It's been a little hectic...

Well hello there!  I can't believe it's been a month since my last post.  And what have I been up to?  No knitting.  Well, not much, but we'll get around to that...

So my kids had their high school production of "She Loves Me".  It was awesome, if I do say so myself.  In a nutshell, it was the right play for this group of kids.  I had options for casting, which was all put to rights during auditions, and it really did become the little Valentine of a musical that it was intended to be.  We also had an adjudication from the Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS), which was a great learning experience for us all.  An adjudication basically is a critique by a trained adjudicator, which looks at ALL the aspects of the production, from the printed program to the lighting, set design, props, costumes, music and acting.  We were given two roving adjudicator awards, one for our lead actor for his performance, and the second award was for the printed program (Since the plot involved annonymous letters to "Dear Friend", the program was written as a letter and was even in a matching pink envelope!).  So, the adjudicator liked that little detail a lot.  The scripts have since sent back, the costumes and props and sets were put away, and another musical came to an end.

We also had another Project Linus event in February.  We have over 100 blankets to donate to the cause this year, and the kids and a local knitters group did an outstanding job!  I'll post some pics this coming week.  One of my favorite blankets this year is a crocheted baby blanket with little blocks of pig faces alternating with blocks of pig tails!  It's just too adorable!

The kids and I spent a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago cleaning out the costume room at school.  actually, we started to clean it out - there's so much to do that it's going to take several days to get it finished.  We threw out 8 garbage bags of old clothing that was falling apart or unusable.  It made quite a nice dent in what needs to be accomplished.

Today was our annual Spring Concert.  The kids did an outstanding job.  I've had bigger choruses than this one, but the sound these kids have is really special and well blended.  The sang the spiritual "Every Time I Fell the Spirit", "The Road Not Taken" by Randall Thompson, and "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by PDQ Bach.  We also recognize our seniors at this concert, which usually involves a little gift and a speech of some sort.  The speech went very well, and then the seniors take over and give a gift to their director.  Well, one of my little "off color" saying that the kids find amusing is when I talk about discipline and say something like "use a brick, don't hurt your hand".  Their first gift to me was a brick that they all had signed.  And the second gift, since I had been knitting at musical rehearsals this year (and I can't believe how it helped me to concentrate on what they were doing onstage - very interesting), they got me the book "Stitch & Bitch" by Debbie Stoller.  The funny thing was that they really couldn't say the title of the book on front of hundreds of people - they can be shy at times.  Not very often, but it does happen on ocaission.  So, I have a brick, a new knitting book, and I've been outed as a knitter to the community by my kids.  The Board of Ed. members at the concert were very amused - and very congratulatory about the kids work.  It was a good day.

Oh, and the mohair shawl?  After doing a little ripping out, I decided to put it away for a little bit.  Ripping out mohair is not a pleasant task, and I think that will have to happen in small amounts.  But I did start another one in reds, rusts and oranges.  I'll be a little more careful this time....

I hope you all are doing well.  It looks like spring might actually be paying us a visit.  Enjoy your Monday!

Comments

[Ruth]

What great gifts from your students. Glad to hear that it all went well, our student choir is fabulous this year too, not big, but talented an well blended, must be the year for it!

[jessie]

Congratulations on your successes!

My mother used to say if you can't get a baby to sleep, try rocking him. And use a really big rock. LOL.

My son bought me the S & B book and my daughter (8) absolutely loves to say it. "Mom, so you have Stitch n' Bitch, right? Is that Stitch n' Bitch over there on the table? Do you like the Stitch n' Bitch book? What? It's the title, I'm just talking about the book."

[Mike]

Hey! Good to see you back again. Congrats on your musical productions. I always get goosebumps when I see young people doing such a great job of acting or singing, or playing in the band. Warms my heart!

Have a great week!

[Mike]

Hey! Good to see you back again. Congrats on your musical productions. I always get goosebumps when I see young people doing such a great job of acting or singing, or playing in the band. Warms my heart!

Have a great week!

[Devorah]

What a wonderful set of events! I'm so glad that things are going nicely this year. Congratulations.

[Roxie]

Yayy Paul! Applause, applause, applause! Whistles and whoops! What wonderful memories and experiences you have given those kids! Bravo and kudos to you! Good job!

[Cat]

So glad you finally posted. Looks like you've been very busy. I missed you this trip to NY, maybe in July.

[Paige]

Congrats on the musical and the concert!