Because being a Stay-at-home-mom (SAHM to laypeople) is my current profession, I am required to multi-task on a daily basis in a way some people have never experienced.   My “pay” (bringing up healthy happy children who turn into independent, admirable adults) is by no means immediate, and it also depends upon my ability to multi-task.  Consider the following 2 scenarios most SAHM’s must endure on a daily basis (and these are just 2 of MANY!):  Can I fold and put away a load of laundry while planning and preparing a nutritious lunch for 4 kids while simultaneously managing “surprise” but necessary tasks that appear; like changing diapers, washing hands, and refereeing any arguments that break out?  Can I accomplish buying everything I need at Walmart while staying within our family’s budget AND concurrently fulfilling the needs of my two youngest children in a timely enough fashion to be able to pick up their older sisters at school at the time I’m expected?

Man, when I put that all on paper it sounds difficult.  And sometimes it is, but most of the time, I do it without thinking because I love and treasure my family.  But if you know a SAHM and she seems like an airhead or like she’s not-so-bright or even a little bit loopy, just remember everything that must go through her mind on a daily basis, then multiply that by how many kids she has…  It just might provide enough explanation for her scatter-brained behavior!

Gee, being a SAHM-of-four sure makes my working-mom-of-one days look easy.  Back then my multitasking consisted of paying bills and doing paperwork while I sat in  traffic…  And although my current lifestyle is much more hard work than I’ve ever had before, it’s that much more rewarding also, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

WOW… here it is 2AM wee hours of opening night and I cannot sleep.  Really, the last time this happened was opening morning of my favorite show and I got even less sleep for obvious reasons.. chief among them being I had to be up SUPER early to be on television promoting that show.  Plus, I had a good excuse then … I was used to being up at those crazy hours since I worked 3rd shift at the time.

Now, as Diamonds are Forever is nearing the end, maybe I will be able to just lay back and close my eyes… oops there is a yawn… maybe sleep is on the way.  Better to crash now than on stage tonight, eh?  But it’s so much fun to feel this rush.  Theatre is MY anti-drug.  And there goes the Bomb Surprise between the legs of Mr. Wynt and over the side of the cruise ship he goes.   And James Bond will return in Live and Let Die and I will sign off and let the adrenaline rush wear off.

After Tuesday nights ever predictable rehearsal from heck, the cast, crew, and orchestra really pulled together tonight.  Tuesday’s rehearsal was predictably bad because I have yet to be in ANY show in which opening week was not full of pitfalls.  I actually would be very surprised if I ever in one that ran flawlessly… I would have to walk out and come back into the theatre.

The entire evening was magical.  You would have thought we had a paying audience.  This was the first time that Grandpa got to be in makeup.  The director’s major comment after the run is that I needed more age lines.  OK, I will inform the makeup mistress of this tomorrow night.  I DO NOT do my own makeup.  Although a certain female within my home theatre scares me sometimes when she carries around a mascara applicator.  Honestly, look into my eyes and tell me that my lashes need extended.

One thing that was mentioned in early rehearsals.  Meet Me in St. Louis actually has a basis in fact.  Sally Benson,whose nickname was Tootie, wrote about her childhood experiences in St. Louis and attending the 1904 World’s Fair.  The house that her family lived in on Kensington was demolished in 1996 as it had fallen into disrepair.  That is all that I know that is historically accurate.  Like The Sound of Music, The King and I, Titanic, and any other historical musicals or plays like Lion in Winter, I am sure there are many tidbits added for dramatic purposes.  But what a treat.  Total run time… we started at 8 and got done juuuuust after 10.  I think the 15 minute intermission went a bit long.  We did get to indulge in some chocolate cake following the rehearsal.  If you happen to be coming, the doors will open at 7.10 Friday and Saturday nights and I would say 1.50 Sunday afternoon.  To The Cast… BREAK A LEG.  To those attending… ENJOY!

No rehearsals tonight, and that is a good thing. I have to go over my lines again, but that is a given when in a play. Until it is over, the lines have to be comfortable in my mind. But it is an easier night.

