My summer, all summer, every summer

Day 0, evening: I think to myself, "Boy, the kids seem pretty tired from the weekend travels and running around. We'll just stay home tomorrow."

Day 1: morning: I try to get up early so I have some quiet time and can get a little school work or writing done before too many kids are up. When they get up like 12 minutes later, we begin a cycle of nursing, changing diapers, pouring milk and juice, making five different breakfasts, cleaning up and picking up (forever, always), helping with crafts that require an ungodly amount of glue and yarn, untangling yarn, playing outside, googling "how to make a tin can phone," helping make a tin can phone, trying an experiment with milk and soap and food coloring, helping find a library book, getting morning snacks, putting Mary Cate down for a nap. I look at the clock, and it's 9:30.

And it continues that way for most of the day. We're trying, with some actual success, to cut back on screen time. But even the maximum recommended two hours leaves roughly 14 hours hanging out together. That's a pretty long time. So by 4:00 the kids are picking on each other and they're bored and there's conflict to manage and they're talking to me all at the same time which makes my head feel like it's full of bees, and I haven't had one full thought in 6 weeks.

So I think to myself, "That's it. We need to get out of the house. Tomorrow we'll run errands/go to the park/visit the library/do some grocery shopping/go swimming/visit Kevin/work at the Holly Way house/go to the home improvement store/do something."

Day 2, morning - nope, noon: "Why did I think this was a good idea? We do not need to get out of the house. WE HAVE NO BUSINESS GETTING OUT OF THE HOUSE."

Because it is ridiculously difficult getting out of the house. I honestly do not understand how we can be ready and out the door for school by 7:15 but when there's no hard deadline, we are always--no exaggeration--running two hours later than expected. It comes down to the fact that an outing requires all five kids to be dressed, awake, and wearing shoes. That seems pretty simple, except that: Mary Cate takes two naps (and we discovered the naps are important to keep her from waking up every half hour all night), Annie sleeps until 10:00 if we let her, shoes are never in a normal location, while I'm finding one kid's shoes another goes potty for which they remove their pants and shoes, so then I have to locate them (again), while walking to the car one kid plays in the water table and needs a new shirt...and so on. And then there's the stuff--wallet, phone, diapers, drinks, snacks, maybe sunscreen and bug spray. I don't think we made it out of the driveway once without running back and forth to the house four times and lots of frustration on my part (sorry, kids.)

The outings are generally fun, though. Always rather tiring in an adventurous kind of way. (As I've said before, the grocery store is a genuine adventure with a posse of kids.)

Day 2, evening: "Definitely need to stay home tomorrow."

And repeat.

Nellie is two hands old!

Ten is a great age so far. I never imagined how much I would enjoy this "in-between" stage as a mom. Part teenager, part adult, part child. Nellie wanted a doll for her birthday, but pretty much just gave it to Mary Cate to play with--her real-life baby doll. She stays home alone for short periods of time. She wants a cell phone (NO) and likes pop music. Her friend came over this week and they played "80's girls." She and Annie make STEM-themed videos and Nellie leads the kids in elaborate make-believe games. They have plans to start a pet-care business. As much as I love the little-kid phase, I'm learning that a kid can change a lot in the best kinds of ways.

What was your favorite memory from the last year?
 Leading chapel at school and being chosen to pray at the end.

What is one way God's been working in your life this year?
Probably in that we had a difficult class this year with some people who aren't very nice and it was good to show that I was strong and God was working in me because I wasn't mean to them no matter how they treated me.

How do you feel about being ten?  
Excited, because it's double-digits and I'm kind of happy because I've been waiting for a long time. I feel like it's good to be ten because now I can do more things.

What kinds of new things do ten-year-olds do?   
I feel like I'm stronger. I'm not a little kid anymore, I can take care of myself and watch over myself. I'm stronger not only in muscle but in God and friendships. 

What are you most excited about for the next year?
I'm excited about the school year, because 5th grade is going to be really fun and the teachers are fun and funny. I can't wait for school to start!

Who is your best friend?

Do you even need to ask that? Avery, and Emma, and Leah and Kaitlyn and Ruthie. I can't really say anyone is my best friend because I like them all equally.

