Sunday:) Happy New Year~ A Decade, A Year of Goals and Accomplishments

“Looking back at this decade, I can see how far I’ve come, learned, grown, suffered, healed, blossomed, and accomplished. Life is good.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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Today is January 1, 2023…….. On January 1, 2013, I gave myself a daunting challenge to start a blog on WordPress and see if I could find something to write about EVERY DAY, for one entire year. Well, I met that challenge, and today, I have written a blog post EVERY DAY for ten years, an entire decade. Wow!

When I started out in 2013, I was married, with a beautiful family and a host of wonderful friends. My life was great. My stories were about fun activities on the square, tennis matches, art venues, visits with my sons, Mom, and sister in Chicago, and great times with friends. By the middle of that year, my life was turned upside down by a blind-sided betrayal and looming divorce. 2013 was not a great year. I was a mess, but I kept writing and sharing my stories. Some were painful and others promising. That’s when I discovered that sharing my stories with family, friends and complete strangers helped me heal and grow. THANK YOU ALL!

I’ve decided that this will be my last day of daily journaling here on WordPress. Not because I’m out of stories, but because I’m out of data storage here, and they charge a lot of money each year to add more storage. Once I stop paying, all my posts will be deleted. But, Sid is trying to back-up my posts so I can have a 10 year journal of my life. It’s fun to look back and see my journey. I’ll still post on Facebook and maybe find another site, but I’m retiring my WordPress renewal. So when that’s up, “That’s all she wrote.” Ten years is a pretty awesome accomplishment. 👍🏼 “I AM AMAZING.”

Over the course of my ten years of blogging, I have posted 3,665 stories, with 158,100 views, 86,500 visitors and 1,850 followers. That is AMAZING!

Another tradition of mine is on January 1, I read all the little notes in my GOOD JAR. These are notes that I put in about good things that happened, and also notes that friends pop in there when they visit. I love looking back at the good times and reading the messages. I also count up the coins and lucky pennies that I’ve found along the way. I put them in a ziploc bag and mark the year. Everyone should have a GOOD JAR. Awesome memories.

Other accomplishments have been my walking and photographing sunsets. I try to get out every day and walk, enjoying the sunshine or braving the cold. The best part are the awesome sunsets. I looked at my phone and it said I took 1,493,945 steps in 2022. I looked up about how many miles that would be… around 653.4 miles…give or take. Cool!

Living here in Texas, another tradition is to eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day for luck. So, I made a big pot from scratch, with the dried beans. I never did that before. Now, I’m going to turn it into my awesome Texas Caviar Salsa, with roasted corn, jalepeño diced tomatoes and salsa. Yum!

My New Year’s Eve was pretty quiet. I stayed up till midnight and toasted with water. I’m taking strong pain meds for my back, restless night. Sid and Kira (German shepherd) stopped by for a little while this afternoon, and we had pizza and toasted the New Year with sparkling cider. Then, I got to FaceTime with the grandkids. It was so different after seeing them live in person every day for 25 days. It’s been a good day… except for the nagging back pain.

The past ten years have taught me SO much, and with each year I have blossomed into the AMAZING person that I am today. OK, that’s an inside joke with my friends. I always say, “Miss Toni is….?” And they have to say, “AMAZING!!!!” (But, it’s true.)

Happy New Year and may you have an AMZING 2023! ❤️

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Tuesday:) Toni’s Two Tylenol Mulching Madness and National Grilled Cheese Day

“The greater the effort, the greater the glory.” – Pierre Corneille

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I decided that the great big bare spot under my two oak trees needed some help. My neighbor had her gardener put in some sod where her grass wouldn’t grow. I just figured that would die too, eventually. The trees are tall and it gets no sun. I always try to look at a problem and come up with a solution. So, I visually designed a long connection between the two front trees that had a circle of Austin blocks around them.

I went to Lowe’s to get ten bags of mulch. The young man plopped them in my car like they were bags of feathers. When I got home, I grunted and groaned and dragged each one out like they weighed 500lbs each. (Felt pretty close) I put 2 bags at a time on my “Hello Dolly.” I don’t have a wheel barrow, so I used the dolly. I name all my appliances and tools. I lay down some weed barrier fabric, then heaved the bags in place in the bare spots.

I didn’t work alone. My neighbor Sammi was more than eager to assist me. Of course, he just wanted me to scratch his belly and get attention.

I also had a supervisor. Samantha squirrel sat by the tree and inspected my progress.

