sale saturday and the hunger games

I have a few random thoughts today starting with our latest garge sale exploits:

This past weekend was a neighborhood garage sale in town so we went to a lot but didn't buy much.  We have been thinking of getting the twins a bunk bed and so we were sitting there in the car talking about this and while we were talking...what do you know...this lady starts carrying out a bunk bed and setting it up outside in the yard.  It's actually not at all what I wanted BUT the price was good and bunk beds are a hot commodity on craigslist it seems so we bought it for 40$.  It is a metal twin over full.  So we will be trying to sell that and make some money on it to buy the bed I actually DO want!  Ryan bought a stereo receiver to sell on ebay but i never heard what he paid for it.  We also picked up a strawberry shortcake sticker book for a quarter and then a fun find for the girls is an outdoor picnic table for 5$.  The were so excited to have lunch in the kitchen just once...then out to the back yard.

I also wanted to show you some pictures of the imaginative play that's been going on here at the Speicher house today.  Some friends of ours came over for dinner this weekend and one of then is 9 months pregnant.  It muse of really inspired Reese because here was I saw her going today:

She's got one in a stroller and one stuffed into a swimsuit under her shirt.

Then later it was all about sailing pirate ship beds.

Elle is consulting a map, reese is looking through a telescope, and they have pillowcases hung up as sails.  Evie didn't want to be a pirate though so instead she decided to be the tooth fairy.

Now for a complete mental shift:

 I have some thoughts on the books "the hunger games".   I don't really want to share so much what I think about LIKING or NOT LIKING the books but instead some thoughts I had about our world while I read it.  I think as an American it's hard to relate really to the scenario that the author puts forth.  It seems impossibly brutal and primitive...inhumane to sacrifice children in that manner.  A common theme of the book is the capital's love of luxury and ease despite the cost to human life in the disticts.  We read it in the story and it's frustrating...how could they be so ignorant and callous?  However, in America we live this way everyday.  Much of our consumption comes at the cost of modern day slaves.  The clothes we wear, the coffee we drink, fruits, vegetables, and chocolates, diapers and electronics, toys....etc etc.  But often we aren't willing to give up these items or search for alternatives because the cost TO US is too great.  Also, I was thinking about the way children are used in these books and it reminded me of something I read in Operation World recently. 

 "Luanda (main city in Angola) and other major cities attracted the discplaced but had no capacity to shelter them properly, so squalid squatter camps rapidly sprung up.  A large proportion of the rural population fled to urban areas due to food shortages and lack of security.  The government is accused of failing to care for these unwilling refugees.  There are large numbers of orphaned and abandoned children; many are falsley accuseed of witchcraft by relatives as a pretext for getting rid of them.  Others are forced into prostitution to feed themselves." 

 This is talking about the current situation in the country of Angola.  When you read the stories in the hunger games it's sad and tragic...but how much worse to read and think about these REAL children used and abused in our world today.  Across the world and in our own country the most helpless among us become disposable, many before they are even born, often so that goverments and individuals can avoid responsiblity for choices they make.  These books are certainly fiction but there bring to mind some vary real scenarios that exist all around us.