So, it is obvious by now that the blog is becoming harder
to keep up with. Maybe monthly updates will become the norm. I wanted to get a
post in before Christmas even though I’m in over my head right now trying to
get ready for Christmas. I can’t really complain though I do get to stay home
and not be at work, so I definitely have more time than a lot of other moms.
The last time I posted, we had just finished up soccer with the tournament in Columbia.
It has been nice not having those additional practices. But basketball for
three kids (including coaching one of them), K-Life events for the kids and
meetings for Andrew and I, all of Ellie’s dance classes and physical therapy
appointments and the rare occasion of getting to swim practice keeps us busy
enough. Jackson has had a few home games
and we’ve only had to travel to Hannibal, Chillicothe and Queen City the last
few weeks. He ended the season with a tournament in Queen City where his team
got 1st place and then a shoot around in Chillicothe where he had
one game Friday night and two Saturday afternoon. Although he doesn’t get a lot
of playing time, he has definitely worked his way up from the 13th/14th
position he started out at. And he isn’t alone in not getting much playing time.
After the 5 starters, you have 2 kids that get some decent time and then a third
who gets a little less and then Jackson is one of the next to get in, but
spends more time on the bench along with 6 other boys who get even less playing
time. If there is a game that is close, those 7 boys sit the bench the whole
time. So, it some ways it has been a good year for Jackson because he has
definitely improved and moved his way up, but I think it has been a tad frustrating
for him with the amount of “benchwarming” he gets to do. He has been able to
joke about it though, which is good. The
last game in Queen City, he got in for the last 50 seconds of the first half.
When they came back from the locker room to start the second half, he motioned
at me across the gym and was flashing 20 (he thought he was in for 20 seconds
instead of 50) with a thumbs up and a funny smile 😊.
After his team was up almost 30 points, then his coach decided he could start
putting the bench in. We saw kind of the same thing in Chillicothe. He didn't get in at all Friday night. But, of course, he got in during the first game on Saturday before we could even get there. We were coming from Lincoln's game in Queen City and the Chillicothe games were running abut 40 minutes early. My parents, Andrew's parents and Annie and her family came to the second game of the afternoon, which was also the last game of the season. I wish Jackson could have seen more playing time with that game, but his coach did his usual and didn't put them in until they were up by 30. They won the shoot-around though and Jackson did a great job when he was in. I knew my dad would be proud of his left-handed layup. Overall, I think Jackson was still grateful he got to be on the team even with the lack of playing time.
Ellie and I practice twice a week and we have a ways to
go with those girls. My dad was gone for several practices, so it was just me
and I tried to introduce an offense, but I’m not sure how that is going to go.
Some are definitely there for the social aspect and don’t seem to have much
interest in learning how to play basketball. I really hope we can inspire and
motivate them in some way by the end of the season though. We are taking a
couple weeks off for Christmas, so hopefully they come back ready to play.
Lincoln’s team had their first games last weekend at the
Brashear Shoot Out. Lincoln made the A team, but would probably see more
playing time with the B team. He does a good job, is fast and knows where he is
supposed to be. He has some happy feet, jumping around and leaping over the
half-court line. Now we need to turn that energy to going after the ball. His
team won their first game and then I hustled to Queen City to catch Jackson’s
game. It ended up starting 40 minutes late, so I had to leave before they even
started to get back to Lincoln’s second game. Lincoln’s second game was again a
team of 4th graders that challenged them and they lost that one. Then they started up Schuyler league play this last Saturday. They won both of their games and Lincoln got serious about stealing and rebounding. He did an awesome job. My parents came to his second game while we went to Jackson's game in Chillicothe and then they brought him to Chillicothe for us.
Since I last posted, we’ve had a lot to celebrate. Before
Thanksgiving, we started decorating the house. We got the tree and all the
indoor decorations, including the new advent house Andrew made for me. And I
had the kids help me get the Christmas cards ready to send out.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with Andrew’s family on Thanksgiving
day with a lunch. We had a couple nice days so they got a fun football game in
that afternoon too.
Once we got back home, Andrew and Jackson got to work on
putting down the rubber tiles under the ninja course. They worked hard and got
it all done in time for Ellie’s birthday party on Saturday. In between we had
Thanksgiving at my parents house Friday night.
And earlier that day, several of us split up a two-hour bell ringing
shift at Westlakes. I had the boys-Lincoln, Miles, Bennett and Owen. Lincoln
and Owen were great about looking people in the eye and ringing the bell. They
did a great job. Ellie went later with Lissy and Briley. Jackson was supposed to go too, but he said
he didn’t realize they had left.
We had Ellie’s birthday party with the family that
Saturday afternoon. It was supposed to be that evening, but they were
predicting a blizzard, so we did a lunch so that people could get on the road
and beat the storm. We had another pretty day and the ninja course got some
good use along with another football game.
And the snow started Sunday afternoon and it got nasty.
The kids did decide to go play in a little bit that evening. It was a big
change from the way things looked the day before. And we ended up with a snow
day that Monday.
Ellie’s actual birthday was Tuesday of that week and she got
to celebrate by going to Jackson’s ballgame in Hannibal. She went to small
group after school for a little bit, so we gave her presents to open in the car
and we stopped at Pear Tree for a birthday dinner on the way to the game.
