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.