Currently: Season of Sickness

Current Book

Current Song

The Man Taylor Swift

Current TV Show

Brent watched this before, I never did.

We are watching together and then moving onto season 4!

Current Audiobook/Podcast

Current Drink

It's always chai latte season here.

But I also enjoyed several Moscow mules this past weekend.

Current Food

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!! {grin}

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

SO MANY COOKIES IN MY HOUSE

Current Outfit

I'm really embracing my headband era.

[And loving that Moscow mule!]

Current Celebrity Crush

Glen Powell is such a cutie!

Current Mood

I'm over sickness season!

Drew woke up Monday with fever {and it's still going strong}

and I had to pick Paige up from school Monday morning throwing up!

Current Anticipation

There's a lot of fun stuff coming up but nothing super soon.

I'm just focusing on selling cookies, ha.

Current Wishlist

Living room makeover is finally happening!

We ordered a new section that comes in February.

I'm currently looking at rugs, chairs, barstools, storage...all the things.

This also means the playroom is getting a makeover.

I'm currently cleaning it out like a madwoman.

View from the weekend!!!!!

Current Movie

Going to see this with Allison tomorrow!

Current Picture

Not fitting so well on the couch anymore! {grin} #theSwopeseven

Drew's 11th Year!

I'm going to get these yearly updates finished in January, yay! Last but certainly not least is our baby with the first birthday of the year. Our small but mighty girl is 11, and she just keeps getting better and better.

Stats:

Height: 54.5" {21.8%}

Weight: 63.8 pounds {8%}

BMI: 15.1 {12%}

Clothes size: 6/S and 7-8/M

Shoe size: 4 or 4.5

Teeth lost: 1

This girl continues to be the sweetest of our children. She has the purest heart and is always the biggest helper. She keeps her room clean {most of the time}, will help with any chore, loves to help with cooking, just a big help to me! I have to remember not to take advantage of her kind nature since her brother and sister complain quite a bit more about pitching in!

She is also very silly! She has her 'weird' moments where she is being extremely goofy and loves to say silly/outrageous things for a laugh. She's showing signs of growing up and maturing but also has some little girl in her still, which I love!

Drew LOVES basketball! She played in a summer league and really thrived - we didn't realize she was so competitive and fierce. She's currently in her 2nd season and truly loves it. She is also still enjoying Girl Scouts and takes piano lessons {begrudgingly}.

She has really developed a love of baking and is very artistic overall. She loves drawing and painting, writing stories and music, and she loves photography - she's talented in ways I am definitely not.

Drew is thriving at her new school, but it took some time to settle in. She definitely has anxiety in new situations, but I think we've managed through the worst of it. She has excellent grades, has made new friends {but still has her bestie, Zara}, has some great teachers, overall it's been a great transition, and I think she's going to be very successful here.

Clothes have historically been such a challenge with Drew, but we found a new store this year, Tilly's, and it has been a game changer. It reminds me of a '90s Pac Sun, and we've had a lot of success finding clothes she likes there. We used to end shopping trips with one of us in tears, and now we leave Tilly's every time with a few purchases, yay!

She is a great eater still - lots of fruits and vegetables - and has gotten more adventurous in the last year in trying new things. She's started to be able to handle a little bit of spice which is fun! Her favorite snack is seaweed!

Electronics aren't an obsession for her like Trent and Paige, but she definitely has some apps she enjoys - she loves the editing apps, like Cap Cut, to make little videos. She loves to FaceTime her friends and play games. I'm really enjoying watching movies with her - we are making good pace through some of my favorites from growing up!

Drew loves her family something fierce. She loves to spend times with her grandparents and cousins - she is always down for a sleepover with family. She and Blair have a super close bond, and I love that so much for them.

She has such a nurturing heart. She LOVES animals {wants a dog so bad she can't stand it} and loves babies. I fully see a career in babysitting for this girl when she's a little older. She is just a nurturer!

This girl is beyond loved and it is such a joy to be her mother! I can't wait to see what her 12th year brings!!

2023 Resolutions Check-In

 PHYSICAL GOALS

1) Improve Flexibility - This one is hard to measure, but I 100% did improve my flexibility! I can 'see' it when I'm in yoga or stretching at the end of a class. One of our yoga instructors constantly talks about flexibility keeping us young, and I love that and definitely want to keep up with this.

2) Weight Loss - I'm very happy with where I am in my weight loss journey. I'm definitely not done {I would like to lose another 10ish pounds}, but I'm happy with what I achieved in 2023 {20 pounds off} AND keeping it off {although the holidays and early January weren't my friend ha}.

FAMILY/HOUSE GOALS

1) Time with kids/Brent - I don't think I did a very good job of this. I mean I'm with my family every day, but I wouldn't say I truly gave them intentional time. Going to keep working at this!

