The first meeting of the Victory Workers 4-H Club for the 2008-2009 year will be held on Monday, October 6 at the Pittsfield Community Center from 6:45-8:15 p.m. (Please note new start time). This meeting will include registration for former and new members, selection of projects and election of officers. Membership is for  boys and girls, ages 8-19 by January 1, 2009. 4-H Cookie Sale will be the first week of October.
 

The Lions are holding a Recycling Event-YOUR Aluminum cans for FREE fries, etc. at Care Pharmacy lot on Oct 4 from 10-3 p.m.
Also available - Epsom Historical Society Calendar Raffle tickets.
 

Snowmobile season is right around the corner and we have work to do on the trails. We need your help!
The Fort Mountain Trailwinders want you. We will have our October meeting at Land Dimensions on Route 4 in Epsom at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 2nd. Our trails were great last year - help us keep it up for this year. For further information, please call Bruce Blye at 736-8818.
 

Pathfinder Academy 8th Annual Family Picnic

On Tuesday, August 26th Pathfinder Academy in Epsom hosted their 8th Annual Family Picnic. Teachers, parents, and students alike enjoyed delicious food, fun on the playground, and back to school excitement. It was a great way to bring friends together and for new students to get acquainted with returning students.

Valley Artisans October Artisan

Deborah Libby started her journey into the world of glass in the late 70’s as a means of relieving stress around the midnight hour when she would get home from work as a police officer. She started pursuing glass art obsession full-time in the late 90’s and has been pushing the boundaries ever since. Over that period, she has been fortunate to have studied with, and learned from several internationally recognized glass artists.

Libby has worked in all aspects of glass art but found that etching/carving and fusing were equal on the “obsessive scale”. Her current work melds etching and fusing. She loves the shimmery rainbow effects achieved by combining glass, enamels, lustres and metal micas, as well as the line work achieved through pen and ink, enamels, and sandblast etchings.

Much of Libby’s work is inspired by the natural beauty that surrounds her in her studio in New Hampshire. The seasonal changes seem to offer constant inspiration for new designs - falling leaves and fern fronds, spring bloom colors, the horizon’s edge over the ocean on a summer evening.

Valley Artisians will be having their monthly Free Raffle, and Deborah Libby will be donating an item to this raffle. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Wed. thru Monday at 10 Goboro Rd. Epsom, N.H., 1/4 mile east of the Epsom Traffic Circle take a left at the first light.

603-736-8200 or: www.valleyartisans.org

Weakness

by Meggin Dail

Since when did eating and sleeping become a weakness? Falling for the same guy over and over again is a weakness. The SECOND piece of chocolate cake is weakness but getting enough sleep; like a well deserved afternoon nap after being up all night with a crying baby, irate teenager or uncooperative husband is not a weakness. Having breakfast, lunch and/or dinner is not a weakness.

I used to have a job where the same person came in every day at noon and caught me eating lunch at my desk and remarked, “Eating again, huh?” He made me feel awful, like all I did was eat all day, but what did he expect? There’s a reason they call it lunch time, you know?

Wanting to be outside when the weather is gorgeous is not a weakness, giving into that desire is not a weakness. Spending more time with your family is not a weakness. Playing video games instead of dealing with the real world is a weakness. Accepting what others think of you as the truth about yourself is a weakness, especially when those people are just seeking to hurt you. Loving is not a weakness. Enabling is. Being nice is not a weakness. Allowing others to pretend being nice is an option is a weakness.

Weakness is knowing that something is wrong but doing it anyway. Weakness is wishing it could be right so badly you make excuses to continue it. But what does weakness do to us? It makes us not trust ourselves, our judgment. It gives us a whole different set of values or lack thereof.

Just because you didn’t sleep last night, got up at 4 in the morning and skipped breakfast does not make you a superhero. Just because I got some sleep last night, woke up at 7 and had my bowl of cereal does not mean I’m not as good as you, or as smart, or as brave or as strong. It means I made good choices. I decided not to give into my weakness - of staying up late, my weakness for letting outside stress affect me, my weakness for skipping breakfast and “just” having a 300 calorie iced coffee - get to me.

