Five.

Sunday was a great day.

On Sunday Tracey and I, along with our incredible cast of ten other women and one Pete, brought the fifth annual LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO show to the stage.

I don’t write as much about LTYM here on Suburban Scrawl as I used to. I’m not sure why that is, because it really has become a part of my practically-daily life all year round. Being involved with LTYM on a few different levels is still a life highlight, and it just keeps on getting better.

Like Sunday. Our fifth show? Wow. Time flies when you’re having fun. Five years in and it’s still a mind-blowing experience. Here are some fun LTYM Chicago numbers:

1. In five seasons, we’ve auditioned HUNDREDS of motherhood stories in Chicago.
2. In five seasons, we’ve brought 72 motherhood stories to the Chicago stage.
3. In five seasons, we’ve grown our LTYM Chicago alumni family to 63 members.
4. In five seasons, we’ve worked with five amazing non-profits (in order: Bright Pink, Greater Chicago Food Depository, Recovery on Water, The Red Pump Project, and Mujeres Latinas en Acción) and donated ten percent of our gross ticket proceeds plus monies given to them directly from our audiences on show days.

We’ll be recapping the show on our local LTYM site soon (when we get the gorgeous pictures back from our official photographer, Brandi at Balee Images) but I wanted to share a few other pictures here, to mark this important milestone for us.

In our first season, 2012, we discovered a wonderful (for me) and horrible (for Tracey) phenomenon: in the week leading up to the show my normally tense, Type A, Monica-like (from the sitcom “Friends”) personality gently faded into something more like Phoebe, and Tracey’s laid-back, “No problem!”, Phoebe-like personality violently ramped up into something more like Monica. It was like that in our second season, too.

It was like that in our third season, 2014, as well.

Then, in season four, something magical happened.
2015 was the year of Two Phoebes.

As was 2016. What a gift.
We were SO Phoebe-like this year that everything snuck up on us. EVERYTHING. Even showtime.

And practically before we could blink, it was over. Again.

Five years is a lot to celebrate.

I am so very proud of what Tracey and I do here in Chicago to carry out the mission of LTYM, which is “giving motherhood a microphone.” I am proud of our cast members, every single one from every single year, for having the courage to share their stories in front of a live audience. I am proud of everyone who has ever submitted a story to us for consideration: that in itself takes bravery. I am appreciative of the support we receive from our friends and family, our LTYM Chicago alumni family, our fellow directors and producers in the LTYM sisterhood, my fellow LTYM National (oops, North American now because Vancouver, holla!) Team members, our sponsors, and our audience members. I am proud, appreciative, and feeling ever so lucky that I get to do this…always.

And I’m ready to do it again…right after I get some sleep.