Even though I did my best to relax in March, the time flew by! I also feel fairly accomplished for the month, even if I didn’t quite reach all of my goals. Most importantly, I focused on quality time with Dan this month! Considering how stressed I was in February, I think a mostly-relaxed March was greatly needed for us both.
March Recap:
For my career:
- I got a little behind in my freelance writing course, but I mostly kept up with the videos and homework.
- I successfully pitched my first article to xoJane!!!! I submitted my article Tuesday night. It posted yesterday afternoon! And yes, the comments are after me with their pitchforks. It was supposed to be an Unpopular Opinion, but it got posted under Issues instead. And the editors definitely changed both my headline and my dek (the tag line under the headline) to be more pro-NRA. My dek was originally anti-NRA.
- I didn’t start my social media marketing course that I purchased last year, but I DID read through the Instarevealed guides that I bought this month. (affiliate link)
- I’ve been working on Quit Your Job to Blog, although I haven’t done as much as I would have liked. (affiliate link)
- I have over 1,100 Twitter followers!!! I greatly surpassed my goal of 900!
- I have over 4,300 Instagram followers! I greatly surpassed my goal of 3,000!
- With the exception of this week, I did only blog 1-3 times per week. Yes, my page views suffered, but it was nice not being stressed about blogging 3-5 days a week.
For my health:
- I got more lab work done. One Crohn’s number is better now, so that’s good. I’m still Vitamin D deficient, but my Vitamin D levels increased slightly from my previous lab work. I don’t need to see my gastroenterologist until after my next colonoscopy in May.
- I so did not do yoga three times per week. I started off March really strong, with walking and yoga and Wii Fit. Then I was sick from multiple things for a week. Aside from lots of walking during two zoo trips, I’ve barely exercised the last three weeks.
- I was better about being in bed by 9:30pm each night, but not so great about turning out the lights by 10:30pm.
For my marriage:
- Dan and I celebrated our two-year anniversary! We went to the zoo the Sunday before our anniversary. We had a nice dinner at home on our actual anniversary. We’ve spent a lot of time together this month. It’s been lovely!
For our household:
- I cleaned the 2 bathrooms we actually use. We didn’t have any guests this month, so I didn’t get around to cleaning the guest bathroom.
- I think I spent exactly 0 minutes organizing the office. I did, however, work on organizing paperwork that creeped into our living room.
- We stayed over $60 under-budget on our groceries! We didn’t buy any new alcohol (which means that as of Wednesday, we’ve been completely out of beer). We’ve eaten both pizza and boxed macaroni & cheese each once a week. Juggling convenience, money, and health is tricky when it comes to food, but we’re working on it!
- I dusted most of the townhouse, but not all of it.
- I did not declutter our bedroom. It is a mess.
For my book challenge:
- I read 3 books! I didn’t quite hit my goal of 4 books, but I think 3 is still pretty good.
April Goals:
For my career:
- Pitch an article to another feminist/women’s website. xoJane is a great start, but $50 for 1,000+ words and 5 photos is not an amazing rate. Plus I want to develop a diverse writing portfolio.
- Start blogging about blogging. I wrote a post on Twitter this week, and I already have a similar post for Pinterest and for Instagram written. My friend Carolynn suggested I blog about SEO, too, which I’ve thought about doing for awhile.
- Hit 7,000 followers on Instagram. Use all the Instarevealed guides to do this! (affiliate link)
- Hit 2,000 followers on Twitter.
- Finish my freelance writing course.
For my health:
- Schedule a colonoscopy for May.
- Figure out the stupid health insurance to get mail-order prescriptions.
- Do yoga 3 days a week. If I meet this goal in April, since I didn’t in March, I can buy yoga pants.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables. I was doing so well with Whole30, and then for the first few weeks after Whole30. But now I probably only eat 2 servings a day of fruits/veggies. Yikes!
For my marriage:
- Continue to spend quality time with Dan.
- Keep in touch with him while I’m at the beach. He’ll be there for the wedding weekend, but I’m going early and staying late. I know it’s hard to be the one stuck at home/work instead of traveling.
