Best Blog Posts of 2016

Happy almost 2017, my friends!

It feels like 2016 has been QUITE a year for pretty much everyone, that’s for sure. I’ve had a lot of exciting life things happen this year, which I’ll talk about later in the week, but for now I wanna do a quick recap of the blog posts YOU, my readers, enjoyed the most this year! I know tons more people have joined us here since last January, so hopefully there are pieces you may not have read when they were originally published!

Here I’ll be sharing my top blog post for every month this year – covering subjects like stepmotherhood, marriage, budgeting, friendships, and super annoying questions people need to stop asking, thank you very much!

Thank you so much for joining me here in 2016. I’m so freaking stoked to see what 2017 will bring! <3

January

My Family Isn’t “Blended” and that’s Okay – Thoughts on the language we use to describe our families and why I don’t use the word “blended” to describe mine.

February

Can We Please Stop Calling Grown Women “Girls”?! – Another piece on language, in relation to a personal pet peeve of mine. (Trust me, my “real life” friends get corrected ALL. THE. TIME. on this one)

March

The Stepmom Letters: Love – A blog post from my Stepmom Letter series (letters to my stepdaughter or to stepmoms about issues and thoughts related to stepparenting). This one is to stepmoms and it’s about one of the hardest words in our vocabulary: Love.

April

Gradybird Grades: The Everydollar Budgeting App – A quick review (Spoilers: mainly just a post full of praise!) of the EveryDollar budgeting app. I love this thing.

May

Through My Husband’s Eyes – Musings on a random instagram pic and confidence and perception and beauty.

June

A Father’s Day Letter to My Husband – Another post about my husband, this time a letter about fatherhood from his stepmom wife.

July

Friendship for Grown-Ups – YOU GUYS. Friendship as an adult is stupidly, weirdly, awkwardly hard. Here are my thoughts about it (and also about being creepy instead of friendly…oops.)

August

Stop Asking – One of the most popular posts on my blog ever. People need to get it together and stop asking, seriously.

September

What I Wish the Nuclear Family Knew – This is my blog’s most viewed and shared piece. Not only here on my site, but it was also published on Scary Mommy and received lots of great feedback from there, too. I’m especially proud of this piece because I think, in a tiny little internet way, it did its job — it helped folks in nuclear families start to understand stepfamilies just a little bit more, which is one of my main goals for this space. I hope it continues to do so.

October

5 Fun Anniversary Traditions – Since Christopher and I had our first wedding anniversary in September of this year, I wrote a post about the ways we celebrated that day. So fun! <3

November

The Stepmom Project: Grady Savage – The first installment of my new series (which is getting a name makeover in 2017! Stay tuned!) that focuses on interviews with stepmoms from all walks of life was released in November of this year, and my interview was the first one! (Check out the second installment, which featured the hilarious and wonderful Zoe, here!)

December

The Stepmom Letters: Enough – This was my most recent Stepmom Letter post and it’s one of my absolute favorites. I think we all need the reminder sometimes, don’t you?

And there you have it – my best blog posts of 2016!

Thank you again for being here and reading my words this year. I can’t properly express my gratitude, truly. I am beyond blessed! Talk with you soon! (I’ll be back again before the new year, don’t you worry! 😉 haha)

Hi, I’m Grady! Welcome to my blog 🙂 A little about me? I’m a smitten newlywed and brand-new stepmom living in New Hampshire. My day job is boring on paper but great in real life (just like Dunder Mifflin!), and when I’m not working I love to spend time with my family, perform in or manage productions at the theatre, and eat ice cream while listening to yet another financial management podcast. I write about my marriage, step-parenthood, and whatever else is going on. Be sure to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and subscribe to my blog!