Online Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from the Schwake's!!



Cate (8), Clare (7), Michelle, Scott, and Cooper (4)

As many of you know, this has definitely been the year of change for the Schwake clan.  The year started off with a bang when Scott resigned from McCain and Associates to take a job in northern Minnesota with Minnesota Power.  He started working there in early February, commuting back and forth from Grand Rapids to Carver every weekend.  And I started working (hard) at getting our house in Carver ready to sell.  We wanted to give the kids a chance to finish out the school year rather than move them mid-year and I'm so happy we did it that way.  Our house went on the market in mid-March and sold within 2 days with multiple bids and $10,000 over our asking price!  Many thanks to our awesome realtor (and one of my best friends) Sharla Stafford (of Stafford Family Realtors - plug!).  We closed on our house in late May, finished out the school year, and moved up here, to Grand Rapids, the day school let out on June 7th.  If you want to follow that journey, just look deeper into this blog where I chronicled our adventures in moving.
 
Scott 

I got him this coat for Christmas last year.  At least he's
prepared for he cold winters!

Scott couldn't be happier.  He's living up in the north country where we hear loons flying over our yard in the summer, see eagles soaring in the sky, and deer crossing the street in front of our house.  We're only one hour away from our lake property where he can run his chainsaw, weild an industrial-sized weed wacker (borrowed from work) and generally do guy-type stuff.  He took some curling classes and subsequently joined a curling team where he gets to play every Tuesday evening.  (When I said he should start exercising more by playing sports, I really didn't have curling in mind...but at least he's moving.)  And he really likes his job and enjoys the people he's working with despite having approximately 99% more meetings per day than he was used to at McCain.  All in all, he's in his element.  He's trying to work on me for a move to Alaska someday, but I think he's realizing he'd rather have a happy wife!







 Michelle


Mom is always holding the camera, thus the only halfway decent picture
of me is when we were camping.  Sad.


I am doing well.  I decided at the outset of this year that I was going to have a good attitude and for the most part I've kept that pledge.  I have my days here and there where I get a bit grumpy at the situation but I'm quickly reminded of all my blessings.  I have a husband who loves me and I love him right back.  I have healthy, beautiful children.  My husband has a good paying, stable job that allows me to stay at home with our kids. We have enough food to eat, a roof over our heads, and clothes on our backs.  When I can keep this attitude I am so much more content.   I spend my days writing for work, cleaning and taking care of our home and family, driving kids all over the place, exercising, volunteering at school, cooking (which I actully enjoy) and reading.  I've done some sewing and was going to learn to knit, which I did but then promptly never picked it up again.  And I design my dream home over and over again.  I also spend some time trying to figure out what to do next and when exactly to do that.  I'm sure God has something for me so I'm pretty much just waiting to see what it is. Overall, life is good and I'm content.


Cate

Our beautiful Cate

Our Catie is doing great. She is at the end of 8 years old, is in 3rd grade at Forest Lake Elementary and is busy, busy, busy.  I can't believe all the things this girl wants to do!  She was in dance up here for a while (then realized that what she liked most about dance was socializing with her friends and since she didn't have any in that class she decided to drop it).  She also started doing gymnastics (2 times per week) and piano lessons.  She just signed up for basketball and wants to take up the violin, do some ice skating and probably volleyball when that comes up.  Basically, she wants to do whatever comes her way.  More power to her, I think.  And we'll let her do as many things as she (and our budget) can handle.  She's doing great in school, LOVES her new teacher, and has made many friends.  And in her spare time she writes on any piece of paper she can find (and leaves them all over the place), draws, does math (I know!), begs to do crafts and make something from a recipe, plays computer games, watches too much TV and has fun playing with her brother and sister (or fighting - depends on the day).  She's a super smart, fun, beautiful, curious, funny and loving kid.  We adore her.


Clare



Our beautiful Clare


Clarebear is awesome.  She's 7 years old and in 2nd grade at Forest Lake Elementary which is just 2 blocks from our house.  She is concentrating all her energy on gymnastics.  She loves it and works hard at it 2 times per week.  She is doing really well in school and is a social butterfly, having lots of friends.  But she loves weekends when our whole family can be together.  She also enjoys going to AWANA with her brother and sister on Wednesdays (mom and dad love having a free date night, too).  When she's not at school or gymnastics she mostly enjoys playing computer games, watching TV (we've never had 24/7 cartoon channels before), reading, playing with her brother and sister, playing barbies, playing in the snow, playing with trucks, pretending she's a kitten, and in general playing.  She's a playful kid.  She also LOVES making us coffee and pancakes on Saturday mornings (I know!).  And they're good, too!  She's a firecracker who's super helpful and loving, super smart, fun and funny and very loving.  We cherish her.




