
Author/speaker Jodi Schwen thrives in the heart of central Minnesota’s north woods by keeping her wit about her.
Her book, Northern Comfort: The Musings of Jacqueline Pine Savage, will be published June 1, by North Star Press, St. Cloud, MN.
Some call it “outstate” or the “boondocks” –Jacqueline Pine Savage calls it home. Either way, living in a rural community means finding the humor in north woods living. Laugh anew over the sacred holidays of hunting and fishing seasons, family bonding when the dogs get “skunked,” and how to politely refuse the house tour when guests come a-calling.

Telling Tales
The palest ink is better than the best memory. —Unknown Life goes by so fast, it is important to write the stories before they get away. The following family tales are candid snapshots of moments in time . . . Our son and his family came home from the city for the...
BOOCHIE!
BOOCHIE! Our family tradition of "Boochie" was imported from an episode of the Perfect Strangers sitcom from the late-1980s. Balki, a sheepherder, moved from Mypos (a Mediterranean island) to live with his cousin, Larry, in Chicago. (Balki doesn't call himself a...
Ages & Stages
Growing up as a country mouse meant playing with my little sister because my other playmates lived too far away. Our mother had specific ideas about appropriate play toys for little girls. We weren't allowed to have Barbie dolls, so we dressed and made up storylines...
A Universal Rule of Parenting
I always said I'd never let my youngest son do two things: play hockey and play drums. So far, I've raised a basketball player, so the winter sport is a given. The drum is a different story. It started out with band tryouts where he was told he could choose any...
North Woods Survivors
I know why the CBS Survivor television show will never tape its series out in my “neck of the woods.” Used to a steady diet of skimpy bikini-clad women and shirtless men in a tropical setting, the audience would never tune in to watch castaways bundled up in parkas,...
God Danced
A few years ago, we thoroughly enjoyed having one child in driver's training and another in toilet training at the same time. I discovered that half the fun of having such an age spread among our children was telling strangers about our family.The ages of our three...