It has been a very long time since I have written a post on here. So much life has happened since I “retired” from Ask Anna a handful of years ago. A couple of years ago I wrote in my last update that we had moved, purchased some property and I had started to grow flowers.

Since that last update my little flower adventure turned into a business where I sold flower subscriptions for Spring and Summer, as well as hosted fun events like Pick Your Own Parties, Mother’s Day bouquet making classes, winter wreath decorating classes and I even hosted a home school group a couple times to teach them about flowers. It has been quite the adventure that I didn’t see coming.

I have enjoyed this new chapter but all along I knew it was temporary. I started my business in 2021, when my daughter was in 8th grade. From the beginning I felt like it was something I was given to do until she graduated and went off to college.

Five years later here we are and she’s getting ready to graduate high school and head off to University in the fall (wow time sure flies!). Ask Anna has been running peacefully in the background of my life, by my awesome VA, for the last handful of years, and I always wondered if I’d come back to it.

I started Ask Anna when my daughter was 2 years old and it really has been a great adventure. There were highs and lows, in business, family, adoption, houses–basically all the things, and I loved sharing them here with my followers. I loved the incredible brands I got to work with, I loved the people I got to meet, I loved being challenged by reader’s questions to create, design and organize. I also loved being able to Google myself any time someone asked me a question!

So while Ask Anna has ran peacefully in the background of my life for the last 15 years, I got a very clear answer from the Lord this month, that it’s time for this chapter to close as well. It brings tears to my eyes as I type those words because this great adventure has meant so much to me, and has been such a big part of my life. But I feel this is an opportunity for obedience, to listen to that same voice that planted the ideas of Ask Anna in my mind all those years ago.

I don’t think I ever shared the story of how this all began, but I’ll never forget, Matt and I were watching a football game while Malea was napping, and I decided to lay down and close my eyes as well. When I woke up from my nap, the Lord had given me a vision of what this blog would be. In the years that followed it became more than I could ever have imagined!

I feel that same sense of confidence now that it’s time to close this chapter–and while I have no idea what lies ahead, I confidently feel this is something I need to lay down in order for the next thing to begin.

It has been so long since I’ve posted I d0n’t even know if there’s anyone still out there reading this but before I say goodbye to anyone who is still reading, I want to look back at just a few things this blog gave me.

In no particular order here’s a look down Memory Lane…

To this day this is still my favorite Christmas tree, and the way it was decorated. I love that Ask Anna challenged me to go beyond traditional and to think outside the box. This tree is very “me”, all the teal!

This was the first time I ever shared our family of four after our adoption. So much had happened leading up to this point, and I had shared every step of our journey, but this was the first time I showed our adopted daughter’s face. It felt like a really big moment for us at the time.

I loved this outdoor living space so much! This couch was for a sponsored post and we still have it and use it to this day. It’s one of my favorite things I got from a sponsorship.

Um, and then there was that one time I got to go to BH&G and meet these people in real life! I still pinch myself that it really happened! Every time I open a BH&G magazine and see the Editor’s photo, I think to myself, “I met him in real life and talked to him at a party they threw for us bloggers!”.

This face! I just can’t with how little she is! Now she’s 17 and off to University in a few months! (Cue all the tears).

This was one of my favorite organizing posts. I still use this to this day. That’s one of my favorite things about this blog is that it challenged me with my cleaning, organizing and decorating and it forever changed the way I do things and the brands I use. Ask Anna might be going away but it has forever changed me.

Oh my word, and that time I got to speak at a blogging conference (what!?). I was SO nervous and couldn’t believe someone trusted me with a microphone but it went well and all the ladies told me I did great.

Still one of my favorite organizing hacks for small spaces and large bulky items. This is a throw back to the very beginning!

By far my most popular post ever! Written either my first or second year, it’s still my most viewed post– How to Clean Between the Oven Glass. And this was a collaborative post, a lot of this was my husband’s idea! He often joked that he should start a competing blog called, “Ask Matt” (Ha-ha).

The 1st time I hit over a million views! Look at that platform, I was still on Blogger (super old school)!

One of the many magazines I had the privilege of being published in. I still sometimes can’t even believe this all happened!It feels like a lifetime ago.

Okay, last story. I’ll never forget the morning my husband came home from work for something and I was doing this photo shoot for the Moscow Mules. He thought for sure he had caught me drinking at 10:30am but really it was just water in the cups! He still jokes about it to this day, and maybe there were a couple cocktails I couldn’t “fake” for pictures but this wasn’t one of them (ha-ha). Sure looks real doesn’t it?

These are just a few of the countless memories I have from writing Ask Anna for all those years. It would take me hours to tell you all the stories of how the Lord used this blog to change my life forever, and how He used it to impact our family in ways we could have never imagined.

And that is why I must lay it down and walk away. Just as clearly as I knew I was to start it, I know it’s time to end this chapter of my life. I know that whatever is coming next is going to be just as great, or even more, as I begin a completely new chapter of my life.

Thank you to anyone still out there reading this. Thank you for years of loyalty, support and for trusting me to teach you what I know. I might not have Ask Anna any more but I will always have lots of tips, tricks and ways to help you around your home, with your kids and life in general! Cheers to an amazing 15+ years!

Anna

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