I had about 22 Austin blocks in my back yard that I brought up front on my Hello Dolly, about 4 at a time. Man… they are heavy. I raked and scraped some guidelines where the blocks would be lined up, and tried to wedge them according to side cuts. I was short three blocks, so I borrowed them from my front flower bed where no one will notice until I can buy a few more. I think I did a pretty good job.

This was a long two day project. I probably spent 10 to 12 hours working on it. I could have paid someone to do it in 1/4 of the time at ten times the amount of money, but I always feel so accomplished when I can look at my hard work and know I did it all by myself.

“The greater the effort, the greater the glory.” – Pierre Corneille

Now time for the two Tylenol. Oh, and maybe a glass of wine. Oh, and maybe some chocolate. I deserve it.

Also, when I was looking at my Facebook posts, I noticed that today was National Grilled Cheese Day. So after all my hard work, I made a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of my “Everything but the kitchen sink” cabbage soup.

Happy Tuesday, my friends.

Wednesday:) WOW!!! We Did It…30,000 Visitors, Over 60,000 Views

“Success isn’t achieved by what you’ve accomplished for yourself, but rather what you have shared with others.”

~Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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I’ve been watching the stats on my WordPress page for several days. I was getting close to the 60K mark of total views, and almost 30 K total visitors on my blog. It’s been an exciting personal challenge for me to see how many people I could reach with my little mundane stories of faith, family, love, heartache, and heartwarming tales that I’ve experienced along this wonderful but bumpy journey we call life. 

My initial personal challenge was to see if I could write a blog every day for entire year. That first day was January 1, 2013, and guess what? It’s been over  3 1/2 years, and I haven’t missed a day. There were a couple of days my story didn’t get posted because of Internet failure, but the story was written and posted later. I haven’t missed a day. I write and share every day

This writing challenge has been more of an inspiration, a healing, and a constant source of joy. I have met many interesting bloggers and have read many fascinating stories and poems, and have seen fabulous photography and videos.

This afternoon, around 3:30, I saw the 29,999 visitors and I was holding my breath waiting for the next number. YES! At 3:34, I saw 30,000 visitors. 1,378 consecutive posts!

The reason I wrote, “We Did It” in the title is because I just wrote the stories and took the pictures. You are the ones who have read, commented, shared, laughed, cried, and prayed along with me. It is OUR journey. I have shared with you, and have learned so much from you.

597 WordPress followers

347 Facebook followers

117 Twitter followers

36 Tumblr followers

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! I AM TRULY BLESSED!

Fantastic Phenominal Friday: 1,000 Posts

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

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I truly never thought that my lofty goal of writing my blog every day for a year without missing a day would be achieved so easily.  365 consecutive days is amazing. THEN, to surpass my greatest expectations by writing every day for 1,000 days is just phenominal. I still can’t believe it. 

One thing I am sure about is, writing every day has given me a reason to get up, explore, experience, and find the beauty, bizarre, purity or pain in every  day. The challenge is to write it all down and share it. Instead of struggling to find one topic, I often have trouble editing and cutting back on multiple subjects. TMI. 

When I looked at the stats for my 999 posts, I was thrilled and honored to see how many views, followers, and comments I had.  

 
42,791 views since I started.  20,755 visitors, and  531 followers. WordPress also keeps stats of  “Best Views Ever.” I had 484 views in one day for the story I wrote about my lying, cheating, scumbag ex-husband Tony Andrukaitis (AH), and his lying, cheating, slut, tramp girlfriend Debbie Causey. (HO) If you missed it, here is the link…

Sunday: SEX, LIES, and AUDIO TAPES (A true story of betrayal and survival) Happy Anniversary! http://wp.me/p3106f-1Fk via @toniandrukaitis

  
“One part at a time, one day at a time, we can accomplish any goal we set for ourselves.” Karen Casey 

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Thank you all for being a part of my journey, and a part of my story, but most importantly, a part of my life. I love you all !!!

Montage Monday

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.”
― Margaret Thatcher
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After giving myself permission to have a lazy Sunday yesterday, I gave myself the challenge of having a productive Monday. It was a pleasant morning, only in the 70’s, so I went for a long brisk walk, about an hour. Yes, I found several nails in the road on my walk. I feel like wearing a red cape and a blue shirt with a big “N” on it, NAIL LADY, saving the world from deadly nails in tires, every day.

After saving the world, I had my leftover yogurt parfait with some added fruit and granola, sat out on my back patio, paid some bills, and checked my email.

Then, time to tackle the infamous media/craft room, better known as my “CRAP” room. Several hours didn’t even scratch the service, but ya gotta start somewhere, don’t ya? I felt quite accomplished. Updates later.
So, here’s a week in a peek.