Our trip to Tellus Science Museum

After a week of being snowed in, I got the urge to take the boys somewhere.  I've wanted to take them to the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA for a while now.  It has a large collection of rocks and minerals which I've really wanted to see.  (I love rocks and minerals!)  I decided to go on a day when Steve had a late meeting and just make a day of it.  It is also on the way to Breadbeckers, the store where I buy my grain in bulk, so I stopped by there on the way, to replenish my supply of millet, oat groats, soft wheat and popcorn.  It is always a huge expense but the grains last literally years.  I also bought a yogurt maker, so we will see how that goes.  I've yet to open it and read the directions.

On the way into Breadbeckers I got pulled over.  That is such a terrible feeling!  And having all the boys in the car just make it way worse!  It was so strange to me because I had just driven the speed limit up to a traffic light and then patiently waited my turn to make a left turn.  Some cars honked at me which I found peculiar and then the police car pulled behind me and turned on his lights!  Evidently, I had made an illegal left turn, I didn't see the signs because I was staring at my mapquest directions as well as my GPS to make sure I was making the correct turn.  Thankfully I only got a warning!  Next time I'll know to avoid that intersection! :)

Okay, so back to the museum.  We arrived about 11 o'clock.  The parking lot was packed!  I thought that was rather strange, until I went in and found out it was a school holiday!  What a day to choose to go!

Anyway, the first thing the boys wanted to do was go in the room where they had buried artificial fossils in rubber sand, where they could use brushes to "find" fossils, as well as to the room where they got to "pan for gems".

Yes, Benjamin wanted to take a dip!

All the volunteers were so sweet!  Here one of them is helping the boys identify the gems they found.

  
(Yes, I told Isaac to take his hands off the display and step back! :)

Then he decided to be really dramatic, although this amethyst was really impressive!

So we stayed at the museum until 2:30, which 3 1/2 hours at a museum with Benjamin is a long time for me.  We must have gone to the bathroom at least 4 times, all because I needed to go.  I am entering the third trimester and that goes along with it :)  While I was out I got a tremendous amount of comments on the boys and my pregnancy.  "Is it a girl this time?"  "Are you having another boy?  Oh, you poor thing."  "Are they all yours?  You don't look old enough!"  "I am 31"  "You don't look 31, you look 26."  "Well, 26 is good because in the past few years I've been told I look 18 or 19 multiple times.  So 26 is progress."  In the bathroom a lady asked me if I was having another boy and when I said yes she told me, "The Lord really loves you.  He only gives that many boys to really special women."  I had to smile at that very unusual comment.  Usually I get pity!  Although, a lady at Goodwill told me that I was lucky because boys are soooo much easier than girls.  I guess I haven't been out with all the boys by myself for a while because I am not used to the barrage of comments the public has on the children that God has given me!

After the museum I went to three thrift stores in Cartersville.  Benjamin finally took a 20 minute nap at 4 o'oclock much to my and his relief, and we ate at Chik-fil-et for dinner, heading home at 6:30, with Benjamin melting down because I wouldn't let him hold and eat his own ice-cream cone.  He was literally still pitching a fit while I carried his twitching, out of control body, out of the Chik-fil-et, while the employees looked on at me with pity and curiosity (I'm sure they were thinking, what is that 26 year old doing with four boys and one on the way???).

When I got home at 8:00 pm, I was literally at my wits end.  I think I had packed too much into one day.  The only child who had thanked me for taking them to the museum was Andrew.  Micah, when we got in the truck and were leaving the museum said with exasperation, "I wish I hadn't come today!"  Micah is my child who looks at the negative side of things and is often filled with complaints.  He argues quite a bit and can be just plain difficult!  But, he has always had a heart for God, which I'm so thankful for, and a desire to grow.  I've not been seeing this too much lately though.  When we pulled into the garage he loaded on some more terrible complaints, showing his unthankful attitude, and I just shook my head, and said something to him about his awful attitude.

Well, later that evening I found this written on the small white board I keep next to my bed to put my to-do list on:

Oh, how my heart melted.  Micah explained to me why he had written this.  He wants me to give him "verses and things like that to help to obey".  Hearing his heart and his desire to change lifted the heaviness from my heart about his negative, complaining attitude.  If his heart is repentant, and he is humble, that is exactly where God wants him to be.  I told him that I get upset with him when he doesn't behave perfectly, but God doesn't. All God expects of him is to be repentant for his sins, confess them, humbly be willing and open for God to change him, be willing to do the work of changing (like Micah was asking me for verses to write or memorize that would help him have a better attitude), and that is that.  God doesn't expect him to be perfect, in fact, he knows he will never be!  So I had to apologize for my harshness and my attitude towards his bad attitude!

Oh what a day!  What a day!  Each day, full of a myriad of adventures!

(Please forgive typos and grammar errors, I am too tired to go back and proof-read!)