I think I need to add a category for bird related entries – they can’t be easily classified according to my current categories!

A couple of days ago we sold four of the eight ducklings, and yesterday we sold the three ducks that we incubated (they were 7.5 weeks old). All of the birds went to excellent homes; I enjoyed meeting and chatting with the buyers at length.
As I said to one of them, when I got started a couple of years ago canning and was acquiring canning supplies, I remember telling dh that people who can are the nicest people. Well, yesterday I was saying, poultry people are the nicest people!

So our yard is much quieter and emptier now that seven ducks have gone to new homes, which is nice. But about two hours after the ducks were sold, a new addition was dropped into our laps. Or to be more accurate, dropped onto my bathroom floor!

Here’s what happened. Yesterday dd13 suddenly said to me in the middle of the day, “I think I hear a cheeping coming from the vent in the bathroom.” She listened again and thought she heard something again, and asked if she could open the vent cover. I couldn’t imagine how it was possible to have a bird inside a wall but said, sure.

She opened it and found a shoe (which must have been there a long time since it wasn’t one of ours), a key, and something else. And there was no more noise. So the kids were laughing to each other at how they thought they heard a bird but it was really a pile of junk. But then a little while later, they heard cheeping again. So they stuck the digital camera up into the hole in the wall, and took a video, since they couldn’t see anything (the vent opening is right next to the ceiling and pitch black inside). They loaded it onto the computer so they could see if there was anything there, and sure enough, a bird was flitting around inside the wall! Yikes.

They asked me what we should do and I told them we’d have to wait and see – my standard stalling tactic when I don’t want to deal with something right away. After a while we decided to leave the vent cover off, open the bathroom door, and open all the windows on the main floor so when it flew out, it could quickly find an exit.

I’m really not a bird person – I’m uncomfortable with the sudden fluttery movements and sharp beaks. Once I was at a homeschool nature class on birds with the kids, and the person leading it released a starling that flew across the room. The other mothers moved slightly, while without thinking I made a very noticeable (and undignified) duck- no other mother moved more than slightly – the naturalist giving the workshop was laughing at my obvious discomfort to this small bird flying across the room in my direction. Well, that’s how I am. I find birds unnerving because they’re unpredictable. So the idea of a bird flying around my house wasn’t something I was looking forward to, but neither was a bird dying inside my wall something I wanted to have happen.

Hours went by, and the cheeping was quite loud but the bird couldn’t seem to find it’s way out. I went to take a very late afternoon nap, and when I woke up was greeted with the news that the bird came out. Phew, I thought, I’m glad it left the house when I was asleep. But my relief was premature- it didn’t leave the house. In fact, it was sitting on top of my dehydrator in the kitchen wrapped up in a towel and cheeping loudly. It was a tiny baby bird.

It seems that it finally fell out of the vent opening onto the bathroom floor, which is where ds8 found it. (Seriously, it’s a good thing it missed the toilet, which was just a couple of inches away, or it would have drowned.) This baby bird is very lucky he ended up in our home, since he’s being very well-treated. 🙂 Dd9 is very, very good with animals, so she’s been feeding him tiny ants and potato bugs that she searched for in the garden, duck pellets mashed up with water, and giving him lots of water so he doesn’t dehydrate. This morning the kids discovered that it loved cornmeal mashed with water – they drop it into his mouth and he gobbles it down. He’s so tiny that he easily fits into her hand – when she closes her hand he’s totally inside and it hardly looks like anything is there!

Are you wondering how a bird could be inside the walls of your house? Well, I certainly was! The kids said that a nest had been laid somewhere in the gutter near the roof, and there was a very small gap between there and where the vent for the bathroom exits. It apparently was just large enough for this tiny baby bird to stumble into.

We’ll have to research what to do with him, but it looks like a baby sparrow is our newest pet. My current understanding is that once a person touches a baby bird, the mother won’t take care of it anymore, and he would die very soon if he were released back outside now. I hope I’ll be able to borrow a cage to keep him until we decide what to do with him long term. We’re getting lots of hands on science recently without even having to look for it!

His name is Yona Matza. Dh suggested the name based on a famous Shabbos song called Yona Matza, ‘the dove found’. The song is about how the dove that was sent out of Noah’s ark found rest on the Sabbath. This little bird found rest in our house right before Shabbos, so it seems like a fitting name. 🙂

Avivah

The ducks we incubated were seven weeks old yesterday, and I’ve finally determined what kind of ducks they are! I didn’t have photos for a while so I wasn’t able to ‘introduce’ our ducks to you. Now I have pictures, though since they were in an unplanted raised garden bed when I took the picture, it’s not a very nice background.