I am not weak because I got more sleep than you did and we both have to “function” today. I am weak because I spend a lot of my energy on writing emails back to people who need my opinion on choices they’ve already made. I am not weak because my 3 year old didn’t wake me up at 4 am. I am weak because I let him stay up until 9 PM because I didn’t feel like reading him a story tonight. I am not weak because I took the time to nourish my body. I am weak because I continue to allow others to deplete my soul.
Give yourself permission to go get some rest and a little something to eat.

Epsom Public Library News

Evergreen Lodge #53 is sponsoring its Annual Variety Show, “Welcome to the Sixties”, Friday, October, 17th at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, October, 18th at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The show is held at the historic Odd Fellows Hall on Short Falls Road in Epsom. The show is directed by Elizabeth Lent. For more info call Vickie Benner 736-4707. Plan to join us for another great show!

The library has a beautiful display of quilts by June Pease. Plan to come in and view these outstanding works of art! The quilts may be viewed through October 18th during regular library hours. On Saturday, October 11th the public is invited to meet June at a special gallery talk/trunk show at 1 p.m. followed by a reception from 2-4 p.m.

The UNH Cooperative Extension and Concord Hospital will offer a program on advance care planning on October 16 from 12:30-2 pm. Pre-registration is requested by calling the library at 736-9920.

Cathy Dyment will offer a workshop on Identity Theft October 23 at 7:30 p.m. Plan to join this informative class!

Story Time continues on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. and Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. October themes will include spiders, pumpkins and fire safety. The children listen to stories, sing songs and enjoy simple crafts. Toddler time is on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.

The library has a great selection of new books and DVD’s available. Library hours are Monday-Thursday, 10-7 and Saturday, 9-1.
 

Teachers All Across The Country Are Applying For A New Astronaut Program

Teachers in Space is seeking two Pathfinder Astronauts who will become the first astronaut teachers to fly in space and return to the classroom.

“Unlike the Educator Astronaut program, which takes teachers out of schools to join the NASA astronaut corps, we want to put astronaut teachers into American classrooms,” said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright.

“TIS will allow teachers to keep their day jobs,” Wright said. Pathfinder Astronauts will train on weekends and during the summer, so they will be able to keep their their full-time teaching jobs. “There will be about three weeks of training in total,” Wright said, “which will include both spaceflight training and professional development activities to improve their abilities as teachers.”

After they fly in space, Pathfinder Astronauts will be invited to return each summer to help teach the training course for new astronaut teachers. Eventually, Teachers in Space would like to fly 200 teachers a year, four from each and every state in the Union.

Teachers in Space began as a NASA project to fly a single teacher aboard the Space Shuttle. The original TIS project ended when the Challenger accident claimed the life of teacher Christa McAuliffe. NASA replaced Teachers in Space with the Educator Astronaut program, in which former teachers become full-time NASA employees. The original vision of putting an astronaut back into an American classroom was lost. That vision is now being revived by the new Teachers in Space program, a non-profit project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy.

Rather than relying on the Space Shuttle, the new Teachers in Space program will use the new reusable suborbital spacecraft now being developed by American industry. These new spacecraft, which promise dramatic improvements in cost and safety, will enable large numbers of teachers to fly in space. “We want to put a thousand astronaut teachers into American schools, within the next decade,” Wright said.

The Pathfinder Astronauts will be the leaders who blaze the path for the large number of teachers who follow.

More information about Teachers in Space is available on the project’s website: www.teachers-in-space.org.

Pathfinder application forms and information about the application process are available at: www.teachers-in-space.org/apply/apply.htm.

Teachers can submit applications for the Pathfinder program any time between now and December 4, 2008. Finalists will be announced and training will begin in 2009, which Pathfinder spaceflights expected to take place some time in 2010 or 2011.