Happy 200th Birthday, Indiana!

One item that turned up in our move was my Indiana history notes from 4th grade. I respect what the public school teachers did for us taking us all over the county and to our state capitol to see historical sites. One reason why I was a history minor in college was because of 4th grade. I never quite got to teaching Idaho history to the Lambs when we lived in Idaho. If I can read my messy handwriting and the mimeographed copies from 30+ years ago, I plan to use this with the Lambs to teach them Indiana history. Mrs. Mosely, your notes are being used for a second generation!

My mom and I did a little small business shopping on black Friday. One store we went to was Mr. Polymath. They sell a lot of items made in the USA and some are even made in Fort Wayne. They had a lovely nativity made out of coal. (Sorry Hannah, I did not buy it for you!)

I heard that the LCMS Synodical office has some church workers that love using Field Notes. I had to see what Field Notes were after hearing this. Mr. Polymath was the only store listed in Fort Wayne that sold Field Notes. Mr. Polymath might be the only store in Indiana that sells Field Notes. Of course I had to buy the Indiana version in honor of the  200th birthday!

Ram enjoyed reading all the facts on the back of the Field Notes. It was fun to be quizzed by him and see what facts I remembered from 4th grade history class. We'll have to see if we can get the ID version for Ram.

Ram and I have watched a couple of episodes of Hoosiers: The Story of Indiana online. We have both enjoyed hearing the history. After growing up in Southern IN, I learned that the state was settled from bottom up, like a glass of water, from the southern counties to the northern counties. In 4th grade I didn't realize how much important history took place in our county. I also bought a used copy of the book this TV documentary was based on. Ram is anxious for me to finish reading it so he can read it.

Indiana had some celebrations and the library did some special Indiana history activities with homeschoolers in honor of the bicentennial that I would love to have done with the Lambs, but unfortunately we arrived too late in 2016. We did take the Lambs to the local history museum.

Great Day!

Yesterday we received this in the mail:

Today we went to the Seminary bookstore and bought this:

Then we went to the library and had a treat from Dunkin Donuts to celebrate that we have library cards. We bought a few books at their used bookstore section for $2 total. The Lambs picked books to check out. We found out about Minecraft time at the library and Ram took the Lambs back later in the day to participate in that. The Lambs loved Minecraft at the library! My dad stopped by to see the piano and visit while they were at Minecraft.
When we got home this was in the mail today:

The months of packing, cleaning, unpacking, and the bureaucracy when we arrived were all worth it to now have an IN Driver's license and an Allen County Public library card in our wallets and be in the same town as my parents for my dad to stop by for a visit!

October family update

The piano is in our house and the boys begin lessons tomorrow morning. It is going to take some adjusting for all of us to switch to morning piano lessons. We still have not found their piano books from last spring. We found their old piano books, but not their most recent ones. I wanted them to show their new piano teacher where they were at in the spring. Perhaps it is better that we just begin where she thinks they should be since we had no piano in our house for a couple of months.

We were finally successful to get driver's licenses for both Ram and Ewe. We also got license plates for both cars. We registered to vote. We spent so much time on all of that the past few weeks. I am so glad that is all finished.

Ewe went for her annual eye exam and the dr. decided to treat it as a medical visit and prescribe eye drops and have her come back for the eye exam another visit so insurance pays all of it. We have scheduled several doctor visits for Lamb 1, Ram, and Ewe while we have met our deductible this year.

Ram, Lamb 1, and Lamb 3 are doing some therapy at the chiropractor during the month of October. It wasn't necessary for Lamb 2 or Ewe. We had to buy some weights for them to use for exercises at home, but insurance is paying for the rest. It is taking time to go there three times a week, but we are glad we are doing this when it is "free" to us.

We have been to all 5 of the churches we were considering to join. We have it limited to 3 now. This is such a good problem to have, so many good churches and pastors, but such a hard decision. I am hoping to have our final decision and start regularly attending by Reformation Day. I really enjoyed seeing old friends at all the churches we visited. This morning we saw my mom's cousin, the parents of some of my former students, the uncle of my flower girl in my wedding, a blogger friend, and some of my parents friends. Visiting and seeing old friends was fun, but all of us need to settle into the routine of one church and get involved in activities at one church. The great part is there are always church dinners and recitals and other activities at all the area churches, so even if we don't join one of the other churches, we can still see friends at these other activities.

My mom had a procedure on her heart on Monday and she did well. She is taking it easy and anxious to get back to her regular activities including having the Lambs over to play card games. This was the first time I could go to the hospital to be with my dad during surgery and text my sister often of how everything was going. I am so glad we moved here for times like this.

Yesterday we went to an apple orchard and got pumpkins, apples, squash, and apple cider. Supper was pork chops with apples and vegetables. Dessert was apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream. I love eating what is in season in autumn!

Frustrated

I spent the entire day working with the BMV trying to get an IN driver's license without success. This would be humorous if it wasn't true. It is a vicious cycle, I need an IN license in order to report that I had insurance for an accident that happened in 2002, but I can't get an IN license without clearing up that 2002 accident. I can't register to vote without an IN driver's license or IN identification. We had our house closing so I can't claim ID residency. None of my problems had anything to do with being hit by the sheriff last month, but I suspect when that is processed through the system that will also be a problem.

Ram also had difficulty getting an IN driver's license but his problem should be solved in a few days and was no where near as complicated as my difficulty. It may be a blessing that we don't have to choose which presidential candidate to vote for this year, but this is not the way that we would have chosen.

Tomorrow is a new day and we will try to work with the voter's registration to see what we can do before the deadline next Tuesday. And our insurance agent is trying to clear up the 2002 accident for me and currently I just need to wait a few business days to see if he was successful or what I can do if he was not successful.

No laundry, dishes, unpacking, or other important tasks happened today while both Ram and I worked to try to solve my problem. Sigh. Please join us in prayers that this can be solved for both of us before we have been residents of IN for 60 days and we have even bigger problems.