One year ago today I started this blog to have a fun, creative outlet. Blogging has met my expectations in that regard, but also, and perhaps more importantly, it has given me a new way to connect with people.
Because many of our friends here keep blogs, often when we get together with people we will pick up a topic that someone discussed on a blog and have a good discussion in person about it. Most of the time, these are topics that probably wouldn’t have come up in regular conversation.
I’ve also been encouraged by many of the blogs I read that are written by people I don’t know in real life. I don’t know if they read my blog in return, but these writers have been a great resource for me over the past year as I’ve been taking on new roles at home.
In the past year, I have written 237 posts, and according to my sitemeter, my blog has been checked 11,502 times by readers (I only installed the sitemeter sometime last December, so I can’t account for how many people may have checked in the first month and a half I blogged). Lots of those hits are from readers who stop by every day, some check now and then, and sometimes people find my by doing random Google searches. Last week somebody found my blog because they googled “dolphin woman.” Good to know I was a helpful resource there!
Looking back over my first posts (they are all here on this page – you can scroll down and read all of the posts I’ve written!) I reflected on how much our lives have changed in one year. This time last year I was pregnant with baby 1, now I’m pregnant with baby2. We met Hannah for the first time (only a little later than expected) and have watched her grow into her own distinct little personality. I’ve gone from a 9 to 5 job with too much travel to a 24 hour job that keeps me close to home. In every possible way I can think of, my life is better and fuller this year than it was last year.
I’m excited to see what the next year holds for me and for our family. Thank you for reading and commenting and keeping up with my musings.
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Hi, I'm Catherine Gillespie and A Spirited Mind is where I post about reading, writing, and parenting and the lessons I'm learning as a result. Thanks for stopping by!
