2021 Mischnick Top Ten

Below are, in no particular order, ten of the most notable events of 2021 to share from our family.

10.    Ethan finished up his years at the primary school in McFarland in June and jumped into his third grade year at the intermediate school this fall without looking back.  He will tell you that his favorite times at school are recess and gym class, but we think he's a pretty good reader, writer, and mathematician, too :)

9.    Ethan took guitar lessons again over the summer and has kept up with piano lessons during the school year; both opportunities have continued to feed this boy's musical pursuits.  Ethan also soared through a few levels of swimming lessons during 2021 in addition to participating in a summer mountain biking club during the month of June.  Ethan enjoys anything related to technology, playing games, and goofing off with friends.  We always take pleasure in watching Ethan's various passions grow and develop.

8.    Kate rounded out her 6th grade year with a couple of months of in-person schooling before the big transition in the fall to her first "typical" middle school year as a 7th grader.  Kate joined the cross-country team this fall and made great strides (pun intended) with her running endurance.  She continues to play the viola and has also participated in a variety of clubs this year.

7.    Kate's first passion is writing, and 2021 included a number of opportunities to share her written pieces with wider audiences.  Kate competed in a state level scenario writing contest in 6th grade and earned the opportunity to compete at the international level.  Kate also entered and won a 4-H sponsored "Pullet Surprise" writing contest, coming home with everything she needs to show her two new fair quality chickens (aptly named Meatball and Drumstick).  Our young author rounded out her literary career of 2021 by writing our church's children/youth Christmas program.

6.    Anna was remembered by her school and classmates at the 8th grade recognition ceremony in June with a bouquet of white roses.  Her smiles, laughter, and love are still remembered and missed in our home.  We continue to make space in our lives for the memories of our oldest child and sister.

5.    Sara's big news of the year included her transition back into the world of (paid!) educators.  She worked in April and May as a building substitute teacher, which indirectly led to being hired as the K-2 Resource Teacher for Advanced Learners.  This half-time position has been a wonderful fit for Sara personally and professionally, and the transitions within the family have gone as smoothly as possible.  So far, the rhythm of the position has allowed Sara the time and energy necessary to continue preserving the bountiful harvest of the growing things in the yard.  2021 included bumper crops of much produce, filling up all of the canning jars, both freezers, and the other places we store squash and root crops.

4.    Matt is finishing up his second full year working as a mechanical engineer for BCycle within Trek.  The position continues to be a good fit for him, and he has helped to shape his team in a positive way (by recruiting former co-workers at GE for open positions on his team ...).  In spite of a nasty shoulder injury in early June, he managed to get plenty of miles logged biking.  Although Matt participated in the Trek 100 again in honor of Anna, he much prefers mountain biking on trails through the woods (even if those outings sometimes cause nasty shoulder injuries ...)

3.   Our family headed up to Camp Luther in Northern Wisconsin twice this year: once for a winter weekend getaway and once for a summer camping experience in Fort Village.  We also managed a road trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, during spring break to visit family and enjoy the warm beach weather.  A few trips to visit the Colba Grandparents in Augusta offered a more relaxing retreat for the kids and parents than our camping trips of the summer, although those were memorable in their own way.

2.     Traveling to South Dakota in August to celebrate Mark and Marge's 50th wedding anniversary with extended family was a highlight of late summer.  Spending several days with grandparents, siblings, and cousins provided opportunities for many good memories to be made.

1.    All 13 of our animals (10 chickens, 2 cats named Rusty and Dusty, and Kate's gecko named Cow) brought us joy and laughter this year, but not as much as our continued time together as a family.

Winter trip to Camp Luther

Spring Break trip to Myrtle Beach

Anna's flowers

Camping at Governor Dodge State Park

The library re-opened!

Mischnick cousins - Aug. 2021

Back-to-school haircuts

The homemade go-kart got a make over this summer.

Kate and Sara volunteered at the Henry Vilas Zoo this summer.

We attended the WI International Poultry Festival to collect Kate's prizes

Christmas Letter 2020

Merry Christmas!

Since our contact with many of the people in our lives has been relatively limited this calendar year, here is a snapshot of what the Mischnicks have been doing in 2020.

Matt began working at Trek just prior to Christmas 2019 and has found it to be a good fit for him.  His first three months of work included a trip to Florida (in February!) to help with the installation of new parts for the BCycle set-up there.  The rest of us confined to Wisconsin were jealous of the beautifully warm weather he was experiencing.

