Our Family

Our Family
Justin (16), Keturah (13), Benaiah (19), Abishai (6), Melinda, and Jared

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Year 3, January 26-27th, 2018: Better Days Ahead

Hm, let's see....considering we have only left the house on Monday for the State House, and Wednesday, for Bible Bowl, we don't have much to share except for regular routines and lots of school work done.  That being said, there were plenty of interruptions and rough moments throughout the week.  Next week seems to be pretty quiet as well, which is good considering there are some weeks in the near future that are going to be just a bit crazy.  Fridays and Saturdays are Benaiah's days to do nothing but sit in front of his computer watching some crazy Counter Strike tournament.  Thank goodness this is the final weekend of that!  He did go to church for the afternoon yesterday to help Jared finish the e2 closet's makeover.  Jared didn't want to hurt his back again because it's just finally recovering, so he needed Benaiah's manchild powers to lift book boxes here and there.  But now that's all in order.  Saturdays are our Sabbaths, at least I like to think so, especially when we don't go anywhere like today!  I had a friend/mentor come over and we got to talk for over 2 hrs, which was wonderful and needed.  Jared took care of the kids' needs, like lunch, and I am very grateful for that.  He spent the afternoon preparing for lessons for his Bible class next week.  I spent my afternoon looking at taxes, specially my Lilla Rose taxes, since I think I finally reached the threshold where you need to start reporting income.  You can report at any time, but you don't have to pay taxes until a certain amount of net income.  And you can't report a loss on a home business for more than 3 years.  I do realize that I haven't kept the most perfect records, so I have to recreate some figures and do the legwork now, but hopefully I'll get into a routine and a spreadsheet this year so I can just plop those numbers down next January without pulling them from all corners of the direct sales world.

Anywho, there were plenty of laughing moments, and arguments, but all is well.  Tomorrow is super busy with church, and some training in the afternoon, and then more church.  Some of us will be at church for 10 hours, with a brief break in the middle.

Oh, and I finally got my external hard drive to work!  I had to go behind the scenes in my computer and turn on automatic syncing, and it took 4 hrs to fully sync, but I did it!  I've come to realize that a) a laptop is very limited b) my laptop, which is only 3 years old, is outdated and c) I want a desktop again.  Benaiah said he has a friend whose dad has taught him a bunch of things about building towers from scratch, so hopefully we can do that at the end of this year or next year.  I just don't have enough memory on here, plus I never upgraded to Windows 10.  It's super slow, despite being very, very clean.  I'd like to try to get something before this laptop dies so I can use this laptop for on the go purposes.  But having a desktop would allow me to switch out drives more easily.  My brother built my old one and it lasted 8 years with severe abuse.  I'm definitely not into netbooks because there's no DVD drive and again, it's not meant to hold all the pictures and videos I take, even when I have them somewhat cleaned off and backed up in other ways.  And, the pictures I do have currently on the laptop already fill half of the 1 TB external hard drive.  And that's just the documents and pictures I have, not windows itself or programs like Quicken, so it's not a true whole computer backup, like my old drive was.  But at least with this one, I can pull files off of it easily like I do with my SD cards.  And I found out how to eject it correctly from the computer so it isn't harmed.

Anyway, that was yesterday, today was taxes, and now onward to million other things I'm sure I should be doing, like sleeping.

Pretty rainbow reaching all the way from our bedroom windows to my side of the closet yesterday!  And on one of my "not very fashionable, but very comfy and reminds me of my mom because it was hers," cardinals shirt!  If I'm wearing something like that, it's because it's comfortable and I just need a mom hug.  I'll probably keep them forever.  And I think they are pretty, but then again, I think all "ugly" Christmas sweaters are pretty neat and some are very beautiful.  I wear what I like and what fits our lifestyle.  Function over fashion always.

Justin made this to match his favorite video game's motto.  It's from Overwatch.

Abishai joined us for a few minutes while we watched our writing lessons DVD.  It's a bit dated, but the material is the same.  He's a great teacher and I'm learning lots!  And I didn't mention the other day, but the kids are steadily making progress in their math.  Justin is usually a whiz, but Keturah, who has been slower, has made a lot of effort and hasn't complained and is starting to catch onto that multiple digit multiplication we struggled with in the fall.  I'm very glad we took a break from it and started on the division book so she could regain her confidence.  And sometimes kids' brains aren't ready for certain concepts.  That's why there shouldn't be a mandatory age to start school and delaying formal school until 7 or 8 isn't a bad thing, but I digress.  Keturah is also reading her novel on her own and is able to narrate back to me what she has read, where last year I had to read it to her and she still couldn't tell me much.  So, lots of progress!

