Month in Review: April

If my blog got pregnant last August this month would be its due date. That’s how long it has been since my last Month in Review. Since then, things have been chugging along like the Little Engine That Could. 153 posts later and it’s May and about time for another review.

26 – It’s the number of losses my Orioles have collected so far. Poor things. This is also the number of posts I published in April. Which is weird because I posted every day but 2 (poor M and X didn’t get their day). Where did those 2 posts get lost? Sucked up by the abyss that is the internet.

50 – Of the 26 posts, B is for Breathe earned the most views.

1,291 – While this could be the number of socks the dryer has eaten, it is actually the total number views for the month of April. I would like have had 1,500, but I’ll take what I get. I’m just surprised anyone even comes here to read my stuff. Thank you 1,291 times.

717 – This is how many times I cleaned up someone else’s mess over the weekend. It’s also the total number of visitors to my blog. Imagine if I got that many visitors to my house!

466 – Is about the number of times the boys told me they were hungry yesterday. I’m going to need to start selling my body to pay for the grocery bill. If only my body could buy us more than a bag of Holy Crap. I don’t like Holy Crap. I do like that my blog was liked 466 times, though.
239 – This is number of times you made my day last month. I love hearing from all y’all. Especially, when it’s about something I’ve written that you made a connection with. This is what keeps the blog fun and keeps me writing more. Thanks for all your comments!

55 – If only I could be as world traveled as my blog is. I could see everywhere from the US to Mauritius (off the coast of Madagascar) to New Zealand. However, the three countries who visited most are the US, Canada, and the UK. India was a close 4th and Australia trailed by 1 for 5th place.

1,331 – This number is 275 more than the last time I reported it. I still can’t believe I have that many followers. To all 1,331 of you, thank you. You’re awesome. If you want to be awesomer, tell your friends! Thanks to Keeping It Real with, Kristi Brutally Honest Mom and Pixel Edit for being my newest three followers. Don’t be strangers. Come by this space whenever you want.

There is never competition here. Except when there is. I enjoy competition. I think it helps us rise up to be better than we thought we could be. So the reward for winning the competition that isn’t a competition is a simple shout out. Here are the top six commenters.*

That Anxious Mom Leads the way with 52 comments
Dewy was a close second with 43
Ann was on her tail with 41
Elen Grey followed with 38
It’s Good To Be Crazy Sometimes came in with 32
I Didn’t Have My Glasses On is new to this list and I’m glad to see her here. She’s here with 24 comments.

Will you find yourself on this list? I’d love to have you here!

As always you can follow me and find more of my fun on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to call Buck and find out why my Orioles have played just 34 games and are in last place, 17 games behind 1st place.

*This list is based on the last 1,000 comments

 

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Month in Review

Good bye March. Don’t let the door in ya on the arse on your way out. You brought too much cold and too much snow. Take it all with you. Consider yourself officially evicted from the world for one year effective immediately.

Okay, I’m done bitching about the weather now.

I have nothing to complain about in the stats department of this little blog. The numbers are climbing. Not the hights of Mt. Everest mind you. More like the climbing the stairs to use the bathroom.

March brought 1,372 views. This is up 109. Up is the right direction.I bet if you shared one of my posts the numbers would go up faster. Maybe we’ll play game one of these weeks in April – you repost one of mine and I’ll repost one of yours. I’ll let you know.

There were 661 visitors. This up 96. Up again!

Likes are nice.  467 are really nice. This is up 86. I like that.

Like always, this blog is run by you. Sure, I write the posts, but without the comments and discussions this blog is nothing more than a flashing cursor. Thank you for 338 comments in March. That’s up 58!

March saw 22 posts which is 3 more than February had. The most viewed page was Sunday Share: Week 13 with 77 views. Following in second place was 42 which not about Jackie Robinson but about my Mom and Dad. In a close third, was Sunday Share: Week 11

I was visited by 39 countries. Leading was the United States. Following was Canada. Tagging along was the UK. Joining in was the Netherlands. The fifth wheel was Austrailia.

The only search term available for me to see from March was “lush bath bombs”. Odd term to find on a dad blog but when you have two kids who love the smelly, colorful things, you’ll find them here.

I now have 843 people following this little place. I’m getting closer that 1,000 mark. Thank you to my latest three followers – Samantha Scott Author, Joe Owens, and Rhythm In Life. Will you be next? You won’t be disappointed. You’ll be amused, entertained, and occasionally you’ll thank your lucky stars none of this is happening to you.