Cooper



Our happy, handsome Cooper


Super Coop is a ball.  He's at the end of 4 and in preschool, getting excited for Kindergarten next year.  Other than preschool, he pretty much hangs out with me. We go on errands together, and do housework.  I'm pretty sure he's bored a lot.  He was in gymnastics briefly but decided it wasn't for him.  We're going to sign him up for something (not sure what) in January.  All day long he waits for the moment the girls come home.  They are his idols and he loves them so much.  Then it's non-stop excitement for him.  He loves playing with his sisters, playing trucks, playing computer games, watching TV (hmmm, there's a theme going on here), drawing pictures, having books read to him and bouncing off of every surface.  He's a bundle of energy, super funny without meaning to be, a cuddler, super smart, very particular about what he wears and eats, and is an all around great kid.  We love him with all our hearts.

Attley



Attley enjoying a camping trip in the fall.



Our 3-legged old man is still hanging on and doing great.  He's 12 and half now and all white on his muzzle and eyebrows.  Makes him look distinguished.  He's having a hard time on all the wood floors and his hips are giving him some trouble.  But he loves being outside, especially in the snow.  He still has some spunk in him and loves to play tug with the girls and search for his ball in the snowbanks which he successfully finds by digging with his one front paw.  But mostly he lays around.  He's entitled.  We love him.



While we are thankful for our family, friends and for many blessings, we are most thankful that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour and that He came down from heaven, bringing Love and Hope.  We wish His love for you and many blessings, too. 

Merry Christmas!

ps.  Please comment and say "Hi"!  We also love visitors so come and see us sometime!!

Church Hunting

We visited a new church this weekend.  They sang hymns from the 1700's accompanied by an organ.  And there's nothing wrong with that except the pastor then went on to say, later in his sermon, that contemporary worship music is just people trying to self-agrandize themselves and he called it putrid.  Yes, putrid.

But still, I was trying my hardest to gain something from all of this.  I'm very sure that he believes in God and Jesus as savior so how bad could it be?  My belief has always been that I can usually find something redeeming in every sermon. 

His sermon was on the story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter joining him only to start sinking.  He claimed that Peter had great faith, and boy if we just had his faith what we could do and everyone should work on their faith. He skipped right over the part where Jesus said, "You of little faith.  Why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31)  I don't know about you, but I have always believed that the words Jesus says in the Bible are pretty dang important and maybe you shouldn't skip those parts. I mean, they even have His words in Red!  But that's just me I guess.

The totality of the message, aside from his many tangents about putrid music and other such shenanigans, was that we need to work on our faith.  If we just worked harder, we'd have more faith. (Oh and did I mention that most of the women and girls in that church wore skirts below the knee?  I felt a bit underdressed (or is it overdressed?) in my skinny jeans and brown boots.)  Anyway, this may shock you but I decided as we left that I would be totally fine if we never visited that particular church again.

So I shook the dust off my feet as we left.  What I didn't expect was what I couldn't shake off.  For the rest of the day I had this feeling of unease, of anger, of discontentment, of something missing, of doubt.  It litterally made me super grumpy. I couldn't stop going over in my head all the things I would have liked to have said to this pastor about his little sermon and his tangents.  Like:

• Have you ever actually listened to contemporary Christian music?
• Do you really think God condemns anyone who joyfully praises Him in song no matter what form it takes?
• You do realize that the music you were singing was considered contemporary Christian music in the 1700's, right?  Does that mean it used to be putrid but now, since it's 300 years later, it's okay?
• Is any music ever putrid?
• And about your sermon, do you really think you should just skip over what Jesus has to say?
• Don't you think Jesus thought it was important that Peter doubted?
• Are you implying that we should never doubt and if so, how exactly should we go about doing that?
• And if we did doubt, then are we super sinners and damned to hell?
• How exactly, would you go about "working harder" to increase your faith?  Don't you gain faith by God proving Himself reliable, day after day?  How exactly would I work on that?