Since March, Matt has worked in quite a variety of locations, including but not limited to:

Ethan's bedroom (which was the first make-shift "office space"),

the garage (we had a number of BCycle e-bikes stored there over the summer months),

the driveway (sometimes with co-workers and sometimes taking a meeting while riding around on an e-bike),

the parking lot of the Town of Dunn town hall (that time when the internet/phones went out on our side of the street and Matt had to lead a meeting ... the hotspot by the town hall was a blessing that day),

his office in Waterloo (rarely),

the parking lot at Trek (for testing new parts), and, most recently,

the reconfigured basement "office" set-up.

We are all thankful that his engineering skills are being used and appreciated after his first year in a new job.

Matt has also spent much of his time this year on his various bikes.  He trained for and participated in his first Trek 100 (at the 64 mile level) in honor of Anna this year, learning a lot about the country roads around us in the process.  His chosen route ended with a pass through McDaniel Park where the kids and I were waiting for him on Anna's memorial bench.

With Ethan becoming more and more interested in mountain biking this year, the two boys have found enjoyment in jumping their bikes on ramps in the driveway whenever the weather permits.  I am a little embarrassed about the sheer number of bikes that we own these days ...

I thoroughly enjoyed the rhythm of my life during the first three months of the year.  My weeks included substitute teaching a few times a week, volunteering in Ethan's classroom, weekly Bible Study, leading the 5th/6th grade Sunday School class at our church, and the rest of the organization of our family life.  Since March, the need for substitute teachers, classroom volunteers, in-person Sunday School, and in-person Bible studies has dropped precipitously.

My time has thus been spent doing different things, much of them outside tending growing things in the yard, but also initiating some window painting projects with our family.  (The last three images here are for the kids' respective birthdays, with Kate and Ethan's including message from friends, family, and adults in their lives.)

It took awhile, but I have also found new and different ways to help and encourage those around me, even if I can't do them in the same way as I did a year ago.  Somewhat notably, I have had a few writing pieces published in a quarterly Christian women's magazine, The Holy Hen House.  In addition, I have been invited to present information about childhood cancer to a handful of different audiences, everything since March virtually.  I have also stepped up as the organizational leader of our 4H club, doing my best to keep our members connected and engaged even though we are unable to see one another in person ... yet.

Kate turned 11 in May and started middle school (in virtual mode) in September.  At parent-teacher conferences in early March, she was doing very well as she rounded out her time in elementary school and she has done amazingly well with all of the transitions and differences that 2020 has brought.

Thankfully, the weekend just prior to quarantine, a few of Kate's close friends joined our family on a trip to my parents' place for "Maple Syrup Season".  This group of girls had a nice stash of memories to keep their spirits up during the early weeks of quarantine.  They were able to stay connected safely throughout the summer and fall, much to their well-being and their parents' delight.

Kate's favorite activities are still reading, writing, and sometimes playing (depending on who is involved).  She has continued to take viola lessons and needed a new instrument this fall since she outgrew her initial viola size.  Speaking of growth, when Kate finally emerges into the world of people again, I think many will be surprised at just how much this middle schooler has grown ... and she hasn't shown any sign of slowing down yet.

Kate expressed interest in joining cross-country in 6th grade, but since school sports were very limited this fall, the school cross-country team was not an option.  Instead, Kate and I began running together in early September and have kept up our routine with good consistency since that time.  Fortunately, this is an activity that gets her out of the house at least a few times a week ;)

Ethan is an energetic, inquisitive 8 year old who thinks big thoughts and feels big feelings.  He was doing very well with 1st grade life prior to COVID and had a more difficult adjustment to quarantined life than his sister, perhaps because he is a more social kid and perhaps because the age/gender gap between a 7 year old boy and an 11 year old girl is a noticeable one.

Quarantine brought out Ethan's passion for reading, which occupies his time when he is not interacting with music, tinkering with technology, building something, riding his bike, or playing with his neighborhood buddy.  These two boys learned quickly in the summer how much fun it can be to spend hours outdoors doing whatever it is 7 year old boys like to do (which often includes a lot of noise and dirt).

Ethan took a break from piano lessons (which turned virtual in March) over the summer, but opted to take some guitar lessons instead.  Some of the guitar lessons were even able to take place outside on our patio instead of virtually!  Once September hit, Ethan switched back to piano, but he will still sometimes pick up his guitar to make music.  Ethan's musical interests include (in no particular order): Slugs and Bugs; Jack Hartman (well, not so much anymore); Leo Moracchioli; For King and Country; Brothers of Metal; the soundtracks from Sing, Trolls World Tour, and Hamilton (thanks to Kate for introducing him to this); Power Classics; and a few songs from the following various artists from an old mp3 player of mine that he discovered this year ... Garth Brooks, Allison Krauss, and John Denver.  At least we can say that he has been exposed to a wide variety of music genres in his younger years.

