The problem with taking the week after Christmas off (although I did pop in on Thursday and Friday) is that you miss blogging about all those end of the year things. The reflections and thoughts. The challenges made and missed. So today, in the interest of staying current while also moving ahead, I’m going to do a little recap.
- First, I’m showing you my Instagram Top 9. That’s it up there. My most popular picture was the one of Dale right after he got home from the hospital, asleep on the couch with Jackie’s giraffe. His storm trooper boot ranked high, as well, as did lobster rolls on his birthday. It was quite a year and I must say I’m very glad the photo of all 4 of our kids together made the top nine because that was definitely a highlight of 2020 for me despite the reason for the gathering.
- Second, I’m telling you that I listened to 18,048 minutes of music on Spotify. Is that a lot? It seems like a lot to me but I don’t really have anything to compare it to. The song I listened to the most was The Weight by The Band. That didn’t surprise me, it’s a favorite of mine and Dale’s. Also in the top 5: Perfect by Ed Sheeran, Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show, February Seven by The Avett Brothers, and Coal Miner’s Daughter by Loretta Lynn. The last song on the list was How Far I’ll Go from Moana. I’d like to blame Jackie for that one but it’s all me. It’s an eclectic list with everything from Beyonce to Coldplay to Lady Gaga to Dolly Parton. It’s also heavily influenced by the amount of music I listen to when I’m with Dale. I’m going to make a point to expand our musical horizons this year if I can.
- Finally, I’m sharing that I met my Good Reads challenge and finished 75 books in 2020. I made it by the skin of my teeth this time, finishing book #75 on New Year’s Eve Day. Whew! I’ve blogged about books all year and I’ll update you on the ones I’ve finished since my last update, but for a quick recap, those 75 books equaled 23,249 pages. The shortest book was Grief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter at 114 pages and the longest was Cape Cod by William Martin at 713 pages. The average number of pages per book was 309. You can see all the stats and titles I read by clicking on My Year In Books
Hmmm. A list of 3 things. Maybe I should have saved this for Thursday? Too late, it’s done and I don’t have the gumption after so many days off to come up with a different topic for today.
Happy first Monday in 2021, friends!
The Weight is such a great song! Welcome back.
It’s only fitting that Dale should be featured so much in your Top Nine! We were all relieved that things turned out as well as they did and I know you and your family felt that even more so. That does sound like a lot of music, but I also don’t have anything to compare to. And hooray for finishing your book challenge that was a challenge (but well met)!
Great post and welcome back!
Hope you had a great break, Carole. Welcome back to the real world. These days you are going to have to listen to a lot of music to drown out the disturbing and ridiculous news. Keep listening. It was a very traumatic year at your house, but now it’s over, and we are all so glad that your household is somewhat back to normal.
I am in awe of your music numbers… wow! (and I like your idea for adding in some new things this year! We talked about that too!) Welcome back!
Hope you enjoyed your break. I took last week off also. It was nice to just be home with no work from home to do.
What a great post for your first “official” day back 🙂
I’m thinking you’ll come up with an equally entertaining list for Thursday! 🙂
XO