On Sunday, I plan to be dressed in a hip outfit while sitting in my living room watching the Oscars™.

I am leaving the evening gown at the resale shop but hopefully my maroon tunic with my black leggings will be all that fashion can ask from a mom with four kids and no money.

While my son is slaving away in the kitchen making pizza, I plan to have my scorecard out and white sangria in a glass. Will I call it right this year? Will Avatar blow everyone away? And what is Helen Mirren going to wear this year?

Let’s start with the Animated Feature nominees. All of the nominees – Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, and Up – are good solid movies. Four of them were in mainstream markets. Talk I hear on the chat boards is that The Secret of Kells is the best of the lot. I predict that the winner will be Up, directed by Pete Doctor and produced by the Pixar group. Up has also gotten a Best Picture nomination but this will be the consolation prize.

The Supporting Actress category is up for grabs. Mo’Nique has put in a powerhouse performance in Precious. But Maggie Gyllenhaal has been putting out the goods ever since her big break in Secretary (2002). Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick are good in Up In The Air, Penelope Cruz looks great in her leotards. However, I am willing to bet that Gyllenhaal will walk away with a statue on her first nomination.

All I have to say for Supporting Actor is Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds. It was a powerhouse performance that had me riveted every time this man was on the screen. As much as I love Stanley Tucci and Woody Harrelson, Waltz was phenomenal.

As I look at the Best Actress category, I am already taking out Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep. I think the nomination is the award for both, although for different reasons. Gaborurey Sidibe has done an impressive performance for a first time actor in Precious, which leaves Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan. Mirren is a past winner for The Queen, Mulligan won the British Oscars, BAFTA, for An Education. My best guess here might be Mulligan or all the votes could be split leaving Streep a chance to win for a movie that is more fluff than substance.

Now for Best Actor that has no clear defined winner because each of these guys are superb. How does one pick when Jeff Bridges was great as a country singer working through his demons, George Clooney as the uber business traveler, Colin Firth as a gay widower forced to rethink his life, Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, and Jeremy Runner fighting in Iraq. Personally, I think it could go to Renner or Bridges. In the end, if I have to pick one it will be Bridges because the talk about his performance has been high.

Best Director might be even harder to pick. It has been said no one directs a better action sequence than James Cameron (Avatar) EXCEPT for Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker). No one combines action and great dialogue better than Quentin Tarantino. And if you want black comedy, the best at it right now is Jason Reitman. History could be made if Lee Daniels wins (Precious). All are powerful and I have no clue which could win. The biggest clue is that Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurt Lock from the Director’s Guild and that is almost always a sure sign of who will win Oscar.

Now let’s talk about Best Picture. The category has been expanded to include 10 films this year. Avatar and The Blind Side were box office power houses. Precious and Inglourious Basterds deal with the unfairness of life. Then there is A Serious Man, Up In The Air, and An Education, which are all slices of life movies. District 9 and The Hurt Locker are action flicks with deeper themes. Up is one of the best animated flicks this year.

We can discuss the number of nominees, whether it is wrong or right. I wonder if it is so the number of movies nominated match the number of screenplays – adapted and original- that are nominated. For discussion sake, let’s assume that the nomination is the award for The Blind Side, District 9, Up, Precious, and A Serious Man. That leaves Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Up In The Air.

Which would I bet on to win?

All are good movies. All have interesting themes. Two or three might be great movies. In the end, I think the technical advancements of Avatar might trump everything. The only other movie I see making headway towards the statue is The Hurt Locker. It has been called the defining war movie of the era that stays away from politics and philosophy. The other movies are good but in the end I feel The Hurt Locker will walk away with the statue.

Do you agree or disagree?

Karyn Bowman lives in Kankakee County with her outdoor writer husband and four children. Become friends with Karyn on Facebook or send an e-mail to momgoestothemovies@sbcglobal.net.

How do you make the mark of winter going into spring?

For me in the past week it has been hearing more bird activity at Northfield Square Mall in the mornings when I walk. In the food court, there are very tall palm trees. I would say some of these trees are as tall a two story house.

When I started walking in the middle of winter, you would hear one or two of these birds, maybe. But this past week I have been hearing – and seeing- more of them. The birds are beginning to pair up, calling for each other and flying about in that small tree-filled area. As I do my walk throughout the mall, I do not see or hear the birds. They stay in that small area. Hearing them makes me feel as if warm weather is about to get here.

Speaking of walking at the mall, I am beginning to notice more people are doing it. I am seeing all of the regular people who were there when I started. But now I am seeing others. It is girlfriends, couples, fathers and sons, and one set of girlfriends who has a young child in a stroller. It is getting a little crowded at times but this is a good kind of crowded. Everyone who is there is working on their better health – or in my case – to fit in skinny jeans by May.

Back to the topic at hand, which was sure signs of spring? Yesterday it was snowing when I took my son to his high school but by afternoon that snow was melted away. That is one of my favorite signs of spring. That means there is no great pile up of the white stuff, no long lasting snow on the ground to reflect the sun’s heat back to space.

And that can only mean sometime soon my husband will hoe a row for spring peas in the tradition of his grandmother. This year he will not do it in February as he has done in past years. It will have to wait for March. And March starts next week.

March signals the end of high school basketball. And it starts into the March Madness Final Four basketball tournament. How do my husband and his friends celebrate? They get-together on that first weekend of 24/7 games, play cards, drink beer and have a no-holds barred guy time.

By the time it is all over, well, spring has made definite inroads.

However, the best sign of spring by far is when I hear those four magical words.

“Pitchers and catchers report.”

Now starts the daily reports of Cubs and White Sox baseball spring training camp. Now we get to hear about who is playing where, if there are any spectacular last minute deals, how much is the MLB network is going to have to edit what Ozzie says in their new reality series called The Club. Oh yes, baseball is back!

Do you have any sure signs of spring?

Karyn Bowman lives in Kankakee County with her outdoor writer husband and four children. Become friends with Karyn on Facebook or send an e-mail to momgoestothemovies@sbcglobal.net.