I used my time to get a bit of shopping, and also some relaxation. So I found the ultimate in relaxation, someone else to do my housework. And here is someone that will work for peanuts, or dried fruit, and maybe some hamster food.

If the embeded youtube doesn’t work, here is the link
Bionic Hamster

I had a really stressful day yesterday.  The kids went completely crazy at night – was it a full moon?  I didn’t check.  Even if that was the case, other little things kept going wrong also.  Little things – things that really  shouldn’t matter.  Except that when those little things are added up, they equal one bad day.  So I thought I could beat my stress by looking forward to watching some BASEBALL on TV.  Yes, that’s right, I said BASEBALL on TV!  And it’s only early March –  we haven’t even changed the clocks yet!

I just happened to look on tvguide.com yesterday to see if I could look forward to a new episode of Lost, and I noticed that my favorite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, were set to play their cross-town rivals, the Chicago White Sox and it was going to actually be on tv in our little corner of NW Ohio!  Even though it’s only spring training, that brightened my mood considerably since it’s been MONTHS since I’ve gotten to watch baseball.  With the way my day was going, I was sure something would go wrong – the tvguide had made a mistake and we didn’t get it, Vegas (where the game was played) would disappear into a sinkhole, something like that.  But 10:00 finally rolled around, and the game was on!  AND, the teams were putting in their starters rather than their scrub players, which meant real, actual baseball to watch!  So I felt better; I relaxed and sat down to watch the game, and of course, that’s when my  two middle children (the trouble-makers of the brood these days) decided to start fighting.  So it wasn’t peaceful, but I did get to watch the game.  And it was a good game – the Cubs were down, but then they tied it up, but of course the Sox came back to win.  A disappointing outcome for such an otherwise great game.  But the good news is, it was only spring training so who cares  who won!

After the game I left WGN on the tv, and I was treated to an episode of the old tv show Alf.  Remember Alf?  It was a sitcom from the 80’s about a family who discovers an Alien Life Form (ALF), and takes him in to live with them.  Alf is a furry wise-cracking puppet with an affinity for cats (to eat!), and the family must keep him secret so he doesn’t get taken away.  Alf was a huge fad in  the 80’s; there were toys, lunchboxes, a cartoon spinoff, you name it.  After the Alf episode, on came the Steve Wilkos show (he’s the former bodyguard from the Jerry Springer show who now has his own trashy talk show – I wrote about this in a previous post, probably because of my disbelief that they would actually give this guy air time).  And that was my cue to hit the sack for my lovely 4½ hours sleep.  So far, today has been a little better, although our trouble-making 4-year-old is at school.  Tonight I’m looking forward to a brand spankin’ new Office episode – YIPPEE!  But first I have to get through a few boring meetings.  Sure hope I don’t doze; I am awfully tired!

We saw the Oscar nominated film Doubt the other night.  Normally, I like to see as many of the major Academy Award contenders before the awards show airs as it did a few weeks ago, but it’s usually not possible to see every single one in time.  Even though it didn’t win any of the 5 Oscars for which it was nominated, the buzz that surrounded Doubt was so intriguing that we decided to check it out.

For a movie being based primarily on dialogue, it is very fast-paced.  I was never bored, which is something I can’t say about a Good Will Hunting, an Oscar winning movie we watched last week.  Good Will Hunting a long movie, so it took us two nights to watch it, and I fell asleep both nights during the movie.  Not that it was a horrible movie; I don’t know much about it – I  was sleeping!