I’d been scouring the internet for pictures, and tentatively decided on two breeds. I finally decided to stop being wimpy and contacted the person who I got the eggs we incubated from – she has an inadvertent way of making people feel foolish for not knowing the answers to their questions, and I didn’t really feel like going through that after experiencing it twice. The eggs were from a farm of a friend of hers, so I got the name of the farm, googled it, and got a phone number.

What a pleasure! Seven weeks of wondering what kind of ducks they were, and it took one minute to resolve! All I needed to know was what breeds she raised – she named four breeds, and two of them were what I thought our ducks were! That was gratifying. 🙂

Peeps was the cutest of the three ducks that we incubated – she was yellow with some black striping when she hatched. As she’s gotten older, she’s gotten darker and darker. Even though she’s reaching a mature size, the kids still like her best. They think she’s the friendliest and the prettiest. Dd9 cuddles her against her chest and shoulder like a baby. 🙂

Darth as a newly hatched chick was very dark brown, so the kids named him Darth Vader. We thought he was a she until a week or two ago, when ds11 noticed the feathers on top of his head were getting darker. And then I realized his beak color had changed as well, and then noticed his feet were a different color than the others. He is a male Rouen duck.

Mo is a crested Swedish Blue – the crest is the cute little puff of fluff on top of her head. Any kind of duck can be crested, thought it’s not extremely common. Mo was the first duckling to hatch; it took two days for her to break through her shell after she pipped and I didn’t think she’d make it. In the beginning she was the strongest and biggest but with time she’s lost that advantage. She was dark grey when she was born, and got lighter and lighter as she got older; we thought she was a he until recently. Now she’s a light gray. Mo is short for Mohawk. I couldn’t figure out what kind of duck she was for a while because this wasn’t one of the breeds on my radar – the idea suddenly came to me out of the blue and so I looked up pictures of Swedish Blues and sure enough, she was a match!

It’s been so interesting to watch them grow and develop. It’s been a great learning experience for us. Identifying them was most challenging ‘lesson’ because the baby pictures I found online didn’t match up with our ducks. As ducklings, I never thought that Peeps and Darth were from the same breed, since their coloring was very different at that age. I actually thought the two dark ducklings were the same kind of duck, and then as they got older realized they weren’t a bit alike.

A couple of people have contacted me, interested in purchasing these ducks. I was planning to give them to the people where I buy my duck eggs from, but if I find a good home closer and sooner, I’ll do that instead. Since I have limited space and the ducklings will be getting big soon, I can’t have all of them free ranging at the same time. (Right now the ducklings are outside in a caged area that is open at the bottom so they can forage and are still protected from predators, but in about a week or two they’ll be big enough to be out during the day.) So my preference is to find a new home for these lovely ducks right away.

Here are the newest ducklings. They are two weeks old as of yesterday. These are all Welsh Harlequins, and we haven’t been able to name most of them since they all look so similar! The exceptions are Sunny, the duck in the foreground on the right whose beak is lighter than the others, and Indy, who had an eye injury last week. Sunny is the lightest of all of them, hence her name.

Indy is short for Endurance, since even when it looked like she had lost all sight in one eye, she kept struggling on. Walking was challenging for her because she lost her sense of balance, and she was falling into the water dish since she couldn’t see anything from one side of her head when she walked. The first morning after she got hurt when we saw her, she wasn’t eating or drinking and was mostly standing in one place or apart from the others, getting pecked by them. It was painful to see and I was really concerned; I spent hours that day watching her to see how she was doing.

BH Indy’s eye has almost completely healed and her eyesight is back to normal. A few days ago one side of her face looked deformed due to the swelling, now you can hardly tell the difference between her and the others. I didn’t expect it her eyesight to be restored or for her to look normal again, and I’m so, so glad for her that she’ll be able to grow up healthy in every way. We had already decided after she got hurt that she would be one of the four ducks we would keep, to be sure she’d have a good home.

