The Mischnick Family: 2025

Here we are again at the end of December. Time seems to keep marching along whether we are ready for the next phase or not. Our household can now claim two official teenagers, with all that this statement entails. Sometimes having two teenagers in the house can be amazing; other times not so much. We will continue to ride this portion of the parenting ride, enjoying the highs as much as we can, knowing that none of this chapter will last for too long. Some of our favorite moments are when all four of us are in the same place at the same time and in relatively good moods, or when Kate and Ethan are able to enjoy their time together (which often involves Kate buying Ethan some food when she drives him home from somewhere).

Now it’s time for specific updates!

Ethan continues to explore interests and passions as he works his way through middle school. He tried a variety of new activities last year in 6th grade, finding the most success in Robotics Club. At the first tournament of the season last year, Ethan’s team qualified for the state competition which was held in Green Bay in March. After an eventful and exciting day, Ethan’s team finished in 3rd place, which was not quite high enough to advance to the next level (“Worlds”), but high enough to feel immensely proud of their work.

As of this writing, Ethan’s 7th grade extra curricular activities include robotics club, jazz band, a twice weekly fencing club in Stoughton, piano lessons, youth group at church, confirmation classes, 4-H club, and some hopes to attend a game club on Mondays after school so he can participate in a weekly Dungeons and Dragons campaign. These activities keep Ethan busy, include different social groups, and are all relatively low-stakes, which seems to fit Ethan’s personality pretty well these days.

Ethan’s summer was spent doing a daily school sponsored fitness class, hanging out at the youth center, participating in another Madison College camp, a different engineering camp, a fencing camp, 4-H camp, summer band, and biking to and from McFarland quite a bit, all while wishing that he had a way to make money so he can buy the things that he wants :)

Ethan’s 4-H fair projects of the summer included one food project, one musical instrument, one digital musical composition, and a game he programmed to be played on a graphing calculator (the specific calculator that inspired dear Ethan was my own graphing calculator from high school). Ethan went for quality, not quantity this year, and the judges definitely noticed. Ethan’s Oreo Truffles were Reserve Champion; the calculator game received a Merit Award; and the Slap-a-Phone was also Reserve Champion. (See here for a video of Ethan playing the instrument.)

Each of these projects helped Ethan develop so many good life skills (e.g. the need for quality research, weighing priorities, soliciting advice from experts, planning and budgeting), which is one of the reasons I will encourage/require him to exhibit at the fair for at least a few more years. We love watching Ethan stretch and grow through all of these experiences.

Kate had another monumental year as she continued the gradual launch into adulthood. After completing all of her driver’s ed requirements, Kate received her driver’s license mid-May and has embraced the independence and responsibility that come with this privilege. The little Ford Escort has been a good vehicle for Kate to drive to and from school, to hang out with friends, and to drive to and from work. She willingly transports Ethan places and has stopped at the store to pick up necessities for the family on more than one occasion. Gotta love teenage drivers!

After a pretty rough strawberry season in June (for which I did NOT have to drive to and from daily this summer!), Kate started working at a local Kwik Trip in July, which pays much better than picking berries and also has more regular hours. Although Kate was trained to work the retail side of things and in the kitchen, most of her shifts at the newly built store in McFarland are spent in the kitchen. Having a regular paycheck has opened up a new level of independence and responsibility for this kid. We’re very proud of who she is becoming with each step of her journey.

Kate’s extracurricular activities this calendar year included after school weight lifting, designing costumes for the spring musical, working the running crew for the musical, art club, writing club, 4-H club, and another cross country season. The fall was immensely busy for dear Kate, with a full load of difficult classes for her junior year, working at Kwik Trip, and Cross Country. She made it through those tricky months and has had a bit more time to breathe and relax (and study?) since the end of the Cross Country season.

Kate’s 4-H days are nearing their end, but she was still motivated enough to submit a number of exhibits to the Dane County Fair in July. This year’s projects included several different art pieces, a digitally designed poster about insect intelligence, a writing piece, one chicken, and two cats. Kate also volunteered as a Cloverbud evaluator, and was lucky enough to be the evaluator for some of our own club’s youngest members.

The Dane County Fair cat show was a first for our family, but after a few years as a county cat project youth leader, Kate wanted to try out this experience. She was determined to make this as positive as possible for our adult male (Dusty) and our senior male (Rusty), slowly providing them with chances to experience the world outside of our home as well as experimenting with giving the cats baths. After some initial stress for everyone involved, the cat show ended well with both cats doing their best, and Rusty impressing everyone with his calm demeanor. Kate walked away from her fair experience with quite a number of special awards.

Kate continues to excel academically and is beginning to give thought to what happens after high school. I anticipate a number of college visits during 2026.

