Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A year in review

Last Friday John and I went out of town. We had a lovely weekend but that is not the point of this post. The point is that last Friday was the 1 year anniversary of my first blog post and I did not get a chance to post anything to commemorate it so we are pretending today is the day instead.

To celebrate I have updated my profile picture and "about me" section. I am amazed to discover that a year later it is no easier to find a picture of me by myself (that I really like) than it was a year ago. Maybe I should stage a cute one with me and both my kids since the blog is about both of them. Well, the title is about them but lets face it if you read here you know this blog is really about ME. ha ha!

Since I am always so profound and brilliant I thought I would take this opportunity to remind you of some of my best work from the past year:

I began with some random posts that first month but Jake gave me my first chance to share what my parenting is all about with this post about bringing his scout knife to school. I like to be memorable when interacting with school officials. I also had a post about how much I disliked the school counselor. We don't need to revisit that rant but I will share that last Friday when I wasn't commemorating my 1 year of blogging I was talking with his new counselor about moving him into an advanced class for Chemistry and had a much better interaction which resulted in the successful transfer. They did charge us $5 for the schedule change but I am going to resist discussing or dwelling the absurdity of that action.

So then in November I asked myself "what if I didn't watch tv?" and literally as I was typing decided then and there that we would not watch tv for a week during the day. I updated daily here, here, here, here and here. Even just skimming over them I can see that I might have to re-read them since I have been having that familiar tv overload feeling lately. I wonder if it is the weather. We barely watch it during the summer when Isabelle is outside all day long but once the weather changes and she is inside we don't know what to do and turn to the television. I have definitely maintained some of the lessons from that week, she is painting behind me as I type, but still can see room for improvement. But that is the beauty of life, each year we improve upon the year before learning the lessons God has brought to us in this season of life.

Also in November I did my first post on our trip to Africa. So many more to follow.

In December I did a post on the evolution of Jake's Christmas parties. We are looking forward to this years party already and I am wondering if we need to take it up yet another notch and if so, what does that look like?

So then in January I went on for 4 posts about mentoring, just thoughts off the top of my head, here, here, here and here.

So then in February I decided to talk about my running. I like to call myself Forest Gump just up and running out the back door one day. I still love to run but have been considering adding several biking days to my schedule in preparation for maybe some family bike rides or perhaps doing the MS150 again with my hubby. Truthfully I have a little injury that I will get over but I has made me think about cross training a little more. I also made some sacrifices to the exterior face lift project we are planning for the exterior of the house so that I can get the club membership back now that I no longer work there and don't get it free. Instead of new siding we just might have to paint the existing and call it a day. I will be healthier and our house will still look better than it does now.

Then in March I did my first post on Simplicity. A new theme for my life and I continue to look for simplistic posts for you all.

In April I posted an extensive description of our trip plans for Africa

Then in May I was anticipating bathing suit weather and did this post about my cellulite. I have been amazed at the number of comments and visits I have gotten just from this post. Apparently everyone is trying to learn to love their cellulite. It is here to stay after all!

I love coming across posts where people give step by step instructions on how to create simple things, clothes, curtains, crafts, etc. Being the "special" crafter/sewer that I am I did this post in June about a day spent with mom.

In July I started freaking out about our trip to Africa and did this post just 11 days before the trip.

August arrived as did our amazing trip to Africa. I posted excerpts from my journal here so you could all share in my experience.

Lest you think I don't post about my children regularly even thought the title of this blog would infer that I was going to post all about them, in September I posted about the new school year.

And finally my favorite post from this past month is probably this one.

Of course I think they are all good but what do I know? How about you, what was your favorite post of mine from this past year?

4 comments:

  1. Melanie, I love this post and I love your blog! I love that you and John go to Perkins every week...Ben and I need to start a tradition like that.

    I'm not sure about my favorite post from the past year, but two things:
    - I have your unwritten thank you card for Vivian's baby shower gifts sitting next to me right now. When was that shower? Oops...
    - Isabelle's former crib sheets/blankets/pillow/lampshade look GREAT in Viv's room!

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  2. Nice post...that must have taken some time to go back through all your posts!

    I have hit a wall with blogging, not sure what to say, do I say too much, too little? its a fine line, oversharing/undersharing so I am just not sharing! :)

    glad we all blog though, keep up the good work.

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  3. Great post. It's amazing how much gets packed into a year. I guess it is a whole year... :) Well I hope this next year is as good a blog year as last! ( I wonder when my blog anniversary is... )

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  4. Wonderful expressions of the wisdom and joy learned over the years in creating a fabulous God centered home with lots of fun with the process.

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