Overworked?

See Ellie? She doesn't want to get up in the morning. I don't either; the last few days I begin my morning libations with a minor panic attack. There is So much to Do. And I know from years of experience that I am completely incapable of doing it.

The question is-which of all the "good" things I have signed on for do I need to let go? Or can I organize myself (HA!) better? Or maybe I've just had an unusually frustrating and busy two weeks? Yesterday when a PTA mom cornered me at school and asked, "What position on the PTA Board do you want to take next year?" I just about cried.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" I asked in my most horrified voice. Can't she tell by looking at me that I. Can't. Handle it?

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" she replied. Man, those PTA ladies are tough as nails. I guess I'm doing book fair next year. Is it silly to hope Marc and I will take the kids and sail around the world instead?

Oh, and anyone who suggests the answer to my woes is getting my kids to do more will be taken outside and sniveled on until they are sorry. Soggy and sorry. Because obviously the answer to poor parenting is better parenting...duh. But I'm totally looking for the easy way out here. Just so you know. Only suggestions that qualify as easy (like "hire a maid with the money I'm sending you") will be considered.

My Painting

Here's an update on my birthday picture. I got a bird! Marc is working on the blossoms still, he says he wants to change the colors but has to wait until the paint is dryer.

I love the nest.

The Syringa Tree

My computer broke last week when I cleverly left it on the couch and Riley knocked it to the floor. I haven't been blogging because it is such a pain to use Marc or Maddie's computer. I know, I'm a baby.

But tonight we saw the play The Syringa Tree at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. Wow, it was good!

When I found out it was a one woman show that lasts 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission I thought, "huh." And when it started with that one woman on an almost bare stage swinging on a swing suspended from the ceiling talking like a little girl I thought, "really?" See how I like to stay open minded? Wondering if this might be a teensy bit dull but willing to give it a chance?

It turns out Shannon Koob, the main (and only) actor, plays something like 20 different characters to tell the story of Elizabeth, a little girl growing up in South Africa during apartheid. She is amazing in how she portrays the different characters who are white, black, men, women, young and old. I know it sounds confusing, but by the end of the play she has scenes with multiple characters talking in such different voices and with such different faces and body language that you can tell them all apart.

It made me think of one really amazing dance.

Anyway, off to bed (last insurance class at 8a.m. tomorrow) but I had to post in case, you know, Shannon Koob reads my blog and wants to know how I thought she did. I thought she was incredible.

Oh Yeah, I Did Post That Picture

Give a perfectly normal, occasionally cool woman a teenager and BAM, she looses every ounce of cool she ever had.

Well it's not like they're so normal either.

My 5 Minutes

Paige and me in the hats she knitted for us.

So that was kind of weird. I just finished talking to Paige and Gretch about my new cool job as the community manager for the Mommycast Ning social network. We talked on camera. Because I'm gonna be on Mommycast! Wow. I've known Gretchen and Paige since before Mommycast was even born...and even though they like to tell scary stories about the trouble our kids get in together, I never thought I'd be on the show.

Of course I had to do some serious preparation to get ready to be filmed. Yesterday I set up the computer video cam in my living room and practiced talking in front of it. I tried it in several locations to try to figure out where I would get the "best light" (whatever that is) and also only show the select part of our home that looks maybe like tasteful grown ups live here.

I had narrowed my wardrobe selection down to two possibilities and I modeled each one for Maddie and Katie and examined myself on video. Lots. I wondered if I should wear jewelery and tried on several necklaces, but I decided I shouldn't.

I noticed that I have a big neck wrinkle forming, but it was too late to do anything about it, even if I knew what to do. I thought lots about all the weird things I shouldn't do on video, like talk really loud and fast over Paige and Gretchen like I do in real life or make weird faces when I talk, also like I do in real life.

I went to bed feeling pretty ready, but then last night Ellie woke up with the whole fever, soar throat, ear ache, throw up gig going on. I was up with her past 3 am. Of course I felt bad for her, but my biggest worry was that she'd be home with me when it was time for our video interview (nice mom, I know). Ellie finds cameras completely irresistible; unless I was ready to lock her in her room, I knew no matter how sick she was she wouldn't be able to leave me alone while I talked to Paige and Gretch.

My Mom came to my rescue and said she'd skip work to take care of Ellie but still, the morning did not go quite like I had planned. Like when I was racing around to wash the couch slip cover so that it wouldn't smell like throw up I thought, "this is not how the morning when I become a celebrity is supposed to go."

