Other than that, we were able to get some school done, screen time was had, a period of "no screens allowed including Benaiah's gaming and Mommy's phone" was declared and successfully kept, a walk happened, and a few other things. Benaiah has racked up more hours on his gaming in the last couple of weeks than any of us are comfortable with. We are talking about 6-8 hrs on a single game, not including watching YouTube while playing the game, every single day. He wants a job and is hunting for one. He wants to go work at church and has a few full days ahead. He just doesn't know what to do with himself when he is at home. He does help at home and he does help me when he comes on outings without complaining about it. He's making plans to spend more time with friends. So, we all, including him, acknowledge the ridiculousness of our screen addictions. We roll our eyes, laugh at each other, and strive to do better without making it an all out war. That's why I declared a 3 hr period of no screens, not because anyone was horrible today or that the amount of screen time today was way off, but because I want to make sure we are being mindful that there are other things we can do in our gorgeous neighborhood and incredible backyard. There are lots of books to read, crafting materials, and board games to play. But we are all lazy, myself included, and with only 3 summers left with Benaiah, I don't want to waste them. Anyway, it was a lovely day, and here's more of the story.
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| Per usual, the kids were hungry by the time we made it downtown. So a little granola bar helped to curb that hunger. We left the house with time to spare and it was a good thing because the parking garage I was going to use was full. So we used an even more expensive one! And on our way out of the garage, which was attatched to a large bank, I went the wrong way in the revolving door, right in front of the front desk like you see in movies at big firms or banks. Eek! I pushed my way through anyway and kept walking. It was more important to keep track of 4 kids I guess. It was a clear door with metal bars on one side where you were supposed to push. I pushed on the plain glass instead. Duh! |
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| The City Market itself is now an eatery of sorts with food vendors, kind of like you'd see on food trucks. Some of the government workers will get their lunch here. Jared and I had lunch here once when he was working at the City County building which is right across the street. That was back when we were first married and I don't even know if it lasted a whole year. I think it was from his graduation in May of 2001 to when he went to work at the airport as security (not TSA, and not law enforcement, so no guns) after 9/11 in late October or November of that year. He worked as a gun permit processor and I think processed any guns that the police brought in from crime scenes I think, or maybe people had them illegally or something. He didn't mind that job because he got to handle the guns and bullets. Anyway, I think that was the only time I've been down here. Benaiah said he came down last year when the local mission week from our church was going on. They gave the kids some cash and said go feed yourselves. He even remembers the vendor he got his lunch from. It's clean and not terribly crowded. |
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| I guess a caution cone is more fun than anything else, lol. He had it up on his toes, too! Abishai was quite the handful today because we weren't allowed to bring strollers onto the dirt floor of the catacombs. He didn't want to be held by Benaiah and if I put him down, he'd be running away. He could have been way worse, but I also had to resort to using blankie and paci because otherwise he would have just repeated "I want to go home" non stop. I should have gotten a babysitter, but I thought Benaiah would be enough help, and he was because he carried our backpack of stuff. But that's how we roll, we bring everybody with us most of the time and make the best of it. Ugh, and once again, I didn't take a selfie! Sigh. I did wear my "homeschool mom of 4 shirt" though, although technically Benaiah is not longer homeschooled but I gave away "my homeschool mom of 3" shirt and anyways, people would question why 3 and not 4, yada yada. I did get a sample of ice cream out of it from one of the very generous vendors. He noticed our group had kids and came over to the other building to offer free samples. So, of course, we did buy some ice cream from them. I always appreciate those who are trying to be entrepreneurs. And in this city market, they are all entrepreneurs. The tour did cost $10 per person ages 12 and up and $5 for 6-11 yr olds, plus the garage fee, so I couldn't let the kids buy full meals, although I really wanted to. I can now see why large families don't go on these field trips because even the cheap ones add up! But, I know that the Indiana Historical Landmarks organization will use the money well. |
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| The city county building on the far right looks golden in the 10 am sun light! The building with the two spires used to be called the Bank One tower and then it was owned by KeyBank. I'm not sure who owns it now. And of course BMO is it's own bank, too. I think it's the US side of the Bank of Montreal. And the archway to the bottom left is part of the plaza in front of the market. I wanted to get some nice shots of everything, but I've learned that if you try to be artsy with 4 kids in tow, it doesn't go well. And, I'm learning to let go and just enjoy the field trips for what they are instead of documenting it all. |
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| He took off his shoes! This kid! Our tour guide spent some time talking about the city, city market, and the building over the catacombs, while we lined up against a wall listening to him so people could pass us. It was hard keeping this kid in line! Thankfully he didn't throw a fit about putting them back on. I did have to hold him a lot and my left hip is now saying I overdid it. Oh well, at least my kid didn't run out on a busy street! |
