Overall, I find March to be a rather depressing month. It’s long and inevitably dreary. It straddles winter and spring, with the former holding on with its icy grip as long as it possibly can while the snow slowly begins melts (or, in our case, we finally break the record snowfall for the area) and the birds start chirping which is so lovely but feels slightly out of place.
And yet, March was a surprisingly good month. It was rather calm. Granted, there were some hiccups (like finding out our plowing bill for the season, yikes!), but it was overall relaxing. I had many days were nothing terribly exciting happened, but they were good days, days that made me smile and made me happy to be a mom. I ate many delicious meals and spent time with good friends. I made some sales on Etsy and I officially got paid for my first wholesale account! Plus I had my first two paid articles for Care.com published. Can I tell you how crazy it is to me that I am getting paid to write?! I don’t know when I jumped the line to freelance writer, and yet here I am. (If you want to check them out, one is on at-home date night ideas for parents and the other is on sensory development in babies 0-3 months.) I gave myself breaks when I needed it — the other day I even took a nap when Eve did. I spent time snuggling her and taking in her sweetness.
I also figured out what my digital product is going to be! After toying around with some ideas in my head for several months, I finally came up with an idea about which I am incredibly excited. The best part? I aligns perfectly with my word of the year, creativity! It was almost as if the word was subconsciously driving me. I don’t want to give too much away, but it will be a workbook on creativity for busy moms.
March was a mixture of relaxing and living in the moment and moving forward with my goals. And you know what? Overall it was a pretty good month goal-wise (certainly better than February!), and I’d like to think that taking time to relax and enjoy the simple things helps motivate me when it is time to work.
Family & friendships
Go on two dates with Sam
Organize a potluck dinner with friends
Make plans with one friend who I haven’t seen in awhile
Organize 2 more activity-based playgroups with Eve
Take Eve on a museum outing
Goals Met: 4 out of 5
Technically I organized one playgroup, but we had so many other playgroups plus we did more creative exploring and I was able to take her to two museum outings, so I’m counting this as done! And while I didn’t organize any potlucks, I had many meals with lots of friends. Plus I am definitely organizing a potluck for my college friends in a couple weeks, so I know it will happen. And as I’ve discovered having a small child makes potluck dinners a little more challenging than they used to be!
(And so is taking a toddler to an art museum apparently!)
Business
Reach out to 3 more businesses regarding potential wholesale accounts
Take new product photos for 10 products
Apply to 3 shows
Fix 3 months’ worth of blog posts from blog transfer
Finish watching April Bowles-Olin’s CreativeLive Course, Create Digital Products That Sell While You Sleep
Update 3 old posts, adding images and refreshing the content if need be
Making a pinning schedule for these months
Adjust categories of posts from 2015 to fit new ones
Write another tutorial blog post
Do another vlog
Do a recipe post
Go to at least 1 networking event
Submit posts or stories to 2 sites
Read submissions for my motherhood & creativity series
Goals met: 10 out of 14
Many of the goals where I fell short had to do with blogging. I usually leave the miscellaneous blogging to-do’s for Friday’s, but I found I spent a lot of Friday’s playing catch-up on the other things I didn’t get done for the week. Like those days I decided to give myself the afternoon off. My biggest goal, though, for the month was finishing the Creative Live Course, which I did, and the fact that I now know what my digital product is going to be is huge! With all the writing for Care.com I didn’t have time to write extra posts to submit, but at least I’m now getting paid to write and getting my name out there!
I made some good progress with the jewelry side of my business. I applied to several show, and received several acceptances and rejections. I know have several shows lined up for the next couple months and am waiting to hear back from some holiday shows. I was bummed to find out my favorite local craft show is the same weekend as BlogHer ’15, so I couldn’t apply to that one (although I have yet to be accepted anyway!). I updated the products photos for lots of bracelets, including my fitness jewelry for a cause!
People were eyeing this bracelet at my last show!
Creativity
Make trivets out of old t-shirts
Finish handlettering class
Try another new activity with Eve from 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids [affiliate link]
Do 2 craft nights with Sam
Goals met: 2 out of 4
Sam and I had our first craft date night, where I made a trivet with my old t-shirts! Granted it didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped (it curls up at the edges), but it’s usable and I’m hoping to figure out how I can improve the design so that doesn’t happen and maybe even make a tutorial out of it. Hopefully we’ll get more crafty date nights in this month, and I’ll actually finish that handlettering class.
Personal
Go to gym or exercise class on average of two times/week
Stretch in the mornings
Continue with high/low notebook
E-mail friend photos of our daughters from the summer
Goals met: 4 out of 4
Boom!
Home & organization
Print photos from South America trip & wedding to hang up
Upload photos from the camera onto my computer from February & March
Make Peru photo book
Clean desk: file away papers, put away books, put things away, get rid of books I don’t need
Goals met: 2 out of 4
Sam and I actually made a conscious decision not to do the photo-related stuff this month for financial reasons, but our plan is to do it this month.
Looking back at last month, I think generally my goals are pretty attainable. I think I need to scale back a bit for the business, though, especially knowing that I really want to move forward with my motherhood and creativity series and work on my digital product, which I hope to launch at the beginning of June! And of course, leaving time to take in the simple joys of life, like walks to the park and exploring outside.
Family & friendships
Go on two dates with Sam
Make plans with one friend who I haven’t seen in awhile
Organize 1 activity-based playgroups with Eve
Take Eve on a museum outing
Business
Take new product photos for 5 products
Fix 3 months’ worth of blog posts from blog transfer (finish 2013!)
Update 3 old posts, adding pinnable images and refreshing the content if need be
Adjust categories of posts from 2015 to fit new ones
Write another tutorial blog post
Do another vlog
Do a recipe post
Go to at least 1 networking event
Write motherhood & creativity series
Write 10 pages of my digital product
Reach out to two businesses for porch makeover
Creativity
Make another trivet out of old t-shirts (and maybe write a tutorial!)
Finish handlettering class
Try another new activity with Eve from 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids [affiliate link]
Do 2 craft nights with Sam
Personal
Go to gym or exercise class on average of two times/week
Stretch in the mornings
Continue with high/low notebook
Start stretching & breathing in the evening at least 2 times a week
Home & organization
Print photos from South America trip & wedding to hang up
Upload photos from the camera onto my computer at the end of the month
Make Peru photo book
Clear out front porch
Organize & clear out studio space
What are your goals for April? What simple things in life are you enjoying right now?
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