My 365th Post of 2013

So...it is New Years' Eve and I finally made it!  I honestly didn't think this day would come at the beginning of the year as I was running out of ideas about what to write about.  I started to kind of get into a bit of a groove at the end....I actually have quite a few ideas of what to write about the next few days.  But I will definitely be taking a bit of the break to do some planning with moving my blog forward.

For this last post I thought I would do a couple of things: what did I learn, top posts of the year, and where I hope this blog goes in 2014.

What Did I Learn

1. That I can do this
2. Networking really helps keep your blog ideas fresh
3. You never know what will spark people's interests

Top Posts of the Year...these were all at least 95 views of

1. October Today Has Been A Weird Day--The weird thing about this one is that the vague curve ball reference I make.....I don't remember what that bad news was any more....so trying to protect people while helpful to them....not good for my journal keeping/memory!
2 and 3. October: General Conference Part 1 and 2--I think this is thanks to #ldsconf hashtag :)
4. April P is for Pain--Not surprising  as this was the explanation of what happened to me and the cause of all my pain--which unfortunately has not gone away.  I have an appointment first week of January...I will let you know how it goes.
5. March Seed Stitch Baby Blanket--Best thing I ever did attaching that post to the pattern :) This is my most viewed post.

Where I Hope This Blog Goes in 2014

1. Continues to move forward--I really don't want it to just die out!
2. My goal: Three posts a week--so planning will be good to do
3. Gain more followers
4. Continue to network
5. Keep my three goals central in my planning and try not to get too caught up in one or the other...and maybe add a fourth of writing 

Kind of a lame photo but it works....

Top 3 Posts of September

It is October 1st....EEK! As a result, I make a list of the top posts September.

3. Movie Review: Safe Haven A great weekend of movies..this was the "chick flick" of the weekend

2. Movie Review: 42 The same weekend of movies....the "drama" of the weekend

1. Top Ten Tuesdays: Classics Paired with Current This was honestly one of my favorite Top Ten Tuesdays EVER!  As I said in my post...the English teacher in me was thrilled about this list.

This month....has very few goals....mostly just survive... AND CHEER ON THE CARDS!!!

Yes we do!!!!

A Review of June and Coming Soon

Wow, can't believe another month has come and gone.  As I typically do on the first of the month, I do a run down of the top posts of the previous month and what's to come up this month.

3. We had a tie for third place...so you get two posts!
Classics Club Meme This one was actually a lot of fun!  I enjoy participating in the Classics Club, and doing little things with them.  It has no pressure and I love that!!
Article Review: Sending My Child Away I was actually glad to see that this one made it on the list. I debated actually posting this one, but I was very impressed by this article and wanted to share it.  I hope that it helps someone out there.

2. Shakespeare Plus Autism Another fun one to write! I love talking about Shakespeare!  I have a new found love for him with my job, as I mentioned in this post.

1. Another Doctor's Appointment I should have predicted that this one would be first, all the rest of my ones about my health issues have been.  It is nice to see that everyone cares.  This gives me an opportunity to catch everyone up on how I'm doing now. I have good days and bad days, and because I was having good days I thought that I would get better on my own. Biggest reason, I am done with doctors!  This weekend was a testament that I maybe shouldn't do that anymore.  So I called today--and I have another appointment next Monday.  I'll update then.

Upcoming this month...July will bring lots of new changes and busy times.  We will be closing on our new house this month!! How crazy is that! So my life will be full of signing and boxes. I have a family reunion that I am looking forward too and hopefully I will get my teaching license renewed this month too.

Blog wise I will be participating in my first ever read-along with To Kill a Mockingbird and RoofBeam Reader. This is one of my favorite books and I want to share some lesson plan ideas that I have had.  Feel free to join in too! I also really need to finish a blanket for a good friend who is having her first baby this month and I will share that too!!  I also hope to hop on some more blog hops. Finally, I am looking forward to possibly fixing up my blog following ways.  I need a better system...I am thinking about Bloglovin' or Feedly.  I can't decide...but I need too because I don't want to miss stuff!  Suggestions?

Our new house!!!

Top Posts for May

Today is the first day of June--can you believe that I am halfway through this 365 project?! I know I can't.  A lot has happened this month and stayed the same.  I am still in pain, though thankfully I am currently writing this from Provo where I will go see a doctor on Monday.  This month brought a new challenge that was great with a prompt everyday.  Sometimes the prompts were hard to do, but overall I really enjoyed the challenge.

The top posts for this month were:

3. Day 7: Things I'm Afraid of  This one was kind of short and sweet...happens when I've been tired but I love that people like those because I like writing them. Though this one started my Bout of Books goals so that makes sense too why it's so high.  Really shows that I should do more challenges!

