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5 Things I Learned Through the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge


Going into 2020, I had two main goals for our family: to simplify and to spend more time outside. While I had no idea in January what 2020 would bring (the pandemic, the shutdown and countless hours at home in our backyard + neighborhood), it was never a better year to have a goal to spend more time outside!

I chose to use the 1000 hours outside challenge to encourage outdoor time for our family and have a clear goal in mind. I set a family goal early on to aim for 3 hours outside a day, spending less time outside on colder days and more time on warmer days. 

Today I want to share 5 things we learned from spending more time outside this year:

1. It takes time to develop a habit of being outside for a lengthy time. 

While we are genuinely nature lovers, it still took some time for us to develop a habit of being outside so many hours of the day. At the beginning of the year, Lindie and Jude couldn't walk outside on their own, so it truly required discipline on my part to get everyone dressed + wrangled outside. Once we were outside, I found Eliza and myself easily bored. It took time, patience, setting timers, and allowing boredom to inspire imagination to get into a pattern of spending lengthy time outdoors. 

I clearly remember at the beginning of the year Eliza yelling from the back porch "I hate being outside!" and yet, by the end of the year, I also remember hearing her beam from her swing "I it love outside!" 

All this to say, it takes time. If it's not a night and day switch for you and your kids that's okay. Even more reason to have a daily goal.

2. Your kids will enjoy time outside more if you are enjoying time outside with them.

Maybe because 2/3 of my kids can't be trusted in the yard by themselves quite yet, but the vast majority of the time we spent outside this year included me spending time with them. Not only that, but they seemed to enjoy it more if I was interacting and playing with them. Just like we have to teach our kids how to play with new toys, we also have to teach them how to play outside. 

So what does this look like? This looks like me standing below the tree swinging the kids and singing songs to them. It looks like me helping Jude and Lindie go up and down the slide and shoot hoops in the baby basketball net. It looks like me foraging with Eliza for pretend "food" among the flowers and acorns in our yard. It looks like me creating a neighborhood scavenger hunt for our walks and dedicating a special reading tree at the park in the shade. It looks a lot like mom (and sometimes dad) sitting alongside the kids, playing with them while outside.

My hope is that over time this intentionality will develop a natural desire to play outside individually and together without always having to have a parent nearby. I have dreams of making dinner in the kitchen while all three of my kids play together in the backyard without adult supervision but we're not quite there yet. In the meantime, I can see them enjoying the outdoors more with me enjoying it with them.


3. More time outside = A cleaner home

Maybe this is a no-brainer but truly the more time we spent outside in a day, the cleaner my home at the end of the day. (This became a huge incentive for me because who wants to clean up the extra mess)?!

And if you're wondering about outdoor mess, I've found that playing outside requires way less toys than when they play inside. There is so much to explore naturally when outside, so outdoor cleanup seems to be much easier.


4. My kids attitudes and sleep patterns are better when we spend time outside.

Again probably a no-brainer but the more time we spend outside, the better their behavior and the better they sleep. There were some months in the summertime where my kids would go straight from playing in the backyard to their bedtime routines and those months were the best sleeping months. There were also days when it felt like everyone was losing their minds in the house and it was a cue that we needed to head outside. It makes all the difference.


5. Being outside is helpful for my mental health. (So important)!

I totally knew this statement going into 2020 (which is one of the reasons why I set an outdoor goal for our family) but I saw it play out so clearly. 2020 was one of the most difficult years for so many people and yet my anxiety was the lowest its been for a long time. I attribute this to a few things, one of them being time spent outside. While I know that the outdoors may not be everyone's thing, I dare you to test my theory.


This year we hit close to 800 hours outside! While we didn't hit 1000 hours, I honestly wasn't expecting to with two toddlers in tow, but I am hopeful that we'll hit more than 800 next year and keep increasing our hours outside as the kids get older.

I'd love to hear from you & how you enjoyed your time outside this year!

