New Month, New Goals: April

March was busier than I had anticipated, which gave a new meaning to the term March Madness (since I would never be using the expression to talk about college basketball…). My Mom, my best friend, and my favorite Canadian all celebrated birthdays this month on the 5th, 17th, and 18th, respectively. I was yet again inundated with reading and an ambitious copy-editing project. I went out for drinks with a co-worker and suffered the nauseating effects of one too many margaritas but had a more responsible St. Patrick’s Day (and my liver is grateful for such small mercies). How was your month?

As for my March goals, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped, but maybe I’ll do better in April? Anyway, here’s my March in review:

Do some spring cleaning. I managed to accomplish nothing on this front thanks to weekends spent reading for work, blogging, baking, and binge-watching Netflix. I'm hoping to get around to some cleaning this month though—my bedroom has seen better days.

Book France.  Check! You can read all about how I booked my French vacation using Go-today.com here. There are only 113 days until I leave for Paris with my mother, and it’s about all we’ve been able to think about since we booked it. I’m already in the planning stages and my Fodor’s guide books have taken up residence in my bag.

Get Mom her birthday present. Check! She was more than a bit excited to receive her London in a Box for her birthday.

Read for fun. I failed at reading for fun this month and still have yet to finish Sex with Kings, which I started in February. Almost all of my reading was work related—I read and wrote reports on one 900 page behemoth and two others manuscripts, a handful of partials, and also copy-edited a 400 page novel. The only fun reading I managed to do was re-read my Fodor’s Paris 2015 and France 2015 guides. Do those count?

Bring lunch to work. Check! I brought lunch to work for all but 4 days in March.

APRIL GOALS

• Start booking French excursions. I like to buy my tickets to museums and book day-trips in advance of my trips, so I’m hoping to book the first of these in April. More on this later!
• Freshen my spring wardrobe. It occurred to me the other day that it has been a couple months since I’ve bought a new piece of clothing (what is wrong with me?), so I'd love to buy a few things to breathe new life into my closet. I’ve just had a lot of expenses in recent months that were more important than a new blouse (Christmas, France, paying to get my taxes done).
• Freshen up my make-up bag. Spring is the season of fresh starts and rejuvenation, and one thing I'd really love to rejuvenate is my make-up bag.  I'd love to try out some new products and maybe introduce them to my daily make-up routine which has been pretty much unchanged for the last 2-3 years.  Does anyone have make-up suggestions?
• Watch the new episodes of Outlander. Team Claire and Jamie! It’s been months since the first half of season one aired on Starz, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the next eight having read Book One last summer. The new season starts on April 4th.
• Watch the new season of Game of Thrones. I honestly don’t know a single person apart from my father who doesn’t watch Game of Thrones. How many of you watch it? Season 5 starts on April 12th, so you’ll find me tuning in then.
• Start using MyFitnessPal again. I’ve slacked off on logging my food into the MyFitnessPal app, so I’d really like to start doing that more regularly. It helps me to keep track of the nutritional value of food, which is important on my quest to eat my way to a healthier year.

What are your April goals?

Lovely calendar by Rifle Paper Co.