ANOTHER One?

I realize now that I have a near-pathological fear of car accidents. This is understandable, considering I have been in three of them in my life, two where I was driving, neither of which were of my own doing. Two of them were while I was pregnant. Trust me, if I could live in a city where I never had to step foot in a car again, I would be perfectly happy.

That said, it might then be better received when I announce the latest manifestation of my sickness: Buying Car Seats We Cannot Afford. Not just any ole car seats, either. We (or as my husband would rather) I have gone and bought two seats from Britax. Our six-month-old O, and our two-year-old Bean are set for the safest car seat this side of the Atlantic.

Then I began to do more research. I learned that in Sweden, children are not only in rear-facing seats until age two by law, many stay until age three or even five. Yikes! This is the country that brought us Volvos and Saabs, and it has some of the highest breastfeeding rates in the world. I knew I was onto something....and unfortunately that it wasn't going to come cheap.

Let me put that another way.....it already HADN'T come cheap, since I just spent hundreds of dollars on the two above-mentioned seats. We bought the Regent and the Decathalon models, and they arrived promptly. I then dutifully read the manuals and installed both of them in a process that took over two hours, ending in me standing triumphant, sunburned, with pools of sweat at my feet (literally---it is still quite humid here). Why did it take so long? I had to configure the seats over and over again until they were in the safest possible position in the car...with five kids to seat, it is surprising that I am not still out there.

Ready for the kicker? After reading all that talk about rear-facing for kids who are older toddlers, I then went and did again. On the credit card. The Interest Rates! The payments! Egads!

A few days from now, we will be the proud owners of a third car seat, one that can be set rear-facing for our two-year-old. Four-year-old Dream will move into the harnessed booster, and O will stay where she is.

I just need to figure out how to sensibily defend this to my dear husband, who is sleeping upstairs, blissfully unaware that I just put us in the hole another $200, all in the name of Safety.

I suppose I can rationalize it by telling him it is cheaper than moving to Sweden.

Day Four of the Great Cleaning Strike of 2006

This is x-posted to my LJ, MySpace, and my blog on Blogger, if anyone cares. I don't generally like to be so lazy, but this warrants sharing on a broader scope.

Muse and Dream (our two eldest daughters) have entered into a cleaning strike. It all started innocently enough, with me asking them to "clean up the damn room already" and they were all "no" and I was all "get cracking" and then they did it, it was done, and they were free to go about their lives....

Until I moved a dresser in their room to allow the closet door to open easier, and I found that a gazillion (yes Mr. Bush, that is larger than a Brazillian) pieces of toys and general debris were shoved into the crevice behind it.

"Um.......girls?"
"We didn't do it!"
"It is your room....who else could have done it?" (I rolled my eyes here)
"Our brother did it.."
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not not not!"

At this point I dissolved into a puddle of tantrum and kicked my legs until they cleaned the room and made me a nice relazing mug of tea.

Ha.

It was really just a small pile, perhaps twenty or so items. I explained that they could probably clean it easily and without much further ado, and then life's fun would continue on uninterrupted. The alternative, if they refused to do this, was to stay in the room until it was cleaned....as long as it took. Thinking this was adequate, I turned on my heel and went downstairs to check if any crack coffee was still in the pot.
There wasn't.

"We aren't doing it!" I heard in a chorus of small voices coming down the stairs. "EVER!"

Four days have passed now, and the room is yet to be cleaned. They have stuck to their guns, refusing not only to clean up the small mess, but have since pulled out more.

Putting away laundry has become a dangerous task, what with the picket lines and mountains of plastic and stuffed animals blocking my way. They are not moved by my claims that there are wonderful things to do outside, computer games to play, museums to visit....for Bob's sake, Riverscape to go to!

Somehow all my discussions about peaceful protests and sticking up for what you believe have sunk in.....TO MY DETRIMENT!!! (it isn't the first time)

*sigh*

Apparently, I am the "Man," the "System," the "Powers That Be."

Fuck.

Shameless Plug (for a good company!)

Its Summer Clearance Time!!!!

This is different from the normal clearance sale at NFB, in the sense that these are all HABA items that are no longer going to be carried by us at NFB.

Soooooooo......If you want to place an order for the HABA Summer Clearance Sale, you have until MIDNIGHT JULY 9th to get it in. After that, all the items on this list are discontinued and unavailable FOREVER!

The link to the sale:

CLEARANCE SALE

How do you place an order, you ask? Simply go to www.anturalfamilyboutique.com, and look for the Summer Clearance Sale in the public shopping cart so you can place the order online. If you are local to me, party shipping will apply (since I am placing my own order), otherwise it will be a nominal amount more if you live too far away for me to drop off your order in person.

Jesus-Struck

Our eldest daughter has been born again. A mere six years of age, she has seen the error of her ways and is now choosing the path of the righteous, leaving us, her bewildered parents, shaking our heads in the direction of the sky.

Personally, I blame this all on her visit to her grandparents church, one of those humongous modern ones that resemble monolithic shopping malls more than houses of God. She spent one measly morning in a youth group singing songs/doing crafts/eating pretzels for Jesus, and now she thinks he is quite special.

I learned over discussion at the dinner table that she had decided "Jesus was her boyfriend" and theat she "had crush on him." Um, come again? I mean, not that I want to squelch her heartfelt yearnings for indoctrination into the Christian Church (merely on resepct for her autonomy, mind you), but this borders on the ridiculous. Boyfriend? Crush? Need I even mention her comment that in his picture on the church walls he was kind of "cute"?

Okay, I will concede, Jesus is portrayed as a bit, well, attractive. Those deep blue eyes gazing liquidly out, beckoning us in to his embrace. Long flowing hair wisping over his shoulders....and that jawline! It would stand to reason (in my anthropological rationalizing, anyhow) that he is depicted that way in order to increase female turn-out to services, because after all, churches need people to attend to stay in business. Ditto for the reason why the anglicized churches make him out to be fair-skinned and blue-eyed, even though he was born in the middle east.

Far be it from me to criticize her blossoming religious views. If she thinks Jesus is hot, that is her business. I am having horrible visions of her becoming a "bride of Christ" in the future, but I will try to limit my mockery to laughing behind my hands with my husband as we listen to her spin fluffy sugar-coated dreams of what her babies with Jesus (grandsons of God, don't you know?) would look like as she writes his name in pink gel-pen on her notebooks.

Maybe we should be a TV dinner family. These family discussions are getting a bit hairy.

HR 4752

Has anyone heard about this gem of a bloody no-good bill that sits in committee right now?

I haven't even heard about this on NPR or the BBC. I know I am not exactly living under a rock, so why did I run across it accidentally on My Space?

This bill:

H.R.4752

To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.

Happy Father's Day!

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