April Recap!

And here we are...the end of April. Time for that glorious monthly recap.

So, true confessions time. I almost, like came thisclose almost tossed all of my goals out the window this month and said fuck it, who needs goals anyway? Now I didn't. But it was a close thing. I just had a big dose of what usually comes in October or November of pure lack of motivation to push for any of these things I make up to do. I mean honestly, why do I make things up to make life harder? Shouldn't it be easier? Why....

Then I remembered who I was and kept on plugging along on my self discovery quests and...well...here we are.

So fitness/weight! You know last month I was out of commission and the month before that as well. This month I hit the gym pretty much every week day. Four days of lifting, two days of cardio. My hand is healed. My back is healed. I'm increasing my weights back to where I was before. I'm back in the swing, baby! And my weight is...are you fucking kidding me with this shit? No, that's really what the scale said this morning for my end of month weigh in. Or it might as well have. I'm up 4 (!!) pounds from the last day of March and up just over a pound for the year.

*sigh*

So yeah. That's where that is. We are going home this weekend so I will be eating sopapillas and cheese smothered everything so whatever dudes...

No, honestly, I still have the goal for weight loss for the year etched in pixels back in January but the odds of me hitting it are just not strong. At least from where I am standing right now. I think the hormones are just going to get the best of me. Who knows, maybe there will be a second half come back (or go away in this case) but I think I really am going to have to start shifting the weight goal ahead to what my 2021 one was going to be which was just be at peace with it. We will see...but as for right now fitness is back on track, weight is off the rails.

Reading! I read 6 books last month and am now 3 behind schedule, whaaaat? Yeah, I'm not sure how that happened since I think my goal works out to just over 6 a month but here I am. Actually wait...that checks out. I was two behind last month, read just under what I needed and now I'm three. Okay, well math isn't part of my goals... ANYWAY...I need to catch up there. I just got the new Paper Girls so that will help and the aforementioned trip means a few hours on a plane so that helps as well. The Discworld books went back to being behind. I read one of them and waited for the next for the rest of the month. I have the next two on hold already so hopefully I can get a good swing going again with those.

Writing! After this blog I will be ahead one for the year. Still plugging along on that, but barely. I am dipping too much into my reserves in months when I am not travelling so need to building a cushion. Fiction is just on pace as well. Need to build that up a bit as well. But...

MasterClass! I watched the one with Margaret Atwood this month. She's a freaking genius and watching her class was amazing. Honestly I loved it. She had a lot of insightful things about not only the art of writing but also the business side of it. Which is where this ties in to the last paragraph. I don't write to make money. We've talked about this before. There is a part of me that wants to be published so I can hold it in my hand and say "See? Someone who didn't HAVE to say nice things thought it was good enough to print." But I am not at all motivated by money. Or by fame. Or by any of the normal things people are motivated by so it's a challenge. And I think watching some of my favorite authors talk about how much they WORK at writing made my muse go sit in the corner and think about what she hasn't done. So next month I'm going to take Gordon Ramsay's cooking one. Which Brent said, "You are taking a break from people who write better than you for someone who cooks better?" and I nodded and started to say something and he realized what I was going to say, "Oh, wait, you don't care about how well you cook so there is no pressure." Exactly. Let's see if learning knife skills coaxes my muse back out to play....

Monthly Museum/Attraction! Pulled this one in under the wire. We went to a museum that is just a few miles from the house. I have seen the sign for ages and we've just never gone. I was a little bummed because when I first looked it up online to see about using it this month I saw they do a cool Easter Egg hunt for all ages. But you need to buy tickets in advance and I was too late. Also bummed because it would have been a cool thing when C was little if I had known about it. But anyway...we went to the Rice Rock and Mineral Museum. It was pretty cool. Lots of different things to look at and read about. And I got it done in April so whew...

Long Term! I got the curtains up in the upstairs bedrooms. Tried to get that deck work rescheduled but didn't hear back from the contractor so looks like I will be starting that search over again next month.

So what's on tap for next month?

Stick with the gym schedule. Keep making those lifting gains.
Catch up on the book total.
Build a little cushion on the writing totals.
Trip to NM this weekend. Making it out of that with our sanity intact. :-)
Deck work scheduled.
And 2nd quarter submission time.

So not abandoning the goals but it was close. I just would have a hard time saying I was doing these things and then not actually doing them. But it is looking like next year could actually end up that mythical no goals year. Imagine that...

Or you know, I could just keep remembering who I am and setting these weird little challenges until the last goal on the list is "Die peacefully in my sleep on 101st birthday"

Whatevs...