Welcome, 2025!

The first time I remember the year 2025 ever crossing my mind was when Nellie enrolled at LCS for the first time as a MWF afternoon preschooler. She received a certificate that read, "Congratulations Nellie - Class of 2025" and I thought to myself that it had a nice ring to it. How did we get here already?

Now here we are, celebrating New Years for the last time with all these kids living under our roof. We decided to head north for some time in the woods for an old-school Wernet party for the first time since 2019/2020. We enjoyed all our favorites - some hiking and hunting, Back to the Future, games, a variety of appetizers, homemade Pin the Ball on the Tower, and lots of noise and sparklers with sparkling juice at midnight!

New Years up north circa 2017 - it was a lot snowier and colder that year!

A little hiking and tree climbing

A little Spoons and Back to the Future. I can't for the life of me get a good photo out of Eddie, but he was the Spoons grand champion.

Sparklers at midnight

Family night hike!

Pin the Ball on the Tower. Mary didn't win but I did much worse!

Looking back and ahead, here's what we had to say about our favorite 2024 memories and our commitments for 2025:

Mary: One favorite memory was leaving for Sault Ste. Marie right after school in October. Another was going to the Tigers game and they beat the Brewers 10-2. Her goal for 2025 is getting better at making decisions. 

Eddie: Playing Spoons and watching Back to the Future.🙄His goal is to get taller.

DJ: When the Tigers went to the playoffs and beat the Astros. He wants to do more strength and conditioning workouts.

Annie: Taylor Swift concert! And all the "up north" trips were really great. Annie wants to prioritize her relationship with God this year and making sure she has the right level of motivation for the right things

Nellie: Her top three are the Germany trip, flute concerto, and the Green Day/Smashing Pumpkins concert. Her goal is to have more balance so that she has margin to focus on her overall wellbeing.

Kevin: Rend Collective concert, two Tigers games, Annie running in states and Nellie playing in states on the same day, getting a huge deer, the Green Day concert. His first idea for a goal in 2025 started with "invent a basketball player," so we'll just leave it at that. 

As for me, I think my favorites were all named already! Finding out about Nellie winning the concerto competition while we were shopping for Annie's homecoming rep dress was pretty amazing, though, so that might be my top moment of 2024. Then the Tigers game, the Taylor Swift concert, trips to Petoskey and Sault Ste. Marie, and time with our extended families. Hearing the kids and Kevin make music (singing, piano, flute, saxophone, ukulele, guitar, and now trumpet, drum set, and banjo) isn't exactly a memory but it's a great source of joy. 

My goal is both simple and enormous. To summarize, it's to love others well. I've been thinking about that for four months, since Pam died. Because one thing is for sure, Pam loved us well. In the turmoil of those first days, I found myself wondering, how do we survive such a great loss? The only answer I have is to commit to loving those around us better, as fully as we can. To be more gracious, more present, more patient, more interested in understanding than being understood.

We woke up to a surprise snowfall this morning. Happy New Year!

DJ, age 13

It might take me a while to get used to having a teenage boy in the house! I've heard stories of kids eating a whole box of waffles for breakfast and second dinner at midnight. :) But really, we're excited for what this year holds for DJ. We have so much fun cheering him on in baseball, basketball, and soccer. He has great friends at LCS for whom I am so grateful, and DJ is a good role model for Eddie and Mary. I love having him in the middle school (he might not exactly feel the same) because I get regular updates from his teachers and can hang out with him in Math Club! DJ remains my favorite person to watch sports with because he always knows what's going on, what the foul was about, who that player is, and why the coach is so mad. He does not care, however, how many Taylor Swift sightings there have been.

DJ is reliable, hard-working, and consistently wants to do the right thing. He gets cooler by the year and I pray this one is a great one for him. He's not a man of many words with the interviews, but we hope you enjoy. Love you, DJ!

Birthday morning!

Playing a sax solo at the Wacyk Christmas party

First day of 7th grade

Playing with some honey bees

So it was a sad day when DJ was too sick with pneumonia to go trick-or-treating. But he put on all his Michigan sports gear for a quick picture and his siblings, cousins, and friends were very generous in sharing their candy!

DJ chose an MSU basketball game with friends for his birthday "party"

What is your favorite memory from the last year?

I don't even remember all the way back to the beginning of summer! Maybe my really good soccer season this fall.

What is one way God's been working in your life this year?

Helping me to try harder with my responsibilities, things that are important, like sports and schoolwork.

How do you feel about being thirteen?
I don't know, it doesn't feel that different!

What are you most looking forward to in the next year?
Being a teenager and doing teenage things. Baseball season, being an 8th grader I guess.

