The Year in Review

"Calendar Round" by vbecker is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

Here's a few moments from the past year I think are worth recording. Several of them link to posts where I discuss them, but not all of them made it into the blog as they happened. 

First things first, here's what happened here.   

My top three most viewed posts for this year were: 

What To do if You've Been Abused by a Member of a Religious Order 

This is one that I wrote in 2021, but it's gotten steady views since I wrote it. I'm not sure why; I guess it's listed on a resource page somewhere, or maybe it's because there have been a fair amount of very public scandals lately with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and with the TORs and the headline to this has some pertinent key words the search engines are catching. 

Either way, I'm hoping it's actually helpful. 

Why I'm Deleting my Facebook 

Getting rid of Facebook was probably the single most impactful thing I did this year regarding my blog. My regular readers went from about 90 a post to about 30 (sincere thanks to everyone who has stuck around). This was the last post that I ever shared on Facebook.

 I think that the overall benefits of deleting my account have outweighed the costs. I still struggle with spending too much time on my phone, but cutting out most social media (I never really got into Instagram or Twitter, and I'm pretty sure TikTok is from the depths of hell) has reduced my emotional turbulence pretty considerably. I'm a lot less anxious, cranky, or unpleasant in general. 

Intercession, Anxiety, and Cultivated Misery 

This is not my grammatically strongest work or clearest writing.  I think this could have used another edit or two. 

I think what I was trying to drive at, that the ills of the world won't be helped by sitting around feeling sad and upset about them, is true. I just could have expressed it better. 

But it got a lot of views, so I guess it was good enough. 

Some landmarks of the year for me and our family (in no particular order)-- 

- I wrote the most intimidating, researched piece I've ever written and got it published. 

- I actually managed to stick with and finish the Bible in a Year podcast (I'm normally horrible at sticking to stuff like that). It involved listening to several episodes in a row on occasion, but I managed to finish on time. 

- We bought an RV. 

- Chris started at a new job. 

- We went to Oklahoma 

-We found out we have a niece on the way (more details later). 

-We made a lot of pickles. 

- I nearly lost my brother to an aneurysm. This is something I didn't really share on the blog when it happened: the situation went through a couple twists and turns and his wife asked us to respect their privacy and limit who we told. He was extremely lucky: no permanent brain damage or personality changes. He does have a huge, knarly scar that stretches halfway across his head from the brain surgery and he can't give blood ever again. They had to replace part of the lining in his skull with cow membrane, and apparently this means there's an infantisimally small risk he could give someone mad cow disease (he was upset that his regular supplier of Nutter Butters and snack pack Oreos has thus been cut off, "I could buy them myself, but it just won't be the same!"). This gives us the added benefit of being able to tease him that we're eating his kinsmen whenever we eat beef in his presence, but I doubt he appreciates that aspect. 

- We bought half a cow. 

This makes the list just because of how strangely it happened. My In-laws drove to Illinois, bought two cows from my husband's uncle, got the slaughtered and processed, and then drove all the way to Texas in a truck loaded in the back with chest freezers. 

We've eaten more beef and steak in the past year than in our marriage up until that point. And we still have a fair amount left! 

- I'm trying to pray the Rosary regularly. This is an area where I've struggled immensely and given up on for awhile (I've written in the past about it), but by some miracle or gift of grace, it's actually become a prayer that doesn't involve a couple anxiety attacks and a headache when I do it. I'm far from consistent with it, but the fact that I'm in a place where I can even try is a big deal for me. 

- What I write here has changed. It's a lot less essay writing, and more of a journal. I'd like to get back into essay writing, and I started a Substack towards that end, but thus far I've failed spectacularly in getting anything onto it. I guess that'll be part of my goals for the new year.

-My estranged grandfather died. The backstory to my relationship with him is complicated and painful (and far more so for other members of my family). Suffice it to say he wasn't a good man when I knew him, but I have good memories of him and I hope that he became a good man before he died. If you'd like to pray for his soul, his name was Paul. 

It's been an interesting year, and in no way boring, but not as eventful as years past-- no new babies or major lifestyle changes (other than cutting out social media). 

And that's us. How was your year?