to review 2014

This week at My Home Truths we are sharing our favourites post from 2014. I thought I would take this opportunity to do a bit of a recap of my year by sharing my top 5 posts of the year. These posts happened to be 5 highlighting events of the year as well as my most popular posts of the year. So in no particular order really here goes.

5. Sharing my secret
A few weeks ago I confessed that I had a secret and last time I linked up with Kirsty I revealed that secret and a slight weight lifted off my shoulders. I was super excited about the positive feedback and encouragement I got from my blogging friends and if you commented then I truly thank you for your support. I think reality hasn't set in just yet and it will be some time before it does, but I am nervous and anxious and excited about times ahead all at the same time! (if you don't know what I am talking about then you'll have to click the link above to find out!)

4. Trip to Vietnam
Without a doubt an absolute highlight of my year was my trip to Vietnam during the September school holidays. Not only did I met some truly awesome people, I also ate something I never thought that I would, and just got totally absorbed by the whole country. They are truly lovely and amazing people who live very simple lives with such gusto! I still feel like I have so many stories and photos to share with you from that trip! The trip was also a precursor for what I want to next year and it certainly confirmed my decisions!

This made me smile and feel like a Queen in Vietnam!



3. ProBlogger
Again another highlight of the year in a very overwhelming kind of way! Prior to January 2013 blogging was something I never really gave a second thought to, let alone knew there was a whole conference attended by 100's of people dedicated to the cause! It really was a nerve racking, eye opening, overwhelming, awesome experience.

Janet from Middle Aged Mama, Marleisa from This is Who I am.. and I catching up over lunch at ProBlogger!

2. A to Z Challenge
I was crazy enough to sign up for the A to Z Challenge in April, where every day for the month (with the exception of Sunday) you blogged about something to do with the corresponding letter of the alphabet. A lot of people chose a theme in an attempt to make it "easier". I chose to blog about me and my life as a teacher. The link will take you to my wrap up post at the end of the challenge. So if you are new around here and want to know more about little ol' me, that's bound to answer pretty much all of your questions!

 

 

1. Remembering Kathy
This was both one of the hardest posts I've ever written and also my most read post of all time. On the anniversary of her passing I shared my recollections of the days prior and post losing my beautiful sister Kathy to cancer back in 2006.



2014 has been another year where goals seemed to go unmet and it would be easy for me to be a bit doom and gloom about all of that, but the beauty of blogging is that you do have a record of all that you have done so it's been good to look back and see what has happened and what I have achieved. I am not sad to see the end of this year though, I am definitely ready to move on to bigger and better things and excited about what 2015 has is store for me! I look forward to sharing the journey with you!

Linking up this 2014 wrap up with Kirsty from My Home Truths and Alicia from One Mother Hen.

for post ProBlogger confessions

If you attended ProBlogger over the weekend I hope your head is in as much of a spin as mine is!

This week I am confessing off topic and instead going with last week's confession of micro confessions all relating to the mess of thoughts that are in my head...

So here goes;

at, during and after ProBlogger I must confess:

• I felt very overwhelmed and a lot out of my league a lot of the time.
• I have no idea what my niche is, if I even have one, if I even want one or if I even need one.
• I had no idea how many people subscribed to my blog until I checked last night...the answer is 5 (*insert sad face here*)
• I had to google how to find my subscribers because I couldn't work it out
• I search google a lot to work out how to use blogger
• (ever time I write (type) blogger I type blooger and then have to go back and fix it!)
• There were many times during, and have been many times since, that I wondered if I should just walk away now
• I'm not really sure why I blog
• I think I now know how Dora feels swimming off alone in that big wide massive ocean, I am such a teeny tiny little fish in this big blogging ocean
• When I was writing that a little Dora voice was singing in my head..."just keep blogging, just keep blogging"
• You totally just sang that in Dora's voice
• that Willpower completely left me stranded at the AMAZING QT buffet, but I expected it would so am accepting it.
• I hate that I can't now sit and work through so many of the tips and ideas that I need to if I want to get this blog thing happening how I want it to
• I am not sure when I will as I have so much happening in the next month or so
• I think I need to have a little blogging break to get some clarity about what I want this blog to be
• I got an awesome feeling inside when I was 'noticed' by 2 fellow bloggers!

Did you attend Problogger? What stood out for you?

Do you have any confessions to share?

Linking up my micro confessions with Kirsty (who I was stoked to meet in person) at

 My Home Truths for I Must Confess and Alicia at
One Mother Hen for Open Slather

for ProBlogger...almost

According to my countdown app we have just 19 days (at the time of writing this) until we head to the Gold Coast for ProBlogger...eeekk!!

If you're going then an email from Darren with some updates and asking us to reflect on our blogging dreams would have landed in your inbox on Thursday.

I am getting so excited about heading to the coast for these few days, I applied for 2 days long service leave which was granted without question and Marleisa from This is Who I am and I are heading there Thursday so as not to miss a minute of the action! As the event draws nearer I am reading more and more from other amazing bloggers getting prepared for the trip, some have already started packing, some are booking in hair appointments, some are planning their nautical outfits for the Friday night and the Helm Bar....to be honest I am just thinking of the MOUNTAIN of work that I need to get through before I can even think about anything else.

In a way I am also so nervous. It kind of feels like I am heading off to High School again for the first time, and I am a junior. Even though my blog is about 18 months old I still feel like such a Novice. When I was looking through the program and deciding what sessions to go to there were things mentioned that I have no idea what they even are!! I have been reading tweets, blogposts and facebook statuses by many other bloggers who I love reading that are attending and I am so excited to be in a room with all these other wonderful bloggers, let alone potentially having the opportunity to talk to them. I feel like they are the seniors, the cool crew, and that I will be standing in the corner in awe of their awesomeness and wondering if any of them will want to be my friend (damn I hate the introvert in me sometimes)! I feel like I am going to be way out of my league! hahaha...

I also am not quite sure how to respond to Darren's question about what my dream is for my blog. I guess my main reason for starting the blog was to share my 12wbt journey and just document rantings, ravings, and events of my life. Kind of like the LiveJournal I had years ago. Somewhere to just ramble and rant and rave and maybe someone would find it worth reading. But the more I have blogged and the more I have discovered about blogging the more exciting the prospect that you could actually make money out of blogging is kind of exciting. I don't think I would ever be there but it's exciting nonetheless.

Recently there has been that 'why I write' prompt going around and when no-one mentioned me in it, at first I was kind of cut a bit (yes just like at high school when all the popular girls are invited to something and you miss out) but then I realised I was secretly glad that I wasn't asked because I had no real answer. I loved how people wrote about writing being in their blood and that they wouldn't know what to do if they didn't write, that people say they HAVE to do it, I love how creative some people are and how passionate people are about their writing and their blog themes. I have no real theme to my blog, I'm not a fashion blogger, definitely not a mummy or craft blogger, I put myself in the 'general' category. I'm not really sure why I write, I just do...

I am coming to ProBlogger with no real expectations and just looking forward to being a sponge and soaking up as much information as I possibly can and seeing where it can lead me on this journey. I am also super excited about it being held at QT, Marleisa and I stayed there earlier in the year just on a girls weekend away and L.O.V.E.D it!

Are you going to ProBlogger? What are you hoping to gain from the experience? Will you talk to me if you see me standing in the corner by myself?

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT!