May In Review

I usually wait and pine for Summer, counting each day until I can wear bare feet, the weather is warm and everything is green. But somehow this year Summer has snuck up on me. I am still shocked to see all the flowers and freely move about in the sun and warmth.

In May we worked towards getting the garden started, taking a little time off, gearing up for the high season at our jobs, walk around our neighborhood and work on our home.

May was a great month for #watchercats as they were happily enjoying the weather, too. It was also traditionally a great moth for flower gazing.

We didn’t travel much this month, but we made a lot of good plans for next month.

May felt like a month for starting things, seeds growing, and thinking about new projects. In a way, feeling that way in May feels like I’m behind in the year. Waiting for Summer, I usually have the “starting” phase earlier. But I don’t feel behind this month, I feel like there are many good things to come.

That being said, May flew by, I hope to slow down in June.

6 Months to Zero Waste: Meatless Mondays in May

Last month we figured out how to compost to reduce our food waste. Another food related waste that we can start to combat is the to understand the huge impact the modern industrial meat has on the waste we create.

Some great ways to combat this kind of waste is to go totally vegan, only buy local meat from small farms, only grow your own food, fish for your sea food, etc… But a simple and good first step is to be more mindful of what meat, fish and dairy, you do consume.

It can be Monday, Wednesday, or whenever, but making sure to take one day a week to consciously be aware of what you’re eating and where it’s coming from. If you eat a lot of meat, take one day to be vegetarian, if you’re veg, take a day to be vegan. Eat local one day, eat raw, eat no processed foods, eat only from your garden, eat only foods not packaged in plastic… there are so many ways to be mindful of what you are eating and change your habits.

By simply changing how we think about what we eat, we can become more mindful of the waste our food creates, and become more mindful of how that waste effects our environment and planet.

Since January, we’ve been taking some time each month for small ways we can reduce our waste and move towards a more zero waste lifestyle.

In 2017 I started my zero waste journey. Zero Waste is the goal, mindful practice is the action. When I use the term Zero Waste, that is my ultimate goal, but Less Waste would be a more accurate description of my evolving lifestyle.

Here’s what we have done each month, so far. Feel free to follow a long, do everything all at once, or come up with your own monthly challenge.

January - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February - Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March - Switch to Paper
This month we moved to paper to get one step closer to reusables.
April - Compost
Composting is an easy way to reduce food waste and prevent it from reaching the landfill.
May - Meatless Monday
June - No Bottled Water

Where are you in your zero waste journey?

On My Mind On Friday Morning

I love to see photos of Japan right before and after WWII. It’s a fascinating time for combining fashion and culture. Here are some interesting photos from that time.
A queen in Toms River.
I’d love to eat more foraged foods, maybe I can start in the back yard.
I love that food trends just like fashion. What’s the next hot Super Food??
We did not get out in to our garden yet, we are soooo far behind!! Luckily, some tomatoes and our orange sage are doing their own work.

Meow Meow Tweet Deodorant Review

Disclaimer: My product reviews are completely unsponsored and unsolicited. The opinions are my own from my own experiences.

I’ve long been a fan of Meow Meow Tweet which I first heard about ages ago in Brooklyn. I really enjoy that they have always had minimal and recyclable, plastic free packaging. And with the coolest drawings!

When using up my old products, deodorant is one of the last of them I had to replace to be more zero waste. I love that MMT uses all natural, vegan ingredients, and has a lot of citrus fragrances.

We tried their Grapefruit Baking Soda Free cream deodorant, which is packaged in a glass bottle with a metal top. and comes in a paper box in the store. Despite still being all hand crafted, poured and packaged, you can find MMT in several big store, including Target. I really like that this deodorant is dry and creamy, goes on easily and doesn’t leave my hands feeling gross. I think this creamy works well and you only need a little pea sized amount to stay dry.

My husband can’t get used to the cream and doesn’t like it quite as much as I do. We both agree that the scent is nice, citrusy but not overpowering or too sweet.

I would definitely recommend this deodorant for those looking to switch over to a more sustainable, low waste, hand made, chemical free option.

Bullet Journal Check In: May 2019 - New Book Needed

My current Bullet Journal has lasted quite a few months - November 2018 to May 2019. But now our time together is coming to an end. This current journal will only last until the end of the month. I loved this last journal bc it was thrifted, reused and pretty darn cute. For my next book, I have no idea what I’ll get. Ideally, I’d love to find a used book again, but I’m in a little bit of a time crunch.

Here are a few books I might like to try:

Decomposition Book

Kartotek

Jenni Bick stone paper note book

The last few books I’ve gotten were grid books and I really like to bullet journal with grids. But I’m ready to try a dot notebook again. All three of the above are interesting choices.

Do you have a go to notebook?

Last Seen Wearing

One of my goals in 2019 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I’m happily working my way thru all the Inspector Morse series. Last Seen Wearing, An Inspector Morse Novel by Colin Dexter is book two. This was also read by Kevin Whately, who played the character Sargent Lewis in the BBC version.

Cantancerous Morse would rather not deal with the living. Only the dead and the reason for their deaths make sense to him. So when he land the cold case of a missing girl, he’s less than pleased. But maybe she’s not missing, maybe it’s murder after all?

Morse might be one of the best cops on the beat, but he also needs his sargent to bounce ideas off of. Once he meets Sargent Lewis, he finds his foil. Lewis has seen a lot of Morse’s crazy ideas. Lewis is straight forward, diligent, and pretty unimaginative. He doesn’t understand Morse’s methods, but Morse gets results. In this case, Lewis and Morse couldn’t be more at odds, holding opposing ideas the entire time.
All great detectives are flawed and Morse may be more so than most. He drinks too much, he lusts too much, he jumps to conclusions. He thinks very highly of himself and very little of everyone else. But he sees balance in Lewis. If only Lewis would loosen up!
I’ve really been enjoying these novels! I would recommend this book and this book series for those who like British novels, complex lead characters, or small town murder mysteries.

Do you have a favorite detective series?

Mad Cat Capsule | Spring 2019 (April, May, June)

Spring of 2019 sees the two year mark of my capsule wardrobes. Two full years of culling my clothes, dividing them into more manageable capsules, grouped by season. Two years of trying not to buy fast fashion and close to that of buying barely any new clothes at all. two years of being aware of the impact fast fashion has on our environment and economy. Two years of choosing to still buy certain things knowing they are fast fashion (the shoes that are most comfortable to me for instance) but also seeking out alternatives. Two years of getting back into thrifting, and enjoying the challenge of finding what I need that way, two years of researching sustainable fashion.

I feel like I have used the same method for picking my capsules more or less the entire time I’ve made them. I take all my clothes out, go thru them, put anything and everything I might want into a pile. I then cull that pile down to around 40 to 50 items.

Over the last few seasons I tracked how often I wore each item over the 3 month. It wasn’t many time for each piece. This got me thinking about how I can better utilize my capsule. I’ve forgone going thru all my clothes this time and used my last capsule and a few key pieces I picked up to start a more fluid Spring Capsule.

I waited to create this post to see if this spring would eventually be a complete capsule. So far that hasn’t happened. I’m only sharing what I’ve worn until now. I’m planning on making this capsule more like a long trial for my Summer Capsule.

I didn’t choose a color scheme, an inspiration item, or have any clear plan for the clothing I pulled for this capsule. But I like how the colors do come together and combine to make it a coherent capsule.

Looks like now, I’m at around 35 pieces. At least 30 of those are slow fashion. This doesn’t count shoes. I’m still picking pieces and adding them, and I’ve been taking items I don’t use away as well. I don’t have an exact goal with this capsule experiment, except the larger goal of always moving towards a more sustainable, more useful wardrobe.

What methods and experiments have you tried with your capsule wardrobe?

6 Month of Zero Waste: April was for Composting

Before working towards zero waste, I didn’t know that people were scared of composting. I grew up composting and never thought much of it. Once I started learning about zero waste, I realized that food waste is a huge problem but that most people don’t know much about composting and how that can help.

Many of us don’t think anything of tossing old food in the garbage. If it goes to landfill, whats the harm? Most people don’t think about what happens to our trash after it gets taken away off the curb. Once you start to think about zero waste, you realize that nothing that gets thrown our actually goes away. Doesn’t food just decompose? Landfills don’t allow anything within them to decompose or biodegrade in a healthy way. Bc modern landfills are so packed, food waste doesn’t decompose in the natural way, instead turning to methane gas which can be harmful to the environment.

An easy way to reduce our overall waste is to think abut our food waste. Once we start to examine what food we are throwing away we can start to reduce. This might mean that we buy less, buy unpackaged items, cook only what we need, change the way we eat, grow our own food, shop locally, or seasonally.

A good first step to looking at and reducing food waste is to compost instead of throwing away our unused or rotten food. So what is composting? Composting food is essentially letting food waste rot in a natural way and turn back into dirt. This dirt, or soil, can the be used in food gardens, plant gardens, indoor plants, community plots and gardens, etc…

To make compost, one simply had to find a place to put the rotting food until it turns into dirt. You can buy some fancy containers, or you can dig a hole in the back yard. If you live in a city or apartment, there’s usually a farmers market, or city initiative to take your food waste and make it into compost. Try seeking out community gardens in your area. If you do have a patch of land there are also a lot of resources to learn about composting.

My own compost is just a pile in the back yard. I throw all food waste in there excluding meat (not that we have much of that), dairy, and a few other non palatable food scraps.

January - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February - Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March - Switch to Paper
This month we moved to paper to get one step closer to reusables.
April - Compost
May - Meatless Monday
June - No Bottled Water

We’re still catching up on our 6 months of zero waste, leading up to Plastic Free July. The idea is simple, take a step every month to reduce our waste and disposable plastic consumption. You can follow along or choose your own steps, but remember to start where you are and do what you can. Even little steps are better than none.

2019 Goals | April Recap and May Goals

Goals are funny things. Sometimes they make you feel great, sometimes they make you frustrated and sad. Goals and what the results are when we meet them have the power that we give them. The goals I set here are for myself, to improve my life and my state of mind. Sometimes they are about work, life, or more creative endeavors. But not achieving them in the time frame I’ve put out for myself shouldn’t mean I feel bad or like I’m failing. How do we meet our goals, or not meet them, and feel good about the progress we’ve made, no matter what?

Here are some goals I set for April:

Make and post 1 youtube video
I’ve made several in the past, but tis is really something I want to get into and incorporate into my creative life.
I can’t quite seem to make this goal a reality. I wonder what is holding me back or if it’s just that the right focus hasn’t been placed on it.

Plan our next 2 trips
I want to make sure to get away a little in April and May before the Summer season really sets in.
We have talked a lot about this but not actually done it yet. Let’s roll it over.

Get out into the yard 3-4 times
There’s a lot of yard work and garden work to do and we are running up against the planting clock.
I was able to get out in the yard and, as a bonus, in the community garden in April. We haven’t done much planting yet. I want to modify this goal to keep me getting outside and in the yard.

Get back to blogging 4-5 times per week
Gotta get back in the habit!
This was a big N O for April, let’s try it again for May.

Better health 15 days of the month
I want have some breadless days, some vegan days, some exercise and stretching days, etc…. Overall be more mindful of my body and health. (I’ve eaten totally vegan 1 day of the month so far!)
Yeep, shall we try again?

Move my 50+ plants
Rolling this goal over, too.
This was the one goal that I totally finished this month. I like to do this every few months so that my plants continue to be healthy and happy. Next move will prob see many of them go outside!

Inbox to 500 and maintain
Another goal from last month. I’m ready to get back on track with this in April.
Why is this last 500 emails so hard? Anyone have any tips for this?

OK, here are some goals for May:

Make and post 1 youtube video
Let’s try this one again. What are some videos you would like to see?