2) Cleaning every day - Did I do better here? Yes. Did I do as much as I wanted? No. Will it be something I continue to focus on in 2024. YES.

3) Organizing - I failed at this big time. I had a goal to just do a little at a time - clean out a closet here, a drawer there...and I didn't. BUT as I wrote this post, I just got back from taking a truckload of stuff to Goodwill, so this one is carrying forward, and I talked to my therapist about this as well - I really want to declutter this year!

4) Family Vacation - Nailed it! We went to Arizona in the summer and also took a Swope vacation to Port Aransas in August. We are discussing vacations this year, and it looks like the Port A trip is going to be annual, yay!

BOOK GOALS

1) 100 Books - I read 130 books this year, my highest number ever!

2) Physical books cleanup - Did I get rid of some physical books I haven't read but owned for years? Yes. Did I get rid of everything I should have? No, ha. 

3) Goodreads TBR - I had a goal to read my 10 oldest books on my Goodreads TBR. I read 9 of them! There was 1 I couldn't find at any library, and I finally just decided to delete it from my TBR - I didn't want to buy it! It felt good to get this one done.

So that's how 2023 wrapped up - I'm pretty proud of this - I've had way worse years. {grin} Now onward we go!

Paige - Heavenly Seven

I finally had Paige and Drew's well checks last week, so we are on the home stretch of ALLLL the updates needed. {grin}

Height: 46.5 inches {24%}

Weight: 45 pounds {21.4%}

BMI: 14.6 {29%}

Clothes size: XS or S

Shoe size: 13/13.5

Teeth lost: 1 {for a total of 8}

When I think about our caboose and the year she had a lot has stayed the same - she is still our funny, joyful, helpful, happy girl - but some things have changed for sure - her style, new school, new activities. There has been a lot!

Paige changed schools in November, and she still loves school and loves her new classroom and teacher. Her first progress report at her new school was a GLOWING review. She is exceeding expectations left and right and is doing great socially too. 

This girl makes friends wherever she goes. She has an infectious personality - she is joy personified and people radiate to her. I can't wait to see what she chooses to do with all this charisma, ha.

One big change this year has been her sense of style. She went from a girly girl wearing dresses non-stop to morphing into a mini-Drew with athletic pants and crop tops being her style of choice. It has also led to A LOT of meltdowns over clothes, and I'm seriously about to implement a uniform for this child. Looking back at Drew's 7 year update, and she hit the style switch at the same time - between 6 and 7, very interesting!

Paige is still involved in Girl Scouts and is loving it! She played a second season of soccer and is playing basketball right now. She did cheer camp last summer and loved that as well, she wants to do it again this summer and try volleyball - I think we're going to have a social butterfly and will spend a lot of time coordinating her activities ha. When I think of her in high school I see SO many paths for her.

She continues to be a really good eater. She loves fruits and vegetables and tries A LOT of foods! She tells me all the time to 'make me a plate of food' and I can give her a lot of variety and she scarfs it down. She is our best eater.

Paige still sucks her thumb and LOVES her Sackie. She did a round of speech therapy this year which helped a lot but we still have a ways to go with her tongue thrust, and we won't really be able to complete all that with her still sucking her thumb. She is starting to get self-conscious about it and doesn't suck her thumb at school but also tells us she isn't ready to stop. So we are just being patient and letting her decide what is right for her. 

She loves to play board games {Uno is a big favorite right now}, loves to read - graphic novels {Dog Man!}, I Survived series, Magic Treehouse series, Owl/Unicorn Diaries, and of course our beloved Baby Blues comics. She is weirdly into Calico Critters right now too. We got rid of almost all of the Barbies and the Barbie Dreamhouse {she pitched a HUGE FIT over that, yet hadn't played with it in months}, but she is big into Calico Critters ESPECIALLY if Drew will play with her. She likes art but nowhere near as much as Drew who remains our little artist.

Her 2 favorite things are candy and her iPad - both habits I understand but also don't like ha. She is way more addicted to screens than Drew - about on par with Trent at this age. 

Paige has made big strides in the sleep department, yay! She still struggles to fall asleep alone but is consistently staying in her bed at night! She sleeps in Drew's top bunk a lot, but even when she sleeps in her room, she stays almost every night. This has been HUGE!

She is such a social butterfly. Every new thing she tries with new people, she has a new best friend. She is always asking for play dates and is very frustrated she can't have sleepovers yet!

Basically, this kid is the cat's pajamas, and I am thankful every day she is mine! 

7 Year Comparisons

 I finally had the girls' well checks so stats for them will be coming soon, but I can't NOT document their comparisons! I am still in shock my baby is SEVEN, but seriously how cute are my 3 all at 7?!

