2012 Bloggy Review

This post is a little summary of my corner of the blogging world for 2012. I'm sharing the most popular posts, the least popular posts, and a few posts I wish had been seen by more readers because I really liked them personally and enjoyed writing them.

It did not occur to me to do this at the end of last year, but out of curiosity I checked and discovered my three most popular posts from 2011 were A Quick Christmas-y Post (still the most-read on the blog to date), The One I Didn't Post, and Now I Get It (Second Posting). My most popular post from 2010 was Feeding Baby. (The least-read posts for both 2011 and 2010 are too embarrassing to even list here. Seriously, I look at my archives sometimes and feel a bit nauseous. Yikes.)

Anyway, the following posts are listed in alphabetical order, not in order of page views. All of the most-read posts were also shared as part of a link-up or blog carnival. All of the least-read posts were published since mid-October . . . around the same time the number of Facebook "likes" actually seeing my posts dropped off dramatically. (I don't think this is a coincidence.) Also, this list only includes posts published on my own blog; some of the posts I published with Connected Mom received more page views than the ones listed here.

10 Most Popular Posts of 2012

 Am I Really a Natural Parent?

 A Tale of Two Weanings

 Favorite Online Homeschooling Resources

 Four Ways To Share Your Parenting Philosophy Gently

 Home First Grade: An Update

 Musings of an Almost Crunchy Momma

 My Practice of . . . Learning at Home

 Our School Room

 Top Ten {Tuesday}: Breastfeeding Photos (part one)

 Top Ten {Tuesday}: Parenting Myths I Wish Would Go Away

10 Least Popular Posts of 2012

 7 Quick Takes Friday (40)

 7 Quick Takes Friday (41)

 Book Rave (6): What Not To Say

 Book Review: One Big Thing, by Phil Cooke

 Nothing Ever Goes As Planned

 Reading Lessons

 The S Word

 Top Ten {Tuesday}: By the Numbers

 Top Ten {Tuesday}: Random Homeschooling Tidbits

 Top Ten {Tuesday}: Tricks for a Clean House

10 Posts from 2012 I Wish More People Would Have Seen

 5 Unexpected Advantages of Homeschooling

 A Potty Learning Saga

 Excuse Me . . . Your Bias Is Showing

 Getting Out: What Does It Mean To You?

 Just Some Things To Think About

 Perception

 Perspective

 The Real (Slightly Awkward) Reason I'll Never Be a Runner

 Top Ten {Tuesday}: The Co-Sleeping Edition

 Words, Rewards, and Beauty (Oh, My!)

I have no specific blogging goals for 2013 . . . my intention is to simply write when I have something to say and try to be supportive of fellow writers along the way. I hope you will stick around.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

One Word

Do you make resolutions for the new year? Do you keep them?

Last year I had this brilliant (read: doomed to fail) idea to commit to One Word for 2012. My word was intentional. 

Want to know how it turned out and my plans for 2013? Click over to Connected Mom to read the rest of this post.

Nothing Ever Goes As Planned

You know that thing where you go on a week's vacation you've been planning for what seems like forever and two out of your three kids get sick and you end up seeing the rather costly cruise ship doctor four times in three days (once after hours)? And yet you still manage to have a decent time? Yep; that was us, last week.

Boarding the ship . . . all still healthy

I've written before about how we are huge Disney fans. Last Saturday, Hubby, the Agents, and I set sail on the Disney Fantasy bound for the Eastern Caribbean. We booked this trip back in January. Yes, as in twelve months in advance. We may have been a tad excited about it. This would be our second Disney Cruise, having sailed on the Magic last summer (a trip I mentioned in posts here and here). 

Of course, we try to have reasonable expectations for traveling with the Agents. And, this was not our first experience with battling illness while vacationing. (There was that whole Julia puking in Siena, Italy incident.) 

This time, Agent A came down with a very bad cold and ear infection (his first) and a couple of cold-related nose bleeds. Once we got some antibiotics in him, he was a new man within 12 hours. (I wish we had taken him in a day sooner.) Then Agent J caught his cold, and it triggered her asthma cough . . . the never-ending, barking, horrible-sounding, Agent J Signature Cough. We finally got her some meds that worked, and after a couple of nebulizer treatments she eventually moved on to normal I-have-a-bad-cold coughing opposed to I-sound-like-I'm-dying coughing. 

Meet and greet with Snow White and Dopey

(Folks in close proximity to Agent J had one of two reactions: They either looked on in horror, thinking she was carrying some sort of plague, or nodded sympathetically and said she sounded like their asthmatic kids when they were younger. Guess which ones I hoped we ended up on the elevator with.)