Plan our next 2 trips
I want to get this done this month so we can take the time off we will need to.

Plant 6 or more garden beds.
Now that the weather is nicer, getting out in the yard and garden shouldn’t be too hard. I want to make sure we have our beds planted, so that’s the new goal.

Better health 15 days of the month
Ok, getting out into nature will help, eating better will help, morning walks will help, stretching and exercising will help. Now I’ve got to actually do those things.

Inbox to 1000 and and decrease
My inbox has crept back up to well over 1000. I even had to buy more storage, so this task should be easier.

Blog as many times as I can for the month.
I want to eventually have a steady 5 days per week blog schedule, but posting as many as I can will help me settle in.

I feel like I could add a bunch more goals, like getting a new car, trying to find a therapist, or loosing 10 lbs, but I’m going to cap them there.

What are your goals for May?

On My Mind on Friday Morning

A few month ago I bought a safety razor for when my disposables were used up. Today was the first time I used it. Have you used one? Thoughts?
I enjoyed this brief article on living in North Korea.
Any time I hear about The Village People I perk up. One of it’s former members lives in Asbury Park, here is another members story.
I was super happy to see that this Floridian couple can keep their front yard garden.
My job recently got tree plots in a community garden and today was the first day for weeding! We had three little visitors in our yard this month. I didn’t get any pictures, but will keep everyone updated on the progress!

April Plant Update

April was a great month for plant observations. We had plenty of lovely days and got to explore some parks, the neighborhood and our own back yard.

We had a lovely walk at the Manasquan Reservoir.

So many lovely tree blossoms.

And this fluffy thing!

A good sky in the morning.

I’ve never seen a magnolia with so many petals!

The magnolias bloomed early and hard!

I love these tiny ground covers.

And fields of daffodils.

More trees and sky.

We spent some time time repotting our plants.

And we got to move them all around.

We had three little visitors in our yard this month.

It was quite a surprise to see these fellows out and about so early in the morning!!

Is it Spring where you are? What have you been observing? Spot any critters this month?

April in Review

April is over and on to May!

What were some struggles you faced in April? What were some challenges you overcame or figured out? What was some joy you held?

I’m always so glad for Spring and April was a great month for it. But I am even more excited for what may has in store!

6 Months of Zero Waste: March Switch Review

If you’re looking to reduce your waste or your plastic consumption, you might already know that giving up plastic bags is an easy first step.

Whether a this is a first step or a fiftieth, giving up plastic bags just make sense. Every time we go to the grocery, big box store, etc… we are given a plastic bag out of hand. When we pick up some rolls at the grocery, some lemons, or a head of lettuce, etc… we put them in or they come in a plastic bag. The best solution for this is to simply bring your own reusable bags, made from mesh, clothe, recycled materials, and old tee shirt, whatever!

If remembering to bring a reusable bag is still a hard step for you, consider switching to paper.

Granted, this is a lateral move, bc it’s still creating waste, but asking for paper is a good way to be mindful of your plastic intake. In stead of taking a plastic bag for your self serve rolls, cookies, or produce look around the grocery for a paper bag, or ask at the check out for a small paper bag. A lot of times these live by the bakery section.

Many groceries now have a bulk section which usually have a plastic bag to store your items in. You can use a paper bag! Ideally, you’ll graduate to bringing a cloth bag or reusable jar for this, but for now using paper is a great first step!

By choosing paper over plastic at every opportunity in the grocery, your reducing your plastic waste but you can also reuse the paper bags in many ways! We get our groceries in paper and then use those bags for all our trash and recycling. In our area, we can’t put our recycling out in plastic bags, by putting it in paper, it allows us to store it and toss it, with out unnecessary plastic. You can reuse your paper bags by returning them to the store and using them again, you can pack your lunch on them, use them to donate clothes to the thrift, use them for book covers or wrapping paper, shelf liners, or litter box liners. When your bags are too crinkled to reuse, toss them in your compost pile and they will turn into soil for your garden.

