Porgy and Bess

So Madison has a porg.  It's one of those creatures from "The Last Jedi," and she got it last Easter, and carries it with her around the house to accompany her.  It's name is Porgy, only so we can all think of the Gershwin play, "Porgy and Bess."  We need another stuffed animal to name "Bess."  We'll find one, if I have to go out and get a new one.

It was a cool rain today, really a nice day outside.  The pollen is going down, but Daddy is suffering, not to put to fine a point on it.  Next year there may need to be more aggressive medication involved. They say the pollen is the worst this year that it has been in a long time, with measurements made by particle counters.  I just looked it up.  I was hoping there'd be a more creative name than "pollen counter."  I mean, "Polleninator" is too obvious, I guess.  Anyway, they use a device and tell us exactly how much we'll be suffering each day.  I regret just looking it up, because the pollen is supposed to be "very high" this weekend again.  Which, translated, means Daddy's misery index will be "very high" this weekend as well.  Because that's what you are measuring with that little device:  misery.  It's a misery counter.  Today's count, which I just looked up, is 631 particles of pure misery per cubic foot of air.  So there's lots of little bits of misery floating around out there.  That's science!

And speaking of science, (what'd you think of that segue?) we were finishing up the electricity project today, and it turned out well!  Madison cut out and glued a lot of pieces together, and it all folds up nicely in a binder, and we're pretty happy with the end project.  I mean, it's not some grand device that fully charges a Wankel rotary engine or powers up a small scale well-lit model of Hilly Valley.  But it does show what she learned, and it is a working electrical circuit.  Here are a few of the pages of the book, and it shows you the concept:  we have a circuit behind this page with three lights.  And on the opposite side of each page, Madison typed out some of the things she learned:  "Electricity Fun Facts."  Here's some of the pages with the lights:

Few people realize that Iron Man's arc reactor is in fact made up of small LED lights.

True story:  this one was Madison's idea.

This is one of our favorite scenes from "Tangled."

Madison wanted to do something with Ray the firefly.  She's been singing "Gonna' Take You There" all week.

Madison drew this one, and a few others that we put in the book.  We can't show them all, but the ones here turned out pretty good, in fact.

Today Madison also did her piano work for Mrs. Pam.  She's coming along, although a little behind.  Still, it's sounding better.  Mrs. Pam explained that Madison has to sort of "unlearn" from certain ways she's been playing, which makes it more challenging.  But she's sticking with it.

We read tonight, and prayed too.  We found out that there's one more "dress up" day coming to the school, and Madison was assigned the role of dressing up as someone between the years 1930 and 1970.  I'm not entirely sure why, but she chose Anne Frank.

This is one of those unfortunate things to talk about, but it must be talked about.  And no doubt Madison knows enough about the Holocaust.  But still, explanations always fall short.  We should never forget how capable humanity is of doing something this - again, words fail here - horrific.  I'm not saying we'll be watching "Schindler's List" together, but we'll be studying about the Holocaust here soon enough.  Again - not our idea!  Madison chose this out of all the other female characters to be.  I mean, Amelia Earhart is exciting, right?  Or Jackie Kennedy?  But it's good she chose who she did, which shows an understanding and desire to learn more about history.  And yes, we'll be getting "The Diary of Anne Frank" from the library soon.

And on that note, it's time to get to bed tonight, and certainly time to have one more thing to list in our prayers of gratitude.