Dear Friends- Vacation is often seen as a time to recharge your batteries. I’m not sure that a full recharge is possible as a parent of young kids, but I enter this spring vacation with a glimmer of hope that the adults in our community get a chance for some sort of rest and relaxation over the next week. I think we often overlook an important part of the battery metaphor, however: A battery doesn’t passively recharge itself. It requires a connection to something else in orde

Dear Friends- I want to start this week’s note with a heartfelt thank you. For the past few months, a group of dedicated Randolph parents have been spending countless hours doing the behind-the-scenes work that is required to pull off our annual Maple Fest. They don’t tend to talk about it that much, so I would like to recognize those of you who spent so much time and effort making sure this wonderful event became a reality. Your dedication and hard work enriches our communit

Dear Friends- The sweet sap of the maple tree has been collected and enjoyed by the people of the Hudson Valley since well before any written history of the area existed. A variety of oral legends of the Iroquois refer to Ioskeha, or Maple Sapling, the son of the mother goddess who embodies the spirit of life that comes with spring, and who made the sugar maple trees drip syrup. In this time, the sap season was ushered in by the first moon of spring, or “sugar moon,” and was