Entryway & Hallway Makeover


Good morning, friends! I am so excited to share with you our entryway and hallway makeover! Earlier this year I began simplifying our home and as I did I felt the urge to simplify and personalize our decor. Although we've been in our current home for 3.5 years, we moved into here two months before Lindie was born and our world (felt like it) was turned upside down. Add Jude to the mix two years later, and you've got a whole lot of life going on with little (well basically no!) free time to decorate. As they are getting a smidge older, I've been having fun painting and changing our decor to fit the personality of our family.

So here goes!

 The first thing I decided to tackle was our front door. (I shared about that after I completed that project a few months ago). The door was a bold red. I wanted something still bold, but softer. We went with Beach Bag HGTV Home by Sherwin Williams.  

Because it is the entrance of our home I wanted to begin there, followed by the entryway and hallway.


I am so, so, so incredibly happy with how things turned out! First we painted the walls Alabaster by Sherwin Williams. What a HUGE difference paint makes, good-ness! We plan to use this throughout our home as the makeover progresses. 

After that, since I had purged our previous mirror (whoops!), we snagged this 34" Round Decorative Mirror from Target, along with these Natural Threshold Baskets (one for each kid's shoes!). We already had this LIATORP Console Table from IKEA, which was a great fit for the baskets. I also added a Snake Plant, because gimme all the easy plants! 


I pulled in a lamp from our bedroom, books from our bookshelf and the cutest little bee jewelry dish (previously gifted from my mom). 



Top all that off with the prettiest little bouquet left over from our anniversary and it made the look complete.


As for the hallway, we updated all the photos (Lindie and Jude had never before made the official Swift wall! Glad they're official now.) and added another row of frames left over from purging our attic a few months prior.



 I also sold the mirror we had hanging at the end of our hallway and replaced it with a homemade wall hanging Eliza and I made together. This was really simple and cheap to create. I used a tutorial I found here, just added an extra hoop and changed the shape a bit.


And that's a wrap! It feels so good to have it all finished, even if it took a few months. That's life, right?!

Scroll down to see some before and after photos side by side:




Our next room to tackle is the kitchen, so stay tuned for our kitchen makeover next!


Front Door Renovation

Recently we renovated our door. In both the homes we've owned, we've had a red door. I liked red in our first home, but I've been ready for a change since moving into our current home.
 It took a lot of convincing. Eliza does not like change, so naturally when we began to discuss color options, she begged us not to paint it. After lots of conversations and allowing her to be a part of the process she finally settled for a before photo for the mems.
It also didn't hurt that we let her be a part of the process.
Sidenote: growing up my Dad always hired painters to paint our home, when I was really young our Uncle Marty who was a painter by profession, then later companies when he passed away. I always remember wanting to paint the walls myself and imagining how fun it would be. So even though it does make things a bit messier and more stressful, I wanted to Eliza to enjoy being a part of the painting process-- for memory sake and for sake of learning a skill.
We sampled three different colors and finally settled on Sherwin Williams Beach Bag after sanding the door. 
We also opted to upgrade our door knocker (since our previous one had the onwers name engraved). We settled on this bee door knocker from Wayfair.
I'm really happy with how it all turned out. Total cost was under $100 too, which is always nice!
Although I love decorating and home renovation projects, it has been SO LONG since Chris and I have worked on a project together. It felt nice to do something fairly quick and painless and I think it's given us the confidence to continue.

Next, we're planning to tackle painting all our interior walls from current gray to a shade of white.
Stay tuned!

Jude's Birth Story


Jude Christopher Swift joined our family bright and early on Saturday April 13th at 2:12 am after just about an hour of labor. (Yes. An hour! Talk about a Swift baby)! He is now three weeks old and we are absolutely in love with the little man that he is. He is our easiest baby thus far. He eats well, sleeps well and doesn't stir when the sister's cry or the dog barks. He is amazing.

Jude came fast and furious in the middle of the night. In some ways I feel like I was in labor with him for weeks, having had contractions much earlier than I had with either of the girls and yet his labor was still quite a surprise, happening so quickly! 

His due date was April 16th. On the last night of March I lost my mucous plug (something that happened on the evenings I went into labor with both of the girls). I went to bed that night fully expecting to wake up in labor a few hours later. Instead, I woke up to April Fool's day and feeling like my son had April Fool'sed me. 

