Hodgepodge: Highway Drama and Trauma

Joyce has asked another batch of questions to the Wednesday Hodgepodge!

1. February 22nd is National Be Humble Day...what makes you proud? What keeps you humble?

Proud in a good way? I'm proud of my children. Proud in a bad way? How much time do you have? What keeps me humble? Embarrassing myself after a pride-fest!

2. Where is the catch-all (aka dumping ground) in your house?

There are a few: 1) the first counter you come to upon entering the kitchen. It's the mail catcher, for starters. Another catch-all is my bedroom. And the back of the basement tends to catch what we can't decide what to do with when it's it in the way upstairs.

3. Do you make it a point to visit State/National Parks when you travel or even in your own hometown? What's your favorite?

No, not really. I have some fond memories, though, of hiking the White Mountains in New Hampshire seven months after my last child was born. My closest friend at the time moved up there with her family to help plant a church, and we missed each other greatly. I had wanted to visit sooner, but from February 14th to September 15th, 2002, my body would not have been able. I had torn all my pelvic ligaments giving birth, the SI joints were out of place and chronically painful, and my bladder was permanently damaged and half-paralyzed. The drive up there was but a dream, let alone doing anything physical once we got there. However, in October we went because....drumroll, please...it was a celebration of the miracle of my healing on September 15th. It happened in an instant that Sunday after church when a man and his wife laid hands on me and prayed. I didn't think I'd ever walk without a limp, or at the very least without pain, let alone go for a three-mile hike in New England, but God decided on September 15, 2002, to touch my body and make me whole again. To this day, I talk about the "mountaintop experience" I had after being in the lowest valley.

4. How would you define honor?

To place high value upon in the mind, with the mouth, and with deeds.

5. Angel's food or Devil's food-which cake do you prefer?

Angel food cake is in my top three flavors of cake! It has an addictive quality to it--light, sweet, spongey, slightly gooey.

One year our care group was having an Ebenezer Dinner (Ebenezer meaning "thus far hath the Lord helped us.") These dinners were times for remembering God's faithfulness in the past six months) and I made an Ebenezer Cake (which is what I called it). It was a storebought angel food cake which I cut in half through the middle, added a layer of orange filling, then glazed and sprinkled with chopped pecans. I then filled the middle of the ring with fresh peach-tinted roses because I just adore cakes decorated with real flowers! I miss those Ebenezer dinners. Our "log keeper" would pull out the prayer log and read the prayer requests that had been mentioned, and answered. It would lead to discussion, and sometimes tears, but always to appreciation for the love of our Lord Jesus who hears our prayers.

6. What's the most recent road trip you've taken? Where did you go and how many hours did you spend in the car? Do you like to zoom to your destination without stopping or leisurely wind your way there with stops along the way? What is your car snack of choice?

Our last road trip was to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for vacation last summer. It was one wild ride, begun at 9 pm and ending around 6:30 am, and since someone typed the wrong address into the GPS, the drive became a labyrinth of scary back roads, speed bumps at 68 miles an hour, convenience stores that weren't, and other memories I've repressed in order to maintain a semblance of sanity.

Hubby likes to zoom, and since he is the command man at the wheel, zoom is what we do. He drives like he lives life--with the destination clearly marked. Life is a mission, and so is a vacation. I would prefer to stop and gather rosebuds while I may, or peruse art shops and wineries along the way. (I convinced him ONCE to do that--at Assateague we went to an art shop, and at Gettysburg we went wine-tasting because it was just us. The clerk who waited on us was a transvestite, but that's a whole 'nother blog post. He-she only added to the long list of hubby's Reasons Not to Stop the Car on the Way There.)

My snack of choice? I'm not sure I have only one. Sometimes I want cashews, other times Oreos, and sometimes grapes. My hubby has to have sunflower seeds (Ranch flavored). He cracks them open with his teeth and uses a plastic disposaable cup as a spitoon. Yup. That's how my man rolls.

7. Recent headlines told how a preschool child in NC had their packed lunch from home taken away and a school lunch substituted by a school inspector who deemed the homemade lunch unhealthy. Reportedly the parent was then billed for the school lunch (chicken nugget meal) although an update to the story says the parent was not billed. The inspector was conducting a routine inspection of the classroom-he/she was not there solely to peek in the lunchboxes. The packed lunch contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple juice box, a bag of chips, and a banana. You can read the story here. Your thoughts?

Oh, you are getting me on one of my soapboxes with this question! Where to start, where to start? First, I will say that sounds like a typical lunch I might pack my fourth grader. Second, bravo to the mom or dad (or child) who actually packed a lunch with protein and fruit instead of Lunchables or something really crappy. I am a firm believer in parents having authority over any school authority, and even if the lunch was something another person would deem "unhealthy," the choice is the parents', not a government official's. Uncle Sam has no right to tell people what to eat; I don't even think they should be sanctioning what fast food restaurants should offer: let the people decide! As for the child being offered a chicken nugget meal instead. Seriously? I bet chicken nuggets are far worse than lunchmeat, or at least no better! My daughter works in a public school and she is appalled by what the school offers for breakfast and lunch to the kids.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Last night I went to bed hearing a medevac helicopter flying close overhead. It's never good when you hear that sound. I commented to my son that there must've been a bad accident nearby. This morning, as I began to read Facebook posts, I read horrible news. The car accident involved three cars. A Cavalier with three siblings in it crossed the double yellow line, sideswiped a Toyota, and then spun into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The siblings' car split in half upon impact, ejecting two of the kids. All three of the siblings were pronounced dead at the scene. Two were in their 20s, one was 17. The other drivers suffered varying degrees of injuries. On top of the trauma, when the first medevac copter landed, its engine caught on fire. The flight medics were unharmed. This accident took place about five miles from my house.

I cannot, cannot, cannot imagine being the parents who had to learn of this tragic, sudden, horrific loss of their three children at once last night. Lord Jesus, come quickly!