What is one goal you have for next year?
Being a better baseball player, working on my hitting power.

Who would you say are your best friends?
Ira, Wesley, Caleb, Jurian, Cullen, Amado, Jack. Otto, Eddie, Mary, and Alexa.

What are your strengths?
Learning new things, getting along well with others.

What careers are you considering?
Football player, baseball player, basketball player. Maybe a math teacher.

What’s your favorite song or type of music?   
The Beatles songs on my iPod, but I don't really have a favorite song.

What's your favorite food?
Chicken pot pie 

Current favorite movie?   
The Sandlot or Back to the Future

Current book(s) you're reading?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Favorite color?   
Green

Favorite place to be?
I don't know, maybe home.

What are your favorite things to do? 
Play sports, read, hang out, play with cousins and siblings and friends.

What was your favorite present?
Either my Kirk Cousins jersey or my new Lego set [he's working on a Mars Rover during this interview!]

Is there anything else you want us to know about you? 
I don't think so.

Christmas 2024

This Christmas held most of our favorite traditions and lots of surprises, laughter, and good food. One thing I love about the kids growing older is that they can tell me what their favorite traditions are - some I didn't even think of! Like the way they sit on the stairs until they're allowed to come downstairs, or how Annie and Mary lay in bed together tracking Santa on the iPad until they get tired. I love that the kids are buying their own gifts for each other (Annie and Nellie even have their own money!) and that they all are becoming thoughtful gift-givers. They had some creative homemade gifts, too. 

Interactive picture DJ made for Kevin

It was a wonderful Christmas week, if a little jam-packed. We sure missed Pam this holiday season, but we extra appreciated the time we had together and with all our family. 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Here are some photos of special moments, in no particular order.

The kids all got paper crowns in the crackers Genny and Jason brought! Love this crowd!

The biggest gifts this Christmas were an electric drumset and banjo - they are getting a lot of play so far!

Christmas apples and oranges

Ready to open presents!

Christmas Eve service with Grandpa Mike

Look at all the special guest cookie decorators!

Uncle Kevin teaching Ira how to build a fire

Family selfie at candy cane lane, with coffee

A newer tradition is a low-key Wacyk grandkid musical revue! They are a talented crew!

Wernet Fall Round-Up 2024: Nellie

Nellie's main thing this fall was the Grand Ledge Marching Band. She was the senior drum major and played a flute solo, which was super cool and a little crazy. 

But the other big story in Nellie's life was college application season! She had already done most of the application before she tagged me in, and I was surprised - though I share an office with the College and Career Counselor and should know better - by what an elaborate and somewhat confusing process it all is, even with (or especially with) the Common App. I learned a lot, so hopefully I'll be better prepared for the next four go-rounds. We spent hours at the kitchen table reviewing data, navigating music school applications, looking at scholarships, and brainstorming essay topics. Nellie drafted essays on our way home from the U.P. in October. While I drove, we'd discuss, then she'd write, then we'd switch drivers, and we'd discuss and I'd edit. It was great!

There were visits to U of M with Kevin and visits to WMU and Hope College with me. Nellie continued for a third year with the Spartan Youth Wind Symphony and auditioned for the All-State Honors Band. She started three AP courses and continues to work at the Sun Theater to round out her senior year. For most of the season, we didn't really see her much! We're all thankful that marching band has wrapped up so we can spend just a little more time together. Well, I'm very thankful for that, Nellie is probably a little thankful. 

First day of senior year!

Fall Homecoming

Senior Night

Conducting at Ford Field

SYWS chamber concert

GLMB Banquet

Visiting Hope - we were both enamored with the campus

Senior pictures 💗

Fall 2024 and life lessons

Fall has been a very full-of-life time in the Wernet household, and this year was no different! We had months of marching band, soccer, cross country, music and dance lessons, hunting, and a musical. School life is a bit of a hurricane from August to December every year, we helped my dad move his "home base" to an apartment in Grand Ledge, and both boys had a bout of cold/flu and DJ ended up with pneumonia. We lost Pam, then Chief and a coworker or Kevin's. We (primarily Alex, Kevin, and John) worked through the difficult process of managing Pam's estate and several weekends were spent sorting and packing and cleaning at the house. And over and under and through it all was the grief, which felt like a mist that settles into all the gaps and cracks of our lives.

Something I think I knew in my head but really sunk into my spirit this fall was how much joy and sorrow, delight and difficulty can and will coexist. For most of my life, I've seen things in black and white - it's a good day or a bad day, a good week or a bad week, a good season or a hard season. But over and over in this current season, things were wonderful and filled with joy and delight and the same time that stresses were piling up, relationships were challenging, and sadness was deep. And I learned that to live most fully, you can - you need to - lean into both the joy and the sorrow. Luckily, we don't have to do that on our own strength (Psalm 46). Here are a few of the delightful moments from our fall.

