Hey Moms and Dads! Spring is here and while most are thinking about adding more color to their wardrobes, The Heath Dolls are going to show you how to Style Spring in Black and White!

There’s nothing better than being comfortable and cute at the same time and these dresses happen to be both! We especially love the unique tulle detail on the sleeves making this dress a must have!  Shop this look by contacting Fancy Like Mommy personal Styling and shopping today. Email [email protected]

We spiced up this black and white two piece peplum set by adding a little colorful fur scarf. You can pair it with a colored tee or blouse for a pop of color and more styling options. Shop this style by contacting Fancy Like  Mommy personal Styling and shopping today. Email [email protected]

Power suits are certainly a trend that has followed us into Spring and we love it! We especially love ones with a cool pattern like this one. You can pair this set with a colored blouse or tee or even pair each piece separately to create different looks! Shop this style by contacting Fancy Like Mommy personal Styling and shopping today. Email [email protected]

This is likely the first victim of the COVID-19 isolation: Craftworks, the parent company of Rock Bottom, Gordon Biersch, Old Chicago and other restaurant chains, laid off all of its 18,000 employees on March 31. The termination notices, sent by email, also cancelled their health insurance benefits. This was allowed under their bankruptcy proceeding: the company filed for Chapter 11 protection on March 3. The Rock Bottoms in Chicago, Bolingbrook, Naperville and Orland Park had closed down completely under the COVID-19 isolation order, rather than attempt to offer carry-out or delivery service. The chain might still attempt to emerge from bankruptcy at a later time. Westword

Meanwhile, I have managed to cripple some of the functions on this site all by myself. I have a separate blog at markmcdermott.com that I tried to update to the latest version of WordPress, and it broke. While trying to sort out the issue, I managed to separately break the setting that refers to my Google Calendar app that serves these listings. I managed to fix the links for the March 30-April 2 listings, and this one should be good to go. But, well, you really don’t need to look for articles about beer tastings in the past.

Among the events we’ll be missing this weekend is the Tinley Park Brew & Vine Festival.

Friday, April 3

Saturday, April 4

Sunday, April 5

Hi guys. It’s been a while. I’m still dancing when I can, and now I even have a little mini me dancer of my own, but that’s not what I’m writing about today. If you were expecting something dance-related, please see this piece from simpler times, when the Joffrey Ballet was still doing their good old-fashioned Nutcracker.

I have a relatively demanding job, as does my husband, and we also have a young daughter. We’ve both been working from home and finding it hard to strike a good balance between work and being good, attentive parents. The stress of constant multitasking for 12-13 hours a day can be maddening. Like us, I know many families are doing things on their own – no daycare, grandparents or nannies to help out. So the other day, I posted a picture of my toddler and me on social media, with a caption asking my network how other parents out there are managing to survive the daily struggles of working from home and parenting. In the post I said things like “demanding jobs” and “conference calls” and “every minute of every day (minus nap time) feels like a choice between being a good mom vs. being a good employee.”

I know, I know, so dramatic! I got an outpouring of messages from friends and family, which, as a non-influencer means 30 comments on Facebook and 15 on Instagram, plus some texts and DMs. Some of my social media friends were feeling the same way, exhausted from the stress of it all, but many others sent heartfelt messages of encouragement like “you’re doing the best you can” and “sending love and good vibes” and “you don’t have it easy!”

I was blown away by all the nice things people were saying. And I felt like a total jerk.

Here’s why. While, yes, my family and I are struggling to adjust to the new normal, we are also employed, healthy, and fed (inserting a “knock on wood” here for my superstitious husband). Not to mention the dog is pretty happy with the 24-hour company. We are the ones who have it good. Despite the fact that there are people who are very sick, dying, losing their jobs, unable to pay bills, putting their lives on the line at hospitals and delivering groceries, somehow I had collected all of these kind messages and sympathy, rather than the people who really deserve it. I wish I could send all of those messages back out into the universe to be distributed to the appropriate recipients.