A few tips for switching to paper:
Go for brown bags - they aren’t bleached and therefore better to eventually compost or dispose of.
Don’t use bags if you don’t have to - If you can go with out a bag, that’s ever better than switching to paper! Potatoes, apples, and other veggies or larger items that come in their own containers don’t need to be in a bag at all.
Make sure to reuse your paper bags - An issue with switching to paper is that your house can be overwhelmed with paper bags. Using them to hold trash, or in any number of ways, make sure that they aren’t cluttering up your home.
Try to bring them back to the store when you can - Remembering to put your used paper bags in the car or in your purse/backpack to bring back to the grocery is a good way to get the hang of bringing your own bag.

At Mad Cat Quilts, we’re still catching up with our 6 month of Zero Waste Challenge. Here’s what we’ve done so far:

January - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February - Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March - Switch to Paper
April - Compost
May - Meatless Monday
June - No Bottled Water

How are you doing with your 6 month of zero waste? Are you following along or are you challenging your self in other ways?

6 Months of Zero Waste: February Declutter Review

In January I posted about 6 ways to reduce you waste, or become closer to the Zero Waste lifestyle. Here is a little refresher of something to do each month leading up to Plastic Free July:

January - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February - Declutter Everything
March - Switch to Paper
April - Compost
May - Meatless Monday
June - No Bottled Water

How have you you been doing so far? I’ve gotten behind in reviewing and documenting each month, so hopefully you’ve been following along on your own. If not, no worries, it’s never too late to jump on and start! If you need the push to get started here is the February Review:

In February we declutter.
That could be a motto for America this year, right? With Marie Kondo’s method for clean living being on the top of everyones to watch list, this was an easy month to get your self and your stuff sorted. Whether you use her life changing magic, or you just had some good old fashion cleaning sessions, decluttering and minimizing is a great step towards Zero Waste. Like the trash audit, it allows us to see what we are using and what we are wasting. Once we have established that, it’s easier to see where we can reduce in out day to day.

Personally, I didn’t get a lot decluttered in Feb, but I have been trying to declutter as I go, day to day. I know that I still need to take a full day for each area that needs to be reassessed.

What’s great about this challange, is it’s ok to go at your own speed. Starting to think about waht your wasting, cstarting to be aware of waste that’s created day to day is the biggest piece of the puzzle. Changing your midset to think like a zero waster is the hardest part of being sero waste, but it’s also the biggest step, so once you’ve made that mindset shift, you’ve already come a long way!

How did your declutter go?

Made From Scratch + Giveaway

One of my goals in 2019 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I picked up Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasure of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich after I found her blog, Cold Antler Farm.

Last year, I went thru a rash of buying books I was interested in on Amazon. I am very torn over this practice. On the whole, I think amazon is a bad thing, but it does make it easy to find many things easily and quickly. I really appreciate that it’s easy to find used books from smaller sellers. This was a book I bought used off of amazon, it’s taken me forever to finish it.

The first of several books from urban farmer, Jenna Woginrich, Made from Scratch follows Jenna while starting her own homestead. With high hopes, and great expectations, she sets out on a unique journey that often is less exciting and more difficult than she imagined. Ultimately she finds a fulfilling life, handmade.

Although this book was informative and interesting, it wasn’t my favorite. I don’t love Woginrich’s voice in this book, part know it all, brash and unapologetic, part entitled, part humbled by experience (but to a much lesser degree). I understand that there will be trials and errors in farming of any kind, but she kills an entire hive of bees, a rabbit and creates other waste with very few pauses to reflect on this aspect of homesteading. It does make sense with the gung-ho attitude in which she dove into this new lifestyle, that her memoir of it is gung-ho as well. Unfortunately, this just did not resinate with me. That being said, there were aspects of this book that I did enjoy! I love and connect with her idea of seeking out used equipment, and household items, that she places great importance on music, handmade food and clothing, solitude and being unafraid and unashamed to try new things, even if you might fail. I recommend it to those who are interested in homesteading, thrifting, and simple living.

