1. Here are the photos from the symphony field trip. The performance was in a beautiful sanctuary which was built in 1929. Tremendous detail everywhere.
2. I heard the most wonderful description of how vaccines work the other day. It was a segment on Monday's Morning Edition. I'm going to play the audio clip for my kids: Adapting Vaccines for Our Aging Immune Systems. I know they would be interested b/c I've definitely had to explain how an immunization shot works. (Any healthy 5 yr old who has to get a show [edited to add: oops. that's a typo. Supposed to say "shot."] wants to know one thing: WHY??)I've done my best to explain it. (I've said that the special immune system cells have to "meet" one of the bad guy cells to learn how to beat it up. Then if more bad guy cells come back, the immune system cells know exactly how to attack.) According to this Morning Edition report, some (or maybe all? I don't really know) immune system cells utilize something called "perforins" that function by "punching holes in the invading organism and bursting it apart." How. Incredibly. Fascinating. The human body is so fantastically amazing. I'm in awe of my Creator & simply marvel at all the miracles he has handcrafted within me and within our world. (Related: the next report also had to do with Immunizations. Also very interesting: Vaccines' Benefits Trump Concerns, Experts Say.....Also Related: Bill & Melinda Gates Pledge $10 billion in Call for Decade of Vaccines.)
3. Good muffin recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins. I've gotten to the point where I really trust & value the site allrecipes.com. Let's put it this way: I've thumbed through cookbooks before & picked a recipe. Then made the recipe. And didn't like it at all. On the other hand, if I browse through allrecipes.com and find a recipe that has a high rating (and good comments), it always turns out to be delicious. It pretty much has to be a good recipe in order for 546 independent people to bake the same muffins and all give the recipe 5 out of 5 stars. I think it's an efficient system. Let the masses decide if it's a good recipe. Then I'll try it.
4. And speaking of food, guess who won the TED prize and gave his TED prize talk on this very night? He's British and fun and I love watching his shows. Yes! His name is Jamie Oliver. I've been fascinated by him for years. He had a wonderful tv series when we were living in Scotland about improving the quality of school meals. It was really good stuff. First he tried to just change the menu, but the students rebelled and hated the new (fresh) food. Then, he began to get the students involved in growing the food and preparing the meals. Slowly but surely, massive change began to take place. In the end, the campaign that Jamie Oliver started "pressured the UK government to invest $1 billion to overhaul school lunches.'
4. A quote I like:
“If there is one time more than another when children ought to hear only loving words from their parents, and be helped to feel that theirs is a home of love and gladness, it is when they are going to bed at night. Good-night words to a child ought to be the best of words, as they are words of great potency.”
H.Clay Trumball
5. (Allison this is for you) My sis-in-law emailed me recently asking for a link to some great art for children's rooms I'd shared wtih her before. But I couldn't find it. And now I think I might have found it. (maybe?) Anyway, I re-discovered this bookmark the other day: Kid Modern by Gale Kaseguma. Such pretty color combinations.
