This past year was full of goals. Some I accomplished and some have left me wanting.

For instance, I set out to run my first 5k last year. Not only did I do that, but I succeeded in running 10 5k’s in 10 months!

In the process I also lost 30 pounds and won 2nd place in the Mamavation Move It and Lose It Challenge at the beginning of the year.

This process of creating a healthier body also helped with my mental health. I was finally able to get my depression under control by recognizing my triggers for it. HUGE accomplishment.

Looking back now I realize that this past year was really about making myself better which in turn really helped me be better for my family and marriage.

So where does that leave me for 2012?

I am going to continue working to increase my health. There are several races that I hope to run again because of the location and how much fun they were, but my year isn’t going to be solely about that.

This year I will be striving to reach my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This will be the year that is focused on building my brand and business.

What does this mean for you, my readers?

Well, not too much really. My big goal for this year is to increase the amount of content here on Mad Hatter Mom. Making it more personal instead of just having the majority of my content being reviews and giveaways. Now, I promise I will still be offering great giveaways from great brands and companies. I’m just hoping to spread them out a bit more in between more relatable content.

To each of you I want to close this, my first post of 2012, with a huge THANK YOU!

You all are the driving force behind this site. It’s your comments on posts, your shared links, and well, just your overall awesomeness that propel me each week.

I wish nothing but blessings and opportunities for all of you this year and can’t wait to see what we both accomplish!

REACH FOR YOUr POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW!

We’ve all heard the old adage, “It take a village to raise a child,” if you ask me the same can be applied to blogging. However, in that case it would be, “It take a community to build a blogger.”

When I began Mad Hatter Mom almost 3 years ago, I remember joining every community related to mommy blogging that I could find. There was one commonality that I kept running into, each community was SO large that I felt completely lost in the pond. I mean, I realized that I was indeed a very small fish in the pond of blogging but I was looking for help, support, and even encouragement. Most of the communities had so many voices trying to be heard it was easy for mine to be drowned out.

I wanted to get started doing reviews so I joined Amy (@MomSpark)at Mom Made That. She offered a list of mom made product that you could review from her site. Less than a year later I received an email from her saying that she was creating Mom Spark Media. MSM was going to be a community that not only featured brand campaigns but a place to meet and learn from others.
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