For our household:
- Clean the guest bedroom and figure out what needs to be done in May to baby-proof it. Dan’s brother and SIL are visiting with our baby nephew in May! We pretty much only clean the guest bedroom before a visit, and crap has piled up in it, so I want to make a lot of progress in April.
- Declutter and clean the living room. Again, figure out baby-proofing strategies.
- Get all the laundry done before I leave for the beach.
- Clean all 3 bathrooms.
For my book challenge:
- Read the last 4 books to finish the challenge! Here’s hoping I have lots of time to read at the beach!
Those are my goals for the month! What do you want to do in April?
Linking up here here and here!
Were you frustrated with the changes to your article? I’m not a fan of editors editing so it changes the meaning of what I wrote, but I’ve been lucky to mostly work with editors that won’t do that.
Luckily they didn’t change much of the article itself, but yeah, I was definitely frustrated that they made both my headline and my dek more polarizing. I feel like those two things set the tone for the entire article, so they made the entire article sound pro-NRA instead of what my conclusion actually was. (My conclusion being that I can support individual members of the NRA while still criticizing the politics of the organization).
Happy 2 year anniversary!
Wow, so they made changes to your submitted post that changed the entire slant? Because that’s messed up, and if that wasn’t what you intended to get across they should have asked you first. Ouch.
Wanna come link this up to #gratitudegoals?
Thank you!
Yeah, it’s amazing how such a small change can actually affect the overall impression. They barely changed the article, but by changing the headline and tagline, the tone of the whole article changed. I knew that xoJane’s editing was not always great for writers, though. But they’re a feminist site that actually pays their writers, so I knew it would be a good place for me to submit article ideas.
I would love to link-up! Thanks for reminding me every month 😉
You did so well on your goals even though you had a sort of restful March! Go you! Good luck this month.
Thank you! Setting minimal goals helped. 😉
Happy 2 year anniversary! It looks like you did really well on your goals and you accomplished some seriously awesome things like writing for XO Jane!
Thank you! It’s been a good month for sure 🙂
Scary how a small change can do that. Keep up the goals. I started last month and now it’s April 2nd and I haven’t finished with my updated ones. OH MY!
I get so much cleaning done the last day of the month when I realize I haven’t met all of my goals yet 😉
Oh. I have only read half a book so far this month? But I did get some ideas for new crochet projects and I went on a walk almost every day. Also my baby is strangely awake at 5 am yay blog reading! I can’t wait to read your blogs about blogs 🙂
A daily walk is awesome! Also, I imagine having a baby makes reading a lot of books a challenge. 😉
Happy 2nd anniversary! I love that you’re rewarding yourself with yoga pants when you reach your exercise goals! You got this 🙂
Ha, yeah, I failed in March, so hopefully the reward will work this month.
Happy 2 years!
You did great on your goals! Congrats on the instagram and twitter followers and on your published article for xoJane!
Thank you so much! March was a pretty good month. 🙂
Wow, you got so much done! I only made a few goals, hahah!
It’s all a process. I’ve gotten better about making the right amount of goals instead of pushing myself too hard. Plus after a few months of fixing one thing, it becomes a good habit overall. It’s amazing looking back on a year and seeing how far I’ve come. So just remember that any progress is worth celebrating!
These are fantastic goals. Happy 2 year anniversary. We are celebrating ours this month. 2 years for us too.
Woah… reading some of those comments on the site is… interesting to say the least. Sorry that they changed the headline and tagline…
Happy anniversary to you!
Yeah, the comments on xoJane are pretty much always terrible.
Happy Anniversary!
Sorry they changed the headline and tagline! Esp without letting you know. It’s funny that after people read that, their minds were made up. Titles are damn effective. I remember the same thing happened to me when I was on BlogHer; they deliberately changed my title and such just to sound more controversial (and stupid). I was writing about how one side effect of encouraging girls in STEM fields exclusively means dismissing girls who pursue other paths. But then everyone thought I was saying we shouldn’t support girls in STEM at all. Ugh. Editors just trying to start shit is so not cool.
What do you think of Quit Your Job to Blog so far? I’ve been debating signing up!