March Wrap Up & April Goals

Before we get into what I want to accomplish this month let's do a quick recap on my March Goals and what I accomplished last month...

March Goal: Read one book of the Bible every day in March

Outcome: Nope. I read 5 books, which makes it more of a once a week accomplishment than a once a day accomplishment. I'm not being too hard on myself with this one. I've made progress and I'm going to keep it up for the month of April.

March Goal: Read two books.

Outcome: Seriously, what is my problem with this!? Another month has past and I didn't read a single book. I'm too disgusted by this thought to elaborate any further.

March Goal: Journal/Write Creatively 16 days out of the month.

Outcome: I'm giving myself a check mark next to this one! 

As for my 52 in 52 List...I did try a new food (baked brie with apricot jam) and made two new recipes (icing and pad thai). I'm anticipating April being a more successful month because I already have some things 'in progress' but can't actually call them done until next month. 

April has a few unknowns right now. Basically one of two scenarios is going to play out; either everything will continue according to plan OR I'll check a pretty big item off my life goals list...which is the preferred scenario and it will also come with some big changes. So keeping that in mind I'm keeping my April goals pretty simple. I'm going to go ahead and carry all of my March Goals over to April with a few moderations. I am going to keep up with my Bible reading plan and aim to read 10 books this month. On the literature front I'm going to take a different approach. I'm just going to read one book. One. Surely, I can read one book during next next 30 days. As for the writing, I'm not sure I want to put a number of times on that. I discovered last month that It can be hard to count days, somedays I can easily write for a few pages and others the only writing I do is a quick five minutes to answer the question in my Five Year Journal. So I'm going to try and keep track of how many hours I spend journalling and writing. I'm going to aim to spend 30 hours writing and we'll see how it goes. To make my goals a little more rounded and since the weather is warming up I'm going to aim to have at least one day a week with 15,000 steps on my FitBit. 

There may be some changes to this list depending on how the month unfolds, but for now I'm balancing living in the present while being aware of things on the horizon. What are you planning to accomplish in April? 

March Currently

The first part of March was pretty straight forward. I worked a bunch of overtime at the office job and worked on a handful of things for camp in my spare time. And then last week things took a little turn (hopefully for the better) and now life is a little more uncertain. 

Reading... Month after month I seem to fail at reading anything that isn't a news article, Buzzfeed list, blog post or Instagram caption. I can't even come up with an excuse this month and it makes me sad to think about all the reading I'm not doing.

Playing... Occasionally 1010! 

Watching... I jumped back on the Big Brother Canada bandwagon this season, but now I've sort of fallen off. The contestants throw a lot of tantrums and I just can't watch that kind of nonsense. I have been keeping up with Criminal Minds, although I'm not sure I like what's happening there either. 

Trying... To pace myself. I worked a lot this month and my inner introvert felt a little neglected.

Cooking... Nothing too fancy this month. This month my best meal discovery has been a pita with chipotle mayo, cucumber, cheese, red onion and chicken cooked in a sweet & spicy sauce. 

Eating... This month there has been a lot of bagels, yogurt, crackers, bananas. Basically I've been eating like a toddler. The last week I've been getting my act together and returning to meal planning. 

Drinking... Lots of water with cucumber and/or lime, a cup of coffee to start the day and a glass of pop every now and then.

Calling... The dreaded Guiding related phone calls in an attempt to coordinate various schedules and activities. 

Texting... The usual crew. H., R., J. and N.. Sometimes the ladies I carpool with to work. 

Pinning... I didn't do a lot of pinning this month, occasionally some ideas for theme days at camp and little staff moral boosters. 

Tweeting... Mostly just the automatic tweet from Bloglovin' when a post is published.

Going... Hopefully to visit H., however we don't have an end date for work yet. We've been extended so I'll be working past March 31st but we haven't been given a new contract yet, which is incredibly annoying but I'm trying to be patient.

Loving... Daylight!! Saturday I looked outside at 7:33 p.m. and it was still daylight out, which is purely magical.  

Hating... "Work uncertainties. I like to have a plan, complete with specific dates. "You're being extended until sometime towards the end of April" does not make for a good planning base." is what I wrote on March 22...now I'm starting to recognize the work uncertainty might just be working in my favour. 

Discovering... Life plans can change pretty quickly.

Thinking... My mind has been very busy lately. There's a lot of stuff going on up there, which has lead to a lot of motivation to write and colour. 

Feeling... Sleepy. And also hopeful and optimistic. 

Hoping (for)... I'm going to go ahead and be a little vague here but I'm hoping for a big change in April. 

Listening (to)... Podcasts! My favourites are Bringing Up Betty, Stuff You Missed in History Class and Camp Code. 

Celebrating... Easter! 

Smelling... Spring! There have been a handful of days this month where I've been able to open the windows and let in some fresh air. 

Ordering... I do a lot of browsing but not a lot of ordering. 

Thankful for... Family, Friends, Cats, Community, Creativity, Education...