2. Top Posts for April This one really doesn't surprise me because A to Z bloggers are awesome! Lots of people went around and looked at people's reflection posts--and yes though I am a bad fellow A to Z blogger I do hope to repent and get on linkys and go explore everyone's!

1. Day 9: One Moment  This had you choose a moment from the day to document with a photo and/or words...it so happened to be a day I stayed home from work and went to the doctor.  So with my ongoing pain saga it doesn't surprise me that this one was up there.

So that was May...here comes June.  My hopes for June are that I get better!  I also hope to get fully caught up at school (as fellow teachers go...um good luck!) I definitely want to get more caught up than I am.  June will also bring boxes....but more on that later.  Blog wise, we are going back to the original formula of book reviews, weird ramblings, school stories, teacher ideas, knitting things etc.  But now that I've seen these challenge things and as I mentioned before I should really do more of these to get more people here, I will be keeping my eye out and maybe hop on one every once in a while.  Really is that cheating?!  Hope not!

Graduation day...which was actually April 2010...so not really May but graduation days are usually in May

Day 21: My Favorite Blog Posts

So...my blog is actually quite young--less than a year old.  Technically, it is only five months old since I started my 365 project at the beginning of this year...though it was "birthed" before that.  I have really enjoyed writing everyday...though sometimes it is hard to come up with what to write with.  The prompt today is your favorite blog posts...and as I was going through what I've written this year I have a lot of favorites for different reasons.

Sentimental Value
Of course my first blog post to start off the year
This book review got a comment from the author!

A to Z Challenge-- The hardest thing for me with this challenge was I didn't have a plan, I made the posts up as I went along.  These were my favorite posts because I was proud of my cleverness with relating the letter.
J is for Joel, Billy Joel--this one is a great lesson plan idea to "We Didn't Start the Fire"
Q is for Quite a Week--this one was written the week of the Boston Marathon...but that was the only tragedy that happened that week in history

Memorable Views--I know that page views aren't everything....but to me when I get in the 100s it is a huge deal!! And I didn't even know until I was going back into the archives! And I'm actually proud that these are the two that have the most views on my blog.....
Seed Stitch Blanket---my first blanket to be posted on this blog!
Inspired by a Quote with a Teaching Strategy--the funny thing to me with this is that I really just read the quote and thought of sharing this strategy....wow I love the response with all the reading!

P.S. To my newer readers, I do a recap every month of the highest viewed posts..so to see other archives click on the label "top posts of the month" below

Top Posts of April Plus A New Challenge

As typical after each month I do a recap of the month before with my 365 project and a reflection of what I have learned about life/writing/blogging etc.  April was my A to Z Challenge adventure.  The cool thing is that this challenge also asks for reflections from participants so I am going to tie that into my own reflection in today's post.

First of I want to say that I am so glad that I followed a blogger that was doing this challenge that lives in another country.  She posted on her April 1st which was still my March 31st so I was able to learn more really quickly, sign up before the deadline was up, and post the very next day.  Because of that I didn't do anything with a theme...I just kind of made it up as I went along.  Some days that was helpful....especially being about to do "Ouch" and "Pain" when I suddenly had to go to the hospital.

I would totally do it again because it was fun to come up with something for each letter everyday.  I loved the letters that Jeremy made...I always try to do a picture with each blog post but that is so hard for me to figure out sometimes.  Having the pre-made, made it so much easier to blog because I just had to put it in. When I do it again next year though I want to come up with a plan and have a theme--I saw other people's themes as I was exploring other blogs and that looked like fun! My favorite was Stephanie Scott's influential women authors...I loved seeing what she came up with for each day.

One thing that was hard for me was going to other people's blogs on my own. I got a lot better about going to the people that commented on my blog and came by and visiting.  I gain so many new followers which is SO cool.  I sometimes struggled commenting on other people's blogs too.  I really wanted to respond not just leave some sort of random "Just visiting from A to Z Challenge".  Maybe next year I will get more brave...but other ideas of what to say would be helpful. And maybe I will get an opportunity to do more hopping around in the next few weeks to other participants that I didn't get a chance to see.

Bottom line...thank you to the A to Z Challenge group  We SURVIVED! :)

Sorry this post is going on for awhile...you are a trooper to keep reading. But I need to do the top three viewed posts really fast...as is tradition.

3. I had a three way tie for this one....F is for Five Favorite Front-Page Features, H is for House, and J is for Joel like Billy Joel....the J one is by far my favorite.

2. Q is for Quite a Week...all about the crazy anniversary that occurred on the same week as the Boston Marathon

1. P is for Pain...this is the most views ever on my blog...which makes sense because it tells the WHOLE story at that point.

