The Mischnick Family: 2024

As we find ourselves at the end of another calendar year, I enjoy the opportunity to reflect on the family’s experiences of the past twelve months.

Ethan finished up his years in elementary school this spring with plenty of positive memories and began his middle school journey in September. Ethan’s self-proclaimed goals for middle school include “getting MEs or ESs and trying new things”. (MEs = meets expectations ~ Bs; ESs = exceeds standards ~ As). So far, he’s well on his way to meeting those goals. Ethan’s extracurricular school activities have included cross country, science bowl, and robotics club, with robotics club by far being the highlight. After the first tournament day in mid-December, Matt and I agree that this activity is an excellent fit for our social, technically minded, problem-solving son. We think the robotics club will continue to be a great way for Ethan to grow during his adolescent years.

“Trying new things” was also a theme of the summer for Ethan. I was on the lookout for different camps/experiences that could feed Ethan’s passions, but also challenge him appropriately. The highlight was probably a “Triple C” Career Discovery Camp at Madison College during which Ethan learned how to use CAD, CAM, and CNC, ending the week with a chess set that he helped design/mill. He also enjoyed a music composition camp, a week of fencing lessons, 4-H camp, and an ultimate frisbee camp.

As parents, we opted to include Ethan on our family cell phone plan starting in June, mostly so we could have a way to track him and communicate with him over the course of the summer. Because of this, Ethan was finally able to take many trips on his bike to and from McFarland without family (3ish miles each way … downhill on the way into town, very uphill on the way home) … to the library, the ice cream shop, summer rec programs, the youth center, friends’ houses, and fishing. Having a phone has allowed Ethan a different level of independence than he had previously, and has also allowed our family to figure out more intentionally where various boundaries lie. And, we received a number of fun texts this fall with pictures of the food Ethan made in his Family and Consumer Sciences class ;)

Ethan’s 2024 year also included a winter recreational basketball league, piano lessons, beginning to learn how to play the trombone, 4-H activities, and lots of neighborhood friend time. Looking back at all of these things reminds me that feeding Ethan’s passions and challenging him appropriately can be exhausting for us as parents.

Ethan’s Dane County Fair submissions included a video game he programmed on SCRATCH, rhubarb crisp, sweet potato rolls, a CANVA presentation about how to create a specific paper airplane, an original piano piece, and a piano/viola arrangement he and Kate played for the Dane County Performer’s Festival. Ethan has lots of fun ribbons to show for his efforts, and we were treated to several trial batches of rhubarb crisp :)

Kate settled into her high school career fairly smoothly during the calendar year. She excels in the academic portion of her teenage years, and is finding other opportunities to be engaged with school as well. Kate’s extracurricular activities through school included Track & Field, Cross Country (2nd year), Art Club, and Driftwood (a writing/artistic/creative club).

Kate continues to be involved in 4-H, both at the club and county level. Last year she was a county 4-H Ambassador, a youth leader of the Cat Project, and was all set to be a camp counselor at 4-H Camp before COVID derailed that train. As a sophomore this fall, Kate opted to step away from her multi-year role as club secretary and is ready to return to being “just” a club member.

The summer included several experiences that stretched Kate’s independence and reflected her growing maturity. Not only did she work at a local strawberry farm again, but she also sold some of her hand-crafted earrings at a few local craft/vendor fairs. The money earned from these experiences helped fund an international trip that Kate took to tour Greece and Italy with about 100 other students/staff from McFarland. For eight days, Kate was experiencing the history, sights, sounds, foods, etc. of Athens, Pompeii, Sorento, and Rome. Kate and a good friend had an amazing (and exhausting) experience, which gave Kate a taste of international travel. Unfortunately, several students returned with was a case of COVID as their last souvenir :(

Because of the timing of the trip, Kate was unable to participate in the Dane County Fair, but she submitted a few exhibits to the Stoughton Fair. Kate finally was awarded a blue ribbon for one of the chickens! Meatball proved that she was bred to be a true show chicken. Kate also submitted a number of art pieces (felted earrings, clay sculptures, scratchboard, and acrylic painting), as well as a poster about fashion and body types. 4-H still allows Kate the opportunity to share some of her unique strengths and interests.

