As this first blogging year comes to an end, I am loving looking back at the year’s highlights and favorite posts. It’s like the People’s Choice Awards of Forty Eighteen. Thank you so much for sticking by me through the thick and thin of it all – even when it has been awfully thin. Without you there wouldn’t be a top fourteen of anything. A lot of bloggers post their top 10 posts of the year, but of course I have to put my own little twist on a long-standing tradition. So here are the top 14 posts of 2014.

1. Teaching Primary Music: Seek the Lord Early

I was primary music chorister for exactly 3 months before I was called to the stake primary presidency and asked to train the primary choristers. Eek!

2. Teaching PrimaryMusic: Love Is Spoken Here

A song about love on heart signs for Valentine’s Day. Oh so clever, eh?

3. Food Storage Your Family Will Actually Eat

This completely changed the way I thought about food storage.

4. Six Simple Pasta Salads

To qualify to be on this list, these pasta salads had to be super simple and delicious. Mission accomplished.

5. Brown Sugar Carrots

I hated cooked carrots as a kid, but my kids cheer when they see these on the table and they eat every single bite.

6. Kiss Under the Stars

That’s my idea of a great date.

7. U-Pick Farms Tips and Tricks

All this never-ending snow out my window has me wishing for farms full of ripe berries and red tomatoes.

8. February Visiting Teaching Notes

I don’t like to go visiting teaching without a treat and a great thought, and I love this one.

9. Favorite Popcorn Balls

I made these at least 5 times a week every summer when I was growing up.

10. Simple BBQ Menu

I would happily BBQ every day all summer long and never get tired of it. This super easy marinade kicked off a week of simple BBQ recipes.

11. Go Clean Your Room

Chuck would go into her room and stare at the mess, completely overwhelmed, until I made this chart for her. Now she knows how to clean it and gets it done much faster. I’m a huge fan of kids cleaning their own rooms.

12. Can you fire a tooth fairy?

I’m pretty sure we have the worst tooth fairy ever.

13. Creamy Corn Salad

I don’t remember what on earth made me try these ingredients together, but it’s one of my absolute favorite salads now.

14. Chicken Vegetable Soup

This homemade chicken noodle soup is full of veggies and is the perfect comfort food for chilly nights.

Did your favorite post make it to this list?

I have been planning and prepping for 2015, and I am so excited to share another great year with you and make even more friends along the way. Here’s to an even better year at Forty Eighteen!