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| Same building, the City County building where Jared worked. His desk was on the first floor. The police station and jail are on this block as well. Our tour guide explained that when the city was being planned, the block we were on has a law that it can only be used for public use. That means that it's open to the public (free entry?) and that the community used to use rooms in the building adjacent to the city market for free and now for a much cheaper rent than other places. I think he said that some IU graduate students are using it for urban planning. I'm sure the vendors rent space and the the farmers' market vendors (which only goes on once a week?) that you see in this picture under those tents must pay for a booth as well. I'm sure that other businesses that used this space in it's heyday paid a fee. There were doctor and barbers and probably some blacksmiths because it was originally built before cars were invented, as well as butchers, bakers, and candle stick makers. I was thinking that it was going to be more like the indoor farmers' market we had in Charlottetown near us, with the butchers and farmers, as well as local artisans having permanent locations open to the public twice a week. Nope, just food vendors inside and a couple of jewelry shops and then farmers' outside with the typical veggie stands. I guess someone said there were pies, too. We didn't go through the farmers' market area because it was starting to rain and the kids were anxious to get home. I was anxious to be out of the garage at a certain time so we could pay less than the maximum amount. We do have the same kind of once or twice farmers' markets at a couple of places closer to Greenwood. I wish I could find one within 15 minutes of us though. I miss being so close to farms that would just sell their products at the end of their driveways like we had on PEI. We live close to corn and bean fields, but don't often see a sign for veggies and eggs. I know some that privately do sell them, but I don't always take advantage of that. I don't have the energy to have my own garden, but our yard is definitely built for that, and some chickens......hm,.....nah, too much work for me! |
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| Ok, so here are a few pictures presenting the different eras of this block of downtown. The big building in the picture is this community type building I was talking about, and the city market is in the background of that picture. It could seat 4,000 people for big meetings like prohibition talks. Unfortunately, it burnt down in the 50's I think and the people and the government discussed what to do with too long and it became a health hazard. But instead of imploding it and pouring the materials into the basement, they carted it all away. The interior was all wood and only a few pictures of it have been found. The outer walls and the foundation are made up of Indiana brick and of course world famous Indiana limestone. You've seen Indiana limestone on buildings such as the Empire State building and numerous buildings in Washington, D.C. including the Pentagon and maybe the White House. |
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| I should have taken better closeups of each picture and paragraph, but Abishai was hanging off of me. Some of the history includes how they choose Indianapolis to be the capital city of Indiana. The original capital was down south and since it's a very tall state, they wanted something more in the middle, on a navigable river, and already built. Well, there were towns around the area, but not a central city called Indianapolis, so someone planned and built it based on another city that used a grid structure and 8 streets coming out from the center of town. So, the 8 spokes would be 4 that are north-south-east-west, and then 4 that are diagonal. There used to be a building where the Soldiers' Monument is now that was used for government offices but it wasn't well used. They placed several major buildings in different quadrants, like the state house in the northwest corner off of the circle. City Market is southeast of the center I think. Then I think there are buildings like the Indiana state library (not the central library we go to) in other quadrants. Anyway, there were 3 requirements of the city builders and they only ended with 1 being met: central location, because the White River is not navigable year round. And I don't think many people think of Indianapolis as a large and trendy city like Chicago, LA, or New York, but you'd be surprised how many major country wide and global companies have their headquarters here. And that number is growing as the neighboring towns are exploding as these companies buy up farmland, or the housing subdivisions do, and develop it. That's why there's so much going on up on the northside over the last 20 years. It's crazy busy with construction all the time and the highways can't handle it yet. There's a ton of this growth on the west side near the airport as well. And of course we have an incredible convention center and downtown area perfect for every moderate to large national conference you can think of and we are much cheaper than places like Chicago. See, I do appreciate what we do have here. But PEI is way more gorgeous and matches my lifestyle choices better. I'm no city girl. |
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| Ok, now onto the "catacombs" themselves. The catacombs aren't tombs but rather the basement of the large building you see above. It looks like it could be tombs, but it's just a dusty, dry basement. They only opened up this area 5 years ago to private tours because they wanted to educate people on it's history and how it relates to all of the above. It's pretty much undisturbed because it isn't open to the public. I did see some more finished areas opposite the area we went in, but I'm not sure how far back it goes. Because of the incredible size and ingenuity of construction, it doesn't look like they've had to do much damage control. The basement stays very dry and it's not moldy or mildewy at all. In fact, they had to put air conditioners down here to cool it off after the first year. It's so well constructed and there's no ventilation so it doesn't stay cool like other basements. They put plywood down to protect our feet, but it's very packed down dirt. |
