The Wife
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Decluttering the Kids Room
Now, to tackle the toys. The playroom/schoolroom was in a constant state of disorder and disarray. Getting my kids to clean it was impossible. They were overwhelmed and so was I. I was done. So done. But in order to get my kiddos on board I needed to go about this in a way that allowed them to understand the “why” of minimizing. They had been raised in a more-is-more environment. In fact, I had unintentionally trained them to place so much value on their stuff to the point that everything was made to feel special and needed. I needed to find a way to retrain them. I took a…
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Fight or Flight
I don’t know how I heard about it, but somehow I started following and watching a movement called 1000 hours outside (https://www.1000hoursoutside.com/). The basic premise is to replace screen time with green time. After observing other people’s adventures for a year or two we finally decided, as a family, to take the plunge and commit to the challenge for the year 2023. I am proud to say that we fulfilled our goal! We hit our thousandth hour on December 31st, 2023. The year was full of many adventures; the following story is merely one of them. We started 2023 strong- averaging two hours a day in the dead of winter.…
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Performing With Pickleville On Tour
Have you ever heard of the legendary outlaw El Juandito? Those of you who have have probably visited Bear Lake, where El Juandito has spent many a summer entertaining audiences at the lakeside theatre, Pickleville Playhouse. Once, a few years ago, we were fortunate enough to visit there as a family. It was an experience I will never forget, because the atmosphere was so different than any other I had ever experienced. The talent was phenomenal, the stage was intimate, and the air was fragrant with the fun-filled scent of popcorn and summer. This year, my actor hubby had the opportunity to co-star in a show with Pickleville On Tour.…
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Thank You For Your Time
The job of an actor is varied, dedicated, and time consuming. When Ben was acting full time in LA he would usually have eight to twelve hours on set. That’s not including the time he would spend driving there (sometimes up to two hours), applying for jobs, networking, creating content, and developing skills. His weeks were often between fifty to seventy hour work weeks if not more. Now that he has a day job his days are just as long. He not only works his 40 hours a week for his day job, he also works at least 15 hours on acting/producing/screenwriting. When he was a banker we could expect…
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Summer Plans
The Christmas of 2021 was one to celebrate. It was the first time in a long while that we had our own tree, next to our own window, with our own ornaments, in our own home. We did everything we could to bring the Christmas spirit. We baked, wrapped presents, sang carols, and picked a Christmas read aloud. Since we started homeschooling we have tried to always have a book that we’re reading as a family. I decided on a childhood favorite of mine, “The Paper Bag Christmas.” My mother loves Christmas novels and is always reading a new one. She introduced this book to me as a teen and…
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When Not Much Has Changed, But Everything’s Changed
How are you all holding up? I mean… national emergency, quarantines, toilet paper shortages, social distancing, schooling at home and the threat of an unseen culprit that did all this. Are you all doing okay? We’re used to much of this. I mean… who knew it would take a pandemic to finally find commonality with the rest of the world. We already homeschooled and Ben for the most part worked from home when he wasn’t on set (which recently has been less than normal because they always want to hire someone who can have his face shaved or hair cut if need be, and Ben can’t right now). We already…
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Suddenly Homeschooling? Here’s 10 Tips and Tricks
Welcome! To those of you who don’t know much about me let me introduce myself. My name is Cindy. I am the wife of a working actor (Ben), mother to four beautiful little girls (ages 9,7,5, and 3) and I’m 36 weeks pregnant with our fifth little lady! We have been thoroughly blessed. As I’ve discussed in previous posts, due to the nature of Ben’s job and the abundance of support we receive from the charter school system in California, we decided to homeschool this school year. Because of that, now that the Coronavirus is having everyone move indoors, I have had several friends reach out to me for homeschooling…
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When Faith Feels Like Insanity
Guys… I’m running out of people who believe in us. At least it seems that way. People who once believed that we could do this… are starting to turn on us. People who never believed we could do this… are verbal about it now. People who thought we were crazy before… now are sure of it. I’m sure it’s mostly our own faults. I’m sure the gossip they spread is true to them. Sadly enough… I don’t doubt that they gossip. I can’t talk to people about my life and hopes and dreams anymore. I have found too often that doing so results in everyone else’s insecurities being chucked at…
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The Results of the Movie Watching Saga
We really should have started watching the SAG-Award nominations the moment they showed up on our porch. In all reality… we probably should have been watching way more TV shows all year to be able to vote with confidence. But… regardless, we are done. The SAG-Award votes had to be turned in by Friday, January 17th as the awards were being given out Sunday the 19th. We were able to get through so many good films. I decided to only vote for the film categories. There were just so many television series to watch. We attempted to watch a few but after one episode it was difficult to judge someone’s…
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SAG Awards
One fun aspect of being a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild is the fact that we get to vote for the SAG Awards. We started receiving packages in the mail at the end of December. At first I was confused as to what they were. I tend to just take all SAG mail and hand it to Ben to deal with. I don’t pay much attention to it because, for the most part, I am busy with getting paint off of hands, prepping meals, and teaching four children important stuff. Maybe this time I should have paid better attention. Every day we would get more and more letters and…
