Teacher by Nature: A Year in Review

Happy New Year, dear readers! I’m so happy you decided to stick with me for another year. I hope my (and Brian’s) writing blessed you and encouraged you to grow in faith in Jesus and to fight the good fight of faith with all of your might.

Usually about this time of year, I post a list of my New Year’s resolutions. I’m not clear about what I’d like them to be yet. I know I’d like to keeping losing weight (15 lbs. and counting!) and eating a mostly whole foods, plant-based diet. I’d also like to continue to improve my martial arts skills and physical conditioning as I take kickboxing/muay thai classes at a local studio. I’m building up a lot of muscle, and that’s fun to see. I’m going to try to read my Bible in a year, which I’ve never succeeded in doing, and I’d really like to submit more of my writing to other websites and publishers (so scary). So, perhaps there are a few resolutions in that list somewhere.

Today, however, I’d like to share with you A Year in Review here at Teacher by Nature. This is a new type of post for me, so follow along as we discuss my website stats and popular posts.

Stats & Such

I had some really exciting days here at Teacher by Nature last year that had hundreds of visitors, thanks to someone sharing one of my articles on Facebook and Instagram (link here). This helps so much in bringing visitors to my website. Thank you to those of you who share my work on social media or elsewhere. I appreciate you!

I began Teacher by Nature in 2019. Since then, my visitor growth has doubled each year, except for this year. I had 1,152 visitors in 2019; 2,153 visitors in 2020; 4,567 visitors in 2021; 7,631 visitors in 2022; and 8,027 visitors in 2023. This might be about where my website stays for a while, and that’s okay with me. I pray that God will direct the people to my website who will benefit from the work I do here, according to his perfect will. In other words, although fame is an intriguing idea, I hope I’m being faithful to the good work God has given me to do right where he’s placed me.

I continue to get around 20 visitors a day, and around 30 views a day. This means that of the 20 people who visit my website each day, a handful of them stick around for a while and view more than one article or page. I’d like to increase this number, but don’t have the patience or time to figure out how to do it. This number also doesn’t include those who read my new posts by email. Did you know that if you subscribe to my website, you can read my new posts without visiting my website at all? They come ready-to-read to your inbox. I do get enough views to continue to be a part of Crossway’s Blog Review Program, for which I’m grateful. I love getting to read new books and then to write about them.

Finally, here are my top ten posts of this year, beginning with the most-read:

When Reality Doesn’t Feel Real

How Does Sin Affect Your Health?

Charlotte Mason vs. Neo-Classical vs. Classical (Part Two)

Self-Control and the City Without Walls

Contributing to the Conversation: “Calling Evil Good: The Lie of ‘Christian’ Rock and Roll” by Spencer Smith

A Review of Wanda Sanseri’s “Spell to Write and Read”

A Few of My Favorite Quotes from Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot

How Birds Got Their Wings

Charlotte Mason vs. Neo-Classical vs. Classical (Part One)

As you can tell, a lot of people find my website by searching for books or Bible verses!

The Future

Every year, I evaluate whether or not I want to keep writing at Teacher by Nature. I’ve tried setting up different websites through different services over the years, but always return to this one. I know that at least a few of my posts have helped a lot of people, especially When Reality Doesn’t Feel Real, which has been my top post since I wrote it back in 2019. I see a strong need for the practical application of Bible verses to mental health issues, which is why I think this post has remained so popular.

I’ve also been trying to figure out what my goals are as a writer (and songwriter and teacher and mother). I would love to focus more on writing books, poetry, and music. My website here doesn’t exactly allow me to do that, since my free time is so limited right now. I have thought about moving to a website like Substack, but I don’t know how different it would be than what I’m doing already. What I’d like more than anything is to leave things behind for my kids and my family, such as a nice book of my poetry, a self-published novel, and some sheet music of my songs. These are all hard copies of artifacts that my children can share with their children when I leave this earth behind. I hope that’s not a strange way to think about life. Jon Foreman has a song in which he sings, “I thought I was learning how to take/how to bend not how to break/how to laugh not how to cry/really I’ve been learning how to die/been learning how to die.” (From my own memory, but I think those words are correct.) Am I learning how to die?

When I started Teacher by Nature back in 2019, I had the idea that I’d be a mom and homeschool blogger. People would come to my website to get tips about motherhood and teaching. I’ve realized over the years that those things are not what I like to write about. I do still post about school occasionally, but what I have a passion for is the arts (creative writing, music, and drawing) and spiritual growth. I suppose I don’t know how that fits into “Teacher by Nature.” Perhaps it’s time for something new. (What a way to end an article!)

Anyways, thank you all so much for your encouragement and support. I really do enjoy writing for all of you, and I pray that God will bless your endeavors in the New Year. He is good, all the time.

Before you go, I have a question for you. If you’ve found Teacher by Nature to be a valuable resource, would you let me know? I’d love to hear from you!

Photo: Kostiantyn Li on Unsplash