blog recap 2023

Hello and happy Friday!

Wow, this week seemed to fly by. After Christmas on Monday, I spent a couple of days sick with a sinus infection. I’m feeling better now and was a bit more productive yesterday.

Of course, I have to wrap up the year with one more Friday Favorites link up with Andrea (and Erika), but today I’m sharing some of my favorite posts that I wrote this year.

A few stats from the year:

Posts: 240
Total words: 165,006
Average words per post: 690
Best day: Friday; Best hour: 8 am
Most popular day: March 14 with 928 views

I started this blog as a hobby in August of 2019. I’m always blown away that people read my posts.

Some all time stats include:

Views: 332.5k
Visitors: 90.9k
Post published: 945
Countries: Readers in 93 countries have read at least one of my posts. That will never not blow my mind.

While some big time bloggers have my annual views in a day, it’s just been fun to see this blog grow year to year.

I love when readers take the time to “like” or comment on a post. I really appreciate and enjoy interacting with my SM&ST readers.

Favorite posts from 2023:

Last year, I shared my 10 favorites posts. This year, I kept a running list throughout the year of posts I really enjoyed writing and sharing.

I ended up with a list of 20, and here they are in the order that I wrote them.

1.

I loved starting the year participating in WordPress’ Bloganuary (and I think I might do this again this year!)

Two January Bloganuary topics were ones I enjoyed writing.

Books that Changed My Life

2.

Bloganuary: Birthday Cakes…all the cakes I made the kids when they were little and our favorite birthday cakes now.

3.

Tuesday Talk: Slang…keeping up with the cool kids!

4.

Thursday Thoughts: Kids…and the stages of parenting kids when they were little and now as teens.

5.

Let’s Look: Fave Amazon Finds (close to 1,000 views)

6.

Puppy Love - A post all about the dogs I’ve loved in my life.

7.

Greenville, SC trip recap. We loved visiting this town for spring break.

8.

Workout Diaries all about my workouts in April.

9.

All about Oaks and Derby…a favorite tradition in May!

10.

Camp packing list . Since Hadley has gone to camp quite a few summers, this was a fun post of ideas of how she preps for camp.

11.

Not Just a Mom: How We Became Moms Not only did I love writing this post, I enjoyed reading all the other bloggers’ posts who linked up with us.

12.

A travel recap with the 50 states list. This was a blog post that I thought would be a quick one to write. Boy was I wrong! I really enjoyed this trip down memory lane through and all the states I’ve visited through the years.

13.

Hadley’s Hair Tutorial – heatless curls. Hadley showed us step by step how she uses the heatless curlers for her hair.

14.

Friday Favorites/Summer Recap in August. I love a good recap. We had a busy but different summer in 2023.

15.

TV Tuesday: Childhood TV Shows. This was a blast from the past. Also, recently, I’ve found Who’s the Boss? on Hulu, and I’ve loved watching those episodes.

16.

After a week at the beach, I shared a Fall Break Recap. We had fun in the sun with our friends.

17.

Tuesday Talk – All about the Holidays . I loved writing this post and thinking about how we celebrate holidays through the year.

18.

Right before Thanksgiving, I wrote a Thanksgiving Fun post about activities, recipe, tablescapes and more.

19.

I shared all about the Shutterfly ornaments that I ordered with the kids’ Christmas and Santa pics through the years. It was a fun trip down memory lane.

20.

I also had fun with the ABC’s series – summer, fall, winter.

Bonus:

I loved our trip to Julep Farm, and that trip recap is filled with so many pretty pictures and details about that beautiful property and surrounding areas.