Top Blog Posts of 2015

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!  One of my favorite things to do today is to look at my blog posts from this past year and see which ones were the most read.  This year I've decided to break it down two way - my top posts written in 2015 and my top all time posts.

Top 2015 Blog Posts

My top 2015 blog post was a fun collaboration with Jeni of Jeni Eats on Ham Balls: An Iowa Classic.  Without knowing, I gave Jeni her first taste of Ham Balls at a North Iowa Blogger get together.  After that first try, she was in love!  I love Jeni's enthusiasm and curiosity for local foods and traditions.  Be sure to check out this fun post, and my recipe, as well as Jeni's take on our Ham Ball day in my kitchen!

My second top 2015 blog post had a North Iowa Blogger tie too.  It was a tribute to my fellow North Iowa Blogger, and friend, Amy Hild of Modern Rural Living, who passed away in a tragic car accident this past winter.  I will always remember Amy's zest for life, her passion and strive to learn.  I'm not surprised this was one of my top 2015 blog posts, as Amy's story has made the top lists of the year for our local TV station and local newspaper.  Amy still is making an impact, even from heaven!

Maybe I'm starting a theme here, but my third top 2015 blog post as well had a North Iowa Blogger connection.  The North Iowa Bloggers had a local Pizza Taste Off in March and I brought my family-wide famous Overnight Salad to share with the group, to help break up the amount of pizza and carbs we'd be consuming.  Well, it was very popular with the bloggers too, so I had to share my recipe.

My fourth top 2015 blog post was my Celebrate Your Heritage and Mom with Kringla post.  I grew up in a Norwegian area of Central Iowa where I knew who locally made the best kringla.  So with Mother's Day coming up on the calendar, I thought I'd share my recipe for this sweet cookie pastry that can be ate for breakfast, snack, dessert - really anytime of the day! 

Rounding out the top 2015 blog posts was a my Harvest Recap post, that shared some exciting news about "New Additions" coming to the farm.  I don't know if this post got so many hits because people wanted to learn about Flat Aggie visiting our farm, or wanted to learn about corn bagging, or maybe it was to find out that we are expecting "Baby Tinker" in May!

Top All-Time Blog Posts

My all-time top blog post is my 5 Easy Ways to Teach Your Toddler Their ABCs and 123s post.  If I've had any post come anywhere close to viral, this is it.  I list a few ideas on how to incorporate the alaphbet and numbers into your daily and weekly routines to help your toddler become familiar with them.  I know I'm always looking for ways to help my children learn at home, and obviously I'm not alone.

My next all-time top blog post sneaked into the top 5 for the first time this year.  It is a Tuesday Tasty Pork post for my Slow Cooker Hot and Spicy Ribs.  This was an early post for me and doesn't even include a photo of the ribs!  I'll be changing this in the New Year!  I'm guessing people are googling and pinteresting slow cooker and pork and are falling upon this post.  I'm all of a sudden really hungry for these pork ribs!

My third all-time top blog posts is one of my all time favorites too.  It is the only time My Farmer has done a guest post for me and it is on How to Have a Happy Farm Wife: Rules of a Farmer.  There are certain times of the year on the farm when things are very busy, people are having little sleep and stress is high.  This also seems to be the time when people can get frustrated easily with one another so My Farmer wrote a little post on what he does to keep the peace at home with me.  There must be some other farmers out there looking for solutions to this time of year too!

My fourth all-time top blog post is a post I did on Spreading the Love of Reading through World Book Night and the Latimer Little Free Library.  Sadly, there is no World Book Night in the United States anymore, but there is still a huge, and growing movement to set up Little Free Libraries across the nation and world.  I truly believe that if you can instill the love of reading at a young age, it will help your children learn and do well in school, as well as, it can be a life-long past-time and hobby.

My fifth all-time top blog post is a post I did on Farming - A Family Tradition.  I think it is so special that My Farmer and I both are 5th generation farmers and we are currently raising the 6th generation on our farm.  We feel honored and privileged to be carrying on our family's legacy.

What is your favorite blog post from 2015?  Are there any top blog posts that made the list that intrigue you?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!  Today is the last day to comment to help the North Iowa Christmas Cheer Fund!

