The Farwell Family

Last Monday morning Andrew took the older kids to school. I got Lincoln’s lunch made, breakfast made, laundry started, the dishwasher emptied, and the twins ready then got on the bike. While I was on the bike, the older ones left for school and then the twins proceeded to pull all the cushions off the couch and get their pillows for upstairs to make their “hiding place”. After I got done on the bike, I did my PT exercises/stretches and then got ready for the day. Then the twins and I headed out to wash the car, go by the bank for some office stuff and then to Home Depot. They enjoyed walking around the garden center sucking on their suckers from the bank while I picked out a few things. I got a bush to put in an empty spot Andrew dug up a bit when he redid the sump pump pipe. I also ended up getting a new tree for one that died in one of our landscape beds. It is kind of close to the house so I didn’t want anything too big. I also got some mums. I usually don’t get them this early but I had a coupon that was $20 off a lawn and garden purchase that I wanted to use so I went ahead and got them. I had to have the tree sticking out of the back of the car but we made it home without any problems. Andrew pulled in just before we did and he took the tree out back for me. Then a little while after lunch I got the twins down for their nap. They like to bring their favorite books with them to bed which right now are Steam Train, Dream Train for Bennett and Good Night, Good Night Construction Sight for Miles.

I quickly finished up laundry for the day and then I went outside to start planting and realized I needed to get Lincoln’s booster back in the car too. But I couldn’t just put the seats back up without vacuuming out the car since it was pretty messy under the seats. So I got that done and then started working on planting the bush I got. I had to put down some weed cloth first and then the edging material before I actually planted the bush. By the time I got it all done, it was time to get things ready to pick up the kids from school. We have to leave about 25 minutes before it is time to pick them up or else you have to wait in a line out in the street. So I usually pack them a little bag of cheezits and a cup of milk along with something to entertain them.  Jackson and Andrew had football practice that night so I worked on getting dinner ready so they could eat and go. After dinner I did a quick job of planting the new tree and got it done before it was time to take Lincoln to soccer practice. We just stayed at practice and I brought a couple of balls for the kids to play with. They had fun playing at some of the other goals set up and kicking the balls into them along with dribbling the ball down the field. It kept them entertained for quite a while and it the weather was perfect for it.

On our way back from practice we passed my parents. I forgot my dad said that he may stop by to check on some drywall that got wet by our shower. Well they ended up coming back after they saw us and the kids were so excited. He thinks the drywall repair should be pretty minimal so I plan on working on that once I get a new door sweep for our shower door. The kids spent the rest of the evening playing outside. They even got to go jump on the trampoline which the twins were so excited about. The rule of only two kids at once has gone by the wayside and they had at least 7 kids on there at once. We headed back to the house just as Andrew and Jackson were getting home from practice and then Ellie and I left for her tumbling. She worked on some back handsprings and aerials but said her calves were really sore (we think from all the trampoline time she has had lately).

I was experiencing some sore legs, or more like really fatigued legs when I did the bike the next morning. I’m not sure why because it isn’t like I have done an excessive amount of exercise. Later one when I dropped the kids off at school, Miles was in a bit of a funk and sat down in the middle of the classroom with a pouting face as I left. He wasn’t crying though, so we were good. I went back home and watered all of the newly planted bushes/trees. Then I made what I thought was going to be a quick phone call to renew Andrew’s phone plan at the office but it ended up taking a ½ hour. So afterwards I quickly changed the laundry and then went uptown to meet Leslie for coffee. I’m not a coffee drinker but did enjoy their hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin. Even though Leslie and I have been in the same small group for at least four years, we haven’t gotten to know each other that well. She has identical twin girls just a few months younger than Miles and Bennett who are adorable. We joke that they already have an arranged marriage J. She is doing her internship year after medical school and is actually on a research rotation for a few weeks so she asked if I would like to meet up with her. It was great to just visit with her for a while and get to know more about her. I stayed longer than I expected but was still able to drop off on of Ellie’s old flower girl dresses that I sold on swap shop with a lady. Then it was time to pick up the twins. Their teachers said Miles recovered quickly after I left, so that was good. They were a bit distressed when we got home and Andrew wasn’t there yet since he usually beats us home. But then they were excited when he walked through the door a little later. He ate some lunch and then actually headed out for a bike ride. He hasn’t been going as often lately because of his knee but it all went pretty well that day.

