God is good. 

Period. 

He blessed me Friday. 

I briefly think to myself, “Oh, I must have done something good to receive such a blessing.”  That thought quickly passes as I realize I’ve done nothing special or good; the day was a just-because-I-love-you gift (a.k.a. Grace-gift) from my Heavenly Father. 

The day started as planned.  DD15, DD12, two friends and I headed to the Mississippi Museum of Art to view editorial cartoonist Marshall Ramsey’s exhibit. We had a lot of fun enjoying the cartoons we understood and trying to decipher the ones we didn’t.

Our next planned stop was to the Memorial to the Missing located near the Baptist Building in Jackson. 

 We were all impressed with the number of pennies it contained.  It truly is mind boggling when you think that each penny represents a baby lost to abortion. 

Michael ceremoniously put in the only penny we had with us. 

Now, our plan was to continue on to the LeFeur’s Bluff State Park for a picnic, but we detoured to an interesting cannon sitting near the Mississippi Capitol Building.  Cassie thought it would be a great spot for a picture.  And so it was, along with dozens of other cool places on the capital grounds. 

There was the replica of the Liberty Bell,

the front steps of the capitol building,

the pillars and ledges around the capitol building,

the cannon of course,

and a really cool tree (that’s yet to be identified). 

A security guard passed us, so I asked if we could go inside to look around.  He said yes, so off we went to see what photo ops were available there.  Oodles!

First of all, let me say that one might not think Good Friday is an opportune time to take a field trip.  On the contrary!  Though the tour guides had the day off, so did the legislature and almost everyone else.  Except for a few people here and there we basically had the building to ourselves and we were free to explore.  And explore we did.

We admired the inside of the dome,

the massive marble columns,

(Can you see the kids at the top?)

the cool renovated elevator,

the enormous staircase,

and the stain glass windows. 

We sat in the gallery overlooking the Senate then trekked to the other side of the building to admire the House of Representatives. These three hopped the rail in the old Supreme Court room (now a committee room) to sit behind the official desk.  One spoke into the microphone only to find out it was on. Yikes! We exited there as quickly as possible. 

There were tons of things to see. 

After rambling through the Capitol we went back out and took some more pictures at the front of the building. 

 Then we found a spot on the lawn to picnic. 

The weather was cooler than I like for an outdoor meal, but it was nice hanging out with the kids and just shooting the breeze. Literally, it was a windy day!

It does a homeschool mom’s heart good to see kids excited about learning, especially when they don’t realize they are. I know that had I planned this trip, complete with tour guide, it would have been just another field trip.  What we had was an adventure full of fun and discovery.  For that I am truly thankful.