.jpg)
- I KNOW – I KNOW – this is A LOT of stuffed animals.
An EMBARRASSING amount.
(How do we have SO MANY stuffed animals? I promise, we’re not hoarders.)
Listen: I was not planning on taking this photo this week – it wasn’t even on my radar. But due to a set of circumstances (it’s a long story), we realized that we were WAY over our heads (literally) in stuffed animals and I told the kids it was time to get rid of some (okay, more than “some”).
So Braelynn and Leander piled ALL of the stuffed animals in Braelynn’s room – and I decided that before we “thinned the herd” that we needed to take a photo.
Thus – here we are.
Don’t worry: we DRASTICALLY eliminated stuffed animals. We took FOUR packed-to-the-brim garbage bags to Goodwill.
To be honest: I think it was harder on me than on the kids – I may (or may not – who knows?) went upstairs to the 3rd floor and cried afterward.
It’s just: Braelynn has been “collecting” stuffies since she was a tiny tiny girl. Pretty much every single stuffed animal she has ever owned, went through a period of it being “her favorite”. She has played with each of these extensively. She obviously has her super favorites, but each stuffed animal in this photo has been severely loved at one point or another. So, there are a lot of memories tied up in these stuffies – as silly as that might be.
PHEW! Okay! We no longer own 10,000 stuffies – they’ve been donated and we’re moving on! - But yes, I have taken “this” photo before – you can go back and see past renditions here: Abby’s Saturday #61, Abby’s Saturday #114, & Abby’s Saturday #238
- Let’s stop talking about stuffed animals because I’m beginning to feel uncomfortable:
I hate Daylight Savings Time (I hate switching the clocks in general). It’s 2023 for cryin’ out loud. Changing the clocks back and forth every few months feels archaic – right? Like, this is some ancient weird thing our ancestors did that we talk about in the same vein as cassette tapes. Why are we still doing this?! (I know why, and I understand the reasoning, but still: WHY?) Needless to say, it’s been a rough week. Everyone has been tired, everyone has been grumpy, no one has gotten good, solid sleep – it’s the worst.
Thankfully, the week is over and I think we’re all finally coming out of the adjustment period.
But still, can we just stop this already? - It’s been cold this week (no 70º days), but it’s been fairly sunny – which has prompted Leander to get this idea in his head that it was time to get our swimming pool out. He must have seen a photo or video somewhere along the line that sparked this idea in his brain, because for some reason, he has become absolutely permanently attached to this idea that it’s sunny – therefore it’s warm – therefore it’s summer – therefore it’s time to get the swimming pool out. He has asked about 13 BILLION times if it’s time to get the pool out (I’m not exaggerating.)
- On Monday was my niece, Layla’s, birthday. So we went over to her house to play and then out to lunch with them to celebrate. She’s stuck in “wanna-be-summer” mode too, because all she requested for her birthday was to go to the park (and it was FREEZING on Monday!) On Thursday, the temps reached a “delightful” upper 40’s, so we went to the park. The sunshine made it feel nice, but the wind made my ears hurt. It was still so nice to get out of the house & out into some fresh air!
- Tuesday was my favorite day of the month: our monthly small-business-entrepreneur-hangout meeting that my friend Tiffany and I run! Our group has been moving through a transition period over the last few months (and a few more changes are coming on the horizon) – but the heart and soul of our group remains the same. We are a place where small creative business owners gather to encourage and help each other – that’s it. And we love it and our people!
Anyways – we were talking about SEO (search engine optimization) this month, and someone had shared about their most viewed blog post and their most viewed photo. This got me curious, and I decided to come home to look up what my most viewed blog posts and most viewed photos were. I figured this was metric I would be able to easily find on my Google Analytics. So, I logged in, and guess what? My Google Analytics was GONE. My site has not recorded any data to Google Analytics in – forever? I don’t know. My best guess is that a few years ago, when I was re-building my website, that I accidentally disconnected the plugin for it (unknowingly) and I just never re-connected it. So, I have zero data as far as my website goes.
So, that was a fun discovery. There’s just always SOMETHING when your’e a small business owner! You might think you’re on top of everything and have all of your ducks in a row, but then something comes along and you realize you’ve lost some ducks along the way.
(I still have data and metrics to my website because I have another plugin that counts those things, plus I have a Google Business account that gives me partial data every month, but I wasn’t getting the full, big picture that Google Analytics gives. And, it didn’t matter because I wasn’t analyzing it, I just assumed it was running in the background. Oops.)
