Today was Homeschool Day at the Capitol for Georgians. I’ve known about it since last year, but I wasn’t brave enough to tackle it last year because we were pretty new to the area and new to homeschooling and my little ones seemed much littler a year ago. So this year I was definitely interested in going for the experience. And I felt much braver because my homeschooling friend Angie and her family wanted to go as well. We decided to go together and carpool in her 15 passenger van. It brought back memories from when I was younger. . .
But I digress. Angie and I had looked at the schedule to figure out what would suit our crew best. So we were going to try to hit a couple of the events in the middle of the day that were back to back and also seemed interesting for us and our kids. We arrived with plenty of time to park, descend four flights of stairs to ground level, walk with our troops to the capitol building, and find the events. We thought.
While the kids were fresh, we took pictures on the steps of the capitol building. Check. Gotta remember the pictures. Then we hiked around half the building to find the one entrance. We got inside and because of security, adults were required to show ID. I had left my drivers license in the van. So while Angie and all the kids waited (I forgot to mention that Angie has nine children, seven of which were with us.), I wrote down my name and date of birth for the security officer to call someone somewhere to clear me to enter. A little embarrassing, but at least the officer thought I was ten years younger than I really was even with all the kiddos. So we were finally all inside the capitol building which was crawling with people, mostly homeschoolers and their parents. We were searching for the rotunda where there was supposed to be a speech to homeschoolers. Short, you know for kids who have a hard time not wiggling? But apparently it wasn’t happening on schedule so we looked around for a minute and then decided to start looking for our next event which was supposed to happen at the Legislative Administration Building across the street. According to the schedule. So we traveled across the street to what seemed like the correct building, went through the whole security fiasco again with me not having my license (this time the security officer just let me go in, trusting me) and then we found out it wasn’t the right place for the skit/class that was supposed to teach about how laws are made. Apparently it was across the other street at a church instead. So we were starting to drag little people with us at this point. But the kids were still behaving and there was no whining except from Matthew who doesn’t like crowds of many people or chaos, which was what this little venture was feeling like. But he wasn’t really whining. He just kept asking me, “Mom, can we leave now?” in a patient sort of way.
We arrived at the church, climbed the stairs to the appointed room and found a whole empty bench to fit everyone right before the class started. We realized everyone else had name tags and we didn’t. I think we were supposed to register. Whoops. We listened to someone who was newly appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Then Jenna Ellis, Esq. got up and talked to us about a subject that I have throught about a lot lately, but was not the class we were expecting. She spoke on how morality, natural law, our God-given rights, and how we need to get back to understanding that government is really for protecting these rights. It was very good and enlightening and I know Matthew and Jenny got at least something out of it, but we were all struggling at this point because it was lunch time, the little ones were bored and we didn’t feel like we could up and leave because we would distract more that way than if we just stayed until it was over. So thankfully Angie had the forethought to bring snacks and water and we made it through. Tommy took one potty break. And because of all the craziness that preceded this, we were having a hard time not laughing at everything that had happened so far. After that point, things were pretty uneventful until we were trudging back to the van. We were waiting at a crosswalk and right as the light changed and we were starting to move, Taivan decided his little legs were too tired to walk and he stepped in front of me for me to pick him up. I quickly grabbed him with one arm but almost tripped over him at the same time and I nearly went down in the middle of the street. Thankfully that didn’t happen, but it sure boosted my adrenaline level.
Lots of knowledge gained about legislation? Not sure. Other lessons learned? Check. Memories made? Double check. Wait. Triple check. Smiley face and laughter.
Now a few pictures and happenings off the subject.
Millie has found a new comfy place on the couch.Sometimes I think this cute. Other times, when I have dog hair all over my black coat, I don’t as much. Oh, well. I’m not going to fight this. Everyone is so happy with this dog. She needs a little pampering.