Usually you can’t tell at a young age if a duckling is male or female, unless you are very experienced with what’s called vent sexing, but something unique about Welsh Harlequins is that the females are born with pink bills and the males with dark bills. This changes within a few days and then they’re all dark; to make it more confusing, as they get older, the males bills get lighter! Since the ducklings were sent when they were a day old, and we got them two days later, I wasn’t sure if the bill color would still be accurate at three days old, so I asked the hatchery to mark those they thought were female. (They did, but warned me that the bill color isn’t 100% accurate.) In the end, it took probably a week before their bills changed and what I noted matched how they marked the ducklings – now Sunny is the only one with any pink on her bill.

I’m planning to sell four of the Welsh Harlequin ducklings, and the only question I’m going back and forth in my mind about is whether to keep four females or three females and a male. The advantage of more females is more eggs (eventually); the advantage of a male is that they can reproduce if we for whatever reason would want that. At this point we’re leaning toward three females and a male.

Avivah

I was planning to take the family to DC today for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. But it was sooo hot that a long day outside didn’t seem like fun, plus we went to our shul (synagogue) picnic yesterday afternoon, so we got back fairly late.  A late fun day followed by a early busy day isn’t generally my recipe for a relaxing fun time.

Instead I did some paperwork that really needed to be done, documenting all of our studies for the year and renewing my membership in the umbrella group for the coming year.  Then I completed the application for ds16 for Ner Israel Rabbinical College.  I had basically filled it out last week but was waiting to get letters of recommendation for him.  But then one rabbi told us  it would raise eyebrows if they received recommendations from people who aren’t currently teaching him – they would think there must be something wrong with ds not to have up to date references.  And the most recent ‘school’ references were in ninth grade.

A standard application leaves someone who has an atypical academic background at a disadvantage, and as I’ve said before, I don’t like operating from a defensive posture.  My son is a fantastic young man and I don’t want an initial impression of him as second class goods by the administration just because the paper trail doesn’t look impressive.  I realized I’d have to be change gears slightly with how I handled this application.  I threw away (recycled, actually) the form requesting referrals from principals and teachers that I had already filled out, rather than have it look weak.  Instead I wrote a letter in which I shared briefly about my son and why the typical letters of recommendation wouldn’t be helpful.  Here’s what I wrote:

“To whom it may concern,

E. is very motivated in his desire to learn intensively full-time, and it was this motivation that provided the incentive for him to complete his high school requirements a year early. In every venue in which he has found himself (yeshiva, camp, shul, personal interactions), he has been respectful of both his elders and his peers. The feedback on his behavior and middos has been consistently high and positive. He is serious and focused in his desire to grow personally and to further develop his learning skills. He has a strong work ethic, a kind heart, and a thoughtful demeanor.

E. has been exclusively home educated for ten years, with the exception of his ninth grade year, when he attended a local yeshiva for limudei kodesh. As such, the traditional assessments of principals and rebbeim are not available.

However, I believe that any and all of the following people who know E. will be happy to speak to you about him.”  (Then I listed seven names and phone numbers of community members who should be well-known to and respected by the administration.)

I’ll leave it to others who are asked about him to speak glowingly of him – as his mother, I feel it appropriate to be matter of fact and understated in my remarks.  The seven names that I provided should give a sense that he is involved in a number of ways communally, as they represent a nice cross section of the community, and are all people who are all well-respected in the community (eg, shul rabbi, high school principal, educators).

Doing all of this is very much like being a pioneer – I understand how the early home educators felt when they were applying to colleges. 🙂  The application is finally in the mail and hopefully we’ll get a call for him to come for an interview soon!

Avivah

The Torah Home Education Conference was wonderful.   Fantastic speakers, lots of very nice people to get to know in attendance.  The shalosh seudos on Shabbos was also really nice.  There’s lots more work involved in arranging all of the conference related activities than anyone can imagine, but it’s very special for me to see my vision and goals for the conference being actualized.  I wanted to do a recap for you but I am so, so, so tired.  As in weary deep in my bones. So for now I’ll just say that as much work as it’s been, and as much head space as it’s taken up, every bit of it has been worth it.  Maybe I’ll have a chance a little later on to share more details.  (I would love for someone else who attended to share their perspective and give an overview!)

I was thinking that after the conference, I’d take a breather and have a mellow week.  But I forgot to take into account that all of the conference planning took place in addition to my very busy regular schedule, not instead of it.  So I don’t really have the extra time that I was envisioning!