All in all, though, we had a good time. Really. It helped that we didn't have to worry about driving anywhere, or preparing meals, or even so much as cleaning up after ourselves. Hubby and I ended up each spending a significant amount of usually rare one-on-one time with the Agents (either in the room with the one not feeling well, or out-and-about with the other one). We missed out on some things, but in general we still had fun, even Agents J and A. (Agent E, of course, had the time of her life. And promptly came down with the same illness shortly after we returned home.)

Still, I would be lying if I said it wasn't at least a little disappointing. We completely missed the port visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico, because that was the day that Agents J and A overlapped in really feeling bad and we all stayed on board. Only Hubby and Eva got to partake in Pirate Night. Agent J had to miss out on a few days of activities at the kids' club, and we cancelled our special date brunch at the "adults only" restaurant because even once A felt better there was no way we would leave him with anyone while he had a cold and just wanted Mommy Comfort.

Nursing Agent A . . . in a hammock . . .
on the beach . . . in the Bahamas

(Can I just mention how glad I am to have a nursing toddler after that week? A refused food and water for nearly three days, but he still nursed. Otherwise, he would have been completely dehydrated and way worse off. Now I'm even more unsure about this whole weaning thing.)

However, we still saw lots of characters, ate tons of good food, met Princesses, got all dolled up for formal night, and had fun at the aquarium and at the beach. We even made it to three of the theater shows (Agent A slept through all of them) and by Friday everyone felt well enough to hit the pools and ride AquaDuck. A pretty good week after all.

How did your last family vacation turn out?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day. And Merry Christmas.

Guest Post at The Momma Knows

The thing I love most about homeschooling is the freedom we have to choose our own path. While a more structured course of study might work for some, just as having none at all might work for others, we fall somewhere in the middle. Our school at home tends to be (mostly) child-led and we create much of our "curriculum" on the fly by following our current passions. 

We've discovered all sorts of things we love about this style of interest-led learning. Join me over at The Momma Knows today for the ABCs of Homeschooling link up. (Click here to read the rest of this post.)

Four Reasons We're Not Stressing About the Holidays

Have you found yourself saying (or hearing) one of the following: Oh, this time of year . . . it's so busy! I just have so many things to do! I can't wait until January when thing slow down! There is just so much happening between Thanksgiving and New Year's!

I honestly don't feel this way at all. In fact, this time of year seems to be even less stressful than usual. Homeschooling is humming along. Agents are enjoying the warm days and spending lots of time outside. (Gotta love living in an area where you can run out into the back yard in your bare feet in the middle of December.) We're pretty relaxed here this season, and following are just a few reasons why:

We won't be calling on relatives. Face it: No matter how well you get along with your own parents or your in-laws, visiting far-away family during the holidays is Stressful with a capital S. Why? Because you (and your kids) are out of your element. You can pack creature comforts from home and adjust to the temporary quarters and have a good time overall, but it's not the same as being in your own home. Regardless of your length of stay, this will take a toll on your sanity (and, likely, your kids' behavior). Honestly, not worrying about whom to visit and when and how long is kind of a relief. That's not to say we are complete homebodies for the holidays. In fact . . .

How we spent Christmas day 2011

We vacation in December. This is the second year in a row we will spend part of the time leading up to Christmas traveling . . . just me, Hubby, and our three Secret Agents. We don't really do gifts and so in a way this is our family "gift" to ourselves. Instead of anticipating this time of year as chaotic and stress-inducing, we look forward to the time to relax and unwind before the new year.

We don't stress about shopping. No Black Friday lines or early morning treks out for bargains here. We only buy presents for a select few people (primarily our children's cousins as part of a gift exchange) and we make most (if not all) of those purchases online. Part of this is likely just the introvert in me but I haven't set foot in a mall in months. The holidays don't change that.

We don't do Santa. Or that darn Elf. The Great Santa/Elf Discussion has been buzzing around my newsfeed for a while now. Yours, too? Seems some folks have some pretty strong opinions about both. I've written previously about why we don't push either of these stories at our house. I can't even fathom trying to keep up with these fabrications.

Lest you think we're all bah humbug, we do celebrate Christmas. We'll talk about St. Nicholas. We'll have birthday cake for Jesus. We'll open presents from the grandparents and cousins. We just don't get overly wrapped up in the hub-bub that most folks seem to this time of year. Sometimes, however, it feels like we're the only ones.

Does this time of year stress or rejuvenate you?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day (and a Merry Christmas).

Top Ten {Tuesday}: Tricks for a Clean House

Linking up at Many Little Blessings. Thanks to Angie for hosting Top Ten {Tuesday} each week. My previous posts can be found here.

Publishing a post on keeping a clean house makes me giggle a bit, especially if you could actually see what my house looks like at the exact moment I'm drafting this. Best of intentions here, people, best of intentions. I will try really hard to follow my own advice on this one. :-) 

1. Just say no to clutter. The fewer things you have, the less you have to clean/work around. Simplify. Take a look at what you have out. Do you really want to move/clean this stuff on a regular basis? Related to that . . .

