2022: My year in numbers

13 Zooms, 1 dog, 12 trips and much more.

If there’s one thing I love, it’s data. But when I look back on the year, the things I’ve done and experienced don’t always fit neatly into an Excel column — especially since there are so many facets to anyone’s life. As I wrote last year, I’m not just a writer, I’m also a mom, a pet owner, a communications professional, an Etsy seller and lots of other things, as we all are. So my look back at 2022 is an attempt to encompass many if not all of those facets.

13 Zoom interviews

I am incredibly grateful that so many wonderful authors have been kind and gracious enough to speak with me this year for this newsletter. I absolutely love doing interviews, and it’s been a delight getting to know some new authors and to see more amazing work from others I was already rooting for. If you’re writing interesting things about raising kids and/or school, I hope you’ll be in touch — I’d love to interview you next! You can read my Author Q&A archive here, or listen to these interviews as podcasts here or wherever you get your podcasts.

324% subscriber growth

I always feel weird talking about numbers, because mine are still very small! But I do feel proud of the fact that I have been able to grow this little newsletter into something just a bit bigger during 2022. A large part of that was due to my acceptance into the Substack Grow workshop, which was a lot of fun and hugely helpful for me as someone new to this platform. I met a lot of great writers and really enjoyed taking part in the program. I also tremendously appreciate the fact that other Substack writers have recommended this newsletter to their readers — it means a lot! Thanks to everyone who’s followed me this year and I hope you’ll stay with me in 2023.

1 dog

We tried to add a new dog to our family in 2021, but failed, twice, so I’m extremely happy to report that Lady Bird Johnson Popek joined our household in February 2022. I love her more than I ever thought it would be possible to love an animal? She is amazing and perfect in every way and I’m so glad we found her. I’m really hoping to start volunteering at my local animal shelter in 2023 as a way to give back, but also as an excuse to pet more dogs. If you are able to help your local shelters, I hope you will! A lot of animal rescue operations are struggling right now.

12 trips

As exciting as it was to add a new pet to our household, that also meant more trips to the vet than ever — especially since our ancient cat developed a serious issue with one eye and had to have surgery. The surgery itself, and his aftercare, have been challenging, especially with that cost hitting right before the holidays. If you’re able to spare a few dollars to help, I’d really appreciate it!

1 car

Have you ever impulse-bought a car? This is definitely not the first time I have, and this time it didn’t work out exactly perfectly. The less said about that experience, the better. Moving on …

3 new social media profiles

With the weird, faltering demise of Twitter, I have started dabbling in Mastodon (like it so far), Hive (makes me feel old and I don’t even know how to link my profile, helppp) and Post (haven’t figured it out yet). Starting out on a new social platform always makes me feel like it’s the first day at a new school. I usually have a mini identity crisis and freak out a little bit. But it’s also kind of fun and exciting to explore a new network and watch to see what happens. If you’re on any of these networks, please come find me so we can sit together at lunch.

73 items

This year marked my 10th anniversary as an Etsy seller! It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. Etsy continues to be a side-side-hustle, something I do just around the edges of the rest of my life, but I still love buying and selling vintage clothes and I don’t know if I will ever stop entirely. I hope you’ll check out my shop, and if you see anything you like, please message me for a discount code!

1 accreditation

After months of study and preparation, I earned my Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) in September. To earn my APR, I completed a two-step process designed to evaluate my knowledge, skills and abilities as a communications professional, which included a panel presentation and a 132-question examination. I’m really proud of myself for following through and earning this accreditation! I kind of want to get IAAP certification in accessibility core competencies next, but we’ll see about that.

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Most of all, I’m so grateful to continue to have the chance to write and share this newsletter with all of you, and I wish you a wonderful new year! Your support is the greatest gift of all. :)