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The end of 2022 was devastating with the unexpected loss of my Mom. This has been a tough year with my family learning to navigate without her strong presence. I struggled to find enjoyment in reading the first half of 2023. My blogging itself has been in a constant state of neglect, with me usually falling somewhere between 10-15 posts behind. While I’ve read 52 books this year, I’m still approximately 10 book reviews behind posting. So while I’m almost always hesitant to set book goals for the upcoming year, I’ll set an overall goal of catching up as I feel behind in so many aspects of my life right now. And while that might sound like a negative statement, it goes along with the territory of welcoming a new baby boy into our family in August. I’ve added a few fun photos below of our sweet Rhett Aloysius who is almost five months old and brings so much joy to our lives. As I type this he is currently rolling around on the floor laughing and talking loudly in contented gibberish.

Before Rhett joined us we fit in some fun trips such as a long weekend in Iceland with Quinn and a road trip from Alaska to Michigan to help my brother move home. Between my nephew and Quinn we had two kids under two which made us a bit nervous but they did fantastic and so many memories were made. Quinn loved seeing the bison and would animatedly yell at them to not poop in her shoes. She also had a terrible stomach bug for the early part of the trip. I will forever associate Jasper National Park with Quinn and her ‘accidents’.

I finished judging my third Self Published Fantasy Blog Off in May and positively loved our batch of finalists, with Olivia Atwater’s Small Miracles being a delightful winner. If you haven’t had a chance to pick up this title yet I highly recommend it. With SPFBO9 starting up in June and knowing we had Rhett on the way I helped Lynn’s Books and my boffin Jennie get to our semifinalists before bowing out of the competition. I loved so much of SPFBO over the past four years from all of the wonderful people I’d met and the new passionate authors I’d been introduced to. I’m especially thankful for Lynn, from Lynn’s Books. I’m so appreciative of the friendship we’ve cultivated over the past few years which has spanned beyond our love of books. Once my kids are a bit older, I hope to return to the contest that I’ve so enjoyed.

One of my top highlights of the year was seeing my name in print in the Night Angel Nemesis novel by Brent Weeks. I’d been a beta reader on this process and positively loved seeing the behind the scenes as to how this novel evolved from the first version.

Here’s a brief overview of how we occupied our time in 2023 from adjusting to welcoming sweet Rhett to the family and reading, and enjoying our last trips with Quinn as a solo child. Check out my other yearly recaps in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

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Top Books of 2023 (In No Particular Order)

• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
• Tress in the Emerald Sea  by Brandon Sanderson
• Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater 
• The Book that wouldn’t  Burn by Mark Lawrence 
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks
• The Umbral Storm by Alec Hutchison
• A Song for the Void by Andrew C. Piazza
• An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

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Travel

Disney World – Florida, US

Wrangle St. Elias National Park – Alaska, US

Laird Hot Springs Provincial Park – British Columbia, Canada

Jasper National Park/Banff National Park – Alberta, Canada

Glacier National Park – Montana, US

Yellowstone National Park – Wyoming, US

Wind Cave National Park – South Dakota, US

Badlands National Park – South Dakota, US

Iceland

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Beekeeping and Farming

Quinn has been such a big helper on the farm over the past year. She loves our time with her Papa and even has her own bee suit now to help Luke and I with the bees. Seriously how cute is that suit! We had five hives this year and successfully replaced two queens in our hives that survived the winter. Our bees did really well despite a dry spring. So far we’ve had a mild winter so hopefully the bees are healthy and hunkered down.

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