Ok, back from the Oscar tangent, back to Doubt.  This movie is based on a stage play, and the author of the play also wrote the screenplay and directed the film version; which I think is very important so nothing was lost in the translation between stage and screen.  The story is compelling; it’s about a Catholic school in 1964 where the principal, a nun brilliantly portrayed by Meryl Streep, suspects the priest is having an inappropriate relationship with the school’s only African-American student.  Amy Adams portrays Sister James, a naive freshman nun who is caught in the middle of the conflict.  Amy Adams is one of the actors from this movie who was nominated for an Oscar, and it’s understandable when you see what a far cry Sister James is from Adams’ purse-selling ex-cheerleader Katy on The Office or the character Leslie Miller from her first film, the teen beauty pageant spoof Drop Dead Gorgeous from 1999.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman was excellent in Doubt also; hardly recognizable from the 1990’s roles where I saw him previously in the movies Twister and Leap of Faith.  It’s easy to see how Viola Davis received her Oscar nomination for Doubt as well – she had lines in just one scene in the entire movie, but her performance was excellent, however short on screen time.  You win some and you lose some, which explains how those 3 actors walked away without their Academy Awards.  Inexplicable, however, is how Meryl Streep did not win an Oscar for Doubt.  True, I haven’t seen The Reader with Kate Winslet, the actress who won the Leading Actress Oscar instead of Meryl Streep.  I did see Changeling with Angelina Jolie who was also nominated, and judging by the phenomenal performances of Streep and Jolie and the fact that Winslet was the winner, I might just have to see The Reader.  I loved Angelina Jolie in Changeling, and I’m not usually a fan of hers, so that says something.  I  loved Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, but honestly, I used to think Hollywood had a strange habit of sucking up to Meryl Streep.  How can she be THAT good, I would wonder…  until I saw Doubt.  She IS “that good”.

I can see where this movie would make an excellent stage play.  But after seeing 4 of the most talented actors out there portraying the lead roles on the big screen, who would even want to be compared to that by  staging a live theatrical production of Doubt?

Everyone says it.  Our family, friends and acquaintances are in agreement – our two middle children look just like each other.  They could pass for twins, except for the fact that Sammie is almost 5 and Disney is 2½ – so twins years apart, you might say.  Don’t believe me?  Nothing like photographic evidence…

Entertainment Weekly has published a list of no less than 17 movies that are to hit multiplexes beginning this weekend.  There are some that look like must sees, some that can wait for DVD viewing, and others… you get the point.  Opening Friday is the apparently long-awaited film based on a graphic novel from the 1980’s, Watchmen.  Until the hype of the movie began, I had never heard of the comic book heroes but the movie looks amazing.

I recently saw a spot on the television for Nicolas Cage’s new movie, Knowing, that seems to be joining the latest trend in Hollywood: the number theory thriller.  This, too looks like it would be worth a viewing.

Growing up in the mid-70s, I was a fan of the Disney live-action Witch Mountain movies (there was a less than memorable remake in the 90s as well as a failed weekly series)  Instead of a total remake, a re-imagining of the franchise is coming: Race to Witch Mountain.

Moving down the list is the ridiculous looking Dragonball movie.  Is this based on a video game or one of those card collecting games that I never got into like Pokemon.

In the category of senseless sequel/reboots comes the newest installment of Fast and the Furious.  I lost count of the number after the first sequel.  It looks like the producers of the franchise are going back to the drawing board and bringing back the stars of the original movie whoever they are.  But the title is perhaps the most brilliant thing about it:  The Fast and the Furious.  WAIT A MINUTE… Haven’t they done that before?!  Get my drift.

There is at least on screwball comedy coming.  Sunday night, I endured the trailer for I Love You Man.  Is there a male counterpart to a “chick flick?”  Apparently, this movie, centering on a newly engaged man’s search for a male BFF, attempts to fill that bill.  The preview did not endear itself to me.

The tween set has not been left out, either.  Miley Cyrus is taking her phenomenally popular character Hannah Montana to the big screen in a plot-driven movie.  Did she not have a big-screen concert extravaganza a few years ago a la the recent Jonas Brothers foray to the cinema?

FINALLY, the movie that is on the top of my must see list for the spring: Monsters v. Aliens.  After watching the 3D preview on Super Bowl Sunday,  I said OOOOOHHHH!!! Looks really fun!