It was a warm enough and dry enough day yesterday that Jared was able to check on his baby trees.  Well, the bunnies have eaten some of them.  I guess we'll be purchasing some new ones and buying some fencing, too.

Keturah's doll, Joanna, had some fun playing outside yesterday, too!

I started a makeshift fort yesterday to show the kids that you can just use whatever is in the yard and we won't get mad at you.  We might have to take it apart if we need it, but have fun with it for now.

I adapted this recipe to make it Whole30 compliant.  It's for "cheesy" potatoes, but no dairy and no gluten.

This was our result!  It was super creamy and super yummy but again, too much almond/coconut milk or oil and my stomach protests.  We started with ghee and almond floor, melting those together.  Then we added a can of unsweetened coconut milk and 1 cup of almond milk.  That's it.  And the fat that is on the top of the coconut milk can when you first open it is heavenly!  An Instagramer mixed just that fat with her strawberries with no added sweeteners and said it was super yummy!  I could see taking that top layer off and whipping it up into some coffee, too.  Which, we can do better now that I bought us a milk frother.  I didn't take pictures of that today, so I'll show you that when I get some coffee going.  I can't have coffee every day and when I tried it with tea today, it just doesn't jive with me.  But the "creamer" did froth up within seconds!

This is Leah's real homemade cheese sauce with real cheese and white flour.  The kids and Jared put it on the potatoes on their plates to add to a bit of flavor.

And they had the cheesesauce on the super sweet ham as well.  Boy do I want a taste of it but it's so full of sugar!  We crisped that right up in the oven as the potatoes cooked.

Grandma stopped by with these new oreo bite things from Arby's and the kids scarfed them up!  Even Abishai who sometimes takes one bite and leaves it.  I guess they were that good!

Wow, all 4 kids playing together at the same time without arguing!  They were bouncing the ball off of the trampoline to Daddy and he would bounce it back.  Benaiah was "helping" Justin to do the throwing.



New trick for Justin: balancing a spinning spinner on his nose!

The younger boys wanted the micro machines again that were in the shed for the least few months, so they switched out a box of little people for it.  They, and Keturah, have been pretty possessive of it.  It's fascinating how a 25 yr old toy can bring so much joy into the house.

Friday, January 26, 2018

Year 3, January 23-25th, 2018: Moody Week

Hey, y'all, I kind of went into quite a downward spiral in my mood this week after a really high high on Monday.  I have lots of thoughts floating around in my head but I'm not going to share them here.  But when I get in these moods, I don't take many pictures, and I don't notice what's going on around me as much.  I buckled down and set our heads to the tasks of school and home making.  I've taken the Christmas ornaments off the Christmas tree, but left the tree because I enjoy having the lights through the winter months.  I decorated it with Valentine's stuff for now.  I put away all the rest of the Christmas stuff, except for my sideboard display of snowmen and penguins because winter isn't over yet, technically.  It's been warmer, up to 50 degrees F, but we could have a number of colder snaps over the next couple of months.  As far as school goes, I took some pictures and I'll update you on what we are studying.  Part of my moodiness as influenced my desire or lack of desire to care about food, so I have been just getting by with convenience foods and eating up leftovers.  I did learn how to poach an egg though!  I overcooked one today and it was almost like a soft boiled egg.  Oops!  Good to know!  My stomach hasn't been at it's best either, although I'm still on the Whole30 "rabbit food" "diet."  I've got two more weeks of that.