Country Fair Blog Party: Think Spring

How in the world is it April 1st already???  The last couple of weeks have flown by for our family doing extracurriculars outside of the farm.  I think everyone knows once April arrives we'll be spending long days in the field and won't be venturing too far from home.  Before I start talking too much about how Spring Fever has hit our home, I want to share some of my favorite March Madness posts from last month's blog party!

It is always hard to pick a favorite recipe each month, but I decided to go with Tip Garden's Monkey Butter!  This tropical jam with bananas, pineapple, and coconut just screams sunshine to me - just what I think we all needed to make it through March...  My kids love jelly (not peanut butter and jelly - just jelly) sandwiches, so this jam was a special sweet treat to try.

Another thing I was looking for during our March Madness blog hop was anything to help me get my garden ready.  I really appreciated Farm Fit Mama's How to Test for Healthy Soil.  I take soil samples in our fields all the time but have never thought about checking my garden's soil.  This is such an easy thing you can do that hopefully will give you some insight on your garden.

I always learn so many new things through the Country Fair Blog Party and March's didn't disappoint.  The Old Trodden Lane had a whole series on Sugaring.  I really liked their How to Collect Sap post.  Up till this point the most information I knew about sugaring I learned from Curious George...  Hey!  I'm a mom of three kids ages 4 and under - it is a miracle I get to watch anything but Curious George some days!  And after reading Jabe's series I was made aware of a sugaring festival in our area and of some people in my community that collect sap.  The series was very interesting and educational!

I can't wait to see what great posts get linked up this month as we Think Spring!  Throughout the month of April we are looking for your posts that have anything to do with Springtime - from spring cleaning, to gardening, to spring recipes or crafts.  Anything to help you make it through Springtime is welcomed!

This blog hop is a great opportunity to check out new blogs, and if you blog yourself, have your posts reach a new audience.  Bloggers, feel free to link up to 3 posts this month and be sure to visit some other party goers and let them know you are stopping by through the Country Fair Blog Party.


Also, be sure to visit my fellow co-hosts:
Belong with Wildflowers
Country LINKed
Dirt Road Charm
High Heels and Shotgun Shells
Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom
This Uncharted Rhoade
Tip Garden

We're excited to see everything you share this month!  What new blog did you discover through this month's Country Fair Blog Party?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

An InLinkz Link-up

2014 Top Blog Posts

Happy New Year's Eve!  I thought today would be a great day to reflect on the past year by sharing my top blog posts from 2014.  It is fun to see what posts drew the most readers.  It also helps me see what my readers enjoy the most.  So without further ado, here are my top 10 posts from 2014:

1.  5 Easy Ways To Teach Your Toddler Their ABCs and 123s - The response I have received from this post has been unbelievable.  I've had a lot of people find this post through Pinterest.  I love having "learning time" at home with my kids and I hope other parents have enjoyed these simple ideas on how to teach their kids the alphabet and numbers.

2.  Spreading the Love of Reading - This post is about my participation in World Book Night.  This was a great program that I have been apart of the last three years, that through thousands of volunteers, passed out over a million and half books throughout the United States.  Sadly, given financial and time commitment from publishers, writers, givers, booksellers, printers, distributors, shippers, etc. the program will no longer be operational in 2015.  It is disappointing to see such a unique program go away that emphasized spreading the love of reading to non-readers.

3.  June Comments for a Cause - La Luz Hispana - This year I started a Comments for a Cause program on my blog and I'm happy to say that one of my posts talking about Comments for a Cause made the Top 10.  I loved how my local community rallied around supporting my Comments for a Cause effort for La Luz Hispana.  June was my biggest month for comments this year.

4.  Mommy Monday - Nuby Mommy Review: Oral Care Set - It is fun to see some of my review posts in my top read blog posts of the year.  This Oral Care Set from Nuby is actually one of my favorite products I have received from them.

5. Curious George Birthday Party - I love entertaining and I love to do things for my family, so when my kids have a birthday, let's just say I like to have fun!  This year LP chose Curious George as his birthday theme.  The birthday party was simple and fun and I'm still proud of my Curious George cake I made!