Who are your favorite people to play with?
Usually DJ and Annie because they're most like my age and they're old enough. I like to play with Annie because she's a girl, but DJ likes wrestling. It's fun to have both of them around.

What kinds of things are you good at?

Reading, helping people when they don't know what to do (especially in math and science) - I'm confident I'm good at those things. I'm good at swimming or just generally playing outside. Making sure everyone is having fun and doing things safely. I like walking in the woods and planting things. I like learning about things that I didn't know about before.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Work at NASA because I like space, or be an Olympic swimmer. Who knows, maybe I'll be both!

Why are you interested in those things?
I think it would be fun to learn more about outer space. I want to discover another galaxy and see if some of us could live there or something like that. I want to be an Olympic swimmer because I love love love swimming and I want to be able to show that. I want to do something I enjoy.

What’s your favorite song?   
That's a hard question... [Okay, what are your top three?] ... [Okay, how about a couple of songs you like?] You Found Me by Big Daddy Weave, Even If by Mercy Me, and a lot of favorites like anything by Taylor Swift or Dove Cameron or from Descendants.

What's your favorite food?
Pesto pasta

Favorite movie?   
Beauty and the Beast or Descendants 2.

Favorite book?   

Harry Potter 7 probably, and The Missing series.

Favorite color?   
Right now it's a tie between blue and pink.

Favorite place to be?

Either school or Buzz's Lakeside Inn! I love this place.

What are your favorite things to do?   
Try on clothes and make outfits, organizing things, make crafts, things like that.

Is there anything else you want us to know about you?   
I want to make the world a better place for us to live in. Right now I feel like we're not taking care of it like we should. I want to do different things to make people happy, because when they're happy, I'm happy. When they're happy I know they're having more fun than they would be without me. I like knowing that if I make people happy, they're happier than they would have been. 

I love to do ANYTHING! I'll make up things to do, and I want to inspire people to do things like me, and that makes me happy. I want people to be inspired to do what they want to do and meet their dreams.

No sunscreen for this beach vacation

It's rainy, windy, and barely broke 60 degrees today! But we had some forced adventure this morning when we went to check out Lake Michigan. As Nellie said, "When we see the undertow, we say...LET'S GO!" Just kidding, we didn't even go near the water today. I've never seen waves like this during the summer.

Climbing the dunes

The lake north of Muskegon

Of course, we still can't keep the kids out of the pool. It was raining on and off and the grown-ups were in jeans and sweatshirts, but they swam for at least an hour and a half.

Poncho

Last night we watched the episode of Parks and Rec where Jen Barkley insists on wearing a poncho to Leslie and Ben's because every surface of their house is sticky. Which got me thinking...it would definitely be reasonable to have a stack of ponchos by the door to offer our guests before they come in.

Chicory and hawkweed

While we were driving the other day, I remarked to Kevin (for the 1000th time) how much I love the colors of the chicory and hawkweed growing together along the side of the road. "Unfortunately, hawkweed is an invasive species." This led to a conversation about what qualifies something as invasive versus nonnative. As far as I can tell, it means they reproduce early, reproduce quickly, and take over the resources of whatever habitat they're in.

There was a brief pause while we had the same thought.

I think the Wernets might be an invasive species.

Mary Cate, 11 months

I can't believe how much she has changed in the last month! She's as impishly sweet as ever, but she's up to all kinds of new tricks. Mary Cate was VERY GROUCHY most of our vacation week at Pam's, and when we got home she was waking up every half hour or so. Within a couple of days she had a new tooth and was crawling. Two seconds later she wanted to stand up, she she has a funny little one-foot crawl much like Annie did.

She's getting into everything (dog food and dog water are her current favorites), putting her fingers in all the sockets, shutting herself in rooms by crawling in, shutting the door, and sitting in front of it, trying to eat every little thing on the floor...basically making sure we pay attention to her every waking moment! She also chatters constantly, says "hi" to everyone in ear shot, and cries loud...making herself heard. And we love it! This is a great phase and Mary Cate has a lot of love to give all the people in her life.