Looking back, March was an abrupt pivot from all things SWIMMING (February) to a big spring break focus- with several miscellaneous events/ activities, first.
I think the general vibe in the beginning was some relief to be released from the craziness of swim season. The month ended on a mega-high: our epic spring break trip!!
But I also felt a sense of urgency, too, during much of the month. I needed to finish final planning and research for our trip. We all needed to fill a few wardrobe gaps before the trip (ie time sensitive). I had some big work things that needed to be complete before I could leave. I got caught up on some household things I neglected in February (-> swim season…).
Personally, I was on a little “health kick”, yes, partly fueled by the vanity of wanting to look and feel good on our trip. So this was a pretty big March focus, too. I really liked it, though!! The challenge aspect was motivational, and I felt fantastic.
I had some fun moments in March, also! I’m happy about this. Birthday celebrations, a fancy work event, going out for St. Patty’s day, some warm weather (and, a blizzard…), some relaxing time (and a lot of productive time) and more. I greatly enjoyed the media I consumed in March.
Not every moment was perfect, obviously, and there are always some downer things. But overall, I didn’t feel like March was consumed by these things, at all. Nothing was terrible, thankfully!
Accomplish List:
- got my bone mineral density test done
- scheduled a few health maintenance appts, ortho for Asher, etc.
- busy work stuff- presentation planning, RFIs, projects; coworker out some too which led to a little extra
- big Monarch catch up
- tracked my food in March and stuck to some macros (leading up to trip)
- used my Lululemon gift card from Christmas
- bought several things for spring break (me and also boys)
- got a haircut
- February photo clean out
- did a big garage clean up!
- got an oil change
- scheduled Charlie’s grooming, figured out boarding for spring break
- worked on presentation for Nursing Symposium, submitted abstract for national conference
- finished up my Ireland posts from Christmas trip
- started a new Heather Robertson program (YouTube workouts, my current cardio choice)
- trip planning! (upcoming Virgin Islands)
- cleaned the house
- ordered snorkels!
- cleaned out both of our main “junk” drawers in the kitchen
- got a few new sundresses
- bought toiletries etc for trip
- more trip planning…
- cleaned up the basement
- PACKED for trip, put mail on hold, all the usual prep stuff
Happy/ Gratitude List:
- finished up State swim weekend with Asher, met up with my parents for lunch + a little shopping stop with Asher on the way home (March 1st)
- Chat GPT was actually super helpful on this particular work assignment (my boss encouraged us to use it for this- needed to write up these summaries for a regulatory purpose thing, so it was kind of a “check box” type thing anyway, so we literally just dumped in all the info we needed and had Chat GPT write the summaries and it was honestly pretty incredible…. but also, weird feelings about it.
- work project got accepted for presentation at the Nursing Symposium!
- went to a movie with Ivan (Crime 101, with Chris Hemsworth). Grateful for cheap(er) Tuesday night movies!!
- I liked my March workout set
- getting my BMD test was so easy- zero waiting, just in and out! Refreshing. (Bonus: my results looked normal!)
- was trying to “tighten up” a bit before our trip, and I got good results by dialing in my macros for a bit.
- some WARM WEATHER! Having the screen door/ windows open.
- also, some cozy rainy days- but pretty warm. Love that.
- loving the show The Pitt! So glad we jumped on that train, lol.
- some long ‘text chats’ with my sister
- Ethan just helped his friend get hired at Panera (where Ethan works), and the hiring manager told his friend during the interview that he “really likes Ethan” and that he’s a great kid. 🙂 🙂
- family date night out for ramen to celebrate Ivan’s birthday! (and taking the “find your majors” quiz)
- attending a fancy Living Kidney Donor gala with my work bestie
- Ivan and I went out for an impromptu lunch in town and the salad I got was shockingly good. haha.
- school being proactively cancelled due to an impending blizzard (in March…)
- finding out our VRBOs for trip would be fully stocked with “beach stuff”- including extra snorkel gear (so we didn’t need to try to bring for my parents, who likely wouldn’t snorkel much but might want to try…)
- no meeting days!! I love those SO. MUCH.
- the new local Hometown pharmacy I’ve been using is 9 million times better than our local Walgreens.
- going out for St. Patrick’s Day with Ivan!! Wore my shamrock scarf. 😉
- while out for St. Patty’s Day, ran into an old nursing assistant I used to work with years ago (who is now a nurse!). Hadn’t seen her in over 10 years.
- going to a pizza party at my volleyball friend’s house
- a super funny comment from a VB friend that had me crying from laughing so hard 😂😂
- a note from myself “I can’t believe I’ve been sticking to macro tracking! This is going so well!”. (Ha- fast forward to post trip, now, and I have not been doing this and should probably do a hard re-set before I slip way off track here….)
- I like the new clothes I got for our trip! yay for some new dresses.
- a Friday night Chipotle date w/ Asher (when Ivan was gone for the evening)
- going to the gym one day when I REALLY didn’t feel like it- but I went anyway, and I was happy I did, and proud of myself for being disciplined.
