It’s the last day of 2012 and for the past week or so, many bloggers have recapped their year in various ways: memorable moments, top blog posts, evaluations of New Year’s Resolutions. A list of top posts won’t work because I only started this blog in August, having ended Lemonade Life in January. Memorable moments also seems difficult, because there is no way to elaborate on anything happened in those missing six months. As for New Year’s Resolutions, I can’t do those because I didn’t make any! I’m still in the midst of my 101 Things in 1,001 Days (34 down, 67 to go!), and while I know I won’t finish the entire list, it’s still my top priority and guides most of what I do during the year.

During the 2011 Holiday Council with Molly Mahar, I did create a mantra for 2012: Healthy Choices. It seemed more appropriate than coming up with a to do list, since my 101 Things serves as a pretty hefty list as it is. Some of the healthy choices I made this year: extracted myself from a couple of toxic relationships / situations, started running (although the food bit is still a struggle — more on that tomorrow!), began seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist and I’m now taking anti-depressants, which are definitely helping. Another healthy choice is pursuing my long-held dream of being a Certified Diabetes Educator. It’s not the easy choice, but in the long run, I think it will be the healthiest for me and hopefully for my future clients!

Although I didn’t sign up for the 2012 Holiday Council, I wanted to create another mantra for 2013, as a guiding light over everything I want to do. The mantra I chose is Mindful Movement.

Initially I chose the word Movement because I wanted something that would have an emphasis on exercise, because fitness is really something I want to pursue more in the New Year. In addition to running, I’d also like to get back into strength training (I’ve signed up for the Best Body Bootcamp with Tina Reale). On my 101 Things list is to try a yoga, a Zumba and a pilates class, so that should keep me busy too!

I also like Movement because it applies to more than just exercise. It also applies to the rest of our days because we’re always on the move. Eating and hobbies are types of movement, and there’s also the movement of life. The trajectory of our lives, the trajectory of our relationships, the trajectory of our self-esteem.

I want to make sure that I don’t live my life on auto-pilot either, so I tacked on the word Mindful. I don’t want to do the same thing every day because it’s what I’ve always done, what I’ve been conditioned to do or believe or say. I really want to be more mindful of my movements, more aware of what I’m filling my time with and cognizant of the direction of my life. I want to make sure that I am still making healthy choices, but more than anything, I just want to be more mindful of the choices I’m making, even after I have made the choice. I want to have complete and total awareness of what I’m doing even after I’ve made a decision, and continue to observe what’s going on around me.

It’s also important to remember that movements can also be non-movements. Choosing not to exercise. Choosing not to spend time on something destructive or unhealthy. Even the difference between choosing to watch TV or choosing to read a book.

I think that, especially now that I’m an adult, most of what I do is just habitual. It’s built on comforts and it’s built on ease. It’s built on what I already know. But it also leaves out a lot of exploration and experimentation in new things that might be even better.

Do you have a mantra for 2013?

Welcome to the last Friday of 2012.

Usually on the last Friday of the month, I host my “Tell Me Something Good” series, where I invite you, my awesome readers, to share something good that has happened during the past month. But in the spirit of New Years and reflecting on the past, I would love for you to tell me something good that happened during 2012.

My Something Good for 2012 is embarking on the path to become a diabetes educator. It is something that I have thought about doing for a very long time, and I’m excited and grateful to have the support of my family, especially my husband. On top of that, I got a B+ in Anatomy & Physiology! It’s a class that, from what I’ve heard, a lot of people actually fail, so I’m also happy that I did pretty well in it!

Tell me Something Good about 2012!

Merry Belated Christmas, everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We just returned last night from a week in snowy Minnesota with my mother-in-law. It was so relaxing and such a nice change of pace from the bustling craziness of New York! Even our afternoon at Mall of America felt pretty chill. Everyone is so cheerful there too. We couldn’t get over how chipper everyone at Caribou Coffee sounded!

