On April 7, 2019 my blog turned two years old. 

Thanks to you. I’m so grateful you all show up every week to see what I have to say.

To celebrate, here is an overview of year #2’s top 10 blog posts, based on reader views. If you’re new reader to my blog, or even a regular, I hope you’ll take time to read any posts you’ve missed.

Let’s get started!

#10 The 26 Best Things at Aldi

My love affair with Aldi began the day I learned the chain is related to the buji grocery store business, Trader Joe’s. Now Aldi is always the first stop on my hunting-and-gathering outings.

In this post I give an overview of my favorite Aldi items to buy and why. Including, of course, the item I consider to be the 8th Wonder of the World.

#9 Life in the Fast(ing) Lane

At the beginning of 2018 my husband Tony and I started our intermittent fasting journey. 16 months later, we’re still eating this way. For more information on the practice and benefits of intermittent fasting, check out this post.

#8 Exercise Is NOT the Key to Losing Weight

So here’s the backstory on this post. Two gym owners independently told me that exercise is NOT the way to lose weight. To slim down, it is WAY more important to watch what you eat. This post is the result of all the research I did to confirm this idea.

#7 How to Settle an Estate (Guest Post)

After my mother passed away last September, my oldest brother waived the position of executor to me. Almost. For reasons I may or may not disclose in the future, the waiving never happened. Thinking that it would, though, I asked my attorney friend, Cole Bozic, of Bloom Legal Group PLLC, to provide a list of steps to follow when executing a loved one’s will. Who know it would be so popular?

#6 Teach Your Children Well (So they don’t become a sexual abuse statistic.)

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month which is why I wrote this post a few weeks back. Even though it’s super new, the post raced halfway up my top 10 blog post list. Why? Because everyone has children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews they want to protect. Don’t miss the important follow-up post.

#5 Make It, Official

Here’s another surprise. I’m not 100% sure why this post on how to become a football official became so popular on the blog. Maybe because my husband Tony (aka Tony Bear) shared it on his Facebook page where all his football officiating buddies saw it, read it, and also shared it. I can’t tell you how important post shares are to a blogger.

#4 The Good Wife (How email saved my marriage)

This post was basically me performing open-heart surgery on myself. For your benefit. And apparently people really like when I do that.

There’s another reason for its popularity. When I did a reader survey recently (It’s not too late to participate—pretty please?), respondents said marriage was their favorite topic for me to talk about. As such, I’ll be writing more on the topic in the future. That’s why participating in the 5-ish minute survey is important. You get to tell me exactly what you want and need to hear.

#3 Death 101: The Art of Dying (As taught by Atul Gawande…and my mother)

This one is my most shared ever post with 456 shares to date. I love this post. I love Atul Gawande. I love his book, Being Mortal.* And I love and miss my mom.

#2 Curly Hair 101: 24 Tips to Go from Flat-ironed (or frizzy) Hair to Waves and/or Curls

I almost didn’t publish this post. Because I wasn’t sure that many people actually care about curls. Well, dang! Apparently a whole lot of folks care about curly hair!

By the way, I’m working on a follow-up for all you folks who said on the survey you want more curly hair counsel!

#1 How I Finally Lost 25 Pounds (with Intermittent Fasting) After 32 Years of Trying Everything Else (Guest Post)

The fact that my number one most viewed post ever, not just in the past year, is a GUEST POST, humbles me.

Cindy McKee, a reader of my lifestyle column, emailed me a couple of years ago and we’ve been email-chatting ever since. People obviously love the advice she shares in her guest post so I encourage you to check it out, especially if you have 25 pounds or so to lose.

Thank you again, for making April 2018-April 2019 a very good blogging year!

I appreciate so much you reading my posts, leaving comments, and sharing them with your people.

If you want to check out year #1’s BEST posts, click here.

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