How I did with my March goals…
I really struggled in some areas this month. It was an intense month with medical appointments. I had things come up that were concerning and needed to see professionals, which in itself was stressful. But for me, the worst part is having to interact with people I don’t know. It takes everything out of me. I lose sleep for days leading up to appointments and my brain slows to a crawl while it hyperfocuses on those upcoming appointments, leaving many of my goals hopeless to complete until I am past the events.
I also need recovery after each encounter as well, which is apparent even today as I hoped to return to my normal after my last appointment yesterday but my brain still isn’t having it.
I need to remind myself that I am not in a race. I don’t need to be productive and forcing myself isn’t going to make it happen either. My brain is simply fried and I need a break. This is also why I haven’t written much for blogposts this month either. I am doing just enough to get by. Regardless, here is what happened with my goals.
Personal
Focus on brain health by:
Taking regular time to:
Nature journal
Dig in dirt
Sew
Write/paint/draw
Do physical activities - usually outdoors
I did really well with all of these activities. They tracked at 100% each week in my habit app. I know by now that when all else fails, these things are what keeps my brain level and my mood even.
Read 100+ books
Complete reading challenge list
I made little progress reading this month, not finishing any books on my challenge list. As much as reading is an enjoyable activity for me, I had an extremely difficult time focusing. I read four children’s books as palate cleansers, got through 2 novels far enough to count them but not finish, listened to 1 excellent audiobook (Station Eleven), and finished 5 novels. In addition, I sampled DOZENS of books (ebooks, paper and audio) to try and find ANYTHING my brain would latch onto. Surprisingly, what it liked the most was science fiction and dystopian novels. Station Eleven, The Day of the Triffids, and An Absolutely Remarkable Thing were just what I needed to escape this month. I absolutely ate these up and am reading the sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing called A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor right now and I love it.
Do at least 2 outdoor date activities with JB each month
JB and I had our 20th wedding anniversary this month. We are more of celebrate our love everyday than once a year people but we did set aside time this year to do something on our wedding anniversary date. We picked up sandwiches from Northern Waters Smokehaus in Canal Park, brought them to Jay Cooke State Park and ate them outside an empty cabin, then hiked all over the park. It was a pretty perfect way to ring in another 20 years of legal partnership. I should note that we have been together for 24 years altogether as I believe all the years of our relationship are important, not just those that are recognized by the government.
We also went for a side by side ride to a nature preserve near our house and had an afternoon snack under a grove of balsams.
And finally, we scheduled all of our camping trips for the year which is exciting.
Art & Writing Goals
While I had many, many goals set for this month originally for my artist website, then I switched to my book…I only met a few because of the aforementioned stress.
I was able to convert my entire blog over to Substack, which is a dual blog/e-Newsletter platform, from Format. This was quite the endeavor and I am glad I did it. Substack is easy to use and meets my accessibility requirements. I can also choose, if I want, to set up the paid subscriber stuff at some point.
I had my book Get Organized reviewed by a professional editor. This was also extremely stressful for me because, even though I stipulated that contact had to be minimal and everything needed to be in writing, my brain still struggled with the process. But it got done and I started work right away on the edits and pushed aside the website work…I am not sure if this is the right choice as I am struggling with all of this stuff right now.
Anything technical, or requiring problem solving, just isn’t happening for me at the moment. I need to look at my April schedule and figure out a better way to work on things without overloading myself. Yet, I still need to keep these projects moving forward. Tricky.
I ordered all of the frames I had received grant money for. They are nice and I will need to put framing in April’s schedule.
Sewing Goals
I am finishing up my tan module this week in my sewing goals. This is one area I am really excelling at. When I struggle to sleep or start rolling around the brain drain on medical appointment stuff, I force myself to think about fabric, patterns and sewing techniques. It’s like spraying water on a fire.
Cooking goals
For cooking, I am still keeping it easy. I mostly bake bread and granola regularly and focus on vegetable heavy meals, lots of soups and sheet pan dinners.
Gardening goals
Ahh, spring is here! I got the side yard where I put in a firepit a few years ago cleaned up enough to have family over on the first day of spring. We made s’mores over the fire and it was pretty nice.
While we still get snowstorms, it all melts in between so I’ve started cleaning up the gardens on the south side.
The area where I want to put in a narrow side garden also melted so I’ve started prepping that for an overhaul by laying down cardboard to do a grass kill.
A few days ago I set up shelves with grow lights and a timer and planted hot and sweet pepper seeds. It’s a nice little setup and I’m hopeful it will be successful for seed starting.