I haven’t been posting much recently so here’s a little of what I’ve been busy with the last few days, in addition to the conference.  I enjoyed having a good friend I haven’t seen for 11 years come in for the conference and come for Friday night dinner with her family of 11.  That was amazingly wonderful to see her in person again; both of us have had five kids since seeing one another and it was great to see all of the kids who have grown up so much in all these years!  Then for Shabbos lunch we had a couple of men who were in town for the conference.  Later Saturday afternoon we went to the shalosh seudos that I organized for conference attendees and I stayed with the kids until after Shabbos, so we got home after 10 pm.  We got an early start on Sunday morning, had a super full day with the conference, and then on Sunday  evening following the conference I got to enjoy the company of a homeschooling mom who was here for the conference (also a blog reader :)) who spent the night here.  What an easy and enjoyable guest!

Ds11 also had a friend sleep over, the son of my friend who was visiting who he met Friday night. And in the morning on Monday, dd15 invited a friend who came from out of state with her family for the conference to spend the week with us.  The same dd has another friend who also came for the conference who spent most of today with us and will be with us some more days this week and next.  They’re both lovely girls and I’m glad dd has a chance to spend time with them.

Right after coming home from picking up dd’s friend, I had a phone interview for a Baltimore paper.  I was so tired that I really just wanted to go to sleep, but instead I spent 1 hour and 20 minutes having to rephrase and clarify the questions I was asked before then answering them. I don’t mind doing that for someone really interested but as nice as this freelance writer was, she didn’t seem to have much interest in the topic – it was just the assignment her paper gave her.  She didn’t know anything about homeschooling and it was challenging to spend so much time correcting misconceptions while trying to answer questions, knowing that any little piece of what I said could be quoted and taken out of context.  I would have rathered taken a nap.  🙂

Last night (Monday) my husband called from work but I was out until 10:30 pm (working on the next home project). When he finally got me on the phone this morning, he said, “What was that you said about slowing down after the conference???”  😆

So while I do hope to take a little more time for sleep this week, I’ll be back to posting more regularly again here.

Avivah

The graduation ceremony on Sunday was soooo nice!  It was held in the grand ballroom of the top ranked hotel in historic Gettysburg. It was a beautiful day in every way – the drive there, the weather (at least on the drive home!), the people, the hotel, and the event itself.

Beginning at 1:30 was a special reception being held for the seniors, each of whom was allowed to bring two friends.  We didn’t get there until about 2:15, so the kids didn’t really participate in the reception. I took the older kids in so they could get settled without a rush, and asked dh to give the littles something to eat and to let them run around so they’d be prepared to sit for a while.  After signing in, they went to get their caps and gowns on to prepare for the processional, and there was the first problem.

Do you remember last week when I told you about all that I did to be sure dd15 had a new gown because it was so important to her?   Dd had been very, very careful, checking several times, to be sure she had the right gown.  Unfortunately, ds16 didn’t check at all.  And he took the masters gown that had the funky sleeves.   Though he was willing to wear it since it was his mistake, it was sized for someone 5′ 5″ and he would have looked ridiculous. So guess who had to wear it?  Yep.  Dd.   Ds ended up wearing the gown she had brought, which was sized for someone 5’7″ – 5’9″, a size smaller than he needed but still okay in terms of length.

Dd was close to tears when she realized that she was going to have to wear this gown in spite of all the efforts made to ensure she had the right thing.  She really, really was upset about it, but the first thing she told me after showing me the sleeves was not to say anything to ds about it, that he already felt bad enough.  I told her later that day that she was sent a custom-made growth opp0rtunity and she passed with flying colors; she didn’t blame anyone and she really had reason to be annoyed, but she put it behind her and didn’t let it ruin her entire day.

Right after getting her settled, it was time for the guests to enter the ballroom.  I met up with dh, and confirmed with him that the littles had been fed.  “No, they ate before we left the house; they won’t be hungry.”  But it had been two hours since we left the house, so I quickly gave each of the three littles a hard boiled egg to eat.   Though we ended up entering later than almost everyone, it was still on time.  But within two minutes of the welcoming remarks, ds2 was loudly saying, “I wewy hungy (I’m very hungry), I want ood (food).”

So out dh went to get him an egg, and I asked dh to be really careful so no crumbs would end up being made (being that were were in the ballroom where nothing than water was allowed, and it was a formal kind of occasion).  Has anyone else noticed that husbands sometimes have a different sense of what that means than wives?  So ds proceeded to make a mess all over the floor (because it’s hard to neatly eat a hardboiled egg when you’re little)  and wipe his hands on my skirt.  Dh was laughing at the two-year-oldness of it all but I wasn’t – at all.  (He is pretty cute, though!)

This was the beginning of my personalized growth opportunity of the day- when you’ve put so much of yourself into something (in this case, ten years of homeschooling plus all the effort involved in participating in the graduation, getting everyone there on time, etc) and have everything worked out, it’s hard to have the experience significantly changed from what you expect.  Within just a couple of minutes of the egg situation, I realized that there was no way I’d be able to stay in and enjoy the ceremony so I took the baby and ds2 out.

And it took me at least ten minutes to stop feeling resentful that everyone else could be there (my inlaws, my mom and a friend, all my kids and a friend of dd), while I worked so much for this and I couldn’t.  It reminded me of a situation some of you may have experienced at some point: you’ve recently had a baby, but are finally ready for guests.  After spending hours in the kitchen, cooking for Shabbos and cleaning the house from top to bottom, everything is ready.  The guests arrive and shortly after the meal begins, you have to go nurse the baby (which because the baby is still tiny takes about 30 – 40 minutes) while everyone at the table enjoys all your work while you miss it all and get there when the meal is over.

But gratitude is a wonderful tool and it was very helpful in helping me get out of that negative head space by refocusing on the positive aspects.  By the time dh came a while later to find me and insist that I go back in (“Avivah, there’s no one here who belongs in there more than you do”), I was fine with where I was and how things were.  More than halfway through the ceremony my father in law came out because he was ready to stretch his legs, so he watched the littles and I was able to go back in right before my kids were introduced and stayed until the end.

But let me get back to the graduation itself.  To begin the ceremony, the senior processional entered the ballroom from two sides, which was filled to the brim with 500 guests, while the typical graduation theme (can’t remember what it’s called – Pomp and Circumstance?) was played on the piano.  That was followed by the invocation, then the Pledge of Allegiance, then welcoming remarks by the organizer.

The graduation was themed to the historical time period of the Civil War (appropriate since we were in historic Gettysburg).  The musician played historically appropriate music, which was a very nice addition.  He started by telling us about a song played at that time called Rally Round the Flag, and taught us the refrain.

I’ve been singing it the last few days since learning it there!  Here are the lyrics:

“Yes, we’ll rally ’round the flag, boys
We’ll rally ’round again
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom
We will rally from the hillside
We’ll gather from the plain
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom

The Union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah
Down with the traitor, up with the star
While we rally ’round the flag, boys
Rally once again
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom

We will welcome to our numbers
The loyal, true and brave
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom
And although he may be poor
Not a man shall be a slave
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom

So we’re springing to the call
From the East and from the West
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom
And we’ll prove a loyal crew
To the land we love the best
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.”

(Here‘s an online version of the song, if you’re interested in hearing the tune;  I had never heard it and it seems most of the audience hadn’t.)  He had a wonderful deep and hearty voice, and followed the first song with a request for everyone to join in “Oh, Susannah”, which everybody knew and the room was filled with sound as everyone sang together.  It was a rousing and enjoyable way to open the event, really setting the mood for an enjoyable and unique event.

After the historical musical selections, there was a presidential entrance made by Abraham Lincoln, who entered with two reenactors portraying Civil War soldiers.

The portrayal of Abe Lincoln was done by a professional Lincoln reenactor and he spoke about how he was also homeschooled, and then shared the Gettysburg Address.  I unfortunately wasn’t there by this point so I couldn’t hear what he said, but my family said it was interesting.

Then the senior class was introduced one by one.   Prior to the ceremony a short bio of each student was submitted by the parents, and the organizer shared the details about each student based on the bio as well as her personal knowledge of them.  This is what took the longest amount of time, since there were 44 graduates!   But even though it took time, it was interesting to see the diversity represented and  I appreciated seeing the breadth of accomplishment represented – it was quite impressive, but what I liked most was seeing the individuality of each person shining through.

Right after each student was introduced, they were called up and presented with a rose by one of the reenactors in front of everyone (you can see the reenactors in the background).

When all of the students were introduced, they were instructed to take their roses to their mothers and give her a big hug and thank you.  It was a very nice gesture, though my kids gave it to dh first since they didn’t see me in the crowd.  Then we had a short break.