Now for something a little different: A giveaway! I didn’t love this book, but one of my readers might!
Since I’m not interested in keeping it in my collection I want to pass it on to one of my readers, coffee rings and all. Head over to my instagram, to the post with Made From Scratch, follow me there, and leave a comment telling me what you’d name your farm/homestead to be entered to win this book.

The giveaway will be open only to those living in the United States and runs Thursday 4/11 to Thursday 4/18 and a winner will be chosen on Friday 4/19. I chose these dates to align with the full moon for this month! Good luck!

Modern Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art

It seems like we were in New Orleans ages ago!! It was really only about two month ago that we traveled with my husbands family to one of my favorite cities. The only thing that I put on our family trip agenda was to go to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).

Although I had been to New Orleans several times, and had visited the free sculpture garden adjacent to the museum, I had never visited the museum itself. It’s a very small museum but it’s pretty jam packed. We had a limited time for this visited so we did end up skipping some of the more classic art, and heading right to the modern art. We were pleasantly surprised that the modern and contemporary art areas were quite large. That’s usually our favorite part of any museum and this was no exception.

Many of our favorite modern artist were on display including Rauchenberg, Picasso, Ernst, Pollock and more! There were also some super fun new artists and peices to learn about and explore.

I think a trip to NOMA is a must at some point for those visiting New Orleans. The museum itself is great, it’s also a very doable size, and the attached free sculpture garden is also awesome. Both are right at the entrance to City Park, which is a stunning free park to visit. The museum is a little pricy at $15 for adults. I think this is worith the price and feels good to support, but it makes the free garden and park even more exciting and inclusive as you can still see some amazing work while on a budget.

Has any reader been to this museum? Does anyone have suggestions of other museums to visit in New Orleans, LA?

Mad Cat Capsule: Thinking About Spring

I’m starting to think about my Spring wardrobe and getting ready to create it this month. This is always an exciting time in any capsule wardrobers life. But Spring is especially exciting for me, as my first ever capsule wardrobe was created in Spring 20xx.

Since tracking my capsule more carefully, I have definitely noticed that the usual amount of items I have in my closet (between 40-50 pieces) is way too much. each piece only got worn once or twice per month (if that) with the exception of my favorite items. I started wondering if I could just have a capsule with only my favorite items. This is not a new thought, but one that has been made more clear since tracking each items that I wear.

This leaves me with three dilemmas: 1) I have so many awesome clothes! I was getting excited, especially after a very dark earth toned winter capsule, to add a ton of my colorful and crazy clothing back into my life with my Spring capsule. But not all my colorful clothes are my favorites.
2) I have a lot of favorites! I’m sure if I pulled all my faves from all four seasons, I would have well over 50 items.
3) I don’t really know what my favorites are and it might take me a log time for find out.

Isn’t that one of the points of capsule wardrobe: to find out what you love to wear and want to wear all the time?

When thinking about all this, making my capsule the way I usually do seemed daunting. The method I usually use involves starting by taking a few key pieces out and rotating them into my last capsule, then taking all items of clothing I have out of storage and picking out the rest of the 3 month capsule. What usually results from this is that I have lots and lots of items that could go in my capsule, and I narrow it down to about 40-50 items.

My dream during this process is always to create a favorites bin. My dream would be to identify and separate the most worn and favorite items and be left with a a perfect wardrobe. But I can never seem to make that happen. Space, clutter, indecision, and organization seem to make it an impossible task. But it might be worth it to have a”perfect” capsule.

So will I have a bright, colorful, eclectic Spring capsule or will I have a utilitarian capsule with all my most worn, most loved clothing? I haven’t decided yet, but I will try to make it one with less clothing than in past capsules.

What does your perfect capsule wardrobe look like?