Okay, so realistically I'm not that confrontational and I very likely wouldn't have said anything to him except, "Thanks for having us."  But I was fuming about it.  Then I started moving on to depression and wondering if I was just being too hard on this guy, and trying to think of anything good I could take from it.  I decided the best part of the whole experience was that the people in the church were very nice and they obviously thought this pastor was worth listening to so maybe I just caught him on an off day.  I doubt it, though.

I couldn't shake these feelings until I prayed about it, asking God's forgiveness for being so mean spirited and praying for that pastor and that church.  And I prayed, yet again, that He would show us the right church for us.

When I woke this morning, I realized that I knew exactly where to get a good message.  I'm so very thankful that Westwood, our former church in the cities, has podcasts.  I was needing a feeling of home so I pulled up the podcast on the series I had heard my friend, Robin, talking about.  The So Pray series.  I had listened to a few of them already so I went to the next one on the list which happened to be about praying through faith.  Hmmm, a sermon about faith.  Is God trying to tell me something here?  I always thought I was pretty solid on the faith front.  It's one of my spiritual gifts, actually.  But when God puts repeating themes in front of me, I figure he has something He really wants me to know.

So I listened.  At first I was a little disappointed that it wasn't Pastor Joel preaching but that quickly faded since I loved hearing from Brian Suter as well.  He was giving a great sermon on prayer and how faith is the driver of prayer.  And then he launched into scripture with a story about....Jesus walking on the water and Peter joining him only to start sinking.   !!!!!!!   Okay, now I KNOW God is wanting my attention.

Brian went on to say that all the heroes of the bible who were considered to have the greatest faith, all doubted God in one way or another.  Sometimes in a big way.  He said that we need doubt so that God can grow our faith even in the face of doubt.  YES!!!!  This was exactly what I had been grappling with all the previous day.  Doubt can be a pathway to great faith.

After listening to this sermon the only feeling I had was one of thankfulness. I am so thankful that God is faithful.  He cares about what we hear about Him and how it affects us.  He cares where we go to church. He affirmed that my "radar" is right when it comes to what I know to be true about Him.  He brought me through doubt and increased my faith.  Thank you, Lord!

We are still in search of a church home up here.  I'm pretty sure I know what church NOT to go to.  But I'm not plagued with doubt about my ability to find a church that preaches the truth and fits our family.  The fact is, I think we may have already found it.  We've gone a few times already and it feels right.  We keep going to other churches because we keep thinking, what if we're missing the right one?   There's that doubt again.  We'll keep praying about this new church we're going to and listen for confirmation which is kinda hard because they have an interim pastor right now.  They are in the process of hiring a new pastor so we would be in the same boat as the rest of the church body in terms of getting to know someone new.  (Hmm, I wonder if Brian Suter likes the northwoods?!)  All I know for sure is that I'll pray, with faith, that God knows where to put us.  Lesson learned.

A Beautiful Season

We have had such a beautiful fall up here in the Rapids!  I can't believe all the glorious colors - way more variation than in the twin cities area.  But the peak colors came and went very quickly.  It seems like one day they were abundant and beautiful and the next day the wind and rain tore it all down.  I did manage to capture some trees in our yard, though.



The view from our deck.



A side view of our house.

 Well, we are finally settling in.  The girls started school the day after Labor Day.  They both like their new teachers and have started making some new friends.  This has helped their moods tremendously (and mine as well)!  They seem to be settling in, learning the new routines, and enjoying their days much more.  Cooper also started preshool at Grace Bible Church.  He has a small class of 6 kids and a great teacher, Miss Heather.  He's having fun but complains about going to school once in a while because he'd rather play at home all day.  But he's learning lots of letter/letter sounds and is really progressing in writing.

Here are some pictures of the first day of school - these outfits were laid out in their rooms for at least 2 weeks before school started.



We live 2 blocks from school so the girls are able to walk/bike every morning.




Clare and Cate in front of Forest Lake Elementary.




Cate couldn't wear the hat in school so she gave it to Cooper to take home.

 Of course, starting school does have it's drawbacks.  The girls both have colds and a couple of weeks ago they both came home with lice!!  Arrggg!  That was very stressful for me.  Thankfully, I think we caught it fairly early in the process and we seem to have eliminated it.  I never want to have to deal with that again!