Kate’s summer also included a driver’s ed course, which ended the week before school began with receiving her permit (!). Kate is well on her way to completing her required practice hours before her 16th birthday in May.

In what would have been Anna’s senior year, we find ourselves thinking of the notable milestones that Anna’s peers are experiencing. Senior pictures, college searches, school dances, and all of those other senior things that we will experience for the first time with our second-born. The feelings of loss are tempered by the joy we find when parents of Anna’s classmates reach out to us at different times … to let us know they are thinking of us during the first week of school, to share something that reminds them of Anna, or (my personal favorite) to let us know that some of their child's senior pictures were taken at Anna’s bench at McDaniel Park. Anna is still a part of our lives and we look forward to the day when we will be reunited with her in Christ.

Sara’s job continues to be a good fit for her. After some restructuring within the district, Sara is now also the team leader for the Advanced Learner Services Team in McFarland, in addition to her half-time position as the K-2 resource teacher. She is continuing to learn plenty in this new role, but also finds value in supporting effective systems that help meet the needs of the strongest learners. So many of our family’s unique life experiences are reflected in the work that Sara does with elementary students and teachers.

4-H keeps growing, and the newer families are (thankfully!) taking on more of the coordination of activities. The youth and their energy make all of the behind-the-scenes work worth it. And, this year’s 4-H plot at the local community garden was finally a successful experience for the youth and adults in the club! Now it’s time to start looking for the next adult leaders to train for when our kids age out of 4-H …

Sara decided to step away from leadership roles at church after some rough patches last fall and winter. Spending intentional time with family is still a priority, and the responsibilities at church were interfering. It turns out that co-leading middle school Sunday School seems to be a much better (and much less time-consuming) fit for everyone in the family. Matt and Ethan, however, have added to their recording responsibilities at church. They now run sound, do recording, and edit services two Sundays each month.

B-Cycle continued to struggle at the beginning of the calendar year, to the point when half of the product development team (not including Matt) was laid off in late February. The shift in responsibilities and uncertainty of the future of BCycle motivated Matt to look for employment opportunities outside of Trek. When he saw a posting for a test engineer back at GE, a position that he often coveted from afar while working in the GE administration building prior to 2020, he threw his hat into the ring and applied. Enough former co-workers remembered Matt’s work ethic, talent, and good-humor to recommend him highly for the position, and in late April Matt began working again at GE, albeit the spin-off company GE HealthCare. The transition to “work at the office” every day all day was most notable in the first six months of the job, but we all knew it was the right decision, especially when BCycle was sold off and no longer connected with Trek in October.

Other fun news from 2024 …

We did not gain or lose any pets this year … There’s still 10 chickens, two goofy cats, and a crested gecko in addition to the humans living in the house.

Matt and Kate enjoyed many Saturday morning trips to thrift stores together, finding all manner of clothing bargains for each of them.

Kate was confirmed in the Lutheran faith in May. My own godmother was able to make the trip up to Wisconsin for this milestone.

The whole family biked in the Trek 100 again this year. Matt and Kate logged just over 30 miles each while Ethan and Sara rode the 19 mile route on a cold, rainy, and generally icky biking day in June.

Our family traveled relatively little this year (except for Kate’s trip to Europe), but were still able to spend some quality time in Augusta with family, celebrate brother-in-law Chris’ 20 years in the ministry, enjoy another Colba reunion weekend, and continue our family camping experiences.

The garden produced well this year, especially beans, fall broccoli, sweet potatoes, and apples. Having friends over in September to help process all of the apples and pears this fall helped me through the final push :)

Sara was a parent volunteer for the 6th grade Camp Timberlee experience. Spending the extra time with Ethan and classmates in nature during a couple of beautiful fall days was a special memory for Sara.

We picked up a 1998 2-door Ford Escort as a third (or fourth, if you count the truck) vehicle for when we have three licensed drivers in the household. This sporty little coupe (with a tape deck and no power locks) has been fun for Matt to drive, and also fun for him to work on a bit this fall. In the end, though, it’s meant to transport Kate to and from school and work.

Ethan and Sara played a piano duet at Ethan’s December recital.