Ahh, Friday… usually a day off for Wes. But he’s working this morning, which happens. We got to spend a whole lot of time with him yesterday, though, so it’s all good. He had some errands to run for the church (pricing countertops, sinks, crafty little letters, etc, for the new children’s wing), so his three best girls went with him. It’s sad when a trip to the “big” city of Lawton qualifies as an adventure. Actually, I’m not sad about it at all. I much prefer this to the five lane bumper-to-bumper traffic coming and going everywhere in Okinawa. Seriously!
We’ve been planning the vacation. But, Jennifer, didn’t you already plan that? Yeah, I thought we did, but apparently, you have to make reservations for table service dining. Reservations. At Disneyworld! This seems crazy to me, but maybe that’s because my last Disneyworld trip was twenty years ago when Epcot was the newest attraction. Anyway, we studied the different restaurants, menus, options with our dining plan, and settled on a schedule that boasts toddler-friendly fare of all kinds. I thought we were doing this insanely early, but one of the places was so booked up that we had to schedule our dinner for eight o’clock at night! (Which will feel like seven o’clock to us. Which is like a normal Wednesday night meal for our girls, so no big deal.) So, it seems that everyone else already knew about booking restaurants and that they all did it insanely early, too! I have a feeling that this will make better sense when I get there and can see the crowds, but I just can’t even imagine at this point. We’re not even going during a busy time of the year. Insane!
I did some online searching earlier this week for that Maclaren stroller I kept talking about. And I found one for MUCH cheaper than retail price. So, Em is the proud new owner of a beautiful pink Maclaren! You really have no idea how excited I am about this stroller. Ana’s is exactly like it, except red. They’ll match! And no more short jalopy strollers! My back is already thanking me. It was such a deal that I wonder why we waited this long to find it! Oh, well. It should be arriving any day now in the mail…
We also picked up floaty swimsuits for the girls. Not that I think they’ll drown in the shallow end of the hotel pool, but I sure will feel better about them being in the water in these. Especially when Wes ventures them out into deeper waters, while I stay in the baby pool. (I can’t swim. Not at all. Do you think they make suits like this for adults?)
Have you been hearing endless news coverage about the octuplets in California? Wes and I were talking about it yesterday, about how it was logically irresponsible for a single, unemployed woman with six children under the age of seven to intentionally undergo the procedure and have eight more children. I mean, no one will likely argue with that. What troubles us, though, is that a lot of the criticism she’s now facing is centering solely on the number of children and how “crazy” she is to want that many. If she was married and could afford to provide attention, resources, and proper care to all fourteen children? Well, then, I personally wouldn’t see a thing wrong with her having that many children. In fact, I would applaud her for her decision to implant all eight embryos, for fear that one of her children wouldn’t be born. But I think I’m in the minority. (On a conservative newscast just this morning, a reporter shockingly suggested that she should have donated some of the embryos to research. And this was a conservative newscast!) A lot of the buzz I’ve heard and read about focuses in on the wisdom of having that many children and even goes as far to suggest that the government should have stepped in and stopped this woman. And while I don’t think it was wise for this women in her particular situation to have that many, I can’t see a thing wrong with it for families who can and will provide for as many as they can have. And when we start talking about what the government will “allow” us to do in terms of family size, we’re treading some dangerous waters. For some reason, my generation is buying into the idea that anything more than two children per family is contributing to overpopulation. (Which is ridiculous. We’re barely replacing ourselves here in the US with our birthrate. And they’re paying women in much more enlightened/advanced places like Japan to have children because they’re projecting that in twenty years, the younger workforce will be too small to support the economy there. Is that where we’re headed with our thinking? I think it is!)
Anyway, I’m not sure why I mention it. It’s just kind of horrifying if you actually go online and read what your average American twentysomething has to say about a woman wanting to have fourteen children. And while fourteen is out of the ordinary and her circumstances certainly do leave me questioning her wisdom, I can’t fault her for her maternal urges and the completely healthy/normal desire to have children to nurture and love. But the rest of my generation can find fault with it. And does! Just go online, read some of the articles, and read what young people are saying. This is where we’re heading, folks. We’re becoming a society where even my little four member family will be seen as “big,” and if you have THREE children (heaven forbid!), you’re destroying the earth. Just watch.
Wow. Didn’t mean to get all doom and gloom on you there, but it needs to said. I love watching the show about the Duggars from Arkansas. Not because I want to have eighteen children but because I’m fascinated by how they’re able to manage it all without any debt, government assistance, or outside, day-to-day help. And it infuriates me when people (many of whom have no children and still manage to have a whole stinkin’ lot of debt) will criticize and slander the Duggars for their choices, simply because our culture is buying into the idea that you should only have “x” number of children. (And currently that number is 2, but in ten years? It will likely be 1… or none at all.)
And with that, I should probably go. I’m sitting here looking at my two children, who are finishing up breakfast in their pjs, and I’m thinking that Michelle Duggar would already have her eighteen dressed and ready to go. And they would probably be translating Greek or something equally brilliant. Meanwhile I’m just trying to keep mine from eating the pieces of pancakes that they let the dog lick. Ha!
Hope you’re having a fabulous day and that your weekend is amazing!
Jenn Faulk 