March Looking Back + Goals moving forward

Okay, let’s get this post up! I wrote most of it over 10 days ago (the Monday of my kids’ spring break), so I might as well finish it up and put it out there. Wouldn’t want to waste the initial effort.

March Goals

These were the goals I wrote out in my January Look Back/February Look Ahead post.

• Check the chore app daily and with the kids weekly ❌❌❌ Nope! How many times do I keep trying to do this before I admit defeat?
• Enjoy myself – and learn something! – at the CALIE conference in Palm Springs ✅ I did this! Hooray!
• Hold kids accountable for doing chores weekly (they are supposed to lose privileges on the weekends until chores are done) ❌ ✅ I did this some weeks better than others. I haven’t taken away any privileges, but I’ve reminded them to do their chores and given them their extra allowance when they did them pretty well.
• Add a chore to each kid’s list 1-2x a month ❌ I think I added one chore to the 12yo’s list, but nothing to the 15yo’s list.
• Write 2-3 blog posts a week, ideally on consistent days ❌❌❌ Wow, I just saw on WordPress that I posted a grand total of four times in March ::face palm::
• Respond to comments and/or comment on someone’s blog when they comment on mine ❌❌ I did comment on blogs, but not as much as I want to. And I didn’t respond to comments on my blog, even though I only wrote four times so it wasn’t that hard to respond to comments.
• Do shoulder rehab exercises 1-2x/week ❌❌❌ I did shoulder rehab exercises ZERO times.
• Continue at the dojo without aggravating my knee or shoulder ✅ I guess I did this, even though my knee still hurts.
• Weekend check-ins (on Thursdays) and weekly check-ins (on Sunday) with husband ❌❌❌ Sigh. There are a lot of ❌ on this post.
• Daily planner check + Google Task update on week day mornings ❌❌❌ Nope. I’m wondering if I’m actually capable of integrating a reliable planning/task habit into my life.
• Add March weeks to Tri2 + Tri3 planning document ✅ I just went and did this for THREE weeks so I could check this off. Man, my planning life really went off the rails in March.
• Look into PADI certification for 15yo’s birthday ❌ I tried to just do a cursory look at stuff in the last 24 hours of March and couldn’t manage it.
• Car rentals for Hawaii and St. Louis ✅❌ Got the car for Maui (my MIL told me there was some car rental shortage in Hawaii which lit a fire under my ass) but have not for St. Louis.
• Find a couple Rec & Park camps for the 12yo and sign him up ✅✅✅ The husband has the 12yo’s summer planned to the day! I did not help much with this, but it got done!

Reading / Watching

Books

• Listened to That Mean Old Yesterday, Stacey Patton (this was a memoir for book club. It was really intense and I’m still not sure how I felt about it. Trigger warnings for child abuse, sexual abuse, negative stories about foster programs/adoption, racism, internalized racism).
• Listened to Thunder Head, Niel Shusterman (listened to this while my son read it – second novel in a really great YA series)
• Continued listening to My Friends, Frederik Blackman (this is the book I ended up picking for book club, because I couldn’t think of anything else. It took a while to come off the hold list again)
• Continued reading The Elsewhere Express, Samantha Sotto Yambao (just finished this in early April!)
• Continued listening to Alchemized (Spanish Version), SenLinYu (Ankara Cabeza Lázaro and Patricia Isabel Mora Pérez, translators) I’m really liking this! It’s also 40 hours and I have about 10 hours left). UPDATE: I have 30 minutes left!!!
• Started listening to Project Hail Mary (Yes, I’m late to this party but I’m really enjoying it so far).

Movies / TV

• Stranger Things, Season 5 (first half)
• Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Season 4
• Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Season 15
• Summer House, Season 8 (yes, I skipped seasons 5-7 because of the Amanda/West drama)
• Started Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2 with the family (we love this show)

Connection

What went well:

Connection with the husband this month was pretty miserable. We spent most of the month kind of fighting. We didn’t hang out or go on a date night (or even have lunch together) once. I worked with the 12yo a lot to get him ready for his test, then assisted during his test. I saw the 15yo swim in two high school meets. We spent the morning with my parents for early Easter. We spent a morning at the ILs. I took a day off to hang out with my SIL, niece and nephew while they were here. The husband and I had dinner with his sister before she left. I spent the night at my parents’ house, then took them to the airport early one morning. We ate at In-n-Out randomly one night as a family, and we all went to Lucha Libre one afternoon at the Chase Center. My friends and I had drinks one evening.

What I’m still working on: The husband and I have so much work to do on the connection front. I really need to focus on that in April, especially since I’ll be really busy. The kids will also be busy – especially the 15yo – and I want to make sure they feel like they are getting some quality time with me during each week.

Health/Wellness

What went well: I emailed my sports medicine doctor, requested physical therapy, and went for a first appointment. I also made an acupuncture appointment for my knee. I started weight training in earnest again (at the end of the month), after the physical therapist said it should fine, and after realizing that my shoulder wasn’t bothering m as much anymore.

What I’m still working on: I think in April I’m going to focus on a more consistent strength training program, now that I feel like I can handle the heavier weights again.

Work

What went well: I feel like work was a mess this month, mostly because I was out four days (when my ILs were in town, two days for the conference, and one day for my kids’ spring break). I did not get nearly enough done for yearbook, which means April will be more stressful.

What I’m still working on: YEARBOOK!

Home

What went well: This was also a pretty big bust, although the kids are still doing more chores than they used to.

What I’m still working on: You will probably not be shocked to learn that I failed on my family roll out of the app. Every week I meant to sit everyone down and really talk about how I wanted us to utilize it and every week I failed to do that. I’m really hoping to manage it this month. I think it’s my best bet at actually getting the kids (and my husband!) to do more around the house. (I wrote this paragraph last month and kept it for this month, but also am pretty sure I’ll fail at this again in April).

Fun

What went well: The Palm Springs work trip was fun, despite the crazy heat. The Lucha Libre afternoon was really fun.

What I’m still working on: I think this month I should focus on a couple of fun things during my spring break week, because right now I just have appointments scheduled for most of the days.

Planning/Recording

What went well: I feel like I really stalled out on Planning/Recording this month. But! We did manage ourselves relatively despite the husband being out of town the first week, and totally absorbed in work the last week of the month, an unexpected, week-long strike at our kids’ school district, and a winter storm messing with our snow trip. Also, I wrote a January goals post and managed a February goals post, which isn’t nothing! Also, I have used Google Tasks some, but not consistently.

What I’m still working on: The husband and I are not meeting regularly to look at the work week or weekends. I don’t have a reliable “task capture” system and I’m not checking in with my planner regularly at all. I did not do a financial review in January (and I don’t have a plan yet to do one). I don’t have a good system for actually using Google Tasks effectively yet. I am checking my planner consistently every morning.

Goals moving forward

I’ve decided to revamp my goal setting for the future. I think these monthly posts don’t really work for me. I do like the idea of a quintile system (like SHU uses), but I think for me it makes more sense to plan my quintiles around the academic calendar. I’m trying to decide if my summer break should be Q1 or Q5. Do I think of the summer as the end of the beginning of the year? I think maybe the end… And the fall is Q1, a fresh start as it were. I think of the weekends as being the end of the week, especially as far as my workouts are concerned, mostly so that if I need to “make up” anything, I have two full days to do that. I kind of think of the summer that way too; any projects that don’t get done during they year are pushed to the summer. Some of them even get done during those months!

Anyway, I have more to write about this, but right now I just want to put this up, and hopefully I’ll have a post about my (still being) planned quintile system and some goals I have for Q4 (the end of the school year).