My blog, this month, is five years old. FIVE years. It doesn't seem that long ago to me but according to Google it really has been five years. I think five years is a long time! I'm not sure how I've managed to keep it up but I hope there will be many more!

This year, however, hasn't been a really productive one blogging wise. Fear not - I have plans to change this - let me know if you'd like to collaborate or get involved!

So it may not have been a very productive blogging year but it was productive otherwise. I feel like I've been on a ginormous learning curve that hasn't ended ... not sure when it will to be honest. It wasn't a year like last year where we had wedding after wedding, but we did have a baby! The journey to get to that stage was a long and steady one and our bundle of joy arrived in April - we have been trying to keep up with her ever since.

A few thoughts:

• Take a break: I took a break from blogging, not one that I planned but one that just happened. What I've learnt from this is that it is important to take breaks. Take a step back. I know that if I had carried on my posts would have been scattered, inconsistent and I would have been writing for the sake of it with no feeling or motivation. 

• Talk: It's important to talk to people, keeping things in your head can sometimes drive you crazy. Remember you aren't alone no matter how lonely you may feel!

• Listen: Listen to what people have to say as sometimes you come across genuine people who will give good advice. They'll tell good stories and make you think twice. Don't take everything to heart, just listen. Sometimes listening means letting it go in through one ear and out the other because lets face it, people talk a lot of rubbish. Sometimes it means really listening to what is being said, especially when it comes from the heart.  

• Make your own decisions: This is something I personally really really struggle with. I am one of the worst decision makers you'll ever meet. My manager used to send me the menu to wherever we were going a few weeks before everyone else just so I had that extra time to decide. It's not a bad thing, it just means I'm overwhelmed by choices. But sometimes we need to make decisions for ourselves because then, at the end of the day, they are your own. I'm trying to be less indecisive! 

• Stop looking back: Stop looking back at things that could have happened, and even things that have happened. When I say looking back, I mean living in the past and constantly thinking 'what if'. The truth is that it's too late. We can't turn the clocks back and we can't repeat history. I'm pretty sure that's not possible, no matter how much we may want it to be. We have to live in the now.

What has been the highlight of your year? Any advice that you'd give? Do you have any plans for next year?

My mandatory foot photo

This year has gone both fast and slow. There have been times where I've waited for the weeks to pass and others have gone too fast - so a mixture I'd say - good nonetheless. There haven't been many blog posts this year - you'll have noticed that I've been on and off with the posts, less consistent, sporadic and slightly annoying, both for myself and for you as my readers. But I have tried to post wherever I can - honest! I'm hoping that I'll get better with consistency and timing - in both life and blogging :).

2017 has been a big year in the life of F, maybe not so much for That Delete Button but definitely for me personally. Some of these events, milestones, whatever you may want to call them have been blog worthy but because I haven't had much time, I've not always been able to blog about them. So, I'm going to do a mini reflection of the past year instead so you can know what the heck I'm rambling on about!

If I had blogged about a few of these reasons, I think my blog would have been doing a little better. Maybe I'll blog about these things soon!

Things I've done in 2017:

• Tied the knot: So I got engaged and religiously married in 2016 but had a bigger, more formal-ish wedding in 2017. That's right, we had a few too many parties - too many dates to remember - but I wouldn't change it. That was the highlight of my year - our wedding. It went fast but I loved how family and friends all came together and had fun! I'm contemplating making a blog post with photos of it...thoughts?

• Malaysia: We travelled to Malaysia and it was soooo good, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur - I have blogged about this so go read it if you want to know more!

• Rome: another place we explored was Rome. More posts about Rome to come!  

• Teaching: After doing the CELTA I didn't get a job abroad - the timing wasn't right - but I did manage to do some teaching here in the UK. I taught in two different places and both were different. It's weird how different educational establishments can be so varied in their approach - also the backgrounds of the students matter too! The first time round the students were very talkative and the second time, they were focused but made things fun for themselves! People are quite amazing!

• Oh and one final thing - my blog turned five this month! Yes, that's right, That Delete Button is five years old!! FIVE!!!

I promise I'll try to blog about some of the things mentioned above soon - let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to know more about!!

What have you done over the last year?  What are you particularly proud of?

Four years ago in December I started my blog. FOUR YEARS! Can you believe it, my baby, That Delete Button, is four years old. I personally can't believe I've kept it going that long and in the past few months so much has happened that I have, at times, questioned the future of my blog. But I've decide that I will continue because why give up doing something you love?

I am sorry about the recent inconsistency in my blog posts, time just goes so fast and like I said, it has been a little crazy. So this year I'm not going to do an advice-y sort of post like this one but an update post. An update of some of the things that have happened in the last year - both blog life and personal life updates.

I was really weary of putting things that are too personal on my blog but I've decided to include them. I won't go into dep
th but they are there nonetheless. It'll help you understand how crazy the last few months have been too.

So, here goes!

1.Independence is not loneliness. I wrote a post, quite an angry post, on how we should encourage independence and my post was read by a lot of people, A LOT. Mostly because I shared in on Medium (a blog post sharing platform) and so this was a big, huge, massive, EPIC achievement for that Delete Button. :)

2. The Canadians came to visit. That's right, my lovely Canadian family came to visit. I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I'd have liked but we did do some fun things and I really hope they visit again soon, all of them!

3. Laser eye surgery. I booked myself in for Laser Eye surgery after getting really fed up with my contact lenses. The prescription on my lenses just wasn't right and they kept moving, which meant that I couldn't see clearly trough the part I was supposed to be looking through. So anyway, I took the plunge and eventually had the surgery.

4. Turkey. Pretty soon after my surgery, I took some time off and travelled to Turkey. Dude, it was fun.

5. engaged. Then I came back a got engaged.

6. I Left my job.*sadface* My work were actually really supportive of the CELTA course and my recovery from surgery, particularly my manager, but in the end I decided to leave because I knew I would leave sooner or later.

7. CELTA. After coming back from Turkey, I actually applied to the CELTA course - I did a TEFL course during my final year of undergrad and that was when I decided I would take it further. Only I applied for my Masters and went on to do a other things instead. I had a few thoughts about it last year but when we came back from Turkey, I researched the course properly and applied for it...and got a place. I really should do a whole blog post on this really because it was actually really, really, really good! (I got engaged just before I did the course).

8. Married. So point number five reads that I got engaged, I sort of got married after too. It's a long story but the short version is that we've had our religious ceremony and will have a whole shebang done in 2017.

Well, that was quite a year wasn't it?!

What have you been up to?

Guess what!? It's my Blogiversary! That's right, I've been blogging for three years as of last week :)

This year has been quite eventful blog-wise:

• I finally bought my own domain - now I'm .com :) OH YEAH! 
• My reader base expanded according to Google Analytics and that, for me, is awesome!!
• My blog got a makeover thanks to Noor :) 
• I finally wrote travel posts which is something I'd love to do more of,
• My photo skills kind of improved - kind of, even though this post doesn't have one...ooops...
• I've started writing fiction! 

Anyway, I was trying to think about what to write for this post and decided to go through my previous Blogiversay posts - the advice in those posts still stand. In fact, I've taken the advice from this post and added to it - experience and all that...


What's your advice and tips? 

Also, on a side note, this will be my last post till next year!! See you on the other siiiiiiide! 

Seasons greetings all and I hope you enjoy your holidays and celebrations :P