Revolution in Wisconsin

Read about our governor Scott Walker and his terrible budget plan? You should.

This was the scene on Monday at the capitol when the TA union, the TAA, held a rally. It doesn't look like a lot of people, but the TAA is one tenacious union, and lots of members were inside and outside the capitol chanting and waving signs.

On Tuesday, buses of union members and public workers started to flood the square

A neighboring town's firefighters marched in solidarity, even though Walker's bill allows firefighters and police officers to keep their collective bargaining rights.

This town is always prepared for a nonviolent demonstration.

Yesterday afternoon, the joint finance committee held a public hearing on Walker's budget "repair" bill where members of the public could testify about the bill. The hearing lasted from 10:00 am on Tuesday -3:30 am on Wednesday reconvening a few hours later, and my Facebook feed assured me that no one spoke in favor of the bill after 1:15 pm on Tuesday. A citizen's filibuster.

Today, 30,000 people crowded the square, playing music, holding signs, chanting, marching. We joined them.







Right now, there are TAs sleeping in the Capitol rotunda. A teach out/walk out is planned for tomorrow, and our local schools may be shut down for the second day in a row while teachers protest the threat of an 8% pay cut and a busted union.

On Wisconsin!

V-Day!

I have always loved Valentines Day, probably because I love flowers, candy, jewelry, and restaurants and have been happily coupled for at least the last 12-ish years.

Harry and Jack like it too because it's SUCH a commercial holiday that they get tons of cards, candy, and toys. Like a mini-Christmas to hold them over until Easter.

I got to go to Jack's V-Day party today (Harrys class took a field trip to a bakery to make cookies and exchange class-made cards, but I stayed behind with jack because I am a room mom for his class, and I have yet to do ANYTHING room-mom-like. Go me), and it was adorable, of course. Lots of kids' moms made cute V-day cards. Not me. I made Jack scribble on each Tangled card with a dull pencil, though. (All I could find was dry erase markers and dull pencils). Harry had to sign his name himself on the Star Wars cards he picked out to augment the cards he made in class, and he was surprisingly efficient about it. He also took great joy in slapping as many heart stickers as he could on each card. I am such a V-Day slacker.

But only in the kid-card area. I have already made impressive inroads into my giant Fannie May heart of assorted candies. In fact, I can see it now on the kitchen counter, calling my name and assuring me it will still be there when the kids are in bed and we've fired up the DVR.

From the V-day party, I went straight to the capitol for some protesting. Seriously. Have you heard about our governor? OMFG. Here, read this. So. Yeah. This town knows how to protest, though, and the next few days promise to be exciting.

The gov has propsoed some budget cuts that will directly affect my family, since both of us are state workers, but that's another post for another day.

Today is a day to celebrate love! And Harry and Jack were actually nice to each other this morning (and lately, in fact).

Here they are playing Star Wars before school:


And enjoying a rousing game of leap frog the other day

High Tide. Or Maybe Drought? Not sure.

I know I just wrote this whole coffee-buzz fueled post about ebb and flow in terms of my work life and my personal life, but sometimes, it feels like high tide or a freaking drought (I think my metaphor just fell the hell apart, but you get what I am saying. Extremes. It's all about extremes.)

Tuesday night into the whole day Wednesday, I had absolutely 100% enough alone time with the kiddos and when Ben came home at the (late for him) hour of 3:30, I shut myself in my room for some HGTV and a nap while he cooked (the) dinner (that I prepped-- we're partners, remember?)

Thursday, though, I did not see Harry and Jack from the time Ben took them to school at 8:30, and I stayed at work until they were tucked in bed. And OMG did I miss them! Their paint stained hands and their lisped recounting of their days at school. Their joyous welcome when I drag my huge book bag through the door. Even their screechy fights over Star Wars guys. Geez. Did I just say that? Only one day after the longest day ever, and I already miss their fighting? Crazy.

I need to work on finding a comfortable place in the middle between feeling trapped in my house and logging abnormally long hours in my office. My week is kind of set up on a binge and purge schedule, though, so maybe I have little hope of finding a middle ground after all.

Harry's teachers send us pictures every night, so I know what he did today while I was working:


***
It is now 5:50 on Friday morning. Ben is off to teach. Both kids are awake and fighting already. I am already craving alone time...

Wednesdays.

