Clashing with Entropy

This is how we help with housework around here

TURTLE: Look, mom, I’m eating.

ME: Oh, what are you eating?

TURTLE: A cookie.

ME: Where did you get a cookie?

TURTLE: On the floor!

Accident

On my way to a friend’s house last night, I was passed by several cops cars running hot. They blocked the street at the intersection where I was turning anyway. Three hours later, as I headed home, I was surprised to see that the street was still blocked. And so I knew someone had died.

The police don’t block an entire street to conduct a 3-hour-long accident investigation unless there is a fatality.

This morning I checked the news and learned that a man riding a crotch rocket, speeding and weaving through traffic, broadsided an SUV that was turning into a driveway, killing the motorcyclist. The news article didn’t specify whether he was wearing a helmet, but I am sure he was not.

I once saw an accident in which a motorcyclist laid down his bike in the dirt and should have walked away, but because his head was not protected, his ear was ripped off and he had to go to the hospital. And I once saw an accident in which a motorcyclist ran head first into a light poll and, judging by the condition of the bike, should have died… but he survived because he had head protection. Emergency workers call motorcyclists without helmets “organ donors.”

Please pray for the repose of the motorcyclist’s soul and for his family, and also for the first responders, who always pay an emotional toll for assisting at fatal accidents. Sometimes they hide it with bravado, and other times even the toughest cops will frankly share their distress with their colleagues.

Penance

I procrastinated on my Bible study homework. My penance was having to do it all at once while the boys fought just for the sake of fighting. Now my brain feels like it’s been put through a clothes-wringer. I had to fight the ironic impulse to scream in anger at my children so I could read about God’s faithfulness to his children.

Earache

Monkey says his ear hurts. This child has never had ear infections, and besides, he isn’t sick. I asked him why it hurts, and he said it’s from jumping off the couch yesterday.

I remember this jumping incident well. It wasn’t a just simple leap. It involved climbing up the back of the couch, bouncing off the seat onto the trampoline, and then using the momentum to perform various acrobatics all the way to the other side of the room. Over and over again. Apparently, I didn’t put a stop to it fast enough.

So this afternoon we get to visit the pediatrician to see if he ruptured his eardrum. Let it never be said that ADHD is not a dangerous condition!

True love

True love is sorting through a trash can full of wet and dirty diapers to find the beloved’s errant Matchbox car.