Longest.Day.Ever.

I am exhausted. I was tired when we pulled the van out of the driveway on the way to church this morning. Winter has me worn out. I won't say exiting the house with a 2-and 3-year-old is never an undertaking, but when coats and hats and shoes/boots are involved, everything takes on a new dimension.

Bekah decided today (more forcefully than she has in the recent past) that she wasn't going to do anything I asked her to do. In fact, I had to work extra hard to make her believe that the things I wanted her to do were her idea. I did this all day. I finally gave up trying to fight her into her carseat; that became Brian's job after the second time she became stiff as a board and refused to be buckled in. I have also learned that when we descend the stairs in the morning, I can't wait for her anymore. If I stand with her and wait for her to come downstairs while I'm attending to her, it takes (literally) half an hour. If, on the other hand, I quickly descend so I can start the business of breakfast, she is down the stairs within 3-4 minutes. I know Brian would be worried about her tumbling down the stairs, but quite frankly I don't have 30 minutes to burn in the morning.

We went to see my MIL today to celebrate her birthday. In-laws are tricky sometimes. I love my in-laws, but their family dynamic is very different from mine. We travelled to the exotic locale of Crete, IL! I believe in order to travel there you must get into the way-back machine. It's a very depressed area with a lot of shuttered store fronts. We ate at a Greek-type restaurant who had a very liberal policy and/or friendship with salt. I'm sure Morton's was getting some kind of kickback. The kids did well, all things being considered, but Brian and I are not one to dine out with our kids. They are just much easier to handle at home and we don't have the money to burn to eat a meal while trying to juggle two little people.

Owing to the fact that I consumed much more fast food this week than is usual, the salty meal for lunch and then Burger King on the way home had me feeling like someone could have drained the water from my body and had enough salt to fill two salt shakers. I am on my second oversized tumbler of water and would be happy to never eat fast food again. I am loathe to give my kids that kind of food but am not organized enough to pack healthy foods to gnosh on for dinner. I did bring Annie's bunny grahams (organic) and some pretzels, so that was a plus. And they drank milk and water instead of the flavored water that they were offered. I was also encouraged that Bekah ate the tomato off my plate. They are very healthy eaters and I feel bad not giving them healthier choices when we dine out. My commitment this week is to steer clear of drive-thrus. They are sometimes an evil necessity, but not at all how I want to be feeding myself, my unborn baby or my two born babies.

On a separate note, while driving through Crete it occurred to me that trickle-down economics is definitely lacking as a Republican policy. The area is in need of an infusion of funds, and I don't see the uber-wealthy lining up to stimulate Crete's economy. I really don't see the uber-wealthy lining up to stimulate anyone's economy. I am disappointed with the new show, "Secret Millionaire," which I believe airs on CBS. I feel like it's some wealthy person's answer to the malcontent bubbling up in the dwindling middle class. Someone in a pitch meeting I'm sure said, "hey, let's show America a few millionaires giving up their money and that'll demonstrate that these people are not greedy." Nevermind that there are probably thousands of millionaires in this country, most of whom choose to turn a blind eye to the abject poverty happening in communities all around them. I'm not asking them to empty their pockets, (God forbid) sell one of their 4 cars and/or (eek) move out of the gated community that protects them from rabble like me. I'm just saying, I wish they would understand that wealth is not always a product of hard work. I would hazard a guess that the majority of millionaires in this country are white, which means that they were born into privilege automatically. They probably came from money; that allowed them access to better schools, tutors, and shelter from the harsher consequences of making their own choices and dealing (on their own) with the outcome.  They have access to the finest healthcare, which means they were able to sidestep medical problems the rest of us step squarely into because of inadequate healthcare.

I don't despise the wealthy, I just don't trust them to do what is right by the people. The unrest in Wisconsin with respect to the teachers' unions convinces me that it's very dangerous to trust the wealthy to make decisions that benefit people en masse.

On a lighter note, Billy, my nephew, was sharing some homemade jokes with us at the restaurant. They were akin to "guess what?...chicken butt," that kind of thing. I am a huge fan of knock-knock jokes and in general kids' jokes. I started laying them on Billy and he grabbed my SIL's face and said; "Mom, tell a joke." She responded, "Billy, I don't know any jokes." "But Mom, you do know a joke! Tell Sue the joke." I started laughing, guffawing really (as is typical for me). Brian and I hypothesized that it blew his mind that I had such a dearth of kids' jokes. It's unexpected for an adult of my age to have such a repertoire, to be sure. Billy is a really funny character--he shouted out to the waitress as she passed by: "Elisa--can we have more bread?" Sheila didn't skip a beat: "My name is Sheila, but of course you can have more bread." Stuff like that makes my day.

My MIL, though, provided the funniest moment of the day. We went to her house after lunch to visit and let the kids get some energy out before heading back to Crystal Lake. I had been sitting for a while, chatting, when I noticed the thermostat was set at 76. For various and sundry reasons, we typically have our thermostat set at 65. I didn't say anything to her, but whispered something to Brian about it. Later, when we were already laughing about something else, I said to her, "Gloria, (I still can't decide if I should call her Gloria or Mom), are you trying to hearken back to Florida with the thermostat set to 76?" Without missing a beat she said, "oh, no, it's not really that hot in there, it's just cause the sun was hitting it. It's only set to 74." I couldn't even help it. I laughed out loud and when I looked over to my SIL, she was almost falling out of her chair from laughing so hard. I teased her that she set it that high to make us sleepy and thereby want to just stay with her.

I am tired and logic would dictate that I go to bed, but I can't get enough of FB games. Mostly Zynga games. I resist some, but mostly if there's a -ville behind the name, I will play it. So I have the very important business of feeding fake people, tending to fake crops and building my fake city--oh, and digging for fake treasures. Unimportant, yes. Fun? Most definitely.

I wonder what I'll write about tomorrow....