I'll let you know when the video goes up on Mommycast but if you want you could go over to Mommycast.ning right now and check it out. While you're there you might feel like becoming a member and then trying out all the nifty features like uploading a video, sharing a link to something you like, or sharing a post from your blog?

If you want.

And since the site is so new and you'll be doing me a solid I'll try to feature your stuff on the main page...you'll be famous like me!

And if you do play around over there, pretty please leave me a comment on the forum page or send me a message letting me know what you think...especially what you'd like to see different!

That would be soooooo awesome!

It's Like a Disease

Is it too early to start obsessing, I mean thinking, about my birthday? Marc is painting a picture for me and I am so excited!

He told me he didn't want to be in the picture but he's so cute when he's painting me a present that I just sort of sneaked him in there.

Just so I don't forget, I also want some lovely stained glass stars for my kitchen window...

and I've wanted the sketchers since WAY before the Super bowel. But now I want them even more.

Awhile ago TAMN did a post on how lame it is to post about what you want on your blog. Forgive me, I have a birthday illness.

The Entryway, Again

It is a fine line I walk here at Springbrook Ranch. Every time I do a little updating or decorating I have a tiny bit of "buyer's remorse" as it were. It's because we're renting...I have to find the delicate balance between making things pretty so I don't go crazy and not spending so much time and money on the place that I make Marc go crazy.

Jonathan's best friend's mom is the PTA president so guess who is making ten tutus to go in the "little princess birthday basket" to be auctioned off at our school fund raiser? Yep. So that is why I was at the fabric store on Friday. I wasn't shopping for the house, it was just providence that I found lovely upholstery fabric totally on sale.

I've already posted about my efforts to make our little entryway look not heinous. And since I can't fix the installed stuff (orange tile, mismatched stair rails, one of which is wrought iron, nasty old window molding) I have to settle for trying to disguise it.

This certainly isn't a "Country Living" approved decorating method but we make do with what we've got don't we?

So here's the newest mistreatment.

I followed the Nester, same as always, and I love the way it came out, same as always!

Where I Try to Deal With Serious Things Without Dying

I have a story to tell, but I'm not sure how to tell it. Usually I keep anything too personal or messy off the blog. You know I hate gooey sticky stuff. Can't even eat tapioca. But a friend asked me share this story so here goes.

At church a month or two ago we had a special meeting in Sunday school. It was a meeting about how we should treat our gay brothers and sisters. To sum up, we were taught that we should be nice, loving, perhaps even empathetic. Our teacher, a member of our Stake Presidency, acknowledged the excruciating difficulty a person who is gay has trying to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I left the meeting feeling really happy. Sometimes I've felt conflicted between my desire to defend and preserve the sacredness of traditional marriage, and my desire to see my gay friends happy.

Of course, President Stewart couldn't answer all my questions, and I'm not going to try to answer yours. This is a great link that I have found helpful, but even it doesn't answer all my questions. Don't tell, but I believe there is yet more to be revealed on this subject. Maybe to the world, maybe just to me.

Anyway, when we got home from church I was making dinner with Maddie and Katie, my two teenage daughters, and I started telling them about what a great Sunday school lesson we'd had. We were all chop, chop, chopping and I was talk, talk, talking and I was super surprised when I looked over at Maddie and she was crying.

"Hey!" I said. "What's wrong?"

And that's when she told me how completely relieved she was to hear this message at church, albeit second hand, since I was telling her what I'd heard.

Really?

I totally thought Marc and I had been giving our kids this message their whole lives. We are all about the love here at our house, right? We've told them to love and accept their gay friends. We've loved the gay people in our lives, and, you know, been part of their lives and they're part of ours. I thought our kids were pretty clear on the main-Jesus-message "love everyone."

I thought we'd explained that loving everyone doesn't mean you have to agree with them or think that everything they do is right, but it does mean you treat everyone with respect and kindness.

But it turns out my girls weren't sure. In fact,while she was crying, Maddie told me about spending a week at church camp and making friends with a young man there who was gay. Some of the other young men in her group confronted her and asked her why she was talking to him. "Why wouldn't I?" she asked confused. "Because he's gay," they said.

Ouch.

And by then Katie was crying too because she has had all too similar experiences.

I guess I'm really telling this story because of all the messy thoughts it brought up for me, like YIKES I really don't always know what my kids are going through. And how I hope The Church as a whole helps our youth understand homosexuality better. And how grateful I am for my Savior and his love.

And now I have to stop, all this emoting is exhausting...I need a caffeinated beverage.

The Love Affair Continues

I can hardly stand it. Let's sing like Maria..."Toniiiiight! Toniiiight! Season six begins tonight! Tonight we will watch Lost; I am so happyyyyyy."