Over the weekend, we spent lots of time with Erik’s friends from high school. There was cosmic bowling on Friday (where I met a fellow type 1 PWD — the boyfriend of an old classmate!), then brunch and a Holidazzle parade on Saturday, and then church on Sunday. On Monday, Erik and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Erik was Head Chef, and cooked up roast beef, macaroni and cauliflower casserole, and our famous butternut squash casserole. My hubby is quite the cook. I served as the Pastry Chef, and made up a few dozen sugar cookies and then spent a good chunk of time frosting and decorating them.

Per tradition, we woke up on Christmas morning and unwrapped presents. I made out like a bandit! I’m really happy with my haul: two long-sleeved workout tops, a Nathan’s water bottle waistpack, Domino’s home decorating book, a cashmere sweater and two headbands, two Kate Spade bags (a purple cross-body bag and sparkly clutch, although I might exchange that one for something more practical) and a Kate Spade iPhone case, and a Macy’s gift card. Yay!

Later that evening, we drove to my brother-in-law’s house to see the local family. My husband, if you haven’t heard, is the youngest (by more than 20 years!) of five. He has four half-brothers and a half-sister (who lives here in Westchester near us). One brother is in Seattle, one in Arizona, one in northern Minnesota, and one in the Twin Cities area. My Twin Cities brother-in-law has four kids, and three of them are now married, so it’s quite busy and chaotic with all of us! None of us have kids yet, so we’re enjoying grown-up time while it lasts!

How was your Christmas? Get anything good?

Due to finals and then traveling to Minnesota for Christmas, I’ve sort of missed out on blogging for the last week. But I spotted this survey on Tina’s and then Stephany’s blog, so I thought this would be a good way to chime in with something a little festive!

1. Favorite Christmas album/CD/song?

Definitely Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and specifically Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 24/7. Gorgeous and I loved it even more when I saw them performing live last December!

2. Run on Christmas morning or take the day off?

Obviously, this originated from a healthy living blog. I haven’t run on Christmas morning, but I don’t see myself ruling it out forever, but I would probably run Christmas afternoon. Christmas morning is for presents and breakfast!

3. What do you usually eat on Christmas morning?

I don’t know if we really have anything traditional at this point, but when I was growing up, we had scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls. Yum!

4. Favorite Christmas tradition?

I have a variety of things that I do, but I seem to cycle through them. I don’t know if there’s anything I’ve done every single year. But I love looking at Christmas lights on houses, I love going to Rockefeller Center and seeing the tree, I love watching The Muppet Christmas Carol, and I love decorating the Christmas tree and the house/apartment!

5. Real tree, fake tree, or no tree?

We had a real tree growing up, but now my parents have a fake tree. For Erik and I, we had a real tree the first two years, and then this year, since we’re not actually home, we bought a tiny 3′ fake Christmas tree from Target. Fake is definitely easier to deal with but I love the smell of a real one. I’m not sure what we’ll do next year!

6. Christmas pajamas: yay or nay?

Nope. Just regular PJs for me.

7. Where do you spend the holidays?

This year we are in Minnesota at my mother-in-law’s place, but the last four years, we have celebrated it in New York. Generally doing Christmas Eve dinner at my sister-in-law’s, and then Christmas Day on our own. I’m not sure where we’ll be next year. We’re still figuring out our Christmas traditions since we’re still newly married and we live far from everyone. I kind of like having something different to experience every year though. It’s kind of fun to mix things up and experience new things.

8. Food that you always have to have during the holiday season? Favorite Christmas food/treat?

I honestly can’t think of anything that I always make… I love the Starbucks holiday beverages though. Do those count?

9. Open presents all at once or take turns? Stockings: yes or no?

We always take turns. Just seems fair. And we usually do stockings, with Erik and I sneaking presents into each other’s stockings. But I don’t think we’re doing that this year since we in Minnesota and don’t have our stockings with us.

10. Favorite Christmas(ish) movie?

Definitely the Muppet Christmas Carol! I adore that movie! And I’m so sad that I won’t be able to watch it this year because my mother-in-law doesn’t have any On Demand movies, and we couldn’t find the movie anywhere even though we went to Walmart, Target, Best Buy and B&N! So disappointed. But I think I’ll live!

I finished finals yesterday and I am officially done with my first semester back in school! I think my finals went pretty well, but I won’t know for another week or two what my grades are. I’m definitely on pins and needles to get those so I can start applying to nursing school!

