Entropy

Before I was a stay at home mom, I was an engineer. And when I was in college, I studied much thermodynamics and the concept of entropy. Simply speaking, entropy is the tendancy of system to move towards disorder and randomness unless energy is added to the system to make it more orderly. At least, that is my rendering of the definition.

My house is a prime example of entropy in action. Or rather, inaction. I should have a sign that says "It's not really a mess, it's just entropy."

I will admit, I don't always expend the amount of energy I should on keeping up with the mess. Sometimes the feeling of futility wins. Yes, I should put those blocks back in the basket, but I know they'll just be dumped out again tomorrow, and the next day and the next. My energy supplies are finite, and two little kids do a pretty good job of depleting them daily.

Much like Homer Simpson said to Lisa when she invented a perpetual motion machine, in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics. It's obvious.