It's been a busy year. I made it a goal to post every day this year, but I wasn't going to actually announce that goal just in case I decided it was a bad idea. Well, I did it. I'm not sure I want to do that again next year, but I want to avoid doing what I did previously - 381 in 2011 and then only 174 in 2012. I'm also pleased to have done 32 books reviews this year. I was not consistent in making a post each month with some of my favorite photos from the month. I still like the idea, it just took some work, so I can't say it's a goal to do it this year, either.
January was fun, but challenging - as far as writing regularly, that is. I participated in Katrina and Lindsey's BlogADay. So every day there was a new topic. I really enjoyed some of them such as:
A birthday (mine), a trip to Miami, and then a blur, apparently. Some favorite posts:
It seems like this ended up being a year without a lot of personal details, despite all the posts. I think maybe too much of it was scheduled in advance or something. Some favorite posts:
I started the month in a really, really bad mood. I had the week off and spent it really contemplating my future and wishing I had planned ahead and scheduled job interviews. Instead, I got some coaching from my pastor and a few people on LinkedIn. By the end of the week, I decided I wasn't going to quit. The next week, my new boss started and I quickly came to appreciate that he was much better suited for the job.
Ben's birthday was this month. Some very close family members chose not to attend and it hurt me deeply. I had forgotten about it but now it bothers me all over again. We also said bon voyage to some friends who moved back out of the area.
Rachel's birthday. We also finally decided we could cut-the-cord. We started getting serious about how we might be able to reduce our ongoing budget.
July was the month we were supposed to work on improving our bedroom to make it into more of a haven. That did not happen. Maybe in 2014? Another trip to the ER this month. That four visits in nine months. Ugh.
We had our family vacation this month. Despite some things not going according to plan, it was a really nice week.
Some good quality posts. For one, I was finally able to officially talk about a job change we'd been working on. Also, our anniversary. Lots of good posts this month.
Lori's birthday. Apparently it was a tough month.
It got dark early. It's felt like it stayed dark. A lot of us took turns being sick. We restarted our finances and I'm really encouraged and excited about our plans now.
December 2013
Oh, December, the quickest of all months. It's stayed dark. Dark and cold. And cold. And cold. We had snow. It was there when we woke up, the children went out and played in it, and by the afternoon it was all gone. That was like the best kind of snow. The period between Christmas and Thanksgiving was the shortest it can possibly be. Turns out it only moves up a day each year so it'll be awhile before there's a really long gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
What I gather from this is that I posted a lot this year. But I didn't say a lot necessarily about how life was going or how I was doing, it was all compartmentalized ideas, often usually scheduled in advance. I need to think about that. I liked in past years how I had something to quote from most months.
Past Years:
2012 * 2011 * 2010 * 2009 * 2008 * 2007a, 2007b, 2007c * 2006 * 2005
[1] - I'm not even sure this has been played much this year, it's just so far ahead (from Ben asking for it over and over again a few years ago) that it'll be awhile before anything surpasses it.
[3]
[5]
[4] - A favorite of Lori and Rachel.
[new] - an old classic that continues to rise in the rankings [8]
[9]
[13] - I had taken a break from this song for a little bit because it was now connected to a funeral, but now I'm listening to it again because it's so good.
[19]
[21]
[12]
[15]
[18]
[11]
[14]
[7]
[20] - or as my car refers to it "If I Had S 1000"
[24]
[17]
[16]
[1*]
[10]
[8]
[12]
[7]
[11]
[14]
[18]
[15]
[16]
[13]
[17]
[20]
[19]
[22]
[24]
[21]
[new]