Ellie had a busy afternoon after we picked up the kids from school. She finished up her homework and then she had a conference call for a new discipleship group through Kanakuk called I’m Third groups. She is actually doing it with K-Kountry’s assistant director’s wife, which Ellie was very excited about. The first call was just a short get-to-know-you call and she was done just in time for us to head out to Macon for her gymnastics class. Thankfully Molly came over to watch the other kids. I told her I would bring home AJ’s for her. Ellie was really hesitant at gymnastics. I think part of it was that her friends weren’t there with her since they were at the Taylor Swift concert. It is a hard call with the class though. Ellie definitely way above all the other girls as far as her skill level is concerned. But having never been on the apparatus, she can’t really advance up until she masters some of those skills. But even on those, she is much better than the other girls. Most of them are total beginners and can barely do a cartwheel or back bend. We’ll give it a little while and see where it goes though.

On our way back through Macon we picked up the AJ’s and brought it home for everyone. Andrew was home by then and had mowed the yard. And my mom came over too. My dad had a meeting and couldn’t make it. We ate out back and soon heard the familiar noise of the ice cream truck. It was definitely a good incentive to get the kids to eat their food. The twins weren’t eating but started quickly once we told them they had to eat if they wanted any ice cream. Ellie battled it a bit saying she was full, but she still wanted the ice cream. Since it was over in the other neighborhood they had a little time to finish up. It was getting kind of dark by the time it made it over to our street and there weren’t any other kids out. Then Lincoln proceeded to throw his away as soon as he got back to the house. So the twins followed suit. Andrew told Lincoln he couldn’t get anything the next time they came unless he got his treat back out of the trash and ate. And he actually started to do just that before Andrew stopped him. But it was time to come in at that point. Earlier in the day our door knob to the garage broke and so I tried to fix it but it wasn’t happening. So I headed to Home Depot for another one while Andrew did baths. Then he installed it while I put the kids to bed.

The next morning started with my usual Wednesday cleaning, dropping of the kids and then swimming laps. After lunch the twins helped me with all of our watering. I also put down some grass seed in some bare spots and pulled weeds. When the twins were done helping me, it was time for some croquet.

I did some more cleaning while they napped and then we picked up the older three from school. Then we headed to Sonic for a little surprise-1/2 price cones. I know cones can sometimes be a disaster for little ones since they can start melting on them quickly but it went pretty well. We did have a few mishaps though. Miles took a lick or two and set his on the table only for it to fall into his lap. We got him cleaned up pretty quickly though and then he was all good. I had to lick Bennett’s every now and then since he didn’t like it dripping down his hand. Then Lincoln didn’t want all of his so Ellie convinced him to give it to her and she tried to eat both of them. Overall I think they enjoyed their little surprise.

Then it was time to head home, do homework and finish getting ready for small group. Thankfully there was no football practice so Andrew was able to join us.  He actually got home early since he got a hair cut before closing time and just headed home when he was done. So he took the kids outside to play while I prepped. And small group went well again for which I was thankful.

Lincoln had his school pictures on Thursday and he was all ready for them. When I was doing his hair he wanted to make sure I did a good job so that he looked handsome. Then he was wondering if he needed to wear his nice shoes. I assured him that his feet wouldn’t be seen in the picture so he would be okay with just his tennis shoes. It was Bennett’s snack day at his school which also meant he was line leader and got to do the morning calendar. His teacher said that he takes telling the weather seriously J. I had physical therapy after I dropped the kids off at school and then I did my grocery shopping. After lunch, the twins helped me with watering again. They do quite a good job. One gets the hose in place and the other turns the water on.

We had a pretty busy afternoon. Jackson and Ellie had K-Life so we just had to pick up Lincoln from school. Molly came over after we got home to watch the twins so I could take Lincoln to the Mother Son Stampede. The twins still have a couple years before they can go since the boys are supposed to be 5. We got there right as it was starting which worked out well. We were supposed to meet Leah and Alex there but I guess there was a miscommunication on the time so they didn’t get there until later. Lincoln didn’t seem to mind too much. He enjoyed all the different activities and would just play with whomever was around that he knew. He started out at the bounce house, then got a hot dog, ate about two bites and decided he wanted to do the shooting range. He was very excited about that part. I didn’t really think he hit the target at all but it had two holes in it close to the middle. I think the girl taking the target papers down would punch little holes in them so the kids would get excited about it. Next up was the obstacle course and some face painting. We saw Alex for a little bit but then they wanted to go separate ways. I let Lincoln jump in the bounce house one last time and then we had to head back to the car. We were the only ones on the tractor ride back to the parking area. It was great to get to spend a little one-on-one time with him!

After the stampeded, we headed straight to Jackson’s football practice to pick up Ellie. Andrew had picked them up from K-Life and took them to football. Then I took Ellie to her tap, ballet and jazz classes. After we got her dropped off, we headed home to relieve Molly and work on dinner. We picked up Ellie at 7, finished up dinner and ate outside. Andrew and Jackson showed up just a little after we all started and they joined us. Jackson had to get busy with homework and it took him the rest of the evening to finish up. I think we were all tired by the end of the night.