Top 6 commentors:

GrubbsnCritters
A Momma’s View
Anxious Mom (who is writing at Dorky Mom Doodles)
Kountrymama2012
Who’s My Favorite Today
Coach Daddy

Thank you. There are no numbers to describe my gratitude.

Month in Review

First, on a slightly selfish tone, I’d like to say that I’m happy to see the tag I started happily blog hopping. It gives shout outs to new and veteran bloggers alike. However, I’ve noticed that number 100 has mysteriously disappeared. If you’ve been tagged in the “Get To Know Me” please add number 100 which links to the original “Get to Know Me” post. You can just copy and paste this as the last question (which obviously isn’t a question):

100. The original Get to Know Me post

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I feel like I’ve shot myself in the foot this month.

But as the saying goes,

It is what it is…

February has been a rough month. I have had the blog on autopilot for the month. In doing so, my views have plummeted like that skydiver without a parachute, my comments have dropped like Galileo’s weights from the tower (9.1 meters/sec), and my stats in general are so low they’ve hit oil.

But these are January’s stats. Let’s look on the bright side…

Once upon a time I was getting over 2,000 views per month. That hasn’t happened since April of last year. January saw 1,325 views. This is exactly 1,325 more views, people who stopped by to read what I wrote, than if I didn’t blog at all.

There were 595 visitors. I’m kinda proud of this number because it means readers are not just coming over, but they’re staying. Kinda like the friend who stops by to deliver a box of Timbits but ends up staying and chatting for a couple hours.

I published 24 posts in January. Not too shabby. I haven’t been posting on Saturdays because that used to be my day for writing 100 word stories and I haven’t done that since my series ended.

I got 481 likes in January. I like that.

The 342 comments I received though, are my pride and joy of the blog. I know I’ve written well, written content you can relate to, when you are kind enough to leave me your own thoughts on the subject. Building community is what drives the blog. Thanks to all who have chimed in. Also, I’m far more apt to visit and share the blogs of those who comment.

January’s most popular post was Mystery Blogger Award when I was nominated by A Momma’s View. It received 47 views.

41 countries visited my little corner. The US, Canada, and Australia were three to visit most often. The UK and Netherlands were close behind.

The search terms that brought people to my blog were great. “Dad son farting stories” brought 4 people. There more farts and poop around here than a dairy farm! Also searched was “fix cassette with a pencil” (that’s old school). “Stomping feet gif”, “beach forest mountain”, and “earth compared in size to the galaxy”. I’m so happy a science search landed someone on my blog! I hope someone feels smarter.

I am currently sitting at lucky 7’s. 777 followers! My latest three followers are Sheryl, TrevnJess, and Mykynla. Thanks for following! Will you be next? It’ll be worth it. I promise.

I’m going to pass on the most comments for the time being. As February ends next week, I’ll rewrite the Month in Review for this month and I’ll include y’all in there. But I will let GrubbsnCritters know that she’s currently winning and A Momma’s View is close behind. Perhaps someone can knock these two out of the top spots? I will be giving shout outs to the top six come March first!

Month in Review

Did you see it? I’m not talking about the Broncos beating the Panters. The Broncos were the “underdogs” so naturally I was rooting for them. Sorry Panthers. There, I talked football.

But I wasn’t asking if you had seen that football game. I was asking if you had seen where January went. I had it a minute ago, but I don’t know where it is now. (If my mother  and DW had a nickel for every time they heard me say that they’d have A LOT of nickels) Here we are in the second week of February with another blizzard bearing down on us this afternoon and into tomorrow and I nearly forgot to do my month in review.

January saw the birthday of my DW (dear wife, darling wife, dreamy wife) and it saw the construction and Mama Nature’s demolition of an igloo eight days later. It also saw the 1st birthday of my blog!

Anyway, on to the stats. The meat of the matter. The juice in the box…

January ended with:
1,502 views. That’s exactly 70 more than December. That’s the first time I’ve topped                                 1,500. Next stop 2k.
447 visitors. That’s a drop of 43.
29 posts. That’s 19 less because December go two posts a day thanks to two Elves.
573 likes. This is down 134. Again, those Elves are screwing with my numbers.
518 comments. This is up by 113!

Besides my hompage with 199 views last month, Life’s Too Short To Waste Time Matching Socks was in the lead with 66. Sunday Share came in with 60 views. Epic Awesome took the bronze with 51 views. The Value of A Teacher still leads overall with 500 views. But Life Before/After Kids is still my favorite.

