2020 Blogging Year in Review

(A hat tip to Mali, whose post "2016: Looking back on the blog" has inspired me to do the same for the past several years. 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. :) ) 

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2020 has been my BEST blogging year ever, in terms of numbers of posts! -- 196 (197, including this one)!  -- just under 200 posts!!  :) That's an average of about 16 posts per month -- or a post every 1-2 days.  My least-chatty month was February, when I posted 9 times;  my most verbose was August, with 21 posts. Not bad, after 13 years of blogging!  (By comparison, my next-most prolific blogging year was 12 years ago in 2008 -- my first full year of blogging -- when I logged 172 posts.) 

In addition to posts about or related to childless/free issues or other adoption/loss/infertility issues, I tried to do a "Right now" or "The Current" post at the beginning of each month, and participated in 48 #MicroblogMondays.  I reviewed all 43 books that I read in 2020, and wrote about news items (usually ALI-related) that piqued my interest. I also wrote a lot about other things going on in my life, including aging, (peri)menopause, retirement and condo living. 

And, needless to say, the global COVID-19 pandemic provided PLENTY of fodder for blogging this year!! In fact, I daresay that COVID-19 made the difference for me, in terms of posting! (one good thing to come out of this crazy year?!). 

Here are a few of my favourite/noteworthy posts from 2020, in more or less chronological order (from oldest/earliest in 2020 to most recent):

• "The Cycle Continues..." -- Sometimes it's worth investigating and getting the full story before you get your shorts in a knot...!  ;) 
• #MicroblogMondays: Sick :(  -- Spoiler alert: I wasn't. At least, it wasn't COVID-19, as I feared. (I think. I didn't get tested.) But this post offers a slice-of-life look at the early days of the pandemic in Canada (complete with photo of empty supermarket shelves). 
• "Quarantined without kids, how is it?" (Seriously??!) -- A silly pronatalist meme from social media raises my childless/free hackles...! 
• A not-so-fond farewell :) -- ..to Aunt Flo (i.e., the onset of official menopause!!). 
• Things I'm missing -- (And this was written just a month into the pandemic!). 
• Things I’ve learned (so far) while self-isolating
• Is it over yet? -- Reminders (that I didn't need) of That Day in May That Shall Not Be Named. 
• Pronatalism and D&I messaging -- Yet another example of how childless/free employees are overlooked by their companies' HR diversity & inclusion policies and messages -- particularly during this pandemic. 
• Reflections on my COVID-19 experience (so far) 
• Watching, listening & learning -- Reflections on racism, post-George Floyd. 
• Move over, moms -- bring on the Auntifa ;) -- The childless/free response to Portland's "Wall of Moms." 
• "A sainthood not extended... virtue (not) bestowed" -- More on Portland's "Wall of Moms" and what it says about America's attitudes towards motherhood -- and those of us who aren't mothers. 
• "Coming out" as childless/free -- What does it mean? 
• The ties that bind (or not) -- It's not possible (or always desirable) to maintain close relationships with people from our past. 
• Yes, we can! -- Don't let parents & families monopolize all the fun. ;)