This is a VERY special post. Not only is it the start of a brand new year full of unlimited potential, it’s also special to me for another reason …

IT’S MY BLOGIVERSARY!

What in the world is a blogiversary, you ask? It’s the first anniversary of the day The Merry Momma went live!

I’m very excited about this for a couple reasons:

1. I proved myself wrong!

I have stuck with this blog for an entire year, through morning sickness and fatigue, our insanely busy gardening and canning months, and a newborn baby!

When I finally decided to start this blog last January, I was a little afraid I wouldn’t have what it took to persevere. I had heard people talk about how much work blogging requires (and it does!), and I wasn’t sure I could do it.

However, with great determination, encouragement from friends, and support from my hubby, I did it! There’s still a lot I want to accomplish and a lot of work ahead of me, but I proved to myself that I can do whatever I set my mind to. This is something that I truly believe is part of God’s plan for my life, so I know He is equipping me to do it.

2. It’s a symbol of something huge!

This blog may just be a fun read or (hopefully) a source of information and encouragement to you, but to me it represents a gigantic step in my battle with fear and insecurity.

I had felt the leading to start a blog right after I had my first baby, 2 1/2 years ago. I felt I had nothing of value to offer other moms, so I pushed the thought aside.

When Aidan was a year old, I felt those urgings again, and this time I actually did something about it. I came up with the name The Merry Momma, bought the domain, set up my site, and … nothing. I couldn’t shake the fear that people would laugh at me and the insecurity that I had nothing to say. My husband would mention it from time to time, and I would always say, “What do I know? I have nothing to offer!” Every time he would insist that I had more to offer than I realized. He encouraged me to just start sharing. Sharing my experiences, sharing little tips that I was learning, and sharing life from right where I was.

Long story short, I finally realized that this was a step God was asking me to take, and if God was asking, I had better listen. I was at a point in my life where I was just so sick of being afraid. Of being disobedient. Of letting fear of failure and others’ opinions of me hold me back. And so, with both excitement and trepidation, I finally launched The Merry Momma.

It has been an even more wonderful experience than I could have expected. It has been a lot of work, requiring time, energy, and commitment that I didn’t always want to give. But it has also been richly rewarding. I have learned a lot – about blogging, about writing, about motherhood, and about myself. I have made wonderful new friends and connections. And I have started to see the beginnings of dreams being realized.

It’s been a wild ride, and I have you, my faithful readers, to thank for much of it. So thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything. For your time, your clicks, your encouragement, and your shares. I appreciate all of it more than you know.

To celebrate this special blogiversary, today’s post is a round-up of my most popular posts.

In determining which posts to include, I made a list of my top performers according to my Google Analytics, Pinterest re-pins, Facebook engagement, and post comments. I then looked for any posts they had in common. From there, I made a list of the top 10 favorite posts of 2016. Enjoy!