Tag: April goals

April Recap | Spring 2024

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I didn’t keep up with my daily reading goal in April. However, I know that reading is beneficial and helps me unwind at night. Moving forward, I’ll turn off my phone from 8 PM to 6 AM and read books to calm my mind before bed instead of listen to podcasts and scroll the internet. Last night, I was we working on this blog post from my laptop and staring at another screen late at night, even though my inner voice says not to do it. Unrelated, but I almost used this cover photo for my blog a while ago because it’s calming and pleasant to look at.

＊˚*•̩̩͙ Am I Evolving? •̩̩͙*˚＊

I had my last physical therapy appointment at the end of April and “graduated” from physiotherapy. PT told me that I’m allowed to return anytime, but for now, I don’t have any more appointments scheduled. Does this mean I passed? Yes and no. I know what I need to do, but I’m not as diligent as I should be, so more work can be done in this area. I have to still work on my core exercises and drink more water.

Lately, I have been sleeping a lot, but that’s not new for me. I do tend to sleep a lot, but I have been exceptionally tired lately. Sleeping during the day wastes a lot of time, so I’m not accomplishing what I want to. In terms of exercise, I do what I can, but I don’t have a set schedule these days. When it comes to diet, my weight has stayed the same, and I seem to have reached a plateau. I’m not very hungry these days and only eat when I’m hungry, so I don’t eat much. The biggest problem I had with HCLF was that I had to eat often and frequently, and I eventually got so sick and tired of eating sugary, sweet foods all the time. It was “too much of a good thing” as they say. These days, I’m not counting calories and try to cook at home as often as possible. Any treats I buy are heavily discounted, and I stopped shopping at Dollarama because I was no longer getting a good deal there.

I want to continue cutting back on expenses as much as possible because: a) I hate debt if any kind (this includes mortgage which is my only debt right now); b) clutter/junk gives me anxiety; and c) we are headed towards a recession if we aren’t already in one.

April Recap 2024

Career Goals:

  • Bid for shifts for the second half of April I ended up getting more shifts without having to bid on them. I ended up with 7 shifts for the month of April which is below my goal of 10+ shifts/month. I don’t get nearly as many shifts as I did last year.
  • Catch up on emails if there are any I am pretty much caught up and to-date on emails.
  • Have 100 sticker designs in my #Redbubble shop I am currently at 97 sticker designs and am still working on reaching this goal. Sticker designs were not my priority during the month of April and I only added 1 new sticker design in April. Btw, it’s cherry blossom season and a kind soul from Spain just bought 2 large cherry blossom themed stickers. Thank you~! 😊🌸
  • Promote my cherry blossom stickers Twitter/𝕏 → From $1.63 CAD (Ignore the $1.98 price) I didn’t do much promoting during the month of April but once I add some new designs to the shop, I plan on posting more often on Twitter/𝕏.

🌸 My Redbubble Shop: @sereneluna 🌸

♡ You can browse my designs here: http://shorturl.at/otvxQ

Personal Goals:

  • Publish 1-2 blog posts + monthly goals/recap blog posts I published 3 blog posts this month, in addition to the usual monthly goals and blog recaps. I didn’t see a significant boost in engagement, but it’s encouraging to have frequent readers. You can catch up on these blog posts below ↓ and yes they are clickable links:
  1. “Spot the Gnome” Game
  2. Blog Posts Left Unwritten
  3. Is Blogging Right For You?
  • Write 1 personal development article for #Medium I don’t think I added any new articles to Medium. Instead, I focused more on blogging.
  • Keep tabs on doctor’s appointments/pending appointments I somehow manage by using my phone calendar. My son’s forms for Montessori were sent and SLP received the necessary paperwork they needed. Also, my husband and I finally got our medical forms completed and sent them to SW.
  • Read 10 pages of a personal development book each day Nope, it did not happen. I miss reading but my current personal development book is boring. I still plan on finishing it before moving on to the next book.
  • Purchase tickets for Otafest 2024 I bought tickets and I will be bringing my family with me to Otafest this year. I have no idea what to expect, so expect the unexpected I guess?

🌸 I’ve never been to a convention but always wanted to go to one! 🌸

Health Goals:

  • Aim for 10,000 steps/day I have been averaging 4,500 – 6,000 steps/day which isn’t great. Some days, it’s much less than 4,500 steps.
  • Limit drinks to water, tea, and coffee I already do this but started adding very diluted 100% fruit juice for some more variety.
  • Track hydration on Water Llama app My water intake really suffered during the month of April but this app still helps me when I’m actively tracking hydration. It takes caffeine and different beverages into account.
  • Track steps on Pikmin Bloom app The app helps keep me motivated, and I still recommend this free app to anyone who likes to gamify fitness. You can read my review about this app here.
  • HCLF diet 90% of the time No more HCLF dieting for me 🙅‍♀️ In the beginning, I loved it but I got tired of it real quick. It’s definitely not for me but was fun while it lasted. Also, having no overt oils doesn’t work with my family’s diet and lifestyle.