Trent:

Height: 47.5" {50%} 

Weight: 46.5 pounds {34.5%}

BMI: 15 {33%}

Drew:

Height: 45" {9%}

Weight: 40 pounds {5%}

BMI: 13.89 {12%}

Paige:

Height: 46.5" {24%}

Weight: 45 pounds {21%}

BMI: 14.6 {29%}

It'll be interesting to see where they all end up - Paige has bounced around from being smaller than Drew to the last few years being bigger, so I think she'll be taller than her 'big' sister, and Paige is definitely catching up to Trent even! I say this every year but genetics fascinate me!!

Book Results: 2023

Year-End Book Review time!! Yay! I love looking at how my reading shook out over a whole year. My stats don't look all that different from last year - I know what I like I guess. {grin} I did find my audiobook #s continue to grow, which means my overall books read grows which I love!

Enough talk...here's how the books broke down!

Book Goal: 100

Books Read: 130 - my highest # ever, yay!

Physical Books: 26 {20%}

eBooks: 71 {55%}

Audiobooks: 33 {25%}

Fiction: 100 {77%}

Nonfiction: 30 {23%}

Female author: 107 {82%}

Male author: 21 {16%}

Nonbinary/unknown: 2 {2%} 

White author: 102 {78%}

POC author: 27 {21%}

Genres [I choose these myself and can give a book more than 1 so this won't add up to 130 for anyone checking my math and honestly some I didn't give anything past 'fiction' if I couldn't pin it down]:

• Chick-lit: 23
• Romance: 30
• Biography/Memoir: 19
• Culture/Gender/Sexuality: 4
• YA: 7
• Fantasy/Sci-fi: 17
• Thriller/Mystery: 5
• Historical fiction: 19
• WW1/WW2 {subset of historical fiction}: 3
• Educational: 8
• General Fiction: 18

And my favorites of the year! This year felt a little lower for 'great reads' for me - in 2022 I had 25 of 123 books being 5 stars. In 2023, it was 14 of 130. So some of these were my favorite of the month but wouldn't qualify as an overall favorite and some overall favorites didn't win the month because of another favorite - if that makes sense. Like Fourth Wing beat out Romantic Comedy but I would include both as a favorite for the year.

This was my absolute favorite of the year though - 

months later I am still thinking about it!

Such a powerful book!!

I'm really excited to see what 2024 brings from my favorite hobby!

Movie Review: Anyone But You

Allison and I ended 2023 in a drought of no movies for way too long. We hadn't seen a movie together since Barbie in July, WHAT?! I vow to not let 2024 go down the same way! But we remedied that drought on Thursday of last week, when we saw Anyone But You.

Plot: After an amazing first date, Bea and Ben's fiery attraction turns ice cold--until they find themselves unexpectedly reunited at a destination wedding in Australia. So they do what any two mature adults would do: pretend to be a couple.

Review: Gosh this was just about the perfect rom com! Was it predictable? Yes. Was it cheesy? Yes. Did Allison and I both leave the theater happy? Yes! We both really love Glen Powell {he's a native Texan!}, and he was just so cute in this. I will say there was more nudity than I was expecting so just a warning if that's going to bother you, but overall super cute!

Life Updates

When I catch up with people, my response is always 'same old, same old' and overall that remains true {for which I am SO thankful - happy marriage, good health, happy & healthy kids, stable jobs, etc.}. However, there have been a handful of small changes that in total need a blog post!

MTHFR

Some of my {small} number of readers have been reading for long enough to remember when we tested Trent and me for MTHFR thinking it would be linked to Trent's behavior challenges and my anxiety. We never tested the girls, but Drew has been dealing with some anxiety for awhile and Brent said 'Do you think we should test the girls for MTHFR?' and I responded 'DUH! Why didn't I think of that!?!' So we tested both girls...and they both have at least 1 MTHFR mutation.

Drew - 1 copy of the C677T mutation {the more severe mutation, same as Trent}

Paige - 1 copy each of the C677T and A1298C mutation {same as me}

The girls have their well-checks next week, so I'll talk to their doctor about it, but for now, we've started them both on 1 of the over-the-counter supplements Trent takes.

Brent is curious about his own potential for mutations, but knowing him, he won't have any haha.

Gateway

Trent and Drew changed schools at the start of the year {Trent 'graduated' from our beloved Montessori school so he had to move schools, but Drew asked to move when he did even though she could have stayed at Goodwater for 4 more years}. I applied for all 3 of them to get in {it's a charter school that always has a long waitlist} and none of them got in initially. Trent ended up getting accepted 6 days before school started and Drew just 3 days!