On My Mind On Friday Morning

Around where we live several big corporate restaurants (Houlihans, Eat at Joes ) have closed and the buildings are now being taken over by weeds and time, starting to crumble and return to a more natural state. I weirdly love to watch this process, and imagine a time where nature reclaims all the terrible Red Lobsters and Olive Gardens and Walmarts people once put our faith, money and time in to. Here is a great look at an abandoned mall in NJ (photo).
Here is a good article portal to check out changes, updates, and other resources about recycling in your state.
The beachcomber’s dilemma; Trash or treasure?
One of my March and now April goals is to care for my houseplants. Here is a fun little video for changing pots.
One of my April Goals is to get out into the yard, and a great project to start with is our porch. We have grand plans to change our porch but for now, I’ll settle for somewhere that I want to sit and watch the neighborhood. We have already started by picking up some of the items that were hanging out there, but didn’t need to be.

Getting our porch ready for Summer is really important to us bc a lot of our plants live there in the warm weather. And they love it!

2019 Goals | March Recap and April Goals

I had a lot of high hopes for March but not a lot of success. This month was kind of a wash for me. Work was extremely busy and my energy for everything was pretty bottomed out. Not a lot got done in life or work other than the bare minimum. Let’s take a look at my March goals:

Schedule 1 life admin day
I have to schedule this in, and not let anything bump it off the schedule. I have to write a list of everything needs to get done for this day.
I was able to schedule and stick to getting one life admin day done. I really enjoyed it and it felt good to get some annoying tasks done that I have been putting off forever. I definitely want to make a monlthy life admin day part of my monthly routine.

Plan my next 2 trips
Getting away a lot in February was great! I have a feeling March won’t see a lot of travel, but planing some trips that I want to take will be a good compromise.
We certainly didn’t get to take any trips in march, but we also didn’t get to plan out any new trips, either.

Morning walk 3 days a week
I’m gonna keep trying with this goal.
I didn’t quite make this goal, but I did well enough and had it in my head enogh that I think it’s time to move it over to be a daily/weekly/monthly routine.

Get out into the yard 3-4 times
Every year I want to improve our yard, porch, flower beds, etc… and every year I start too late. This year, on nice days, I want to get a head start.
Writing this on the 30th, I doubt this goal will get done but you never know.

Blog 4 times per week
I want to get back in the swing of this after slacking in Feb.
OMG, I fell down on this goal so hard. This is why I haven’t been able to make this a routine. My blogging is still so up and down.

Move my 50+ plants
Every few months, I like to give my plants a little extra care. I like to repot, dust, top up soil, aerate, and move around all my plants. There are a lot of them so this takes some time.
I had no motivation for this so I’m pushing it to April.

Inbox to 500 and maintain
I did good to get rid of the bulk of emails, now it’s about maintaining organization and not letting it get too out of control.
OOooff, after making so much progress on this in past months, I wasn’t able to maintain this at all this month. My inbox is creeping up again!

Make and post 1 youtube video
I’ve made several in the past, but tis is really something I want to get into and incorporate into my creative life.

Plan our next 2 trips
I want to make sure to get away a little in April and May before the Summer season really sets in.

Get out into the yard 3-4 times
There’s a lot of yard work and garden work to do and we are running up against the planting clock.

Get back to blogging 4-5 times per week
Gotta get back in the habit!

Better health 15 days of the month
I want have some breadless days, some vegan days, some exercise and stretching days, etc…. Overall be more mindful of my body and health. (I’ve eaten totally vegan 1 day of the month so far!)

Move my 50+ plants
Rolling this goal over, too.

Inbox to 500 and maintain
Another goal from last month. I’m ready to get back on track with this in April.

I have set the same number of goals this month as last, but it feels like less to me somehow.

What goals have you set for April?

March Plant Update

I had high hopes that I would be out and about for most of March, but the weather was still cold and I was still in hibernation mode. I did get out some and we were able to check out some local plants in March.

Still brown, but this day spring was in the air.

There was a theme this month.

totally happy to see these babes sprouting out.

And fully popped!

Another.

What are these? I wish my whole yard was covered in them!

These strawbs are ready for spring.

So is our grandma rose.

And these magnolias. They’ve been trying since January.

Current state of our front bed.

What do the plants look like where you live?
Was March a good month for your plant observations?
What were you most excited to take note of this month?