2. Make the best use of space. One thing I love about our current house is the plethora of potential storage areas. (Especially after coming from Italy, where apparently they have a thing against closets. Seriously.) If you don't use it all the time, don't leave it out. Another popular version of this is "a place for everything and everything in its place." This works, too. Sort of. I find this to be a never-ending project.

3. Clean every day. Yes, every. single. day. Even if it's just your must do list (see #10). I also try to spend 5-10 minutes each evening walking from room to room looking for obvious issues (e.g., snack bowls in the play room, rugs out of place, books knocked off shelves, hand towels that need replaced).

4. Enlist the kids' help. Capitalize on the fact that young children love to "help" with everything. Give them a dust rag and tell them to go at it. Teach them how to fold laundry or empty non-breakables from the dishwasher. Have them clean the bathtub. Worried about exposure to chemicals? Well then . . .

5. Use green cleaners. Truthfully, I'm more likely to clean now that I'm using vinegar and water almost exclusively and I'm not as worried about what I'm spraying around the Agents. I have my own "recipes" for cleaners, but they are mostly modeled on others' ideas, like the great ones in this blog post.

6. Have a plan . . . or not. For some things I like having a set time to do them (e.g., run the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen after dinner). Other cleaning jobs might be done on the same day each week. I realize some folks might find the idea of scheduling cleaning insane. However, if you are super into scheduling and organizing your household to do's, be sure to check out this site for inspiration.

7. Work toward a deadline. I always have an idea in the back of my mind of when I'd like to have something "done." Usually it involves a date I know Hubby is coming home. Not that I'm cleaning to impress him, per se. He knows the real us. :-) It's just more of a goal-setting technique.

8. Clean a clean house. This one is so obvious, yet hard for me to grasp. The only way your house is going to stay clean is if you clean it on a regular basis whether it "needs" it or not. I find this especially true concerning the kitchen and bathrooms. Just do it. Don't wait until it's a complete disaster and you begin to think it would be easier to just move. (Not that I speak from experience. But I speak from experience.)

9. Know what you can let go. Personally, dust on shelves doesn't bother me. Changing the sheets can almost always wait a few more days. If the play room isn't picked up, eh. Concentrate on what matters to you. Which leads me to . . .

10. Pick your daily battles. For me, it's dishes, laundry, and vacuuming. I aim to have these three things under control each day. Someone not at home during the day might not create as many dishes. A home without pets and small children might be able to get by with vacuuming less frequently. But for us, this is our "thing."

How do you keep cleaning under control at your house?

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.

Book Rave (6): What Not To Say

It's been a long time since I've done a book rave on this blog. (My previous ones can be found here.) I originally intended to do them monthly, but clearly that didn't happen. I can't imagine why. Certainly, no one in this house would ever distract me from my writing goals.

Today I'm raving about What Not To Say: Tools for Talking With Young Children by Sarah MacLaughlin. As with previous book raves, I've done some paraphrasing in the following descriptions.

This book shares 66 expressions commonly used with children and offers better alternatives. As I read through each of them, I had one of two reactions: 

(a) I smiled and nodded in recognition because it was something I already knew not to say, or it was something I used to say and had successfully stopped doing so; or 

(b) I bit my tongue and ruminated over and over in my mind how many times I had said this exact thing. Yikes.

For purposes of this post I narrowed my thoughts down to just a sample of the ideas that really stood out to me. So rather than discussing particular "sayings" I will simply highlight a few of the key ideas that jumped out at me as I read through the text.

Awareness always precedes change (p. 1). Such an obvious concept, but for some reason it really helped to have this pointed out in the introduction. Focus on future improvements; don't dwell on what you are doing "wrong."

Sometimes we need to reframe (pp. 12-13). Simply being aware of where a child is developmentally, and adjusting our expectations appropriately, is an excellent start. This may involve considering rules (they should be limited, primarily boundaries based on safety) and/or the environment (don't make things harder than they need to be).

Redirect your own focus (p. 15). Are you too distracted, for example, by electronic devices? Don't make your children compete for your attention.

Agent J, September 2010

Tell it like it is (pp. 22-23). No need to hide or sugarcoat negative information. (They're probably more in tune to what is going on than you think, anyway.) Instead, explain things in an age-appropriate way. 

Meet basic needs (p. 46). Make sure bodies are well-rested and bellies are full, especially before running errands. (My own cardinal rule is never leave the house without snacks and water, no matter the duration of the trip, and use the bathroom before you get in the car, whether you have to go or not).

Describe what you see (pp. 56-57). Rather than exploding in anger, calmly narrate what is happening. Give your child a chance to consider his or her actions without your negative assessment. (This one would fall into the category of "easier said than done" for me, personally.)

Have you read the book? Share what you enjoyed best about it in the comments.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day.