Otherwise, we've been home most of the week because the gymnastics coach was sick and we didn't have any other playdates or field trips!  Yeah!  I wish I could say I have more paperwork done for taxes, but I don't.  Jared's income will be simple and Gary will help me with that, but I'm pretty sure I have to start reporting Lilla Rose income, which is a great thing on one hand, but not so fun on the other hand because monies have come in and out from all directions and I haven't kept strict records.  It's all there, but I need to sort it out to come up with my gross and net incomes.  I need a clear head and a few uninterrupted hours to get it done. But uniinterrupted hours don't exist with a 3 year old tazmanian devil in the house.  OH MY WORD the 3 year old!  Today, he decided to not only get into everything, but do it on purpose to annoy everyone AND then screamed and threw things when we took things away.  Then he wouldn't take a nap.  In the words of Justin, "The worst part of the day was this afternoon because it was so unproductive."  We couldn't even finish school because I refused to let Abishai sit in front of the TV all day.  He already has 2 hrs a day (don't judge, it's way after I spend time with him and such, and I need to start the other kids' school time).  I took him outside for 30 minutes, although it was 45 degrees.  He had a blast.  I am hurting.  I literally was on my feet all day and I made over 2,500 steps and I didn't leave the house!  I had to go hide in the bathroom while Benaiah (who I asked to come rescue me before the end of Jared's work day, otherwise he goes straight to church with Jared after school) just so I could breathe.  It was a very rough day, can you tell?  Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Ta da! We made a "garage" for all of his cars out of dominos!

It kept him busy while the other kids worked independently.  But the moment someone wasn't playing with him, he got into trouble.

This is such a long, but awesome read!  The kids are doing a read aloud challenge where they each have to read 10 minutes a day.  I read sometimes, too, to give them a break.  But reading aloud helps them with their oratory skills and let's me know if they are struggling over vocabulary words.  Because Keturah takes longer to decode words, her read aloud pace is perfect for the listener.  Justin, however, mumbles and speed reads ALOUD, so it's really hard to understand him.  This book is the 2nd book in a series following these imaginary, eternal living animals as they journey through all the major stories in the Bible.  This particular one starts with the prophets and goes through Jesus' birth and the visit of the Magi.  It adds a tons of details, that may or may not have happened, while leaving the story intact.  These kinds of novels help me form a better picture of the scene than just reading the Scriptures.  It reminds me that I really need to start reading some commentaries to help get the context and help me really think about what these people where really feeling.

In History, we are sticking with Greece at the moment, as Rome grows stronger.  And we are still working through the prophets as Israel rebuilds after the Babylonian captivity and Persians.

In science we are reviewing the human body and moving on to first rocks and minerals, and then other physical sciences.  I'm just using various resources I have on hand and my own knowledge.

In writing, the kids had to pick a fairy tale or well known short story, write key word outlines for it, and put it into three paragraphs, including certain "dress ups" and not using banned words like "said, go/went, good/bad."  They are doing really well on our new program!  Keturah picked Little Red Riding Hood and Justin picked Romeo and Juliet.  I'm not sure why Justin choose it, but he did change the ending just for fun where they run off, get married in secret, and have a lot of children, living happily ever after.  Next up is learning how to make a key word outline from some non-fiction articles and writing 1-3 paragraphs from that outline.  Writing the essay is easy once the keyword outline is done.  I am so happy with this investment and I can't wait to continue to use this all the way through.  It breaks it down for me, and encourages you to make the curriculum work for you.  The main author has a great podcast as well and is just a pleasant person to listen to when he's either on the child's DVD lesson or the teacher's DVD guide.  It's called the Institute of Excellence in Writing by Andrew Pudwea.

The Valentine's Day tree!

My beautiful new diffuser I am using every day!

We had a set of thunderstorms go through this week.  Yes, thunderstorms in January.  It created major ice on the roads for Tuesday morning and the public school parents were all up in arms because they didn't call for a 2 hr delay until after some of the kids were on the bus or parents had left for work.  Even Benaiah's school didn't delay until 30 minutes before he was to leave.

Michael W. just announced the spring leg of his Million Lights/Surrounded tour!  May 4th in Anderson, IN and it's only a 1 hr drive!  The two albums come out in February, so that's pretty exciting.  Oh, and this a screengrab for CCM's Instagram feed.  I'm really enjoying Instagram and reconnecting with CCM artists, Whole30 sponsors, homeschooling people, etc.

I was craving ranch dressing, so I looked up how to make a homemade version (that included regular dairy products) and made it with just my special mayo.  I should have mixed it up before I put it on the salad, but oh well, it worked.  Oh, and I don't really like salads in the winter because I'd rather eat something warm, but I manage.