Yes, it’s that time of year again.  The ISATs.  Illinois’s standardized test given to all kids to rate the schools (why?) and to see if they stand up to the rules of No Child Left Behind.  If not, then they have to know what to fix, so I suppose that’s a good enough reason for them even if rating the schools isn’t, in my opinion.  So what does this mean for a sub?  Less work to be had of course.  There are no meetings or workshops that would require a sub, and the teachers are supposed to be there giving the tests except in the most dire circumstances.  That leaves a much smaller pool of teachers who might need subs, fortunately through whom there is some hope.  Today for example I had a half-day for a literacy teacher, and since grades K-2 are generally unaffected by testing she could take the day off.  Yes, she is gone for the whole day but only required a half-day sub as she just canceled her afternoon obligations.  This position was one in which students are pulled out of their classes for extra reading help.  The four groups I had varied from kindergarten to second grade.  It should have been five actually, but due to a mixup two classes were out to recess when I went to pick up the kids so I had bonus planning time instead 😛 . Did I say K-2 are exempt from the testing?  Let me rephrase that.  I meant PreK-2.  What is the point of my bringing this up you ask?  Well, because a job I would ordinarily pass up opened up for Friday and I jumped on it instead- full day at-risk preschool for Friday.  I would pass because of the age and how far in the future the job is.  If it was 6AM and I was still looking for a job for the same day I would take anything of course, even the tough classrooms I’ve had in the past.  With three days notice I usually am able to pick something else up closer to my comfort zone, but for this month I have to treat any job as a blessing (and they all are) and just take it.  I have done preschool before, so I do know what to expect.  I remember at one school I would start thinking of the kindergarten kids as big kids.  Weird.

So here I am, sitting.  Using my internet connection to constantly look for openings.  Speaking of which, there is one district I haven’t seen an opening in for weeks now.  I should call and ask what’s up, but for this week at least I know they will just say it’s testing.  Funny, I seem to recall having this problem before with a different district.  I can’t find the post about it right now, oh well.  Maybe it was last school year.

The following words of wisdom came to me in an email forward.  However, I have to disagree with some of it since I was born near the end of the window and I did have some of the things growing up that the email says I would not have had.  So, I put my personal comments about this email forward in italics.

THOSE BORN 1930-1979

READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO . IF YOU DON’T READ ANYTHING ELSE—VERY WELL STATED

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!  (I can barely get credit for surviving the 70’s.  After all, I only experienced the 70’s for a year and a half!)

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.  (Well, ok, maybe everyone reading this survived some of that, but that doesn’t make it right, of course!)

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes .

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no child- proof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when  we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.  Not to mention the risks we took  hitchhiking.  (that is definitely before my time.  I’ve never hitchhiked.  And the only people I know who have are either deceased or over the age of 50!)

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats , seat belts or air bags.  (Ok, I remember this – every kid I knew whose parents had a station wagon would ride in the back of it for long trips, no seatbelts.  I think kids should be buckled up, but I think the whole booster / car seat until they’re 8 years old is just plain ridiculous!  Ah, the effects those lobbyists have on Congress is purely amazing, isn’t it?)

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!  (Well, a few people I went to school with DO have heart problems, but…)

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were OK.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo ‘s, X-boxes, no video games at all (umm, I beg to differ.  My generation had Atari, Intellivision, the Commodore, the Tandy, the original Nintendo, and even some hand-held electronic games), no 150 channels on cable, no video movies (again, not true.  I remember the day my family got our VCR.  I was worried my big sister would be mad because she was at a sleepover when we got it and the whole event was so exciting.  We rushed right out to the video store to rent a video.  But all the good ones seemed to be in BETA, not VHS…) or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s (but we had records, casette tapes, and walkmans!), no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chatrooms…….

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.  (Nor did the gum we swallowed stay in our tummies for seven years – hehe)

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.  Imagine that!!  (Nowadays, we’d be lucky to get enough kids to have to turn them away, not that we would, but the point is, many kids are busy playing video games or causing trouble…  or their parents are just too busy to let them commit to anything extracurricular)

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!  (Nowadays kids are charged as adults, so parents aren’t often given the option to decide what’s best for their own child!)

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

‘With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding,severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another,and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us…go ahead and delete this.

For the rest of us…pass this ON!

Ok, I’m not a big fan of passing on email forwards…  But this one entertained me, so do with it what you will, and remember that my contributions are the ones in italics, so thanks for reading my commentary!