Delicious Minutiae

An arrow through the heart!  More on that later…after I mop up my tears and pull myself together.

Yesterday we went on a field trip to Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum (Benedictine University, Lisle) with WILL, one of our homeschool groups.  I’ve been calling it the Taxidermy Museum since we first checked it out last year, and for good reason.  They have 3800-ish square feet of animals on display, some of which had their humble museum beginnings as roadkill, others were shared by fellow museums, still other specimens were donated by real taxidermists in the trenches. 

Their collection at Jurica-Suchy is pretty extensive and pleasingly arranged.  It’s not unlike the hall of presidential portraits that freaked me out way back in elementary school, with blank eyes following a person’s every move…so there is a creepiness factor that cannot be denied.  It’s free and they love to do educational outreach, two big pluses that tip the scales into “Creepy but Cool”.  We haven’t borrowed materials yet, but maybe this summer during our “Summer of Science”.

We had such a huge group for the little museum that the teens broke off for a tour of the University campus, while the ten and under crowd toured the museum.  N, being 8, buddied with his friend P and did the scavenger hunt alone.  E, being 4, was saddled with mom as a buddy in order for me to take dictation on his answers.  He wanted to write his own answers, then changed his mind.  Then changed his mind again and fired me with no severence when he discovered he could do it on his own.  My work here is done, folks. 

“I don’t want to be your buddy anymore,” E said, oblivious to my sorrow.

Later, a big group of us went to a nearby park so the kids could play…whereby I bribed myself back onto the “A” team with rare apple juice and tasty peanut butter crackers.  N never fired me, so this is new ground for me.  E, as a rule, keeps us on our toes.