Ta da!  Thanks to Instagram stories, I watched someone make poached eggs, and gave it a try!  I did it on the first go!  Bring to a boil water and a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar, swirl the water, plop in the egg as the water is swirling (break the egg into a bowl first).  Then wait about 3-4 minutes until the white part cooks and the egg rises to the surface, then scoop it out with a slotted spoon.  Easy!  A little time consuming doing one at a time.  I might get brave and do two or something, but I think they just might stick together then.  Hm,....

Keturah is learning about angels in Bible class with Grandpa, Nora, and Everly.  She had to use a concordance to look up Bible verses about angels and write down a sentence about the passage.

I screenshotted this one and saving it for later.  I can't have peanuts on Whole30.  Basically you make your own jam but cooking up a berry of some sort, without sugar.  I think you melt almond butter or peanut butter with coconut oil.  And then you layer it.  Something like that.

The office closet is getting a little makeover because the church's kitchen is getting a makeover.  Waste not!

Abishai loves watching videos on Daddy's computer at work.  They were watching a video of real life mudding.  Basically, the trucks are jacked up and they go through the mud on purpose.  It wasn't a Monster Jam rally, it was out in the open and wild, and crazy "are they going to make it through?" moments.

The office got a Keurig and some nice K-cups!

Gary has started his busy spring traveling season, and he usually travels with a couple of boxes of books, even if he's traveling by air.  So they have to be checked to see how much they weigh and how much it's going to cost.  Abishai weighed 27 lbs on this scale!  Yeah!!

This is what these are for, right?
Parking garage on Daddy's desk.

LOOK! LOOK! LOOK! It's finally open!  We have a Timmy's within 30 minutes of us!!!!!!  We are so super excited!!! I"m not joking, the kids, even Benaiah, can't wait to take a field trip there!  And this announcement is what triggered the "I miss Canada so badly" response.

So, apparently, James Hinchcliffe, an Indy car driver, is a Canadian!  So he worked the drive through on their opening day.  So cool!!  They are going to open 2 or 3 more stores in or near Indy, but not on our side of town.  Boo! We'll take the kids there soon, but maybe we'll go after my Whole30 is done?  Lol.  I don't care.  I just love that it's here and open and people are loving it!

Justin is studying Revelation with Grandpa this semester, per his request.  They are using the same DVD lessons that Grandpa recorded for a class at church like 8 years ago and that Benaiah used when he was 12.  Can't get any better than this for a Bible class!

Justin's handwriting is better than Benaiah's, but he tends to write too fast and scribbly.  He can write better than this.

The moon had risen by 4pm this afternoon while we were outside.  I just couldn't handle the noise coming from Abishai anymore and he was literally climbing everything!

Now THAT'S a picture!  Superman!

Socks was so happy to have some playmates outside again!  Although, the playmates have about 900 poops to clean up first, lol.  Thankfully, it's all in one area on the opposite side of the yard from the playground.  Smart doggy!
Abishai loved playing with Socks, too!

I got Keturah to come outside, too.  But Justin has now entered the phase where all the wants is his screen and the outside has no appeal to him, which is said.  I even tried to start a makeshift fort near the tree, but no one was interested.
This is where we were 5 years ago, thank you Facebook for telling me today.  Our first J.T. Norris lectures at MCC.  Mark Miller spoke at this one.  Gary and Leah had been invited to come, and Gary spoke at this same event a few years prior and that's how we got connected to MCC.  So much potential, so much growth, some for the school and some for us.  But also, still, heartbreak and sadness that we couldn't stay with them longer.  I will forever miss my Canadians.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Year 3, January 21-22nd, 2018: The Worst Turns to the Best

Oh my goodness, what a day!  Sunday was a normal full Sunday, nothing terribly special there, but I did have some lightbulb moments during the sermon.  But I'd like to talk about today, Monday, first, because what a day!

Today, Keturah, Justin and I, went downtown to the Indiana State House/Capitol building and participated in rally for home educators put on by the political organization connect with our state home education association, called the IAHE Action group.  Today's event was called Homeschool Day at the State House and I have waited a full year to participate in it!  You probably know how much politics has been huge for my side of the family.  My parents loved being involved locally in the school board and they were the first ones to homeschool in our town of 11,000.  When the huge New Hampshire primary came around in 1996, I was a young teenager and we went to rally after rally for several of the Republican candidates.  I met people like Lamar Alexander, who WALKED through our town and several others.  I'm met Col Oliver North. I met Barbara Bush way, way back in the day.  And when I was a teenager, I participated in TeenPact, and was a page in the New Hampshire Senate for a day, an experience I cherish so much to this day.  My parents instilled in me a love for being involved and for education and for being part of solutions.  So when I have opportunities to literally drag my children to these kinds of events, I will do it.  I get it, they are tired of going on field trips.  But I hope someday they will appreciate the experiences they have had.  At least they did pick up on some things today and were able to tell Grandma all about it.

