Category Archives: Family biz

Info about my family

Bit of the ordinary, Family biz

Work Ethic – Born or Made

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Lately I have been thinking about work ethic. This has come up because I want to instill a good work ethic in my children. I think that my brothers and I have great work ethics. Matt is an artist living in Italy. He has spent years honing and refining his craft. As you can see by his work, he is an amazing artist. And he is incredibly knowledgable about the art architecture and culture of his preferred field. Go check out his blog and you can read and see for yourself. Same with my brother Jon,
writer, actor, produced his own movie (with his husband Tom) which is awesome. There are people that say they want to be actors, and there are people that really want to be an actor. Jon is one of the latter. If you really want to be an actor you don’t wait to be discovered you make yourself discovered. That means working hard to hone your craft, and audition, audition, audition. A lot of wannabe actors don’t do this, there are people (with or without talent) that don’t want to apply themselves to the task at hand. Even if it something that they profess to be interested in.

Not to toot my own horn, but I have accomplished a bit myself. I got a good teaching job at a great school, and have a great family. I am not a person that is afraid of working. In fact I enjoy the feeling of accomplishing tasks.

My question is: How did we, my brothers and I, get this way and how do I do the same for my children?

I have lots of memories of doing chores, or helping my dad with projects. Helping to wash the dog (a huge Irish Wolfhound) or Mow the lawn or pour concrete. Was it that we were always asked to help that work was ingrained into our childhood? I also remember my dad always sitting at night with us while we were all watching TV, and he would be writing reports. Was it the example of my hardworking parents that influenced us?

What are your experiences?

Family biz, Pictures

First Day of school

I have posted the pictures of the kids First Day of school.

As Always,McKelvey & Arden gathered with Liam in the front of our house. they were excited for school to begin. And this past Tuesday Liam had his first day of preschool.

I can’t remember being excited for the first day of school, and maybe my parents can chime in and remind me. But I am glad they are, and I am thankful they don’t fight to wake up and get them ready in the morning.

I also can’t remember having homework in the 4th grade, let alone the 3rd or 2nd. Any hoo, I hope you liked this glimpse into the kids lives.

Family biz

School begins for the little ones

Well, the girls have had their first week of school and all week Liam has been wondering when his school starts. It has been hard transitioning back to a routine. We actually have to set an alarm to wake us up at 7 instead of just Ann of I being able to just wake up. But the girls both like school so far. McKelvey, who really loves her teachers every year, is very pleased with Ms. Hickman. Ms. Hickman wasn’t sure if McKelvey liked her at first because McKelvey was so serious in class, but now she gets a hug from McKelvey at the end of the day, so she knows she’s doing something right. It might just be the free piece of gum sometimes given out at the end of the day…

Arden was never someone who had to have the loving hugsy type of teacher. Her kindergarten teacher wasn’t very affectionate, and her first grade teacher is known to be either. Arden said after the end of the first day that “we had to put are heads on the desks and be quiet a lot.” However a lot to Arden could just be one more time than she wanted (like just one time total). But Ms. Smith gives out Skittles at the end of the day so that goes pretty far in Arden’s book. I am beginning to notice a trend…

My school hasn’t started yet, but the meetings have begun in full force. Yeay.

Family biz

My Week at Winni

I have been gone a while, and it is good to be back home. We were at at Geneva Point Center in New Hampshire. It is a beautiful location: “Pine Haven”for an example. It is on Lake Winnipasaukee ( is that spelled right?), so there was a Beach which McKelvey and Arden loved. They got to play in the water every day. The adults went to classes in the morning, on different topics, from religion to social movements, to singing and even improv. the classes are intended to deepen your understanding of yourself and broaden your understanding of the world.

There is a labyrinth to walk and meditate, like the labyrinths in old cathedrals.

The center of the social life at Winni is the Barn. Classes are held there, and at night there is dancing in the barn. Ethnic dances from different countries, lots of dances that are just a lot of fun. It was a good relaxing week. I am kind of bummed that I have to start work again.

