Revisionist history

I am of the strong belief that if you are going to be teaching history, you need to be unbiased. Throwing in leading words like "smacked of" "seemed" "supposedly" "fittingly" "malevolent" and so on is inappropriate. These words make for a more interesting read, but tend to sway someone into believing things were a certain way. Present the facts, let people decide for themselves.

I am reading a book about the Cold War, and since the repercussions of those decades are just now starting to show themselves, I don't think anyone can declare how it is. There are a few perceived victors. The communists, although I haven't heard their side of the history, I'm sure it exists and is fascinating; the Reagan conservatives who won a moral victory; and the liberal socialists who are ashamed of the US for putting up such a ridiculous fight. It happened the way it happened for a number of reasons, and it will be interesting to see how it affects the future. I feel its important for the events to be laid out without bias so that future generations can look at this time period for ways to deal with the current situation abroad. How are we to handle countries that hate us for what we have intended to do for them and to them? What stance do we take in defending our allies? How will our dealings affect our security at home and as we travel? What will it do to our markets and prosperity? Sometimes I wish I had more time to study it, but would it make a difference? Would leaders of a country learn from history and choose a different path, or take the same one with a different result? I suppose its like chess, you have to think many moves ahead, but it's so unpredictable with so many reactions and outcomes.

On one hand, perhaps the US should turn isolationist. Limit business abroad, work to become self reliant, and tell our allies to shove off. On the other hand, would our economy survive and would our borders be any safer? And what of our moral obligation to defend the weak? Should we become involved in all countries' disputes and live up to our "world police" reputation? Oh so many questions! I love it!

Thats why there's two of us!

After my post yesterday I wanted to ask my husband exactly what he meant by this new catch phrase he's been saying. It turns out that his issue with staying home with the kids was money. The whole time he was home he was thinking about work he could be doing and money he could be making, and bills he could be paying. He doesn't usually pay the bills, but it weighed heavily on his mind. I guess I've never been concerned that we wouldn't have enough money, because I always think about how I can buckle down if I need to. Instead of fresh veggies I can do store brand frozen. Instead of whole wheat noodles I can do romaine noodles. Oh, remember those college days of drinking your supper and pigging out on romaine noodles, or pokey sticks from Gumbys. A recent study found that beer doesn't make you fat, its what you eat to avoid that hangover that does you in. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Anyway... It wasn't him being a chauvinistic pig, it was entirely different. And he says he feels just as torn when he goes to work, worried that he is missing out on our children's life... who knew!

I have felt since we moved and I have taken on the SAHM role that it is my job to take care of the kids, and his job to go to work. I wasn't sure what happened after he got home from work. I guess I figured he was at work all day and didn't need to be piled up with the kiddos. But he pointed out I had worked all day too... yeah, I guess if the kids are still alive at the end I have done my job! And I'm the one that has had the chauvinistic ideas!

So I am taking him up on this motto of teamwork, and I am going to take some time for me and go for a walk after he gets home. And instead of making a goal like losing 20 lbs or dropping 2 dress sizes, I'm going for days of exercise. My goal is 20 days of exercise, and I get something that I want... I just don't know what that is. And it can't be food. What should it be? Spa day? New shoes?

He also has a goal, 20 lbs before his birthday in March. He is thinking about a trip to the bike store to get things for bike riding... maybe.


Yay us!

Kinds of Feminists

Nothing makes me more determined to accomplish something than someone saying I can't do it. For example, I'm no breastfeeding nazi, but when the lactation consultant at the hospital responded to my crys of help with "Maybe this just isn't for you." I responded with a "What the hell do you know lady!" and I made sure I breastfed my daughter for close to a year. I might have given up had it not been for that.
So, as I'm driving down the road to get to our library story time, I was listening to NPR. They had some woman on who had written a book about religion and politics, taking questions. One caller asked why the left, who is supposed to be all about women who can do anything, was saying Sara Palin couldn't raise her family and be VP. And the woman said "Well, she can't. She has to make a choice because there is no way for her to raise her 5 children, one with special needs and one about to have a child of her own." And then she said she wasn't judging, but she had made that choice to properly raise her children, one that has special needs. And then she said John McCain was an absentee father and that Cindy was raising the children alone, and Barack Obama's wife had her priorities right also, and that we don't question this of men, because that's just the way it is.
Well, why is this the way it is? When I worked full time and my husband stayed home 4 days a week he was the biggest whiner and I was really angry about it. Didn't he know how important it was? He slowly whittled it down to 1 day a week, but to this day he tries to comisserate with me on the trials of being a SAH. He in not so many words has implied that it is not his place to be home with the children. It's much better now that I'm home and all is right in the world that he is finally the bread winner.
I have to say, I'm conflicted like so many other moms. I think that just comes with the hormones. We are genetically bred to want to put our children first, and I don't think men have that gene. Maybe some of them do. But that is why God gave us the ability to multi-task. I can breastfeed, color with my two year old, talk on the phone and pee at the same time... I'm not kidding, I've done it. I can cook dinner, pretend to be a dancing princess, and pay bills, all while my newborn is hoovering my finger. And I can work up until I have a baby, during the terrible twos, breastfeed though 2 bouts of mastitis, pack up all our belongings, buy a house we've never seen, move halfway across the country with a newborn, toddler, 2 cats and a husband, and unpack, all within 2 months.
And a mother can't be VP?!?! Like hell she can't. She is actually like us! For once there is someone close to the highest office in the nation that didn't go to an ivy league school, didn't come from millions, isn't a balding old white guy, and has actually been through what many women have been through. I love it! And to all those feminists out there that say she can't do it, I say to them let the husband stay home with the kids. Break out the lipstick girls, our heroine has finally arrived!

I thought I already had a blog?

This is the result of trying to go look at someone else's blog. They had be create like 3 accounts and verify them through e-mail, twice because it timed out, and I know there are 2 blogs out there with my name on them, and I can't get to them... I don't get it. But here it is. More mature than myspace, I need a place for the thoughts that don't have Elmo's World or Dragon Tales theme songs play in the background. I'll dust my brain off and practice my writing skills!