We took a one hour tour around the building, but it was very busy, not only with the 200 or so home schoolers, but there was a big committee meeting in the Senate chamber today over redistricting.  We weren't able to get into that chamber, but there are windows where we can peek in, and of course a gallery we could also go in, but didn't take the time to do it.  You see, that's what I love about the democratic process.  The people are allowed to watch and participate at times in the proceedings.  The legislators are there for us, not us for them.  And at least on the state level, they do understand that and they love it when people come in to talk to them, especially regular folk like us (vs. business people, lawyers, doctors, etc.).  So go talk to them!  We were allowed to go into the House of Representatives and sit in their chairs and see their gallery and how they vote, etc.  We had a great tour guide, but I did feel rushed and would have loved to ask more questions.  I'm sure I can set up another time for that.  There was so much to see and read, but time was limited and the kids were unwillingly.  We could have done a scavenger hunt AND there were some older kids who dressed up as "living statues" representing some of the busts and statues around the building.  We could of talked to them and learned things as well.  How neat!!  We also walked into the only quiet executive branch office, which was the state treasurer's office.  The governor, lt. governor, etc. were all pretty busy.  The legislature only meets from January to March so this is their busy season.  I'm sure they meet individually throughout the year, but nothing get presented to the whole House or Senate until the next session.  We also got to sit in 130 year old chairs in the state supreme court!  The building itself is set up pretty well, and it's so much bigger than New Hampshire's!  I didn't take a whole lot of pictures of the building, but wow, it was beautiful!

After the tour, we ate some lunch in the atrium where we were going to hold our rally, listen to a speaker, listen to an all homeschool chorale, and get fired up!  And boy was our speaker incredible!  Peter Heck was his name, and he's a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University (where I went to school) and Ball State, writes for the Wall Street Journal, wrote 5 books, and teaches US History and Government in a local public high school.  He's also a Christian and has young kids.  Basically, his main point today was that home education fulfills all the requirements opponents to home education claims that public school does, so what's the problem?  It's not about the education itself, but the freedom to choose, just like the freedom Native Americans need in order to survive, or the freedom to choose our own healthcare or the freedom of religion for that matter!  He was all for less government regulation on all fronts.  And he talked about how our politics won't change and kids won't be well educated until until the family unit is respected and is restored to be a positive environment.  And that can't be done without moral values, which are rooted in Christianity.  He's pro freedom, pro education, and pro family.   It doesn't get better than that! Ah! I could have listened to him for hours talking about this stuff!  And that's the problem.   The masses in this country are not well versed in true politics.  They listen to whatever the leftist media puts out there without thinking deeper.  They are subtlety brainwashed from preschool and up.  We need to think for ourselves and stay involved.  Got a concern?  Go and talk to your legislators!  Not just emails and phone calls.  Have a face to face with them!

And that's exactly what we did.  Everyone was encouraged to take packets to hand, in person if possible, to their legislators that contained a letter inviting them to our homeschool conference and some information on homeschooling, like statistics and articles.  We hadn't made an appointment, but our representative, Mr. Mike Speedy, was able to meet with us for a few minutes in between things.  I was super nervous because I had things I wanted to say and questions to ask and this is a super important topic to me.  But, I didn't need to be.  Why?  Well, come to find out, Mr. Speedy has been on hiking trips with Gary!! Say what?! Crazy!!!  Why had I not known this before?!  AND our Senator, Mr. Aaron Freeman, attends Indian Creek! And they both have our back when it comes to having the freedom to home educate.  Super awesome!!!  But why? Why does the Good Doctor (as some call him) seem to know EVERYBODY I come in to contact with?  Because he's personable, and stays in community with people, unlike me who hides behind the screen.  But how cool is that?!  I'm sure I'll contact both of them again at some point, and maybe they can give us a little more behind the scenes look at what they do.  But not now.  They are super busy.  They do have page program where kids ages 13-18 yrs old can be a page for a day or two or three.  I'd love for all the kids to do that, including Benaiah.

