Jackson had his football banquet at the end of October and earned the Diamond in the Rough award. We knew it was him soon into his coach's presentation. He described Jackson to a tee-said he started out in 7th grade pretty awkward and he wasn't sure what to expect out of him, but that he worked hard on and off the field, was a selfless player who never complained and did what the coaches asked him to do, playing multiple positions,even starting on the offensive line when they needed him. All his hard work paid off on the field and the coach said he can't wait to see what his high school years hold for him.
And then Jackson went straight into basketball. He hasn't seen too much time on the court (there are 15 players on the team), but we've been impressed when he does get out there. He did get a chance to play quite a bit during an extra game after one of their scheduled game and did a great job. I just have a feeling he will get better with each game and see his playing time increase. And we have to document him learning how to iron his pants since he has to dress up for games...and along with it is Ellie got to start shaving :-).
We had a fun, chaotic Halloween. We had Halloween parties at school during the day. And we changed up tradition this year and Ellie had friends over to trick-or-treat with, so we had dinner at our house with the Seedorfs, Vincents and my parents before the kids all went out. Ellie and her friends went one way, Jackson went to the Mareks for a party and then trick-or-treating with friends (he did an awesome job with his Amazon Box costume) and the younger boys headed out with friends before we were ready since we were serving dinner (they were pretty anxious to get out there) and thankfully Leah and Annie went around with them until Andrew and I could catch up. They loved all of it and it was fun to host people at our house.
We've stayed busy with a variety of other things too-K-Life, small groups/bible studies, helping at Lifeline and in classrooms, the book fair, dentist appointments and flu shots together (no cavities, yay!), birthday parties, and more including shopping for, assembling and dropping off our Operation Christmas Child boxes. I decided one evening that I wanted to see if I could run a half marathon distance without stopping, so I came up with a route and set out to do it the next day since I figured it was one of our last nicer days. I was happy that I was able to complete it in 2 hours and 8 minutes and ran the whole time. And Andrew and Jackson built a small bike ramp together out of some scrap wood we had.
Speaking of bikes, we were finally able to do our 2nd Annual De Ronde Van Farwell Land race the first weekend of November. Some of my siblings were able to come back then, so it worked out great. The weather wasn't looking promising that morning with cloudy, misty skies, but the sun came out when we got to the race site and it was a good day. We lost a few people with the date change and weather, but we still ended up with 27 participants. The road was in pretty great condition for the race and we didn't have any major wrecks, which we were thankful for. The course for the older kids/adults proved tough and Andrew and Jackson were the only ones able to ride up the big hill at the end while everyone else just pushed their bikes up. We are reconsidering the course for next year, but we were so proud of everyone for finishing-everyone! The Farwells kind of cleaned house with the first place finishes-Lincoln was first place for the younger boys category, Jackson was first place for the older boys, Ellie was first place for the older girls and Annie was first place for the female adults. Micki McIntosh was first place for the younger girls and Brad was first place for male adults. I'm thankful for all who supported and participated in the race, but also thankful it is over.
I went home after the race, unloaded all of the stuff in the car so I could load up stuff for K-Life trivia night. Ellie and Bella stayed at our house and helped Lissy with Christmas mini shoots, while Lincoln stayed with Andrew to help pick up race signs and Jackson went with me to Ray Miller to help with the trivia night set up. Our main thing was setting up the popcorn bar, but we also brought over a lot of jars and buckets, my roll of brown paper and the lemonade stand along with the sponsor tents I made for each table. That evening, we had two tables of adults and kids and had fun participating in the first K-Life Trivia Night. I think it went pretty well and is definitely something the can build on for next year.
The weekend after Trivia Night we had the K-Life leaders over for dinner. I prepped for about 40, but the numbers were down for some reason and we had just over 20. It was a nice, grateful group though and we are grateful for their commitment to the youth in our community. And since not as many showed up, I was able to send leftovers home with the guys that live in the K-Life house.
We had another dinner the next weekend, the Lifeline Banquet. They had two nights for the banquet and we went on the second night. I think they had 47 tables the first night and around 35 the second since there were a lot of other events going on then. The speaker was former Cardinal player and current announcer, Rick Horton. He gave an inspiring message that was different than the years past that focused on what was happening on the front lines of the abortion industry. He gave a message of dreaming and following through on those dreams and ended my sharing that his mother experienced an unplanned teenage pregnancy and considered abortion, but chose life for him. We had a great group at our table with Leah, the Seedorfs and the Behnens and it was a fun night.