Andrew took the kids to school on Friday while I stayed home with the twins. I did a longer ride on the bike and then we headed out to run a couple errands followed by a stop at the park to play for a bit. Driving around with the twins can be kind of entertaining. For a while they would fight over who sat in the seat right behind me and then it was fighting over the seat opposite me because then they could see me. That argument has kind of settled down for now. They also like to ask me what the name of every song is that comes on the radio. And they don’t like if I tell them that I don’t know. They demand a name so sometimes I just give them random titles. They also love catching a glimpse of any fire truck, ambulance, police car and construction truck. This day I got in trouble for losing a cement truck at a stop light.

After playing at the park we came home to get lunch. Andrew got there about the same time we did and then he went out for a bike ride while we did our watering. The rest of our day was pretty low key since we didn’t have any plans. The kids played outside after school and then I had Ellie help me with dinner. She was sad because her friends weren’t being very nice so I had her join me. With all the beautiful weather we have been having we have enjoyed eating dinner outside. After I got everything cleaned up from dinner then Andrew and the kids started a fire and we had s’mores. Ellie was asking about the song that Andrew wrote for me when he proposed to me so I got out a couple memory books I made for him and we all enjoyed looking through them. One of them had the lyrics to the song he wrote and we forgot about another song he had written before that. It was fun to look back through all of it. One book was from when we were just dating and the other was after we were married. I had updated it a bit but stopped before we had Lincoln. He was wondering where he was in all of it.

Saturday morning Andrew took Jackson and Ellie out to the ranch. They actually got home just in time to go with us to Lincoln’s soccer game. After the game we had time to eat lunch and regroup. Andrew worked on cleaning out his truck so we could take it to Jackson’s ball game since we needed to bring the team water bottles and water jug. He had it buckled in with a seatbelt so that it didn’t spill over since he already had it filled with water. My parents were nice enough to keep the twins and Lincoln for us while we went to the game in Trenton. Ellie wanted to go and watch the cheerleaders. We left extra early because they said there was construction on 6 and it may take a while to get there. We got there in just over an hour though so we stopped by Sonic to grab something to eat and then Andrew picked up some ice for the water jug. There was a playground next to the stadium so Ellie played there for a while with one of her friends. Jackson’s team did a great job and they won 24-6. It was fun to watch Jackson out there hustling around. He got to carry the ball a few times and had some good blocks. It was definitely a team effort. It was nice to see a lot of the different players get a chance to contribute.

We got home a little after eight and picked up the kids at my parents. They had just finished up a bubble bath when we got there. Later on the twins loved to tell my about Papa’s “crazy car” that they took to get chocolate shakes. They also went with Lissy to stake out places to take pictures of the big super moon/lunar eclipse/blood moon event that was happening Sunday night.

Andrew was at the office Sunday morning and then we went to church. The twins are excited now to show me what they make and what they learned. And Lincoln was excited he got some candy for knowing the memory verse-with Jackson’s help. After church Ellie went with me grocery shopping. The schools had spirit week coming up and she was hoping to find an outfit for 80s day that she could also wear for the Decade Night. We don’t always do well shopping for clothes together. It took a little while but I think we may have found something that will work and most of it was on clearance. I had called me my mom to see if they wanted to come over for dinner and she informed me that they may be going to Louisville because Todd was sick. He had several seizures overnight along with some vomiting earlier in the week. I ran over there after we got the groceries put away to give them a few things to take to Amanda. Andrew spent the afternoon helping the kids with shooting their bows along with playing some basketball. Then he took Ellie and Lincoln to the office with him while I laid the twins down for their nap and got busy getting stuff ready for dinner, doing laundry and working on our shower door.

Molly came over for dinner that night and Lissy joined us later after she was done with her shoots. We had what has become our Sunday night dinner-grilled steak, sliced fruit, veggies and rolls. And we enjoyed the nice weather eating outside. Then they got Molly in on the archery competition until it got too dark and they all came inside for some dessert.

Lissy got to the house just in time to start watching the lunar eclipse so she heated up some food and joined us out front. Sadly though, just as the eclipse started the clouds moved in and covered the moon through most of the eclipse.  Lincoln actually prayed that God would move the clouds because he really wanted to see the eclipse and the blood moon. We stuck it out thought and God cleared the clouds out in time for us to see the eclipsed blood moon. The twins loved being able to be out there with everyone. At one point, Lissy talked about the eclipse eating the moon and Miles said that it couldn’t eat the moon because it wasn’t a sandwich. We ended up heading inside around 9:30 and then it was time for bed.