Oh, so you must be wondering why it was "the worst turning to the best."  Well, it was a rough start with the morning with me not planning enough time to get out the door.  We were 30 minutes later than I wanted to be, but we had enough time to get to our tour time on time.  I parked a couple of blocks away in the first parking garage I saw because I didn't want to be wandering the streets when I knew I needed to just get in there.  However, it was raining moderately and that was pretty annoying.  Best yet, I sloshed through a huge puddle in my rush and soaked my whole sock and shoe.  I was pretty mad.  I finally calmed down once we were in the building, picked up our nametags and sat down for a minute before our tour started.  And then the day got better and better and ended with meeting Mr. Speedy.  I now know the lay of the land at the State House, so when I go back, we can focus on different areas and read some of the plaques and such.  We did go in from the west side, and went past all the offices for the media, which I thought was neat.

There were two things we didn't get to do that we can next year instead of the tour.  The IAHE Action group spent some time in a nearby government building going over how a bill is passed and what bills are currently being discussed that may affect us directly or indirectly.  For example, I know that one topic of discussion is the compulsary age for children to start attending school.  Currently that age is 7, therefore, Kindergarten is not required in the state of Indiana.  Some want to change it to 5 years old.  For us, that means we would have to start counting our 180 days when they turn 5.  We don't have to submit anything to the state or local education officials, not even the 180 days record, but if there is an inquiry into our home education, we must produce that record.  They don't want to know exactly what we do either.  Just mark it off on a calendar somewhere.  But, we are always one law away from that changing.  Therefore, we directly support IAHE Action and HSLDA (a national agency that handles home education court cases) so they can stay on top of these ever changing political waters.  And that is why it is important to physically show up and represent our "movement" and show the legislators that are freedom to choose our children's educational path is important to us.  The government does work on some level, but only when the people are educated enough to understand how it works and if they stay involved and connected.

I've always believed that, and even when we were in Canada, I sought to understand the local and national Canadian governments, and started to read up on their history, healthcare systems, politics, etc.  I'm a life long learner and always will be.  I wish I knew how to transfer that love for learning to the children better than I seem to be doing now.  I get excited and I get chatty, spewing all kinds of facts on them like an encyclopedia.  And when I don't understand it, I seek out information.  We'll be going to the local home school conference this year, not because we need a whole lot of new information, but I at least will be, again, representing our family and supporting our association, and be there to help some of my new friends navigate the sometimes confusing waters of picking out homeschool curriculum.  The HSLDA president will be there, too.  I get so fired up for this stuff and I know I do it also to honor my parents and what they sacrificed for us to have a great education and to be part of the grassroots efforts to make home education a normal avenue for education.  I cried when the chorale sang today because when I grew up, I didn't have any home schooled friends in high school.  Some of my friends had been home schooled, but they went on to the public or private high schools.  But here, in Indiana, they have a big graduation ceremony at the State House, just for home schoolers.  How far the movement has come in 20 years!  Home education is part of my DNA, and I will champion it until I die.  Just like I champion pro life supporters.  And pure capitalism (vs. the over regulated capitalism we have in this country).  And I will do my best to pass these things onto my kids, maybe not all my opinions and passion, but the ideas of what government should be about.  Knowledge is power.  Always.  Question everything.  Do your part.  Think for yourself.

Which leads me to what I learned in yesterday's sermon, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

New Hampshire is actually the oldest original state capitol building still in active use today, but Indiana's State House is twice as big and just as gorgeous!  It's 130 years old!  Here's the big rotunda in the middle! Although, NH's has a real gold plated dome.

Proof: In God We Trust in the state Supreme Court.  Supremely redecorated with 23k gold plating (with someone's tax dollars 50 years ago).  They also chipped through 9 layers of paint to find the original paint scheme and repainted it in that color.

Heaviest all brass chandelier you will find weighing in at over 1,000 lbs!

More gorgeous glass windows!  5 justices, with the current Chief Justice being the first woman to be Chief Justice.  5 yr term as Chief Justice.  Required retirement for all judges by age 75.  Two brand new judges on this particular court in the last 18 months.  5 years experience as a judge prior to this position or 10 years as a lawyer, a long interview process with a final decision made by the governor. 