And as I always kind of set a "goal" for the coming month....I was trying to figure out what to do now that I was done with A to Z Challenge.  I found out about Jenni's Blog Every Day in May  She has a new post topic for each day of the month.  What I love is that she is very fluid about it...you can catch up and just post when you can etc.  So I will do a combo post tomorrow...since this post is SO LONG!!! Brownie points to you if you read to the end :)

Top Posts of March

With my A to Z Challenge, I am catching up on my top posts of March today since it is a "break" from the letters.  The cool thing about today's post it is the 100th post on my blog! And I have completed 25% of the 365 challenge...wow I didn't think it was that long already!

3. Seed Stitch Baby Blanket...posted on March 26, 2013
This is my first pattern post...I want to do more of these. But I'm glad that I met my goal for March, to do more knitting posts and I'm glad you guys liked it

2. Five Favorite Front-Page Features #10...posted on March 8, 2013
The cool thing about this post...I really didn't have to write it--I wrote my lesson plan and I put it up!  I hope that teachers are stealing these great resources.  I do this every week and always label them so find them on the side.

1. My Pinterest Cleaning Tip...posted on March 16, 2013
The funny thing about this was that I did not think that I would get that much response to this...but my sister even tried it!  I didn't think that it would get so much response!

My official work photo for CRA

Top 3 Posts of the Month...February Edition

This was fun to do after January ended, so after February is complete I thought maybe it should become tradition.  Reading the "January Edition" again I commented at the beginning about how my 365 project was coming along...this month was harder than the first month--and I didn't think that was possible!! My life has been really really really boring I think the last couple of days---I don't exaggerate when I say that Saturday-Wednesday was pretty much grading when I came home from work---in which I had done more grading.  I hope that March will calm down and I can get back to reading articles and books so you can get more opinions and reviews.  I also want March to have my first few posts about knitting...which I haven't gotten to on here yet and I want to. So without further adieu...here is the top three posts of February

3. Book Review of Sense and Sensibility...posted on February 6, 2013.

The sad or funny thing about this post was that I first started talking about having read Sense and Sensibility back at the beginning of January...yes it took me that long to finish.  With the long car rides that week that helped wrap the whole thing up.

2. My Classics Club Reading List...posted on February 16, 2013.

I finally completed that idea and posted it--I hope that as the month goes on I will get more involved in the Classics Club and I can write more about it and visit other people's blogs.

1. Book Review of Feels Like the First Time...posted on February 2, 2013.

The coolest thing about this...the author saw my post!! I was very flattered to have his comments on my blog. I was actually a bit nervous to do a post on this one because I figured it is not one people are going to find worthwhile when it is just a simple little freebie from Kindle and it is just a simple romance...but the response has been good.

I won't try to read too much into the fact that most of the views were for book posts...and at the beginning of the month. Well I hope that you guys will still stick with me even if my last week or so has been pretty lame.  As my husband said to me just yesterday....I am glad you have stuck with it because most people would have given up by now.  So here's to not giving up!

Keeping with tradition of a photo of me for this blog post...Me with my sisters!!!
This is still my favorite pic of us even if it is like a year and a half old

Reflection and the Top 3 Posts of the Month

It has been a month...a moment for reflection.  It is now February...which means we are a month into 2013 and I am a month into my 365 project.  I knew that it was going to be difficult some days to come up with what to write...but I figured that would be around Juneish....not the first month. I thought that I would do a refresh of the three most viewed posts of the month and comment a bit on the inspiration to each.

3.  Happy New Year's! posted on January 1st. Ironic to me...but my first post makes this list.  This was one of the easiest to write...and ironically is the only one that isn't completely about teaching.

2. Grades are Earned, Not Punishment posted on January 15th.  I almost didn't write this one.  If you look at the time stamp, it is at almost 10:00.  I usually post between 7 and 9 because I go to bed around 10...I think that highlights now much I was trying to calm down from THE horrible phone call.  But it wasn't working, so that was what you got. The biggest reason I didn't want to write...I have seen teachers get in trouble for that.  So I hope I kept it anonymous enough, because it really does happen with all parents.  I actually had a pretty nasty e-mail this week.

1. Inspired by a Quote with a Teaching Strategy  posted on January 10th.  I was surprised that this was the one that got the most views.  That night I really didn't know what to write about, but that quote came up from a Goodreads Quote of the Day e-mail, and suddenly I had something to write about.  Sometimes you never know what people will like.

The second hardest thing after coming up with what to write...is what picture to put with it?
So since it is a reflection piece today, here is a recent shot with the hubby