Morning Greetings

James-
"Hey! Why did you sleep so late? I was wondering if you were ever going to get up and make me breakfast!"
"Is it 8:00 yet? Can I go outside and play football now?"
"I don't think the clock in the library is right. Does your watch say 8:00?"
"Hey, can you come look at the clock? Does it say 8:00. Yeah, I know how to read the clock. But do you think it says 8:00?"

Owen-
"Owen, go back to bed."
"I can't sleep in my bed."
"Go back to bed."
"Can I just sleep here for a little bit."
"You need to sleep in your own bed."
"Can I sleep in the bathroom?"
"No. Go back to bed. It's 4:30 in the morning."
"Does that mean it's almost time to get up?"
"It means it's time to go back to bed."
"Can I snuggle you for just a minute?"
....
"Can I look at some books? Will you read me some?"

Felix-
"Good morning, Felix!"
"Hi!"
"Did you sleep so good?"
"UH-huh."
"Are you ready to go get some breakfast this morning? A yummy smoothie?"
"I wan' a HOT dog."
"I don't think we're going to do a hot dog for breakfast."
<sings Imperial March>

Football and a Pink Camera

Football

These boys have gone crazy for football. James got one out of the prize box at the doctor’s office and immediately began acting out full seasons of Eagles’ football in the backyard, complete with preseason, postseason, scores, and rankings for all the other teams in the league.

Owen waited for months for Grandma Davis to bring back the football he left in Pennsylvania. Felix basically watched the older two until they were foolish enough to leave a football lying around, and then would snatch it up (“MY football”) and hold it until a parent separated the ensuing scuffle of crying little boys.

Felix got his own football a few days ago, and then traded it to Owen for the Bills football. A day later they traded back, and now Felix has the new football again. For awhile he was in possession of a falling-apart nerf football, but that one didn’t look enough like James and Owen’s. His new one is a legitimate ball.

I play catch with them in the backyard. They complain when I throw it too hard, but also when I don’t throw it hard enough. They tell me every time a throw is too high or too low, and Owen cries whenever someone else makes a catch and he doesn’t. They like to throw all three balls at me at the same time, and then they get upset if I don’t catch all three. It’s a very good workout.

They’re all getting a good workout too. They can play in the backyard unsupervised, and they’ll stay out for as long as we let them. They run in circles whooping and celebrating and making diving catches, and by the time they come in they’re drenched in sweat and covered in grass stains. They have not smelled very good this week.

The Pink Camera

Back in ancient times, before cameras came standard on smart phones, you had to have a camera that was its own device. I gave J a pink digital camera as a birthday present one summer when we were dating, and she used it to take pictures of her life at RWC and occasionally send me photos while I was living in Chicago.

Then we all got smartphones, and the camera was retired to half-unpacked moving boxes full of half-broken laptop parts and old pens. This year we unearthed that box and found the camera inside. It still worked, and we even found some memories (the stub of our admission ticket to the Butterfly Conservatory) inside the case.

We decided that it could be the boy’s camera. They ran the first set of batteries down within a day. Our first attempt to make a slideshow of their work didn’t pan out, but the next day we looked at their first attempts at photography.

Of the nearly 500 pictures that they took, at least 50 were of the FatHead Eagles logo that James has above his bed. There were also individual shots of each of their football helmet collections, and then shots of a toy Yoshi action figure wearing each of the football helmets. Owen took pictures of James running around in the backyard playing football, and then apparently took a number of photos of the inside of his own mouth.

James used the camera to take blurry shots of his favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips, and pictures (for some reason) of his favorite stuffed animals at incredibly close range. He found these pictures hilarious. 

There are a number of pictures of the clouds, the grass, the garden, and my car. I don’t know when they got it, but they apparently snuck up behind me and took a picture of my butt. Also, there about 30 pictures of a book on the New York Jets that they checked out of the library.

I remember when I got my first camera, and I think I used it in about the same way. Thanks to Dad for all the work that must have gone into actually developing silly five-year-old with a camera photos in a darkroom. It was much easier to just pull out the SD card and put it in a laptop.

A Conversation with Owen

Q: So Owen, what are you doing in that bush? <Owen is sitting in a bush>
A: Um, sitting.
Q: Why?
A: Wanna come in?
Q: No thanks, this chair is more comfortable. Is it comfy in there?
A: Yeah.
Q: How are you liking Kindergarten?
A: Good. I like reading and doing science and coloring things. <N.B. Owen isn't doing science in Kindergarten.> Drawing, too.
Q. What don't you like so far?
A. I don't really like doing things that are so long in my school.
Q. Like copying letter exercises.
A. I like doing that. I also like sitting in here.
Q. Felix was in there earlier, right?
A. Yeah.
Q. What were you guys doing in there?
A. We were having fun and Felix was tasting some tree things. And I want you to hold these while I'm in the bush. Can you? <He hands me some leaves torn up into shreds.> Make sure it doesn't blow away. Keep a hand on it, okay?
Q. Can you not feed Felix things that you find growing in the yard?
A. Why?
Q. It might make him sick.
A. I know.
Q. Is that like a secret clubhouse?
A. It's kind of like a thing that people sit in and they enjoy here.
Q. So, like a deck?
A. Kind of.
Q. But in a bush.
A. Yeah.
Q. What did you and James do during nap today?
A. We did a couple things. I played in James' bed. I got sad a couple times when I was making some LEGO things. I also got sad when I was trying his reading light.
Q. Are you going to eat your supper in the bush?
A. No.
Q. Why not?
A. Because I don't think I can eat it in the bush. I think I'll need to come inside after that. I'm doing some work, you know what it is?
Q. No, what?
A. I'm splitting leaves. I'm picking off leaves and splitting them. Did my other leaves blow away yet?
Q. No.
A. Good

A Liturgy for Cleaning the Bathrooms

For I will take you from among the Gentiles, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Ezekiel 36:24-25

Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?" Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter." John 13:5-10

'But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean. Numbers 19:20

O God who made us in your image, we thank you for giving us sweat glands, intestines, body hair, and buttocks. You send us the waters from on high and your Spirit moves over the waters of the deep that we might purify ourselves by the cleansing of water and present ourselves to you and to one another as clean. We thank you that we make ourselves more human by making ourselves clean. We praise you that by your Son we are made truly clean, and we acknowledge his teaching that our hearts must be cleaned before our bodies.

In this room where our loved ones will come to clean their bodies, may their hearts be gladdened and cleaned as well. Strengthen my knees as they bend and my elbows as they press to purify this room of cleansing. Check my spirit when I grumble that I am too important or educated for the scrubbing of toilets and teach me the example of your son, who emptied himself and became a servant. Bless all those who scour shit for their daily bread. Bless all those who don't remember their last washing or don't know when the next one will come. Bless all those for whom clean water is a precious luxury, and help us to remember that we mustn't waste it.

In purifying this room may we make a holy space for your holy people, O cleansing God. We ask this in the name of your son Jesus, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.