Visiting the State Capitol in Jefferson City

Lo-o-o-ng and Lovely Day.

We did a little homeschool trip to visit Missouri's Capitol with the Dains. Shirley lives near the Capitol and took off of work to join us.

Phoebe photography

Last time I was here to visit Shirley, the Capitol was behind orange netting, the ground was bare dirt and there was a lot of restoration going on. It is back to its stately self.

We ate at Arri's Pizza first. Busy place! Which must mean it's good.

Thomas Jefferson welcomes you in. 

Harrison dabbing. This will embarrass him one day.

The Grand Staircase.

The oldest and youngest kids of the group.

We visited the museum part first.

Shirley!

Jonathan took a selfie at this display and then made it their screen background.

This is Thomas Hart Benton. 

I had to take this picture of him since we were not allowed in the Thomas Hart Benton mural room for dubious sounding reasons about the pandemic.

Looking up at the bronze chandelier. 

We went up there, by the way. Up behind that banister.

Sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives listening to our tour guide.

Out to Central Dairy to get ice cream.

Then we went back to the Capitol to find Ed Lewis. 

We had seen his wife earlier that day. Mr. Lewis taught Brittany (Morris) Dain in high school, and he taught Phillip and I in college. He and his family were members at First Christian Church here in Vandalia for many years. Anyway, years pass by, and now he is a Missouri State Representative.

We went back to the gallery, this time to watch the representatives in session. 

Some action!

This is the board that tells you who voted how. We found Ed's name so we could see if our votes lined up with his. 😄

They voted on 5 or 6 things. They moved pretty quick, so I can tell a lot of work takes place off the floor. Phoebe was especially interested in the issues being voted on. Jonathan just thought there were "a bunch of bills that shouldn't exist and shouldn't be passing because it is none of the government's business" which he texted to let me know he was ready to go home.

It was a long day. I don't blame them for being tired. But I kept telling mine that we probably wouldn't be back here anytime soon, so we were going to get everything out of it that we could.

Mr. Lewis sponsored legislation pertaining to substitute teachers which passed while we were sitting there observing. Kind of neat! 

Representative Mitch Boggs was a homeschooler himself, and he came up to see us and take us around to some off-tour areas of the Capitol. He let the kids sit in his official chair and shared soft drinks from his mini-fridge.

We are up in the Whisper Room. 

You can hear someone whispering from far away. We are high up, above the Bronze Chandelier from a previous picture.

Then we went up, up, up some more to the tippy top and stepped outside to see the rest of Missouri! (We're gonna feel that climb tomorrow.)

Do you see the top dome with a statue on top (Ceres, the goddess of agriculture is the statue)? We were right below those columns. We walked all around the rotunda with fresh wind on our faces.

One view from the top. 

The governor's mansion is in the near distance. The Missouri River on the left.

Whew! What a fun day. My favorite part was watching the representatives in session. The kids might not have a favorite part right now because they're pretty exhausted. It was fun to go with friends! Thanks, Dains and Shirley for being part of the day!

 

Watching the Year Roll Over

We moved a year ago this weekend. 

Wow, it's been something to look back over the last year and also to reminisce about Texas. 

We really had a great neighborhood in Texas. I miss those sweet child faces, the helpful moms and dads, the fun our kids had in that cul-de-sac. 

With those cherished memories also comes great thankfulness for being here in Missouri. We are near family and familiar friends. We are out in the country and get to watch farming very soon. We have good work to do here ~ work on this home, work at church, work in town. We have that sense of place here. The land, the church, the town ~ the Gores and Fergusons have been here a good while, and we get to add to that heritage by living here. 

We're noticing the bits of nature that struck us when we first moved here. The robins have been running around for a few weeks now. The kill-deer are back, building nests and laying eggs I presume. I see henbit giving a purple hue to the same field I noticed it in last year. Our trees are budding, the wind is blowing, there are white blossoms on a tree in town ~ dogwood, I think. 

Phillip did more work on the front porch posts. Sanding and painting. 

We weren't sure what we thought of them being black, but I think we settled on: "We like it." 

Just sittin' around the kitchen talkin'.

Elizabeth came to visit over her Spring Break. She's reading the proof of my Charlotte Mason book. It'll be available very soon. Twila and I have a couple of podcast interviews lined up to talk about the book. I'll post links when they're out. Talk about nerve-wracking! I'd much rather write than speak. At least these are audio only. :-) And it's very nice to do this with Twila so I'm not in it alone.

At the Junction with Mimi and Papa.

Carl. 

Just...... 

Why can't we cuddle with you, Carl? 

Why do you have to always run away? 

Phoebe's been able to get closer to some of the others. I'm calling the most friendly one "Charlie." Even though no one else wants to call it that since we had a fish named Charlie. I guess I'll call him Charlie, and they can call him whatever, and we'll see who wins.

 

Spring is Coming

 I feel like the February blah's wiggled their way into March this year instead of arriving in February. I'm trying to figure out what the blah's are: maybe they come from dreary, cold weather? from the end-of-holiday slump? from school droning on? 

Anyway, we had some great warm weather which turned cold again. But I really can smell spring in the air. The blah's will not be around much longer!

This is Phillip's favorite of our seven cats. She's named Carl. We don't know for sure that she's a she. But I think she has a really feminine look, and she's very dainty and shy. She was named Carl before the female qualities came out, so she'll remain Carl. 

Phillip and Jonathan participated in our church's leadership seminar presented by John Mitchell from the CRA. Phillip took a quick picture of Jonathan. He'd had to work that day, but was able to make it to half of the presentation. 

Phillip and Jamie have been working with the youth group boys, teaching them how to write communion meditations. I really appreciate and love that our kids are learning how to lead and serve in the church.

On a sunny day last week, Harrison and a couple friends went to the park to enjoy some outside time. At one point I couldn't find them. Turns out they were climbing this evergreen.

Sunday nights are geared toward adults and teens, but sometimes we end up with a passel of kids too. Kids running around the church building on Sunday nights ~ I have those memories, and I'm glad we made it here in time for Harrison to make some of his own.

Youth group kids doing the dishes Sunday night. How great is that?!

Kitty footprints in the snow at sunset.