fuzzyred | April Monthly Goals Review

It's time for the April Goal Review! April was kind of a crap month. Some personal things happened, some work things happened, and my schedule got all messed up. I missed a lot of things (including being more than a week late on this post), but I did get some stuff done, and May is off to a much better start. For a detailed look at how I'm doing, take a look beneath the cut.

--Meet Daily goal on Duolingo (30XP/day)
---I missed one day this month. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't more what with how crazy April was.

--On Duolingo, practise French and Polish twice a week, and Esperanto, Hawaiian, and German once a week.
---So far so good here.

--I'd like to complete 5 Legendary units in both Esperanto and Hawaiian, 20 Regular units in French, 10 Regular units in Polish, and 2 Regular units in German.
---Well, I no longer have an easy way to track this one, because Duolingo changed its format, *again*, so I'll save quantifying until the end. For now, I've been making progress on this one, slowest on the Hawaiian but still some in every subject.

--Yoga every day except Monday. I'm also going to try to find "cardio" or "strength" yoga videos to help with getting in shape too. I'd like to try to do a "30 day yoga" challenge this year, and not miss any days, which is what happened last year.
---Now *this* one reflects the mess of April. 6 missed days here, though I am back on the wagon now that it is May, and I have officially started a 30-day challenge.

--Weekly update posts on Thursdays, and Comfort Corner posts on the first, third, and fifth Sundays.
---One missed Thursday here, and it was the week I was on the extra late shift, so I'll cut myself some slack on this one.

--Try to answer DW comments within two days of receiving them. Answer five comments on the weekend to keep the backlog down.
---Still doing decently at this goal. I've managed to answer most things in a timely manner, and even though I haven't always answered 5 comments on the weekends, I have usually answered that many or more throughout the course of the week.

--Cook on Mondays. This year, I'm going to try to find at least a dozen recipes or so by January 15 that I want to cook, to cut down on some of the decision making so that cooking will be easier.
---Success here this month, though I feel like some of the cooking may have happened on days later than Monday.

--Don't let the dishes stack up in the sink, and don't leave the pots and pans to sit for days (or for someone else to do). I had to modify this one from last year, since the old goal won't work with two other people living in the house.
---Umm, I think I did alright with dishes in April, but I should probably make an effort to do them more often. It feels a little lopsided at the moment.

--$X into savings account weekly.
---Success again!

--Clear my half of the mortgage by the end of the year.
---One payment made in April and with a payment also made in May, I should be done the lump sum payments by mid-August.

--Water garden daily from May through the first week of September.
---Not the right season for this yet, though some raking of last year's leaves did happen.

----Weed the garden once weekly (tentatively on Sundays) from May through the first week of September.
-----No weeding but some leaves and sticks dealt with.

--Rollerblade or bike once a month from April to September.
---Totally missed the rollerblading. I didn't go on the few nice days we had, and then I ran out of time for it.

--Donate to charity monthly; have the list of charities finalized by January 15th.
---Still done so far. List created before January 15th.

--Read one book a month.
---Did not finish a book this month, though I did start the book "Prairie Heat."

--Play flute once a month.
---Success so far, still.

--Take one personal day a month to just chill and recharge my batteries.
---I'm pretty sure I did this, but I believe it included seeing friends as opposed to having time truly to myself. Enjoyable, but not necessarily the best for recharging.

--One puzzle before July.
---Zero progress on the puzzle this month.

--One puzzle after July.
---Another one that doesn't apply yet.

--Participate in at least three bingo fests. Tentatively, the February, May, and October Bingo fests look the most interesting, with March and July being ones I'm curious about but I'm waiting to see cards for those ones. I will be hosting the June bingo fest, so I will try to write for that one as well, though I haven't had the best track record for actually writing in my own fests.
---I claimed a card in the April bingo but I was really late with it and didn't make any fills. I may come back to this card in a month where the theme doesn't appeal to me.

--Get one bingo; bonus for a blackout.
---Finished in February.

--Finish the socks I started. If that goes quickly, I'm going to try to make a second pair, since I have a second ball of yarn specifically for socks.
---Zero progress in the socks. I was really hoping to do some knitting, but April didn't co-operate in various ways.

--Choose a knitting or crochet project to do to use up some of the yarn I have (I have waaaaayyyyy too much LOL).
---First project done. No further progress on the second one yet.

--Have the blocks for my quilt put together.
---Still no progress, but family circumstances are still on going, so there hasn't been much opportunity. Still.

--Do something creative/artistic. I have no idea what, and I'm not sure if the vagueness will be a help or a hindrance, but this is all I've got so far.
---I may need to give this goal some attention, because it seems to be languishing at the moment.

--Potentially take a class, either in person or online. I'm not sure about this one this time around, but I like the idea enough to not remove it completely. We'll see how the year goes, I guess.
---See above.

--Keep seeing therapist to work on personal things. I'd also like to set a specific goal to work towards, though I don't actually have one in mind at the moment.
---Still seeing my therapist, no additional goals set yet. I may ask about relationship skills at the next session, because of the family drama that recently went down.

--Choose of slice of the "Wheel of Life" to work on. Have a rough plan by January 15. I have chosen Stress-Mastery and Play to work on (yes that is two slices), but I haven't come up with a plan yet.
---I did alright on the fun side, though I absolutely neglected the Stress Mastery part of it. Oops.

--Website updates for

ysabetwordsmith. I honestly don't know how to frame this goal to be successful at it. I've tried a lot of variations, and they all have their drawbacks and don't work long term. I'm going to keep trying but I'm directionless at the moment.
---April was no better for this goal than the first three months were.

--Fill in desk calendar by January 15.
---Done! I also made bullet journal tracker pages, so that it is easier to count how many days I completed (or missed) as the year goes on.

--Post an end-of-month goal review on DW. I'm hoping this will help me track the progress of my on-going goals, but we'll see how that goes.
---Hmmm... I am posting an April review, but this is much later than I intended.

--Two personal "goals" that I'm not sure need to be on this list any more but are still on the calendar, so I shall track them anyway, just to see how I do with keeping them up.
---Two misses here, which isn't great but could be worse, so I'm just going to re-focus myself for May.

And this concludes the April review. It was a hectic, roller coaster-y month, and not great on my goals, but I made it through and now I can focus my efforts on May and getting back to where I want to be.