I’ve been a little bit MIA from the blog because of that, of course. I probably could have squeezed in a blog post or two, but after studying and working so hard, blogging just felt a little too mentally taxing. When I started blogging again, I really wanted to commit to posting 5 days a week whenever possible, but I also never wanted it to feel like work and that I had to. It’s definitely a refreshing feeling to not worry about losing readers or being a bad blogger. I know ya’ll understand.

Although I’m very excited to be on Christmas vacation, my first hours of relaxation ended up being unexpectedly stressful.

Because I was hit by a car. Again.

As you might remember, I was hit by a car in October, which totaled our car and we purchased a new one, a 2004 Saab. We love our new car, although we’ve been having some mechanical issues and recently had to spend $1600 to do some repairs. It’s mostly your basic wear-and-tear repairs that you have to do on an 8 year old car, but it was still unfortunate.

Needless to say, I was not happy to have to give our car back to our auto body shop once again.

Here’s how it happened: I was driving to Greenwich, CT for an appointment with my psychiatrist (oh the irony, right?). I’m stopped at a stop sign at busy intersection of the main street in Greenwich. There’s a traffic control cop directing traffic so I’m “patiently” waiting my turn to go. I almost think it’s my turn, but then he motions for the oncoming traffic to go. Keep this in mind. The oncoming traffic. The car driving toward me is a Subaru SUV. I can’t really see who is driving, but it appears to be a little over to the left. As in, it looks like it’s driving toward me. I don’t really think much about it because clearly they can see me. I am in a bright red Saab. How can you not see me? Right?!

Well, he doesn’t see me. Or at least, can’t judge the distance between me and him because as he approaches where I’m stopped, he sloooowly moves back to his lane, but not before bumping into me. And that’s really what it felt like. Unlike the huge jolt of driving 20-25 MPH while a car backed into me (which is what happened in October), I was stopped and he was moving 5-10 MPH, and he also didn’t me as directly as the other car did. So the jolt was less intense, thankfully.

However, I was pissed. I was probably more angry at this accident because it was just stupid. I was really angry at the other driver too, but this time I wasn’t even moving. How do you hit a parked car?! It was just insane. It was an older gentleman, so I don’t know if that played a role. I didn’t really speak to him except for yelling at him for hitting me, so I don’t know if he gave the police officer an excuse. He just seemed to not realize what was going on.

I moved my car over, and the traffic guy called the police. He briefly spoke to me, although I didn’t have much to say other than, “He drove into me.” Because that’s essentially what happened. Of course, both times I could see the car coming toward me, and I wish I had thought to honk the horn, but I didn’t. Both times I just didn’t think the car couldn’t see me and wouldn’t either stop or move in another direction. It’s not my fault, but clearly I need to be less trusting.

Anyway, the tow truck comes and takes my car to our auto body shop, which is next door to our apartment building. The guys come out and of course, I’ve been spending a lot of time there and they were like, “What happened?!” When I explained what happened, the mechanic was all, “Oh poor baby.” And then of course, he saw the damage and how it ruined all his work, so he was pretty pissed too! It was kind of funny.

We’re leaving tomorrow for Minnesota, so it will be a week before we need to rent a car, which will hopefully give the shop time to get started on the car so that we don’t have to rent the car for too long. They said it could be a few weeks. The mechanic doesn’t think it’s totaled, but he said he really won’t know the extent of it until he takes a closer look. Since it’s a Saab, parts are few and far between because the company went out of business. He did say that if the other car had been just a little more head-on, the car would have been a total loss. And the airbag probably would have deployed. So I’m glad that it didn’t!

It’s not exactly how I want to start my winter vacation, but I know that things will be taken care of and I’m try to not sweat it. I’m also glad that I don’t really have to drive anywhere for a month because honestly? I’m kind of over driving.

Maybe this is God’s way of telling me I should move back to Manhattan…

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First things first: Blue Cupcake — my shop of diabetes-inspired greeting cards — was featured in USA Today! Woohoo!