The Supreme Court hears about 10% of all cases, and there is a separate appeals court as well.  I forget all the details.  But each side has 20 minutes to present their case and then it's on to the next case. The judges and their assistants will comb through the case in their chambers over the next 6-12 weeks and make a final judgment.  You can see the gold plating up there on the wall on the molding.

We were in the north atrium, and we did fill up these seats for the most part.  They also hold the not mandatory home school graduation ceremony here every year.  And many, many, many other rallies.  Don't quote me, but I believe there was a March for Life rally being held at the St. John church nearby as well as maybe up into this building.  There's a women's rally coming up in a month as well.  Lots of living history happening in this building, especially when the legislature is in session.  People were buzzing everywhere!

When we went into the House of Representatives chamber, we were able to sit in their very comfy chairs.  I should have taken a picture of their little touch screens in front of them where I think they can sign in, but more importantly, they can cast their vote.  There is only green for yeah and red for no and if you are present, which you are supposed to be, you have to vote.  You can't sit out of a vote like you can at a federal level.  I can't remember if all states have the same exact procedures but I'm sure they are similar.

The Indiana House has 100 members and the Senate has 50 members.  The House has their own Majority Leader and the Senate as the Lt. Governor as theirs.  Right now, we have a huge Republican majority, which usually bodes well for conservatives like us.  This chandelier is the largest chandelier and has 100 lights!  They can lower it down from the ceiling and it lays on the tops of the desk while it is cleaned and lightbulbs changed, etc.

Ah!  there's the little voting boxes.  The kids obviously weren't having as much fun as I was.  We actually sat on the Republican side as well.  I didn't take a picture of the balcony either, bummers!  Pretty basic balcony, but there are benches like pews up there.  Fun fact that our Representative Speedy reminded me of: New Hampshire has the largest state House of Representatives in the nation with something like 400 Representatives!  Think on that for a second.  Indiana, which probably has 10 times the amount of people in it has 1/4 of the number of Representatives.  Crazy!  I think that NH also has the smallest Senate with something like 24 members.  It's so very interesting to me!

Beautiful mural on the wall behind the Majority Leader's chair depicting the founding of Indiana.  The guy dressed in blue was in charge of the state when it was a territory.  His grandson was President Benjamin Harrison.

State Seal of Indiana.

All the way to the left of the mural there were some school boys holding some books and all the way on the right was a tractor, go figure.

Oh yeah, I'm here! Waiting for the rally!

Four stories high! The lower story holds the press offices.  The 2nd story, which most people walk into, holds the executive branch with the Dept of Education, the Treasurer, the Auditor, etc.  The 3rd story holds both the House and the Senate and their respective offices and holds the judicial branch and the state law library.  The fourth story has the entrances to the galleries, and I suspect more office for the legislators.  We didn't go up to the fourth story this time.  But this place is massive!

My parents would have been thrilled to see a home education organization holding an all day rally in the state house!  Super proud to be here to support it!

And here's the east side of the Capitol Building, the prettier side.  It's so huge!
 In comparison, this is New Hampshire's State House:

Ah, the 40 something karat gold dome! It was restored when I was a kid in 1997,but somehow that failed, so they did it again 3 years ago in preparation for the bicentennial of the building.  Which interestingly enough was built AFTER the Indiana State House.

There you go, the real answer.  ORIGINAL CHAMBERS.  Still cool.  Still my home state.  I still want to live there some day.
Isn't it beautiful? Much smaller, but just as important and impactful!  I just read that Hillary Clinton started her 2007 Presidential Campaign on those steps and who can't forget the run for the Republican bid in 1996?????  Great memories!  Moving on...

Oooo, Georgia Street reminds me of both the part of Charlottetown they close down in the summer for tourists right outside the downtown library/theater and the middle of New Orleans when we were on the tram!

Back to inside the building, the tour guide, who was wonderful, showed us the vaults in the Treasurer's office that they used to use for real cash when we didn't have banks like we do now.  She had Keturah try to push the door and Keturah couldn't.  Super heavy!

Another vault!  Nothing is really stored in here anymore, it's just some showpieces for a time gone by.

Another view of the atrium.

