The Farwell Family

The kids didn’t have school on Monday so they were excited they got to pick up, dust and vacuum their rooms. It ended up being a beautiful day out so they played outside a lot. I needed to make a run to Aldi and planned on just taking all of the kids but Andrew offered to watch them while he was home for lunch. That evening we had basketball practice for Jackson’s 3on3 team. One of Ellie’s teammates couldn’t be there so we didn’t have a practice for them since only two girls could be there. I put on my old high school jersey before we left just to embarrass the kids and it worked. I didn’t wear it to the actual practice though. We had the practice at Mary Immaculate. I told them that that is where it all started. I had not been in the school part for quite a while but it didn’t appear to have changed much at all. The gym did have a new floor though. We had a good practice with some good scrimmage time at the end even though we had a few interruptions since we had all of the kids with us. Afterwards I was feeling sore. Even though I had done a brick workout earlier in the day, I wasn’t sore from that. I think all the jarring and sudden movements caused some pain the pelvic area. Ellie took some pictures while we were practicing.

I made dinner when we got home and then it was time for Ellie and I to go to her tumbling class. Ellie continued her tumbling with her gymnastics class the next evening in Macon. I didn’t have to take this time but she was very excited when she got home because she did a back handspring on her own. Plus, she finally did back flips on the trampoline before she left. Jackson was excited for her too since he had been helping her with them. Wednesday morning she was ready to try the back handsprings again and had me spot her some before we left for school. After I dropped off the kids at school, I went to swim some laps.  All the lanes were full when I got there so I ended up sharing with Dan Hagan. He said he had seen my dad that morning at their bible study and he came to the pool to get baptized J.

Thursday morning the kids were a little slow waking up. I know Ellie was up late the night before reading the 4^th Harry Potter book. Then she carried her Kindle around all morning reading as she was getting ready. I ran to Walmart and Aldi in the morning. Aldi doesn’t open until 9 and I had an appointment at 9:30 so I had to move quickly. I was able to get in and out in about 5 minutes, drove home, unloaded everything and put it away and then went back all away on the other side of town to get my car fixed. I had taken it in for an inspection on Tuesday and they discovered that I had a broken sway bar. I actually felt a bit defeated that they failed me J. It was going to take about an hour to fix but the nice thing is that they have free Wi-Fi, so I just brought my computer and got some work done.  Andrew was able to pick up the twins from school since I was a little late getting out of there and then he took them out to the ranch for a bit. Jackson and Ellie had K-Life that afternoon and Ellie had dance that evening. I brought Jackson with me to pick her up and we went to Wal-Mart. They both had Wal-Mart gift cards they were wanting to use and had been asking me to go. Ellie was after special towel hair wrap that Bella had that she could put her hair in to dry after her shower. She also wanted some new dry erase markers for school. After those two items, she still had some money left over so she got a headband and some gum and spent $14.89 out of her $15. Jackson brought some of his cash along with his gift card and he bought a Nintendo gift card to use with the Wii and a sweet tea J. He even offered to cover any extra expense of Ellie’s if she went over. Even though they are rare, I love seeing those caring moments.

Friday I got a bike ride and run in. In between the two, I came out to see that Buddy had decided to destroy a stuffed toy and a wooden train whistle.

That afternoon I started working on things for a dinner I was hosting that evening. It was called an If:Table dinner and the idea of them started as an extension of the If:Gathering Women’s conferences. The idea is to get a group of women together to enjoy dinner together, fellowship and discuss some predetermined questions on different issues we all face in our Christian walk. I wanted to provide dinner for the group I invited and didn’t want them to have to worry about bringing anything. I made one dessert the day before and then prepped some white chocolate mousse tartelettes that day. I had a spinach dip for the appetizer and then made Tomato and Olive Penne Pasta, roasted green beans, salad and bread with olive oil and balsamic dipping sauce. Andrew and the kids left around 4:30 to pick up some mineral at MFA and then out to check on the cows. Then they went over to Matthew and Kristin’s for some pizza and to hang out since Kristin was coming in for the dinner.  So I was able to make sure everything was cleaned and set up to go.

I had dinner almost ready to go when everyone started showing up. I wanted them to be able to enjoy the appetizer a bit and the food for dinner still be warm, so I didn’t get it all finished until a little later. We enjoyed some great conversation during dinner and then brought out the conversation questions after we got some dessert and coffee. The questions were on loneliness and it was good to see everyone open up and share with each other.  We can be surrounded by so many people and our lives be so busy, yet still feel so lonely sometimes. But God can also use those times of loneliness to draw us closer to him. I was glad I was able to host the dinner and was so thankful for all the ladies that came. It is supposed to be smaller and our group of 8 was just perfect.  And my family was happy to see that they had not eaten all of the food, especially the desserts and the pasta. Ellie even put a note on the fridge stating that she was having some of the pasta the next day for lunch.

Saturday was nice because we didn’t have any planned activities. Most of the other moms from the night before had soccer Saturday morning and I was so thankful we didn’t do spring soccer. It was cold and very windy. It did warm up eventually though. The kids played outside quite a bit. Andrew and Jackson mowed the yard and Andrew taught Jackson to weed eat. Andrew also cut the boys’ hair which kind of worked out. I think the wind made it difficult but at least it blew all the hair away. I went grocery shopping later that evening. When I got home Jackson was anxiously waiting for me so he could go over to Zach’s for a sleepover with Zach and Gage. The boys even met me in the garage and helped carry in the groceries J.  And since Jackson was having a sleepover, Ellie pleaded to sleep in my bed with me. Sunday we went to church and then Ellie and I went shoe shopping.  We had a side conversation the night before about shoes and I realized Lincoln literally had one pair of shoes that fit, so it those got muddy, we were in trouble. We have also discovered that Ellie doesn’t really have any shoes for church. So she and I headed to Wal-Mart to get some new shoes. Andrew and Jackson trimmed up some of the brush in the backyard while we were gone. Then he played ball with the kids for a bit before he went for a bike ride. Then they went out to the ranch to do some shooting practice before turkey season and some exploring.

That evening we had my parents and Molly over for dinner. My parents had been up to Minneapolis to attend the Lineman’s Rodeo where another one of my uncles, Uncle Terry, was inducted into the Lineman’s Hall of Fame. My Grandpa Killday and Uncle Bob are already members. I knew they would be tired when they got home, so we had dinner for them. 

Lastly, I don't think I shared the story about how Lincoln got in trouble at school which required him to move his clip down to yellow and an email sent to me from the teacher. She said that she had told the kids they could work on their pots of gold when they were finished with their work but not to use too many "pieces of gold" so that there were enough for everyone. Well Lincoln was one of the first ones finished and went to work on his pot of gold. His teacher said he used too many of the gold pieces and there weren't enough for all the other kids. So while they were doing a math worksheet, Lincoln had to cut out more gold pieces and then do his math sheet during half of his recess time. Not a big deal but a lesson in listening and doing what the teacher says. Well Lincoln brought home his pot of gold and I would say that he definitely used a lot of gold pieces :-).