Happy New Year + 2019 Plans.

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Happy New Year Dear Readers,

I hope the first four days of this year have been good to you so far, and that 2019 will be a fantastic year full of happiness and blessings. May it be a year you come closer to your dreams or that they come true for you. 

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I am looking forward to 2019 with a sense of hope I haven’t had in the past few years. I have suffered from anxiety and depression in the past and it has been hard for me to battle. Last year my goal was to start thriving, instead of just surviving, which is how I have been living for most of my life. And I can say, probably from the middle of 2018 onwards, I am thriving more than I have ever before. And I am looking forward to the year ahead. 

This time of year used to be so depressing for me. All I could see were my failures – another year gone by without being published – but my perspectives have changed and even though it hasn’t happened yet, I know it will happen, and as a believer in God, I know it will happen in His timing, not mine. I am no longer captive to the need to be published and be published RIGHT NOW. Thinking like that was just adding stress in my life that I didn’t need.

Letting go of things I can’t control has been so freeing. I used to carry so many burdens I didn’t need to carry. 

To start thriving I needed to change things:

• I grew deeper in my relationship with God.
• Started working out – more for my brain than my body. This has been so good for my mental health.
• Started decluttering my house. I used to want, and hold onto, so many physical things. Now I just don’t want all that clutter around me. I am embracing the minimalist life.

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As for the blog:

I realise I haven’t posted anything since May.

Sorry about that.

I had a lot of things happening in my personal life and I needed to focus on my family for a while. I should have posted about going on a hiatus, but I couldn’t even bring myself to do that. Blogging had become a chore and I just couldn’t even face it. 

BUT I STILL WANT TO BLOG. 

My goal is to post 1x a week for now and see how I go.

THE BIGGEST CHANGE: 

I am no longer reviewing for publishers/authors on this blog, except maybe in special circumstances. 

I will still be doing reviews, but of books I want to read and have borrowed or bought myself, and that I loved and would recommend to you. I still have a few reviews for books from publishers that I said I would review, but once I’ve posted those, that will be it. 

Reviewing for publishers/authors was great while I had the time, but the biggest downside was I never had enough time to read my own books, and I have so many I have to read, so I am focusing on them. Reading is meant to be for pleasure. And reviewing was no longer fun.

I LOVE GIVEAWAYS AND I STILL WILL BE DOING THEM FROM TIME TO TIME.

So, if you have stuck by me through all the quiet, I hope you will continue to stick by me.

Thanks,

Rochelle.