The milestone graduation year of Anna’s class was bittersweet for our family. In the months leading up to graduation, we were contacted several times by classmates of Anna’s to ask our permission for different remembrances … pictures of Anna for the yearbook, a special picture of Anna to place on stage during the graduation ceremony, and our comfort level of having her mentioned during the class president’s speech. All of these experiences, as well as the wealth of pictures of Anna we saw at different graduation parties, remind us that Anna will not be forgotten by those who knew her.

And yet, during the graduation ceremony, I pondered the idea that this was the last time Anna would be remembered collectively by this particular group of humans. After June 8, they have scattered to different areas of the state (and country) to pursue their futures, and will carry their memories of Anna with them, but no longer remember her in the same place at the same time.

Work is still a good place for me to be. I continue to marvel at how someone can enjoy their job as much as I do, and having a part-time position probably is part of what adds to its appeal. The varying schedule, having freedom within the structure of school, and the ability to work with so many different students and teachers are other parts I thoroughly enjoy. With all of the work that I have done in the last 4 ½ years, I can still find new projects for myself to help “raise the ceiling” of learning opportunities within the elementary classrooms.

Outside of my paid work, I still spend plenty of time and energy leading our local 4-H club. Watching these kids grow into new leadership roles and take on different responsibilities is a fun experience that makes the effort worth it. We have a good group of officers, a nice plan for the rest of the school year, and a solid group of younger members who will (hopefully) grow into those leadership roles in a few years.

At church, I transitioned to helping lead the high school Sunday School class as Ethan transitioned into the 7th/8th grade class. He and I decided that this would probably be best for everyone, and Kate was more than willing to have me as a co-leader of her class. Ethan and Matt have continued to help with the recording/editing of worship services twice a month. The system is less intimidating for Matt than when he first began, but it still takes a fair bit of time to prepare for a service and then edit the recording afterwards.

The garden kept me busy over the summer and is keeping us fed this winter. I continue to enjoy sharing our produce and experiences with those around me. This year I discovered a whole new group of people who also enjoy making applesauce from our apples … I think I ended up giving away over 250 apples for this purpose, which brought me much joy (and reduced the sheer quantity of applesauce in the basement, which was a bit overwhelming last winter). Our produce winners from the season were sweet potatoes (again!), apples, pears, peaches, cucumbers, squashes, celery, and beans. I also had a number of volunteer sunflowers that grew well over 8 feet tall with all of our early summer rain.

Matt continues to pine for the day when he is retired. Work is work and does not bring him the kind of joy that my work brings me. However, it brings with it a much larger salary and good benefits, so he keeps plugging along. Large corporate work is a bit more stifling for him than the offshoot of Trek that BCycle was. He’s great at what he does, and sees glimmers of hope for what he could be doing in his job, but struggles to work within the confines of the systems currently in place at GE.

But, projects and biking keep Matt sane. He has had a little more time to tinker with his truck this year, especially since Kate got her license. He’d love to have more time for his hobbies, and that may come one day. Until then, keeping the appliances and vehicles maintained gives Matt a chance to use his mechanically minded brain to solve real-time real-life problems. Plus, rarely a week goes by without Ethan proposing some kind of project for which he needs Matt’s help, advice, and/or guidance.

The day before the high school graduation ceremony in June, our family biked in the Trek 100 again in memory of Anna and in honor of all families who are affected by childhood cancers. This year Kate wanted to train for and ride 100k (way to go, Kate!) so she and Matt spent many spring weekends and evenings getting in some good miles. Ethan and I upped our game as well and biked about 35 miles. We all appreciated the well timed rest stops along the route, including the final one where we all met up to ride the final leg as a family. We have found this event to be a fun and fulfilling way to remember Anna as a family.

We tried our annual Father’s Day camping trip this year, but bailed out after only one night when the mosquitoes at the state park were about as awful as any of us had ever seen. Besides the miserable camping conditions of that short trip, we had a lovely time together exploring some parts of Wisconsin we hadn’t seen before. Thankfully, our 4th of July vacation in Door County was much more pleasant, with plenty of outdoor time hiking, biking, kayaking, and exploring museums and beaches.

Other notable family experiences of the year include trips to robotics tournaments in the winter and spring, trips to cross country meets in the fall, training bike rides in the spring, more hikes than Ethan would like, visiting the Colbas in Augusta for maple sugaring time, spending a long weekend with the Colbas in Minnesota in August, and traveling to South Dakota for Thanksgiving to see (almost all of) the Mischnick side of the family.

Unfortunately, we had to say good-bye to the gecko named Cow this summer, but the rest of our pets and animals continue to bring us joy (and eggs) throughout the year.

We hope this note finds you well, with the love of God and family apparent to you on a daily basis.