The Goings On

I am a bit ashamed to look back on my productivity for the month of March only to see very little.  I’ve been quite absent for a number of reasons, but I am hoping to get back into the swing of things during the month of April.

March is always a busy month for us as a family.  We begin the month with two birthdays (my father-in-law and his father-in-law on March 2nd), double up on birthdays on the 14th (Rapunzel and her godmother), and close up on March with two more birthdays on the 23rd (Prince Charming and his younger daughter).  We also celebrated my nephew’s first birthday shortly after Rapunzel’s.  Nothing like celebrating so many people in one month!  Add into that the preparation for Easter, and things are full from the beginning.

This year March was an adjustment month for me as I moved from working part-time to focusing on my kids and the blog.  I have to say the kids ended up being more of a focus than the blog did.  I was really trying to get into a schedule but things kept coming up that prevented that.

At the beginning of March, I stopped by Princess Anna’s school to read to her classroom.  I also walked to the school every day for a week to pick her up.  (She loved it at first but hated it by the end of the week.)  We had snow a couple of days, which threw me off (at least the first time, because the kids ended up at home).  I began working out three days a week instead of two but unfortunately that came to an end a week and a half ago when the doctor told me I had to stop going to the gym.

I’ve had some back issues since January, and about a week and a half ago at the gym, I did something that aggravated it even more to the point where it hurt to walk.  The doctor prescribed a steroid, an anti-inflammatory, and a muscle relaxant for ten days and told me not to go to the gym.  I spent the first few days on my back trying to rest and the rest of the days overworking my back trying to catch up on everything I had missed while resting.  (Vicious cycle, no?)

Basketball ended in March.  Soccer started in March, and softball started last week.  Prince Charming and his daughters participated in the 30-hour famine at the beginning of March, and I attended a spiritual armor conference mid-month.  We’re also closing in on the children’s play at church, so we have been attending rehearsals every week.  There have been numerous things to add to the calendar: Easter get-togethers, church events, sports practices and games, birthday parties, and a number of other events.  I have also been trying to do some side work for my dad and set up Thirty-One and Usborne parties and sales.

Rapunzel finally earned enough money to buy some fish.  We’ve spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out how to keep them alive.  Out of four fish, two are still alive.  50%.  Could be worse.

Somewhere amongst all of that I managed to make meals, keep the house decently clean, do the laundry, budget, pay bills, balance the checkbook, meal plan, grocery shop, run to appointments, and spend time with the kids and Prince Charming.  I feel tired just thinking about it.  And to top it off, I didn’t do any reading.  *Insert major disappointment here.*

The key to getting past all of this though is not focusing on my failures for the past month but instead looking ahead to what I can accomplish in April.  Lord willing my back will heal soon, and I can return to the gym, but in the meantime, I plan to use that time to catch up on the blog and some of my reading.  I also uploaded 600+ pictures this morning (all of which I’ve taken in the last month!), so I’ll be busy sorting through, editing, and distributing those.

How was your March?  What were some of your successes?  What do you want to improve on in April?