March Accomplishments

A month ago, I was asking what March would bring.  Well, I'm here to tell you, March brought its A-game.  However, I fought back like a champ, and I'd like to think I conquered everything March threw at me.  Or...I'm working on it.  I might still have a lingering March headache.  So let's recap this March Madness.

• One TED Talk per week.  No lies here, what happened is that I reread my March goals last weekend, panicked, and watched a TED talk during my lunch hour every day last week.
• Mark Bittman talked about a sustainable diet - no, we shouldn't all become vegetarians.  But we should limit our meat intake to 1/2 pound per week, and make that meat grass-fed.  Thanks to Rachel for suggesting this talk.
• I've been discovering how important mushrooms/mycelia are to a healthy soil, so I watched 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World.  It wasn't really about gardening, but I did learn some awesome properties of a very basic organism.
• Malcolm Gladwell, one of my favorite authors, gives a great talk that exemplifies his original way of looking at economics.  His thesis:  diversity makes us all happier people.
• My brother suggested I watch this video, which I will admit to not paying much attention to.  The speaker spent 17 years NOT speaking, and that resulted in some really interesting experiences, particularly while he attended a discussion class at a university. 
• Greek-style meatballs.  I made them three times (I made them for Kyle's family when we went to see them for the weekend).  Absolutely delicious.
• Budget. Well, I sat down and budgeted out the important things.  I don't have a zero sum budget currently, so it needs more work.
• Finish The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  I got this one done on the day that the book was due back at the library - it took a while to wade through it.  I really liked In Defense of Food better.  Still a good read though.
  
• Red Wings game?  Nope!  I spent my weekends car searching and going to Indiana.
• Make magnets. Do mending.  I did half my mending, and look for a post on my awesome magnets soon!
• Buy a car.  Well, this didn't happen.  Is it really so hard to find a fuel efficient stick shift?  Anyway, I am currently without a vehicle.  I rely on the kindness of Kyle for my transport, or I take my bike.  It's a whole new experience.

April is already shaping up to be the beginning of a wildly busy summer.  Since I know things are going to be crazy at work for a while, I'm setting some easy goals to keep my home life stress-free.  Joking.  It doesn't ever get that easy :)

• Work out 3.5 times a week on average.  I've started running on Sundays, and then I do a Jillian Michaels video a couple times a week.  Bring on bikini season.
• Watch a couple more TED talks.  It's actually pretty easy to incorporate those into my lunch hour, provided I'm not working on other things.  This is highly dependent on me coming home for lunch though.
• Work on my garden.  Maybe even double dig it.  This counts as a workout, FYI.
• Swedish Meatballs!  I'm pretty sure elderberry jam can substitute for the lingonberries.
• After Easter, Kyle and I are planning a night of pizza and beer to celebrate the ability to consume cheese and beer again.  
• On Earth Day, I'm helping put on a big production to promote more gardens/gardeners in this area.  Seth and May will be there!  It promises to be an AWESOME event, but it's going to take up a lot of my time.

Yeah...that's about all I'm going to get done.   In my defense, I'm pretty exhausted as I write this, so my ambitions are low :)
Tomorrow is another day, and I'll be ready to take on the world again.