After the break the commencement address was given by Senator Bryan Simonaire, of the Maryland General Assembly, district 31.  He happens to be a homeschool parent as well!  And his talk was short but really, really great!  He started by telling us that as a senator, he specifically looks for homeschoolers to work with since they are dedicated, motivated, hard working, and know how to have fun while they work.  He then shared his experience of being told he could never succeed politically, and how he persisted in spite of it.  His message was to never give up, to believe in yourself, and not to be afraid to make mistakes.  It was excellent.

Then the seniors one by one were awarded their diploma.  Prior to the ceremony, parents had been given three choices for how the diploma was granted: by Abe Lincoln, by Abe Lincoln with the parents standing to the side, or by the parents with Abe Lincoln by the side.  I chose the last option – I didn’t do all this work for years to let a stranger give my child his/her diploma!   Each senior walked onto the stage, received his diploma according to whatever choice he had made, and had a chance for a photo before walking off.  It was nice that time was left for this so families had a chance to get a picture of their child before they were suddenly off the stage.

Our kids were the very last ones since it was done in alphabetical order and when ds was called up I gave him a big hug before dh gave him the diploma.  Who cares if 500 people are watching?  It’s not just a piece of paper, but it represents ten years of our life as homeschoolers, with all of the fun, trips, togetherness that has been part of that time.  Though most parents did, I couldn’t hand over a diploma without at least a big hug!

Then we stayed on the stage after ds16 exited to wait for ds15 to come onstage, and dh and I hugged her and then I gave her the diploma. After having the picture with Abraham Lincoln smiling beside us, the organizer called ds16 back on stage so we could have a picture with both of them together.  It was very thoughtful of her.

Then the graduates were all called back on to the stage, briefly addressed, and threw their caps!

Something I really appreciated about this ceremony is that the emphasis was placed on recognizing each student for who they were and what they accomplished.  I remember my graduation being boring, with lots of speeches and a few awards for the select few, which left everyone else feeling ‘less than’.  But in this case, no one was compared to anyone else. And there were just two speeches, each only ten minutes long, and each very interesting.

We thought we’d be able to get an informal family photo since we were all there and we had a grandparent available to take a picture. But the battery died after taking just one, which wasn’t a good one.  But I’ll post it here for a day or two – I think my kids will object to it staying up longer than that!  (As one said to me, “The people who read your blog will think your children are the ugliest in the world!”  🙄 No, they’ll just think we’re a normal family in which all eleven people aren’t perfectly lined up and smiling at the exact same moment!)

We followed the ceremony with a barbeque for family and a couple of dd’s friends once we got back home.  Our parents told us then how impressed they were with the ceremony, and said it was beautiful and special.  Dh also appreciated that I had made the effort to have the kids participate – it really was a very nice way to note their accomplishment, and the kids themselves thanked me very much and said they enjoyed it very much.

So it’s now official – I have two homeschooled children who have graduated from high school!  We did it!!!

Avivah

Things are hopping around here!  Ds16 got back from CT last night where he was checking out the Waterbury yeshiva; I thought he was going to go last week but there was a delay in the response we got from the administration so it was pushed off until this week.  Though it would have been nice if he went for Shabbos, it worked out well like this since he could see what things usually looked like.

I have a lot to say about his experience and consequent conversations I’ve had regarding what happened (or didn’t happen) when he was there, but time is short – if I have a chance (no promises!), I’ll share some further thoughts about this next week.   Though he had pretty much decided that he would go there prior to leaving, that no longer looks certain at all, but ds isn’t ruling it out.   He’ll be checking out Ner Israel locally soon, which is much larger (the only downside) but perhaps a better match regarding learning level and likeminded peers.

Now the family is off to cheer on ds11, who was chosen to play on the All Star game for his league.  Some of you may remember ds16 was also chosen for this last year in his league so you won’t need explanation as to what it’s about!  But for everyone else, the All Star game is when the three best players are chosen from each of the seven teams in the league (one team gets to choose four players so there are an even number of players), and all of these players join to form two teams to play a game.  To accomodate those of us who are Sabbath observant, the game is played on Friday afternoon, beginning at 4:30.  That makes it a fuller than usual Friday, and that’s where we’re all off to now – we’ll be back right before Shabbos starts so an update will follow tomorrow night!

Avivah