It’s my first Editorially Yours post in two and a half years. (I’ll write about why that is next week.) I need to start with more exciting things, such as a birthday celebration.

In early July 2008, PeKu Publications was officially launched. Having spent a year creating and writing at Think Tasty, I had begun to build other topic-specific blogs. In June 2008, I left my career as an elementary teacher and began to work full-time on my own blogging network.

It’s crazy for me to think that PeKu is eleven this year. Much like raising a child, it’s astounding how time flies and how much has changed. When I launched PeKu in 2008, I had a tiny team of writers and a pretty wacky writing schedule for them. However, they were hard working, talented writers who wanted to break into the world of writing.

Over the years I saw PeKu grow into a business bigger than I could have imagined. I had two part-time editors, fifteen writers, an engineer, and a designer. We published about 120 articles every week. Every week. Crazy, right?

With changes in online advertising, PeKu slowly began to shrink. We moved to only one editor, fewer writers, fewer articles. Then I returned to the role of editor and had only a small number of writers, and a smaller amount of articles. Now, we are here. It’s just me and mainly Think Tasty. Pretty full circle, if you ask me.

Yet, it’s still PeKu Publications, mascot and all. In that spirit, I want to celebrate PeKu and its goal (and tagline) “Inspire. Inform. Engage.” Even if I’m only touching the smallest handful of people, I hope that something I write or a recipe I create encourages someone else to think for a moment, cook a little, or share an idea with someone else. If that happens, PeKu does what I’ve wanted.

So, here’s to PeKu at 11 and hoping for many more!