Looking through photo albums together at Pam's

Family trip to the U.P.

Robynne joined us and we enjoyed the weather

An artist at the coffee shop offered to sketch their favorite characters

Sorting out candy after trick-or-treating

The Halloween crew

Dad and daughter date to see the marching band state finals at Ford Field (while Annie and I drove to see Taylor Swift in Indy!)

On a day off in November, we have a tradition of going to the bookstore to pick out a book. One of my favorite days! This particular time, the kids all ended up with peppermint mochas instead of peppermint hot cocoas. The barista assured me they only have "a little espresso." 

Then a trip to Impression 5

Some impromptu cousin hangout time. It was impossible to get a good picture.

Annie teaching Eddie how to apply stage makeup in the LCS office.

Turkey Trot date

Thanksgiving - four generations of Tuinstra women! It was wonderful to spend some time with my grandma.

The kids were banished to the basement after Thansgiving dinner so we could clean, so they wrote and performed a play for us. Here, they are stargazing before travelling into space.

Mary Cate is officially eight

 For most of her life, Kevin's sang a song to Mary that goes something like:

Mary Cate, Cate, Cate
She is so great, great, great
Even though, though, though
She was one week late, late, late!
Mary Cate, Cate, Cate
She is so great, great, great
And I can't wait, wait, wait
Until she's eight, eight, eight!

And she finally is!

We 💝 Kerry Carpenter

Presents around the campfire

Birthday decorations on vacation!

I can't think of another year in which a child changed quite so much. Mary's always been nervous to the extreme about trying new things or being without her family, and being nervous makes her MAD. Then all of a sudden, Mary got brave. She started piano lessons, soccer through LCS, basketball camp, spending the night with grandmas, and softball. She has always been (understandably, I suppose) terrified of being upside down but this year she learned how to do somersaults and tricks on the bars. I guess it was just a big year of growth! I also think that she came to the realization that if she can tough out life with two older brothers, the rest of the world is relatively kind and gentle. :) After her first night of softball practice, for example, she told me that she doesn't like playing outfield with her brothers because "she's the only one out there and they're really hard on her," but at softball "there are like three other girls playing outfield and everyone's nice! It's easy!"

 Mary loves 3rd grade, her after school dance class, playing outside, and chatting. Her birthday itself was a little rocky; it was the week Aunt Pam passed away and we spent the day out of town for Labor Day weekend then funeral preparations. But we made the most of it and it was fun to celebrate with all her Wernet cousins, aunts, and uncles. Mary is still just as much her spunky self and who knows what this year will bring?

How do you feel about being eight?  

Good! I feel like I've grown 5 inches but really it's only like 3 centimeters.

What kinds of new things do kids to when they're 8?   
I don't know...I'm not a regular kid, though. [Okay...what do YOU think you'll be able to do now that you're eight?] Actually be able to reach that branch when I climb the tree next to our house. Now I actually want privacy sometimes, I don't want to be around everyone all the time. Especially when I'm outside. I'm an outdoor person.

What are you most excited about for the next year?
Playing ukulele in music. Learning and doing more advanced stuff.

Who are your best friends?

Hannah and Emma, Abigail, Julianna, Elliot, Kenzie.

Who are your favorite people to play with?
Eddie, actually. All my friends, Charlotte, Alexa.

What kinds of things are you pretty good at?

Piano, math, writing (my hand never gets tired), rollerblading, running, sports, reading, including people, being funny, kayaking.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Astronomy scientist, teacher, be a good mom. 

Why are you interested in those things?
Well I want to be a mom because I want to take care of people. For astronomy I love to learn about space and I did a project on Neil Armstrong. I like the idea of teaching.

What’s your favorite song?   
Rewrite the Stars from The Greatest Showman, and any songs from The Greatest Showman.

What's your favorite food?
Pesto pasta or Swedish meatballs.

Favorite movie?   
The Greatest Showman

Favorite book?   

The Chronicles of Narnia or the Penderwicks series.

Favorite color?   
Blue

Favorite place to be?

At home, Fun Tyme, or Impression 5. Papa John's house in Sault Ste. Marie or Grandma's in Petoskey. Also Florida.

What are your favorite things to do?   
Math, music, playing outside, read (especially learning, so nonfiction), hiking.

What was your favorite birthday present?

The Kerry Carpenter poster

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?   
Strangely, my favorite planet is Mercury.