16 Years of Blogging

I just now remembered that I started this blog on December 15, 2008, 16 years this past Sunday. I can't believe it's been that long and that I'm still here! Many of my early posts were seemingly ignored, with no comments. M=y posts were often just random stuff (which I still do today). But it got better once the years went on. Now I have some regular commenters/visitors. And many blogs I read and comment on as well. Some blogs I read early on have disappeared, or are still out there but haven't been updated in years. I stopped following many of those blogs at some point. But there are many I follow now.

This soon-to-be past year, I began participating in two new-to-me blogging events. One is the Book Blogging Challenge. After years of looking at the sites that co-host this event (and perusing through some of the participants' posts), I decided to join this year.  

Since this was my first time, I aimed for the first level (see below), but as of now  have reached the third one. I plan to do at least one more post this year. It's been fun and I will join again. The sign up post at the host blogs will be up later this month.

The Levels:

1-10 – Discussion Dabbler  ⬅️ My Goal
11-20 – Creative Conversationalist
21-30 – Chatty Kathy
31-40 – Terrifically Talkative
41+ – Gift of the Gab

Another new blogging challenge I discovered this year is The Thursday 13. I found about it at the beginning of the year, but didn't begin participating until June. I've been going at since then, though I missed some weeks in September and November.  I already have my post for this week scheduled. I've even combined the Thursday 13 with the Book Discussion Challenge a few times. I like how the Thursday 13 allows bloggers to choose a topic for their posts.  Since they don't have any official graphics for Thursday 13 posts, I made one myself because I felt my posts need one. I plan to do this one again in 2025, whether or not I get to it each week.

And since 2021, I've been doing the A to Z Blogging each April. It wasn't until that year, that I got brave enough to take the plunge into this yearly challenge. I'd seen A to Z posts on there people's blogs and wondered if I would ever join them. I plan to join in 2025, if I can find a theme. I have some in mind, I just have to narrow them down by March, when the theme reveals and the signups begin. The host blog already has the theme reveal graphics for next year!

It wasn't until 2013 that I began getting into various reading challenge. I began hosting my own around 2016. For those of you who might be wondering, books can cross over between challenges.  I already have "Sunrise or sunset on the cover" twice for the coming year, for example, so I plan to use the same book for both. 

See you again in 2025.  How many years have you been on your blogs?