With so much sadness in the world, Makes Me Think, a collection of amazing moments submitted by readers, is a breath of fresh air

Get ready for 2013: 12 Things to Stop Doing in the Next 12 Month

Huffington Post has a list of must-read articles for women

As a hostess, I really identified with this rant on flaky friends

I think we can all identify in some way with this piece of not having a best friend

13 Tweeks We Want to See Twitter Implement in 2013 — yes!

Getting over a relationship that just isn’t working

Hilarious! A Cape Town ad agency creates pseudo-selfies based on famous photographs

Today, Erik and I are celebrating our fourth anniversary. Obviously, since we got married last year, this is our fourth dateaversary, not wedding anniversary.

Last week, I queried my friends on Facebook and Twitter whether or not it was normal to celebrate dateaversaries once you got married. The idea was sparked because there is a JDRF event tonight, and my first instinct was to think, “Oh I can’t go — it’s our anniversary.” But then I thought, well, we’re married now. Maybe we should stop? Do other people celebrate both? I grew up with parents who only celebrate their wedding anniversary. While I wasn’t looking for permission to stop celebrating or to keep going, it was interesting to see how different people handle celebrating anniversaries once you’re married.

My thinking was that we could celebrate the dateaversary with dinner, and then the wedding anniversary would be the larger celebration, with gifts and maybe a trip somewhere (our first anniversary was celebrated in Disney World). I got a wide variety of responses. Quite a few people said they mostly just acknowledge the day, others say they’ll go out for dinner and celebrate it. A few people said they don’t do anything special at all.

The whole conversation actually reminds me of the episode of Boy Meets World where Cory and Topanga were celebrating an anniversary… except they celebrate so many that Topanga couldn’t even remember which anniversary they were celebrating. Turns out, they were celebrating the anniversary of the first time they ate at the restaurant where they celebrate all their anniversaries!

Speaking of restaurants, Erik and I are celebrating our anniversary by eating at Brick Lane Curry House, the restaurant where we had our first date… and we have celebrated each dateaversary there since! I’m a sucker for traditions.

 Happy anniversary, babe! I can’t imagine reigning with anyone else!

Do you celebrate your dateaversary? If not, when did you make the switch?

This week, my 2013 Erin Condren Life Planner finally arrived!

Now, I don’t know how you feel about paper planners, but in the past, I have purchased planners with every intention of filling them to the brim with everything going on in my life and yet… somehow I always manage to forget it exists. I’ll go through a week or two happily jotting things down and then a week will pass, and then a month… and then after awhile I’m almost too ashamed to use the planner that had so many blank days and weeks.

With Erin Condren’s Life Planner, I knew I really need to give it a shot because they are quite an investment. Even at a discount. As it turns out, it wasn’t much of a challenge! I really enjoyed using her planner this year, namely because it’s so colorful and pretty to look at, and she has fun stickers for different events. Even if I would go a week without using it (which sometimes happened), I always came back to it. It’s just fun to use!

For 2013, I knew I wanted buy another, since I had already seen success in keeping my school schedule, work schedule and life schedule all coordinated in one spot. My biggest challenge was figuring out what cover to use! There are so many pretty ones, but in the end, I chose Fleur Feliz in Splash. My planner from this year is Kaleidoscope in Purple. It’s quite a bit of purple though, so I like the mix of colors for next year.

One thing I really liked about the planner is how much space there is. Most planners have small boxes for each day, and there isn’t really a clean way to separate things into categories or time of day. For instance, if the first thing you write is a party, but then later you want to run errands, everything gets out of order.

Life Planners are split up into Morning, Day and Evening. Morning and Day are pretty much my school schedule, appointments and occasionally an interview for DiabetesMine, and then the evening is set aside for things like Junior League, small group and date nights. I also have heard people break up their between fitness goals, the family schedule, and blogging. As long as you keep track of what is what, you can tailor the planner to fit multiple needs.

A lot of people have complained about the size of the planner and I will agree that it is rather large compared to most planners. My 2012 planner is actually 15 months long, from October 2011 until December 2012. My 2013 planner is exactly that: 12 months. And let me tell you the weight difference is incredible! If you are worried about the weight, then make sure you go no bigger than 12 month. It’s still bigger than most, but hopefully not by much.

Here’s the difference in thickness. The 2013 is on the left, and the 2012 is on the right!