We also have all the kids involved in various activities which keeps our week fairly busy.  All 3 are taking gymnastics at our local gym.  That takes all of Tuesday night.  Cate has piano lessons on Wednesdays after school, and then all 3 go to AWANA on Wednesday evenings.  Scott and I take advantage of that hour and a half each week to go look at lots which the kids hate doing.  Then on Thursday after school Cate has dance.  With everything going on, it seems like our weeks just fly by.

We were able to go camping in mid-September at Pattison State Park in Wisconsin, near Duluth/Superior with our friends Brad and Jodi and Jodi's daughter, Grace.  We had a great time with them and took in the Duluth Air Show on that Saturday which was a ton of fun.

It was a crisp, cool night, just perfect for a campfire.

Thank goodness for camper heaters!  We all slept well and had a yummy pancake breakfast in the morning before breaking down camp.  They day warmed up nicely and we headed out to take a hike, enjoy the fall foliage, and have some outdoor fun.

At the bottom of the trail was this river.  We spent a lot of time just figuring out the best way to get across...and then back again.  We also scored some very nice sedementary rocks for the kids to take to school to show their teachers and classmates.

The following weekend I was looking for a place to go apple picking.  We have enjoyed that fall tradition ever since Cate was really little so I was disappointed and surprised to find that they just don't have much of that kind of activity up here.  I was able to find one farm that had pick-your-own apples but they were only open on Saturday mornings and I just happened to hit the last weekend that they were open.  So we went out, picked a TON of honeycrisp apples and 10 minutes later we were done!  Short and sweet I guess.  But the weather was beautiful. 

After apple picking, we drove around to view some newly constructed homes that were on the Showcase Homes Tour - similar to the parade of homes in the twin cities.  It was a good chance to meet some builders in the area and get a feel for how they do things here in the northland.

A few days after that, I put those apples to good use in a delish apple pie!  It was gone very soon afterwards. 

It's been nice being around on the weekends a little bit more.  We've been able to get some things done around the house, relax, and visit a few local churches.  Still haven't found "the one" but I'm sure we'll get it figured out fairly soon.  One night last weekend, after the kids took a bath, we decided to have a fire on our back patio and have a pizza picnic.  We looked up in the sky and saw the northern lights flowing all around us!  My camera isn't good enough to capture something like that (or I'm not a good enough photographer more like).  But trust me, it was specatcular!  A perfect night.

We are continuing our search for a lot.  We realize we're being very picky - 2 or more acres, wooded, no traffic or manufacturing noises, close to town, good resale area, southern facing walkout, easy to put in driveway, electric, well, septic.  But we're in a position to be choosy and we might as well take our time...even though I am chomping at the bit to get this whole building thing started!  We have found some promising lots that we might put offers in on, but we think we'll keep shopping for a bit.

This Friday I head down to Chicago with my girlfriends for our almost-annual trip.  I am very much looking forward to it.  I still haven't made any friends up here.  It's been okay so far, but I can tell I'm needing some girl time real bad.  So this comes at the perfect time.

We are missing all of our friends and family.  Scott's parents are heading back to Iowa this Wednesday.  It's been great having them so close.  We went up to our lake property this weekend to take out our dock and they joined us to help.  We won't see them again until Thanksgiving.  So please, comment on the blog, e-mail us, facebook us, snail mail or just give us a call (we have skype!).  We would love to hear from you!!

Take care!
The Schwakes

Winding Down/Gearing Up

The summer is winding down.  We kept up a pretty hectic pace all summer long.  We had only 3 weekends here at home, and two of those we had guests here.  We've done some camping, some visiting with family and exploring the area.

The last week of July the kids attended VBS at a church here in the area.  They had a ball and we've been jammin' to the CD in the car ever since.  That weekend we ventured down to Baker Park near Maple Plain to camp with my MOPs gals.  We had a great time with everyone, especially the Shiefelbeins who gave us camper-envy.  We will be sure to camp with them again...our families clicked really well.

Ethan and Cooper having lunch.

 

Bike riding was the thing to do this weekend.



The next weekend was a rare weekend home and we hosted my brother Jon and his daughter Michelle.  It was also Grand Rapid's Tall Timber Days.  We had a lot of fun seeing all the events and were able to take in a parade.
 