Considering... In this moment I'm considering if I want to shower & get into bed or get out my colouring book and let my mind relax a little more before sleep. 

Starting... To get back into a routine. Working overtime messed with my groove and now that's over I'm reclaiming my leisure time, making meal plans and generally returning to a more well rounded life. 

Finishing... I can't think of anything really noteworthy I finished this month. 

Monday Blogging

There's something about blogging on Monday that feels extra intimidating. Almost as though there is an unspoken rule in blogland that in order to blog on Monday you must have tales of weekend trips to  small Texas towns, photos of gourmet meals and craft beer or at the very least photos of you and your adorable children in pyjamas and then their Sunday best. I don't have any of those things to share, but I'm going to blog anyway. 

I spent this weekend doing the same thing I've been doing every weekend since the end of February - working. Which in many ways is insane and on Sunday morning the last thing I wanted to do was spend another 8 hours at my desk, but I did it. In the beginning it was the make hay when the sunshine category of motivation. This past week I did find out that I will be extended past March 31st, but it's still unclear how much past. As per usual, there are rumours swirling that our end date will be anywhere from April 17 to April 27. It's nice to know I'll be working for another month, it would be even nicer to know exactly when we'll be finished. I'm still hoping to visit H. before camp season but she only has a week off at the end of April so depending on my finish date it may not work out. 

When I finished work yesterday I quickly ran to the grocery store and bought groceries for the week. I need to get back on the eating meals train. It's a fact of life that I am a happier (and healthier) person when I plan my meals, prep stuff for the week ahead and eat real meals. Since overtime has been eating up my weekends I've been eating a lot of yogurt and goldfish crackers....not ideal. I had an early Easter dinner yesterday with J.'s family because they're travelling next week but once I got home I found my kitchen groove and organized/cooked things to make steak fajitas, bruschetta, quinoa & veggies and made a big batch of trail mix to snack on all week. Full disclosure, my "made trail mix" what I'm saying is I mixed a bag of dried fruit with some nuts and seeds then called it a day. 

I then proceeded to sleep for 10 hours and woke up on this Monday morning ready to start the week. Because I kind of love Mondays. I like the possibility of the week ahead and the feeling of having everything in order. Meals in the fridge, outfits hung in the closet...Mondays make my Type A soul burst with happiness. 

So on that note I'm off to gather my tupperware containers, throw on an outfit and start the week. Hoping your Monday is equally as enjoyable! 

March Goals Revisited

I have no idea where March went. For a month with 31 days, multiple snow storms and working a lot of weekend over time it flew by! Which means it's time to revisit my March Goals and see how I fared. (Spoiler Alert: Not well)

Stars = In progress

Squiggly Line = Accomplished

Blank = Nope.

10 minutes of pen & paper... I didn't do this every day, but I definitely got out my sketch book, notebook, pens & paper more often than I have been. I think on average I intentionally put pen to paper 2-3 times a week. The good news is every time I did it was much longer than 10 minutes. Still something I'm going to work on because I would like to make this a daily habit.

Do yoga once a week... The closest I got to this was stretching first thing in the morning when I got out of bed. Far from formal yoga. 

Read 2 books... I'm a little ashamed to say I didn't even pick up a book this month. I have three that I'm saving for my trip but I also have a stack hanging out on my to read table. This goal is going to get taken a lot more seriously once my work contract is over. 

Start trip preparations... This is a clear win! I got travel assurance, approved for a credit card so that I won't have to carry a ton of cash and picked up a few things like sunglasses, a new bathing suit and a comfy but cute plane outfit!

Get enough sleep... Nope. I did not get enough sleep. 

Eliminate 2 bags of clutter...  I totally emptied my closet last weekend and forced myself to try everything on and the only things that went back into my closet are clothes that I liked, fit me well and I could see myself wearing at some sort of event. It was so helpful! I didn't follow the "Toss it if you haven't worn it in 3 months" rule because I have some dresses in my closet that I haven't worn in over a year, but they still fit and would be appropriate to wear to a wedding or something like that so I kept them. The dress that was really a size too big got tossed even though I wore it last month. I did the same thing with all of my dressers and decluttered a lot of clothing. Next up is to go through my desk and scrapbooking supplies. Anything that I'm not using and can't see myself using will get taken to camp for the office or arts & crafts room. 

Update planner daily... Again, I didn't do this every day. I also didn't just do it on Sundays either. It was more of a twice weekly thing. I definitely want to keep improving on this. 

Follow meal plans... An improvement over constantly scrambling to grab things to eat at work while I'm on the way out the door. Still not as diligent and organized as I want, but most days I knew what I was taking with me and had everything packed first thing in the morning. 

Overall I made progress, which I think is really important with goals. It's hard for me as a perfectionist not to accomplish everything exactly as I envisioned it but the reality is it takes time to get into new habits and modify goals so that they fit my lifestyle. Check back tomorrow when I share my April Goals! 

March Currently

Making: Lots of lists! 

