2022 Year in Review: Was it a Good Year? Plus, Blog Statistics and Analytics for 2022

LessHustleMoreCoffee

Dec 31

Photo by olia danilevich on Pexels.com

Well, I look forward to this ALL year. What all were the highlights of the past year, good or bad? What was it that we enjoyed, that made us happy, that made us cry, or took our energy? What was it that we spent our time on? What went well? What didn't? Over the next few days, I will share tidbits of what our 2022 was all about, and whether we met goals, what STOOD out, and then I'll be sharing the 2023 goals and plans as well.

Less Hustle More Coffee Blog, is really all about trying to figure out how to live life better, make life worth living, and trying to enjoy it along the way. So before we start to reveal 2023, let's take a look a back.

YEAR IN REVIEW

The year started off in CRISES MODE. We were still helping Mom get set up in her house, had Christmas and the holiday celebrations with family in town, our office moved, and we had an early January trip to Texas for our grandson's first birthday, and it was month end, quarter end, and year end at work. It was quite the strain on my psyche and of course we had ZERO spare time.
The trip to Texas was a highlight, getting to see our Texas crew in the New Year.
Downloaded and learned Final Cut Pro to do my video editing.
Began doing layered improvement challenges to give me a leg up on improvement of many areas of my life. This type of "build your own challenge" has given me a tool forever. KYD55 gave me the idea, but I've learned to do my own based on whatever my goals are.
Had a small bout of depression due to lower vitamin D levels, less sun, less time for self-care, less down time. Our level of busy accompanied by some anxiety, and added responsibilities and these things just mentioned, really sent me for a tail spin. I just about hit a wall and it was a struggle to come out of it.
Traveled to Hot Springs to see Katy, Cody, and Little Roo.
Katy and Cody lost their pet Findlay in an emergency surgery due to an infection in the colon. I'm listing it here on my year in review page because it was so incredibly sad to me. I just couldn't believe it. I've missed that dog.
George took me to see Andrew Jackson's Hermitage for Mother's Day and I really enjoyed it.
Had a colonoscopy. I've had several now, and I think that may be my last one. I'm supposed to have another when I'm 69 but at that point, if I'm not having troubles, I may just skip it.
Went to Knoxville and spent the weekend with Kevin and Susan.
We began doing Hello Fresh. I'm shocked we did it but we both love it. I've cut it back to 2 days a week right now since we have so much in our freezer. We may begin skipping some here and there, but it has taught us neat ways to cook things and opened up a whole new way of cooking: from bowls, to burritos, to sauces, using lemon zest, roasting veggies, etc.
WE RESCUED DEXTER. Probably the biggest change to our lives this year was getting a dog. Our lives were really very sad without having dogs in our house. For a while, as we dealt with Mom and had her here and got her settled in new house, it was best not to have one. But when we did our happiness levels zoomed up the charts. He just brings joy to the household and excitement. And a few challenges too but it usurped brain energy figuring it out and gave us something new to work on together. We love this dog!
Learned about Narcissistic Behavior traits and how to deal with it as I often have to deal with individuals that are high on the spectrum. It's really been an eye opener as I've had to learn how to learn how to deal with some things and how to let some things go, set boundaries, and get around a big learning curve on the subject.
I went to therapy for the first time - only two visits but enough to get some tools and some ideas to help me. The biggest thing that came from it was validation of some things that I had suspected. A few things were shown to me that I had never thought of before. It was expensive and we needed the money for Christmas so I didn't continue it.
We placed membership at Church. We finally did it. I had been skeptical and George had been noncommittal about it, but finally he took the lead and said we should do it. I'm glad we did. It felt right.
Went to Buc-ee's. I mean that is a highlight the first time you go! How fun!
Gotta New Logo and a New Blog Look.
Celebrated 31 years of marriage at a wonderful day out in Green Hills.
Went to TX at Thanksgiving to see our Texas crew again. Oh my gosh, how relaxing. We really needed this trip.
I did BLOGMAS for the very first time. It was a blast. I was busy, but I enjoyed it. And it really brought in a lot of new blog followers and lots of visits to the blog.
I was able to VLOG one video a week for much of the year and not only caught up but totally revisited how I want to do vlogs in late 2022 and going forward. A lot is the same, but my approach is different.
George's health concerns. I'm going to mention it because I think he struggled some this year with several things coming to a head at year end, sending him to the doctor twice when he had not been in 30 years.
Hosted the Family Christmas. Always an honor and we worked hard to make it a happy festive time for everyone.

Looking back, the year was just a fast blip. As I'm sure the next one will be.

HOW MANY DOC APPOINTMENTS AND OTHER APPOINTMENTS DID WE HAVE IN 2022?

I was curious myself, so I just got the planner out and counted. Wow.

27 total doc appoints in 2022 between Mom and Me.
17 appts for Mom
10 appts for me, including my colonoscopy
Dexter had 4 vet appts, Fancy had 1 I think
Fancy had 9 grooming appointments
Between Mom and I we had 8 hair appts
And I think there were around 18 + nail appts or more with the monthly nails for me and several times going for pedi's on separate dates.

BLOG STATS

2022 had the most views ever. 42,822 views
Views came from mostly Search Engines, Word Press Reader, Facebook, and other bloggers whose referrals link to my page. All of those were in order by rank of numbers.
My blog in 2022 was viewed by 79 countries which totally blows my mind how global the BLOG really is.
The top few countries in order from the most visited are: US, Canada, Australia, UK, India, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Spain.
All time views: 137,598
All time visitors: 28,263
853 Blog posts, by me.
5,113 comments
Followers: 899 (My goal for the last quarter was to reach 900 - I'm only one away - lol.)
The most comments post was: "Birthday Surprises of Every Kind" and the most liked post was "Hello Fresh and Setting a Wellness Challenge for Yourself".