The Mischnick Family: 2023

These days, weeks, and months just continue to fly by.

Here’s a few highlights from the Mischnick family from 2023.

Ethan is in the midst of his final year in elementary school; 2024 will mark his transition to middle school (yikes!). We are impressed by how much Ethan has grown and matured since third grade, and we also are aware that middle school will come with its own set of challenges and jump in responsibilities. Here’s to enjoying 5th grade while it lasts!

Ethan’s 2023 year included a recreational basketball league, summer mountain biking club, piano lessons, beginning to learn how to play the cello and recorder, 4-H activities, his first communion (in November), diving deeper into computers, video games, and programming, lots of neighborhood friend time, playing and creating board games, and a developing love of logic puzzles. He continues to be our boy with a huge heart who thinks big thoughts and feels big feelings.

Our kids’ fair projects tend to be a good reflection of their personalities … Ethan’s Dane County Fair submissions included a short Python program, brownies, a slideshow about how to complete a Rubik's Cube, and an original piano/guitar piece. The musical piece earned him Grand Champion in the communications department for his age bracket.

Kate started her freshman year at McFarland High School this fall with flying colors. She was more than ready for the independence and learning opportunities that come with being in high school. Kate enjoyed a couple of online writing courses in the winter/spring of 8th grade, was the winner of a local essay contest, and was awarded Reserve Champion in her age bracket in the communication department for a writing piece she submitted to the fair. Although she is no longer in the school orchestra, she continues to take viola lessons and looks forward to times when she can play with and for others.

The summer included Kate’s first real job working at a local strawberry farm. She earned the reputation of being an incredibly hard worker and has money in the bank to show for all of her early morning hours of picking strawberries. She is also embarking on a jewelry making small business and sold her first two pairs of felted earrings just before Christmas.

In addition, Kate’s identity as a runner has continued to grow. She had a successful 8th grade track season running the 400, the 800, and the 4 x 400 meter relay. She cut off some good time from her races and ended the middle school running years feeling primed for the next stage … high school cross country. Kate made excellent strides as a freshman on the girls cross country team, enjoying the time with friends and the ability to set reachable goals. She is motivated to work even harder in preparation for next year’s season.

Kate’s fair submissions included a couple of writing pieces, two chickens (Blue and Paprika), three foods (breadsticks, brownies, and oreo truffles), a vet sciences poster about poultry lice (Grand Champion), another poster about puzzle feeders for cats, and a few art pieces, one of which was chosen to advance to the Wisconsin State Fair.

Sara’s job continues to bring much joy to her life. Now in her third year, she has had the opportunity to work with some students for three years in a row. The relationships built and continued challenge of finding ways to meet the needs of these students provide many opportunities for Sara to use her creative, problem-solving brain as well as many opportunities for laughter and smiles.

Outside of work, Sara has been pleased with the continued development of the local 4-H club, after working through the tough COVID years. The efforts of the last few years seem to be paying off as we watch more youth take on more responsibilities, growing in their leadership skills while helping others around them. Who knew that 4-H would be such a big part of our family’s life 16 years ago when our first child was born?

Sara’s time in the last year has also been spent helping support various efforts at church. After successfully extending a Call to a family ministries director in the spring (she’s great!), we are still currently in the midst of navigating the transition from our long-time pastor to whatever comes next after his retirement. For anyone familiar with Call processes, you understand how time-consuming and difficult this stage can be.

Matt keeps plugging along at Trek, even in the midst of the post-COVID biking slump. He works hard to positively affect his team, and finds success in solving mechanical problems, both big and small. The family decided to join him this year for the Trek 100, with everyone riding a solid 19 miles on a beautiful Saturday in June. Our family raised over $5000 for the MACC fund in memory of Anna and in support of all kids forced to deal with cancer treatments!

In addition to his beloved tinkering projects, Matt has stepped in to assume responsibility for many tasks at home as the work, 4-H, and church aspects of Sara’s life have taken up much of her time.

Other fun news from 2023 …

Mischnick Chili finally won the annual chili cook-off at church!

We got 6 new chickens in June!

(They have been slow to start laying, but look very pretty :)

We had our main bathroom completely remodeled this fall, after almost 20 years of telling ourselves we could just make do with what we had.

The garden gave us loads of good produce, most notably pears, peapods, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and watermelons.

Somehow in the midst of all of this we also went to Camp Luther (winter and summer), South Dakota (spring break and nephew’s wedding in December), went camping in June, vacationed in Bayfield County in July, and weekended in early August with the Colba family near Road America.

Through this journey we call life, we strive our best to keep our priorities in order ... faith, family, love.