Happy New Year {And the Top 10 Posts From 2012}
Happy new year, everyone!
You know, I tell people all the time that (aside from my job as a full time mom and homemaker, which is the VERY best thing I could ever imagine doing), I’m pretty sure I have the best job in the world. It’s such an honor and privilege to run this blog and be in community with all of you.
2012 has been a busy but fantastic year, as we’ve welcomed new writers, had the site completely redesigned, finally got on the Pinterest bandwagon, and added more members to the team that keeps this site running smoothly.
Our family also has some rather audacious plans for 2013, which I absolutely can’t wait to share with you. I’ll be posting about them shortly and I hope that you’ll join us for the ride of our lives. 🙂
The top 10 posts at KOTH in 2012
I always enjoy looking back to see which posts really resonated with readers over the course of the year. These were the posts that made the top ten:
1. Rethinking Oral Health Care: A Homemade Toothpaste Recipe for Tooth Remineralization
2. 10 Decisions for Parents of Newborns
3. 8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home
4. Postpartum Rest and Recovery Tips (From a Mama Who Learned the Hard Way)
5. 31 Ways to Use a Mason Jar in Your Kitchen
6. What I Would Feed My Family on a Monthly Budget of $250
7. 10 Ingredients to Make From Scratch
8. 45 Real Food Snacks for Kids
9. Recipe for a Toxin Free Kitchen: 10 Homemade Kitchen Cleaners
10. How to Make Your Own Sunscreen Lotion
We also ran a few series that were extremely popular, such as A Day in the Life (want to see what really happens in our day-to-day lives?), and Spring Clean the Toxins.
My personal favorite was Make It Yourself month, where we spent a whole month mucking up our kitchens and generally having a blast creating homemade products like laundry powder, foaming hand soap, clay toothpaste, cultured butter, and herbal tinctures, among other things.
To kick off 2013, we are launching a series on real food, especially for those who are still working to improve their health through eating better. It’s called Real Food Made Simple {A Beginner’s Guide to Eating Better} and it starts in just a couple days. The spread of topics that we have covered by our writers is amazing and even for those who aren’t “newbies” anymore, I think you will find it to be SUCH a helpful series!
Lastly, a little help and inspiration for your New Year’s resolutions
My first ebook, Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time, is currently on sale in a special New Year’s bundle, which also includes these other amazing ebooks:
- Simplify
- 2013 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner
- One Bite at a Time
- 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life
The bundle is available from Bundle of the Week for just $7.40 for all five books (which is a real steal), but it’s only available until the end of this week!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading and supporting this site. On behalf of all the writers and the team here at Keeper of the Home, I am so excited to share another year with this wonderful community of women! 🙂
ohhhhh, I’m so excited for this new series! As this new year begins, I’m trying to think of easy ways to begin incorporating real foods into our lives without scaring anyone. 🙂
Do you have any tips for a young girl who wants to share this healthful way of eating with her parents and family- without them thinking she has joined the “crazy organics?” They do care about health to a slight degree, but not enough to change our diet. We’ve switched to butter from margarine. That’s a start, right?
That’s a total start. 🙂
I think the best way is to just start making things to share with your family, and then talk about what’s different about the food when/if they show interest. Make wholesome desserts or snacks, or offer to make a meal, but choose something that you know will go over well but is made with only real foods. If they enjoy or comment on it, then you’ve got an open door to make a small mention about what you made. Just do it slowly, and talk about it when they show interest (ie. not the rest of the time- most people don’t want to hear about it until they ask and if you offer too much information, it will scare some people off). But hardly anyone will object to someone preparing something delicious and sharing it. 🙂
Yay for making the top 10! 🙂
You do a wonderful job on your blog, Stephanie! I love being able to refer people here for great, balanced perspective on many issues. The new series sounds WONDERFUL!!
How did I miss the one about $250 grocery budget? Wow that one looks great. I am currently working on my grocery budget since we moved and have new places to buy things/different prices and also we are trying to get rid of the rest of our debt. Inspiring, thank you!!!