2011 in review

I rarely write based on prompts. Maybe I should do it more, maybe I should keep finding an excuse not to do them. However, I wanted to come up with a review of my year of sorts, maybe shed some light on a few posts that were ignored or maybe you missed just because you were busy like me.

Sooooooo, when I saw Mama Kat’s latest prompts I decided to dive in. In case you get bored between now and 2012 why not take a look at my favorite posts from the last year?

January –  I’m 30 today. It’s the first time I talk about Kona (and my 2nd trip there) and well before I meet all my fellow Austin bloggers.

February – It turns out that I absolutely can not pick one. We can’t forget my SITS day because it was when we announced we were having another sweet baby boy. Then there was also the post about my amazing husband; after reading about a women venting here and a woman venting there I decided that the internet need more posts about how we LOVE the man that provides for us and allows us to stay home and blog. (I mean stay home and take care of the kids)

There was also one about my sister, who I miss dearly.

March- I couldn’t decide what to share. There wasn’t much “good” stuff. Hmmm, I mean there was but not like February. I picked this one. It’s a cheap trick and I don’t care if you like it or not…. I’m just throwing it out there.

April – Oh, boy. April was another good month. I need to learn how to space my stuff out better. I had my feature with Scary Mommy. That was a tough post to write but I learned a lot about myself and the words just flowed. It’s a great post if I do say so myself.

As I go through April, I realize there is much I would like to share again, so I’ll just let you look at everything if you feel so inclined.

Yes, I know I promised a “how do you do it” series that I never even touched. It’ll come. I think.

 May –  Maybe this recap thing wasn’t a good idea, or maybe it was just what I needed. I’ve been thinking to myself that my traffic is fairly low, so I must not have that many “good” posts. However, I now realize I do. I have amazing posts. I love how I’m documenting MY FAMILY on my blog. It’s for me. It’s not for you. Sure, I share it with you, but I’m not changing to keep you or to bring more of you in. I’ll be grateful if I do, I’d be lying if I said having readers and comments wasn’t exciting. The bottom line is, it’s not why I do this. May was another good month. Check it out.

I do this because of my boys. This past May my baby turned 3.

June – This was an exciting month because that baby became a BIG BROTHER. It was a fun month because I was honored to be a maternity model at a photograhy workshop and a sad month because it marked 6 years since I lost my Daddy. I also talked about my husband, again. You can find those posts here.

July – I didn’t post much in July. I wanted to focus on my sweet new baby, but I did have guest posters help me out. I’d love it if you would check them out.

August – I had more guest posts, another photography session, my baby started first grade and I spoke of struggle and voiced my opnion. Loud and clear. Wanna see?

September – I thought September was a “Calm” month until I looked at the posts. It was another sad month, as it marked 2 years since Cancer stole my mother-in-law. It was a fun month because my biggest baby had his first spelling test (which he aced) and joined cub scouts (where I promptly became a den leader while my husband was away on his first business trip to NEW YORK) and he knocked out a tooth at his “girlfriend”‘s birthday party.

It was a history making month for Texas. My state burned. A lot.

It was also a month of reflection. My “anniversary” is in September and this year marked 12 years since my injury.

October – I had the chance to preview an Extreme Makeover episode before it aired, I posted the final maternity photo session, I had a slight panic attack after being up close and personal with a star flight helicopter and I reflected on my pregnancy with Nathan and how it almost wasn’t. I also gave a cool recipe storage tip. Wanna see all of them?

November – This month was a bit calm, but not entirely. I talked about meeting Brooke and Laurie. This is a must. If you don’t read any other post, read this one. I talked about my struggles with my oldest and Lucas having his first sleepover away. There were also a couple of old papers I wrote when I went to Coastal Bend College.

You can read everything if you want.

December – December came far too quickly. This was a fast year. I hate that. Every year gets faster. Bleh. My little baby ate his first solids, I was stranded in a bathroom, my biggest baby turned 7, I celebrated 9 years of marriage and had an amazing dinner out. I’ll make you work for the rest. 🙂 but if you have any guesses as to where I was when I had my bathroom mishap, feel free to shout it out.

So I guess I really didn’t follow the rules, but I loved writing this post. It cleared things up for me. I love blogging for me and my family and I love the friends I’ve made along the way. I’ll probably never make money doing this, but that’s ok. It’s not my goal. I enjoy the SWAG I get when I go somewhere like the Beef Council event and I love writing reviews that are unprompted by businesses and friends I love. I don’t see myself writing many (if any) sponsored posts unless it’s already a company I believe in and would have written for anyways (more coming on that next year). I WILL continue to make friends through social media and to spread my word. I’m paralyzed but I’m still a mom. I still do everything you do, I just do it sitting down. If I can do it, so can you.

Rule or no rules, you can play too. Mama Kat and I would love to see some of your posts from the last year.