Will we have to spend some Zoom calls with a toddler flinging herself off the couch in the background? Yes. Will we make some mistakes at work because our minds can’t be in two places at once? Yes. Will we spend weekends trying to entertain our kids with old toys that they’re sick of? Yes. Do I wish I could spend just one entire Saturday binge re-watching Peter’s season of The Bachelor hoping that there would be a different outcome? Ugh, yes! But these are small struggles compared to the big ones going on out there. This is our time – those of us who are healthy, strong, and capable – to step up, suck it up, and all the other motivating “up” phrases that will, um, lift all of us up.

Self-centered thinking is a major part of what has contributed to the continuation of this scary, nonsensical global environment that we’re living in (Spring breakers, I’m looking at you. But also, like, our older parents who were still going to their bowling leagues way too recently…you know who you are). COVID-19, and all the big and little problems that go with it, IS NOT ABOUT ME OR YOU. It’s about coming together to protect lives, and giving up some freedoms and many luxuries, hopefully temporarily, that will help to restore the health of our communities and businesses. It’s bad enough that we’ve already lost so many people in the world to this thing. Let’s protect the people we can while we still have the chance.

So, below is where I’ve landed.

• Let go of the guilt. The parent guilt, the co-worker guilt, the bad friend guilt. These are crazy times, and we all have to take it easy on ourselves. Remember to come up for air and feel good about the small wins. (Like finding time to wash and dry your hair every three days!)
• Don’t be a jerk. Remember that what we are living through isn’t about you. It’s about everyone. Every time you complain about your current situation, think about giving to a cause that will help others through it. This episode of The Happiness Lab podcast explains how to Help Others to Help Yourself.
• Connect. My mother is attending more virtual happy hours a week than I’ve attended in person, like, my entire life. Among all the things that are going to stick after we get through this mess, it seems like video calls will be at the top of the list – we just needed a push from a global pandemic to help us connect face to virtual face as a regular form of communication, and not just to FaceTime your mom.
• Stay informed. No, I don’t mean constantly check the rate of illness in your state. I do believe in the power of being an informed citizen, (and holy heck do we need the news more than ever – thank you to all of the outlets taking down the paywall for coronavirus coverage), but one thing I’ve found helpful is to stay informed on a community level. Sign up for your alderman’s e-newsletter or sign up for Next Door – this is how I learned about the teddy bear challenge!
• Do something for you. Yoga, meditation, exercise blah blah blah (and yes I admittedly love those things). Just be kind to yourself and find some time to do something that makes you feel like YOU. I’m doing it right now – I used a precious hour of my daughter’s nap time on my only day off to write this. (So I hope that this is something worth reading to someone, somewhere).

And most of all be kind to yourself, your loved ones and the people “around” you. You’ll hopefully get to be with them – and not just virtually – someday soon.

With spring practices officially cancelled and so many unanswered questions hovering in the air, the four Illinois Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) programs have found a silver lining in the dark clouds of the unknown.

The impact of COVID-19 has left staffs scrambling to meet the needs of its players, keep track of academic performances, set up workout plans and a myriad of other agenda items. Yet, in a time of uncertainty those staffs have also been granted clock hours to build for the future.

“This is a very unique time that we’re in. We’ve got a great opportunity as a staff to get ahead recruiting-wise, so we’re doing a lot of recruiting and maintaining structure and staying connected with our (current) players,” Western Illinois head coach Jared Elliott said recently.

Knowing recruiting is the lifeblood of every football program no matter the size or level or conference affiliation, Prairie State Pigskin contacted staff members from each of the Illinois FCS schools — Eastern, Illinois State, Southern and Western — to gain insight on this spring’s changing landscape.

With geographically better early spring weather, SIU has traditionally opened its practices sooner than the other schools. That held true this year as head coach Nick Hill’s Salukis were able to get in five such practices before the pandemic shut things down. SIU was also able to hold a junior day for the high school class of 2021.

“We had over 120 kids on campus,” SIU recruiting coordinator Gaizka Crowley said. “That was a really good event for us. Along with those five practices, that gave us a jump start. A lot of programs weren’t able to get any in.”

Crowley added that once Hill’s staff had its current roster set up for distance learning, workouts and other priorities, SIU turned its attention to recruiting.

“For me in my position, it’s hog heaven a little bit, being able to watch a ton of guys and speak to high school coaches and speak to a lot of prospects,” Crowley said.