So many pillars!  So many statues! I can't read to read them all next time!

Mrs. Tara Bentley, our wonderful hard working president of the Indiana Association of Home Educators.

"America, the Beautiful" sang by the homeschool chorale.  All 4 verses too!  Acapella!  Well done!

This dude.  Oh my goodness this dude.  So engaging, so knowledgeable!  His name is Peter Heck.  I'm going to look him up on social media!  He even had us text our emails to a phone number so we could get his presentation notes for future reference!  Ah!

And here we are with Representative Mike Speedy of District 90, the southeast part of Indianapolis.  The guy who whips out his phone and shows me the picture of him and Gary and the other guys on the mountain last September. I will be shaking my head for a long time over this.  Who knew my father in law was so connected?  Oh wait, who DOESN'T know the "Good Doctor" as some call him.  Sheesh. It's an incredible thing to be so well connected to a community because you've worked hard to establish relationships wherever you go, and to stay in one place for so long enabling you to do so!  And yes, Mr. Speedy is 700 ft tall.  He's a big dude!  Mr. Freeman, our Senator, was too busy, as was many Senators, but we'll catch him next time.  The kids did enjoy talking to him and thought it was cool.

Another gorgeous shot!  I LOVE the old tall doors with the windows at the top!  And how the door handles are so much lower, indicating that people of 100 years ago were much shorter than they are today.  So much living history right here.  So much.

Justin just did an assignment on different types of Greek architecture, especially the columns, but he couldn't tell me what style they were.  He had several brain farts today, which was frustrating because we JUST talked about the 3 branches of government with our studies of Ancient Greece and Rome, which was a total coincidence.

Huge staircases as well.  So much marble!  And for Indiana being so famous for it's limestone, I hardly saw any of it on the inside.  I know there's tons of the outside though.

Looking east towards the monument.  And when I realized that, I let the kids wander Rocket Fizz and buy something since they lasted most of the day without too much whining. It was on our walk back to the car as well.  And now I can cross that off my bucket list for them.  The wind was horrible because the buildings make a wind tunnel and it almost blew us away.  Worse than down at the Charlottetown harborfront!

There's some limestone!

And the kids in front of the massive building!

Oh, a fancy lending library!  You spin the door around until you get to the book you want.

Explaining the library thing.

We didn't walk this direction when we were downtown to see the lights, but this is a church downtown on the circle.

Ok, back to Sunday, Justin saw this really cool video of how to squirt the juice from an orange peel near a lighted match and the juice will catch on fire for a millisecond.  So they were trying it out at Sunday lunch and it worked!

Watching a little BBC animal planet show on ocean animals after lunch.

You aren't supposed to recreate carbs or treats on the Whole30 because you are also resetting your relationship with food, but I decided to try making a peppermint mocha anyway.  2 teaspoons of pure cocoa powder, a drop of peppermint vitality (which only means it's safe for internal consumption. it's the same exact oil as the regular peppermint just with a different FDA approved label), and unsweetened non dairy, non soy hazelnut creamer.  NO fake sweeteners either.  And you know what?  It worked!  Zero sugar, zero chemicals. Done.  It was very yummy!

Abishai thought my rug needed fixing so he and I search for some tools and he had a blast with it for 30 minutes.  LOVE it!  No, he didn't make the hold bigger, but he did hammer at it, clawed it, poked it with the screwdriver, and THEN he went and found another hammer, too.  Hard little worker dude.

Strong guy getting Benaiah with his monster truck bus from Cars 3.  It's no longer just a bus.  It's a monster truck bus.
Helping Daddy fix his chair!

Using the sanding tool to get the old glue off.  Awww.....

Daddy finally put the stickers on his garage!  Note to self: it was very difficult to do after it was assembled.  And the preschooler had to be told numerous times not to bump it and to wait to put his cars on it.  It took a good 30 minutes!

Playing catch before bed.

Another day, another room remodel!  Now she has her lights strung across her room.  I think this girl is going to be addicted to HGTV when she grows up!

Keturah proudly displayed her IAHE Homeschool Day at the State House nametag!

She has everything perfectly set up on her desk.  One advantage of letting her watch her SevenSuperGirls YouTube channel is that she has seen how neatly they keep their rooms!  Score one for mommy!  And she is maturing, too, which helps.  Yeah!
 Until next time!