Happy 4th Anniversary, FOL!

by Terri

We are about to mark what is a momentous occasion for us here at FOL. Four years ago on January 30 our first post went live. We were all so excited to begin! We had been in the planning stages for months and now we were finally ready.  This post is my 104^th! Wow, who would have thought when we began that we would still be here? Some who started with us have gone and some new faces have appeared over the past four years but some things haven’t changed. We still are here on an almost daily basis wanting to connect with you, our readers, and talk about things of interest to all of us.  Those things have ranged from raising kids to growing older, from photography to gardening and cooking.

In going back to the beginning to see exactly how many posts I had written, I saw so many that I wanted to stop and read again. My favorite posts are usually those about my family and there are stories here that don’t exist anywhere else so they are precious to me and I am so glad I have them recorded here, to come back to and reread and to read the readers’ comments again which so many times amplified or validated what I had to say. It is one of the beautiful things about photography and writing together – the preservation of stories. And you need both. Just a photo isn’t enough. You need words too. These were a few favorites that I took the time to reread:

And in addition to rereading my posts, I read the comments and they warmed my heart all over again. Over the past four years, I feel personally that I have had many successes as far as blog posts go – ones where I felt I really reached people – and some that just kind of bombed. I guess, as my FOL sister Dotti says, we can’t hit it out of the ballpark every time. :-)

Have you noticed at the bottom of each post where it says “You might also like:"?

They usually refer to other posts by the same writer or posts with similar subject matter. When I see one pop up there that I remember and want to read again, it’s so easy to just click on that little square and it takes me right back. Give it a try sometime! You might find an old favorite or something you missed the first time around.

So happy 4^th anniversary, FOL! As we begin our fifth year, I know my FOL sisters will join me in telling all of our readers how much we appreciate your visiting and commenting and we hope you will keep coming back. You are why we are here. You are why we show up each day and write from our hearts. You are who keep this blog going. Thank you for the past four years and we hope you’ll stick around for more. We love having you along for the ride!