Blog Planner Series {Statistics}

Welcome back to the Blog Planner Series! Hope this little series is a help to you bloggers... Today's post is all about statistics. Confession: I didn't keep track of any statistics until January... And I've gradually added things to keep track of since. I don't really offer advertising yet, so it's not as pressing to keep track of numbers yet... But one day it might be a help. If nothing else, I like knowing how my blog is doing.

For instance, I hit the 30,000 pageviews mark on February 27th...

And the 50,00 pageviews mark on May 1st...

And now I have it all recorded in my little planner...

This printable will allow you to track your followers, daily page views, Facebook fans, and Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Bloglovin', and email followers. If you would like me to change or remove one or two social media outlets, email me and I'll see what I can do.

Here's my statistic printable in action...

You can download the Statistics Calendar here. The picture below is only one month - and it'll be grainy... Be sure to click the link if you want to download the Statistics Calendar! Next week I'll be sharing my End of Month Statistics printable... It's been a great way to see the growth on a monthly basis.

Hope this has been a help to you bloggers... If so, be sure to pin it or share with others {just be sure to link back!}. Bloggers - do you keep track of your statistics?

Here are the different posts in this series...

{Intro}

{Post Calendar}

{Statistics - You're Here}

{End of Month Statistics}

{Daily To-Do List}

{Blogging Contacts}

{Link Party Tracker}

You might find me linking up

at some of these great parties!

Meal Plan Mondays {Week 14}

Happy Monday, friends! Hope you're having a great day so far... We sure are! Mondays are my husband's day off, so we usually just take it easy. He's working on the car right now, so I thought I'd pop in and share our meal plan for the week.

I think this week will be fairly "normal" for us, so maybe that'll mean we'll stick to the meal plan! If not, no big deal... I'll just switch it with another meal in our this month's meal plan! Yes, you read that right - I plan for a whole month at a time. I've been doing this and once a month grocery shopping for over a year, and it seems to save us money. {We do make a second or third trip for fresh produce or dairy.} If you've got any questions about how we make all this work, you can email me or leave a comment - I do read every one!

Here's what was on last week's menu:

Sunday: Chicken Enchilada Soup
     What We Really Had: Taco Style Stuffed Shells

Monday: Breakfast*

Tuesday: Homemade Pizza
     What We Really Had: Sweet & Sour Meatballs

Wednesday: Beans, Potatoes, and Cornbread

Thursday: Cheesy Potato Soup

Friday: Taco Pie
     What We Really Had: Hamburgers

Saturday: Grilled Chicken Wraps
     What We Really Had: Leftovers

Here's what's on this weeks menu:

Sunday: Pastor's Luncheon @ Church

Monday: Taco Pie

Tuesday: Homemade Pizza

Wednesday: Beans, Potatoes, and Cornbread

Thursday: Dinosaur Eggs

Friday: Chicken Enchiladas

Saturday: Cornflake Chicken

* Funny story about breakfast for dinner last Monday. We haven't had bacon in quite some time - it's kind of a special treat. On Monday we were out and about and ended up near the local store we buy our meat from, so I suggested we buy some bacon - this month we had a little extra left in our grocery budget. We walked in and picked out some bacon from the freezer section before realizing we could have fresh bacon from the butcher. The frozen bacon was sixty cents cheaper per pound, and we decided to save our pennies. When we got home, Caleb started cooking the bacon - I'm not the best of bacon cookers... After it cooked for a few minutes, he turned it only to realize that it didn't look like bacon. He tasted it and it tasted like a plain ol' pork chop... He called the store to see if it had gone bad somehow, and that's when we discovered there is a difference between uncured bacon and real bacon. Oh, well... Now we know the difference - and we have something to giggle about from our Monday adventures...

Alrighty, friends... There you have it. Hope you have a great week!

You might find me linking up @

some of these great parties!

Snapshot Saturday #24

Happy Saturday, y'all! Actually, by the time you read this, it may be Sunday - so happy Sunday! It's late, but I really wanted to post these pictures. Today was a SUPER productive day for me - and I'm so thankful for it! That's beside the point - so let's get to what's important {and why you're here!}... Pictures!

05.12.13 - I'm writing through the book of Ephesians, and Ephesians 2:8-9 were quite a little blessing to me last Sunday morning.

05.12.13 - Didn't get to spend Mother's Day with my mama this year, but I sure love her! This picture was from her visit to Oregon in 2011.

05.13.13 - Took this picture of my rose Monday morning... They're so pretty this year. I wish I could freeze them! I need to do some work in the flower bed, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow or Monday.

05.13.13 - Caleb and I went fishing in a park on Monday - didn't catch anything, but these little ducklings were too cute!