Clare, Michelle, Cate, Jon, Cooper, Missy

The following weekend we went camping at Savannah Portage State Park which is close to Big Sandy Lake.  We did a lot of bike riding, some hiking and a bit of fishing.  We were able to take a boat ride on Big Sandy (beautiful lake) and climbed to the top of a fire tower that looked out over the surrounding trees and lakes.  What a view!  Even Cooper was brave enough to get to the top!  The park we stayed at was fairly primitive and remote (they had no hot water for the showers on Sunday!).  But on our way home we cruised through an Army Corps of Eng. campsite located right on Big Sandy and decided we'd try that one next year.  It was a bit more family friendly, with a park and lake access. 

 


Cooper, Scott, and Clare at the campfire

 

Scotty making pancakes




Clare, Cooper & Catie in front of Shumway Lake

  

Loading up the truck.



Our camping family.

Playing at the park.

 

Catie and Clare going WAY back.



Fire Tower

Catie and Clare on the way up.

 

The view



 The week after that, my friend Sharla came up with her family and her mom to visit her aunt and uncle who live on Northstar Lake in Marcell, which is just a half hour north of here.  We were able to swing up for a couple of hours and visit with them.  Later that day, we headed down to the twin cities to stay with Uncle Dustin.  The cousins had a great time together and we spent a lot of time on the beautiful new patio that Debbie and Dustin worked hard on.  We also managed to spend a ton of money at the Albertville Outlet Mall.  But we got a lot of school clothes shopping done and I got some cute new sweaters for this winter.  It was a great weekend and we are thankful for Dustin and Debbie's excellent hospitality!



The cousins:  Cooper, McKenna, Cate, Clare, Kalie

Scott's work, MN Power, hosted a family picnic last week.  It was a beautiful evening and I was able to meet a number of Scott's co-workers and their spouses.  They had an inflateable jumper for the kids and some games too.  It was a fun night.

Which brings us to this past weekend, which we were able to spend at home.  It's been so long since we had a lazy Saturday morning at home!  The kids all hung out on the couch with Dad watching TV and we made regular Saturday morning breakfast of pancakes and bacon. 

Saturday morning at home.

And on Sunday our sweet Clarebear turned 7!!  Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Kenny came up from Webb Lake and took Clare to lunch and shopping for the afternoon.  When they came home, Clare got a special call from her best friend, Emma, calling to wish her a happy b-day.  They were on the phone for 30 minutes (when she's a teenager I'm going to have to get the unlimited minutes package for sure!).  It made Clare's day!  After the phone call we celebrated with a taco dinner, cake and ice cream, and of course, presents!  Clare said it was the best day ever.  Happy Birthday sweetie!



The birthday table

 

Ready for tacos!




Clare is 7!!

 

Only one boyfriend.




Grandma and Cooper snuggling on the couch.

 

Who doesn't love Barbie stuff?!



Silly!

 

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Clare got a whisk, spatula, flipper, and a timer for one of her b-day presents.  The kids promptly put them to good use the next morning making pancakes - from scratch!  Just like mom.  They were yummy!

Which brings us to now.  While summer is winding down, school season is gearing up.  I have the kids all signed up for their activities which include gymnastics, dance, piano, and AWANA.  I'm still hoping to find something else for Cooper to be involved in like football or something.  We went to Cooper's preschool orientation last night and we have the girls' school open houses on Thursday where we drop off their school supplies and meet their teachers.

We have also been traveling around the area looking at potential lots to build our house on.  The kids HATE this process, telling us over and over how boring it is.  We're meeting our realtor at a site tomorrow that looks over a beautiful little lake.  I think I'll find a sitter for that one.

This weekend we'll be heading down to the State fair.  We'll enjoy the day there with the kids (I'm praying for them to be wrong about the forecasted high temps!), then we'll meet up with my folks and hand off the kids who will go home with them to spend the night.  Scotty and I will then head back to the fair to a concert at the Grandstand featuring two of our favorite bands, the Jayhawks and Semisonic.  We'll spend the rest of the weekend with my parents, ending in a pool party on Labor Day at my brother Scott's house.  We'll head back home and school starts the next day!

For those who want to pray for us, here are some requests:

• That the kids all like their new teachers and settle easily into school and activities.
• That the kids will all meet some great new friends!
• That we find the perfect lot for our house.
• That we find a new church home.

We're missing you all and hope you all have had a great summer!  Please keep in touch by commenting here or e-mailing or even a note in the mail (the kids especially love getting these...actually I love it, too!).