Kate Gosselin: 'I made so many mistakes'

Faced with the prospect of going back to her old day job -- as a nurse -- former reality star Kate Gosselin appears to be taking a healthy bite of humble pie.

"I'm living very carefully these days," the latest People cover girl tells the mag about managing her finances in uncertain times.

Her change-of-attitude comes two years after TLC canned the reality show that made she and her eight children with ex Jon Gosselin famous. She was also fired last fall from a blogging gig with bargain website CouponCabin.com.

She says she's "piecing and patching" her income together, but that won't work forever. "To not have a reliable income is scary," she says.

Gosselin, who famously (and relentlessly) nagged her husband on-air on Jon & Kate Plus 8, also admits that her attitude may have gotten in her way a few times. "I made so many mistakes, of course."

But, now it sounds like she's ready to move on and leave the past -- good and bad -- in the past.

"It feels like a whole other lifetime ago," she says. "And sometimes I don't even remember much of it. Both when the babies were first born and during the divorce, I was on survival mode. I feel like I've lived two lifetimes already. I'm not the same person I was ... I don't even recognize her."

In listing her mistakes and describing her past self, Gosselin seems to have failed to mention her much-maligned "reverse mullet" haircut, however. Strange.