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| Here's our tour guide next to one of the main pillars on the outer edge of the building. I think he looks like that painter guy from TV or our friend Brenton. He was very knowledgeable and had just enough animation to show his enthusiasm about the subject without being fake. The grooves you see in the pillar are from where the rock was cut away from the earth in the quarry. They didn't need to take the time to polish it off like you see in the big buildings in Washington since it was going to be virtually unseen. |
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| I wonder if this was a window at some point. But you can see the arched construction of the vaulted ceilings in this picture. One reason that they might not have filled in the basement with the remnants of the burnt building is because they would have had to get through all this brick! |
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| Telling ghost stories! Actually, one ghost hunting team did stay down here overnight once to check things out and they didn't really find anything. The cart behind the kids is a replica of a cart that would have been used in the 1940's I think. They do use a bit of the basement to store some things for the City Market. Benaiah asked why there were some modern Smirnoff bottles down here and the tour guide said they probably belonged to one of the maintenance workers over the years. These workers do like to play tricks and move things around sometimes so they can pretend a ghost did it. The boilers were housed down here of course, but they blocked off some of the archways to keep the heat from bothering everything and everyone. |
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| One week in the 1990's, some group put on a haunted house and you can see remnants of it like some fabric hanging from the ceiling. The Board of Health shut it down because there's only one entrance and exit. One harsh winter, the mayor did allow the homeless to take shelter here way back in the 50's or 60's. And at one point, there were vendors down here because a 92 yr old guy on one of the tours said he remembers playing down here while his parents sold items. It's been used for banquets and meetings on occasion. It was also used to film a dungeon scene for a Hoosier Lottery commercial in the 80's. Someone from Chicago brought down her 17 trained rats to be part of the scene, and when they went to count the rats after capturing them all, they ended up with 20! That means, there were 3 extra wild rats from Indiana in her collection. Eek!!! We didn't see any evidence of creatures down here, but there's nothing for them to eat. And again, there's just one big industrial door, so unless they come through some crack in the wall, which I'm sure they can, it's just not a big issue. |
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| There were two of these pretty awesome staircases, one on each end of the City Market. Abishai wanted to go up them "all by my big self." Vendors are downstairs, and seating areas are upstairs for the most part. |
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| It's crazy to think how this building has been used for over 100 years, maybe close to 150. Just the comings and goings of technology, from horse and buggy to cars that can go 230 mph at the Indy 500. From a flat razor in a barbershop to all kinds of 5 bladed razors in the privacy of your home. From using money backed with real gold, to using inflated, worthless money on a piece of plastic or even a mobile device! Even the types of foods have changed, from being sparse in variety, to several kinds of hot dogs, like gluten free, non gmo, organic, vegan uncured, cheese in the middle, lol (the jury is still out if today's food is actually healthier than it was 150 years ago). Upgrades from candles and gas lights to electricity. Amazing! |
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| So neat! So much variety, and owning your own business, serving customers, in a place rich with history. |
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| We packed lunches to eat on the way home because we knew we didn't want to decide on and pay for meals for everyone. Justin and Keturah had ice cream, Abishai nibbled at a sugar cookie, and Benaiah bought and ate his own pretzel with cheese. I had the one sample bite of ice cream and wasn't worried about getting anything else. Trying to find something I can eat in a place like this can be difficult and when you add being in charge of 4 kids, yeah, it's not worth it. |
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| Benaiah found wifi in the building, go figure! Oh, and they do have restrooms. |
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| I believe a German designed both buildings and they were built around the same time, but I had very different influences. I love these arched windows and how big they are letting in tons of natural light! And the solidness of the brick! |
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| Keturah noticed the cool light fixtures. |
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| Abishai found 3 packages of saltines somebody had left at a nearby table and before I knew it, he had brought them back to ours intent on eating them. I said, "Why not? Others will just throw them away." So I wiped them down with a napkin and opened them up and he ate them! I'm not a germaphobe, can you tell? |
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| Say hello to the remnants of the first hurricane of the season, Alberto (?). Point is, this is why we decided to come home quickly so we weren't stuck in it. The weather pattern kept changing it's direction and intensity. Oh, it came up from Florida. One of Benaiah's friends from school who had just moved down there had to evacuate for a couple of days just in case. I haven't heard much else about it. |
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| I so wanted to get a picture of the kids in front of that clock at the end of the plaza but we were more focused on getting back to the van. Abishai doesn't like the rain or for his clothes to be wet. But it definitely reminded me of Victoria Row back in Charlottetown. It's a little street next to the library/theater and they close it off to road traffic in the summer because it has shops on one side. And you go under a metal arch just like this one. I can't remember if it has a clock or not. I could be wrong on the name, but the sentiment is the same. |