Having the big 2 enrolled jumped Paige up a lot...but she remained on the waitlist...until the week before Thanksgiving! I panicked when I got her acceptance email because she was super happy in her classroom and I didn't want to switch her so far into the school year. Brent {the level-headed man that he is} suggested seeing what Paige thought and how she felt about it. I just knew she would want to stay at Goodwater, but she surprised me and was super excited to move to Gateway with her Bubba and Sissy! {Don't ask me about the amount of time I spent panicking, spiraling, and crying over this ha.}

So she started right after the Thanksgiving break and has LOVED it! She has 2 friends in the classroom across the hall {she has recess and PE with them} and a girl from her Girl Scouts troop is in her class and we didn't know it! Gateway is a much more traditional school, but Paige has settled in really nicely - she loves having homework {which takes her about 3 minutes to complete} and having a cafeteria, gym, music room, etc. It's been nice for me having all 3 kids at the same school again and on the same calendar {although their start and end times are different which is annoying ha}.

Sawyer

The final member of #theSwopeseven got a name and I never shared it! We haven't been able to see the baby since his arrival because their pediatrician has suggested staying close to home, but we should get to see him very soon! My girls are chomping at the bits!!

George 'Sawyer' Patnode!!

{George is a family name on David's side}

Girl Scouts Troop Leader

I've been a relatively active parent in both girls' Girl Scouts troops but especially in Drew's as she likes for me to come to events. Well, there have been some leadership changes...and I took the plunge and became a troop leader this year, eek. I'm one of 3 mom leaders, and one was a leader last year, so we aren't a group of newbies thankfully! It's been a lot of fun so far, and I'm excited to go to GS camp this spring {both girls will be there at the same time and it'll be each of their first times}!

So like I said - nothing earth-shattering but all together some decent changes/new information in our family!!

Monthly Musings: Ringing in the New Year

 Why start 2024 by being on-time to the Monthly Musings link-up? Let's just continue in my perpetual lateness, shall we? {grin}

1. How do you ring in the New Year?

For at least 5 years we have hung out with our neighborhood peeps and just rotated houses. It is low-key, easy, and the best fun!

New Year's Eve 2020

2. Any special New Year's Eve or New Year's Day traditions?

No real traditions past hanging with our crew on New Year's Eve. New Year's Day is really just a lazy day for us as we wind down from all the celebrations AND gear-up to celebrate Drew the next day!

3. Favorite New Year's Eve memories?

New Year's Eve in Ruidoso was a wonderful memory with our forever friends.

4. Show us some New Year's Eve outfits.

I've gotten really into themed clothes in the last handful of years. I've been about Christmas clothes for a LONG time but have added clothing for a lot more holidays. 

Bought this sweatshirt a few weeks ago {how cute is it?!}

AND how perfectly do my GG sneakers match it?!

New Years Eve 2021 - in a fun t-shirt and champagne earrings!

5. What are you most looking forward to in 2024?

More of the same! I love the little life my family has created here in our little corner of the world {most of the time ha!}, and I'm looking forward to traveling together - Brent and I already have 1 trip planned whoop!, job stability, parenting this crazy trio we have, just normal life. We do have a few things we're discussing that would be big events, so I'll share once we make some decisions!

One thing we've started on is...a living room and playroom makeover! We've been talking about this for over a year, and we bought a new sectional this past weekend. We're working with a designer and a friend who is a lover of all things organization to help us create 2 new spaces. Our goal is just a refresh for the living room {our current sectional is 18 years old} and a layout that fits our house a little better and to have a more functional playroom space for all of the kids - so it needs to be a space for teens, tweens, and elementary school kiddos - a tall ask but one we're excited about.

Color of the new sectional sitting on the old sectional!

Really excited for the direction we are taking in the living room, eek!

6. Asleep by 10pm or ring in the New Year?

Ring it in baby! We have never {in my memory} not rung in the New Year. We've done big parties in the past and those were fun too, but I really love our neighborhood party.

2006 NYE fun at a hotel party!

7. Do you have a word or goals for 2024?

I'm marinating on it currently. A word came to me while in therapy on Friday last week, and I got super excited about it...but need to think about it more ha.

I don't go into the year with a requirement for goals or a word, and if I come up with something, I go with it, and if not, I don't! I am constantly striving to make little changes - usually around organization - to better myself and make life smoother for our family regardless of whether I have 'official' goals.

8. Best self care tips to share in the New Year?

Finding what you love and making it a priority! Self care is different for everybody. So whether it's reading, exercising, massages, whatever... no one will make it a priority for you.

9. Paper planner? Electronic planner? None? Share your favorite brands or apps please.

None! We do have a whiteboard calendar in our kitchen and I use a fun notebook to keep notes for myself but not an official planner. I also use my calendar in Outlook for A LOT.

My trifecta of keeping my life somewhat together...

Brent and I have been toying with the idea of an electronic family calendar but haven't pulled the trigger yet, so we will see!

10. Black-eyed peas on New Year's Day-Yea or Nay?

While we always did this growing up, I think it would be safe to say I haven't had a black-eyed pea in my 20 New Year's Eves with Brent!

Cheers to a great 2024!