Giveaway: Leaf and Love Lemonade

Enter for your chance to win 1 of 5 lemonade prizes from Leaf & Love Organic Lemonade!

My guest on episode 6 of the Juicebox Podcast (out today) is fellow D-Mom and entrepreneur, Sara Williams-Curran. I spoke to Sara about her daughter's type 1 diabetes diagnosis, how her desire to have her daughter drink a juice box without needing insulin led to starting a company and much, much more.

After we recorded the show I asked Sara if she would like to give away some of her lemonade on Arden's Day and she very kindly agreed!

There are multiple ways to enter this giveaway and some methods even allow entries once a day. The more times you enter, the more chances you'll have to win!

Prizes include:

(1) Case of 32 Leaf and Love Organic Lemonade Juice boxes
(4) 8 packs of Leaf and Love Organic Lemonade Juice Boxes
(1) Autographed copy of my book, Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Dad

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Listeners of episode 6 of the Juicebox Podcast will be given a coupon code that will take $4.00 off a Leaf and Love 32 pack purchase on Amazon.com. Code Valid until April 5, 2015. Listen now

Rules: US residents only. Five winners will be picked at random. First name drawn will win a case of 32 Leaf and Love Lemonade jukeboxes and the next four names chosen will win an 8 pack. And the last name drawn wins a copy of Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal. 6 total winner. Winners will provide a mailing address that will be given by me to the owners of Leaf and Love for shipping (book winners info stays with me). Arden's Day and Leaf and Love will not retain your personal information. Winners have 3 days from notification to provide shipping information or a new winner will be drawn. Prizes do not have cash value, no purchase necessary. 

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My Interview with Ryan Reed

Fresh from his first NASCAR victory, 21 year old Ryan Reed sits down with me to talk about his type 1 diabetes diagnosis, racing with diabetes and what it feels like to win his first race. 

You really do not want to miss a second of my conversation with Ryan. You'll learn everything from how he reacted when a doctor told him that he couldn't drive a race car after his diagnosis, to what 190 M.P.H. feels like - and just how does he keep his blood sugar from crashing in a 150º race car?

Seriously, if you haven't tried my new podcast yet, this is definitely the week to jump in.

One your mark...

Get set...

GO! listen to the podcast

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The Art of Dana Lechtenberg

The internet is a magical place for so many reasons, here's one of them...

I listen to a number of podcasts and one day I was drawn to purchase a t-shirt from one of them, a show called FEaB (Four Eyes and a Beard) starring Matt Mira from the Nerdist Podcast and Scott Mosier from Smodcast with director Kevin Smith.

Hold tight this gets interesting quickly.

So I buy this t-shirt and wear it at least once a week because I love the design. Months later on a Friday evening I see a tweet from Scott Mosier congratulating someone named Dana Lechtenberg for winning an award for his art, the accompanying image in the tweet reminds me of stuff I've seen elsewhere online. 

I click...

It turns out that Dana's album design has won an American Advertising Award, and with that I fall a little bit further down the digital rabbit hole that is the art of Dana Lechtenberg. It isn't long before I realize that this might be the person who designed my beloved FEaB t-shirt. My interest is thoroughly peaked, and I begin to devour Dana's art on his website. 

I soon find that aside from creating art for podcasts like FEab and Nerdist, Dana is an accomplished artist and advertising designer and I just can't get enough of what he does. Before I know it my family is in bed and I'm about to do something a bit crazy.

Somewhere between being enveloped by the warmth of his Fantastic Four piece and my instant love of his use of color, shading and dimension - it hits me why I'm so drawn to Dana's art... 

 

It reminds me of my banner image on Arden's Day...

Arden is good sport about having her picture on the top of a website that a lot of people see but once in a while she makes a request for me to find a new image - seems that she doesn't like that she is so young in the picture. I've been promising her for months that I will find a way to replace the image but have asked her to understand that after eight years, it's become more of a symbol than that of a picture. She understands. If I'm being honest I've been in a small, but constant panic about how to replace the image, stuck between wanting to honor Arden's request and not knowing how to do that. 

My love for Arden and desire to fulfill her desire led me to do something that I wouldn't normally do, I wrote to Dana and asked him if he would consider designing new images for Arden's Day and the Juicebox Podcast - here's where the Internet can be magical... he said yes!

Very soon the man behind all of the images that you see here and more that you could see on his website, will be creating original artwork for my type I parenting blog and podcast. I could not be more excited to see what he comes up with! I told Dana that I feel like my image of Arden is what one of his pieces would look like if it came to life. His use of color, warmth, perspective and the feeling of texture that his work evokes - well, I am just beyond grateful for his kindness and simply can not wait to rebrand Arden's Day and Juicebox with his work. 

How can it be possible that my blog and podcast will soon be adorned with the art from the same artist who designs for some of the biggest podcasts in the world? Easy answer, sometimes the Internet can be used for good. But I don't need to tell that to a bunch of people who use it in the way that we do. People living with type 1 diabetes know all about supporting strangers in need.

A huge thank you to Dana for his good will, Scott Mosier for his tweet and Kevin Smith for always encouraging folks like me to start a podcast. 

