Blogging year in review & favourite posts of 2016

A hat tip to Mali, whose post "2016: Looking back on the blog" inspired this one. Also to Mel, whose Crème de la Crème lists from 2007 to 2012 prompted me & other bloggers to review our posts from the year past & pick out our favourites to share.  (There was a list in 2006 too, but that was before I started my blog.)  If the Crème de la Crème list still existed, one of these posts would probably be the one I would have submitted. :)

(I've gone back through the posts I submitted for Mel's lists and tagged them all as "Crème de la Crème picks" so that you (& I!) have an easy way to find them all. However -- in trying to tag my posts, I somehow seem to have deleted my 2012 list pick -- which was titled "I am childless, hear me roar" from May 2012 -- along with all the wonderful comments. :(  :(  :(  It was one of my all-time favourite posts.  And no, I have not backed up my blog. :(  (New Year's resolution for 2017!)  Any idea if/how I can get it back?? :(  ) (I know, not likely...!) :(

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As I mentioned in my year in review post, I published 133 posts in 2016.  In addition to posts about childless/free issues, I tried to do a "Right now" or "The Current" post every month or so, and participated in 43 out of 52 #MicroblogMondays (hmmm, I thought I did better than that...).  I reviewed 21 of the 24 of the books I read in 2016 (the last 3 will be coming shortly), and wrote about news items (usually ALI-related) that piqued my interest.  I also wrote a lot about what was going on my life, some of which touched on aspects of ALI/childless/free living and some that didn't, including aging, (peri)menopause (and Aunt Flo's continuing appearances!), official retirement, moving, downsizing and life in a condo.

Here are a few of my favourite 2016 posts (going back from newest to oldest):

• It came, just the same, about my not-quite-the-same-as-usual Christmas, and how Christmas can still be enjoyed even if it's not perfect or what you expected.
• Childless/Condo Halloween, reflecting on Halloweens past & present.
• Survivor?  Are those of us who have experienced pregnancy loss survivors?
• The power of awareness & education (i.e., about infertility & pregnancy loss).
• 31 -- using my wedding anniversary to look back on the highs and lows of a turbulent year.
• Fifteen years (!) on this road less travelled -- reflecting on both my personal journey and the growth of the childless/free community in the 15 years since I stopped infertility treatments.
• Parenting transitions -- a #MicroblogMondays post about being a parent to a dead child, and how that relationship has evolved over the years.
• Pregnancy loss = disability? -- Is pregnancy loss a disability? (An Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruled yes!)
• Tick, tock... -- in which I pass along a family heirloom that I had hoped would go to my own child(ren).
• Condo conundrum, continued -- in which I wrestle with the decision to sell our house and move into a condo.