Barn Dance

Bit of the ordinary, Family biz

Travel, Lemonade and more

Well, It’s been a while since I have posted, which seems to be my standard intro to these entries. So it seems that I keep having a conscious or unconscious fight with either my attention span or my to-do list. Am I

There has been a lot that has happened in the last couple of weeks. My Daughter McKelvey held(with help from Ann and I) a fundraiser to raise money for the Arts program at her school.

We went as saw Wicked, McKelvey’s class did a famous person tea. Where they dress up like a famous person that they researched. Then they read a speech that they wrote format the point of view of their famous person. It was pretty neat to see.

Arden’s class had an Easter Egg hunt at our house( because we were the only ones that lived close to the school). That was fun. Liam and I hid all the eggs, which took a long time since we hid 10 eggs for each kid in the class. That’s over 170 eggs.

I also went to Kansas City Missouri for a conference. I was a part of two panel presentations and did a small presentation on the 3d Printer I made. They all went over pretty well. It’s odd to think I am comfortable talking in front of a crowd like that, when I used to run from that like my dog from a bath.

Pictures of the aforementioned events are here.

Bit of the ordinary, Design Stuff, Family biz

Wicked fun

we took the family on a trip to Richmond yesterday. We went to see the national tour of Wicked. It was my first time seeing the show, but not the first time I heard the music. My kids have been obsessively requesting the CD since last spring. It great to finally see the book scenes. The staging was fun and had a really good pace. It was interesting how it seemed that more book scenes were in the second act, or at least half the songs in the second act were short reprises of previous songs. I liked how they integrated the existing elements from the Wizard of Oz movie. In that way it departed from the novel, but was understandable considering more of the audience would be familiar with the original movie than Gregory Maguire’s version.

But of course I can’t just watch a show like this, I was constantly figuring out how they did it. Seeing which set pieces repeated, seeing how they use projection, looking for the person onstage that clips Galinda’s harness everytime she gets in or out of her flying ‘bubble circle’. That being said, I don’t feel that it takes away from my enjoyment of the show. I really think I may have enjoyed it more.Although McKelvey was rapt the whole time. Perhaps a show like this can’t be enjoyed more by anyone other than a little girl.

McKelvey thoroughly enjoyed herself. Although Arden had to keep asking questions to keep up with the plot, I think she also had a fabulous time.

Afterward we went out to dinner, in the Carytown section of Richmond. It had some cool shops and a bunch of different restaurants. It reminded me of areas of Chicago or Brooklyn. I wish we could have taken a block of it back to Lexington.

So I loved the show, and while watching it figured out how to do it at W&L.

Without hiring a flying company.

Family biz

Shakespeare

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McKelvey is learning about Shakespeare a the gifted program at her school. They are having a contest to memorize the most lines of a Julius Caesar speech here it is below. It’s pretty cute.

Design Stuff, Family biz

Tech or treat

In the middle of tech for Where We’re Born. The first with actors. We are at the point that we have everything the actors need, doors, props and all that. Now I just need to add the layers to the design. The walls are just flat, they have no texture. None of the age and distressing has happened yet. But I feel pretty good about it. I have a full week before we open. So that is plenty of time to finish up what this show needs, and still have time to go trick or treating with the kids.

It is great to see the show come together, all the little tweaks and adjustments that tighten up the story. I love seeing how the lights take it up a notch. They really ratchet up the mood and I think it helps the actors a lot. Although we keep having to stop and get them to actually deal with the light switches. ;)

But hearing the rhythm of the words in conjunction with the rhythm of the screen door slamming and the crunch of the fallen leaves under their feet is awesome. Some people don’t like tech rehearsals because they take a lot of time. I think it is fun to see the show come together.

But sometimes the production at home is more fun than the production at school. I am ready to go trick or treat!

Family biz

Doing vs teaching

We do a lot of drawing and crafts in our house. So what comes up in my mind a lot is how much should I do for them and how much should I make/let them do. When we help McKelvey with her homework,it is pretty obvious that we don’t do it and help her discover the right answers. But for art and craft projects it is something different. When there is no right or wrong answer, how much should you help? McKelvey is interested in drawing pictures, but she is not very concerned about getting it to really represent whatever it is she is drawing. Right now they(Arden & McKelvey) are more interested in symbolically representing the object than being very realistic. Which is where they should be developmentally. But what about those times they want to be more realistic?