Bullet time!  Because I can’t seem to string a thought together well enough to create a real post.

I have learned that reality is often times colored by perspective, to the point that it can completely change from one person to the next.  Two people can observe the same event or meet the same person and walk away with such completely different ideas of reality that it’s unbelievable they witnessed the same thing.

I find myself consistently second-guessing my perspective to be sure I’m not misleading myself into seeing something that isn’t there, whether in politics, written communication, impressions of people, whatever.  Although we would all like to believe that our attitudes are shaped by reality, the truth is that reality is almost meaningless until it passes through the lens of perspective.

For instance, here are two accounts of my day yesterday.  Both are true.  But they have very little in common.

Koren went on a sleeping strike, starting at about 1:00 am.  I spent a good portion of the night getting up with him every hour or so.

Then Kaelin woke up entirely too early, which can result in disastrous mood swings.  She starts every day with 5 M&M’s, and each time she disobeys or is disrespectful, she loses one.  At the end of the day, she gets to eat the ones that are left.  Yesterday, she lost all 5 of them while taking her morning bath.  Then she decided to throw an all-out, no-holds-barred temper tantrum, that resulted in being carted off to her room and left there to scream it out for at least half an hour.

Koren continued to refuse sleep throughout the morning and early afternoon.  As a last resort, I piled the kids in the car and drove to 3 different locations to get various parts of lunch, thinking surely a long car ride would put him out.

No such luck.  He did not sleep.  Have I mentioned he hates the car?  He fussed every time we would roll to a pause.

When we got home, I set about fixing lunch for Kaelin and myself when I suddenly realized that Koren had been pretty quiet considering that I had left him strapped in the car seat (on the couch, not in the car).  I looked over to see that he was FINALLY.  ASLEEP.

After doing my victory dance, I proceeded to fix Kaelin’s lunch only to look over again to find my daughter, on the couch, trying to CLIMB INTO THE CAR SEAT WITH THE SLEEPING BABY.

That was the end of Koren’s nap. 

Approximately five minutes later, Kaelin managed to dump her entire plate of food onto the floor.

* * *

Yesterday morning my husband graciously watched the kids from 7:00 to 9:30 so I could sleep in and recover from a few lost hours of sleep.

Due to lack of sleep, Kaelin chose a form of … expressing herself … yesterday morning that would have ruined any nap Koren could have attempted.  However, he fortunately seemed unusually content to go without sleep and remained remarkably happy much of the morning.

I am blessed that the biggest health concern I have about my kids is whether or not they get enough sleep. 

After getting all her pent up energy out in her room, Kaelin’s mood improved dramatically.  I am blessed to have a house large enough that I can send my daughter to her room when she needs to yell something out, and it really doesn’t disturb the rest of the household. 

We read a story and then she went to tell Daddo that she was “ready to be a sweet girl now.”  And she was a sweet girl for the rest of the day.  I am blessed to have a daughter who is generally so good natured that the occasional toddler temper tantrum catches us off guard because it’s so rare.

I am blessed to have the ability to leave the house with the kids when I need to, and money to purchase “easy food” when I don’t feel up to cooking a meal.  We went to get lunch and had fun mixing and matching our lunch combinations from various drive through restaurants.  I learned that Chick Fil-A actually has a pretty decent fruit cup.

I am blessed to have a daughter that adores her brother.  She loves to cuddle with him and talk to him, even when he’s not awake.  When he’s fussing, she gives him the pacifier and I often hear her cooing things to him like, “It’s ok, little guy, just take your passy.  Suck on your passy, it always makes it better.  You know it does.  It’s ok, I’m here.”

Since he didn’t sleep much during the day yesterday, Koren crashed pretty hard at about 4:30 and didn’t wake up for several hours.  Kaelin also took a 3.5-hour late afternoon nap to catch up on some sleep.  That gave me the chance to run an errand and Jens was able to stay home with the kids but have some time to himself after running an errand for me earlier in the day.  The evening ended on a peaceful note and both kids slept better the next night.

So I finally watched the presidential debate.  I don’t have a lot to say about it, though I thought it went well.  I thought the candidates were pretty evenly matched, and that the verdict depends on what you find most convincing:  logical, eloquent professorial speech, or lots of experience with appeal to the emotional. 

I know that Foreign Policy and Defense are McCain’s strong points, but I thought he did better than I expected him to, considering his lack of time to prepare.  He refrained from his two debate habits that normally drive me insane:  a) Picking some minute point of his opponent’s and hammering it into the ground even though he’s completely off base about his opponent’s actual position on the issue, and b) that smug little “you are so beneath me” grin.

It’s funny, one of McCain’s attacks on Obama is that he’s little more than a good personality… but I don’t really see that much personality in Obama.  He seems logical, even-tempered, considerate.  But I don’t feel like I know who he really is, compared to the other candidates.  That said, I do feel like I could predict his response to things much better than McCain’s, after some of the stunts McCain has pulled recently.  I know he’s trying to be a “Maverick,” but I feel like I don’t know what to expect from him (or why he does the things he does) and that sort of makes me uncomfortable in a President.

I’m hesitantly looking forward to the Vice Presidential debate.  I’m interested in it, but I’m not so confident in Sarah Palin’s grasp on world issues, nor her grasp on the position she’s “supposed” to have on those issues.  And I just don’t enjoy seeing anybody get slaughtered in this kind of thing.  Her own campaign doesn’t trust her behind a microphone, as evidenced by the fact that John McCain will cancel his campaign before he lets Palin head it up in his absence.

