1. Serial– This podcast ran from October through December 2014. I didn’t catch this series while it aired, but last month I devoured it within 2 weeks. Any spare moment I had was spent listening; at the gym or cleaning house.
   • This nonfiction story takes place in Baltimore, Maryland in 1999. The victim is a young girl named Hae Min Lee. Her 17 year-old ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, is later arrested for her murder and sentenced to life in prison. Sarah Koenig revisits the case while questioning the ruling.
2. The Lively Show– After finishing Serial I was eager to find another podcast. The Golden Girl blog recently did a post on inspirational websites. She mentioned Jess Lively and The Lively Show podcast.
   • The Lively Show focuses on living life with intention. I’ve only listened to four episodes but have enjoyed them all. I would  encourage bloggers to listen to episode #3 where Jessica interviews Liz Schneider from Sequin & Stripes. This episode was very inspiring and honed in on being a entrepreneur while growing your blog.
3. Mindy Kaling’s book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) – This was recommended to me by Mil and Jules from South by Northwest. At half way through, I’ve found it to be an easy read and quite hilarious.
4. Tazo Refresh Mint Tea – Until recently, I didn’t like mint tea. My mother-in-law left a box of it at our house and I decided to make a cup. I’ve found it to be refreshing and have gone through several boxes. Other teas in my rotation: chamomile, ginger, and Lady Grey (my mom introduced me to that one).

If you have any other podcast or tea recommendations let me know in the comments.

Photo credits:  Image 1 / Image 2/ Image 3 / Image 4

It’s almost 2015 so I thought I would revisit this post and share my progress. The two goals that I shared were:

1. Get 7.5-8 hours of sleep per night
2. Workout 4-5 days a week

The month of November was ok for working out, but in December I really tapered off. Getting to bed early was the most challenging. I will be working on both for 2015.

Here are some more 2014 goals that I didn’t share.

1. Start blogging. 🙂
2. Lose 18 pounds – I’ve already lost 11 pounds through diet and exercise. I still have 7 more to go. I fell off my routine over the holidays but plan to get back on track in the new year.
3. Get out of debt – I am slowly making progress on this one and I am proud of what I have accomplished so far. I’ll go into more detail in a future post.
4. Worry less – this is an ongoing goal. I hope to keep things at bay through diet, exercise, adequate rest, massage and acupuncture.

Did you cross off any resolutions from last year?

Hooray! We finally got our Christmas tree. I had my doubts for this year. I don’t think we’ve ever waited this long to get a tree. This is our second year with a real tree (going on 3 if you count the tree branch).

This year we are in a smaller place. I was hoping to get a tree that was on the smaller side but what we ended up with was on the larger side. When we arrived at the nursery there were about five trees left. My husband did a quick scan of the perimeter and decided on a somewhat large tree. I would have passed and gone elsewhere but my husband didn’t want to make another stop. I mentioned that the tree was kind of big, but he was ready to check out.

Getting it in the condo was the biggest challenge (there were lots of pine needles shed, and we have a new dent in the wall). Once everything was done captain obvious made a key observation – “that is a big tree.” We just looked at each other and laughed.

Christmas Checklist (2 days left):

1. Decorate tree
2. Send Christmas cards (if I feel like it)
3. Wrap gifts
4. Purchase cards for a few more folks
5. Clean up the house
6. Relax 🙂