june

It's been a busy first month of summer break, and I'm ready for things to slow to a more leisurely pace!  Between church, school activities, friends, and family, we have been on the go a lot.  Some of us are handling it better than others.  :)

Church
A few weeks ago we had the privilege of getting up in front of church as a family and making an announcement about the nursery.  The nursery is always short of workers, and we were hoping that by getting up in front with our whole family and talking about what a blessing the nursery has been to us would be more impactful.  We got lots of comments afterwards, but what matters is if people actually went and signed up to help afterwards! (I heard of one.)

Last week was our Vacation Bible School.  I was a 4th grade leader along with a friend from our class (Kara); Caleb, Logan, and Levi were with each of their age groups; and Jackson was in the nursery.  It was a long week!  Overall things went well being a leader, and I enjoyed it despite getting exhausted, but it was a rough week on Jackson and that really weighed me down.

School
The second week of summer break Caleb and Logan attended Drama Camp.  They had a couple small parts in a production of The Jungle Book, and it was such a funny and cute play!  They went to camp four mornings, and then in the evening of the last day they put on the play.  It was a beautiful night and they did the play outdoors.  They love Drama class at school, so it was neat for them to have this camp to attend.

The next week was VBS in the morning, and then Caleb and Levi attended Soccer Camp in the afternoon.  That's part of what made the week so rough on all of us.  I don't like packing so many activities in, a slightly slower pace is more my style, but we thought VBS and soccer were both good things to be involved in, so it was just a bummer that they ended up being the same week.  On one of the days I stayed during the camp time to chat with the former volleyball coach (more on that in a minute), and it was basically not good with Jackson.  I was definitely frustrated and stressed.

So, a few weeks ago I got a phone call out of the blue asking if I would consider coaching volleyball at Libertas.  I wasn't sure what to think at first.  It seemed kinda cool, but the timing didn't seem great (both time of year and time of life), and I'm just not sure about my coaching abilities.  But, Mike seemed pretty excited about it for me, and the more I thought and prayed about it, it seemed like a neat opportunity.  At first the idea of volleyball season and celery harvest being at the same time seemed like a bad idea, but now I figure Mike's going to be busy at work most of the times I'm busy with volleyball anyways, so it's not so bad.  I'm going to have to trust the Lord to work out childcare for the boys, and that's probably one of the tougher aspects of this for me.  I am both nervous and excited about this.  I have so much to learn about coaching, but I really feel this is an opportunity that God put before me to get more involved at Libertas and be an influence to the girls on the team.  So, a couple weeks ago I accepted the job, and then this past week I attended Volleyball Camp.  Thankfully I did not have to run the camp, I definitely did not have enough time to prepare for that, but I was excited to go and meet some of the girls and be involved.  I majorly stressed about working out childcare, so this will definitely be an area of growth for me.  If I truly believe that this is something God put before me and wants me to do, then I have to completely trust that this is all going to work out.  Practices will start in August, so I've got just over a month to prepare!!

Family & Friends
The first week of summer break Caleb and Logan were invited to two different birthday parties!  One was more of a party at the park with a whole bunch of boys, the other was a playdate with a friend from school for his birthday, and they ended up asking Levi to stay, too, so that was nice for him. 

There was a weekend that we went up to the cottage on Friday night and stayed overnight.  Thankfully Friday night was decent, but Saturday was chilly! 

For Mike's birthday I gave him a gift certificate to Action Water Sports' cable wake park.  He was excited to take advantage of it, so we went a few days later.  It was really fun to watch him!  I wasn't sure what to expect for the spectators, but they have a really nice area where you can sit and watch, and a small swimming area for the kids.  Mike had a blast and was quite sore for several days afterwards.

A couple Saturday's ago we went to a wedding for one of Mike's step-cousins.  We always have fun at family weddings like that!  Harold & Kara, Steve & Erin, and Mike & I were together.  Somehow we got ushered right up to the front for the ceremony since we're family (even in front of the aunts and uncles!!) - we had a good laugh about that one.  And, of course, we all had fun together at the reception.

The next day was Father's Day, and we met up with my parent's at Red Robin. 

Last Saturday we went up to the cottage again, and it was another cool day.  Hoping it's better next weekend...  Tom & Tera are in town from Kenya right now, and we've been having a lot of fun spending time with them.  The kids have SO MUCH FUN all together.

This past week was fairly busy, too, but it was so much nicer not to have to rush off in the morning like we did for VBS.  That seems to have made a big difference for Jackson, his moods have been so much better.  Not perfect, but better.  I went to volleyball camp Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons; Caleb, Logan, and Levi went with Eric, Lea Anne, Boden, and Heidi to their church's VBS Monday and Wednesday evenings (they loved it!); and on Tuesday evening we ran the Zeeland Zoom!  Logan and Levi did the 1 mile Fun Run, Mike (with Jackson in the stroller), Caleb, and I ran the 5k.  Also on Tuesday, a couple friends from school came for a few hours while their mom had to go to work.  (Throw in neighbor friends coming to play and my house was busy!  I love it that way, though.)  On Thursday the boys and I met Tom, Tera, Luke, and Jude at the splash pad in Jenison, then in the afternoon we had to boogie to Zeeland for an orthodontist appointment for Caleb.  (Most of the appointment went well, and then Jackson started to break down at the end.  I was hugely relieved when Caleb came out all done.)  Last night Tom and Tera and the boys came over for dinner and to hang out, and today we met them at the splash pad in Zeeland.  We are soaking up our time with them!

Mike
Mike totally rocked the 5k while pushing Jackson in the stroller.  Finished 5th in his age group (out of way more than 5...)!  He has been super consistent with working out over the last several months, and it really shows.

Celery harvest has been pushed out this year due to our wintry Spring.  It feels strange to not be started yet!  They will be harvesting some on Monday, but then taking a break for a couple days before getting back at it.  And, that's only one packing line, the other line will start up a little later into July. 

Boys
We were so proud of how each of the boys did at the race earlier this week.  Logan and Levi both took the 1 mile run pretty seriously, and looked like they were really doing their best running hard.  Caleb did a great job on the 5k despite minimal training, and Mike said Jackson did really well in the stroller (I wouldn't know, I was too far behind!).

Did I mention before that we got Mike & Emily's trampoline?  The boys have LOVED it, and they don't seem to tire of it, they can spend hours out there. 

We're still casually working on Jackson's potty training.  He's doing pretty well with #1, but we're not making a whole lot of progress with #2.  Which is funny because several months ago he did it on the potty a couple times (before ever doing #1 on the potty), but now he refuses to poop in the toilet.  We're not pushing the issue too hard yet, but at some point I suppose we will.  It's almost unbelievable to think we're almost done with diapers!!!