When Ethan's school entered a hybrid model in mid-September, he and I decided to ride our bikes in to school a couple of days a week.  Ethan would only ride IN to school since the 4 mile ride is mostly downhill from our house to McFarland.  He's not quite up for a 4 mile ride uphill after a morning of school ... yet.  We were able to keep up that routine into November, thanks to some warmish mornings and proper layers.

The number of animals/pets in our family doubled since last year at this time.  Last Christmas we welcomed a new kitten, Dusty, into our home (thanks in part to a persuasive essay Kate wrote one morning before school titled, "Why Rusty Needs a Friend").  Dusty has indeed proved to be an excellent friend to his older brother and a much loved addition to our family.  His extremely loud purr, his propensity to play with bouncy balls, and his desire to chew on everything has added a fun dimension to our lives.

We also added to our chicken flock in 2020, doubling the number of hens from 4 to 8.  For the first time since we began this chicken experiment, we did NOT end up with any roosters.  The new chickens took over the responsibility of providing us with fresh eggs this fall and have been very consistent at their job thus far.  The "summer project" this year was to build an upgraded coop inside the pen that would be a better fit for 8 birds.

In spite of the restricted traveling protocols, our family was able to get out of the county a few times to make some "change of scenery" memories together this year.  In addition to the trip up north for maple sugaring, the kids and I visited my parents in the summer for a few days.  Our family also did a couple of camping trips over the summer months and even stayed in the Ark Village at Camp Luther for a modified family camp weekend.

Those moments away from home added to the many memories we made over the course of the year in our home and around our neighborhood.

All in all, we have navigated this different kind of year with our best efforts to be patient and flexible  We have striven to remain connected to each other as well as to God’s message and presence in our lives.

 And, just for the fun of it, here are a few of our Christmas photo out-takes ...

A Frog's Hero

A Frog’s Hero‍‍

All I was doing 
was sitting there. 
And then the crushing, 
almost 
unbearable 
weight came. 
The horrible 
pain. 
It left almost 
as quickly 
as it had come.
I am Scraw, the toad, and this is my story 
of how bad things you least expected to happen, 
can be made right. 
This story is of 
forgiveness.

After I had dragged myself out of danger, 
I rested. 
My legs were beginning to go numb, 
but whenever I moved, 
it still hurt. 
Like 
  fire 
    stabbing 
      into 
        my back. 
Then I heard a familiar 
roar. 
I struggled vainly, 
trying to escape the 
terrible memories 
that 
haunted me. 
But by the time I 
realized it was 
no use, 
the roar had 
disappeared. 
A few moments later,
a huge monster 
leaned over me. 
A Bigfoot!
I had only heard 
about these great, 
two-legged 
creatures 
that 
roamed the land. 
They killed plenty of 
toads 
and 
frogs, 
our 
distant and slimy 
cousins, 
so I had a right to be 
terrified 
when the thing saw me. 
It must have been surprised, too, 
because then, 
the Bigfoot jumped. 
I struggled even more, 
trying to hop, 
or run. 
I immediately regretted it as 
pain shot through me. 
The Bigfoot, 
and later the pain, 
creeped away s l o w l y. 
But unlike the pain, 
the Bigfoot did not return.

After some time of struggling and resting, 
I heard the strange bigfoot voices. 
And huge hands reached 
d
  o
    w
      n 
to pick me up. 
I thrashed and bucked, 
but the hands held tight. 
I was lifted high off of the ground. 
My stomach flew into my throat. 
I had only ever been in the air when i 
hopped, 
but I had heard stories of the flying feeling. 
And then we began to move. 
As we raced over the ground, 
I realized 
my 
rescuer. 
The Bigfoot! 
The same one that had found me. 
I was very grateful, 
and I 
wished 
I could tell it that. 
I knew it would never understand me, 
so instead I 
remained 
silent 
and tried not to lose the 
dragonfly 
I had enjoyed 
yesterday 
for 
lunch.

I was in a peaceful place, 
grassy 
and 
safe. 
The Bigfoots had 
brought me here. 
Funny, 
how the same things that almost killed me, 
carried a 
glimmer of 
hope. 
I sat, 
wondering 
and 
pondering, 
when I felt a 
final peace 
come over me. 

The floating sensation 
returned, 
but no hands held me. 
I looked down, 
and saw my body. 
At first I was frightened, 
but then I knew. 
I turned and looked up. 
There, waiting for me, 
were hundreds of 
frogs 
and 
toads. 
I couldn’t wait to 
join 
them.

Author’s Note
This tale is based off of a true story when I was in third grade. My friend Allie and I rescued a toad that we think was hit by a car. In third grade I wrote a narrative piece about it, and now I have turned it into a longer story from the frog’s perspective. This story is very meaningful to me and my friend Allie that helped me save him.