Later that week he fooled us again when I awoke to what I thought was active labor-- contractions every four or five minutes for about two hours-- only to have them stop after we had called the grandparents and our doula.

Instead, Jude the Dude took his time picking the day but came out in a hot second once he was ready.

I woke up at 12:50 am on April 13th with painful contractions two minutes apart. Not wanting to cause another false alarm, I hopped in the tub before we called our family and doula. After just a few minutes in the tub my contractions jumped to a minute apart. Not only that, but I felt my first urge to push, which is a scary feeling when you're at home in the tub and not planning to have a home birth. Right away we called my sister, who just so happened to be in Tulsa for the Snoop Dog concert (thank you, Snoop!), and she headed over.

Both of the girls' labors were really similar. With Eliza I awoke in the middle of the night with painful contractions and labored at home for all but an hour of her 7.5 hour labor. With Lindie, I again awoke in the middle of the night to not quite as painful contractions that eventually became painful contractions and labored at home for all but an hour of her 6.5 hour labor. With both girls I felt like we had enough time to get to the hospital and be ready.

But with Jude I knew things were progressing more quickly and it scared me. After everything with Lindie, I did not want to have a home birth or have a baby in the car. I wanted to deliver my baby safely at the hospital, and I started to worry we might not make it.

My sister arrived around 1:40 am and Chris and I headed to the hospital immediately. Just as with the girls, I labored in the passenger seat on hands and knees while Chris drove like a mad-man to the hospital. The only difference this time was I was legitimately scared I was going to birth him in the car, so I was a bit more hostile toward my husband. (I only remember dropping the F-bomb once, but Chris says it happened three times and in a pretty aggressive manner. He's forgiven me for that and, to be fair, he did make a wrong turn).

We arrived to an empty hospital entrance. Chris helped me out of the car and into the hospital doors. All the while, I stopped during each contraction to get on my hands and knees and labor through them. Once we realized there was nobody in sight, he ran ahead to find a wheelchair while I made my way toward Labor and Delivery. I labored on the sidewalk outside the entrance of the hospital. I labored a few times in the middle of the white linoleum hospital hallway floor, and I even labored on hands and knees in the elevator riding up to the second floor. Once we reached the second floor, however, there were a few nurses running our way. (Later one of the nurses told me that they had gotten a call from security saying that "there was a lady about to have a baby in the hallway" and "to send someone down").


Once we got to a room they checked me to see how dilated I was and sure enough I was dilated 10 cm and fully effaced! Ready to go! While they prepped everything for delivery, I labored through what felt like the most intense contractions of all my children. I remember the nurses being so kind and encouraging and telling me how great I was doing. I also remember thinking I never wanted to birth a child again. (It's amazing how quickly that changes)!

After a few minutes the urge to push became unbearable. I told the nurses that he was coming and I needed to push. Although my doctor hadn't yet arrived (I had only been in the hospital for a few minutes at this time), the doctor on-call was in the room. Just after telling the nurses I was ready, my water broke. Again I said, "I'm going to push!" Following my lead, the nurses helped me to get into position and I started pushing. I pushed once and Chris remembers seeing hair. I pushed a second time and Chris said he saw the back of Jude's head. Finally, I pushed a third time and out he came, all 7 pounds, 10 ounces and 20.5 inches of him! And only 14 minutes after arriving at the hospital! Phew!

The first thing I remember about Jude was that he was crying. Eliza cried right away, but Lindie did not. Jude was like his biggest sis and cried right out of the womb. To me that was a good sign.

But before I even got a good look at him (literally before I even got to double check that he was in fact a boy and had a penis) they told me he was covered in meconium and likely had swallowed some. Instead of delaying the cord clamping like I had wanted, they urgently cut the cord and whisked him away to the NICU with Chris. 

This is where I am so grateful for all the experience I've had as a Mama leading up to this point. Had Jude been my first kid or had Jude come before Lindie, hearing them tell me that he was covered in meconium and needed to go to the NICU would have terrified me. I would have worried about the skin to skin bonding time we would be missing. I would have thought about all the worst case scenarios and would have imagined them all happening to Jude. But instead, I felt a weird sense of calm.

