The BB twenty twelve retrospective: The first six months

I began writing a post on New Year's Eve that started with the sentence: "I should write a post reviewing 2012 but I can't be bothered". Ah, but now I can and it has taken me days to write the story and collate the photos that made up what turned out to be a pretty big year for change for Noo and me. Not changes you can see, changes we can feel. Twenty twelve has definitely been a year worth documenting.

Last year (I can say that now, but it will feel weird referring to 2012 as 'last year' until about Easter) started off pretty well according to my first post of the year. We had a new addition to the family, my niece Mala, which was the best thing about 2011 and made 2012 one of the best of my life. Noo had just turned three and I had taken some time off my studies. I was still blogging about my lap-band and The Babbling Bandit was still at blogspot and predominately a weight loss blog.

The first half of the year had its challenges. I had chronic Restless Leg Syndrome, resulting in anxiety, insomnia, headaches, depression, concentration issues and I was basically a moody pain in the arse. When I finally got diagnosed with iron deficient anaemia and had an iron infusion resulting in a good night's sleep, life started to improve.

Despite the slow and steady improvement to my mental health, I didn't bother blogging over March, April or May. Probably because I was sick of my own whinging and figured no one else would want to read about it either. My weight was on the increase because of a bout of gastro that meant I had to have a heap of fluid taken out of my lap-band making it easier for me to eat bread, pasta, rice, cake. There's nothing more motivation sapping than writing paragraph after paragraph full of the same excuses over and over again in an attempt to justify why I'm not doing what I wish I was. It just leads to paralysis by over analysis and nothing changes.

Also during those non blogging months, with my sister on maternity leave I was spending a lot of time with her and my beautiful baby niece. In between doctor's appointments and Noo time, Yo and I got to have a lot of quality sister time, which included many a piccolo latte. This has been the best part of 2012. The time spent with Yo of course, not just the coffee!

In June I decided to get back to my blog. This place here where I write my babblings and spill my guts about my sordid past. Deciding to switch from lap-band blog to general 'personal blog' has been the best decision I have made about this site. It opened up a huge bank of memory files at the back of my brain giving me plenty of juicy content to write about. And I could stop carrying on about my dieting failures.

Attending the Nuffnang Blogopolis conference gave me the courage to just write whatever came to me. To be true to myself and my voice. To stop being scared of my story or what other people might think of it. Because the past is just that: Passed, gone, over. It is the now that matters. And my now is pretty good.

The Babbling Bandit became babblingbandit.me the week I attended Blogopolis. I thought about what I wanted to focus on writing about and came up with four main categories: sole parenting, weight issues, addiction, mental health. I rebranded with a new banner created all by me. I was quite pleased with how it turned out, incorporating the tattoo that is on my left hand into the logo (check it out above). I chose a .me web address because this site is all about ME. Call me a self indulgent narcissist, I don't care. I probably am one. I think you have to be somewhat self involved in order to be bothered to type all this stuff up anyway!

The Babbling Bandit banner before I switched from weight loss blog to personal blog and I'm still hovering around 80-85kg!

It was around the middle of the year that I discovered a whole heap of Aussie blogs that I'd never even heard of before. The big ones: Woogsworld, Edenland, Styling You, Good Googs, Random Ramblings of a Stay At Home Mum, just to name a few. And some smaller Aussie blogs: Mum of Adult Kids, Diet Schmiet, Camera Chronicles, A Study in Contradictions... Finding these bloggers led me to other bloggers, who lead me to even more cool blogs.

Moving out of the somewhat small niche of lap-band blogging into personal blogging gave me an entry into the Australian blog community that had previously alluded me. The community I have found online has been wonderful. Supportive, entertaining and educational, I have loved it all.

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That was the first half of 2012. The next six months will follow shortly.


Looking back, how was your 2012? 

Do you like going back over the year that's been in order to plan for the year to come?


V.