Perhaps she’ll surprise us all.

When I picked Kaelin up from Parents’ Night Out tonight, she was using the popping-rolling-lawnmower-thingy that we all had as kids but can never come up with a sufficient name for.

When she saw me, she let me know that she had to finish the task at hand before meeting me at the door.  She then did a couple more sweeps with it as though it was a vacuum cleaner, and ran over to tell the teacher, “There you go.  I cleaned up all that poop for you.”

…Our little helper.

Jens just informed me that I was “so bitter” about the fact that our pets have suddenly, and seemingly without cause, decided our house is one giant toilet.  Ya think?

I’m considering doing a “SPAM of the Week” on this website.  Because sometimes they just make me laugh.  For instance, these guys like, totally have a factory:

Dear Sir,
Glad got your information from internet.

We are professional hunting products manufacturer in China. We totally have factory in suburb of Hangzhou by ourself.  Our main customer is eastman,carrifour and wal-mart etc.
Your can find some of our products in attached file.
If you interested in our products,please contact us any time we will quote your best price.  Also welcome visit our factory.
Waiting your reply early.

Last night we joined 65,000,000 other people and went to the Plano Balloon Festival.  Although we weren’t able to mill around by the balloons like the last time we went, it was lots of fun, especially since several other families we know were there.

The kids played chase and football and threw grass around, while the adults mingled and watched the balloons inflate and fly off.  Even Koren seemed to enjoy himself and stayed pretty content during the whole time we were there.

Spectators

Shannon and kids

Koren hanging out with Dad

Watch out Josh, there’s a new camera in town!

Balloons!

Playing football with Keenan and friends

The panda balloon was her favorite

Today in Sunday School, Kaelin learned about the story of Adam and Eve and the apple, during which Kaelin spoke up in a rather worried voice, “You mean… I can’t … It’s bad to… So… We can’t eat apples?”

Kaelin is learning a bit about modesty, and is also treading on the brink of true gender awareness.  She is now familiar with the term “goodies” and its general meaning.  As in, getting out of the tub and running down the hall yelling, “Daddo!  I need some panties.  I don’t wanna show the boys my goodies!”

Today we were in Babies ‘R’ Us when she announced (rather loudly), “I wanna show off my goodies!”

“No, Kaelin, we don’t show our goodies.”

“Who CAN I show my goodies to?”

“Nobody. You don’t show your goodies to anybody.”

“But I wanna show my goodies now.”

…Evidently we have some more work to do on the modesty theme.

He’s sweet.  He’s energetic.  He loves to be scratched behind the ears.  He’s good with kids.  He bathes himself like a cat and almost never smells bad.

And he’s free to a good home.  I’ll even include a package of paper towels and a carpet shampooer.  Seriously.

Sigh.

Dear Governor Palin,

After reading the interviews, letters and documents, I’m not all that concerned about the so-called “scandal” involving your ex-brother-in-law.

I know you didn’t try to ban books from the library.

I think it’s funny that you put your plane up for sale on eBay.

I know you didn’t say the Iraq War is a task from God and that you’ve been pretty misquoted despite the fact that your statements are on video.

But do you think you could come up with some bragging points that are more than half-truths?

I mean, kudos on progress and all that, but you don’t actually have agreements to BUILD the pipeline.  TransCanada will get $500-million in state funds to design and seek approvals for the pipeline.  Building it is yet another hurdle to be crossed AFTER that.

You only told Congress “Thanks but no thanks” on the bridge to nowhere after congressional support waned, the project was being made a national example of wasted tax dollars, and there was virtually no chance of getting the full funding for the bridge.  It was already dead in the water at the time you officially pulled the plug.  Before that point, you lobbied for and supported it.

Alaska doesn’t produce “nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy,” or even 20% of its oil.  Not even close.

I think McCain’s habit of rearranging the truth to suit his needs is rubbing off on you.  And it’s not nearly so stylish as your Valentino ensemble.

Dear Senator Biden,

“It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut.”

So let me get this straight.  You want wealthier people to pay more taxes.  Ok. 

Because paying taxes is a measure of patriotism.  But only if you’re wealthy…

“We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle-class people.”

Well that sounds fair, doesn’t it?  Because the middle class earned that money, after all.  It just accidentally ended up in somebody else’s paycheck.

The thing is, you completely miss the mark on wealthy people – and especially self-made wealthy people.  I’m not one, but I know a few.  And the ones I know DO “jump in.”  And not to be patriotic – because they want to share, to do some good.  They give incredible amounts of money to charities and causes that help people.  And quite honestly, I believe they wouldn’t mind paying some more in taxes if it went toward programs that would genuinely help disadvantaged people get “out of the rut.”

See, contrary to what you seem to believe, self-made wealthy people aren’t all that selfish.  They are interested in helping others do what they have done: achieve success and financial independence.  But taking their money by force and just redistributing it to other people isn’t appealing. 

It’s not a solution.  And until you can come up with a plan other than simple redistribution, it’s not justifiable.

However, you might be surprised at the response you get if you were to ask, “Would you pay half a percent more in taxes to fund a program that provides childcare for single moms so they can get an education and a job to support their families?”  Or, “Would you pay more in taxes to bring more businesses and more jobs to America that would lower unemployment?”

In my experience, it’s not that the wealthy have such a problem giving of their hard-earned excess to help others better themselves and their lives.  It’s that they don’t really trust the government to distribute that money in an effective and meaningful way.  So perhaps you should work on that angle before you go playing Robin Hood or challenging people’s character under the name of “patriotism.”