Despite the cute pictures in this post, I have to tell you guys that Wednesdays SUCK. SUCK. They SUCK.

Part of the problem is that the boys go to school on Mondays and Tuesdays, and they take naps at school. Long naps. Naps that they would never DREAM of taking at home. Monday night, they still go to bed fine and wake up lateish for them on Tuesday morning and are generally normal human beings. Tuesday night, though, they are jazzed up from 2 freaking days of naps, and it is so hard to put them to bed (even late). Harry and Jack are weird in that that the later they go to bed, the earlier they wake up. So, Jack was up at 5:45 yesterday. And from about 2:00 until bedtime, he was, um, fragile. He had at least 7 screaming snot-faced meltdowns over things like not being served pancakes for dinner and not being able to watch hour 8 of television (a slight exaggeration-- not about the tantrums, about the TV hours). I don't provide as much structure and fun as preschool, so Wednesdays probably feel really long to them, too. Maybe we need more circle time.

Jack is just so two lately, which is to say he has a total split personality-- so cute and then so terrible.

On Tuesday, a firefighter came to his classroom, and Jack was really excited about it. He kept telling us that a fireman was coming and he cold hardly wait to run in the classroom door that morning, giving Ben a quick "Bye Dada," over his shoulder. When I picked him up on Tuesday afternoon, I walked into his classroom to find him on the plastic phone talking to me and telling me to hurry up. When he saw me, he threw down the phone and barreled across the room into my arms like a 30-pound freight train. "Mama!" he screamed. "I try on firefighter's hat. Not a red hat either! Mama! Firefighter no bring his dog with him!" A little girl in his class heard Jack and screamed as if she was breaking some important news, "Firefighter! A firefighter come to my classroom." The teachers and I cracked up.

Then Wednesday, he was an inconsolable mess at Harry's swim lesson, screaming, twisting, running around the slippery pool deck, trying to throw Harry's towel in the water. I finally let him play with my iPad, much to the dismay of the crunchy mom next to me who was entertaining her daughter with some rousing choruses of "Where is Thumbkin" (and was doing a good job of it until Dora cried her siren's song from the iPad screen). He doesn't listen or follow directions, especially in public. He loves to run away from me in crowded rooms and parking lots. He hates to put on his coat. Refuses mittens even on subzero days. Bites the shit out of Harry.

And then, just when I am ready to let him jump in the damn pool already, he says apropos of nothing in his loudest and growliest baby voice, "Best! Mommy! Ever!"

Oh, two. Oh, Wednesdays. Both such a pain in the ass. At least two is also delightful.

Daily

Harry and Jack have been totally entertaining lately. They are both totally into Star Wars, which is funny all by itself, especially since Jack's Jedis are frequent visitors at Dora's house.


Harry ate a quart of raspberries finger by finger the other night for dessert

Jack was a ginat cheese ball before school the other morning

The he posed a little more shyly with his (Harry's) Star Wars plane


I don't know what the heck Harry was doing, but I am sure it was intense

Dude. You guys. The snow.

I don't like to complain about it because we live in Wisconsin, and I think it's kind of lame to complain about the winter. I mean. Duh. We live in Wisconsin. But this snow is just about too much to handle.





The kids, of course, LOVE it! But Ben and I (the people who have to bundle them up, wipe their snotty noses in the snow, clean up their puddles when they have flung their outerwear all over the house, and serve them their cocoa with cookies and marshmallows) are kind of totally over it.

Blah.

Tonight, though, when the kids and I left the gym at 5, it was still sunny-- sunny enough for sunglasses even. And tomorrow when Jack wakes up at 5:55,(or earlier-- he is still awake right now, an hour past his usual bedtime, which means he'll be up at the crack) it will be a little bit light in one corner of the sky. So. Spring. It's coming, right?

Literary Harry

Ever since we have been working on writing and spelling, Harry has become much more interested in reading on his own. He is not there yet, but he is trying to sound out words and match descriptions to pictures. The other day, he tried his hand at writing a book.

Here are the results:

The first page says "Dog Eat Food" I tried to turn these pictures, but they won;t stay turned. But it doesn't matter, really, because you wouldn't be able to read them even if they were facing the right way.

Page 2 says "For 189 Days"

Page 3 concludes the saga with a "You Dog" and a "By Harry"

Definitely a literary masterpeice in the making.