Obviously, I haven’t used the planner that much yet and you can find much more detailed reviews by searching Google. But here are a few things I like and dislike about this year’s Life Planner so far:

Likes:

- Monthly overview on two pages. Last year it was only on one, and each day was so small! I never used it because it wouldn’t fit anything! Now the days are wide enough that you can use the stickers on the monthly calendar. I plan on only writing on the weekly section, and keeping the stickers for the monthly over view so things pop out quickly.

October is a busy month…

- The laminated tabs. Hallelujah! Our prayers were answered. No more frayed edges around here!

- Changes in stickers. In my planner, I have a full sheet (5 columns) of birthday stickers, there are more party stickers (yay!), and there is also pay day stickers (which doesn’t really apply to me since I’m a freelancer in school, but I can see this being helpful). The stickers are pretty much the best part of the planner.

Dislikes:

- Less stickers. I had 6 sheets last year with, half of them being blank stickers. This year, I have 4 sheets, and only one sheet is blank, which is something I used a lot for exams in school. You can buy extra, but I’m bummed. Again, the stickers are the best part, so I’m sad I have less.

- Goals and To Do lists are narrow. The 2012 and 2013 planners have the same problem, actually. The list columns that are next to each weekly calendar are very narrow, almost too narrow to be of much use. They only fit a couple of words, so you often have to use more than one line. As a result, it’s not a feature I use very much.

- Price. It’s still damn expensive.

If you’re curious to know more about the woman behind the planner, check out my interview with Erin Condren, as part of my People I Find Fascinating series (quick sidenote: My latest PIFF is with Stratejoy’s Molly Mahar and the giveaway ends tomorrow!).

Do you use a paper planner or an e-planner? Have you ever tried Erin Condren’s Life Planner? If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer! I know it’s quite an investment and I’m sure I didn’t cover everything here.

I first heard about Molly Mahar and her coaching when a bunch of my favorite bloggers started appearing in various Stratejoy blogging seasons. I started following her on Twitter, and then in March, I met Molly at SXSW at a blogger meet-up. Let me tell you now, Molly is exactly the same in person as she is online: sweet, bubbly, and wicked passionate about her calling. I’m thrilled that Molly agreed to answer a few questions for my series, despite the fact that she’s a busy wife, mom and entrepreneur.

In addition, I’ve got yet another awesome giveaway: a year of Joy Juice! Joy Juice is a series of 120 writing prompts to help with “positive growth.” What could be a better prize for a blogger entering the New Year?!

An Interview with Molly Maher

AN) You took a big leap becoming an entrepreneur. What advice do you have for other young women who might be thinking about doing the thing?

MM) Don’t quit your day job! Well… Let me rephrase that — don’t quit it until you feel like you’ve got a substantial side hustle going on. I learned this lesson the hard way! I quit my job and took off traveling with money I had saved (plus the profits from my boyfriend flipping a condo!) and when I got back I was BROKE. I got another full time job while I worked on Stratejoy on the side but only lasted 10 months reporting to someone else… I then spent the next twoish years cobbling together a living with part time sales gigs + Stratejoy. I spent a lot of time being stressed out about money, even though I was living as meagerly as I could.

If I could have done it differently, I would have made sure I had way more money saved up before I quit to make the transition a bit easier. That said, maybe I wouldn’t have hustled as much if I had a hefty nest egg!

In reality — you’ve got to be willing to be comfortable with different choices and priorities for a bit. The majority of people I know who took the leap had to cut back their standard of living to make it happen. For me — it was TOTALLY worth it. I didn’t care that couldn’t buy new clothes and drove my beater car to the ground because I was doing what I wanted to be doing with my time and with my work.

Things have shifted for me, but I’ve been working my booty off for 4 years! Being an entrepreneur is a lot of hard work and a lot of trust in yourself, but if you’ve got the itch — it’s also one of the most rewarding feelings in the world. Just be smart about it so you have enough time to get things right before you run out of money!

2013 is right around the corner… what advice do you have for coming up with effective New Year’s resolutions?

I don’t set resolutions, I set an intention or theme word for the year and then figure out how I want to FEEL! Those desired feelings trickle down to actions and goals and things to stop doing.