05.13.13 - Love these flowers...

05.13.13 - We were trying to sunbathe... But the sun didn't know that! It did finally come out, but the clouds were fun too!

05.13.13 - Just because... Love my man!

05.13.13 - We ended up at the library - and Caleb started looking through dog books. We're not getting this one, but boy, it's kinda cool!

05.14.13 - My friend's daughter needed to do some standardized testing on Tuesday, so I took her... She tested quickly and Olive Garden wasn't open yet, so we stopped by the pet store and had a little fun.

05.14.13 - Parakeets are kinda cool... If we were bird people, we'd totally have some!

05.14.13 - My lilies haven't bloomed yet, but I love how this shot turned out!

05.14.13 - Caleb and I think these little guys are so cool - not sure what they are, but they're neat! Just like the last picture, I just think God's creation is so beautiful!

05.16.13 - Our little garden has started growing... On top are my green beans, in the middle is spinach, and lettuce is on the bottom. Can't wait to eat it!

05.16.13 - I couldn't wait for our sewing get together to get busy making this month's project... This was the best one so far!

05.16.13 - Finished the outside...

05.16.13 - Time for a flower break... We wen't soul-winning on Thursday night and when we got home, I spotted these beauties!

05.16.13 - Came back inside and finished my bag! SOOO happy with how it turned out! It's sturdy, cute, and it was super easy to make!

05.17.13 - Caleb needed to see about getting his boots adjusted, so we had an impromptu date night. Started with two hours of reading/looking at books...

05.17.13 - Oh, and sipping coffee!

05.17.13 - Then we went to Michael's and Best Buy... Just because. The sun was setting and I thought it was cool that half the tree was bright while the bottom half was dark.

05.17.13 - Just having fun playing games at Best Buy...

05.18.13 - Today was our little sewing class... Too fun!

05.18.13 - A little closer...

05.18.13 - DONE! I'm loving how this turned out. I spent a little extra time on it, but it was worth it... I just want to make 184028 more of these bags!

05.18.13 - The bag on the left was a Christmas gift from my friend, the middle bag was the one I made today, and the bag on the right was the bag I made Thursday.

Well, there you have it... It was a full week around here - hope yours was great too!

Fishing, Gardening, and Other Random Things...

I'm warning you from the beginning - this post is completely random and there are so many pictures... Some of them have been shared before, but I wanted them all in one location. I don't share every picture I take {you'd be bored out of your mind!}; but I do want to document some of the things we've done, how our garden and flowers are growing {great for comparison in the future}, and share our little life with our family.

Our little crocus surprised us with an early bloom this year - I forgot to take a picture of all of them in full bloom, but they were pretty! {This picture is from February.}

Also from February... My rose bush began showing signs of new life!

I shared this before, but I wanted to compare it with what I have now... This picture was from a few weeks ago - when we first planted this year's flower bed.

Last Monday we went on a little fishing expedition...

One of the men in our church really enjoys fishing... When he offered to take us fishing, we were thrilled! The last time we went fishing was in 2011 when we visited Caleb's grandparents - right before our move to Oregon.

We didn't catch anything - but the view was gorgeous!

Hello, dear!

I think I could've sat on the river all day... It was peaceful and beautiful.

After our little fishing adventure, we came home and got busy. When I say we, I mean Caleb. He did so much to get our little garden ready.

Here's the garden abut a week later... 

And just for comparison - here's a picture of last year's garden... We've scaled back a little on what we planted this year - but the garden is almost twice as big! Our carrots, jalapeno, and cucumbers did poorly last year, so we've removed them and added another tomato plant as well as more green beans! We haven't decided if we want to add rocks around the garden again this year, but after seeing the comparison, I think we might just do that. Gotta talk to the hubby about it!

Back to the flowers... These pictures were taken this week.

My lilies have been the slowest little growers - but I thought this was a fun shot. Can't wait to see what they look like this year.

This has absolutely nothing do do with anything else in this post... But I came across these label maker refills last week on clearance. I don't normally buy things out of the blue, but I paid $7.00 for all six of these bad boys! If you have a label maker, you know this is a bargain! I looked at the regular prices when I was at the store - one refill was almost $7.00, and the three packs were almost $17.00! SCORE!

And just for fun... This is what happens when my husband takes over my iPad. He was bummed because the lock screen was a picture of the ocean - not of him... This makes me smile every time I see it - and not in the making fun of him kinda way... It really just makes me so thankful for him.


Well, with that, we're done. If you make it to the bottom, give yourself a high-five! I think that takes care of all the random, unshared pictures I found on my phone from the last few months... If not, we'll be back with part two next week! *Smile*

Until next time...