Changing a negative into a positive

Adam Cushing has entered his second year as Eastern Illinois head coach. Despite not getting a chance to put his young team (which by fall will be 85 percent of his staff’s recruits) through much-needed spring practices, Cushing leans toward optimism.

“Our approach to this whole situation is, what does this make possible? Flip it from a challenge to an opportunity,” Cushing said. “We’ve been given time; nobody ever gives you time. Let’s use that time to be detailed about all the things we really want to be detailed on.”

One of those things that he’s detailed on is his staff’s rankings of potential recruits.

“I generally know about the top five guys on the board by position, but now we’ll have a much deeper board,” he said.

Deeper connections and closer looks

Every coach interviewed discussed the opportunity to establish stronger bonds with possible future players.

“We’ll have much deeper connection if we can stress daily connection,” Cushing said. “As crazy as it it is, (during the past) you’d be fighting to get the prospective student-athlete, the high school kid, that you want to get on the phone with because he’s a football guy, but he’s also in track and he’s a 4.0 student. You don’t want to take a lot of his time, but (now) he’s got a whole bunch of time too. If you can set it up right, you can really be maximizing relationships on a daily basis.”

Khenon Hall coaches running backs at Illinois State. He is also head coach Brock Spack’s recruiting coordinator.

“With Coach Spack we’re usually pretty much ahead, but this has cleared up some extra time and allowed us to reevaluate some guys that fit what we want, what we’re looking for this year. We have a big senior class this year so we’re probably going to have a big signing class. It’s actually been a blessing to sit back, reorganize and hone in on the guys that are our top targets and the guys that fit the ISU program,” Hall said.

No on-campus visits

The NCAA has declared a “dead period,” meaning that no recruits can make visits to campus nor can any coaches take to the road in attempts to land potential recruits. Thus, recruiting may look a little different for those 2021 signees.

“For us, it’s allowed Coach Hill, myself and our other staff to develop relationships with those kids because normally we’d be in spring practice right now,” Crowley said. “While we may potentially miss seeing a kid for in-person evaluation depending on how your (high school) camp schedule lays out, what it’s honestly allowing you to do is to get to know a kid better on a one-on-one basis . . . we’ve been able to watch a ton of film, but even more importantly than the film is getting to know the kids. Getting them on the phone, talking to parents. We’ve been able to do that quite a bit.”

Hall said, “Letters, phone calls, FaceTime, whatever we’ve got to do in order to continue to build that relationship.”

Illinois recruiting analyst “Edgy” Tim O’Halloran said in a Tuesday YouTube video, “Basically March has become the new May, meaning the spring evaluation period is such a busy, busy time for recruiting on a lot of different levels. All this has done is pushed things forward and pushed the calendar back even further. Now you have college coaches looking . . . Something we’ve noticed this past week, all of the sudden multiple, multiple FCS schools are offering a lot more kids. More than I can remember at this time of the year in particular.”

An added bonus?

Nearly all recruiting experts rate the state’s 2021 class higher than the recent 2020 signees. Could the cornavirus actually help keep more of those recruits here in Illinois?

“It helps us a lot. Chicago, especially the ‘21 (class), is better than last year as far as the talent goes,” Hall said. “We take care of our backyard, but now the kids that are getting attention from the out-of-state areas can’t go to those campuses, or they might have early offers from these MAC schools in Ohio or Michigan or wherever.

“Now, they can’t get to those campuses, but they’ve probably been to ours. We are one of the top schools in the state and country, so we’re able to get some of those guys that tend to go to that MAC area. Now we’re going to be able to keep those guys home.”

Crowley added, “We’re in the middle of everything. We’re in the middle of Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis, St. Louis, so we’re able to get a lot of kids on campus. With potentially the spring and summer camp season being very much in the air, you’ve got a lot of kids that (normally) go to the one-day camps, put on a great performance and that’s when they earn a lot of offers. From our perspective, can you go up and grab a kid who’s a Group of Five kid or even a Power-5 kid? I think that’s very much a reality.

“It’s uncharted territory. How does it (COVID-19) affect commitments? How does it affect the December signing day? Last year we signed a huge majority of our class in December; now does that change? What’s the impact? Are more kids now going to sign in February so they can take more visits? That’s very much a possibility. We’re taking it week by week right now.”