There’s more in these two posts about my process: Post One and Post Two

What are you dreaming and scheming for the new year?

I made some predictions for 2013 back on my birthday and I still agree with them! The big thing that is happening immediately is that I’m moving to San Luis Obispo with my husband and son in January. We’ve been loving the California weather, but are looking forward to going someplace smaller. The Central Coast is a dream come true — beautiful coast and rolling hills, wineries, a friendly town, a college for young people vibe, very outdoorsy. Now, if we can only find our dream home!

How do you keep your faith in yourself when starting something new in life?

I embrace beginners mind! Of course I’m bound to fail, make mistakes, do things the hard way — I’m a beginner. I try really hard to be gentle with myself and not indulge in comparisons when I’m starting something new. While I don’t think stopping something is a bad thing some of the time — for me and my business, I kept the faith through those first few hard years by repeating, “I’ll never fail if I never quit.” Kind of a stubborn mantra, but it reminded me to just keep doing the work because I believed so strongly in what I was offering the world.

You spend your days coaching women, but what is one area in your life that you’re working on improving?

One of my big goals for 2013 is to clean up the toxic pieces of my home environment. Having a baby shines such a new light on this! So — we’ll be moving to whole unprocessed food, nontoxic cleaning supplies, organic natural soaps, makeup etc. It’s going to be quite the switch for us — we drink Diet Coke, eat lunch meat, buy whatever is least expensive for so many of those kinds of things. I’m going to go slowly over the course of the year by cleaning up one part of our life at a time. I can already tell it’s going to be a challenge, but one that I’m slowly coming around to!

What’s the last great book you read?

Just one? For personal development, I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map. So, so good. It’s my favorite thing she’s written (probably because I’m totally in alignment with her type of dreaming/planning!)

For novels, I have three books I read recently that I loved. I’m a library junkie! The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman (actually I read this a while back, but it’s soooo good!), In the Kingdom of Men by Kim Barnes and The Twelve Rooms of the Nile by Enid Shomer.

Where do you find the most joy?

In the present moment. Bam.

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The contest is open until Thursday night at midnight. The winner will be announced on this week’s Friday Finds! Good luck!

This is the last PIFF for 2012, but I’ll be back in January with even more awesome interviews with people I find fascinating!

*FCC Disclosure: Joy Juice provided by Molly Mahar.*

This past weekend, my dad was in town visiting and we decided to check out a museum that we’ve been talking about going to for ages. It’s the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which as you might guess is located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in an old brownstone built in the mid-1860s. The premise of the museum is to display the lives of real immigrant families who lived in the tenement during the turn of the 20th century, to show how they lived, how they worked, and the struggled to make a life for themselves.

There are several tours to choose from, each one taking place on a different floor of the building, and each one focusing on two different families. The tour we chose was the Sweatshop Workers tour. We saw two different apartments belonging to two families that lived in the apartment about 20 years apart from each other. The differences were quite stark, as one family worked in their apartment under terrible conditions, and the other family worked primarily in a factory sweatshop in Midtown Manhattan.

Mary Harriman, founder of the Junior League

After we finished, it got me thinking about the time period of the late 19th and early 20th century, and I thought how interesting it would be to have experienced that time and place. Now, going back in time obviously isn’t perfect. Anyone who has seen Midnight in Paris knows that! The turn of the 20th century was a very difficult time for women, what with the lack of rights, education and, of course, corsets. But at the same time, I think it would be so fascinating to have listened and experienced some of these history-making events, the passing of rights for women, children, and workers. It really was the beginning, I think, of when people started realizing the more than rich white men had a say in how this country should operate It was also the time period when the Junior League was founded, which is the organization I just joined this fall. Mary Harriman, the founder, is picture to the right.

Truth be told, I would probably only want to experience another time period if I belonged to the upper class, so that it would be the most technologically advanced! We could see at the Tenement Museum the outhouses that they had to use in the backyard in the middle of winter. Yikes! No thank you.

Obviously I wouldn’t want to stay in the past. I happen to like the advancements of the 21st century! But given the opportunity to travel back in time, just for awhile, I think that would be the time period I would choose to experience.

If you could travel back in time to a different era, which one would you choose?