These review posts are fascinating to create, looking back and realizing how much happened over the last 12 months. The adventures. The fooding. The books. Before we break down the statistics {I do love a good set of statistics on occasion!}, let’s remember some highlights, shall we?
2025 At-a-Glance:
❄️ We had a surprisingly snowy-slash-icy start to the year, and then a completely unexpected dusting of snow in November! After an extremely cold December, I’ve got a feeling we may be in for more white stuff in 2026.
✨ The auroras came back, and even seeing them 3 times now, they never cease to amaze.
🐔 We added chickens in the Spring, and I have fallen in love. They’ve got such distinct personalities, and I’m already contemplating expanding the flock. #ChickenMath is real, y’all.
🍅 The garden thrived this year, and we were able to can 21 quarts of tomatoes in a span of 3 weekends. Wowza!
💐 Flower farming is officially underway, and I have loved the profusion of blooms! I’ve got big plans for the 2026 growing season.
🗺️ There were getaways taken, and a variety of AirBnBs tested. Including a stay in a Hobbit Hole!
🧶 As I got more comfortable with the crochet making my book square blanket, I started experimenting and expanding my skills. From figuring out how to crochet a chicken to designing my own blanket, it was a wonderful year of yarn and I am excited to see what I make this year.
☔ I shared the picture below on Instagram, showing off our 2025 Temperature + Precipitation chart, and decided it needed a place on the blog as well. I added all the monthly rainfall totals, and to my best measuring, we got 42.86 inches of rain {and about 2.25 inches of snow}.
It was a good year for the blog, from publishing my 200th post to starting a YouTube channel. This little corner is starting to feel like a cozy community, and I am so glad you are following along.
And of course, we can’t forget the reading! In some ways, it was a strange year for reading: some months it happened easily, others were a struggle. However, I took full advantage of the Library’s digital audio collection {as you’ll notice}, while also managing to read some of my own stash. As always, I want to do better reading my books in 2026, and I feel like nonfiction will make a comeback as well. Let’s see what the graphics have to say about 2025’s reading.
Click on individual graphs below to see full-size.
One thing I kept track of that did not make it to a chart was publication year. After seeing several bloggers share their stats, I got curious. In 2025, my reading looked like this:
- Published in 2025: 36
- Published in 2024: 15
- Published in 2023: 9
- Published 2020-2022: 10
- Published 2015-2019: 3
- Published 2010-2014: 3
- Published 2000-2009: 1
- Published 1800-1849: 5
Clearly a good deal of my reads were new releases {quite a few were ARCs}, but the majority were actually backlist titles. Barely. But it counts. This was an interesting statistic to track, but not one I’ll do all the time. In fact, what I plan to track/record for 2026 is dramatically reduced. While I love being able to see trends or tendencies with tracking all the little things, having to remember to track them takes away something from the reading – or I guess the “finished reading” – process. We’ll see how a scaled back record keeping goes.
Looking forward …
There are many things I’d like to see happen in 2026. I want to keep expanding the Recipe and/or Kitchen offerings here on the blog, especially since we’ve just added a NutriMill stone-ground mill to our operation. I also want to include more crafty/crochet updates, as I flex my creative muscles. Books, of course, will continue to be present; going back to a more streamlined reporting on Bookmarked posts, so I can feature specific books and/or reviews more prominently. And of course, I plan to continue my foray into YouTube {have you subscribed?}, but sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what sort of videos to create – so please feel free to share what you like watching.
It’s early days yet, but I have a good feeling about this year. Maybe because the brassica seeds we sowed on January 1st have sprouted and are growing happily in my living room, signaling the imminent return of Garden Life.
I hope your 2025 ended with a sense of peace and satisfaction, and that your 2026 is beginning with all the promise and hope a new year offers.
May it be a year of happy adventures, delicious eats, and the most fabulous reading.
I look forward to sharing the year with you all! 💖
