11/9/06

A couple of weeks ago, Ben won the Symphony of Oak Park River Forest concerto competition! We're very happy for him. He was up against stiff competition - there were 14 finalists and many of them are in high school. He played Ravel's Tzigane (you can listen to the recording made at the competition here). He'll be playing it in the orchestra's family concert January 14. They have a photo of him and an announcement of him winning on their home page (scroll down a bit to find it). Esther also entered the competition and played very well - you can listen to the recording of her on the same page.

Last week I went to Off The Map's annual conference. It was a very quick trip - I left here Thursday morning and flew back on the 6 a.m. flight Saturday so I could get back in time for the Illinois Music Educators' Association district festival, which both Ben and Esther were in this year. I had a wonderful time there and got to meet a number of people I'd only had online correspondence with until then. I gave a talk called Almost an Atheist, the text of which I've posted on Conversation at the Edge.

9/6/06

I just added some photos from our Yellowstone vacation.

9/1/06

We spent the last week of summer vacation in Yellowstone National Park with extended family - it was a fun week. We got back last Sunday and school started Tuesday. Esther has begun middle school and that seems to be going well. Ben is in his final year of middle school and is taking an 8 a.m. math course at the high school, then heading to middle school which begins at 9. He seems happy to be doing the high school course even though it makes his day longer.

In early November I'm going to be participating in Off The Map's annual conference in Seattle. I'm looking forward to meeting other people involved with Off The Map in person there.

7/22/06

Conversation at the Edge is going well. It's probably the best place to keep up to date with me these days. As well as hosting it, I'm 'blogmaster' for Off The Map, i.e. I oversee all their blogs. It has been fun getting to know the new webmaster there and the two new blog leaders. They are all smart, fun, guys.

We just spent a week in Door County with my husband's parents. It's very pretty up there and we were staying in a house right on the lake. I enjoyed it.

I had an article, Why I don't go to Church Anymore, published in the local newspaper a few weeks ago. I had mentioned to the editor that I wasn't going to church anymore and he asked me if I'd write about that for the newspaper. So I did. The rsponses have been quite varied. The blog entries I've written for CatE about the article and about the feedback I've received, are here.

Esther starts middle school at the end of August. She just passed the placement test to go ahead a year in math and start doing 7th grade math when she enters 6th grade next month. Ben is going to be doing 9th grade math in 8th grade next year (a logistical challenge because he will actually be taking it at 8 a.m. class at the high school, then going straight to middle school for his regular school day which begins at 9 a.m.)

Anyway, we have lots of summer break left before that happens. Next month we're going to Yellowstone with my extended family.

6/03/06

As of June 1, I'm hosting a blog for Off The Map called Conversation at the Edge.

Ben and Esther finish school in one week!

Check out Ben's science project. He figured out how to do this by himself.

4/29/06

I added three of the blog entries I posted on Off-The-Map (see below) to this site. (The links to them are on my what's on this site and writing index pages)

4/27/06

Tuesday through today I am 'guest blogger' at the Off-The-Map ebay atheist blog.(My screen name there is 'Ir')

4/07/06

Ok, I admit it - I haven't lost any more weight in the last few months. But I am still exercising regularly!

Last year I took some things I'd written off my site. I've just put them back again; they're listed on my writings index.

10/02/05

My latest project has been making Esther a prairie dress for Halloween. (Ben, conveniently, is going to wear last year's costume again) I've been going to the health club I joined recently 3-4 times a week and continuing to watch what I eat and am down 25 lbs in total (I'd like to lose another 10 lbs or so).

10/02/05

I've been doing my best to lose weight and get in better physical shape since mid-April. I've been exercising at home and cycling when I can and when we were in France on vacation I went for a walk most mornings. About a week ago I joined a health club (Gottlieb Fitness Center) to help me exercise consistently once the colder weather and shorter days set in. Since mid-April I've lost about 22 lbs and I feel much better. I'd still like to lose more weight, so I'm continuing to watch what I eat. I'm not following any particular diet plan. My main eating principles are: try not to eat until I'm hungry; limit portions; mostly eat protein foods and fruits and vegetables;particularly avoid foods high in sugar and/or fat; drink lots of water.

9/07/05

We had a good summer, ending with two weeks in France visiting our extended family. In June the children and I were able to accompany Steve when he went to England on a business trip and in July we spent a long weekend in Maine visiting friends from England who were there for a month, staying in a cabin on a lake. I just uploaded selected photos from England, Maine and France. Now the children are back at school and our usual fall activities have started or are starting very soon.

5/29/05

Esther was selected to play her composition, Battle Suite, in the CAMTA honors recital last weekend. The week before the recital, she received the judge's comments suggesting a reprise of the opening fanfare at the end, so she wrote one and added it for the recital performance! The same weekend, Ben played the last movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto at a violin recital and that went very well.

4/5/05

Esther is entering the composition festival again this year. This year's composition is Battle Suite (this is a computer-generated version so it doesn't have all the expression the real piece has; we're going to record Esther playing it soon and will have a better version then).

3/27/05

Happy Easter! My husband has done an excellent job of [audio] recording Ben and Esther's recent recitals and has set up a page on his website of Ben and Esther's Musical Recordings.