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| 'Cuz, tall buildings! I sometimes can't fathom just how tall they are! We don't have that many compared to some more compact cities, but still, its is THE CITY. |
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| Abishai decided to have a meltdown today because I wouldn't let him open my box with a box knife all by himself. I was willing to have his hand on top of mine, but that's it. Well, he started to wail and I sent him to bed to calm down. A few minutes later, he was content just to open the box and take everything out. This 3 yr old has very high highs and very low lows. Not to mention his physical activities that literally take him bouncing from one end of the room to the other. It's very exhausting and I'm not sure if and how I can control it. If he wants something, he's incredible persistent with his words, not just his actions. He'll repeat his opinion 100 times very loudly. He's going to make a great leader some day, but right now, it's tough going. |
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| Thrive Market always packages their thing well. I bought 100% cacao chocolate chips so they put them in this bag with a cool pack inside of the big box. The chocolate chips have no sugar and no dairy, just the cacao. I'm trying to save calories and my stomachaches but still have my chocolate. |
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| Black bean and lentil pastas are awesome because it's less carbs, more fiber, and tons of protein. I cook them up and eat them plain. The chocolate chips described above. Sunbutter made from sunflower seeds and maybe a touch of oil but no sugar, same amount of protein as peanut butter. And, my favorite flavored coffee creamer that has no sweeteners in it or nasty stuff. All for less than $50 shipped to my house. You might think that's expensive but for specialty food, I actually saved $35 off of retail. It's been a couple of months since I splurged to try some new things. Aldi's had the black bean pasta, but it was seasonal. I had to spend a certain amount to get $20 off and free shipping, but it wasn't too hard to get there. Plus, it was here within 2 days. I made two other orders, one food one and one Lilla Rose one and they were both here within 3 days. Young Living orders take at least a week to get here, and it always throws me off because I'm so used to the two day Amazon prime shipping and great companies like these that have fast shipping no matter where they are in the country. I'm spoiled. |
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| Perfect place to eat a sucker! |
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| Ugh, typical day in our house includes this. Benaiah has logged over 100 hrs since school got out. He'll be working and out with his friends more and more, I know, but still. Ugh. That's why I declared 3 hrs of no screens for anyone. Keturah, Justin, and Abishai are still limited to 2 hrs a day. That's a lot for some families I know, but well below the average kid in our country's amount of daily screen time. And they are not allowed to ask for screen time until after supper, although I'm sure we will still do it in late afternoon because of the heat. And only after they have played outside, read a book, played with their toys, been creative, etc. |
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| Little man and I made up a game of banging our heels on Daddy's buckets. |
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| The ever changing weather patterns of the midwest. It might look like it's going away, but... |
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| Boom! It grows momentum when it hits lake Michigan and refuels. The whole lake is covered! But, the rain didn't turn out that bad and we barely had a sprinkle. That meant we still had to water the trees Jared planted. |
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| We were able to walk around the whole block in the cooler air of the evening after the sprinkles of rain we had today. |
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| Abishai was desparately trying to keep up with the big kids on their bikes and kept getting a bit made. He had on Jared's work gloves, that we told him were like bike gloves. Instead, he turned them into weapons and threw missiles at his siblings. Oi! It almost looked like when Iron Man shoots lasers out of the palm of his hands. But Abishai acted pretty mean about it and kept it up until the end of our street. He always gets tired right after we pass Grandparents' house but we made him ride his bike the whole way, with a little help from his puppy. |
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| Whoops, nobody's home yet, let's keep going. |
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| I don't want to ride my bike anymore! And we are only halfway around the block, eek! |
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| After we came home and let Socks off his leash, Abishai decided to use it as a barrier rope like he was a bouncer at a party. I think he got the idea from when police use ticker tape that says, "police line, do not cross." |
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| He figured out how to slip the clip through a slit in the baby gate. Then he would stand there and expect you to ask if you could pass through. He would then immediately oblige without payment. He would then slip the clip out, take the loop part off the doorknob, let you pass, and then reattach everything. It was so cute, so methodical, so much higher thinking. Ah, I can't stand it! |
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| Always helping, carrying bigger stuff than the others want to. |
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| Grandma and Grandpa brought back something special from Aaron and Shauna's and I can't wait to show you! But it might be a bit before we put it back together. Woot! Woot! |
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| Daddy wants to melt down all these metal wires, so he's clipping them into small bits. Abishai decided to use his excavator to help transport them. |
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| Great job! |