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ FINAL THOUGHTS ♥

I also want to mention that I completely forgot about my “Power List” again, so this system isn’t going to work for me long-term. My husband suggested that I try blocking time out of my day, so I might try that and see if it works better. Has anyone tried block scheduling other than in university? Is that what it’s called…block scheduling? Here is an example of what I’m talking about.

Source: https://www.deskbird.com/blog/time-block-schedules

Finally, I am curious to know what your goals were for the month of April and whether or not you accomplished what you were hoping to. Feel free to let me know in the comments section below ↓ Also, I would really appreciate it if you followed me on Twitter/𝕏 (@serene_hilz), that is, if you aren’t already a follower. It is harder than ever to grow on that platform but I really do enjoy using it to connect with like-minded bloggers.

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

Moving Forward with April | Spring 2023

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This post is something special, neither a goals blog post nor a monthly recap. It’s kind of a combination of the two. I wanted to update you guys on where I’ve been and why I haven’t posted these last two weeks. I have only been checking #Twitter on a regular basis and even then, I wasn’t very active on there either. If you’d like to follow me on #Twitter, please feel free to click on the following link:

♡ Quick Link: https://mobile.twitter.com/serene_hilz

While I was away, I also received a notification from WordPress that I have been blogging for 7 years, even though I didn’t do much with my blog until Spring 2019. It took something major to stir up transformation within me and it worked lol Ever since then, I’ve been writing consistently and haven’t looked back.

But first, some housekeeping.

As you may have missed my monthly goal recap for March 2023, I thought it would be beneficial to inform you about it in this post. To give you some context, I was travelling to Singapore for a couple of weeks, hence the reason why my sleep schedule is all over the place and jet lag is a real issue. If you were paying attention up until now, then you would already know that I was in Singapore 🏝️☀️

Unfortunately, I cannot upload the majority of the photos I took since they are still on the camera and I don’t have a SD card reader. It appears that most desktop computers and laptops don’t come with an SD slot these days, making it more difficult to transfer photos from my camera. The primary reason why I was unable to blog wasn’t because of my lack of time, but rather due to a) the inability to charge my laptop and b) find a SD card reader for the laptop in order to access the photos I wanted.

All the photos I posted on #Twitter were taken using nothing but my iPhone. I mostly shared pictures of delicious food, because let’s be honest, is something that we can all relate to! Admit it, if you had the chance to do the same, you would have done it too! Note that I am not re-sharing the threads on this blog, which also included food pics of durian. You can check out the durian pics here.

Missing the Creature Comforts of Easter 🐇

Now that I am back home (and back to reality), I need to focus my energy on what’s left of April. Unfortunately, due to my trip to Singapore and the fact that my husband’s family hardly celebrates Easter, I was unable to partake in the traditional festivities for this holiday season. However, we still made sure to attend a local church together as a family which served as a nice way for us to commemorate Easter in our own special way. I sadly had no chocolate to enjoy during my vacation and, for the first time in years, we did not decorate Easter eggs like I have been accustomed to doing every single year.

𝒜𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓁 𝓈𝒽💮𝓌𝑒𝓇𝓈, 𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑀𝒶𝓎 𝒻𝓁💮𝓌𝑒𝓇𝓈.

As a kid, I was always confused by the phrase ‘April showers bring May flowers’. Instead, I wanted to think that it meant ‘bring ME flowers’ as what kid doesn’t like getting a surprise bouquet! But while I am on the topic of flowers spontaneously showing up in my garden, are dandelions flowers or weeds? Although I personally view them as beautiful and vibrant flowers, most garden enthusiasts would say they are categorized as pesky weeds.

You might be wondering what the point of this blog post was, and honestly I’m not sure. It’s more of a collection of ideas and thoughts rather than an organized and well-structured post. I am writing this as I go along in an attempt to give you something, but this is not my best work and I am aware of that. Here are my goals for the remainder of April 2023:

APRIL GOALS 2023

Career Goals:

  • Prepare to go back to work next weekend
  • Catch up on work emails
  • Reorganize backpack + print notes

Personal Goals:

  • Publish 1-2 blog posts + monthly recap
  • Publish 1-2 articles on Medium + share articles on blog
  • Write an article about Medium 1-month trial experience
  • Keep tabs on doctor’s appointments/pending appointments
  • Daily Duolingo practice 🇩🇪 + weekly friend quests → reactivated

Health Goals:

  • Continue to track steps + upload progress on Twitter
  • Track steps on Pikmin Bloom app → continue to plant flowers 🌸
  • Go back to HCLF diet + 80% plant based 🌿
There were lots of people in Singapore using the app, which was nice to see! 🥰

And there you have it! If you don’t know what a specific acronym stands for, please don’t ask me and look it up on Google. It only takes a couple of seconds to do so, plus the search engine is your best bet for a quick answer.

Thanks for stopping by! ♥