Then her celebration continued on that Friday when she
had some friends over. We had pizza, Oreo lasagna and opened presents before
heading to the Escape Room. It was hard and probably made harder by the francticness
of the girls. We finally solved it with extra time and extra clues. They all had fun with it though. Then it was
back home for snacks, movie and sleepover.
The next morning, we were supposed to do the Reindeer
Romp run with Annie and her family, but the weather was yucky, so we decided to
go see The Grinch later that afternoon. Lauren just stayed with us until it was
time to go. Then they all came to our house and we had spaghetti and hung out.
We had planned to go to the Christmas parade, but again, the weather wasn’t
very nice, so we skipped.
We’ve started getting into our Christmas activities with
our Advent calendar, talking on the North Pole communicator, making salsa to
give out to friends and neighbors, making other treats to send for school
teacher luncheons and Ellie and I attended the living Christmas Tree performance
at the 1st Baptist Church. I’ve tried to start wrapping, but it hasn’t
happened yet.
A couple other happenings, Miles had a wiggly tooth for a
while. Andrew finally tied a piece of floss to it to try and pull it out, but
they didn’t follow through on it and we were able to pull it out the next night
without issue. I don’t think Bennett is too far behind.
I ordered a few smart switches to put in the basement and
let Jackson take charge in installing them. It seemed like it was going to be
simple enough. The first one he installed easily, but then when it was time to
do the two 3-way switches, things went downhill. He worked on them for a while
and then I jumped in to help him and we spent several hours and ended up having
to put the old ones back in and were left without any other lights in the
basement working besides the main ones. Thankfully, the contractor that put our
shed lights in, was able to come the next morning and after 2 ½ hours they had
it figured out. It made Jackson and I feel better that it took them a while
too.
Ellie has decided to start sewing as part of a RAP
project at school. I’ve been really busy and wasn’t able to teach her how to
use my sewing machine right when she wanted to, so she got on YouTube and taught
herself. She made several pillows for her brothers and is working on photo
pillows and chapstick holders as Christmas gifts.
We had our last bible study of the year. We all brought breakfast
items and enjoyed breakfast together. We were supposed to discuss the last two
chapters of our book, but it just didn’t happen. It will be nice to have a
little break and we will start up again after Christmas.
And lastly, this past week the twins turned 7 which means
they got to have their first friend party and they were so excited. I decided to go ahead and have it after school
on their actual birthday because it was one of the only days we didn’t have a
basketball game that week. Saturday to Saturday we had 10 basketball games, all
out of town. The twins woke up to birthday donuts and a present to open, which were
Dude Perfect shirts to wear for the day since that was the theme for their
party. I brought ice cream to the class after lunch and then went to the K-Life
house to start setting everything up. Thankfully Andrew came and helped me and
we were ready to go before I had to pick up the kids from school. My mom came
as I was getting ready to leave. Leah picked up Lincoln for me and I picked up
the others, along with their friend Jack.
Then it was time to get the party started. I had Dude Perfect videos
playing on the projector and they had snacks and played around while we waited
for everyone to get there. Then we did four different games…the first was
shooting at ping pong balls that were on golf tees that were set in a 2x4. Then
they got to shoot the big Dude Perfect bow and arrow at a target. Next we had 7
targets set up around the room and they had to ride a tricycle around the room
and shoot at the targets. Last was a reverse bean bag toss to a partner. Then
we did cake and ended with opening presents. One of the K-Life leaders was
hanging out around the house because she was done with finals (actually with
college all together) and she said she would help us with the party and even
helped clean up-so nice of her! My mom and Andrew helped clean up too (Andrew
helped a lot during the party with games since I spent some time first, trying
to console Miles and then scolding him because he kept crying when he wouldn’t
hit the targets in the games) and we were able to get it cleaned up pretty
quickly. Jackson and Lincoln had to leave early and go to basketball practice
and the rest of us went home and then it was time to get ready for the party
with the family. I put some of the decorations out, ordered some pizza, cleaned
up a bit, brought the presents up and then it was time to start. Joseph stayed
with us in between parties and just made himself at home in the basement
playing with all the toys. Andrew’s parents were only able to come for a little
bit and Matthew’s family couldn’t come because Ainsley had her Christmas
program at school. So, it was just my parents and Annie and her family. It was
low-key and that was nice after the crazy friend party. It was a great day for
the twins!
We got back home around 6:30 and then Ellie and I went grocery shopping, to Hobby Lobby for her to get more fabric and finally picked up some more stable tennis shoes for her. I had hoped to get a lot of wrapping done on Sunday, but other plans came up...good plans though. We went to church and then Andrew and I got to meet up with Heidi and Jeff for lunch. It was great catching up and by the time we got done, I just had a little bit left before I had to head to Danielle's baby shower. It was great to see her too and catch up. By the time I got home from everything it was 4. So, I gave up on wrapping until later that night after I cleaned out the garage and organized our growing piles of trash and recycling, finished up laundry and made dinner. We had some nice 50 degree weather, so while I was out, Andrew had the kids out back playing basketball, on the ninja course and threw in a little longboarding. And Jackson went out on his own to do a little trail riding. It was muddy though and he turned around after just a little bit and came home. He ended up with close to 4 miles.
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