Ellie continues with dance, soccer, swim team and basketball. We've had several basketball practices with the Mary Immaculate team and we definitely have our work cut out for us. They are a good group of girls though and we have some time before the actual season starts, so I'm optimistic we'll see improvements. And Lincoln has been attending basketball practice a couple times a week and will start games after Thanksgiving. I haven't been able to watch any of the practices, so I'm not quite sure how he is doing yet. Ellie hasn't been able to make many swim team practices, but we were both able to participate in their Swim-a-thon fundraiser one Saturday afternoon. They had around 4 at a time swim for 5 minutes and see how many laps they could swim and took pledges for the laps. Ellie and I were both able to swim 300 yards. I had not swam since the Half Ironman, but I was still excited for Ellie to keep up with me. I have to admit that my arms were sore for a couple days after that.
While Ellie and I were swimming (and the three younger boys hanging out with us) Jackson and Andrew were hunting. Then Andrew took the rest of the boys the next day. They didn't get anything and didn't get in as much hunting time as they wanted, but at least they got to do some.
And the hunting had to be done in cold weather as it came in right after Halloween and hasn't really left. We've actually had some decent snow too. I'm not quite ready for the cold weather though. We still had our patio furniture out and there was never a good time to put up Christmas lights. So, I just buckled down over a couple days and put up all the patio furniture and curtains and then put up Christmas lights the next day. After it being cloudy in the morning, the sun came out and it ended up being a nice day to do it and I got all the outside stuff done. Jackson helped me out by putting the cup hooks into the roof line of the shed so I could put some lights up on it. Andrew worked some more on the ninja course later that same day and got the rock all leveled out and tamped down. It is getting closer to being done.
And as the Christmas season is getting closer, the twins have been working on their lists. Miles was upset to learn that he wouldn't be getting all 15 items he wrote down. And while we were in Columbia this last weekend and walking through the mall, they saw Santa but immediately said he wasn't the real one and didn't care to go see him. Kind of sad, but he also wasn't a very good Santa, so I understood.
And I'll end with soccer and what has felt like the never-ending season. They all have learned a lot and really grown this year and I love to watch them play, but it is about time for it to be done for a little while. They had their Scary Friendlies the weekend before Halloween and that was the end to the official season. Kind of. The twins had one more practice that was a Parents vs. Kids game. I wasn't looking forward to it, but we ended up having a lot of fun with it and they loved that Andrew and I played. Ellie and Lincoln continued with practices for the Show Me 3on3 Soccer Fest that was last weekend. The weather got pretty cold and they practiced in it sometimes, but thankfully canceled when it got even colder. And the grand finale was the tournament in Columbia. They both played two games on Saturday and Ellie had one on Sunday and Lincoln had two. We were hoping for warmer weather, but it didn't happen. It was downright chilly. Ellie went with the Seedorfs because her first game was at 1:20 and Jackson had a ballgame at 11. I was hoping I would be able to make them both, but Jackson's game ran late. The younger boys and I made it to the soccer field (actually Hickman's football field) just as Ellie was finishing up her game. Ellie ended up going to the hotel and mall with the Seedorfs while the boys and I stayed in the car for a bit before Lincoln's game at 2:40. Ellie found Bath and Body Works at the mall and was in love. She bought several things and wanted to go back. We went to the hotel after Lincoln's game and got checked in and vegged out for a little bit since they both had games at 6:40. We went down to get some of the free food at Happy Hour and visited with some of the other families. Then Andrew and Jackson got into town and met us at the evening games. Ellie and Lincoln's teams both struggled with their games Saturday and lost all of them, but they individually did a good job. And they both took on the same position as defender. They were excited to get back to the hotel and to the pool after their last games that night though. Then it was bedtime and back to games at 10am for both of them. I saw some great defense from Ellie, but their team lost again. Lincoln's team had a better day and ended up with two wins. Everyone talked about what a great job Lincoln was doing as defender and Matt kept him in most of the time in that one position. Their last game of the day was at 2:00. Andrew and Jackson went back to Kirksville after the first games, so the rest of us went to check out of the hotel and then went to Shakespeare's for lunch before going to Kohl's to make some returns and then the mall to look around for a little bit. Lincoln's last game was against our A team (Lincoln's team was considered the B team and they also had a C team). Our boys were on fire and played to win...and they did. They were pretty excited. Lincoln was even able to score a goal off of a corner kick. It was a fun game to watch. We took some final pictures, loaded up and thawed out on our way home. Then it was immediately time to get unpacked, do laundry and get ready for the upcoming week.
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