- celebrated my brother-in-law’s birthday at his place with Ivan’s brother/sister etc and cake- this was fun! My BIL has been through a lot in the past ~5 years, including a messy divorce, an inspiring, long overdue journey to sobriety (multiple years sober now!), and after that, the devastating loss of his girlfriend’s 18 y/o daughter in a car accident. Seeing them healing, thriving, healthy, happy, and just doing SO WELL right now is so heartwarming to me. 💕
- so thankful that the 2 work days leading up to my trip (Monday/Tuesday) were abnormally light- like, no meetings, some open space- what a gift to not have total chaos leading up to the trip! (I brought my own chaos soon enough….)
- getting a pre-trip pedicure on my lunch hour! What a nice lunch hour. 🙂
- getting packed for the trip IN ADVANCE (by Sunday -> we didn’t leave until Wednesday!)
Bummers:
- there are many days where I feel like I barely see the boys!! Now that they can drive, it can be weirdly hard to connect some days.
- work was really super busy in the beginning of the month especially. I felt very focused and dialed in, but it catches up with you after a while…. was just a lot!
- I have such a hard deciding on meals to make! Need to optimize this a bit, I think.
- a couple teen vs parent arguments… 😉
- feeling a little blah/ overwhelmed one day
- tired of cold weather, want to wear warm weather clothes!
- a lot of big (not fun) expenses right now, various things… 😩
- a few kind-of-too-personal/unbloggable things
- a few work related things
- went for groceries before our trip and accidentally bought a bit too much!! shoot…I hate wasting food…
- a day I had hoped to finish work early, and instead ended up working late!
- spent too long figuring out what to pack. And, I always overpack…
- I BOOKED THE WRONG DATES FOR OUR ST. JOHN STAY and didn’t realize it until the night before we left, at 8 pm. Panic ensued….but ultimately, all worked out…omg. Will never forget that one.
Habits/Intentions:
My habit tracker ended up incomplete, since we left March 25th and I never update my tracker when we travel.
I’ll kind of breeze past this part this month, I think, but I do have a few overall notes:
Movies/Shows:
I watched 2 movies. 1 in the theater with Ivan (Crime 101, with Chris Hemsworth). I liked it! Also, we watched Your Place or Mine on Netflix.
We leaned hard into The Pitt on HBO Max this month!! Totally LOVE IT. Watched the entire first season, and we’re now a couple eps into Season 2.
Reading:
OOF this year for reading has been…. weak. But not non-existent! March was not great, though. That’s okay. I just focused on other things.
I finally made the executive decision to DNF and stop reading Gary Taubes’ The Case Against Sugar. This book was probably a big part of my lackluster reading year so far… I started it in January and it just… felt like a slog. I was reading it in (very) little spurts, and while it was sort of interesting, it read too “academic” and I just wasn’t looking forward to it. (I know I should have quit on the book way sooner! I struggle greatly to DNF books because I want “credit” 🙄 for books I’ve already spent time reading. I finally told myself I could go ahead and still list it on my book spreadsheet, thus “counting” it…even though I didn’t finish it. 😆)
I did finish my sister’s first novel!!! (on our trip). I loved it! And I loved the fact that I finished it on our trip, when I had some long, luxurious stretches of time to just read in peace.
Fitness/ Health:
I walked most days! Did not really consistently track my steps (watch died too many days, etc…)
I was dialed in on my workouts in March. Knocked this one out of the park. (Again, post-trip has been… lackluster. I hate how I tend to struggle to get right back on track after we travel (especially long trips)!! This is a Thing for me…).
I was also very dialed in nutrition-wise in March. This was awesome. It’s so weird- when I’m “on”, it honestly does not feel hard!! And I feel great. But when I’m “off” for a while, it suddenly feels so hard to get back “on”. WHY?! It has to be a mental thing.
I did basically zero yoga/ intentional stretching in March.
Upcoming in April!
Well, it’s already April 19th as I type this….. 😅
But, big picture, here’s April in a nutshell:
🔷 finish spring break trip! (done)
🔷re-entry to regular life, resume healthy habits (SLOW GOING, lol, but working on this….)
🔷DO TAXES before the deadline!! (Done, and this sucked.)
🔷 Charlie grooming appt + Asher doctor appt (done)
🔷present at Nursing Symposium 4/16 (done!)
🔷work on-site again on 4/17 (done)
🔷 blog reader meet up 4/18!!! (done! more on this later! was so fun!)
🔷Ethan prom 4/18 (also done! more later.)
🔷tennis (Ethan) + golf (Asher) seasons
🔷work: big prep needed for upcoming quarterly meetings (1st week of May)
🔷start some summer planning, also some transitional household things (related to house, yard, wardrobe swap, etc..)
🔷leaning into a little “breather” now between our big spring break trip > summer. I feel like we have a relative lull in “crazy stuff” happening for a while and I’m here for it!
Note: We COMPLETELY skipped Easter this year. Like, literally did not acknowledge it! Which I feel very slightly bad about, but not really. We were traveling home from St. Thomas on Easter Sunday. I did not so much as buy a single piece of Easter candy, I filled no Easter baskets, nada. Oh well! I’ve talked about this before- while I like the religious aspect of Easter quite a lot, I am very meh on the actual Easter holiday traditions, for whatever reason.
So there you go, my March 2026 recap! I’m slightly alarmed at how fast 2026 seems to be zooming by…is that just me?!
Lots of fun stuff, though. Back sometime soon with a recap of this weekend, which included more fun things! 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 