Cooking: Work is still interfering with a lot of cooking time, but I did get to make some mac & cheese and I did some experimenting with chicken alfredo pizza. 

Eating: I've been eating a lot of pasta lately. It's been so cold out that a belly full of hot pasta is exactly what I want. 

Drinking:  Still doing good getting my daily water in take. I've also been drinking a lot of chai tea, my daily cup of coffee and the occasional pop. 

Reading: Just blogs. I am looking for some recommendations though! I'm going to have lots of time to read while on vacation this month so I'm definitely packing some books. So far The Fringe Hours is my #1 reading priority but I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Wishing: The snow would hurry up and melt! It's been -25 here all week and I'm ready for sunshine & warmth!

Appreciating: Having a steady, well paying job. 

Waiting: To start packing for my trip!  

Enjoying: Sunday nights with J. watching Friends. Is there any better way to relax after working 7 days straight and preparing to work another 6 in a row?

Wondering: When I'm going to find time to get a hair cut and go to the mall to pick up a few things. 

Loving: Anything that involves the words "sea salt & caramel".

Hoping: The next 6 weeks will go by quickly!

Needing: I need to get a hair cut, buy a new pair of TOMS, clean my room, do laundry...I need to tackle some things on my to do list.

Smelling: Coffee. 

Wearing: Leggings, sweaters and Uggs. I can't wait to wear shoes that aren't my Uggs. The weather lately is making that totally impossible though. 

Following: Up with things! Checking in with someone once is good, checking in again is better. 

Noticing: The days are getting a little longer and the sky is a little less grey and a little more blue!

Knowing: Winter will end. (Just not soon enough.)

Thinking: The above balance is going to be hard to reach. 

Feeling Anxious About: I'm nervous about my trip. It's the biggest one I've ever gone on and although I'm really excited, there are also a lot of aspects that I find myself worrying about. 

Watching: I've been watching Full House on Netflix. I plan to watch the new season of Survivor and catch up with The Middle & Criminal Minds at some point this month. 

Listening to: Right the very second 'Oprah: Where Are They Now" but in general I've been listening to the radio a lot. 

Obsessing: My love for sea salt & carmel grows by the day. 

Celebrating: March is my grandfather's birthday! 

Shopping for: TOMS, flip flops, maybe another bathing suit.  

Learning: A lot about myself and the things I need!

Talking About: Still a lot of camp related stuff. Plus vacation plans. 

Praying: Balance. I just ordered The Fringe Hours and can't wait for it to get here. Before camp happens I need to get better at balancing me time and social time and work time.

Working on: Being more aware, choosing my words wisely, crossing things off to do lists...

Looking forward to: My trip! 

March Goals 2015

I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions. Or January goals. Or February goals. It's a trend I'm breaking for March. Time to be intentional about getting some things done and making myself make time for things I've been letting slide. 

Here's what I'm doing in March.

10 minutes of pen & paper... It doesn't matter if I journal about my day, write a poem, doodle hearts & stars, re-write the same word over and over and over again. I need to physically engage in being creative without technology. I love blogging, photography and all of that stuff but there is something extra healing about old fashion pen and paper. And I'm going to make it happen for at least 10 minutes each day.

Do yoga once a week... I'm not going to set myself up to fail and say I'm going to do this every day. I know I can throw on a yoga video at least once a week this month and give my muscles a good stretch.

Read 2 books... This is self-explanatory. By the end of the month I want to have two books started and completed.

Start trip preparations... Flights are all booked and accommodations are secured. All that's left is the fun part! Deciding what attractions to visit (and not visit). I get to make a packing list! Shop for a few warm weather necessities, get a hair cut...lots of fun preparations!

Get enough sleep... I've been working non stop. It's a make hay while the sun shines situation because once my contract ends in April I won't have the option of working over time, at the same time there's only so many hours in a day. Some of those hours need to be for sleep. I haven't been doing a great job of that lately but it's something that's going to change.

Eliminate 2 bags of clutter... I have a lot of "stuff". Clothes, hairbands, knickknacks, coffee mugs, shoes...and you know what, I don't need it (or in some cases use it), so I'm getting rid of some things. Our church has a flea market in the summer but I won't be around then so now is a good time to round up some donations. And make my drawers/closet a little easier to close.

Update planner daily... I always spend Sunday night updating my planner for the week, but I'm not great at adding to it during the week. I'll look at it but I don't necessarily update it, instead I'll wait until Sunday. Which is silly and I have no idea how I developed such a habit. Starting this month though it's going to be a part of daily life.

Follow meal plans...To be clear, I'm not embarking on any sort of Whole30, vegan, gluten-free, no salt, only eat foods that start with M diet plan. That's not the way I believe in eating. I do eat better when I plan out my meals in terms of knowing what I'm going to take to eat at work each day and prepare things in advance.

What are your goals for March?  I'm joining the #friendswithgoals link up to share my goals this months and see what other belongings are aiming to accomplish!