The Farwell Family

Another Monday, another week. I felt like I had a lot to do, but it is the way it usually is towards the end of the year-taxes, birthdays, Christmas, and my reoccurring urge to clean everything out, especially before the kids get new stuff for Christmas/birthdays. I helped in Lincoln’s room Monday morning. I read with a couple of kids, including Lincoln, but that was about it. It was fun to work with Lincoln, though, and he did a great job with his reading. After I left, I headed home and quickly got ready for a bike ride. Andrew was able to pick up the twins from school, so I headed out to the lake to redeem my ride from the day before where I didn’t do very well. And it was better. That afternoon we didn’t have to pick up Ellie because she got to stay after school for math practice. We had received an email on Sunday that she was one of 8 4^th graders that qualified to be on the Math Competition team. She was so excited. It was kind of funny that I was talking to Jackson about it later and he said that his math teacher mentioned it to him and said he could do it and he just brushed it off-not interested at all. But Ellie was jumping up and down, very excited. So, she stayed at school while I took all the boys to my dad’s office for a fun afternoon of shots. The twins got their kindergarten shots while Jackson got his meningitis and tetanus shot. Thankfully, Jackson was much better than when he got his kindergarten shots. The twins were nervous but Molly supplied them with snacks while we waited and they were promised shakes when we were done. Miles was up first and we went into a separate room. They had him lay on his belly and two nurses did simultaneous shots on each cheek. He winced a little, thought about crying, but didn’t. Then it was time for the ones in his arms. He sat on my lap and was a champ again and didn’t cry. Next up was Bennett and he was great with the first set but the ones in the arm got him and he started to cry for several minutes. He had settled down before we left and was excited to get his shake on our way home.

Andrew and Ellie were at home when we got there and gave Ellie her Blizzard only to find out a little later that she and Andrew already got one on their way home. It was soon time to get dinner made and get Ellie and Lincoln off to soccer practice. And with the time change, it was dark before they left since their practice doesn’t start until 6:30. I picked Lincoln up at 7:30 and was all set to read his next Magic Tree House book. But I ended up visiting with a couple for a few minutes and then I could hear Lincoln yelling from the car, “Mom! Come here. I want to read my book!” Alex was in there too and so we got started on the book.

Tuesday morning, I got the kids dropped off and then went for a run. It was election day and it sounded like the lines were long, so I was glad I voted earlier. I got some work done for the office and Andrew offered to pick up the kids from school so I could get more done. I filed some paperwork that had been piling up so that it was all in order for taxes and to make sure I had all the forms we needed. That is always a fun job. The kids played outside for part of the afternoon and I got some Christmas lights on our small tree out front. And then we went by the bank and then to my parents for dinner. While we were going to the bank, we noticed people had gathered at Pancake City to honor a local guy, Matt Lewellen, who died in a shooting in Jordan. He was a Green Beret doing training in Jordan. His parents own Pancake City and 27 flags had been set up soon after the news was released of his death. So people gathered and put flowers at the flags. Some of the Patriot Riders were there along with the fire department who had a flag hanging from the ladder truck. It was a sobering sight.

The kids were excited to hear my mom was making lemon chicken. I also made some Kraft Mac and Cheese and the twins were very happy. We ate a little earlier and then Andrew took Jackson to basketball practice and went home to watch election results while he rode on the trainer. Ellie spent most of the evening doing double digit multiplication facts. She wanted to learn how to do them, so Molly, my mom and I each showed her a slightly different way to do it and she caught on and did them the rest of the night…constantly asking people to give her numbers to use. I decided last minute to do some quick grocery shopping while the kids stayed at my parents and then we headed home. I was planning to go to bed at a decent time but then the election was much closer than what everyone was predicting. I ended up staying up until to 1, I believe, but Andrew was up later. When Clinton’s group was told to go home and wait for the results in the morning, I thought we were done. I still had the tv on as I went to sleep and woke up at some point while Trump was making his speech and saw that he won. It was crazy what followed the election, especially on Facebook. There were a lot of very upset people-such mean words on both sides and protesting and rioting. It will be interesting to see what is to come.

Wednesday, I finally made it back to the pool. I didn't do my long swim and instead did several 400s. It was nice to get back to it but my arms were sore the next day. Afterwards, I had to take my car in again to have it worked on. It was leaking oil again and I just assumed it wouldn’t be what happened last time-the oil filter was loose after the oil change. But it was. After my last oil change, I guess they didn’t get the filter put on correctly again and it leaked oil in our garage. They actually had to put in 3 quarts. I had started cleaning the house while they were working on it and Miles got to join me. He spilled his yogurt all over the floor, so I put him to work.