The most visitors were from the US, UK, and Canada, respectively. Thailand you were close fourth!

December ended with 295 WordPress followers. That’s a gain of 42. So close to 300! Keith Garrett. Samantha James, Vinnieh, and Kaan are my latest four followers. Will you be next? (Hint: you don’t need a WordPress account AND you’re email is kept confidential. Not even I am shown your email address).

Lastly, my top 6 commentors were:

Ann of Grubbs-n-Critters
Elen of Elen Grey | Deep in B-ville Writing Over the Garage
Anxious Mom of That’s What Anxious Mom Said
Tiffany of kismaslife
Faraday’s Candle
Pieter of Ah Dad

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to read. You really do make this blogging thing a whole lotta fun!

2 weeks ago

Today

It’s That Time of Year

We’ve all wished each other Happy New Year by now. Crash and Bang made until mid-night, though just barely. We were at a friend’s house partying so they had lots of kids to play with and we had lots of adults to talk to.

Anyway, it’s time to look back. How well did 2015 treat me? My first WordPress post turns 1 in 4 days. I haven’t decided if I’ll do the whole blogiversary thing since this one will contain more links than the fence between the US and Mexico.

Here’s my month and year in review.

December brought 1,432 views, 203 more than November. This brought my total for the year to 9,259. Almost made the 10K mark. There were 490 visitors – 106 more than last month for a total of 3,510 visitors! Thanks y’all for stopping by! I published 48 posts in December thanks to The Daily Elf posts. This was 8 more posts than November for a grand tally of 316 posts.

The “like” button was clicked 707 times in December compared to only 442 times in November. The year brought 2,827 likes. There were 14 more comments in December – 415 for a total of 2,370 comments since last January.

Besides my home page with 218 views last month, it was Passing the Test in the lead with 60 views. My best day for the year was on March 3rd – The Value of A Teacher with 279 views. That post now has 500. The next most popular was With an Open Heart about Crash’s open heart surgery when he was five days old. Landing in the bronze medal spot is Life Before/After Kids which was really fun to write.

The top three countries to visit in December were the US, Canada, and Luxembourg. The top 5 for the year were from US, Canada, Thailand, United Kingdom, and Australia.

I started the year with 0 (yep, zero. None. Zilch. Nada.) followers. I’ve gained 253 WordPress followers. The Invisible Moth, Riddle from the Middle, and True North Nomad are my latest three to click the follow button. Will you be the next? (Hint: you don’t need a wordpress account AND you’re email is kept confidential).

My longest streak this year without missing a day from the 26th of November to December 20th for a total of 25 days with most posts on Fridays.

My top five commenters this year?
Grubbs-n-Critters
I’m Strong Enough to Break
Elen Grey
A Momma’s View
Terri Webster Schrandt

Lastly, a huge thanks to Eli, the Coach Daddy for being my first blogger guest. You can read that post here if you missed it. If you would like to guest, all you gotta do is ask. DW was my first official guest, though with her post Breaking the Silence.

September in Review

We now have a full month of school under our belts. Crash and Bang survived their first colds of the season. Bang is handling the transition of going to school half days, three days a week and sometimes to his Nanny and Pop’s or to a sitter’s house. He’s enjoying all of the above. Crash has had a few struggles, but I think we’re getting past them. As for my blog, I think it’s doing what I want it to do: A) let me write and share B) get a few people to read it.

My last review included the months of July and August combined. This time it is solely September. September had 520 (100 more than August) views and saw 217 (70 more than August) visitors to just 17 (4 more than August) posts. *Side note: October will have more posts* So in that regard, my numbers have climbed ever so slightly. My top viewers came from the U.S., Canada and Japan.

I’ve gained 13 followers and am creeping up to 200 followers. I thank each and every one of you! My newest followers are Have Kids Will… Shandra and Kent. Will you be next?

Besides my Home Page, Breaking the Silence was my most viewed post in September. Please have a read if you have not already. It was a guest post written by my beautiful DW. Good Enough is one I think needs a little more attention.

I’ve been trying to convince Crash to write me a story for my blog. He’s working on it. It might take him a few weeks to get it typed. I’ll be very curious to see what he comes up with. I haven’t asked him or even seen it yet. It’ll be interesting for sure! There is also Thanksgiving (here in Canada) and Halloween coming up this month. October is my favorite color!