Months before Jude was born, in my first trimester and before we even knew Jude was a boy, the Lord gave me the name "Noah" when praying over him. At first when I heard "Noah" I thought that meant it was going to be his name. But after re-reading the story of Noah in Genesis, I noticed that Noah's Dad named him Noah because he would be a "relief" to their family. From that point on I was convinced that the Lord was using the name Noah to encourage me that Jude would be a "relief" to our family. So when the high-risk doctor asked us to come back a second time in the second trimester because of some "concern" and months later when he was born covered in meconium and needed to be whisked away to the NICU, I wasn't broken because I believed he would be okay. I had a weird sense of calm because I was convinced the Lord had assured me all would be well.

The hardest part of it all was not being able to hold him right away. Even though he was born around 2am I didn't get to hold him until after 7:30am. But once I did, it was bliss!

Jude had a short NICU stay. Pretty quickly they were able to remove the meconium from his lungs and by Sunday he was off CPAP and beginning to breastfeed. Before we knew it, the staff was preparing his discharge papers and we were discharged after just two days in the hospital. Praise. The. Lord!

I feel so blessed for it all. For the sweet boy the Lord has gifted our family, for his health and the peace the Lord gave me through it all, even for the NICU experience-- I am grateful-- because both his and Lindie's NICU experiences help me to better understand other Mamas and families whose birth experiences are not always ideal.

Thank you Lord for our sweet little man! We love him dearly!

You've Got This Mama, Too on AMAZON!


It's launch day for You've Got This Mama, Too, which means you can head over to Amazon to get your copy! If you already purchased a signed copy from me, thank you! I appreciate your love and support.


(If you would prefer a signed copy over one from Amazon, I still have some of my personal books left. Just shoot me an email aimeelaurenswift@gmail.com and I can get one to ya)!

Lindie Fern turns TWO!

A few weekends ago we celebrated little Lindie Fern's second birthday with a small family party.
I still cannot believe she is TWO.
In some ways, we feel like she should be 10 because we feel like we've aged 10 years since she was born! (Seriously, gray hairs)! But in other ways we feel like it's flown by and (like all parents) wonder where the time went.
I've said before that one of my favorite things about Lindie having Down syndrome is that I get my baby longer. Each developmental stage and milestone lingers and most of the time I love that. I mean, who wouldn't want time to slow down so they can enjoy their children longer?

I really do think that's one of the sweet gems of having a child with Down syndrome!
At two Lindie weighs about 17 pounds. She eats mostly pureed foods and has been not using the g-tube for about a month! (She does still have it, but we're hoping they take it out in May). She loves to crawl all over the living room and is beginning to discover crawling down the hallway to other rooms and into the kitchen. She loves music, her big sister, Beat Belle, Fisher Price Pup & Sis toys and chasing the Shark robot around while it vacuums. She does not love loud noises, being the center of attention, being taken away from Mama and getting in her carseat. She says "Dada, Mama (when she's really sad or wants something), Yaya (Eliza), All Done and Yes. She loves bath time, which is usually the only time she is willing to drink water. She keeps Mama busy with at least 4 therapy appointments a week + usually another appointment or two for something else. She is pure joy with a little bit of spice, which is why Big Sister has nicknamed her "Spicy Lindie."

We love you Spicy Lindie!

Eliza (my little family event planner) picked the theme for Lindie's birthday- 
RAINBOW! She had so much fun helping me pick out ideas on Pinterest and putting them into action. Here's some of my favorite shots from her party.
Since Lindie LOVES Beat Belle, we also incorporated her into the decor. Eliza & Chris even drew and colored a life-size Beat Belle for Lindie to keep!
 Eliza hand-painted rainbows on all the party favor bags and painted other rainbows to hang up around the house. I love all her personal flair with each rainbow!
We also made sure all the food was rainbow themed as well.
Which felt a little silly because Lindie doesn't even eat any of these foods, but oh well!
My favorite part was making the Rainbow Cake out of cupcakes. I was really hopeful Lindie would actually eat one this year (she hates sweets) but she threw it on the ground. They were pretty anyway.


 Thank you to all our family who joined us to celebrate Lindie's second birthday! We had so much fun!

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