6.  Wordless Wednesday - Signs that Spring FINALLY arrived! - I think it is nice that my readers like the simplicity of a Wordless Wednesday post to make the Top 10 this year.  This post just reminds me how late and long this year's planting season was.

7.  Valentine's Day Meal Plan - Fried Pickles, Greek Steak & Greek Spaghetti, and Chocolate Melting Cake - mmm!  I could go for all of them tonight actually...  I love all the memories and feelings associated with these dishes and am happy to share the recipes for them through this blog post!

8.  Little Free Library Coming to Latimer - One of my favorite projects that I worked on this year was bringing a Little Free Library to my local community.  I love how the entire community rallied around the effort and really has made our Little Free Library space an inviting and welcoming area in downtown.  Thanks to Post Cereal for providing this opportunity to me and my local community.

9.  Family Summer Bucket List - I have enjoyed putting together bucket lists for my family over the last couple of years and sharing them on my blog.  I think my favorite thing we did this year was go on an Iowa Ice Cream Trip throughout the month of June in honor of National Dairy Month!

10.  Something Sweet in Honor of Six Sweet Years of Marriage - In January of 2014 My Farmer and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, as well as being together for ten years!  In honor of our anniversary I shared my recipe for Chocolate Melting Cake - a cake we fell in love with on our honeymoon and make every year to celebrate our anniversary.




What a great mix of posts from 2014 to make my Top 10 most read posts!  Thank you all for reading along throughout the year.  What was your favorite post from this year?  Is there a post from this year's Top 10 that you missed that you're going to be sure to check out now?  What types of posts would you like to see more of in 2015?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Top 13 of 2013

It is always fun to look back and reflect on the year on New Year's Eve, as well as make goals for the future.  I have been blogging for two years now and can't believe the amount of connections and friendships I have made along this journey.  I thought a great way to look back over the year would be to see what my top 13 blog posts from this year were.  So without further ado, here they are:

1. Farming - A Family Tradition
2. So God Made A Farmer
3. Developing Your Pinterest Potential
4. LP's 2nd Birthday Train Party
5. Breakfast Battle Celebrates National Food Check-Out Week
6. A Double Dose of Food
7. What's Your 50?
8. Taking an Inside Look at Animal Agriculture
9. 2013 Family Fall Fun Bucket List
10. Moving Up Monday
11. Only in Iowa...
12. Mommy Monday - Nuby Mommy Review: Fun Drinking Cups
13. Wordless Wednesday: Don't Worry - Be Happy!

I love how this group of posts really show all the aspects of my blog.  It has been a great year and I can't wait for 2014.  Happy New Year and be sure to check out my blog tomorrow for my New Year Goals!

Liebster Award 2.0

Last week I was honored to be nominated for the Liebster Award!

So what is the Liebster Award?  Well, it really isn't an award, it's more of a recognition from a fellow blogger (in my case Country Bunkin Mama).  Liebster means dearest or lovely in German.  This award is a great way to discover new blogs.  As a recipient of the award I must:

• Link back to the blog that nominated me
• Answer the questions posed by my nominator
• Share 11 random facts about myself
• Nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers on Google Friend Connect, or Networked Blogs, or Google +, or Pinterest, or less than 200 likes on Facebook
• Also eligible are bloggers who have less than 200 posts
• Also eligible are bloggers who have been blogging for less than 2 years
• Share my preferred way for readers to follow my blog
• Create 11 questions for my nominees to answer
• Contact my nominees

So here it goes...

Questions from Country Bunkin Mama:

1. As a kid what did you do that got you in trouble?  I would have to say the biggest trouble I got into growing up was for drinking underage in high school.
2. What do you miss about being a kid?  Being able to just live and enjoy life and not worry about obligations, bills, etc.
3. What is your first memory of being excited?  My memory is failing me right now but probably going to school.
4. What was the first thing you bought with your own money?  Clothes.  My parents put my sisters and I on clothing allowances when I was in second grade.
5. What story does your family always tell you?  Lately I've been hearing stories about when I had new baby sisters come home from the hospital or how we played when I had baby siblings.  The best is once after arriving home from grocery shopping my Mom ran inside with the first round of frozen and refrigerated food and told my sisters and I to wait in the car.  When she got back to the car she saw me carrying my youngest sister out of the car (who was a couple months old at the time) by her head/neck and I told my Mom that the baby needed her.  She calmly said - yes, the baby does need me.  She said it was hard to not freak out when she saw me and my sister but knew it'd be best if she calmly approached me.
6. If you were to turn on your most used music device right now what genre of music would be playing?  Does AM Talk count???  If I'm actually listening to music, I listen to country music primarily.
7. Are you a night owl or a morning dove?  Can I say both?  I'd prefer to be more of a morning dove because it is a great way to start the day and I'm a lot more productive in the morning then I am at night.
8. If you could travel in time just once, what year would you travel to?  I think it'd be fun to experience the roaring '20s.
9. What is your favorite board game or card game?  Black jack.
10. Traveling only by car where is your favorite road trip destination?  Yellowstone.
11. What is your favorite social media platform?  I probably use Facebook the most but I enjoy Twitter, Pinterest and of course Blogging!

11 Random Facts About Myself:

1. I am the oldest of three sisters.
2. When my sisters and I were younger and played "jobs" they were a teacher and a veterinarian, I was the person who weighed trucks at the grain elevator.
3. I played the trombone in band in middle school and high school.
4. I have a scar on my back from falling down the stairs as a kid.
5. My husband was the first guy I ever said "I love you" to.
6. My husband and I started dating our freshman year in college but discovered we had been at the same place at the same time many times before college, the earliest realization being a honor band in 5th grade.
7. I have really bad eyesight - without my contacts or glasses I couldn't see the big "E" on the eye chart.
8. I don't drink coffee.
9. I consider myself to be a strong Christian with solid moral convictions.
10. I prefer to have as little email as possible in my inbox but over the course of the last couple of months I have gotten behind and have over 100 emails sitting in my inbox - I feel so behind!
11. I have a collection of aprons that I both use and display in my kitchen (every apron has been worn at least once).

My Nominees Are:

1. Prairie Princess
2. Stories of a First Generation Farm Wife
3. [j.l.d.] Photograph
4. COUNTRY LINKed
5. FenceRow to FenceRow
6. The Udder Side
7. Full Her Life
8. Suzanne's CommonGround
9. Adventures of a Semper Fi Family
10. Adventures in Mommyhood
11. Marvelous Mommy

Preferred Way To Follow Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids:

I prefer readers to follow my blog two different ways - facebook or bloglovin'.  

My blog's facebook page not only includes blog updates, but also includes extra photos and questions for readers' to answer.  I love how starting my facebook page just four month ago how much I've been able to interact with readers as well as gain new followers!

My preferred way of catching up on blogs is bloglovin' and I encourage all of you to start a bloglovin' account to keep up with all the blogs you follow.  I use to use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs but that program is actually shutting down on Monday.  Learn more by checking out my post on making the switch to bloglovin'.

Questions for my Nominees:

1. Are you a night owl or a morning dove?
2. What is the first thing you think about or do in the morning?
3. What is the last thing you think about or do before you go to bed?
4. What is your favorite childhood memory?
5. Do you look more like your father or your mother?
6. Do you have any pets?
7. What is your favorite social media platform?
8. What is your favorite food?
9. If you were to turn on the radio right now, what station or type of music would the radio be turned to?
10. What do you wish you had more time to do?
11. What are you looking forward to the most this summer?

A Quick Blogging Brief

And now, a quick blogging brief from our sponsors...

Or should I say from the writer or owner or I don't know - it's from me!  So, I wanted to let you all know that I've done two updates to my blog lately.

• First, all comments will now need to correctly type a "word verification" before the comments will be posted.  I hate having to do this but I have been receiving a lot of spam comments lately, which then makes me go into my blog and delete them, which then made me accidently delete some actual user/friend/follower comments.  Like I said, I hate to do this, but the amount of spam I have been receiving lately has been driving me crazy and this is one of the easiest ways I figure I can keep my sanity!  I hope you all understand.  Please keep posting comments - I love hearing from my readers!

