Happy Anniversary to Me!

Today is my four-year blogging anniversary. It was September 25, 2009 that I decided to try my hand at sharing my writing with the world. That first day I posted four different posts, I was so excited for the new adventure. Over the past four years I have:

• Published 988 posts (plus this one, which makes 989)
• Completed a post-a-day challenge in 2011, actually publishing more than 365 posts that year
• Had over 110,000 page views, starting with an average of 17 per day that first month and reaching a high average of 167 per day for March 2013
• I’ve had page views from 171 countries out of the 195 countries in the world since February 25, 2012, when WordPress started tracking these stats
• Gained 300 blog followers, plus 39 Twitter followers and 188 people who read my posts from Facebook links
• Made a bunch of blogging friends who have blogs I love to read when I have time
• Talked with numerous family and friends about my blog and been encouraged by their appreciation for what I write
• Had 6,241 comments posted, though probably a third of those are me responding to comments
• Started writing poetry, including a 40-poems-for-Lent session in 2013, and a total of 285 poems
• Been invited to contribute to two other blogs, one of which (Broken Believers) is still in operation
• Participated in a bunch of Open Link Nights and other poetry challenges at dVerse Poets Pub
• Boldly shared the Gospel with the hopes of bringing the Light of Christ to as many people as I can
• Based on hits for my recipes, helped a lot of people with their Traeger cooking
• Taken one three-month sabbatical from blogging, though it wasn’t planned, it just happened
• And thoroughly enjoyed myself so much that I am truly looking forward to my next four years of blogging and beyond

When I started, I could never have imagined the journey I’ve been on. I have no idea where God will take this blog in the future, but I have no doubt that He is in control of it every step of the way and that the rest of the journey is going to be awesome.