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.

The Incident

2024 started with a bang! That is, a curtain rod banged into Annie and broke her front tooth. 

Before

It was not my finest mom moment...I basically panicked. I mean, breaking and losing teeth are my MOST recurring nightmare! Luckily:

• Kevin was there to take charge and keep the mood light.
• We signed up for dental insurance for the first time in our adult lives at the 11th hour before the deadline. It went into effect on January 1, and Annie had the good sense to get injured on January 2.
• After a long night without a lot of sleep, we were able to get in with a great new dentist office first thing in the morning.
• It was fixed up good as new!

Though we liked her "Dumb and Dumber" look, as Kevin called it, I think she's happy to have her old look back.

The marathon of fall 2023

I hope I didn't make it sound like we ran an actual marathon this fall, because we didn't. It just felt like it. 

Fall basically started August 1st when I went back to work after taking July off. We hit the ground running and basically didn't stop until Thanksgiving. For a variety of reasons, it was hard to settle into new routines at school. We allowed the kids to overcommit, which it took awhile to realize. And there were some challenges, shall we say, along the way. I would say it started with the surprise storm that hit while I was in Massachusetts. I was on the phone with scared Annie and Mary trying to tell them that the weather report hadn't predicted any storms when the power went out and the tornado siren went off. We quickly hung up the call and the next 24 hours of waiting and texts and teacher training were some of the longest of my life! I couldn't get home fast enough, though the scene was grim - no power, several trees and big branches down, damage to the house and fence. But everyone was in good spirits and we commenced with the cleanup. We're still working though the aftermath with tree removal and house repairs.

Taken from the front porch - one of the pictures Kevin sent me the night of the storm

There were other storms brewing, too, which revealed themselves shortly after. My (Wacyk) family was thrown into some new situations and difficulties that stretched our capabilities and relationships. But like most challenges, there were many graces and gifts mixed in, and we're continuing to learn and manage things together.

But in that added worry and weight, there were so many fun and lovely events this fall. Watching and supporting the kiddos in their events and activities gave us so much joy through the tough stuff.

Watching Nellie as drum major was awesome!

Annie ran varsity XC

and her team went to states!

The three "littles" played soccer through LCS - it made for very busy but fun Saturdays!

DJ also ran middle school XC

and Annie was in Finding Nemo Jr.!

Winter weekends 2023

It's been another busy winter, with three kids in basketball, piano and flute lessons, and (unfortunately) lots of colds, step, and stomach viruses. But we also fit in a lot of fun on the weekends, usually watching basketball, of course, but some other things, too! Since tomorrow is the first day of spring (!), it seems appropriate to share a few.

A few highlights include dances, overnights, concerts, birthday parties, a fierce Battle of the Books competition, and days of playing in the snow. Here are some miscellaneous pictures:

A little painting time

They'd come home from basketball games to...play basketball. It was one way to get the driveway cleared!

Nellie and friends left for the Snowball dance in a snowstorm.

Starting the weekend right at Toads in Grand Ledge

District Solo and Ensemble! She did awesome at States as well, but I didn't get pictures.

Sleepover with Otto

The Superball called for an updated hat.

Buckling in some favorite friends

Bowling with cousins!

A visit to Impression 5 - it had been a LONG time and Mary couldn't remember ever going! The big kids were excited to show her their favorite spots.

We had a short getaway to visit my dad in February. It was our first time staying up there since New Years 2020, so it was a special trip and we got to spend lots of time outside in the (very sticky) snow.

Making a snow angel plan

Hiking with the big girls

The boys build a pretty good stash of snowballs to attack the girls from the fort.

Another highlight of the winter was the boys' basketball tournament. Although we were sort of, the tiniest bit, hoping it would be over the first day, DJ's team played in 6 games and won 2nd place. I think he's still recovering! They had a couple of exciting wins over teams who had been them before - even the sisters were into it! Eddie's team played well, too, and improved a TON over the season.

SUCH a nice group of guys and great coaches!

DJ and the varsity coach...maybe his future coach?!

I think my personal highlight was the Battle of the Books through the Delta and Grand Ledge libraries. DJ, Annie, Nellie, Kevin, and I all participated. We had a weak outing in the preliminaries, but snuck in a 3rd place finish in our semifinal group to make it to the finals, where we won 3rd! Most of all, we had a ton of fun. We convinced Kev to join this year and he provided a lot of comedic relief and helped us not to second-guess our answers. Eddie and Mary cheered us on (or maybe just played on the Switch) from the sidelines.

Getting serious

Third-place finish!

Lastly, as I mentioned, we've been sick a lot. This month Eddie and I both had strep throat so we spent a couple of mostly miserable days together, but it was fun to have some time just the two of us. Not pictured: Lots of work meetings on Zoom, naps, banana-flavored medicine, and Eddie destroying me on MarioKart.

Fall 2021

Well, hello. I've been a slow writer this fall. After a reprieve from almost all activity in 2020, everything picked right up this fall with the added layer of Nellie starting high school. That meant our nights and weekends were filled with football games, cross country meets, musical rehearsals and performances, soccer (x2), and flute and piano lessons. Never before has managing schedules been such an event in itself. Our weekly family meetings were a flurry of logistics planning.

Normally, my favorite fall pastime that gets me through are slow weekend mornings reading and working and watching football by the fire. That was a thing of the past this year - weekends were full of activity. I'm finding th

at at this stage of my life, I've really needed to coach myself into a new way of thinking about kids' stuff. I need to convince myself that watching soccer and going to concerts and driving kids around town is super fun and relaxing and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. I'll sit at soccer games and tell myself, "This is so fun. Isn't it great to be outside, sitting in this cozy camp chair with Kevin and without any responsibility other than yelling, 'good job, honey!' every now and then?"

Which has worked, sort of. I don't want to sound like I'm just complaining about parenting. I mean, I am the one who signs the kids up or lets them commit to all their things. But also, I really am proud of them for being "tryers." I was definitely not that way at their age. Where they are willing to jump into new activities, I was always keenly aware of whether or not I would be naturally good at something and if not, I wouldn't dream of signing up. The kids are making friends and learning skills and it really is amazing to watch them work wholeheartedly and then enjoy the outcome. If it means spending every last minute navigating schedules and driving around, I suppose it's worth it. But as the calendar turned to November and we started slowly wrapping up each activity, it was delightful to find some space in our lives again.

Here's a collection of fall fun that wasn't related to sports or music!

We spent a weekend up north with mom at the end of the summer - the girls' birthday present was ziplining - we survived!

MY favorite thing - coffee!

After a long break, we are so happy Sandy is back!

We took a fun fall camping trip and spent most of our time mushroom hunting and sitting by the fire

Camp momming so hard

At the pumpkin patch - why is Eddie wearing shorts?!

We went to Gull Meadows to celebrate Pam's 70th!

Happy birthday, Pam!

Pumpkin carving

My little baristas

The littles have picked up chess, which is super cute. I have no idea if they really know all the rules.

We had a long weekend in early November and we spent our day picking out books and drinking coffee. Oh yeah, DJ drinks coffee now.

I don't even know where this is...last soccer game maybe?

Trying to be good at the eye doctor

Bonfire with Erin and Steve

Annie and I ran the Woldumar 5K and most of our families came out to run or walk! They are amazing...Xander and Annie took 1st in their age group and Otto was close behind!