Eight years ago today I signed up for my first WordPress.com blog. It’s been a fantastic ride, that’s taken me from Lisbon to Mexico to Portland and a lot of places in between. It gave me a new job (or, gave me the chance to earn a new job), which has significantly changed our lives for the better. I don’t think Grant would be here if I were in a tradition job and knew I wouldn’t be able to be home with him for very long – the generous maternity leave began to shift my thinking about how finished our family was. In the time since I signed up for my first blog, we had twins, sold our house, bought a new one, had a singleton, sold a house, bought a new one, and moved 4 times. I spent 5 months of maternity leave with my three children. We have taken vacations and spent time together that I don’t waste on commuting. We’ve taken our babies to new places, and seen the world through their eyes.

Some stats:

My blog has 1,679 posts, with 954 comments. The blog has 1,509 followers, and 22,161 viewers who have viewed the site 43,885 times. I’ve written 193,465 words on the blog. 2011 was the year with the longest posts (an average of 654 words), but the fewest overall posts (9 posts in the entire year!). 2017 had the most posts (437), but only averaged 75 words per post. My best year for comments was 2016, with 246 on 338 posts. My best year for likes was 2015, with 1,538 likes on 424 posts (second place for most posts).

At work, I’ve written 473,535 words on 8,672 posts and comments, and been mentioned 2,058 times.

Here’s to so much more.