As the year comes to a close let’s take a gander at the top posts of 2019 here on My Joy in Chaos. I took a good portion of the year off so it was interesting to see what made the cut!
As usual, this year flew by. I remember when I decided to take a blogging hiatus in July, figuring I’d spend the summer building a new site and have it up and running by the time the kids went to school in late August. Next thing I knew it was Thanksgiving and I was finally ready. Not to mention it was just Black Friday and now we are counting down the last few days until 2020. It’s so cliche to say time flies but it really does.
I didn’t post a huge amount of new content this year because of my hiatus but I still love what I was able to publish. And apparently you as readers did as well! I want to thank each and every one of you for turning up here to read, for sharing my recipes and regular posts, and the incredibly kind messages you send. You make this journey worth the effort!
I’ve broken this post up into two sections: top posts published in 2019 and top posts in 2019. A good portion of the most visited posts is older stuff that is seeing a huge resurgence thanks to Pinterest and Google searches. It’s exciting to know my words aren’t dying out there 😉 You may have read most of these but hopefully, there will be something new for you to discover!
Top Posts Published in 2019
Bible Verses to Pray Over Your Husband
- I started this post with only a handful of verses and it bloomed into a huge list with more than 50 verses that I then turned into a free ebook. I love looking through this list and adding Micah’s name into each verse. It’s a personal way to speak God’s truth over my favorite person.
Honest Review of Kindle Unlimited
- I still love Kindle Unlimited and try to snag free or discounted memberships whenever I can. I stand my ultimate conclusion in this post but I definitely think Kindle Unlimited is worth trying during a trial period.
- Until 12/31/2019 you can get a 3-month membership for only $0.99! You can find some great recommendations here for what I discovered on Kindle Unlimited.
Free Printable Spring Bingo
- Who doesn’t love a free printable to use with the kids? Grab these free printable bingo cards filled with adorable reminders of spring!
How We Feed Our Family of 7 for $400
- Budgeting our groceries is a huge reason why I am able to be a stay at home mom. It’s not always the easiest but the trade-off is completely worth it – and we don’t starve or eat complete garbage!
The Beginner’s Guide to Batch Cooking
- I love batch cooking ingredients and items we use frequently instead of buying the same things at the store for exponentially more money. It doesn’t take much extra time and is another way we keep our grocery budget in check.
What I Learned from Decluttering Our Entire Home
- I decluttered our entire home in 2017 but I’m still learning things from the process. In this post, I share about the lessons I learned from my year-long decluttering challenge and how you can do the same.
How to Clean Baked-on Oven Grease
- Ovens get really dirty and regular soap and water don’t do the trick. I found a simple, inexpensive solution for cleaning off the baked-on grease in minutes!
Pepperoni Pizza Twists
- We are a pizza-loving family so it’s fun to find new “twists” (see what I did there?) on a classic food. These also make a great appetizer for New Year’s Eve parties!
Thai Chicken Quesadilla & Easy Peanut Dipping Sauce
- Peanut butter gets my vote every time. For what? For anything. Okay, maybe not anything but I love it! And the dipping sauce with these simple chicken quesadillas is so good I could eat it with a spoon.
How to Create Strong Family Bonds
- If we can create a family that is knit together, supports one another, and loves through all things I will consider our parenting and family life a success. This post shares some of the ways we are working to create strong family bonds.
Top Viewed Posts of 2019
These posts were published across the years of my site. Some are older and some are fairly recent but all are consistent in getting attention on the web. It blows my mind that my top-visited post every single day for the last several months is over a year old. I love creating content that resonates rather than being a flash in the pan so I look forward to creating more like these.
The Best Apple Crisp Ever
- This apple crisp is the sole reason I keep going apple picking every fall. I’m a sucker for a good crumble topping and this apple crisp is about equal parts apple to crumble. I will never make another recipe!
Remove Grease Stains from Clothing (Even After Washing!)
- I had to laugh when this post moved to number two right around Christmas. I think people were spending lots of time in the kitchen and making a bit of a mess. I get it! I just used this method last week on a pair of jeans after I tried to mix natural almond butter with my hand mixer and the oil sprayed everywhere!
2017 Clutter Buster Challenge
- This is the challenge I created to help decrease the overwhelm so many were feeling after the holidays and in their homes. We owned too much stuff and I needed a systematic way to conquer it without adding more stress. The smaller tasks help you get through each area in your house without spending an entire day or weekend like other challenges.
Sew Your Own Car Seat Poncho
- My youngest boys still wear their ponchos while we are out shopping and we get compliments on them every time. Because this is one of my oldest posts the pictures leave a lot to be desired. I think I need to work on updating those!
Homemade Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup Substitute
- I’m always amazed at how many people use this recipe because it was so hard for me to find one in the first place. I guess more people want condensed soup copycats than I realized!
Best Reads of 2018 & Books Coming in 2019
- I was shocked when this post took off after the new year. People really want book recommendations so I’m going to try to get more of those into the rotation this year! And for the record – I read all the books I planned to in 2019!
Bible Verses to Pray Over Your Husband
- This is the only repeat between top posts published in 2019 and top viewed posts of 2019. That shows me that you are craving these types of posts and we all want more tools for prayer, marriage, and relationships. I’m working on a list of verses to pray over our kids and hope to have it out soon!
Grandma’s Perfect Caramel Rolls
- I have heard from countless readers that this is their favorite sweet roll recipe and the only one that turns out for them. That makes my heart so happy because I feel the same way. I had never had luck with yeast dough before using my husband’s grandma’s recipe so I love that I get to share it with you.
Paid Vs. Unpaid Chores (and Why We Do Both)
- This is still the method for chores we use with our kids and it’s still working well. The little boys have been added to the mix and we no longer have a dog, but the concept is still the same. Maybe I need to work on an update so you can see how we have adjusted to having five kids helping.
Are You Buying These 16 Things at Sam’s Club?
- I published this post during my first year of blogging when I didn’t know much about anything. Ha! And yet it still gets people visiting and trying to discover the best items to buy at Sam’s Club. We still buy most of the same items although now that we also have a Costco membership we buy some of the items there instead. I think I might need to write a showdown post comparing the two clubs!
I’m so humbled by your support and friendship. I blog because God called me to share what I’ve learned, what He’s doing in our lives, and how to embrace this life as it is. The fact that so many of you have joined in and agreed that the picture-perfect, instagramed and photoshopped life is not for you keeps me going. Thank you.
I look forward to continuing to share here at My Joy in Chaos. I always want to serve your needs and help you manage the real-life chaos of motherhood, marriage, and homemaking. If there is a topic or question you’d love me to talk about, you can leave it in the comments or email me at katie@myjoyinchaos.com
Thank you again for being awesome readers!
