of 2HP!