In my little town, it’s all we got.

Fall Friday nights most of the town meets up at the field, rooting for our high school boys, heckling the referees, watching the girls dance and cheer and listening to our award winning band perform at the half.

Most people that live here went to the high school here. They all talk about how it was when they were there. “We never won a game the whole time I went to school”, “I was the band major when I was in school”, “We won state my senior year”… All of this can be heard just sitting in the stands. (I’m kinda jealous that I can’t really share my experiences…because I didn’t go there).

It’s funny how times have changed and frozen at the same time for them. Homecoming brings past graduates back to the field for the game and to be introduced on the field before the band plays at half time.

It also means that the Princess was nominated by her senior football players to be on the royalty court (again). This time she was able to wear the honored white (reserved for seniors) billowing dress and compete for the coveted Queen title. Someone else got that, but she was just so happy to be on the court and happy that she was a real Princess for the whole day!

Our “Boys of Fall” won their homecoming game making the day pretty perfect!

The List

My “To Do” list after Laid-Off-Dom:

1. Clean out the Closet – And throw some of my hoarded crap away!
2. Wash the walls throughout the house
3. Paint my bedroom – I’ve been planning to for about eight years now!
4. Put my feet up!
5. Turn off the TV and turn on the radio
6. Do some sewing
7. Smell the Roses

And if my some miracle this list is ever completed, that’s when I will hit the pavement and look for another job! Is it kind of a bad thing that I’m looking forward to being laid off?

I think that being a working wife and mother means that I have to do everything and not just women’s work (or for the feminists: “Domestic Duties”).

I think a lot about what the world was when my great grandma was a wife and mother. I think about how she wore a dress, worked hard at home with laundry (not in a machine), cooking, cleaning, taking care of her children and some of her neighbors too. She cared for sick relatives and took in family members who lost their spouse and father. She was always beautifully dressed and had a smile on her face. Times in the 30s were tough for everyone, but in today’s time, we as women are dealing with some of the same issues of financial woes, sick loved ones, children’s needs and we have to add a boss to all of it.

A friend of mine recently started substituting at her son’s school after working about five hours a week at a newspaper. She asked how other mom’s deal with working all week and keep the house clean, kids fed and homework finished…

and the response from the “mom’s” painted a very real picture for me. We all pick our own battles. House cleaning and cooking loses in the big tug of war of work and children. It was eye opening to me. I never expected to see that other women feel the same way that I do. The feeling of coming home at dinner time and just wanting to sit down for a few minutes, but your children are hungry, so we either force ourselves to stand in front of the stove or we run through McDonalds drive thru.

In my heart, I want to do it all. I want to cook, and have a beautifully clean home, and hang out with my Princess and Hero when ever they need me. Keeping everyone including myself happy while working a full time job is not an easy feat! I’m certainly looking forward to the break before I start applying for another job.