Red & Honey's 2015 In Review

Howdy friends! When it comes to New Year’s reflections, I prefer to finish off the year and let the dust settle before making any grand analysis or plans. So here I am, a week into the new year, sharing my 2015 in review.

2015 was a pretty crazy year for me – both personally, and professionally.

For one, I started referring to myself as a ‘professional blogger’ when people ask what I do for a living. The term ‘mommy blogger’ and the derogatory eyeroll that usually accompanies it has always annoyed me. I have grown so passionate about my writing bones (it’s part of my core – no matter the format), and the medium that currently allows me to reach an audience: blogging. Some people say that blogging is dying. As if it’s MySpace or VHS or scrunchies. (Scrunchies are back, by the way.) Well, I disagree.

I’m pretty confident that these key elements of blogging aren’t going anywhere soon:

1) Sharing of information and ideas
2) The internet (you magical, mystical beast)
3) The need for genuine and unfiltered community*

*I realize that everyone filters themselves on the internet to some degree, and that the chorus of complaints about Fakey-McFakerson’s Pretty Life is strong. But I’m comparing to the traditional mediums like magazines and television and such where everyone’s scripted, made up, and staged. I’ll still argue that there’s much more genuine and raw human connection happening now, thanks to the internet. The best blogs are largely unscripted and honest about their subject matter, and I, for one, am always striving toward that.

People just want to know the God-honest truth about how hard it is to quit your sugar habit, or have a bunch of babies and raise ’em up, or figure out this whole adulting in the real world thing. Thanks to the internet, we can talk about these things more easily and more accessibly.

Hi. I’m Beth, and I’m a Professional Blogger.

I used to feel somewhat embarrassed about my profession, mainly because most people don’t even know that it exists, and think that blogging is some lame side hobby that desperate housewives do to blow off steam. Well, it’s not. (Not always, anyway.) I know that, and you probably know that, but the rest of the world? They’ll figure it out eventually. And it starts with telling people that I’m a professional blogger for a living, and yes, it’s awesome.

Our Family’s Roller Coaster in 2015

On the personal side of things, 2015 brought R&H some challenges from our family situation. Chris’s contract job ended suddenly in February, so we found ourselves mostly unemployed and struggling financially to make ends meet. My business wasn’t making enough to pay all of the bills, but it certainly helped.

After a super stressful five months, he got the job of his dreams in a city four hours away, and we had a whirlwind month of applying, interviewing, accepting a job offer, selling our house, finding a rental home, and moving.

The fall was spent settling in to our new city, new routine (kids in public school for the first time), and new everything else.

R&H Goals and Plans for 2016

I was very, very grateful for the team of writers that I had brought on in the summer to contribute new content regularly to Red+Honey. They allowed me to keep the blog running while also giving myself some margin in my life during our big changes.

Looking ahead to 2016 – I am excited to write and publish my own words more regularly. Contributing writer articles will be just once weekly. You’ll hear from me every week with several posts and a weekly email update for subscribers with the best insider stuff I can rustle up. (What I’m working on lately, how I’m growing, new habits, natural/crunchy goals I’m working on currently, and all of the juicy goodness that isn’t fit for blog consumption.)

FYI: You can sign up for the R&H Weekly here. (It’s different from the posts-in-your-inbox, if you’re already subscribed to that.)

Other than that, I have several big goals for the blog, including growing my audience, a new product launch, and a few other surprises.

I’m also super thankful that my business has grown to a point where I am able to earn a pretty good income doing what I love. We still have a fairly large debt to pay off (mostly from hubby’s flight training), but we’re finally in a place of hopefulness – rather than despair – financially.

All that being said – when 2015 ended, I breathed a sigh of relief. Thankful for the roller coaster ride last year, but looking forward to stability and routine for 2016 (and buying a house that we can live in for a long, loooooong time. After this summer – no more moves!)

I didn’t mean to write such a long introduction to this popular posts list, but there you go. Sometimes I just have a lot to say.

Here’s what was most popular at Red & Honey in 2015. (Keeping in mind that the earlier posts in the year have had more time to rack up the pageviews than the most recent, which is why they’re mostly all from the first half of the year.)