Well, everyone — we made it! We made it to the end of this looooong, hard, rollercoaster year. And while we literally have no clue about what surprises 2021 has in store for us, we at least have the promise of a fresh start, which is always hopeful in and of itself.
For the past several years, I’ve been doing a year-end roundup of the top 10 blog posts published that year (not the most-viewed blog posts ever, which are often from past years), as well as my top 9 IG posts. (You can follow me on Instagram HERE if you aren’t already.)
I’m a bit hit-or-miss when it comes to Instagram—sometimes you’ll find me posting almost daily for a good, long streak, and other times you’ll just get crickets for weeks and weeks. This year I finally broke down and got a smartphone (I KNOW), so it’s been easier than ever to actually post to IG…except I still haven’t been super involved with it. Anyway, I’ve dropped the top 9 in the graphic above, and I’ll sprinkle a few other of my favorites throughout this post (especially since poor Mathias hardly got represented at all in that top 9!).
So here goes—the top 10 posts of 2020 in order, followed by a few of my own favorites that didn’t make the cut. Happy New Year, everyone! I hope to see you next year for the 2021 roundup 🙂
Top Posts Published in 2020
#1 – Instant Pot Mexican Ground Beef + Rice Casserole
Thanks to Pinterest loving on this one in a big way, this post shot right to the top of my most-viewed posts this year. I’ve pretty much loved my Instant Pot since the get-go, but this year that love (and reliance) reached ever-greater heights as we had two moves underneath our belts and had/have much of our kitchen gear packed away for the last several months. This is a recipe I made up awhile back while I was looking for a fast and delicious “dump” recipe of sorts that I could make on the busiest of weeknights. And now, months later, I still have this one in regular rotation on our menu!
#2 – My Summer 2020 Reading List
My heart is always happy when a book round-up makes the top 10 because these posts take foreeeever to put together, especially the summer edition! While I’ve only read 7 of the 13 titles I posted about thus far (2020 has been a weird year for many things, including reading), I do plan to still read the others once I can get out of this reading slump I’ve been in.
#3 – How We’re Starting Our Homeschool For Under $160
Our decision to homeschool our oldest for the first part of her kindergarten year was a learning experience, for sure. While we’ve now chosen to enroll her in the public school here since we’ve finally moved and settled in to our new house, we did learn a LOT those months that we homeschooled her, and I stand by the materials and resources I chose to spend our money on. If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to homeschool your kids, make sure you check this post out!
#4 – Hyrum’s Birth Story
Hyrum’s birth story looked basically nothing like his siblings’, and you can definitely tell he’s the third child since this was published and written so much after the fact (whereas with Mathias–my second–I had the whole post written up while I was still in the hospital!).
#5 – Mistakes I Didn’t Know I Was Making Until We Staged Our House to Sell
We sold our first house this year, and boy did I learn a LOT about arranging furniture and improving the function and aesthetic of our home through the process of staging our house to sell! I seriously had no idea of the impact of making certain (mostly smallish) changes, and I’ve definitely carried over many of these lessons to how we’ve set things up in our new place.
#6 – Loving and Learning Lately {v. 23}
When I first started this monthly series, I wasn’t sure how long I would continue it, but seeing as at least one of them always ends up in the top 10, I guess I won’t be stopping anytime soon! (And two or three others technically should have made it in the top 10 right after this one, but I decided to throw in more variety and just chose the most-viewed one.)
#7 – Our Experience Having a 35-Week Preemie
Hyrum–our third child–was the only one of our children who came prematurely, and lemme tell you, it was definitely a different experience having such a difficult pregnancy, being on bed rest for so long, and then finally having to deal with a baby who needed NICU care. I wrote this post up both to help me remember and process the whole experience, as well as to give someone facing a similar situation some kind of tangible guideline of what you can possibly expect. No one’s experience will mirror mine exactly, but I hope that people found this fairly extensive recap helpful.
#8 – It’s Official: We’re Moving!
Big News posts always seem to make the top 10, which makes sense. We hadn’t anticipated having any Big News to even share this year, but 2020 had a whole lotta plans we sure didn’t see coming!
#9 – How To Make an Income Stretch With Six Kids {An Interview w/ My Mom}
I’d never tried doing an interview before on the blog, and seeing how well-received this was (and how fun it was to do!), I definitely want to continue doing this in the future.
#10 – Updates We’re Planning On Making Before Moving to the New House
The tenth post in the round-up basically listed all the changes we hoped to make to our new house before moving in, which included major lighting, flooring, and painting changes. Spoiler alert: we didn’t get it all finished before moving day, but we ARE getting pretty darn close to completing everything on the list (and then some!). Hopefully lots of house updates coming your way in 2021!
Some Other Favorite Posts:
- Stay Calm and Keep Reading: 15 Comfort Reads
- My New 101 in 1001 List
- A Week of Quarantine “Making It Stretch” Lunches for the Kids
- Why Adjusting to 3 Kids Has Been Easier Than Adjusting to 2
- The Best Books of the Last Decade
- How We’re Trying to Keep It Together During This Pandemic
All told, I published 71 posts this year here, which is one of my lowest years ever. However, I also started a new, more personal blog that I posted quite a few posts on between March and August, so there’s that. For 2021, I have lots of big plans for BOTH blogs…now it’s just about finishing up house projects and getting in a set routine so I actually have a chance to execute them all! 🙂
Happy New Year to you, and thank you so much for reading the blog this year…it really does mean a lot!
P. S. Will you do me a favor? Will you drop a comment below and let me know what posts you’d like to see more of here in 2021? I’m making up my editorial calendar now, and I could really use some input!
