Science Fair Drama

Spencer's science fair project was due today. When Neil and I were planning the size of our family all of those years ago, I don't think we took into account that having four children would mean doing a minimum of 8 science fair projects over our parenting career. I look forward to the yearly science fair like I look forward to my yearly pap-smear, which is why we tend to procrastinate this project to the night before every year.

Indeed, if you had peeked into our home last night at about 8:00, you would have found me in the basement, a cricut-cutting madwoman up to my elbows in glue and card stock. Not to take any credit from Spencer, who is my first child to take a genuine interest in his own projects. His sisters before him took more of a, "Tell me when it's done, Mom!" approach. Spencer was frustrated to see that I was starting to calculate his data, a process he was looking most forward to. So I handed that step over to him with pleasure, and was more than happy to allow him to type up all of his own statements, because, after all, this is his science fair project. 

There is not a parent in this country that has fallen for that falsehood. We all know that science fair projects were created to serve justice to those of us who handed in projects completed by our parents all those years ago. Kind of a "Someday, I hope you have to stay up all night doing your kid's science fair project!" curse coming to wicked fruition.

We are all also aware that there is an imminent consequence  waiting for those who dare procrastinate their projects until the night before. That consequence comes in the form of a computer or printer malfunction. We have a scanner and two printers. Our computer decided at 9:00 last night, half-way into the project, not to recognize a single one of those devices. We sent a fit-to-be-tied Spencer to bed with a promise that somehow we would figure this out. 

Neil sat for an hour trying to reinstall printer softwares only to get a massive error.  At that point when we were trying to decide which neighbor's doorstep we were going to show up on at 10:00 at night with a thumb-drive and a plea for the use of their printer, or heaven forbid, whether we were going to have to pull out the ol' markers, a small miracle transpired. The computer suddenly decided to kick in and recognize our printer.

I found out this morning that my tear-stricken twelve year old had been uttering a prayer in his bed last night that the Lord would somehow "heal" our computer. Interesting that that thought had never occurred to me. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of all of his children and who takes the time to answer the prayers of a young boy over something small, so that someday that boy will have the faith to ask the Lord for help when it is something big. 

Well, the last statement was glued in this morning, and here is the final project in all its glory. Spencer is sporting his most professional attire as he wishes to make a good impression today. Spencer's project attempted to prove whether sugar intake influences brain function. Whether his evidence is conclusive is still debatable, but one hypothesis was proven last night. If one mom and one dad are allowed little sleep and no dinner and forced into a room with an uncooperative computer, it will result in irritability and an immediate headache. Perhaps we'll save that project for Jonah next year.