The Farwell Family

This past week just had us trucking along as usual. It was Miles turn for his filling Monday morning. They had no idea where we were going until we got there. Miles wasn’t as cooperative as Bennett so I had to back with him and then he had to sit on my lap. It all went pretty well from there, but there were a few bribes involved. Bennett hung out in the waiting room by himself but was entertained the whole time with his Kindle and the receptionist kept an eye on him for me. After we were done, we stopped for the first part of my bribes-vanilla shakes from Sonic. Then at home I rented Hotel Transylvania 2 for them again on Amazon. So they watched the movie while they enjoyed their shakes. I really don’t think I’ve seen them laugh at a movie as much as this one.

I spent part of the day going through the kids’ memorabilia boxes-just big plastic tubs I had stuffed stuff in the last several years. So I cleaned some stuff out and tried to organize them a bit. I also started on a new book. I haven’t read much lately so I thought I would. I read another World War II book, The Nightingale.  Of course I had trouble putting it down. That is the trouble with me and reading, is that I just want to finish it and it takes my attention away from other things I should be doing. That evening Andrew went through all of his Go Pro video from his race and worked on editing it to make a shorter video to put on YouTube. Then Ellie and I went to her tumbling lesson where I actually ended up getting to watch her routine so I could video it.

Tuesday I worked on Valentines for the kids to hand out to their classmates. Jackson and Lincoln wanted to use the Minecraft ones I had made for Lincoln last year. Ellie wanted a gymnastics Valentine, so I used some stuff from her birthday invitation and made one to use. Then the twins wanted Fireman Sam and I was able to find a free printable for that. I got them all printed off and cut out although my computer was acting up which added some time. I also did some quick editing on my Lego birthday design and made some new stuff for Kaitlin to use for Owen’s birthday party.

I decided to just do leftovers instead of making dinner which worked out well since Andrew ended up working late.  Jackson and Ellie had their Tinkercrate and Doodlecrate come in the mail that day. Jackson went right to work building his which was a fun game where you try to move a glass ball along two chopsticks as far as you can without it falling through.

Also, Lincoln has been excited to bring home some family pictures he has colored at school. The first one had our whole family but then he realized he forgot Buddy. So he did another one with Buddy in it but said he didn’t have room for Bennett J.

Wednesday was small group day. I wasn’t in charge of snacks or the discussion so I just had to make sure the house was cleaned up, the basement was ready for the kids, the coffee was ready and the DVD was ready to go. I went swimming that morning and decided to do sprints instead of a long distance swim. I have some work to do to improve my 150 before the TriFAHL. Thursday I got my grocery shopping in before picking up the twins. It ended up being one of those big trips with lots of random items-candy for all the kids valentines, snacks and drinks for Miles and Bennett’s snack days at school, snacks for Lincoln’s basketball team for their game that weekend, pet food/snacks for Ellie to take to Grace’s birthday party that weekend since she was collecting stuff for the Humane Society, and items to give to the K-Life kids that were going to be collecting food and toiletries to give to local charities as part of the Super Bowl party. Jackson and Ellie had K-Life after school and then we had a busy evening. Andrew had to run out to the ranch because his cows were getting into his hay, so I was on my own for the evening. I made apricot glazed pork chops and corn bread for dinner and I tried to have it all ready to go before I picked up the kids from K-Life at 5. Then it was a rush to get home, eat and clean up a bit before I had to take Ellie to dance by 5:30. Then back home to finish cleaning up and pick Ellie up around 6:20 (it was her early from dance, on time to basketball week) and get her to basketball by 6:30. I was grateful when Lauren’s mom offered to bring Ellie home from practice or else it would have been back out to pick her up at 7:30. Andrew ended up getting home by that time so it would have been fine. I do think Ellie was tired by the end of the night though.

Since Andrew took the kids to school Friday, I decided to do my first brick workout in a while. I just did the distances for the TriFAHL, which was 9 miles on the bike and a 2 mile run.  But since the TriZou is just a couple weeks after the TriFAHL, I should probably focus on those distances since they are a little longer. After I was done and ready for the day the twins and I worked on some Valentine stuff. They tried to help me tape suckers onto their Valentines even though it ended up just being me doing it. Then I also made some of the pretzel/rolo treats to surprise Andrew with when he got home for lunch. They had the Valentine candy corn out and I knew he would be excited about them.

That night Ellie ended up going to the Courtwarming game with Faith and Grace. Jackson decided he wanted to learn how to do a back flip, so he got Ellie’s mat out and went to work. And since we had a pretty laid back night, I let the twins play for a while in the bath.

Of course, Saturday was pretty much basketball. Andrew and Jackson did go out to the ranch in the morning though. I decided to get a quick run in and then quickly got ready to get to Ellie’s game at 9…and we were actually early. Ellie played well but still struggles with confidence if anything goes wrong at all. Like if they kid she is defending, gets the ball or scores. Or is she misses a basket, she gets so down on herself. So we had to have a little talk about that. And this is what the boys do at basketball games these days. Actually these tractors have gotten us through many baseball, softball, soccer, football and basketball games.

Andrew and Jackson showed up towards the end of Ellie’s game. Then Andrew went for a bike ride when we got home. We had time to do some laundry, eat some lunch and catch up on a few things before heading out for the second game. Lincoln’s game was entertaining as always. He did a great job and was excited to be playing against some of his friends. He and Alex got to guard each other right at first. Lincoln made several baskets and decided he wanted to make a few more so he kept going for the basket instead of passing the ball. This is what happened when Andrew told him he needed to pass the ball to his teammates and not be a ball hog.

We weren’t home long after Lincoln’s game before it was time to load up for Jackson’s games. They were in Unionville and the Vincents had asked Andrew if we could take Zach. He forgot we already had a full car J. We were able to get Molly to watch the kids for us so we were good to go. We picked up Zach and then dropped the kids off at my parents since Molly was working on some projects for school. Jackson’s team did well with their games. Their first game they won by quite a bit. The second game ended up going into overtime and they lost by one basket.  Then it was time to head back to Kirksville, pick up the kids and drop Zach off.

We had church Sunday and I did some grocery shopping before Andrew went out for another bike ride. He met up with another guy and he ended up doing 50 miles. While he was gone I took Jackson to his hitting camp, picked up some work from the office and then we went back to pick Jackson up. Ellie went to Grace’s birthday party during the afternoon and then they all played outside with their friends. Then Ellie remembered that we were supposed to work on her Valentine’s box so we got some of that done before we went to my parents for dinner and to watch a bit of the Super Bowl. Jackson has never been one to watch sporting events on TV but he did want to watch the Super Bowl. He even finished watching it when we got home.