Andrew had to pick up the kids though since I got the call just before it was time to get the kids and we didn’t have time to pick it up and get in the pick-up line. That evening, Ellie and Lincoln had soccer practice. It was actually kind of cold-we were fortunate we didn’t have many cold practices before then. Thursday, Ellie had her math practice again so we didn’t have to pick her up after school. But after that it was a lot of back and forth-pick her up, then get her to dance later, then Jackson to small group and pick up Ellie from dance. Then Ellie had her music program that night, so she didn’t go to her last dance class. She wasn’t very excited about going to it and tried to get out of it by saying her throat hurt and she couldn’t sing. But we all went and it was short and sweet. It was a patriotic program which was fitting for Veteran’s Day being the next day.

Jackson had small group and middle school club that night and it seems to be going better. The boys are excited to go and I loved hearing him talk about sitting at lunch with the boys from small group-that was what I was praying for- that this small group would provide a good group of boys for him to hang out with.

Friday morning, I got the kids to school and then my mom, the twins and I went to Columbia. The twins were excited until they realized we were actually going shopping. There was some pouting.

We got through a couple stores before lunch and then ate lunch at Chick-fil-A. The twins loved the play place but didn’t like the food. I think I’m the only one in my family that does like it. We hit a few more stores including Target at the mall and then let them play at the play area there before heading home. I was excited to show the kids what I got for Buddy when we got home. It was an elf outfit and the kids loved it, but Buddy wasn’t a fan.

That night, Andrew and I went to the Lifeline Banquet and Molly watched the kids for us. The speaker had been the speaker several years ago but he did a great job again. It was a nice evening visiting with people and supporting a great cause. I love that the money they raise goes to help the people in our community and not necessarily to outside causes. When we got home, the twins had their new hats on and Molly said they had worn them most of the night.

Then it was time for the boys to get ready for deer hunting. Jackson and Lincoln went with Andrew Saturday morning and were back in time for Jackson’s basketball game at 9. They said they saw a few but nothing worth shooting at. Jackson had another good game and my parents came to watch him too.

After the game, I rushed home and got online to try to get tickets to the Lion King. It was a bit of a fiasco and took a couple hours, but in the end, we got our 26 tickets. Andrew had gone back hunting after he dropped off Jackson for his game, so he came back in later and took Jackson and Ellie out. 

Lincoln had a birthday party which he had a lot of fun at. They rented a church gym and put inflatables in it for the kids to play on. I made some peanut butter bars and picked up the pizza Kristin had ordered that evening and we headed out to their house for dinner. Annie and Brad and their kids were in town along with several guys from their church. The kids played all evening and then we made our way home. Andrew took care of baths while I went to my parents’ house to have my dad work on my back. It just started hurting out of the blue and felt like something was out.

Andrew and Jackson headed back out Sunday morning. I had big plans to get stuff done, but then we lost Buddy. I had let him out and he didn’t come back even when I called for him. So, Ellie and Lincoln went out on their bikes to find him. We haven’t been able to find his shock collar, so I think he has been roaming a bit more. Lincoln finally found him when he was out riding his bike. We all looked for the collar throughout the day and couldn’t find it. When Andrew got home, I got a quick run in on the treadmill and then we went to Home Depot to get a new deep freeze to replace ours that broke since we had some more beef we had to pick up. Then he and Jackson went back out to hunt. I worked on stuff for Ellie’s birthday, finished the loads and load of laundry and did some more work on the Christmas decorations outside. I put the Holy Family out, the wreath and greenery on the fireplace outside, worked on cords and timers and the twins helped me get Santa put out. It was getting dark by the time we got it finished. Ellie spent most of the day just hanging around the house but she did convince me to let her make a stress ball with flour and made goop with flour and soap. The twins were excited that I let them go with Lincoln to Ty’s and Alex’s houses to play. They were in and out playing “gun games” which is pretty much hide-n-seek with Nerf guns.

I made dinner that night and it was about ready to go when Andrew and Jackson got back. After we got dinner cleaned up, Andrew and I got the deep freeze down to the basement and then he decided to burn the box it came in out in the fireplace. I'm just glad my greenery didn't melt.

I took the three oldest with me to do our grocery shopping and shopping for our Operation Christmas Child boxes. It maybe wasn’t the best idea trying to do both of them at the same time but we got it done and the kids found some good items to go in the boxes. It was sometimes hard to get Lincoln to understand that most of these kids have no idea what Minecraft, Star Wars, etc., are so we needed to look for toys that were fun without all of that and some practical items that would be nice to have. We also had to go by Dollar Tree since Walmart was out of the size of boxes we needed and we didn’t get home until 9. I had them go ahead and put all of their stuff in the boxes before they headed to bed.

While I was gone, Andrew called wanting to know what to do with the huge Play-Doh mess the twins had made in the basement. He said all Play-Doh should be thrown away J. He vacuumed it up, so that was good. I didn’t realize until the next day that the mat that they had been playing on that he rolled up still had a bunch of Play-Doh and all their “tools” wrapped up in it.