• Second, for those that use Google Reader to read blogs, you probably have heard or seen that Google Reader is shutting down July 1st.  I even noticed today that Google took the Reader link off its top menu bar.  I loved using Reader to keep up to date on all the blogs I follow, so with the news of Reader going away I searched for a replacement and I have decided to go with Bloglovin.  First, it is easy to transfer your Reader list to Bloglovin.  Second, Bloglovin has easy tools to categorize your blogs that you follow and I love how you can look at similar blogs to those that you already follow if you're looking at expanding your blog network.  Here is the direct link to my blog!

Thank you all for going through these changes with me.  I hope this "quick blogging brief" is helpful for all of you!

Like My Facebook Page!

Yesterday was LP's 2nd Birthday and both My Farmer and I were commenting that we weren't sure if it wore out him or us more.  Needless to say I haven't done too much today but clean-up post-party, play with new birthday gifts and I started a Facebook page for my blog.  Please go and "Like" my blog's page!  Also be sure to keep checking my blog for a birthday party post and a post from the AgChat Foundation Regional Conference I attended this past weekend.

2013 Blog Goals

Besides my New Year Resolutions, I have also decided to create some blog goals.  I hope these things will make me not only a better blogger, but that it will also build my audience and outreach.

1. Blog Regularly.  Last year I set a goal of blogging at least three times a week.  I am going to work towards that goal again this year.
2. Promote More Through Social Media.  This year I'm going to look into sharing my blog through more social media avenues and on a more regular basis.  Currently I send out one tweet and one Facebook post per blog post.  In 2013, I'd like to experiment with tweeting posts out more than once, possibly creating a Facebook page for my blog, look into utilizing Pinterest more, and share on LinkedIn when appropriate.
3. Comment On Other Blogs.  This year I am going to make a goal of commenting on three blogs per week, including commenting on a new blog once a month.  
4. Enhance SEO.  In February I will be attending the regional Ag Chat Foundation conference in Rochester, Minnesota.  One of the break-out sessions I'm looking forward to the most is tips on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  I know this is something I need to work on for my blog.
5. Utilize Followers.  This year I want to explore ways of utilizing my followers.  This could mean having guest bloggers, or guest blogging myself on others' blogs.

Here's to a great year of blogging!  Do you blog?  What are your goals for this year?

Me with Darcy Maulsby and Heather Lilienthal at the #140ConfAgIowa
Some great #AgNerd friends I have gained through blogging

2012 Blog Year In Review

Well, I have officially finished my first year of blogging.  At times I didn't blog as much as I wanted to or blog about different events and topics that I wanted to, but in the end I'm very happy with what I have accomplished.  I have really enjoyed blogging this year and look forward to the New Year of blogging.

I want to say thank you to everyone that has followed my blog over the past year.  It has been great connecting with family and friends, as well as new friends I have made from across the country through this experience.  I hope to expand my network of followers in the new year by having content worthy blogging that attracts a variety of viewers.

I got an idea from "From small-town Iowa girl, to big-city Ag lawyer" (@eburnsthompson) to share my "Year in Review" statistics from my blog.  In 2012 I found the time to put together 122 posts for this blog, that got 16,537 views from 10 different countries.  The most popular posts for the year included:

1. Rules of a Farm Wife (Spring Edition)
2. Rules of a Farmer (How to Have a Happy Farm Wife)
3. Cy's Cook Off - Cardinal & Gold Cream Cheese Burger
4. My 100th Blog Post!!!
5. When Life Makes You Slow Down

Thanks again for your support this past year during my first year of blogging.  May you and your family have a blessed New Year!

Blog Photos Are Back!

Some of you may have noticed that my last blog post had no photos on it.  Well this was due to me running out of free photo space on my blog.  (I didn't even know there was photo limit space for a blog!)  Well I decided I wasn't going to take the easy way out and just buy extra photo space - I was going to find a way to continue sharing photos for free!  So I contacted some social media friends and received a link to this great website about using photo sharing sites to embed photos in your blog from Judi Graff.  Thank you Judi for all your help!  I now am using Photobucket and once again have photos for my blog once again!

Be sure to check out my updated Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap-up post now with photos!  Photos just help tell the story so much more.  Here is one of my favorite photos from the post.  It is of My Farmer blowing up a pumpkin with tannerite in it.  I was happy I caught the photo just at the right time and was able to get an action shot of the pumpkin blowing up!