In celebration of another year in the blogging books, I rounded up the top 10 posts from 2017 as determined by page view. Y'all were into babies, motherhood/parenting, NFP, and obscure liturgical things.

That's why we're such good friends!

In ascending order....

10

Ember Days - The Best Part of the Liturgical Year You Never Knew Existed

In case you missed the Advent Ember Days, fear not! These happen four times a year. Next ones will be the Lenten Ember Days on Feburary 21, 23, 24.

9

I Survived Two Weeks of Solo Parenting + A Giveaway!

Now I'm willing to bet this showed up so high on the list becuase there was a giveaway involved. But getting through two weeks of solo parenting a 4 and 2 year old, while 4 months pregnant, was an accomplishment and I'm stinkin' proud of it!

8

The Longest Night - Felicity's Birth Story

Because who doesn't like a good birth story??

Many people probably, but they are totally MY guilty pleasure read and apparently some of y'all's too.

7

7 Misconceptions I Had About Motherhood Before My First Baby

Ah, the reckoning of life experience! 

6

The Hidden Scars - Dealing with Miscarriage and Secondary Infertility

Because sometimes I need to sit the world down and give it a talkin' to.

5

That Time I Cried in Church - How Parishes Can Be More Family Friendly

"We have been attending the 8am mass at our parish for a few years now. We are, typically, the only family with young kids at that mass.

That has been far and away a positive experience. ...

But then there is an event like yesterday, and I end up crying silent tears in the pew."

Small changes make a big difference for young family just trying to make it to mass every week!

4

NFP and the Single Woman

The lack of stories about single women using NFP to track their own health bothered me and I'm not even single! Thanks to the five women who shared their personal stories with us that past NFP Awareness Week.

3

A Quick St. Nicholas Gift Guide

Lots of you wanted to do St. Nicks big this year, and I fully support that!

2

Finding a New Beautiful in Postpartum

Life with three kids - it's a turning point. 

1

And our most viewed post of the year is.....

Embracing the Beautiful Body - Claire's Story

Fun Fact - Claire was also our doula for Felicity's birth. Pretty cool Catholic woman all around!

**************

Honorable Mention goes to my first truly viral Facebook post.

I made this in 20 minutes while wearing and feeding the baby. 

I'm very happy you all wanted to fulfill canon law and share that joy with your friends!

**************

Coming up in the next year:

Big renovation project

Re-entering the local theater scene

A Lenten challenge

Another special themed NFP Awareness Week

Marriage topic series

Stay tuned!

*************

Go check out the link up on Revolution of Love to see more Top 10 posts!

2017 - A Year in Pictures

Another year draws to a close!

I love these year in review things, so I'm hoping to catch a few in these last days of 2017. Here's the past year in 12 pictures!

January

An epic month in which The Importance of Being Earnest opened, Matt got a new job offer (which would mean moving halfway across the country), and a positive pregnancy test - all in one weekend! Sometimes God says yes to all of your prayers all at once.

February

February saw the closing of Earnest, a house hunting trip out to Minnesota, and a friends trip to Tahoe. Adventure John hiked for 3+ miles in snowshoes, and Therese saw snow for the first time.

March

February started our slow goodbye to the Bay Area. I did the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge as my Lenten practice to get ready for our impending move. Matt was sent out to Minnesota for training, and I survived 2 weeks of solo parenting. Therese had requested this picture post-parish St. Patrick's Day party to show off her "Sink Patrick's Day Tween".

April

We celebrated our last Easter with the Dominicans and began our 5 days between homes at the end of the month - but not before I made it to see Hamilton in San Francisco! 

Our last 767 pizza party brought an end to an era.

May

We arrived in Minnesota on May 1st .... and it snowed. Welcome to the Midwest!

The weather got it in gear by the end of the week, and Matt and the kids ran their first Minnesota race the following weekend. 

After not having driven since 2008, learning to drive our minivan (our very first car!) was an adventure.

June

Summers in Minnesota are certifiably beautiful, and we had a blast exploring our new home state. Being the Bay Area veterans we are, we had tracked down a CSA and promptly signed up. On their first visit to the farm, the kids played in the dirt, took a tractor ride, and picked strawberries and peas in the rain. John decides he wants to be "a farm kid".

July

In July we were hardly home!

We started in Texas for my family reunion on the lake. Flew to Denver for a wedding and visited family in Golden and Rocky Mountain National Park while we were at it. Drove from Denver to Idaho Falls, ID to meet up with friends and visit Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. Flew to Atlanta for the last wedding where John and Therese made their debut as ring bearer and flower girl.

At the end of all of that I learned:

1. Kids will  lose it in the last 20 minutes of a trip, no matter if it's 2 hours long or 12 hours long.

2. Our kids are still fabulously portable people.

3. It is absolutely possible to pack for everything from a black tie wedding to back country tundra in a single bag.

August

We started school in early August to pad in extra time off around baby's birth. Therese doing PK3 using 26 Letters to Heaven and John in Kindergarten using Mother of Divine Grace.

John and Matt had a Father/Son road trip down to Wisconsin to see an Eagles/Packers pre-season game. I think it made John's year.

September

Ah the due window month, but no baby arrived this month! She took her sweet time.

We still kept busy (if you haven't caught on, busy is the MO around here) with the parish fall festival, John beginning in the boys program at Minnesota Dance Theater, welcoming some Bay Area friends, and going to our first state fair (aka. The Great Minnesota Get Together.)

October

Felicity Anne finally arrived on the 5th!

Most of October was spent recovering and getting to know this new little person. The kids loved having Daddy in charge of homeschool. Grandma came for a visit at the end of the month and was here for our first ever Trick or Treating Halloween!

Matt was a football player (no surprise on the team), Kirby was Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, John a Knight, Therese was Cinderella, and Felicity was our little pumpkin.

November

We began to start seriously looking for forever home, which (obviously) includes trying out the local parks. #priorities 

We made an offer on one house, and got accepted, but the inspection turned up issue upon issue so we had to walk away.

I started to get back into auditioning and discovered the Twin Cities theater scene is very different from the SF Bay Area. It is bizarre to show up to absolutely packed green rooms filled with women who could be my twin. After a few unsuccessful auditions, I decided to redirect and up my game. More of that to come in the New Year!

December

For the first time ever we did not travel for the holidays. I did miss seeing family and friends over Christmas very much, but it was special to start some of our own ways of celebrating. 

We cut down our first full sized Christmas tree farm (in the snow!) and John was in his first Christmas pageant as a shepherd. 

We did end up seeing family over the holidays. My sister surprised us with a last minute visit from Texas. Never was there a more thrilled niece and nephew!

We found another house, that fits us even better than the first, and are currently in the inspection period. Fingers crossed!

***************

Linking up with Bobbi at Revolution of Love!