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The next episode of the Juicebox Podcast goes up tomorrow (Ep4. Texting Diabetes) and then there will be a special episode going up later in the week (instead of the following Tuesday), my interview with Ryan Reed, the 21 year old NASCAR driver with type 1 diabetes who just won the Xfinity race in Daytona. To not miss a minute, go to JuiceboxPodcast.com and subscribe now.

What is the Juicebox Podcast

Many months ago I tried to write about a topic here on Arden's Day and no matter how many times I wrote the piece, it never came out in a way that I was comfortable with.

One time the message was muddled, the next pass lost the tone and once I actually thought I had it but used so many words that I genuinely felt concerned that you wouldn't read it all.

Eventually I gave up and never published my thoughts on the topic even though I believe them to be cogent, important and clear - just never could write them down. Then one day as I was lamenting my failure of communication to my wife Kelly I said, "If I could only tell them (you are 'them'), if we could only talk... I know I could be clear on the topic".

That statement gave birth to the Juicebox Podcast!

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What is a podcast? A podcast is basically a radio show that isn't on the radio, instead it is captured on an Mp3 and made available for streaming or download. My sound files are being distributed through iTunes, Soundcloud, my blog and Stitcher. Though there are many other podcasting platforms, these are the ones that I've opted to start with. When the listener subscribes on the platform of their choice they will be notified each time a new episode arrives. I listen to many podcasts and my hope is to add to the landscape in a positive way.

I began planning my podcast by imagining that I would only record a show when I "needed" to for clarity sake but then I thought about the interviews that I write and how interesting the conversations are with the subjects and wanted to share them as well. As I pondered how to structure the show it occurred to me that I could use the audio format to finally accomplish something that I've been wanting to do for some years - revisit the journey that I've taken while writing Arden's Day so that I could make sense of the things I was going through and relate them to you in a way that you would find helpful. And so that's what I'm going to do. 

I wanted episode one to be an explanation of the show's intended path but I was surprised with the opportunity to interview Adam Lasher from American Idol and needed to adjust my plan. So episode 2 is really episode 1... but you'll figure it out.

So far I've interviewed Ryan Reed the 21 year old NASCAR driver and person with type 1 about his first NASCAR win, his diagnosis and how he overcame a doctor telling him that he couldn't race with type 1.

I spoke about how texting with Arden led to lowering her A1c (it's currently 5.9!).

Had a conversation with Adam Lasher from this season's American Idol (He's the guy who performed with his Dexcom receiver clipped to his guitar).

and more...

I'm hoping that you'll give it a try...

I'll be talking with you about type 1 diabetes, parenting, diabetes technology and have interviews with cool people that live with type 1. In addition, I'm very excited to explore Arden's Day from the beginning and find out what worked, what didn't and what I could have done better (plenty I'm betting). Oh and my super not-so-secret other hope is that you'll want to come on the show and talk about type 1 parenting with me. Email if that sounds like something you are up for!

Okay, if you are a podcast enthusiast please subscribe on your favorite platform, new shows are  weekly on Tuesdays.  If you are still wondering what a podcast is... give it a try. You can listen in the car, at the grocery store or in the kitchen (I listen to mine in the shower). Any questions, just ask!

Follow Juicebox Podcast on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @JuiceboxPodcast and online www.JuiceboxPodcast.com. RSS feed for the podcast is here.

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Adam Lasher on American Idol

It was only a week ago when Adam Lasher first appeared on American Idol. Lasher's pre-audition interview with Ryan Seacrest revealed that he is the nephew of guitar legend Carlos Santana, but his famous Uncle was just the beginning of what would be a rather strange and wonderful audition.

The next three minutes were a whirlwind of oddities that culminated in Adam performing his original song 'These Shoes' and a golden ticket to the American Idol Hollywood round that airs tonight on Fox.

Adam wore a bright blue headband that appeared to be more functional than style oriented. His face and dark beard instantly reminded Jennifer Lopez of Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, her comments must have made it back to New York because the next day Fallon was dressing up like Lasher on his show.

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Adam and his Uncle Carlos courtesy of AdamLasherBand.com

After the Jimmy Fallon frivolity came to an end Keith Urban asked, thinking it was Lasher's phone, about a small case clipped to his guitar strap. It wasn't a phone in the case, rather Adam has type 1 diabetes and was wearing his Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM) so that he could watch his blood sugar level.

When the time came for Adam to play the judges finally realized that the thumb on his playing hand was broken and wrapped in what Harry Connick Jr. called, "a raggedy-ass lookin' cast" but non of that mattered because soon, despite his broken thumb, tossed hair, type 1 diabetes and an only so-so Fallon impression, Adam Lasher's music is revealed to be as soulful as it gets and he earns a ticket to Hollywood Week. 

Tonight a rabid base of Idol viewers, many who live with type 1 diabetes in their lives, will be cheering for Adam to move on to the next round.

You can hear Adam on The Juicebox Podcast talking about his Idol experience, diabetes, how he broke his thumb and much more.

Update

Adam performed 'Wicked Games' during Hollywood week and was put through to the next round! Check out the video... stay until the end when Harry Connick Jr. says, "I think he's a super star... I think he's got something". Good luck to Adam as he competes!

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