the many ways in which i am a terrible mother...

i sing opera. i have multiple degrees in vocal performance. but right now my *full-time job* is MOM. hunh.

right now i'm doing a show, and i just kinda let my home life go to hell in a handbasket :). for example:

• alexander completely ran out of underwear
• we haven't had any bread for almost a week (cuz i haven't had time to make any)
• the laundry was literally overflowing
• there are absolutely no left-overs in the fridge
• becuz there's no left-overs & no bread, i had to give isabelle pb&j on rosemary olive oil triscuits
• i took a 4 hour nap after church yesterday, completely neglecting the bread and laundry that were totally calling to me
  

instead of taking care of my family, i made a ton of new jewelry, which i sold to the girls in the opera chorus. making jewelry is a lot more fun (and pays a whole lot better than doing laundry *smile*), but i feel terrible that i let things get so far behind. i don't remember tech week being so grueling and exhausting. i literally couldn't do another thing yesterday when i got home after church (after buying beads for stuff i need to make for tomorrow night *smile*). i made it as far as the couch in the living room and then just collapsed. i even made isabelle find a couch pillow for me, cuz i couldn't make myself get up and find it for myself :)

a large portion of my exhaustion is, of course, my fault. every night i'd come home from rehearsal & make more jewelry for the girls in the dressing room. at this rate, i will totally be able to finance my trip to boston with the kids this summer (which has yet to be *approved*). but, seriously, what's a girl to do when we've got to sit in a dressing room for 2.5 hours waiting to go onstage? shopping is definitely the way to go, and i'm glad that i gave the girls an opportunity to spend some of the money we made sitting around for hours :)

so today is all about makeup work. i had 3 loads of laundry that needed to be folded, and i did 2 additional loads last night, 3 loads already today with one more to go. the bread is in its first resting/rising period. and i've got all the beads i need to make more beautiful jewelry for the girls at opera tomorrow night. :)

of course, the opera is totally worth it. i'm doing Dialogues of the Carmelites with Pittsburgh Opera, and even though we literally have 10 minutes of music to sing, and most of that doesn't even have words, it's a totally fabulous show. all of the leads are amazing, and pretty much the whole audience leaves crying every night. nice! :)

bleh...

well, it's been a crappy week already & it's only tuesday!

first, my husband is sick. that just sucks just in general, cuz he's a terrible patient. most men are, but he's so high energy (i.e. ADHD *smile*) that it's impossible to keep him in bed. when i left this morning to take alexander to school he was in bed asleep hunkered down under the covers. when i got home, he was outside moving boxes out of the basement to take to the duplex. still feverish. still nauseous. stupid man!

of course, i'm sick, too. i've got a sinus infection that makes my head ache something awful. and i've still gotta get up & get the kids up & dressed & fed & get alexander to school. i was proud of myself cuz i went to the gym anyway, even though i felt like ca ca. amazingly enough, the workout felt good. it kinda cleared my head a little, which was awesome.

but then i got home and found out that i didn't get chosen for my first juried craft show. i really anguished and agonized about which photos to send, cuz you only get to send 3 thumbnail size pics. and i've got over 13,000 pics on my computer, most of which are jewelry. that was a really tough choice! i'm on the waiting list, and my sister made me realize that it could be worse. i guess i won't sell off all my inventory of beads and start panhandling or anything :)

but on the upside, we got a great package from grampa yesterday containing fabulous movies for the kids, and some movies for MOMMY! i was so excited, cuz usually the box contains nothing for the parents, and tons of stuff for the kids. but my dad is letting me borrow the complete 1st season of the tudors, and i'm totally stoked! my friend kellie are planning to have lunch dates to sit and watch them while the kids are in school :) yay me!

and i'm anxious about my first jewelry party. my friend kellie is hosting it at my house, and i'm really excited about it. i'm working on making new displays for it & trying to get my inventory ready. i just need to know that people are coming! i'm terrible at throwing parties. for my 21st b-day party i was so convinced that no one was coming that i was pretty toasted before the 1st guest arrived! oops! :) i'll try to control myself a little better this time :)

crafts with kids

so, i've decided to embrace my role as a stay-at-home-mom a little more and include my kids in more of my activities. so today i decided to do some paper mache. amazingly, it was isabelle, who just turned 2, and not alexander, who's almost 4, who was totally into the project and was mommy's little helper.

i decided to make a paper mache head so that i could use it to display my headbands, cuz everyone thinks i need to put them on my etsy site. so when i was at a bead shop yesterday and the owner was totally gushing over my headband, i decided it was time *smile*. when family and strangers say they're cool, i'm like "okay...", but when someone who does beading for a living thinks they're totally awesome, then i really hafta think that maybe i've got something really great on my head *smile*.

so i set everything up in the backyard with a drop cloth and lots of newspaper that the kids helped me rip and my paste and the balloons. originally i was gonna do 2, but one popped, so we only ended up with one. and once alexander realized exactly how messy it was gonna be, he decided he just wanted to watch *smile*. needless to say, isabelle and i were pretty much covered in paper mache paste. it's very itchy when it dries. and then, of course, i decided it was really too big to be a realistic head (even for me *smile*), so i let some of the air out of the balloon and then had to reapply most of the paper. oh well. i'm pleased with how it turned out. now, when it dries, i'll hafta figure out how i'm making it not look like newspaper (scrapbooking paper and decoupage?) and how i'm doing hair (i'm thinking yarn *smile*). we'll see how it turns out in the end.

it was pretty fun doing this with the kids, although it's interesting that alexander's the one who doesn't like getting dirty. i swear i have my brother and sister's children, cuz that's totally my brother. although i was always clean as well. okay, maybe he's mine *smile*