Two posts in three days? It’s the end of the year and I’m on a roll! In other words, I don’t have to think of something to write about, because I do these same posts every year.
Today? The top ten posts of 2016. Yes, I did write more than ten posts, and while none of them were actually in the top ten most viewed posts this year (all those were older posts), I’ll still share with you the round up of the most popular posts that I wrote in the past year.
Nothing really exciting about this post. It was just something in a sea of nothing, so it got some love. And it had this picture:
I love our family foot washing tradition on Holy Thursday.
It also had this one:
That girl melts me.
Because birth story!
#8 Preparing
This was my first experience of pregnancy and L&D as a believer. It made the preparations for labor a little different and the mind-set different too. It made me smile (and get a tiny bit misty, if I’m honest), to look back at this one and read about my thoughts in the last days of what was most likely my last pregnancy.
#7 My Favorite Catholic Books – From Conversion and Beyond
In case you’re looking for some good spiritual reads for the new year.
#6 Down the Homeschool Rabbit Hole – 7QT
It was fun to look back at this one to see what my homeschool dreaming was in the summer. Halfway through the year, I have implemented some of the things I was hoping to, like SQUILT, but haven’t used other things yet, like the Shakespeare book (though that’s coming very soon!) and the KONOS units (also probably to be added soon since this post reminded me of it!).
I’m still listening to Your Morning Basket as new episodes come out, and I think our morning time has definitely improved from last year so far, but I just grabbed Pam’s new Winter Morning Time Plans to kick it up a notch. I put 29 books on hold from our library yesterday!
#5 A Homeschool Day in the Life
This was another fun post to read from last spring. It reminded me that part of the reason I blog (and need to get back to doing it more regularly) is that it’s a way to keep a record of our lives.
I felt a tiny twinge of dread when I saw the picture of the read-alouds we used to do in our morning time (I have a name for it now!).
I just really didn’t enjoy the majority of these books. It’s amazing how much better our days start out now that our reading is more enjoyable (and we start with music and singing).
People still comment on the gender make up of our offspring. All the time. It’s gotten so that I just expect it, and now feel almost surprised when someone doesn’t mention it.
As the weeks roll by, my girls get more and more helpful, and Bubba gets more and more adorable. I’m still trying to savor all the things. Especially the milk-breath smell. Moms, you know what I’m talking about. Now that he’s eating some solids, I’m dreading when it’s gone!
It’s always good to read about Lent during other times in the liturgical year. It’s like a good little spiritual kick in the behind. I have been terrible about carving out time for prayer since Bubba arrived. I haven’t been getting up early anymore, which makes it really hard to have a specific time set aside every day. I’ve taken to doing a lot more on-the-go, in-the-moment prayer (including frequent offer-it-up prayers), which has its own benefits. But this post is also a good reminder that I really need to get back into the practice of early rising, now that the little man is (usually) sleeping through the night now.
#2 Thoughts on Pre-ultrasound Worry, and a Gender Reveal
Of course the gender-reveal post gets lots of traffic. I love the memory of the moment when we first saw that Bubba was a bubba.
And of course:
This post still gives me chills and makes me almost cry. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
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2016 has been quite a year. There have been several painful losses and scary illnesses for family and friends. May was an especially difficult month, with grief over the loss of two loved ones piled on top of some intense, kind of shocking and very frightening health issues for two of our parents, crammed into approximately two weeks time, and compounded by the fact that, since I was nine months pregnant, my husband and I could not travel to be with either of our ill parents.
But then June came, and with it came this little Rainbow Baby miracle:
A lot of people are cursing 2016. In many ways, it was a tough year. But man, that little bundle outshines every bit of sadness and fear.
It seems perfectly fitting that the Gospel reading for today is John 1:1-18, which includes the lines:
What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The darkness has not overcome it.
This reminds us that Jesus is The Light. No matter what hard things happened this year, the darkness cannot overcome The Light. It never will.
God’s promise endures.
Wishing you a beautiful and blessed 2017. Happy New Year!
