I woke up yesterday morning, the first day of 2014, feeling very grateful. My husband breathing beside me, my dog hogging the bottom of the bed, and my little Nicky. Really, I have everything I need. And I’m so grateful.
Nevertheless I think it does help to look back (and forward) and take stock of where I have been and where I am going.
Blog Stats
I’ve had the Jetpack plugin for a few months now (which gives you the perks of WordPress.com without the pitfalls) and they sent me an email to let me know some interesting stats from this past time.
The top five posts were:
1) This book will give you hope (a good one if you are trying to conceive)
2) The Mother of All Meltdowns (my review of a mommy blogger book, lots of traffic from the authors and the book tour here)
3) Footprint (in which I discover I’m not crafty) craft (my attempts to make a footprint imprint, this one was featured in a blog linkup and was popular on pinterest)
4) Nicky’s first Pukeathon (and a half step video) (I have no idea why this was popular – all about my sick kid)
5) Tapping on my Thyroid (this is an old one from 2011 but still does well, people are still searching for EFT scripts on the thyroid)
Speaking of search engines, the top search terms were:
onestepatatime.co.za+heatherss, baby crash helmet (this post), what is in the discovery baby bag (this post), and pregnant just before ivf (well, I guess that would be this post).
Top referrers are:
1) Stirrup queens (Thanks Mel, she is the person who has all the infertility blogs listed and also runs ICLW once a month where we all comment on each other’s blogs)
2) Facebook.com (Thanks Blogelina Mommy Group and other Facebook followers!)
3) Pinterest.com (This one has been huge for me. I have really done some work here, you should take a look. The Winnie the Pooh party post did well here too. I think Pinterest is great for cooking, crafts and parties, but also other stuff if you make the effort with pictures)
4) mail.yahoo.com (I guess a lot of my subscribers have a yahoo email address)
5) stumbleupon.com (Social media, again!)
Top 5 commentators were:
1) Jody at Mudhutmama.com (Thanks Jody. What can I say? Your comments are so encouraging)
The rest are from my Facebook Mommy group. A real nice surprise this year. Thanks ladies!
2) Adelien at Blessedlearners.com
3) Missy Homemaker at MissyHomemaker.com
4) Jill at Calledtobeamom.com
5) Tammy Doiel at Creativekids.com
Comments are great. They really make you feel appreciated and like someone actually reads your stuff. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart! 🙂
Resolutions:
I have been reading a lot of blog posts on this topic. I am not a big fan of resolutions, I think they can make you feel depressed, especially when you don’t meet them. I did like these two posts: Tracey at Just Stop Trying and It Will Happen. I like this quote she mentioned: “Comparison is the thief of joy” – so thanks, Tracey, you’re an inspiration. (Tracey won the Resolve Infertility Blog of the Year, by the way, folks, she is worth reading!). The other one I liked was more of a newsletter from Angela Treat Lyon where she says “It’s very simple: set an intention, and write out the a actual physical steps to getting it done. Concrete, in-the-real-world, 1-2-3 steps. And DO them.”
So, here are my realistic goals for 2014:
1) Finish my book. (It is more or less done, it just needs a lot of editing). However, I am not going to pressure myself here. If I need to work or spend time with Nicky, that comes first. I will do what I can.
2) As I mentioned in the previous post, I want to stop yelling. However I think it’s more realistic to make an achievable goal of doing this for January: making in my diary where I succeeded or failed. I’m hoping if I do a solid month the awareness will carry through, if not, I guess I will start again.
3) Keep trying to find ways of making money from home. This will include improving my blog. The concrete step is going through my blogging books and putting their suggestions into practice. Again, this will have to work around other things. (Like my two jobs which actually do earn me money so far)
4) The whole get-Nicky-off-the-boob-and-try-get-pregnant thing. I’m just putting it out there, but I have no idea how to make it happen. The most I can say is try and start by limiting the boob more to naps, bedtime and calming and try and make the food need more for food.
I guess the goals are not so important to me as making time for family, which is more important. I’ll do what I can, and see how it goes.
Self Improvement Gifts Giveaway:
After all of that, some goodies for you. Pop over and enjoy these gifts.
I have about the same goals as you do. I can’t wait to get my blog bigger and out in front of more Mommas. I am amazed at how fast a year can go by and what you can learn from it. Go for that book! I loved printing mine! I also have a six month old blog right now and last year I was in a job in a different career, never thinking I would be a blogger and now there is so much more I want to do in the written word world.
Thanks Jill, I liked your resolutions too.
The editing stage is, by far, the most grueling. I think you have a good plan – take it slow, and you will totally get there!
Thanks, SIF!
Hi! Thanks so much for your kind words about my blog! 🙂 I’m definitely going to be following your story, and your resolutions for 2014 really resonated with me, too. Like I said in my post though, don’t live and die by success or failure… in 2014, be sure to LIVE. 🙂
XOXO
I cannot wait to get your book published. I wonder what it is about. I was so surprised to find me as the second top commentator. I do really love looking around your blog and see how Nicky has grown up fast.
The book is about my infertility story.. stay tuned!
Heather, thank you for commenting on my blog so often!
You have some great goals here. For your yelling (I’m getting better at it but could still do better), take a look at this post I wrote back in September. http://missyhomemaker.com/orange-rhino/ The whole concept is pretty wonderful.
This is really brilliant! Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for mentioning me! I’m surprised I made the top five. I pray that you are able to get pregnant again!